Paul Harris

Marathon Man – My Running Journey, Part 2.

May 15, 2019May 15, 2019Paul Harris

Towards the end of last year a friend mentioned that he was running the Milton Keynes Marathon, and this got me thinking.

I needed a reason to do the races, it wasn’t enough to just do them, get the medal and wait for the next one, there had to be a bigger purpose, and that’s when I thought about raising money for Mind and that was when ‘Adventures of an Anxious Mind’ was born. I also thought that I could use the experiences to help and inspire other people, and to raise awareness of mental health issues; it is this part that drives me the most.

I decided to sign up for a number of runs this year, which included the Milton Keynes Marathon. Read more →

Marathon Man – My Running Journey, Part 1.

May 10, 2019May 10, 2019Paul Harris

Monday 6^th May 2019 will forever be marked as one of the greatest days of my life; the day I completed the Milton Keynes Marathon!

All the books and articles about mental health that I have read say that exercise is great therapy; walking the dog worked, but I wanted more, I wanted to lose the Homer Simpson gut that too much alcohol had given me; I also wanted to achieve something, anything.

I started running short distances because that’s all I could manage, the problem was that I had no idea how far I was going, so I decided to get a running app on my phone called ‘Map My Run’. The first recorded distance I achieved was 4.75k, which was a pretty good effort.

Motivation was a big problem for me, especially when the depression got bad; it’s easy to talk yourself out of things at the best of times, but when I hit rock bottom I just couldn’t scrape myself off the sofa. I needed a goal, something that would get me out and running. Read more →

To ‘Let Go’ Takes Love

May 9, 2019May 9, 2019Paul Harris

To ‘let go’ does not mean to stop caring, it means I can’t do it for someone else.

To ‘let go’ is not to cut myself off, it is the realisation I can’t control another.

To ‘let go’ is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To ‘let go’ is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands. Read more →

Anxiety and the Brain, Part 9: Useful Examples of Amygdala-based Anxiety.

April 25, 2019Paul Harris

The book I have been referencing for the Anxiety and the Brain series (Rewire Your Anxious Brain) has some examples of how anxiety can affect someone, and why amygdala-based anxiety does not always make logical sense.

The Anxious Teddy Bear:

A lady was presenting a teddy bear to her grandson, who was running happily toward her. Then he suddenly fell and split his lip open on the driveway.

Now he experiences amygdala-based anxiety whenever he sees a teddy bear. Because the perfectly harmless teddy bear was associated with the pain of the injury, the teddy bear became a trigger, leading to a fear of teddy bears. Read more →

Anxiety and the Brain, Part 8: Learning from Experience.

April 25, 2019Paul Harris

“The amygdala is not logical.”

Trying to alleviate anxiety, panic, worry and avoidance of triggers with reasoned thought and rational arguments is never going to work. Those close to you will always try to help by offering logical reasons for what is going on with you; unfortunately they have not experienced what you have, so what seems illogical to them is actually terrifying to you. Who could be scared of a teddy bear, their so cute and fluffy!

In the same way that the amygdala has learnt to fear, EXPERIENCE is the only sure way to retrain it. Read more →