No matter our lifestyle, we are all at risk of incurring an injury that turns our world upside down. Whether you work in an environment fraught with hazards or in a space considered safe such as an office, most serious accidents happen in the workplace, sustained in a wide variety of ways from operating malfunctioning equipment to simply slipping down the stairs. Road traffic collisions are another major cause, as are sports and extreme sports – especially when played at an elite level. Most recently, rugby has made news headlines as a study of retired players revealed serious mental health issues thought to have been caused by repeated head trauma during their careers.

Types of life-changing injuries vary widely, from loss of hearing or sight to restricted mobility and damage to the brain. This physical harm, which is in itself hugely distressing, also has a negative effect on your mental state as you face new challenges in your capabilities while trying to develop new routines. This makes the initial period following a serious injury incredibly daunting and stressful, and it is easy to feel isolated and depressed. Particularly in the short term, it is vital for anyone suffering from the mental consequences of a serious injury to actively take steps to combat and control these overwhelming emotions.

Manage Your Expectations

Perhaps time does not heal all wounds, but it certainly plays a big part in helping us to process pain. Manage your expectations about how quickly you will be able to recover, both physically and mentally, and be careful not to push yourself too far too soon. While you will be desperate to return to some sort of normality, challenging yourself to get there before you are really ready will only slow down the process in the long-run. Take your recovery step by step and remember to celebrate each win, big or small.

Don’t Suppress Emotions

However you are feeling – and this might change minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, in the first few days and weeks following the accident – embrace your emotions and let them run their course. Coming to terms with your new situation is incredibly draining and burdening yourself with suppressed emotions will only make you feel more exhausted. Surround yourself with friends and family and open up about how you are feeling – emotional support from trusted loved ones is a powerful healing tool. If you are uncomfortable expressing yourself to those close to you, it may help to speak to a professional about your state of mind.

Work Towards Closure

Especially in the short-term following your accident, closure may feel like a distant dream – or even an impossibility. However, once you are in a position to do so in terms of your health and headspace, working towards attaining closure around the incident which caused your injury will help you to feel released from the past and allow you to refocus your attention on the future. If you were a victim of malpractice, you could seek the advice of serious injury lawyers who will strive to get you fair compensation. While you cannot change what happened, proving that your injury was not your fault can go a long way towards minimising feelings of regret and helping you to mentally move on from the past.

Set Achievable Goals

Many doctors, psychologists, and even philosophers discuss the power of pursuing goals in attaining happiness. This is only true if the goals are achievable, however. Setting yourself unrealistic targets and then failing to meet them will only make your recovery feel further out of reach than ever. Following the recommendations of specialist advisers such as rehabilitation professionals, set out a limited number of attainable goals, some for the short-term and others for completion weeks or months in the future. Each achievement will increase your confidence in your recovery and tracking your progress will give you a visual representation of just how far you have come since you were first injured.

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Between acting roles, two recently-launched businesses, and parenting her one-year-old daughter, Shay Mitchell has an undeniably jam-packed schedule. However, despite her myriad commitments, Mitchell managed to find time to transform her body and improve her overall well-being with a simple change to her fitness routine—and the positive results only took one month for the actor to see and feel.

Read on to discover how Mitchell reshaped her body and got healthier in just four weeks. And for more celebrity transformations, check out Ciara Reveals Her Plan for Losing 10 Pounds in 5 Weeks.

To jumpstart her weight loss and health transformation, Mitchell kicked things off with a five-day-a-week workout plan for four weeks using the Openfit training program.

“It changed everything,” Mitchell told Women’s Health of her transformation in a new interview. “I had way more energy; I don’t have five cups of coffee anymore. I can sound preachy when I’m talking about it, but it totally altered my year.”

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To help Mitchell tone up, trainer Kelsey Heenan designed a program that combined strength training, cardio, and HIIT workouts.

“For me, it was always about a deadlift,” Mitchell admitted. “Getting up to 50 pounds was a boss move. I was really proud of myself.”

One of the biggest changes to Mitchell’s health and fitness routine was incorporating stretching into her daily practice. Mitchell told Women’s Health that her go-to stretches include arm sweeps, spidermans, and thoracic rotations, calling her stretching practice “life-changing.”

RELATED: Rita Ora Shares the Workout She Does to Get Six-Pack Abs

While Mitchell’s body may have changed dramatically over the past year, she hasn’t been spartan about her diet.

“I wish I could say it was all quinoa, salmon, and asparagus, but it’s not,” she admitted to Women’s Health. Instead, she says she eats an egg, spinach, and cheese quesadilla for breakfast, soup for lunch, and a mixture of vegetables and carbs for dinner. Throughout the day, she snacks on fruit, cheese, vegetables, and treats herself with wine, Lily’s chocolate-covered almonds, or caramel-chocolate cookies.

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The post Shay Mitchell Says This 4-Week Workout Was Life-Changing appeared first on Heal your health yourself.