If you are in distress or despair, call Lifeline free on 0808 808 8000. For more information, read on.

All of us will experience mental health difficulties at least once in our lifetime.
As a result, we are all more aware and understanding of mental illness.
Indeed, people can live a regular life with mental illness – hold down a job, live in the community and get treatment.

Help improve your mood with the power of positive thinking :

• Think of your glass as ½ full not ½ empty
  
• Smile! Its infectious
  
• Do something everyday that makes you happy
  
• Think of happy memories
  
• Go for a walk – fresh air is great and free!
  
• Talk to a friend
  
• Listen to music
  
• Go to the cinema
  
• Have a bath
  
• Play some sport
  
• Try some complimentary therapy such as Aromatherapy and or Reflexology or try this simple relaxation technique...

When your muscles are tensed, it is a sign of stress. This simple technique may help you at stressful moments. Why not sit for a moment and try it:

Sit with your feet flat on the floor; rest your hands on your thighs.

Breathe slowly and deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth. Your stomach and not your chest should rise.

As you breathe, gradually drop your shoulders and relax your hands. Make sure your teeth aren’t tightly clenched.

Calm controlled breathing helps release muscular tension and stress.

IF YOU NEED TO TALK, WE CAN HELP...The H.E.A.R.T. Project offers a free, professional counselling service arranged by appointment and held in The Maureen Sheehan Centre. To enquire, or make an appointment, call Jackie on 90310346.

The Health Promotion Agency www.healthpromotionagency.org.uk has a mental health website with dedicated sections for young people, adults, older people and professionals. It is a useful source of information on support groups and organisations. The website supports the idea of treating your mental health like your physical health. Check it out at www.mindingyourhead.info

The BBC has a dedicated mental health website to help you cope with the everyday stresses and strains of life. It provides a safe place to start finding answers to more complex problems. It also has Ruby Wax...Excellent! Check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/headroom/

The Royal College of Psychiatrists website has a section on mental health illnesses, offering readable and accurate information on a range of mental health problems. Click on the  following link: http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mentalhealthinfoforall.aspx

Complimentary therapies can be a great source of stress relief and relaxation. Over the last 20 years or so, our attitudes towards alternative types of therapies have become more accepting. From nutrition and herbalism to homeopathy, reflexology and aromatherapy, people are becoming more in tune to the way that such therapies endeavour to treat the 'whole person' in an holistic fashion.

Aromatherapy combines soothing strokes, lymphatic draining massage and gentle deep muscle massage using specially produced essential oils of plants and flowers.

Reflexology is an ancient form of massage of the feet (and sometimes of the hands) based on the idea that the whole body and its systems are reflected in specific areas on the feet. The H.E.A.R.T. Project offers free refelexology appointments in the centre...please phone Jackie on 90310346 to arrange an appointment. 

Kinesiology deals with the relation of muscles to body systems. By a series of muscle testing, where the Kinesiologist applies light pressure to muscles, they can ascertain whether or not there are imbalances in the areas of the body.