Mel Richens, of Plan-to.co.uk, is the guest writer for this blog on happiness. Mel is a crafter and has a particular interest in crochet, she is an accomplished crocheter. Visit her website for some amazing creations as well as her Etsy shop. In the blog below Mel describes how she uses the 3P strategy from hypnotherapy to maintain her mental health and well being.

As Mel says in her Etsy profile “Crochet is my Passion…It’s also my therapy!”

Mel’s Blog on the 3Ps

These 3 peas of happiness (see blog picture) sit in their pod on my desk to remind me to take actions throughout the day to look after my mental well-being.  How do they do that? I hear you asking…

Well hormones govern our mood and mental resilience and our level of happiness. There are 4 that are particularly concerned with creating and maintaining positive well-being:

Happiness Hormones

Dopamine – sometimes called the reward hormone. Dopamine is released when we complete a task or achieve a goal (however small).  When we have had one shot we want another so it is linked to motivation

Oxytocin – This is a by-product of feeling connected with others which is why it is often called the love hormone

Serotonin – helps us to regulate our sleep and digestion, it also helps us to feel emotionally settled

Endorphins – regulate our responses to situations and help us to cope effectively with stress and anxiety

That’s the science, and I expect we can all think of examples of times or events when we have experienced a shot of these happy hormones – but how can we use this knowledge in a more intentional way so that we can make sure we are boosting our happiness and resilience every day?

Using the 3 Peas of Happiness

This is where the 3 peas of happiness come in – each one represents something we can do for ourselves

P1 – Positive Thought : Look at your day through a positive lens – what are you grateful for today, what has been good about the day (no matter how small)

P2 – Positive action: Do something positive – Listen to music, get outside, take some exercise, do something creative or something you enjoy

P2 – Positive interaction: Connect with people, be kind.  It doesn’t matter how small the interaction, even saying a cheery good morning to a stranger on your way to work will do the trick!

Choosing to do these three things each day ensures a continuous supply of the happy hormones. The 3 Peas on my desk help me with the creation of the 3P habit. The 3Ps are a useful reminder of something positive I can do whenever I am feeling less than positive!

Conclusion

Thank you Mel for just sharing how you use the very simple strategy of the 3 Peas of happiness. Of course Mel’s crocheting is part of her 3P activity (positive action) as well as her positive interactions with her customers. Mel has a 5* customer review score.

So mental wellbeing can be simple and not involve deep soul searching, it can be as simple as doing some crafting with like minded people. The blog “How to find in Every Cloud a Silver lining” contains other examples of where working together improves wellbeing.

A reminder of how the 3Ps fit into hypnotherapy

When we do the 3Ps we create serotonin the neurotransmitter that gives us that well-being feeling. And when we have that wellbeing feeling, we think more clearly and engage more with life. The more we engage with life the more we get positive outcomes etc. This creates a virtuous cycle of mental health improvement.

How can hypnotherapy add to the 3Ps strategy? Well sometimes more focused specific help is needed around anxiety, depression, phobias, OCD etc. This where many people have found hypnotherapy to be very useful. Hypnotherapy can help you raise your serotonin, address any negative self talk and help you relax even in stressful times and much much more. These strategies help enormously, see how it has helped others (Testimonials).

So if you want to find out how ACT Hypnotherapy Swindon can help you with anxiety, depression, OCD etc., or just want to find out more about how we work, contact us for a FREE, no obligation initial consultation. During the consultation you will learn how the brain works, how we create anxiety, depression etc., but more importantly what we can do about them. Remember you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.