We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

    Yesterday was a beautiful and an amazing day. I was part of a humanitarian action in one non-government organization. Actually, it's an organization that is a counseling center for women that are facing unplanned pregnancy. We made an event- open house time in the center and we invited many people to donate clothing and other baby items. We encouraged everyone to show their care and love for these mothers and babies and donate anything that can be helpful for these families. 

During this open house time many people came and brought a lot of clothes and other things. We were so happy to see people come with full bags with clothes and other things and want to help and donate. We are sure that all these families will be really happy and thankful when they see what everyone brought for them.

Тhis event was a really beautiful experience for me that awoke my curiosity to research more about what is that makes some people give and help and what are the health benefits of helping others?

There are many reasons why people give and help. People often say that they want to help and give because…

How to take a compliment?

  Many people don’t know how to take a compliment. Sometimes I am one of them. There is something in our mind-set, an extra critical voice that says we don’t deserve positive feedback and anyone who is giving us a compliment must lie or maybe feel sorry for us.

The compliments are a kind of gift, and turning down a gift insults the person giving it, suggesting that we don’t value them as highly as they value us. When we receive a compliment, that means we have earned someone's respect and admiration. So, it's time for us to learn how to take a compliment. 

· According to lifehack.org, there are a few things that you and I need to stop doing.

- Putting yourself down: Stop thinking that you don’t deserve the compliments you get it.

- Assuming the other person doesn’t really mean it: You may be right, sometimes, but it doesn’t matter. Responding as if they did disarms whatever ulterior motive they might have. On the other hand, acting as if they didn’t mean it when they did is insulting and makes you come off as either a jerk or a basket case. Stop doing it.

Top 10 myths and truths about the people with Down syndrome disorder.

  Do you know that today is a World Down Syndrome Day? 

  There are still many myths and misconceptions about this disorder and people who have it.  Don’t allow them to form your opinion about these people. Here are some facts that you should know about them, which probably will break your myths about this disorder.

MYTH #1: Down syndrome is a rare disorder.

TRUTH: Down syndrome is not rare disorder. Actually it's the most commonly occurring genetic condition.  There are more than 400,000 people, only in the United States, who are living with this disorder.

10 ispirational quotes about happiness.

Today is the international day of happiness. Celebrate this day of happiness with these beautiful and inspiring qoutes.
Don't forget to also read our post about "the daily habits of the happy people".

1. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”- Mahatma Gandhi

2. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go”
- Oscar Wilde

3. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
- Herman Cain

Anxiety disorders: What is a phobia?

      If you read my last blog post (What is anxiety and how it can be treated?), you already know that anxiety is a really common disorder that affects millions of people. There are several types of anxiety disorders: panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias and generalized anxiety disorder. 
Today I want to share with you something more about the phobias and fears. But first, we need to define what phobia actually means.

A phobia is irrational and strong fear of a thing or event. People who have phobia realize that their fear is unreasonable, but still can’t control their feelings. A phobia starts when they begin to organize their lives around avoiding the object of their fear. Sometimes, even thinking of the feared situation makes them anxious and nervous. Their fears control their lives and they are not able to lead a normal life.

What is anxiety and how it can be treated?

     

   Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time. Maybe you feel nervous when you need to speak in public, when you need to make some important decision or when you face some school, work or relationship problems. We can say that the anxiety is normal human emotion and a natural alarm system in your body that can be activated when you are dealing with dangerous situations in your life. In these situations, the anxiety in your body is there to protect you from the danger, not to hurt you. But, anxiety can become a serious problem, if your anxious feelings don’t subside or if your body reacts as if there is danger when there is no real danger. The people who experience anxiety imagine that things in their life are worse than they really are. They can’t control these anxious feelings that start to limit their ability to lead a normal life.

What is a defense mechanism?

The defense mechanisms are part of our life. We use defense mechanisms to protect ourselves from feelings of anxiety or guilt, unpleasant thoughts and behaviors. They are natural, normal, non-voluntaristic, not under our conscious control. When they get out of proportion, neuroses develop, such as anxiety states, phobias, obsessions, or hysteria.

Sigmund Freud was one of the first proponents of this construct. His daughter Ana Freud was the first one who defined these mechanisms in her father’s book.

Some of the major defense mechanisms are the following:

1. Denial

Denial is the refusal to accept reality or fact, acting as if a painful event, thought or feeling did not exist. It’s one of the most primitive of the defense mechanisms. It’s characteristic of early childhood development. Many people use denial in their everyday lives to avoid dealing with painful feelings or areas of their life they don’t wish to admit. For example, smokers may refuse to admit to themselves that smoking is bad for their health. 

How to improve your communication skills in your relationship?

There is no perfect relationship. Every relationship goes through struggles and problems, but only strong relationships get through it. One of the keys for a healthy and strong relationship is good communication between the partners. Communication to a relationship is like oxygen to life. Without it, one day your relationship will come to the end. Because the communication is very important for your relationships, I want to share with you a few things that can help you to improve your relationship today.

Things you should know about therapy

   We all dream about something. We all hope that our dreams and our wishes will become true. I dream about this: one day to become a therapist. I am a graduated psychologist, but I would like to continue studying and advance in that field. This is a big challenge for me, but step by step I’m trying to reach my goal.

   Being a therapist is a profession full of challenges. The therapists always have something new to learn and need to constantly improve themselves, so they can help their patients. One of the most important things for this profession is something that we call good therapeutic relationship. If you want to have a good therapeutic relationship with your therapist, you need to know a few important things about therapy, which probably will break your popular myths about the therapy and therapists.

7 simple tips for improving your memory

Do you want to improve your memory?  

These 7 tips will help you do that:

1. Sleep well. Sleeping is helping us consolidate our memories. Experts say that sleeping improves the memory: “Sleep is key time for your brain to solidify the connections between neurons“. 

2. Smell, touch, taste, hear and see it. The more senses you involve when you need to encode memory, usually the more strong a memory it becomes. For example: if you need to remember someone’s name you met for the first time, it may help to look them in the eye when you repeat their name, and offer a handshake. By doing so, you’ve engaged 4 out of your 5 senses.

3. Repeat it. One reason people who want to memorize something repeat it over and over again is because repetition seems to work for most people. Repeat the information spaced out over a longer period of time.

What is OCD and do you have it?

   Do you remember all those times when you saw the picture frame on the wall out of place and you wanted to fix it? Or the time when you saw a shelf of books and they were all out of order and your eye twitched? 

Yes, I will be talking about OCD, but before I dive in to this mater, let me explain the term, even though I'm probably sure you already know what OCD stands for, it's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. OCD. These past few years this term has become widely spread and popular. Many people talk about it, there are many posts and lists on the internet with images stating that they will drive your OCD crazy. People even identify with it making it a part of their daily life.

   But what is OCD? What does it mean to have OCD and do all those people really have it?

   As I wrote before, it stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and in order to understand it, you need to understand these 3 terms. What do they mean and what their relation is? 

    When it comes down to the word obsession and its meaning, we often connect it to a person that really wants something very, very much. But in reality an obsession is any recurring thought or idea that keeps coming back in our minds, it is recurring. You keep thinking about it and you obsess about it. It can be a number, a color, an action it can be absolutely anything. For example, it can be the thought that you have contaminated your hands and you have to wash them vigorously because if you don't, something bad will happen.

22 daily & positive habits that happy people tend to follow.

You all want to be happy and surrounded by happy people, because they spread positive energy that makes you feel good in their presence. They are like a mirror- they reflect their happiness everywhere.

Happy people have many things in common. Barbara Sher says “ they know exactly what they want and they feel they are moving toward getting it.” That’s what makes their life feel good: when it has directions, when they are heading straight for what they love. It’s not always easy for them to stay happy, but they choose to be. They tent to follow a certain set of habits that create happiness in their lives.

This is a list with 22 daily & positive habits that happy people tent to follow:

How to be effective at studying?

    Learning is a lifelong process. The earlier you understand this, the easier it will be for you to face the challenges that come with the process of learning.
Many of the students struggle with studying. Maybe they don’t know how to improve their learning skills or maybe they don’t have an idea which studying strategies are most effective for them.
So if you are one of these students, please pay attention on these studying strategies.

7 steps how to deal with failure in exams.

   Everyone has experienced failure. Many famous and successful people at some point in their life have failed at something, but they kept doing what they started. They understood that experience comes from failure.

When you find yourself in a situation like exam or test failure, your mind and body experience something that makes you feel unmotivated and disappointed. The feelings of shame and guilt make you ask yourself questions: Am I good enough? Can I do this again? Am I stupid and not intelligent? Why this happened to me? The negative thoughts about yourself and the fear of repeated failure will prevent you to keep on. You need to overcome your failure. Start thinking how you can motivate yourself to move on and start the studying process all over again. Try to follow these 

few steps and see how they can 

help you change your thinking and behavior.

1st Step: Accept the fact that you failed. Stop feeling pity for yourself. Try to understand that this failure doesn’t measure your intelligence. Believe that this experience will help you be better the next time.

2nd Step: Clear your head from negative thoughts. Go on a walk. Go out with your friends. Share your story with your closest friends. Ask them to share with you some experience from their lives when they faced failure and how they find motivation to keep on.

Top 10 inspirational movie quotes!

Do you love watching movies? They really can be great sources of inspiration and motivation.

I want to share with you my favorite 15 inspirational movie quotes that maybe could change your mood or life view, today!

1. “Do, or do not. There is no “try” . - Yoda, Star Wars

2. “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”– Gandalf, Lord  of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

3. “It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.” – Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

7-DAY- love yourself challenge!

    Sometimes is easier to love others, then yourself. Maybe you don’t have a problem to be good to others, but it’s hard for you to be good to yourself. Why? What makes you so self-critical? Try this seven day challenge and see how good it feels to appreciate yourself.

Day #1 – Inspire yourself. 

Read something more about how you can start to love yourself. Find and read some self-help books. Search for inspiring quotes on Google, Pinterest or our Facebook page - Psychologist Diary. :)

How to get more done every day?

     Sometimes I feel like I need more than 24 hours to finish all that things that wait on my TO DO list. I have to admit that many times I am not aware how I spend my time. I do some other things that are not so important in that moment. I get simply distracted by other things (thanks to Facebook and Pinterest). Sometimes it feels like I just can't finish anything, because I don’t know how or from where to start. So, until 30-hour days are invented, I decide to follow these easy and effective tips for getting more done in the 24 we have.

1.Get enough sleep. Don’t oversleep.

First you need to get enough sleep. If you don't get enough sleep, you will not have enough energy to do or finish everything. If you get enough sleep, you will be ready to face all the challenges of that day. BUT, don’t allow yourself to oversleep. Read more about the effects that oversleeping has on your health.