self-actualization – Iain Douglas Stewart

Saying you’ve levelled up on your birthday is cringe

By Iain 8 December 2020Reflections, The Mission, VideogamesNo Comments

It's my birthday today, and after receiving the card pictured, it struck me how cringe it is to say that you've "levelled up" on your birthday. Looking back on some of my previous birthday posts... I noticed that I've used the phrase once or twice myself. I get that it's a videogame analogy, but it just doesn't work when you…

L3CiCS Mental Health Assignment

By Iain 30 June 2020Qualifications courseworkNo Comments

Identifying and describing a range of mental health problems As categorised by The National Institute for Health Care Excellence (NICE), the most common mental health problems are: Depression – The main symptom is a low feeling and a loss of pleasure in things that were once enjoyable. Other symptoms include feeling irritable all the time, having drastic changes in appetite,…

Reflecting on ending self-isolation

By Iain 24 June 2020Physicality, Reflections, The Mission, VideogamesNo Comments

This Coronavirus thing has been a bit shit, eh? I'm due to go back to work next week, and I have mixed emotions about it. On the one hand, I hate my current job, and these twelve weeks have been eye-opening to exactly how much I do hate it. I'm anxious to go back because of the health risks as…

L3CiCS Reflective Diary – 3rd April 2020

By Iain 3 April 2020Qualifications courseworkNo Comments

This week we looked at common mental health problems and possible reasons for their incidence in society. Mental health problems could be seen as skewed rules that people are trying to live their lives by. These abstract rules are mostly developed alongside the organism as it grows and learns to navigate this world we live in. These self-created rules form…

Three years ago, today

By Iain 10 February 2020Books, Reflections, The MissionNo Comments

Or yesterday, I forget. Whichever day it was, three years ago I was going to kill myself. I've come a long way, baby. Far enough? Not yet. We still have a ways to go. But still, considering the progress that I have made, it's unreal. Compare the person I was back then to the person I am now and I…

L3CiCS Reflective Diary – 10th January 2020

By Iain 10 January 2020Qualifications courseworkNo Comments

Over the past few weeks we’ve been learning about three very different counselling theories – Person-centred counselling, Psychodynamic counselling and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) – with very different methods, glossaries and philosophies that ultimately all work towards the same goal, which is helping people. They each offer a different language, and a different way of understanding our personality or self,…

L3CiCS Learning Log – 29th November 2019

By Iain 29 November 2019Qualifications courseworkNo Comments

Person Centred Counselling was developed by Carl Rogers in the 1950’s around the philosophy that people can change, and that they are not bound by personal events in their past, or their circumstances in the present. This change is achieved by the counsellor making use of the core conditions of the Person Centred approach, and these are: 1. Empathy –…

First driving lesson

By Iain 30 September 2019Reflections, The MissionNo Comments

I had my first official driving lesson today, it went well. I was nervous as hell, and on the one hand I was not at all sure I could do it... But on the other hand, I drove a car. Just up and down a road, nothing major. But I drove it. And I'm proud of myself. I even reversed…

So I took a year off, from everything

By Iain 9 September 2019Creativity, Reflections, Site Related, The Mission, VideogamesNo Comments

I mean, it was mostly not through choice. We needed to make sure we would make it through the year financially. Sure, an exotic cat was added to the family in 2019, but other than that, we were careful. Frugal. Thing is, I got lazy and complacent. I found the smallest possible reason to take a year off from personal…

Masculinity

By Iain 2 December 2018Free-writingNo Comments

I'll be honest. I've been wrestling with this one in my head for a while, so this writing is only semi-free. That's one of the problems with having the titles of the exercises written down - I take a look to add to the list every now and again, and when I do, I cant help but form initial ideas.…