Self-Help Tips and Resources

We know that some extraordinary experiences (and ordinary experiences) can be
difficult. So we’d like to share a few self-help tips and resources. As you read through the information, look for ideas that are a good match for you at this point in your life.
Use what’s helpful and put anything that doesn’t seem like a match for you aside,
possibly for consideration in the future. As time passes and changes occur, you can look back at the list and see if anything else may be helpful.

Resiliency

https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience/building-your-resilience
This link will take you to an article on the American Psychological Association website titled: “Building your resilience – We all face trauma, adversity and other stresses.
Here’s a roadmap for adapting to life-changing situations, and emerging even stronger than before”.
As you will read in the article, psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress.
Resilience involves “bouncing back” from these difficult experiences, it can also involve profound personal growth.
The article shares ideas for building resiliency skills that have been proven through research to be helpful. Whenever you try a new strategy, it’s important to try it consistently for a while, like building a muscle, to see if it’s helpful for you. It’s not enough to just know about a skill or try it once, you have to practice it for a while to get the full effect. Practice makes perfect.

The topics in the article include:
 Building Your Connections (social support)
 Fostering Wellness (taking care of your body)
 Finding Purpose
 Embracing Health Thoughts
 Seeking Help
Check it out, it’s a good article.

4 Square Breathing, also called Box Breathing

This is a great breathing technique that can help reduce anxiety, worry, and irritation.
You can do it without anyone noticing. It can help you get through those moments in life
that are anxiety provoking and if you try it when you’re feeling irritable or angry, it can help you have a moment to think before you speak or act. This can save you from some regrets and apologies!

 Inhale through your nose while you count to four
 Hold your breath while you count to four
 Exhale through your mouth while you count to four
 Wait (don’t inhale yet) while you count to four
Repeat as many times as you need.

There are videos online to demonstrate this technique. You can find them by searching Four Square Breathing or Box Breathing

Finding Social Support

In this section, you will find some ideas for building your social support and making new friends. We are unable to recommend any particular groups, because we can’t possibly know all of the individuals in them. When you meet new people, it’s important to get to know them gradually over time so you can determine if the individual is trustworthy and safe to be around. So when you meet new people, always start by meeting in public and let trust build gradually with time and observations.
You may already be involved in great social networks with family, friends, community organizations, faith-based organizations, etc. If you are, that’s wonderful. If you’d like to build or expand on that, here are some additional ideas.
Meetup.com is a website/app for hosting and organizing in-person and virtual activities, gatherings, and events for people and communities of similar interest, hobbies, and professions. For example, a person may start a group for hikers, a book discussion group, or a group around some of the topics discussed on our show – UFO’s, paranormal experiencers, etc. The group may be in person or virtual. It’s a good place to find people with common interests. And as previously stated, be sure that in-person meetings are in public until you have time to get to know people.

MUFON – the Mutual UFO Network has chapters in many states that get together for meetings and may have presentations. They also host a national conference. If you are interested in this topic, you can check out MUFON online and look to see if there’s a chapter in your state.

OPUS – Organization for Paranormal Understanding and Support – The mission of OPUS is to educate and support people having unusual /anomalous personal
experiences. Such experiences may include extraordinary states of consciousness,
spiritual or parapsychological phenomenon, close encounters with non-human entities, and / or UFO activity. OPUS, through its educational services and position of neutrality, provides a safe and caring meeting place for people and groups with the intention of working together to further our overall knowledge in these areas and better support people to integrate their anomalous experiences into everyday life. You can read more about this on the Experiencer Support page and the support group that is available.
Website – https://www.opusnetwork.org/

Conferences – There are a variety of conferences on paranormal topics, near death experiences, and UFO related topics. Some of those conferences have workshops for “Experiencers.” This could be a place to find individuals who have had similar experiences.

Finding a Counselor

We’re often asked how to go about finding a counselor. The relationship between you and a counselor is an important one, so it’s a good idea to take some time and ask some questions to find the person who is the best match for you.

Insurance/Employee Assistance Programs – if you have an insurance plan, including Medicaid and Medicare, counseling may be a covered service. Your employer may also offer an Employee Assistance Program that includes counseling. It’s a good idea to start there and find out if you have a counseling benefit, how many sessions are covered, and if what the co-pay may be. If you are going use your insurance or Employee Assistance Program to pay for counseling or a portion of it, get the list of local counselors who are on the network of that plan. Call the counselors on the list to see if they are accepting new clients and if they have appointments available at a time that works for you. This is a good time to ask any additional questions you may have. You can anonymously explain your situation and ask questions like: Do you have experience helping others with similar issues? What would be your approach to helping me?

Counselors are accustomed to these types of questions and if the counselor doesn’t take the time to answer the questions for you, keep calling others on the list to see if you can find someone who is a better match.
If you don’t have insurance or an employee assistance program – try calling local
mental health agencies to see if they offer a sliding fee scale (a reduced fee that is
based on your income) or know of any programs that may pay for the counseling.

Free Resources for substance use and a variety of other issues include Smart
Recovery (a cognitive- behavioral approach), Celebrate Recovery (faith based), and 12 Step Programs (alcoholics anonymous, narcotics anonymous, overeaters anonymous, and many more) and other community self-help groups. If you are interested, read more about these programs online.

Warm-lines and Crisis Lines

Warm-lines – Warm lines are similar to “hotlines” but as the name suggests, you don’t have to have a “hot” issue or crisis to call them. They are designed to offer supportive listening and resources by trained individuals who may be peer supports or volunteers.
Search online for the warm lines in your state or a national warmline. This website
maintains a list of warm-line information. https://warmline.org/warmdir.html#directory

The Lifeline and 988 – 988 has been designated as the new three-digit dialing code that will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (now known as the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), and is now active across the United States. When people call, text, or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen, understand how their problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary.

The previous Lifeline phone number (1-800-273-8255) is still in place as well and connects individuals to the same call centers.