It may not seem like an obvious choice at first. However, keeping fish and shrimp can have a positive effect on your mental health. This article explores these benefits and how fish can improve your home or your study space.
Keeping fish or shrimp falls under ‘animal–assisted therapy’. In most cases either dogs or cats are used in this type of therapy. However, fish can have positive effects as well. The biggest advantages to fish (or any animal), is that they connect you with nature. A 2005 study showed that contact with nature can provide a population–wide strategy for the prevention of mental health issues.
So, what is it about fish specifically that can help us with our mental health? As well as connecting us with nature, fish live in water, and water has many therapeutic benefits. Many people find the sound and visual effect of running water very calming. In fact, you can achieve the same effect just sitting and looking at the water in the sea or a lake.
You can have all the benefits of fish and water by owning your own tank. Fish owners all state that overall the most stressful part of owning fish, is generally the initial set up. Yet, many owners agree that the benefits outweigh any of the initial stress. However, it is not always practical to own your own fish. If you are unable to own your own fish tank, then you can still gain all these benefits by visiting fish. Maybe you have a local fishpond or aquarium? Even just the occasional visit has been shown to greatly improve a person’s mental health.
Bex Harper Tutoring and Coaching pride itself in putting clients’ mental health first. I strongly believe in the therapeutic benefits of fish, shrimp and water snails, which is why there is an aquarium in the BHTC study and coaching space. These delightful, calming creatures are, therefore, incorporated into our sessions, wherever possible. For example, in coaching, the relaxing sound of water flowing can relax you enough to explore areas of your life in greater detail.
In terms of tutoring, often children can be nervous about coming to a tutor for the first session and it provides common ground and opportunities for conversation that isn’t exclusively focused on them. This can help calm tutees and make them feel relaxed. BHTC also allows clients to bring their own slippers to wear, if they want to really feel at home!
If you would like a calming environment to learn or to re-evaluate your life and achieve your big goals, then BHTC is for you! Drop me an email (hello@bexharper.com) to find out more!
Values drive our aims and goals in life. They help us to sort out what is important to us and where we need to direct our focus. Pick your top 5 values for living your life (and another 5 specifically for your business or career). See if, in your current situation, you are truly achieving the life you want with these values.
You can do this by writing down examples of how each of these 5 values appear in your life, at the moment. If they don’t feature in your life currently, write down one step you can take towards achieving this value in your life. The more values you are currently including in your life, the more true to yourself, your dreams and your moral compass you will be.
The aim is to get all 5! Our goals and values change, so it is useful to do this exercise every year.
Acceptance
Achievement
Acknowledgement
Adventure
Aesthetics
Appreciation
Authenticity
Balance
Beauty
Being active
Bliss
Caring
Career
Clarity
Comfort
Commitment
Compassion
Community
Co-operation
Confidence
Contentment
Courage
Creativity
Curiosity
Daring
Dedication
Detachment
Determination
Devotion
Diligence
Discipline
Discernment
Empathy
Empowerment
Energy
Enthusiasm
Excellence
Exciting
Fairness
Faith
Fame
Family
Financial independence
Flexibility
Forgiveness
Freedom
Friendship
Fun
Generosity
Gentleness
Goodwill
Grace
Gratitude
Growth
Happiness
Harmlessness
Harmony
Healing
Health
Honesty
Hope
Humility
Humour
Inclusiveness
Independence
Insight
Integrity
Influence
Intelligence
Intimacy
Introspection
Intellectual growth
Intuition
Joy
Justice
Kindness
Knowledge
Leadership
Learning
Love
Loyalty
Maturity
Money
Nurturing
Openness
Orderliness
Participation
Partnership
Passion
Patience
Peace
Performance
Prosperity
Purpose
Recognition
Relationships
Reliability
Respect
Responsibility
Reverence
Risk taking
Sacrifice
Serenity
Service
Sharing
Silence
Spontaneity
Strength
Status
Support
Success
Trust
Truth
Understanding
Unity
I’ve previously written a number of posts about health and wellbeing. However, there is still one thing that baffles me: why are we burning ourselves out? Well, for one thing, our fast-paced modern society expects everything to happen immediately. We want that person to respond to our text or to get things done all at once. But, unfortunately, one thing that hasn’t changed: there are only 24 hours in a day!
Over the past 10 years, I’ve taken numerous steps to trying to improve my wellbeing and quality of life. I’ve given up drinking caffeine, set regular goals to be sure I am going in the right direction. I’ve decluttered my life significantly to only keep the things that make me happy. In fact, you could say, I’ve done it all. But I’ve noticed, through coaching others and my own journey one thing in particular. This is how, once high achievers finish one goal, they go onto the next one without taking the time to appreciate what they have accomplished. Subsequently, many high achievers find themselves burnt out, developing chronic illnesses or even life-threatening illnesses, such as cancer or heart disease.
So what’s the solution? Well, there is no one or easy answer to this. But definitely getting to grips with the stressors in your life; carving out free-time to get a clearer work-life balance and celebrating your achievements can all help. A journal or workbook can help.
These can be powerful questions for helping you to run a business, pass exams, manage a project, or just cope with a job that you hate. It’s important to enjoy your life. Life is short and no-one died saying they wish they worked more hours! So, if you are really struggling, reach out to friends, family, a therapist or life/business coach and see how you can get the support you need.
Like most therapists have their own therapists, most coaches have their own coaches. I could have coaching on anything, but I specific choose to focus on health and wellbeing in my sessions with my coach, because I feel that once you are feeling energetic, healthy and calm, the rest falls into place: be that your business, your love life, your parenting, your job. In order to do any of these well, you must be well. So, for me personally, health and wellbeing are a must.
Good luck, and if you do decide you would life to try a discovery coaching session, drop me an email: hello@bexharper.com – I look forward to hearing from you.
I have just launched my five tailor-made coaching packages! Once you have completed your complimentary session, you can continue by booking blocks of sessions up front. I have provided a number of options, as clients have different income levels and various business or personal life needs:
Coaching Packages
Purple: The One Month-er
Investment: £99
Bronze: The Seeker
Investment: £199
Silver: The Dreamer
Investment: £399
Gold: The Believer
Investment: £799
Platinum: The Achiever
Investment: £1999
You can email me at coachme@bexharper.com to highlight your interest in being one of my coaching clients and to book your first free one-hour session.