{"id":585,"date":"2024-06-07T10:23:32","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T10:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/?p=585"},"modified":"2024-06-07T10:23:32","modified_gmt":"2024-06-07T10:23:32","slug":"cleaning-up-the-mental-mess","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/?p=585","title":{"rendered":"Cleaning up the mental mess"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I recently attended a conference featuring Dr. Caroline Leaf,\nRusty Labuschagne, and Yolande Korkie, focused on the theme of renewing your\nmind daily. Dr. Caroline Leaf, renowned for her work on the mind-body\nconnection and psycho-neurobiology, discussed how toxic thoughts and habits\naffect the brain. Rusty shared his story of being wrongfully imprisoned for ten\nyears in Zimbabwe after defending his safari business from poachers. Yolande\nrecounted her family’s ordeal of being kidnapped by Al-Qaeda in Yemen, which\nresulted in her husband’s tragic death.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

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Dr. Leaf explained that suppressed emotions, when not dealt\nwith healthily, are like a volcano ready to erupt, leading to mental turmoil and\ncompromised health. True change, she emphasised, comes from rewiring the brain\nby navigating the emotional highs and lows and learning to re-conceptualise\none’s perspective.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

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Despite their harrowing experiences, these individuals shared\na common trait: they did not let their thoughts control their behaviour. They\nunderstood that while they couldn’t change their past, they could transform\ntheir brokenness into betterment by reprogramming their thinking.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

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Rusty Labuschagne, through his website (www.beatingchains.com)\nand his book of the same title, shares life lessons learned from his ordeal in\nZimbabwe:<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>

 <\/span>
\u00b7        \n<\/span><\/span>Prioritize\nyour health (mental and physical), as it underpins everything else.<\/span>
\u00b7        \n<\/span><\/span>Value\nyour friends.<\/span>
\u00b7        \n<\/span><\/span>Be\nhumble and grateful for even the small things.<\/span>
\u00b7        \n<\/span><\/span>Do\nmore of what is good for you.<\/span>
\u00b7        \n<\/span><\/span>Make\ntime for your family and uphold family values and traditions.<\/span>
\u00b7        \n<\/span><\/span>Recognize\nthat the past exists only in your mind and only if you allow it.<\/span>
\u00b7        \n<\/span><\/span>Live\nin the moment and practice mindfulness.<\/span>
\u00b7        \n<\/span><\/span>True\nforgiveness frees you from past resentments and bondage.<\/span>
\u00b7        \n<\/span><\/span>Focus\non what you have, not on what you lack.<\/span>
<\/p>

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Yolande’s book, “558 Days: A True Story,” details\nthe couple’s kidnapping, their separation from their children, and Pierre’s\ndeath during a rescue attempt. At the conference, Yolande emphasised that their\nsurvival and mercy received were due to divine intervention and their strong\nfaith, which gave them a sense of control. This mindset, she stressed, is\nintentional and not automatic.

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Everyone\nexperiences negative emotions at some point in their lives, and this is\nnormal.  It is only when emotions such as grief, loss, depression or\nanxiety takes over your thinking and becomes the lens through which you view\nthe world, that reaching out for help becomes crucial.  <\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How toxic thoughts and habits affect the brain – and how to renew your mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":586,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grief-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=585"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paserocounselling.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}