FREE GUIDED MEDITATION SESSIONS IN LAGOS TO MARK WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY 2015

Dear Friends, 

As part of of this years World Mental Health Day campaign Sound Mind Africa will be holding a FREE Guided Meditation session from 8-9am on Saturday 10th October at A Whitespace 58 Raymond Njoku Street, SW Ikoyi. For more information email: soundmindafrica@gmail.com or call: 09095329022.

In the fast-paced world that we live in, we often do not take the time to clear our heads and be truly present in our surroundings. Meditation is a mindfulness practice that allows you to “let go” and be present in the moment. With all the demands of work and home we’re often placing large amounts of stress on not only our physical but mental health.

Benefits of Meditation

Because practicing meditation helps you to slow your breath, quiet your mind, and find peace, it can be beneficial physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

Physical Benefits

•       Stimulates your nervous system, which help your body return to a calm, relaxed state after the threat of danger, or even daily stress, has passed. 

•       Clears your mind for better quality sleep.

•       Improves performance by refining your ability to focus on a goal or situation (another term for meditationused in this way is visualization).

•       Boosts your immune system by slowing the production of the stress hormone cortisol.

Mental and Emotional Benefits

·      Reduces anxiety and depression by enabling your body to balance its own neurochemical system.

·      Allows you to make better decisions and improve critical thinking.

·      Breaks unhealthy habits by helping you detach emotions associated with an action from the action itself.

·      Improves communication with yourself. When you better understand your thought processes, you have more control over what you think.

·      Helps you stay in the present moment. When you let go of the past and the future, you live 100 percent in the now, which affects all aspects of your life and relationships.

P.J. Okocha will lead the meditation session. PJ trained in Hong Kong and has been meditating for 8 years. He recently began leading sessions in Lagos as an opportunity to share his knowledge.

Further reading

World Mental Health Day

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/world-mental-health-day/world-mental-health-day-2015/

Money Management and Meditation: 

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2014/09/26/ask-the-readers-would-you-try-meditation-to-improve-your-finances/

Meditation and Heart Health:

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/MyHeartandStrokeNews/Meditation-and-Heart-Disease-Stroke_UCM_452930_Article.jsp

Stress Relief and Meditation:

http://stress.about.com/od/tensiontamers/p/profilemeditati.htm

Nikisha Talks About Suicide & How She Was Diagnosed with ADHD & Anxiety ...

You tube remains an amazing tool for learning and for shared experiences. As such when we came across this video we felt it important to share as a means of encouraging people to talk.

The below exert is from Nikisha in relation to this video:

I wanted to make a video talking about my diagnosis of both ADHD and Anxiety Disorder (GAD) at the age of 31. I was professionally diagnosed by a brain specialist (Doctor). Mental illness and brain disorders aren't easy to talk about because there are a lot of stigmas and strong opinions that oppose each other. I feared opinions that opposed mine until I realized that no one can be me, no one knows the torment and hardships that someone else has to live through day in and day out. It’s very debilitating and many beautiful people have taken their lives. Many people don’t understand unless they're experiencing it themselves. I believe we need to educate ourselves, have more open dialogues, and be less judgmental and more open minded. I wasn’t able to cover everything I wanted to talk about in this video, but maybe I will do another video if people have anymore questions.

If you have been struggling with anxiety and/or depression your whole life, don’t feel like it’s happening to you because you haven’t prayed enough or don’t have enough faith, don’t believe that all medication are bad, don’t take advice from people who aren’t knowledgeable on mental illness or disorders unless they are presenting you with concerns and suggesting you get professional help, or have actual experience with mental illness and disorders.

I hope this video and sharing my own personal journey with ADHD and anxiety disorder/depression will help someone who really needs the help.

To learn more about ADHD and how the brain works while being effected by mental illness and disorders, I recommend two videos by leading brain Doctor, Dr. Amen:

 Healing ADD http://youtu.be/UWnJ4wjVu9k & Change Your Brain Change Your Life http://youtu.be/MLKj1puoWCgThey are wonderful and more than insightful!!!

Email: nikisha@urbanbushbabes.com 

Mental Health, Why Nigeria, Africa is losing The War.

Culled from: http://africadevelopmenttalk.com/policy/mental-health-why-nigeria-africa-is-losing-the-war/  

When it comes to health care system, many nations in Africa have no structured and functional means of addressing pertinent issues for people who are considered ‘fit not to now talk of people who are considered’insane’ or being troubled by the ‘gods’ or through personal misdeeds.

As an individual,  I used to think mental health cases are hopeless and must have been caused by misdeed of the affected person. Unfortunately many grew up here with such an erroneous belive that all mental health issues are not redeemable and all we could do Is to allow individuals to go through whatever experience they are experiencing. Like others, ignorance had led many into selfish orientation of not acknowledging the need for emphaty  with mental health patients because we do believe  the causes may be as a result of individual misdeeds or effect of  ‘god, traditional cultscults etc ‘.

The Siwe Project: Choices (PSA 1 of 4 starring Bassey Ikpi)