My Freedom To Thrive

07/10/2023

TODAY IS .... WORLD SMILE DAY

Did you know that when you smile your internal physiology assumes things are well in the world? Ok, so it doesn’t literally work like that, but the bullet point take-away is that a smile acts as a feedback loop to your neurochemistry, signalling that you are safe and secure, resulting in reductions in your cortisol level.

Now here’s the weird thing, the body can’t tell the difference between a genuine or false smile, so even if you are only pretending to smile, you still get the "good vibe" benefit.

Of course, smiling is also an important part of social bonding. Let’s be honest, we all prefer folks who smile at us. As an interesting aside, as an undergraduate, my thesis was on pre-school children’s preferences when choosing photos of their age mates, an interesting number selected those with ‘teeth’ i.e. they were smiling. So it looks like we start young in our preference to hang out with the smiley people.

Today then you are going to smile – consciously smile for 5-10 minutes. Now, if you feel a bit daft, you can do it in a toilet cubicle, or facing a mirror. But you know to get the full impact and benefit, why not just SMILE at those around you and share how proud you feel about having completed your week of well-being?

GET GRINNING FOLKS!

As ever, smiles Dr. Anne

11/09/2023

Seems like ages ago I put this course up on Udemy, but today I was able to send a client to it to help them with the next step in their therapeutic journey.

You never can tell when your content can come in useful :)

Unhealthy relationships and how they work

10/09/2023

Warning: long fuse, explosive ending

06/08/2023

Often we see instabook posts of super attractive celebs, perfectly couitured in the gym. 6 packs, whitened teeth, and toned to a point they don’t even need air brushed.

Well, as mere mortals the rest of us are a bit more ‘human’. So, to emphasis the core messages about healthy living.

The road to wellness:

1. is not about glamour
2. is often messy
3. means getting out of your comfort zone
4. involves sweat

Wishing you all a wonderful and well Sunday

Smiles

Dr Anne

Ps to see my personal training coach, check the comments

👇👇👇

My Freedom To Thrive

24/07/2023

This week on SONG: ‘Manifestation of Unhealed Child Trauma in Adults’
with guest, Dr. Anne Duguid, on London‘s Saving Our Next Generation (SONG) community outreach talk show with hosts Unisa Kamara and Cheryl Minnette.

Meet Our Guest:

Dr. Anne is a Chartered Psychologist and Founder of My Freedom To
Thrive. She has been working in well-being for over 30 years and
specialises in working with clients who have complex psychological
needs.

Her mission is to make My Freedom To Thrive a hub of excellence for
psychological services to the legal industry. She is passionate about
helping her clients achieve health and happiness.

Dr. Anne is a member of the British Psychological Society Divisions of
Psychotherapy, Health Psychology, and Occupational Psychology. She is
also a trained Clinical Hypnotherapist.

Tune in to engage in the LIVE conversation on Blunts4Life Radio (London). In addition to Live radio streaming, you can catch the show on Mixcloud, YouTube & Facebook.

Date: Monday, 24th July 2023
Airtime: 7 PM GMT | 2 PM EST
Where: Links below

Presented by: Kamara Youths

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22/07/2023

How long would you like to suffer? I suspect most would answer ‘for as short a time as possible’.

And yet as any health or well-being practitioner will tell you, that is only half the story. The reality is until the pain of not changing has become greater than the pain of changing, nothing happens.

Clients may come for an initial pre-consult, offload, decompress a bit, then feel slightly better and think ‘ach, it’s not that bad really….and hmm, real change seems a bit bumpy, so…’

To give an analogy, it would be a bit like starting to get a filling and then saying to your dentist, ‘rightio you’ve done some excavation, that’s enough. I’ll be off now’. The dentist is left thinking ‘eh, but you’re going to be walking around with a gaping hole’.

I call it living comfortably uncomfortable: where a client wants the same, but different. Same job, different boss. Same marriage, different spouse. Same family, different members. Change without change. They are usually looking for me to provide some ‘Book of People Management Tactics’ so they can turn their problematic situation into their ideal.

The psychological therapy tipping point always comes when a client recognizes their discomfort is of their own choosing and that until they commit to being brave enough to face the unknown head-on, they are paying me for a service they could get a lot cheaper from a friend. I get paid for quick results, not hand-wringing.

Many of course never take that step. They dream, they imagine, they whine, but they stay in limbo. The years ticking away, often living a wonderfully, vibrant disassociated fantasy life. Terrified of disrupting their half-lived existence (mortgage, kids, reputation, holidays, car loans). Settling for affairs, promotion, addictions anything to fill the abyss of disconnection and loneliness.

So, ask yourself and tell the truth, ‘how long would you like to suffer?’

08/07/2023

Want to learn the secret to understanding your stress? Check out my new book! Available to buy on Amazon