Book Promo: 7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis

7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis:
A Practical Guide to Emotionally Dealing
with Pandemics & Other Disasters

Elia Gourgouris

Safeguard Your Emotional Health During
Any Crisis With These 7 Practical Steps

 

In our interconnected world, global events impact all of us in one way or another. Knowing how to help ourselves, our families and our organizations navigate a crisis can profoundly affect our emotional health and well-being.

7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis: A Practical Guide to Emotionally Dealing with Pandemics & Other Disasters is a must-read for anyone seeking to thrive during challenging times. Written by clinical psychologist Elia Gourgouris and change management expert Konstantinos Apostolopoulos, this easy-to-read book offers powerful, yet practical, insights to help minimize the negative emotional impact of pandemics, natural disasters, financial challenges and other major disruptions.

“Not only will individuals and families find the book helpful in a crisis, so will first responders, healthcare professionals, mental health counselors and wellness coaches,” said Dr. Gourgouris.

Drawing from their real-world experiences, Dr. Gourgouris and Apostolopoulos explain the following seven keys to navigating any crisis:

1. Start with self-care. Be aware of your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs.

2. Practice awareness. Listen to your intuition or inner wisdom.

3. Choose flexibility so you can adapt, pivot and avoid unnecessary pain.

4. Act now! Preparation is key to your survival.

5. Take initiative by moving into action. Become the navigator in your life’s journey!

6. Cultivate a positive attitude filled with faith and hope.

7. Show kindness to others.

“Each chapter has an end section including points to ponder, questions to consider and action steps to take, so the reader can move beyond just surviving to thriving in a crisis situation,” added Apostolopoulos.

Author Elia Gourgouris, PhD, is the Founder of The Happiness Center, an organization of world-leading experts in the field of positive psychology. Dr. Elia’s previous book, 7 Paths to Lasting Happiness, became an Amazon #1 best-seller. He is an international keynote speaker and happiness expert focusing on corporate wellness and leadership training. He holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology and is a UCLA graduate. Dr. Elia is certified by the American Red Cross in Disaster Mental Health Services, having assisted in the 1994 Los Angeles and 2010 Haiti earthquakes, the 1999 Columbine High School shooting and other crises. He’s the co-host of The Kindness Happiness Connection podcast and a Thrive Global contributor. Please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thehappinessdoctor/,  https://www.instagram.com/dr.eliag/ or https://www.facebook.com/DrElia.

Co-author Konstantinos Apostolopoulos is the Founder and CEO of Fresh Biz Solutions, a performance consulting and training provider. As an award-winning facilitator and coach, he has successfully delivered hundreds of custom learning events in the US, Canada and Europe for diverse audiences and industries. He is a regular contributor to Thrive Global and other industry publications. As a young man in Greece, he experienced firsthand the devastation left behind by natural and economic disasters. As an adult, he was fortunate to help play a small part in the rebuilding efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Today, he helps others navigate the challenges brought by major events in their lives. Please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachkon/.

For more information, please visit www.dreliagourgouris.com; http://freshbizsolutions.com/; or https://www.thehappinesscenter.com/.

7 Keys to Navigating a Crisis: A Practical Guide
to Emotionally Dealing with Pandemics & Other Disasters
Publisher: The Happiness Center
ISBN-10: 1734943815
ISBN-13: 978-1734943818

Available from Amazon.com

 

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: 
Beyond the Controversy of Screening
Pioneering Psychotherapist Shares 3 Exercises for Maintaining Emotionally While Coping with a Diagnosis

Breast Cancer Awareness Month has been one of the most successful campaigns to raise public awareness in recent history. Unfortunately, in terms of successfully reducing breast-cancer mortality, the results have been mixed, which has caused fierce debate among doctors, researchers, non-profit groups and patients.

“Embedded in the message driving the campaign every October includes instruction to women to strongly consider getting screened for breast cancer, which is often asymptomatic during the early stages, in the hopes of finding cancer before it metastasizes,” says cancer psychotherapist Dr. Niki Barr, author of “Emotional Wellness, The Other Half of Treating Cancer,” (canceremotionalwellbeing.com). 

Debate over the efficacy of screenings has arisen as new studies reveal possible shortfalls:  self-examinations haven’t been proven effective; younger women experience false positives due to denser breast tissue, as well as missed positives, despite clinical examinations; and recently published studies such as The New England Journal of Medicine’s findings on three decades of screening have been mixed, Dr. Barr says.

The latter found that screenings did reduce late-stage cancer rates, to a small extent, but mammograms also drastically increased over-diagnosis and unnecessary treatment,  including surgeries, toxic drugs and an incalculable amount of stress and suffering, she says.

“I think each woman needs to consider screenings on an individual basis. Family history, age and other risk factors should be considered in their decision,” Dr. Barr says. “It’s equally important to remember that, should you or a loved one be diagnosed with breast cancer, you should care for your emotional well-being as much as you take measures to restore physical well-being.”

While doctors, nurses and medical staff tend to your body, you can tend to your mental health with some of these exercises she recommends to her patients:

• “Catch” anxious feelings before they become anxiety. Prevent anxious thoughts from becoming full-blown anxiety by “catching” those feelings before they intensify. If you find anxious thoughts repeating themselves in your mind, take out some index cards and a pen and write them down, one by one, one per card. When you’ve written them all down, try to identify which one thought started the chain reaction.  Then find the thought that came next. Continue until you have each thought in order. Now, go back to the first thought and write down a new thought that does not make you feel anxious. When the first thought comes to mind, substitute it with the second thought. Continue through the list until you have positive, empowering thoughts for each negative, anxious one.

• Release painful feelings and then let them go: Writing down painful thoughts and feelings through journaling is an excellent way of exorcising them. Some people find rereading what they’ve written can be helpful, but others hesitate to use this tool for fear someone will find it and read their private thoughts. For those people, Barr suggests an extra measure of release: Shred the pages while focusing on “letting go” of those feelings.

• Give your mind respite by escaping through music and meditation: Music is a tonic for many things: It can help us relax, lift our spirits, provide an escape from anxious thoughts and the here and now. Always have favorite CDs easily accessible so you can escape with music whenever you need to. Meditation CDs are available to help you learn how to meditate and to provide guided imagery for meditation, which is scientifically proven to trigger soothing chemical changes in the brain. Try “Meditation for Beginners” by Jack Kornfield or “Guided Mindfulness Meditation” by Jon Kabat-Zin. Finally, sleep is an absolute must for both physical and emotional health. If you’re having trouble sleeping, there are CDs and downloads to help! Try “Sleep Through Insomnia” by KRS Edstrom.

“Having an actual box, with three-dimensional items, gives patients something tangible to use during a confusing time,” Dr. Barr says. 

About Niki Barr, Ph.D. (@NikiBarrPhD)

Niki Barr, Ph.D. founded a pioneering psychotherapy practice dedicated to working with cancer patients in all stages of the disease, along with their family members, caregivers and friends. In her book, she describes an “emotional wellness toolbox” patients can put together with effective and simple strategies, ready to use at any time, for helping them move forward through cancer. Dr. Barr is a dynamic and popular speaker, sharing her insights with cancer patients and clinicians across the nation.