Mindwise in Wollongong, New South Wales | Sport & recreation

Mindwise

Locality: Wollongong, New South Wales

Phone: +61 2 4210 6139

Address: Lvl 1, 70 Market Street 2500 Wollongong, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.mindwise.net.au

Likes: 153

Add/Update information

Reviews

Tags

• Sport & recreation
• Psychologist
• Yoga studio

25.01.2022 Are you wondering whether the opportunity to realize our interdependence, or fearful competition for scarce resources, will win out? Are you hearing wonderful stories of neighbours helping one another, and wishing that could last, but suspecting that Business As Usual may be only a few months away? Paul Atkins (ANU, Canberra) has studied prosocial behaviour. (There is a substantial and growing body of literature now, that is overturning the old humans-are-basically-competiti...ve-and-self-interested paradigm.) Here, he is interviewed about how his work throws light on our current social dynamics. Very interesting! And there are useful principles you can apply to your small group (eg household) as you think about how you might offer leadership to its better (prosocial) functioning.

25.01.2022 How do you fight injustice without hating?

25.01.2022 Free debrief support for those affected by fire distress

24.01.2022 Touch Fear "There is a teaching that says that behind all hardening and tightening and rigidity of the heart, theres always fear. But if you touch fear, behind... fear there is a soft spot. And if you touch that soft spot, you find the vast blue sky. You find that which is ineffable, ungraspable, and unbiased, that which can support and awaken us at any time." From her book Practicing Peace https://pemachodronfoundation.org//practicing-peace-pocket/ Thank you Shambhala Publications for the always timely Heart Advice of the week!

23.01.2022 The Australian Government has announced $76 million in funding for mental health support for those affected by the bushfires. Some key points for AAPi members.... Bushfire affected individuals and families, and emergency response personnel will be eligible to receive Medicare rebates for up to 10 psychological therapy sessions through GPs, psychologists and other mental health professionals. These 10 sessions are over and above what is currently available through Better Access. People can self-refer directly to the mental health professional of their choice for the 10 sessions- no GP referral or mental health treatment plan. Allied Mental Health Professionals who are eligible to provide these sessions include Psychologists, Occupational Therapists and Social Workers. Telehealth options will be available for those who cannot access services in person. This is available to anyone who has been affected by the fires and includes people living in residential aged care facilities. There is no age restriction. The full package of services will be available for 2 years commencing 17 January 2020. Health professionals are encouraged to bulk bill fire affected clients if you can. There will also be on the ground recover efforts in the fire affected areas and community recovery projects. AAPi will circulate more information to our members when it becomes available. We encourage you to read the full details by visiting: https://www.health.gov.au//mental-health-support-for-austr

21.01.2022 Who are we really? Do we, under pressure, devolve into greedy self-interested individuals competing for scarce resources? Or is it our true nature to pull together and take care of each part of the whole fabric of the living breathing interconnected Gaia as we would each part of our own body? Lovely talk, delivered in sonorous tones - a balm to your news-and-other-media-ravaged brain https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w0Ey27yaE2g&feature=youtu.be

21.01.2022 Read Row 1 (from left to right across the page) before Row 2

21.01.2022 The Middle of Nowhere "Anxiety, heartbreak, and tenderness mark the in-between state. Its the kind of place we usually want to avoid. The challenge is to stay in the middle rather than buy into struggle and complaint. The challenge is to let it soften us rather than make us more rigid and afraid. Becoming intimate with the queasy feeling of being in the middle of nowhere only makes our hearts more tender. When we are brave enough to stay in the middle, compassion arises spontaneously. By not knowing, not hoping to know, and not acting like we know whats happening, we begin to access our inner strength." From her book The Places That Scare You https://pemachodronfoundation.org//the-places-that-scare-/ Thank you to Shambhala Publications for the timely Heart Advice of the Week!

20.01.2022 Some sage advice for this busy time of year, from Rick Hanson. Our best wishes to you for the festive season, wherever you may have ended up for Christmas/New Year!

20.01.2022 Ambiguous loss (uncertainty around loss, whether that be of a loved one, a way of life, a hope, a vision for all of humanity... ) is probably for most - if not all - of us, a characteristic of the times we are living through. Pauline Boss - who has done a lot of great work understanding ambiguous loss and how to best respond to it - points with tenderness to our need to let ourselves feel our sadness right now. Sometimes its the little things... my own tears fell when she ...talked of serving herself hot water in her best china teacup as a way of brightening a dark moment: so sweet 25 minute interview with the wonderful Krista Tippett: https://onbeing.org//living-the-questions-its-really-sett/

20.01.2022 What if our inner demons aren't demons at all?!

20.01.2022 Great Forbes article - Using 3 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Skills to Survive Covid-19 stress: 1) Be in the present moment 2) Open up to feelings and uncertainty 3) Do what matters, Focus on your values... "Ultimately, learning to do any of these skills might help you better cope in the next few months, or longer. Obviously, like anything, these skills take time and you will have to get better with practice and repetition. But, as Dr. Hayes says, Let's all start where we can start. Today would be good. Mindwise psychologists are carefully selected ACT experts who can help you learn, and practice these critically useful psychological flexibility skills - check our website, and/or call 02)42106139 to see how we can help!

19.01.2022 Turn the sound on. Open your heart. Watch her telling our story in sand art. So beautifully told, so moving. Can you let your heart break? Through the cracks, the light comes in. (Rumi?)

17.01.2022 Little tips, maybe you already know them, but how easy it is to forget!

16.01.2022 Rode my bicycle to the beach yesterday, remembering to smile at others on the bike/walk path. So grateful for the life around me: the birds, the trees swaying in the breeze, the smiles of the humans that came back to me across that tiny social distance!

16.01.2022 We are extraordinarily interconnected! You are not alone: you are part of a whole, and you make a very big difference!!

16.01.2022 Weve actually raised $1470 (including cash donations at the workshop, which will go directly into WIRES account instead of through FB/Paypal Giving Fund) with this workshop on Sunday. A beautiful group of humans who came and moved, were still, who listened and even shed tears...stronger together! Many thanks to all our supporters. ... See more

16.01.2022 Great tips for looking after your relationships during COVID-19

16.01.2022 Emotional Needs Not Being Met. In talk about the Pursuer-Distancer dynamic, this piece is usually missing. So happy to have found this good explication! https://youtu.be/kp_ahyJFR6s

16.01.2022 eFriend is an innovative new approach to virtual peer support in Australia developed by Independent Community Living Australia (ICLA) to help people who may be experiencing loneliness, isolation, distress, difficulty coping with the impact of trauma, or if they are struggling with anxiety, depression or thoughts of self-harm. eFriend builds on the existing network of support lines, web-based services and peer support groups in Australia by offering something unique through on...e-to-one sessions with an eFriend Peer using an individualised, virtual model. This model differs from anonymous crisis support lines and borrows from telehealth (where you connect each time with the same person), ensuring that you don’t have to retell your story each time you call. eFriend also combines the methodology of ‘befriending’ developed in the UK to combat loneliness with the expertise of a trained peer support worker. eFriend complements other support lines and services delivered by other national mental health organisations, and builds on ICLA’s 30 years of expertise and experience in delivering in-community support for people living with mental illness and trauma. eFriend is staffed by a trained team of peer support workers who have a lived experience of mental ill health, trauma or distress and who can provide immediate non-clinical, peer-based mental health support to people. Further information on eFriend can be found on their website https://efriend.org.au/ See more

15.01.2022 For my dear introverts (so you know you aren't alone )

14.01.2022 If you tremble.....

14.01.2022 Once you have taken every precaution, what are you to do with your mind? Seek more information? (But you suspect you are on information over-load.) Worry? (But it doesnt seem to help.) Talk to others? (But there seems to be so much re-cycling of fears!) Help others? (Yes, it helps to the extent you can do something helpful... then...) Eckhart Tolle has some guidance, and Im here to tell you that it works for me! Jenni Dall

13.01.2022 The hopes and fears around vaccination are carrying higher and higher stakes as the pandemic rages. "active resistance...is more likely to be personal ... She was surprised, while researching attitudes towards vaccination, by how many parents had been frightened by a bad health care experience. An uncaring doctor or a cold, unforgiving health system." Read to the end to catch a lovely little story of dealing well - with empathy and care - a Mum disinclined to vaccinate:

13.01.2022 Great news: all those who usually have to stop seeing their psychologist round this time of year owing to Medicare sessions running out: you can now have 10 extra Medicare sessions!

13.01.2022 As you might be able to tell by the posts below, we love science! Sometimes though, we are frustrated by rigid insistence (by funding body police, for example) on staying within accepted practice standards which claim (often erroneously, as it happens) to be entirely evidence-based. Scott Miller has some great stories that highlight the contradictions. He concludes by advocating a more pioneering approach around the cutting edges of what we know.

12.01.2022 Last year, I - with a little help from some friends - helped train an Indian woman become a taxi driver. The Women On Wheels program chooses young women who wou...ld otherwise have little prospect of financial well-being let alone independence, and gives them a comprehensive training package (driving skills, self-defence, knowledge of their rights, English language skills) to achieve employment that takes them out of the poverty trap forever. We did our fund-raising by inviting donations from participants of our Sunday yoga practices (rather than accept teaching fees). Through the year we raised just short of the amount needed to fund one woman through the entire set of modules. How good is that?! Many thanks to the other teachers, and for the enthusiastic support we received for this project. It was a win-win-win-win because we loved doing yoga together, plus we got those happy brain chemicals from giving, AND we gave some training back to the home of our yoga - AND we contributed to the world! Because our planet is groaning under the weight of its humans (and their rate of population growth); and the single most effective strategy to tackle that is to educate women and girls. So we did!!

12.01.2022 "Things dont really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together and fall apart again. Its just like that. The healing comes fr...om letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy." From her book When Things Fall Apart https://pemachodronfoundation.org//when-things-fall-apart/ See more

12.01.2022 A lovely guided meditation using classical compassion training tailored nicely to this time.

09.01.2022 Relationship counsellors have long observed that finding Mr/Ms Right is relatively unimportant for relationship satsifaction. (I learnt this myself from a mentor in my early career, forty-three years ago!) We have seen, for example, that skills in resolving conflict and repairing the relationship after a disruption, are much more important than finding someone who agrees with you about everything (if that were even possible!) Now, though, we have some science to back that anecdotal evidence, and tease out the key factors correlating with happiness in partnerships. https://www.inverse.com//dating-study-predicts-happy-relat

06.01.2022 Sociologist Nicholas Christakis says we come to social goodness as naturally as we come to our bloodier inclinations. Research out of his Human Nature Lab at Yale shows that capacities like friendship, love, teaching, and cooperation exert a tremendous and practical force on us and yet we dont think of those behaviors as grit for whats helped humans evolve as a species. Christakis science and the passion with which he shares and lives what he learns put goodness in refreshing evolutionary perspective. https://onbeing.org//nicholas-christakis-how-were-wired-f/

06.01.2022 I think the government has twigged that they can roll out great-sounding packages whilst keeping their expenditure minimal, by setting low fees that can only be... bulk-billed. Victims Of Crime, DVA, and now Coronavirus... They look good on paper when presented to the public, but who amongst us (psychologists) can adequately cover our overheads whilst providing services under these funding sources?!?! So athough the demand is there, the services are increasingly not utilised - leaving the government to create its much-vaunted surplus budget!!! Better Access To Mental Health (thats the standard Medicare-supported visits to psychologists) can normally be made to work because we are allowed to charge a gap on top of the meagre Medicare rebate. But all of a sudden, were not allowed to charge a gap if we have to use phone/on-line because of the coronavirus. Please sign this petition so that this program can continue to operate properly, and give already-anxious people the support they need at a time of extra fear, illness, and difficulty.

05.01.2022 click on this to see what happens...

05.01.2022 However light-weight you may think your presence in the world is, never doubt how much difference it makes to the whole...

04.01.2022 As the "honeymoon" draws to a close we get tetchy: the phases we go through in isolation. A yoga teacher friend once remarked to me on the half-way phenomena (when the proverbial hits the fan!) she had noticed on retreats. After that I watched and saw that she was spot-on. The research (space flights, Antarctica...) concurs with these observations... Nonetheless, growth occurs, and most people benefit overall.

04.01.2022 What if our inner demons arent demons at all?!

04.01.2022 Some good tips on how to communicate well whilst wearing a mask

03.01.2022 This presentation exploring modern understandings of pain, coming soon to a computer near you! I can recommend this presenter.

02.01.2022 Grandma, how can I live this quarantine? "My daughter, quarantine is a special, mysterious and sacred period. In my days, newborn children could only leave the ...house for the first time after their 40th day of life. It is a period of waiting and preparing for a new life. It is the period that produces a great change." And how do you prepare for this change? "With simple, genuine and loving actions. Every morning comb your long hair with dedication and untie all the knots, even the most hidden ones that you have always neglected. It is time to put all the knots in the comb. Then dedicate yourself to untangling even your beloved ones skeins. With patience and you will try to find the end of the skein, the exact starting point of the thread. Already with these simple but powerful actions you will create order outside and inside of you. Undoing physical knots with your hands you will begin to touch your internal knots." And after undoing the knots, what can I do, grandma? Remove all parts of you that are no longer fertile. In many funeral rites of ancient peoples it is believed that the deceased leaves the body entirely on the 40th day after his death. In these 40 days, my daughter, cut your hair, eliminate clothes that you have not worn for a long time or that you no longer want use, open the windows of your home well to let the stale air out, cultivate new thoughts by abandoning the old, dedicated to creating new habits, new customs, new traditions." Grandmother, Im afraid that after this isolation nothing will change. Man quickly forgets... "How others will react to this quarantine is none of your business. Make a commitment to change and not forget. Make sure this storm shakes you up so much that it completely revolutionizes your life." Elena Bernab, Indigenous Peoples Cultures. April, 2020 raffaele montepaone fotografia https://www.facebook.com/pg/raffaelemontepaone

01.01.2022 Gut microbiome, inflammation, depression... more data re the gut-brain axis. While this study investigates these links via administration of Ketamine, it also implies that returning to the level of prebiotics and probiotics that we ate prior to the modern western diet, would reduce rates of depression as well as a host of other diseases associated with inflammation. In a nutshell: eat more vegies and fermented foods!!

01.01.2022 Beautiful interview with a Benedictine monk of 60 years who grew up in nazi-occupied Austria and knows what it is to be grateful for each new day of life. Just right for us this Easter! May your week-end be peaceful and safe

01.01.2022 For my dear introverts (so you know you arent alone )