First Psychology blog

We'll soon be into June and prime wedding season, but sadly not every relationship has a happy ending. Sometimes people grow apart by mutual consent, sometimes it is one party that chooses to move on while the other would happily stay together. When a relationship ends, there are a number of emotions that we go through – especially if the break-up was unexpected / unwanted. This article from Psychology Today suggests there are seven stages to getting over a relationship which includes the grieving process, so it’s little surprise that most of us could do with extra support when a valued relationship comes to an end. We've pulled together some things to remember if you’re going through a break-up: It’s OK to not be OK (for a while) Relationships take time and effort and chances are you will have invested a lot of energy and emotion into your partnership. When someone you love is no longer around – for whatever reason – even if you are the one that finished things, it’s onl...

The sun is shining and the mornings are bright - it's a great excuse to try and encourage our kids to get more active. We know how difficult it is to get organised in the morning and that the school run is often the most stressful time of the day for most parents, however, with a few small tweaks to your schedule we hope you’ll soon see the benefits that a simple walk to school can bring to your kids – and your family. Walking makes you smarter Evidence suggests that children who have done some exercise earlier in the day arrive at school brighter and more alert. Walking gets the blood flowing round the body and our brains working, which increases the creativity they need to help them once they’re in the classroom. Park a little distance away from school – even if it’s just around the corner. It's enough to kick-start our bodies and get us ready for the day ahead. Walking encourages independence While we’re not suggesting that all children should walk to school by thems...

The British are said to have a stiff upper lip. We are conditioned from a young age – boys especially – that maintaining an emotional balance is the key to a happy, healthy life and that even the most trying of situations can be addressed with a cup of tea! While culturally, this may be the way to do things, keeping our emotions bottled up can actually cause more issues than it solves. And sometimes the best way to deal with a negative or upsetting situation is to ‘let it all out’ and have a good cry. According to this article in Psychology Today , crying helps us communicate how we’re feeling at times when language fails us – it’s a way of soliciting help and comfort from others to help us process and make sense of things that are happening to us. There are a few reasons why we cry – it’s a natural reflex that keeps our eyes healthy by flushing out irritants, for example, or a natural response to physical pain – but what we’re looking at in this blog though are emotional tears, caus...