Tag: Happiness

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    Dr Braccio & Mike Austin of 1320 AM discuss HOW EMOTIONAL SUPPORT ANIMAL HELPS A PERSON

    February 6, 2024- An emotional support anima(ESA) can be a great help for an individual in this complicated age loaded with anxiety, depression, and uncertainty. Persons are still recovering from the Covid lockdowns that caused so much emotional havoc due to social isolation and the lack of certainty in life they experienced. Research has shown that during the Covid lockdowns there was a noticeable increase in anxiety and depression in children and adults. It also was found that persons who had animals received much needed unconditional emotional support. At a more specific level, an emotional support animal can greatly reduce feelings of loneliness, anxiety, depression, and post traumatic stress disorder that many persons are experiencing and having problems overcoming. An ESA is another living creature who will give you unconditional love, companionship and also the opportunity to hug and share time with an animal that can be seen as solid emotional support in an often unforgiving world. I certainly see the advantages for a person who feels lonely with a lack of love and caring to seek out love and affection with an ESA as a form of treatment to help overcome suffering from various mental health conditions and feel some relief from the symptoms that can make life very difficult and sometimes even cause suicide ideation. Fortunately, emotional support animals are available to persons when there is an ESA letter verification by a mental health professional the person needs the emotional support animal as part of their treatment to help them be able to better maintain their emotional life. In fact, they are not really seen as an animal in the home or apartment, but are considered an emotional support animal who is part of a person’s treatment for conditions such as anxiety, depression or PTSD.

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    Dr Braccio & Mike Austin of 1320 AM discuss WAYS FOR LONELY ADULTS TO MAKE FRIENDS

    January 30, 2024- It is maybe not that strange that in a world with so much electronic contact and every imaginable streaming service available to a person, that there are so many lonely adults. A computer can never take the place of a living friend. While obviously there are also many lonely young persons, our focus here is on adults. One reason many adults do not have friends is that they were involved with friends who were the parents of the friends of their children. As the children became older and moved away, the friendships often retreated as everyone moved on to lead their own lives away from each other. The parent who may have been the center of family relationships may no longer have much close contact with family as children leave home and develop their own families and friendships. Additionally, the relatively shy person who does not feel comfortable developing friendships may have never learned how to develop them. Regardless of the reason why friendships do not develop in adults, they are critical for human beings to feel good about themselves from the vantage points of how others see them and they see themselves. The give-and-take of friendships can really warm the psyche of an individual. The great Roman orator and philosopher, Cicero, referred to a friend as “another you”. Someone you can share all your thoughts and feelings without being put down or criticized. The following are suggestions on what someone can do who feels lonely as an adult and desires friendships: 1. Make the choice of reaching out and determining to have a friendship with another human being, 2. Make yourself available as a starting point. 3. Call family and old friends to develop friendships in the now. 4. Join a club, church group, or any other organization and become an active member. That you have a reason to meet and interact with others could lead to friendships. 5. Take risks and share your feelings with a person or persons to develop a certain level of camaraderie and positive feelings about each other. 6. Be a reliable person while developing a friendship so that someone knows they can count on you. 7. Show the person you truly care about them. Talk about things that are important to them and let them know what is important to them is also important to you. If you have not developed or lost the ability to care for another person, work on it, and repeat affirmations you do care about others and you are going to try to understand them and relate to them as a caring human being. 8. Be willing to be vulnerable in a relationship and recognize there is potential for being hurt, but the potential for developing a friendship and being close with another person or persons make the risks worthwhile. This could be very delicate and difficult if a person has had problems with relationships in the past or has not been comfortable entering into friendships. If so,this is an area that needs to be worked on. 9. Seek out a trained therapist as you feel appropriate who knows about developing friendships to help you…. As you attempt to enter into a “New World” to develop friendships that can last the rest of your life, look forward to it.The voyage may be rocky and difficult, but the rewards are remarkable as being lonely is very sad and bad for a person’s physical and mental health.

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    Dr Braccio & Mike Austin of 1320 AM discuss HOW TO SHOW PEOPLE THEY MATTER TO YOU

    January 16, 2024 We live in an age where more and more persons are isolated from each other and often their major communication is not with human beings but with computers and other electronic devices. This isolation also is enhanced for many by working at home, a breakdown in the traditional and extended family, less involvement and participation in community, social and church organizations. The rise in percentages of persons with anxiety and depression is not surprising because humans as a whole need and thrive with human interaction and the acknowledgment they belong and matter to others. Each of us can help persons by showing they matter to us. This will help enhance their self-esteem and desire to see more purpose in their lives. The following are ways to show people they matter in your life: 1. Make time for them. This is very basic and very critical. 2. Let them know they matter to you. 3. Explain how they matter to you. 4. Listen to their concerns with attention and sincere interest. 5. Show genuine compassion and understanding. 6. Be available in the present if needed. 7. Believe in and support their dreams they are trying to accomplish in their lives. 8. If it is someone you work with or regularly interact, always have a smile and be available if they desire to talk. 9. Be positive and do what you can to help the person kick out negativity. 10. Encourage hope. It is critical in good and bad times to help keep a person moving forward with hope as they do what they feel must be done to be successful in their lives.11. In discussions with them, focus on them and not you or some other person.12. Let persons know you are grateful for whatever they are doing that you appreciate. This can be family members, coworkers, employees, employers, community persons, political leaders, or anyone you have gratitude. 13. In the case of children, spouses, and other loved ones, constantly acknowledge them and let them know how much they matter to you. They may know you love them and appreciate that, but always let them know how much they matter to you. 14. Regularly verify over and over again that they matter to you…Some of these things may seem obvious, but it is important we let persons know they matter to us. When persons feel they do not matter to others, the isolation they feel in this electronic age can lead to not only depression and anxiety, but also even suicide ideation. There is no cost to letting persons know they matter to us and the benefits to them feeling better knowing they matter to others can keep or enhance positivity in them. You will receive appreciation from them from your efforts helping them enhance their self-esteem and performance in life by you singling them out and letting them know they matter to you.

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    THE NEED FOR DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY IN HOMES DURING THE QUARANTINE DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS

    An unintended negative consequence of our current quarantine is family/child/spousal emotional and/or physical abuse. To ignore these potential problems is doing a great disservice to the emotional and physical needs of many of our societal family members. We need to be promoting that family members in homes be tolerant and work on good communication during these times when everyone is forced to live in often small living quarters. Even the most tolerant of persons can become frustrated when interacting with persons and feeling a lack of space and understanding. I am finding in persons I talk to, even if from stable homes, that it can be frustrating to be living with a lot of people in the home all the time. We all need to be supportive of our family members and friends we fear may be having turmoil at home. Since we currently cannot visit persons in other homes, this needs to be done by phone, FaceTime, Duo, Zoom or whatever means you use to communicate with others. It also is important for persons to know in need of therapy that during this crisis most insurance companies are allowing sessions to be offered without physically coming into offices. Even though, and hopefully will not happen often, calling 911 will be necessary when there is physical violence in the home. A safe plan is necessary to leave the home if there is fear of violence. I am aware that in most homes people will be able to weather the crisis and move on to a time when the Coronavirus is nothing but a bad memory. I simply want to make a point of the problems that are occurring, hopefully not in enormous frequency, and to be supportive as best we can to persons that are living in difficult and even dangerous situations. 

     

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    WAYS TO GET MORE JOY OUT OF EVERYDAY SEEMINGLY COMMON EVENTS IN YOUR LIFE

    An unfortunate aspect of everyday life is that too many of us do not get joy out of many seemingly common events that make it up. We just pass them by and do not enjoy them.  The following are some things to do to get more joy out of your day in small segments:  1.SLOW DOWN AND SMELL THE COFFEE is a good explanation of enjoying life and not rushing through it. 2.To stop for a moment more to smell the coffee or the fragrance of a rose are better examples of our topic today.3.It is the relishing and extending positive things you encounter and not just pass over them. 4.Add some seconds or more of joy to small segments of each day. 5.At a thinking level,relish positive thoughts that come into your mind for more than a brief second. 6.On negative thoughts,kick them out as soon as you can. 7.A further positive thing to do is replace a negative thought with a positive one and enjoy it…The overall goal is to add joy to our lives daily as we relish positive things and thoughts in our everyday lives and spend little time on negative ones.

     

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