Psychological studies have described and shown the benefits of human-animal relationships on one’s health and well-being. It was also found that people did not always need to be among animals to achieve these benefits. Simply looking at animals or their images can have a healthy impact on levels of happiness.
Introducing elements of nature to our living space can have a positive impact on our cognition, emotion, and stress management. For over 100 years physicians have recommended using animals as an additional treatment for illness, for example, to decrease stress levels and pain intensity, and to improve moods.
Many sources have shown that several factors can unbalance the internal state of “happiness”. A few important factors that people seem to struggle with will be highlighted, such as the act of blaming external sources, for instance, blaming other people or circumstances for the way we feel. This is not to reduce some of unpleasant life experiences, but rather to understand that everyone has control to some degree over their own feelings. By monitoring our thoughts, one can learn to turn negative thoughts into more positive ones, or at the very least to neutralize the negative ones.
Life always comes in waves, and we can learn to make the most of the sense of delight when we attain its heights. Such uplifting feelings teach us to appreciate what we have and enjoy that specific moment. Having experienced life’s ebb and flow we know that there are more than precious moments. Hardship and difficult times are equally important as they contribute to our internal resources and our resilience by adding contrast to the high notes in our lives. We learn about ourselves and our reactions in order to implement and improve coping strategies. By taking responsibility and realizing that, to some degree, we can control our mind-set in the more difficult situations, we are a step closer to increased “happiness”. – writes Katarina Gaborova
In this episode, Valeria interviews Katarina the author of VIVA: Tools for Well-being.
Katarina Gaborova, (Msc Psychology) was born in Slovakia and is currently a practicing psychologist in the Hague, Netherlands. This was also a place where she opened her own private practice K. G. Psychological Services (www.psychologistinthehague.com) in 2009. She has been a huge fan of motivational videos, talks and inspirational quotes, which inspired her to create her first book V!VA Tools for well-being (published in 2015 by Petrabooks in Canada). Since then, she has been creating a variety of motivational tools (workbooks, card decks, books ) that can be used in therapy or as every day mentors in people’s homes. Katarina has been living in various countries including England, Australia, Italy. By being an expat, she devoted herself to offer support to the international community. Recently, her main focus is related to the topics of positive psychology, anxiety, trauma treatments and how our thoughts can influence our physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
