Optimizing Mental Health and Wellness
What do you focus on?
Throughout the day do you notice yourself focusing more on the negative things and things that you are worried about or do you notice that you are focused more on things that you’ve done well or things that are going well for you? You’ll notice if you keep track of your thought pattern throughout the day that if you focus more on negative things that you are going to feel very negative mentally, emotionally, and physically. I’ve spoken with several patients who are so used to talking about problems that even if I ask them what good things happened during the week they still reply with a negative. I’ve asked couples in couples counseling what is going well in their relationship and they will start going down a rabbit hole of negativity trying to outdo one another with the negative things that either one of them has done to the other. It is a pattern that many, or most people in society are used to. Most people like to complain and focus on their problems because they believe that in doing so they will be able to find solutions to their problems however you cannot find solutions where the problems live. Therefore, if you want to start transitioning your thought process to a more positive pattern it is necessary to be mindful of what you’re thinking throughout the day so that you can begin to slowly transition to a more positive mindset through affirmations and deep breathing, and focusing on things that you are grateful for and things that you have done well throughout the day. So take a minute and reflect on how your thoughts are throughout the day. Are they more fearful, negative, or anxious in the morning or in the afternoon or perhaps the evening? Are they more sad, apathetic, or isolating in the morning in the afternoon or in the evening?
A great thing about being in therapy is that it kind of forces you to reflect on your patterns of thought and behavior. If you don’t know the pattern that you are in, you cannot make changes to that pattern and attempt to feel better. Mindfulness is a huge part of noticing patterns as you have to be really mindful of your thoughts around different people, situations, events, and places in order to know what is triggering different feelings, thoughts, and emotions. Then once you know the pattern and the triggers you, you can take a little breaks throughout the day to do some deep breathing and say some affirmations or write and a gratitude journal or do a meditation to try to lift your mood or create different thought patterns. If you typically feel negative and down at work throughout the day then taking breaks to do with some deep breathing, say some affirmations, and perhaps watch a funny YouTube video at lunch, and an attempt to change how you feel at work. Then once your mood is elevated a bit you will start to notice what you really like about work or what you’re doing well at work. This is a slow gradual change needed to create lasting affects for mental health and wellness. If you try to change too quickly it’s like going on a crash diet. When you make this huge sudden change and then it’s not sustainable so you end up going back to what you did in the past. What we’re trying to do here is make slow and steady changes so that the changes are sustainable and long lasting and become a habit. We are creatures of habit and it is somewhat difficult to make or break a pattern or routine but once it’s in grain then it will be hard or to change that pattern or routine for the better.
There are several books out there that will talk about cognitive behavioral therapy for mental health which I really like because I truly believe that what we focus on is how we feel and if we are able to manipulate that we will feel better. Our mental health and wellness book has a chapter dedicated to patterns as well as worksheets in the back of the book dedicated to noticing your patterns and writing them down as you reflect each day and then also doing little things to change your patterns throughout the day. So you can kind of write in to the chart what you would like to change each day and what do you want your schedule to look like after having reflected on your current pattern so that you can try to make a little changes and see if things improve or see if the changes that you’ve made are too drastic or perhaps too much to where it’s causing you to mentally multitask. Again there is a very fine line between reflecting and analyzing, analyzing will leave you feeling physically drained where reflecting on something to learn about yourself will leave you feeling a neutral.
Talk therapy is great when action is involved. If there is only problem talk or neutral talk, patients will get stuck and there will be little to no progress. It is imperative that goals and action steps are taken to make progress in therapy. If a patient keeps coming back to sessions talking about the same issue, saying the same thing week after week, there is not going to be any change because they are not changing their way of thinking and they’re not changing the way that they talk about their situation. Change starts with our thought process, and then action is a necessity. This ideology forces therapist to hold patients accountable for their progress and action steps. Too often accountability is lost in the talk therapy realm.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
What is obsessive compulsive disorder? Many people believe that obsessive compulsive disorder is it when a person has to count to a certain number every time they touch a door knob, or touch some thing a certain amount of times, but obsessive compulsive disorder can include many different actions, such as leaving your house to go to the grocery store and turning around when you get a few houses down to go back to your house to check to make sure that the stove is turned off or that the garage door is shut. Obsessive compulsive disorder can also include thoughts that are uncontrolled and repetitive, such as ruminating over something you said or did the day before with colleagues. I’ve had patients who have repetitively analyzed situations and I consider that to be obsessive compulsive because it was negatively impacting their lives and it was something that they knew and wanted to change.
Now for some people some of these behaviors are fine and they don’t negatively impact them but for others these behaviors can run their lives. Think about how you would feel if you felt the burning urge to go home every time you left your house to go and check on your stove being off. It’s as if that task controls you. Therefore, I often consider obsessive compulsive tendencies to coincide with anxiety. In my experience as a practitioner I believe that anxiety may have started off small within someone’s life, possibly with worries regarding work or school, and then gradually growing over the years. When an individual feels as though they have no control, or a little control in their life, they may resort to different obsessive compulsive tendencies as though they are a way to control things in their life. If an individual is seeking control, obsessive compulsive tendencies would be a way for them to feel as though they are doing something about a situation rather than letting anxiety control them.
It may start off small, such as counting to 60 when you’re brushing your teeth or turning the water on and off a few times because you feel like this will help anxiety to subside. Then after a while these obsessive compulsive tendencies may grow because you may feel as though you have to keep adding things so that bad things don’t happen. For instance, if you don’t touch a door knob five times before you leave something bad might happen to your house. This is all a part of anxiety and intrusive thoughts. It takes a lot of faith and trust in yourself and the process to begin to make changes cognitively to disrupt the pattern of thinking that promotes obsessive compulsive tendencies. If you use mindfulness and are aware of your thoughts throughout the day, you can manipulate them and choose the thoughts that you want to have, versus having subconscious thoughts that you’re not aware of, controlling how you feel and what you do.
For example, if you intentionally take breaks every hour to take a few deep breaths and say some positive I am affirmations you can reprogram your thought pattern from fear-based to having an empowered thought pattern. The trick is to not wait until the obsessive tendencies come about but rather to be proactive and take measures to stay calm and confident throughout the day while interrupting negative thought patterns. The trick is to not over analyze this process but rather to think of it as a calming break during the day to gently reprogram your cognitive processing. For example, if you get up to get a drink or get up to go to the bathroom throughout the day, try to get into the habit of taking a few slow deep breaths and saying so I am affirmations. That way this will be thought of as a positive practice rather than something that controls your life. You have to tell yourself that you’re doing this because you want to and because it will work and not because you have to get rid of anxiety. If you think that you have to do this it will just become another task that you believe controls your day or controls your thinking.
Self-compassion
What is self-compassion? When I suggest that my patients practice self-compassion I am usually met with the question, what is self-compassion? It’s funny that we can practice compassion with others quite easily but when we think about compassion for ourselves it becomes a little more questionable. So let’s think about compassion for others. Most of you will agree that having compassion for others includes: active listening, providing validation, providing support and guidance when needed, the giving of your time, and offering advice when asked. Most of the time that we offer advice it’s usually that our friend should take time for themselves and focus on self-care, which is exactly what one should do when practicing self-compassion. I believe that one of the top reasons that self-compassion is a void in our lives is because we do so much for others, or our jobs, or our houses, et cetera. Therefore, the first thing that I usually recommend to patient who are suffering is self-care because it draws the awareness back to the individual. Too often we focus too much on the things and the people around us just leaving us feeling depleted, worn out, dissatisfied, unhappy, bored, unmotivated, sad, etc.
The first step to practicing self-compassion is reflection. Reflection, not to be confused with analyzing, is a great way for you to be self-aware. Self-awareness will lead you to practicing self-acceptance. Self-acceptance is a huge step in self compassion because if we don’t except ourselves we can’t provide compassion to ourselves. If we don’t believe we deserve compassion we will not be able to give ourselves compassion. Therefore, it might be helpful to sit and reflect at the end of each day for 10 to 15 minutes how you felt that day and what activities or people made you feel certain ways. From here you can acknowledge all of the things that you do in a day and how they impacted your mood. It is from this place of self-awareness that you can practice self-acceptance. So if there’s anything that you feel shameful or guilty of self-acceptance might be difficult but it is still a necessary step of self-compassion.
After a self-acceptance comes providing validation for self. Providing validation to ourselves for a different situation is a critical part of increasing our trust in ourselves and our confidence in the situations that we find ourselves in. If we don’t provide validation to ourselves, we will be looking to others to provide validation to us in various situations. Therefore, if we don’t find validation from others and we can’t be left feeling insecure, down, upset, or confused about a situation or an outcome or how we feel. Once you become used to providing support and validation to yourself within different areas of your life you won’t need validation from other people. You might still want validation from other people in different situation but you won’t need it to feel better. Once this happens, you are in control of yourself and your life. Until you can validate yourself you might be controlled by willingness of others to validate you.
The next part of self-compassion is to create goals and action steps for self-care. This brings the focus of your world back to you so that you are able to take a gentler approach to thinking about your life and how you feel. Once you create ways that you can practice self-care and you create action steps or a schedule for self-care and start implementing self-care tasks it is important that you monitor your self talk so that it is gentle, empowering, and transforming. When thinking of what to say to yourself in these moments it is important for you to sit and reflect on what you tell your friends when they are going through a tough time. Make a list of different things you have told friends over the past few months or years when they have felt down or overwhelmed or sad. For example, if you would tell your friend that things are going to be OK and that they are strong and you admire how they handle situations, then that should be something that you tell yourself as well. Perhaps turn these into “I am” statements, for example, I am strong, I am doing the best that I can, I am successful, etc.
Intrusive thoughts
Most of my patients want to know why they have intrusive thoughts if things are going well in their life. When they are anxious, stressed, or sad they understand why they have intrusive thoughts but why do they have intrusive thoughts when they are happy or content or seemingly satisfied with their life? We are creatures of habit and if there has been a pattern happening within our subconscious thoughts or conscious thoughts for a long enough period of time, this pattern will continue without you knowing and at any time. Therefore, you can go a week or two, or a month or two, for example, without noticing the intrusive thoughts however they might creep up when you least expect them and when you think that everything is going really well. Sometimes people have memories or experiences that will trigger a feeling that triggers intrusive thoughts. Triggers are a huge part of intrusive thoughts that most people neglect to think about. In fact, most people don’t even notice their patterns of thinking, patterns of behaviors, patterns of self talk, etc. that’s why noticing patterns is very important because this will help you to discover what a common trigger for intrusive thoughts is.
Triggers can be anything that initiates a response within you. Responses can be happy or sad or anxious, anything that elicits an emotion or a feeling or a reaction within you. Therefore, even happy things can trigger intrusive thoughts. For example, if you are at a friends house and there are a group of friends there and you’re having a good time however the last time you were over at that friends house having a good time you were with a significant other that you are no longer with, this could trigger intrusive thoughts which could simply be sad, or angry thoughts for example due to the memory. You could be at a holiday function with family and intrusive thoughts of fear start and you have no idea why, but for half the year before something that caused fear with a new happened. So intrusive thoughts can really start because of anything. I’ve had patients tell me that things were going great for them however they went out one night and had a glass or two of wine and then the next day they had intrusive thoughts where they were analyzing and ruminating for most of the day and it had been extremely hard for them to focus on anything other than the fearful highly stressful intrusive thoughts. Caffeine can also cause intrusive thoughts as it is a stimulant, so you may feel great for an hour or two after you drink something with caffeine in it but then you might notice that your mind is racing and you have worrisome or stressful intrusive thoughts for several hours following that.
Intrusive thoughts frequently cause self-doubt because the person usually believes that they will have intrusive thoughts forever and depending on the intrusive thoughts they can be extremely fearful and negative. Therefore, I have had patients that have been extremely discouraged when starting therapy because they truly believe that they will have anxiety and intrusive thoughts for the rest of their life. Most of them are extremely doubtful that things will ever change and they doubt their ability to make positive change because of the frequency or severity of the intrusive thoughts. Self-doubt is a big part of the cycle of intrusive thoughts because once you start to doubt your ability to make positive change, you give in to the possibility of overcoming anxiety and you start to focus on managing anxiety or coping with anxiety because you believe that it will be there forever.
Intrusive thoughts frequently cause analyzing because the person believes that they had the thought for a reason and that if they just figure out what the reason is they can make the thought go away forever. However, analyzing only makes things worse as it gives intrusive thoughts roots and your conscious and subconscious mind. I often tell my patients that reflecting on a situation to learn about yourself and to notice patterns of thinking and behaving is a good thing however analyzing the situation or thought will leave you feeling awful as it is extremely hard on your mind and body to try to figure out why you’re having a start or why you’re feeling this way. It is much easier to lightly reflect on the thought or the pattern and try to make a little changes, like changing little things in your schedule throughout the day to make changes to a pattern or to redirect your thoughts with self talk to change the intrusive thought. As you make these little changes he will notice that he will gradually start to feel better. However, in analyzing a pattern belief or thought or intrusive thought you solidify that thought or negative pattern making it much more difficult to change. Remember that you cannot find healing in the same place you found the problem. Therefore, you have to make changes, you have to do something different or redirect your thoughts so you’re thinking something different in order to change the way that you feel. If you continue to do the same thing with no change and without trying anything new or difficult in an attempt to feel better it’s like being on a roller coaster ride where there are ups and downs but it basically goes in a circle and you’re going to continually stay on that roller coaster ride until you make changes to your thoughts and your actions. So the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Analyzing causes ruminating and ruminating happens when you think the same thought over and over and over again in an attempt to find out why you’re having a thought or what you can do to not have that thought again. Ruminating often happens when you are so immersed in the problem can’t think about anything else. Ruminating over the problem will keep the problem in your mind and in your life much longer than if you were to try to make changes in your thought patterns and your action patterns. I like to focus on using cognitive behavioral therapy because when you change what you’re thinking you can change how you’re feeling. Your thoughts are like the horse driving the carriage, whatever you focus on and whatever you tell yourself is truly how you’re going to feel mentally and physically. So if you’re ruminating over a problem and you might have self-doubt happening because you don’t ever think that things are going change or you’re mad at yourself for having these thoughts then you’re going to feel sad, down, unmotivated, apathetic, and extremely discouraged.
This will leave you feeling awful and as though things will never change. If you are too focused on the problem you will not be able to find solutions and finding solutions is the only way to solve the problem. When we redirect and focus on solutions and on something positive we are able to make changes to our schedules and our thoughts that will improve the way that we feel and think and thus improve our lives and our outlook on life. Practicing gratitude also helps in this process because if you can find things that you are grateful for even though you’re having intrusive thoughts you are redirecting your thoughts from focusing on the intrusive thoughts to focusing on something that you’re grateful for, something that is good and positive in your life and this will naturally cause your mood to improve while creating a new thought pattern. If you do this enough your subconscious thought pattern will automatically go from an intrusive thought that pops in your head to something that you’re grateful for or something positive in your life. Remember it takes at least 21 days I believe to make or break a habit or pattern so again small gradual changes is key. Making small changes well give you long-term positive effectiveness
Journaling
Have you ever tried journaling and then frustrated, or unable to think of what to write? A great way to journal is to focus on a few things that you are grateful for. Researchers say that if you spend two minutes each night working on the three good things exercise, within approximately 4 to 5 days you’ll notice that your outlook is significantly more positive. You’ll also notice that your positivity keeps growing and you’ll notice it more and more the longer that you do this exercise and if you do this exercise for at least 14 days, researchers have found that it can keep depression away for as long as six months. If you keep this practice up for at least 14 days you’ll notice that you have far less stress, less burn out, and less depression symptoms, while also having less conflict at work or at school. You will also notice that your level of happiness has increased significantly. It might be hard to remember to do this gratitude journaling every night however if you set an alarm on your phone for a time in the evening when you are usually city and at rest, you should be able to make a consistent pattern of this activity which can significantly improve your life. So again this is the three good things exercise, every night list three good things that happened that day and what your role in making those things happen.
As a society we have a considerable amount of stress and worry with a variety of things within our lives and within the state of the world. Therefore, we live in a fight, flight, or freeze mentality the majority of our existence. This means that your brain is constantly scanning for threats focused on survival over happiness. If our default setting is on keeping Ourselves alive then stress, burn out, anxiety, and depression are going to be a significant part of our lives.
Making Peace With The Past
Has there been something in your past that has strongly triggered an emotional response or has created a trauma response? When something happens and we are intensely impacted emotionally, our body will restore this information in every cell. Therefore, when we have a situation happen to us in the future that is similar we will react in a similar fashion. This happens a lot when people try to avoid what has happened to them in the past. Therefore, they don’t want to confront what happened or have buried it down in there cognitions however it will continue to negatively impact them until they face what happened to them head-on. One of the more popular therapeutic models for trauma is emotion focused therapy. In this therapeutic model the therapist has the client tell them what happened in detail from start to finish in each therapy session, and it is often recommended that the client has 2 to 3 therapy sessions per week for this to be highly effective. The trick is to not stay set in the negative pattern of discussing what happened but rather move through the story with more ease every time the client discusses it and focuses more on how they reacted well in the situation or how their situation turned out better than it could have if something else were to have happened. Therefore, the person does not stay seated in the negative, dysfunction of the trauma but rather they are moving through the story and their healing process.
Is there something in your past that has happened you are regretful or fearful of? If you are fearful of something or regretful or something, there is a high possibility that it is controlling some aspect of your life, whether it’s keeping you from doing things more impacting your thoughts or actions. Making peace with your past, reflect, accept, and let go of what happens to you. Journaling is a great way to reflect and process what happened. When we sit to journal we tend to take hard times and not rush through a thought and this is necessary To learn about yourself and how the situation or trauma has affected you and impacted your life.
Have you heard of neuroplasticity?
It is the ability to deal with changes and difficult situations with ease. The more intentional brain work you do, the more neuroplasticity your brain will have. Studies have found that if you do a guided meditation even just for 30 minutes per day the gray matter in your brain increases significantly. This will allow you to be more resilient, more focused, have more clarity, and think of solutions in tough situations. Studying neuroscience when looking at mental health is extremely telling and a big factor in mind health is doing guided meditations daily.
There are 8 other things that help your body and mind for peak mental health.
- Nutrition – According to send Centerian studies eating beans every day will it lead to a happier mindset and healthier overall life with increased life span. Eating a plant-based diet decreases inflammation in the body and feeds your immune system thus helping your mind to function at peak levels. This will significantly decrease anxiety and depression symptoms, leaving you with a little to no symptoms at all.
- Exercise – it produces good neural transmitters, increases dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. Researchers have found that those who exercise on a regular basis have Little to no anxiety or depression symptoms and they are far more resilient than those that either do not exercise or exercise very little.
- Water – water helps to transport tryptophan in good proportions through the body and to the brain. This causes an increase in serotonin and more clarity and focus. Those that do not drink enough water throughout the day have a less clarity of mind and have been found to be more irritable, have more anxiety, and more depression symptoms.
- Sunshine – researchers have studied those who get a lot of sunshine in those who get very little and have found that the people who were in the sun more often were able to sleep more soundly. Being in the sun more has also been shown to reduce the amount of physical pain that individuals felt.
- Temperance -temperance involves an equilibrium of experience. One’s ability to take and what has happened around them and a reply with an even keeled temperament. Individuals should stay away from alcohol, coffee, and should not Vape or smoke in an attempt to keep a steady temperament. It is difficult to maintain equilibrium if you are constantly taking in stimulants or depressants, chemicals that have a high impact on your mood.
- Air – getting enough fresh air is very important to maintaining a positive good mood. Just as important as deep breathing is to staying home, getting enough fresh air from being out in nature is extremely important to maintaining a positive mood with equilibrium.
- Rest – we tend to push ourselves to overwork, whether it’s at our jobs, around our house or yard, or to maintain friendships. It is extremely important that you know and honor your limits and create boundaries with your rest. Don’t overwork, you are not a machine, you need mental rest just as much as you need physical rest.
- Trust – having friends, family, and a community that you love and that loves you has a huge purpose in your life as well as your mental health and maintaining a positive mood. If you’ve been hurt in the past it can be hard to trust others or want to let others in emotionally however as time passes it is important to learn to trust again and let people in.
These eight things are extremely important to maintaining good mental health as well as physical health because if you are in a negative mental health space or feeling stressed, anxious, or sad, it will affect your body physically. Therefore, it is important that you are aware of these eight things that can benefit your mental and physical health.
Now let’s talk a little bit about your mind and the mind/brain connection, and how to maintain optimal health and wellness in both your mind and brain. Think about this for a minute: where are you letting your mind go throughout the day? Are you letting your mind go to a dark and negative place or are you trying to control your thoughts and guide them to being more positive more of the time? Even if you have a lot of negative thoughts going through your mind throughout the day, if you are able to stop and re-direct even half of them, you will notice a significant improvement in your overall mood. Also, just because you have a thought does not mean that it is true. Many of my patients have told me that they believe that if they had the thought, it must be true. Many people believe that it is there a subconscious telling them something. However, it could be based off of something you saw on the news or something you heard from a friend complaining about something in their life or it could have come to you because you heard a coworker complaining about something. We tend to live in a negative-based world where people like to complain more so than talk about what they are grateful for. Therefore, taking in all of this negative talk and complaining around you can sink into your subconscious and cause you to have sporadic negative or doom filled thoughts throughout the day. It doesn’t have to be exactly what you heard from a friend or on the news but the negative, fear-based, complaining talk can stimulate something within you that might be your biggest fear or something that you really don’t want to happen, it can’t even trigger feelings of guilt or shame for something you’ve done in the past. The thought will change itself to resonate with you even though you could be hearing negative things from around you, the thought will be specific to something that you fear happening in your life. This is just a triggered response and in no way makes the thought True and it doesn’t mean that something bad is going to happen just because you had that thought. It simply means that your mind has been trained to take the negative that you hear around you and flip it to fearful thing that you are afraid might happen. The more thoughts that you are able to stop and redirect, the better you will feel and the more you will trust yourself and the process.
Now ask yourself if the thoughts that you are having are good for your mind or if they are bad for your mind and body. Here is a little suggestion for a habit to try to get into that will help you to reflect on your thought and whether or not it’s good for your mind and also how to redirect to your thought: when you are sad, mad, frustrated, or feeling off write down what you’re thinking and then ask yourself if it is true. This is an easy way to reflect on your thoughts without analyzing your thoughts. Reflecting is a helpful tool to learn about yourself but analyzing leads to a feeling of dread and being overwhelmed and can leave us feeling pain physically, for example causing headaches, stomach pain, or muscle tension. So lightly reflect on your thoughts and ask yourself if it is true. For example, if I thought comes through your mind that said that you shouldn’t have said what you did to a friend and that your friend might be hurt or upset with you because of what you said. Write down that thought and then ask yourself if it’s true. Has your friend talk to you since then? Could you possibly call your friend or text your friend and ask them if what you said upset them? In most cases if you are having a stressful, anxious, or sad thought it is not true but rather anxiety or depression trying to trick your mind into believing that you did something wrong or that something bad is going to happen.
To add clarity to this process of reflecting on your thoughts and redirecting them, I suggest that you try the one page miracle. On one page think about what do you want out of life? What kind of a relationship do you want with your work, what kind of relationship do you want with your spouse, what kind of relationship do you want with your kids, what kind of relationship do you want with money, what kind of relationship do you want with yourself? Then for the second part of the one page miracle consider if your behavior is going to get you what you want. Is your current behavior with your spouse going to get you your desired relationship that you want with your spouse? Is your current behavior at work going to get you the kind of relationship that you want with work? Is your current behavior with your kids going to get you the kind of relationship that you want with your kids? Is your current behavior with money going to get you the kind of relationship that you want to have with money? Is your current behavior towards your self going to get you the kind of relationship that you want with yourself? Therefore, how is your self talk towards yourself? How is your diet treating you mentally and physically? How is your self care impacting you, do you practice and focus on self-care every day or is that an area of your life that you need to add to?
This one page miracle exercise will bring clarity to several aspects of your life currently as well as what kind of relationship with those different aspects that you would like to have, therefore making it possible for you to make a little changes to achieve the kind of relationship with these different aspects that you would like to have. So consider, does it all fit to get you what you really want? Again, do not over analyze any of this. This exercise is merely for reflection and self-awareness. If you start to feel heavy or a negative then you have cross the line from your fasting to over analyzing and you are not learning about yourself in this state of mind but rather you are causing harm to yourself by making yourself feel guilty or a shame.
Some toxins that hurt your brain and body thus hurting your mind and mood and physical health are: tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, pesticides, antibiotics, anesthesia, modified organisms that they put in our food, chemicals that they put in our food, bad fats and proteins, and vaping which is simply putting harmful toxins into your lungs. Antibiotics are terrible for your body as they shut down your immune system and take over for your immune system which is terrible for your body because you have an immune system because it’s supposed to protect you from disease. However, if you eat poorly and put toxins into your body it will lower your immune system that’s making it difficult or impossible for your immune system to fight infection. Antibiotics break down micro biomes which is a necessary part of your immune system and body for peak physical and mental health. Anesthesia has been studied and is found to be one of the leading causes to dementia and children who have anesthesia have been found to have higher instances of learning disabilities and an increased chance of having anxiety and depression symptoms.
Being overweight causes there to be an increase in sugar in your blood which travels throughout your body which has a negative impact for your entire body, and fat takes healthy testosterone and turns it into cancer causing estrogen so it is extremely important to make sure that you are not over weight with too much excess fat on your body. Fat also stores harmful toxins throughout your body. Having too much fat in your body increases inflammation and decreases the blood flow to the brain that is causing your brain to shrink in size.
Some things that help your mind and brain are spending time in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, eating a healthy plant-based diet, getting the appropriate amount of sleep, being socially active with friends and family.
Chasing chaos
Is there a lot of drama in your friend group? Is your family filled with drama? Or have you dated people in the past that have a lot of trauma within their lives? If you sit and reflect on this can you see the pattern with which you were raised in and the pattern with which you are currently live? Researchers tend to call this pattern chasing chaos. There is a familiarity with how we grew up and the situations with which we grew up in. Though we may not like a pattern in our lives it may seem as though as pattern keeps re-emerging. If you had an abusive parent, you might notice that you’ve had abusive partners for example. If you had friends that routinely left the friendship or left you feeling rejected or abandoned, you might notice that you currently have friends that treat you the similar way. Until you sit and reflect on these patterns and realize when and how they happen, you will likely keep that pattern going. Once you reflect on this pattern and become self aware of the pattern and the people that you had around you growing up then you can turn your reflection towards your self and your thoughts and actions to see what your role in the pattern is. For example, if you had a parent or friend that you believe abandoned you or rejected you, you might be searching out a friend or partner who treats you the same way because this pattern, although you dislike it and it feels awful when you’re in it and when things fall apart, you will notice that you search it out initially. This is because there is a sense of comfort in the feelings proceeding abandonment and rejection and a sense of familiarity with the people that could potentially treat you this way. However, when they do treat you this way then there is a huge sense of loss and feelings of frustration and hopelessness because you may feel like you are just destined to attract these types of people into your life. Just because you have been drawn to these types of people, potentially for several years or decades, doesn’t mean that you have to be destined to be surrounded by these people in your life forever.
Think back to someone in your life that has treated you poorly, either abused you, abandoned you, or rejected you, and think about how they treated you when you initially mat them or when you initially started spending a lot of quality time together. Can you see where you potentially overlooked red flags for that gut instinct that you knew this person might be bad for you or that this person might be someone that you should either cut out of your life or limit time with? What qualities did this person have that led you to believe that they were a good person and a quality person for you? Based on your answers make a list of qualities that you want to have and a friend or a partner. Now make a list of the red flags that you saw within different relationships. This will help you to notice red flags in the future and will help you to trust your gut instinct and not allow someone who is toxic and her your life. Remember, just because something feels comfortable or familiar in the beginning, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a good thing for you or a long lasting relationship. You have the power to trust your gut instinct and decide to cut out the toxic people in your life. Once you start to do this more and more in your life you will be able to break the pattern of facing chaos and leading toxic people in your life.
There is also an aspect to this that takes into account self worth and self love and self compassion. In order to be able to reflect, process, and cut toxic people out of your life, you have to know that you are worth having good quality people surrounding you and you have to have the self love to be able to turn away toxic people. If you have more compassion for others often times you will be the one who is negatively impacted. However, if you focus on self compassion you can learn a lot about your elf and develop a healthy and compassionate relationship with yourself that will enable you to put yourself first and protect yourself against negative, toxic people in situations.
Foods that cause inflammation: soy causes inflammation in most people because it has been genetically modified. And many people are sensitive to soy which in turn causes their body to attack the soy does leaving your body susceptible to disease and illness because your immune system attacks foods that your body doesn’t like. Dairy is also a big country beach her to inflammation throughout the body, within the lymph node system, because you are interesting unnecessary female whore moans. The only time humans need dairy is when they are a baby. We eat a great deal of dairy in our everyday lives and in many people dairy causes inflammation throughout their body that is causing them to be irritable, moody, and feel unwell. I think most people know how awful sugar is for your body, however it is considered to be the most addictive drug amongst humans because it is so easily accessible and it is an everything and when we eat it we crave it, therefore, the more we eat the more we crave it. Sugar leads to an unhealthy gut health because your immune system is suppressed when you eat sugar so sugar literally shut down your immune system, and sugar feeds cancer and diseases. Flower, and the gluten and flour, causes mental cloudiness and feelings of sluggishness, thus decreasing your mood do to an increase in inflammation throughout the body. When there is inflammation in the body the brain receives less oxygen, blood, and transmits information less which is why when you eat something that your body does not like it causes inflammation, mental cloudiness, irritability, etc.
Harvard medical school recommends that we eat a Mediterranean diet for optimal mental and physical health. The effects of a Mediterranean diet are that it wards off heart attack, stroke, and premature death. The healthiest women were found to eat more plant foods, rich in olive oil and nuts, with whole grains and fish. Those on the Mediterranean diet eat much less red meat and processed meats, and had very limited alcohol intake. On this diet the individual stays away from fast food, boxed foods, preservatives, food colorings, sugar, and dairy.
Why would your menu in early and middle age protect your health later in life? The reason it is so important to focus on eating a healthy diet that keeps inflammation down is because in keeping inflammation down, oxidative stress is lower, glucose levels are improved, and it positively affects metabolism and insulin sensitivity, which are related to age related brain diseases and mental health.
What would happen if you gave up sugar for two weeks?
Researchers have studied this for several years and found that participants in the studies have noticed an enhanced mood, they are calmer and less stressed, improved cognitive function and will improve focus concentration, and less anxiety symptoms. They also found that participants had less fatigue, meaning they were more awake and had more clarity because after you eat sugar there is an extended period of time when you are tired after you eat sugar due to the fact that your brain literally gets tired. If you gave up sugar for two weeks he wouldn’t notice that you would have more of a healthy appetite yet would be less hungry and you would lose excess water and fat. You would also notice that your skin looks healthier and your body will have far less stiffness. Researchers also found that participants had decreased inflammation in their arteries and they were growing brain cells at faster, healthier rates. When you first give up sugar, because it is an addictive drug, you will notice worsening of symptoms for three days and then you will notice an improvement in all of the above issues. If sugar is too high it can cause brain fog or loss of memory and if blood sugar is too low it can cause irritability, edginess, and ADD symptoms. If you want to stabilize blood sugars all day eat a protein breakfast such as eggs as they are a good source of protein and they will stabilize blood sugar throughout the day so that you don’t crash throughout the day. If you eat a breakfast filled with carbs such as cereal, this will cause blood sugars to drop throughout the day, therefore your blood sugar levels will be on stabilized and you will crash and be craving sugar to wake up.
Now let’s talk about cortisol…
Cortisol is the stress hormone released from the brain when you are in excessive stress, worry, when you party too much, drink too much alcohol, when you smoke or Vape, and when you have a poor diet. Years of excessive cortisol release will put your brain into the fight flight or freeze mode subconsciously. You can literally get anxiety from this lifestyle and your amygdala which is in the center of your brain will resort to releasing cortisol when you have stress or worry or in take a stimulant or a depressant because your amygdala is going to want to protect your mind and body. Therefore, your amygdala releases the cortisol because it is thought to call me down, however, cortisol is very damaging to your body and your organs in excessive amounts. When cortisol increases the individual will have adrenal problems, thyroid issues, heart palpitations, etc. If you want to avoid excessive cortisol released eating a healthy diet, avoiding stressful people in situations, walking, acupressure (pulling the stress out), and getting the right amount of sleep are all excellent ways to limit or decrease the amount of cortisol released throughout your body. You might also want to make sure that you have daily sun exposure, get enough vitamin D3, K2, B1, take magnesium aspirate daily, and get at least 7 to 9 cups of spinach and kale per day for the optimal levels of potassium.
Energy
Energy drinks have long term effects of burning out your body. They cause sugar spikes and then the individuals will crash feeling more tired than before they drink the energy drink. MSG is a way of eating sugar without eating a lot of sugar but it will drastically decrease your mood and energy level. Carbohydrates zap your energy and then you tend to crave them more and more. Chemicals in our food can also zap our energy, for example, high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, MSG, hydrogenated oils, these are all fatigue poisons and literally take the good energy out of our bodies. Gluten, found in items that have flour, is an elastic rubbery substance that can trap air like a balloon, causing pain in the digestive system, individuals often say that they feel bloated after eating carbs with gluten in them. Gluten can make you a very tired as well.
Your food literally has a direct effect on your mood. Potassium is a psychological tranquilizer, in a good way, as it calms the nervous system down. Potassium is a necessity for a relaxed mind and body. The average person should get 4700 MG per day. A banana only has 400 MG‘s, therefore it is necessary to have 7 to 9 cups of spinach and kale per day to get optimal levels of potassium. Potassium also calms your heart rate, your pulse rate. It also establishes good blood sugars so they don’t drop, they will be more stable if you eat the right amount of potassium daily. Your B1 is literally used up when you are in a stressed state. If you are low on B vitamins you will likely be more anxious and have more internal restlessness, example restless leg syndrome. To help increase your B vitamin intake try nutritional yeast, 1 teaspoon in your yogurt or kill shake for example. The vitamins help you to sleep while also preventing nightmares. When getting vitamins make sure that they are non-synthetic vitamins, get food-based vitamins. For a very healthy nutritional supplement try Supernutrients, this helps with cognitive function as well. Calcium is necessary to help keep you in a calm state as it has been found to reduce stress and anxiety. When you are in a state of heightened stress, calcium goes right through you and doesn’t get absorbed as well. When getting a calcium supplement do not get calcium carbonate, that’s a lime stone! You should get calcium citrate or aspartate, usually found in cheese or yogurt. Omega 3s are extremely important for brain health and mental wellness. Omega 3 is extremely important in the cognitive function in adults but it is especially important for children to get enough omega-3‘s as their brains are developing. Fish oil is a necessity, you’ll want to get a high quality fish oil that is not overly fishy and smell and is from fresh water fish. Iodine is important as it supports the thyroid function and supports the cognitive function of the brain. If you don’t get enough iodine it can cause mental retardation. A good source of iodine is sea kelp.
Hormones
Serotonin is thought of as the pleasure whore moan as it gives us the good thoughts and good feelings. A good diet will build serotonin. Psychiatric drugs artificially increase serotonin which makes you feel better in the moment but the drugs need to be continually taken because as you continue to take these your body stops making its own serotonin because it thinks it doesn’t need to because you’re getting it from an outside source. Then individuals need to move from one drug to the next because the drug stops working because the body is too used to it and it stops being affective. This is also true with melatonin. Melatonin is also thought of as causing an increase in mood however if you take a supplement at night because you can’t sleep your body thinks that it doesn’t need to produce it anymore and it will stop the us leaving you needing more and more melatonin as time goes on because what you are currently taking will be ineffective. So before you take psychiatric drugs or supplements talk with a naturopathic doctor so they can guide you to the best supplements for your mind and body’s peak performance.
Breaking the cycle of expectations and negative thought patterns
Think for a minute about your thought patterns throughout the day when you are at home? At work? Out with friends? With family? What is your self talk like? Do you find that you are thanking and focusing more on the positive thoughts that come and go or do you notice that a lot of your thoughts are more negative in nature? It is extremely easy to focus on the negative and live fear-based considering the world that we live in right now. Every time you turn on the TV there is a negative story about someone being hurt, someone being offended, someone being mad, or some kind of world catastrophe. It’s hard to have a positive mindset when there is so much negative around us. It is this fear that the media is counting on that keeps viewers coming back for more. But why do we do this? Why do we continually watch some thing or listen to something that involves that much fear in us? I understand that there is a desire to know what’s going on in the nation and in the world however your intake of this news needs to be greatly reduced so that your body does not stay in a fight, flight, freeze pattern.
In thinking about your current patterns of thoughts and self talk what do your expectations for your self look like? What do your expectations for others look like? What do your expectations for work look like? What do your expectations for self-care look like? Do you think that your expectations are where they should be or do you think that you have high expectations for yourself, for others, or for different areas of your life? When you have an expectation and something doesn’t go your way do you feel anxious, irritable, disappointed, etc. or do you take the change with ease and move through the situation? If you keep your expectations in check, you will be a much more resilient. Resilience is the culmination of a controlled mind. Even if things don’t work out the way that we want them to, if we keep expectations low to mid range if things turn out better it will be a bonus but if things don’t turn out the way that you thought they would he won’t be crushed. If you keep expectations low you will be in control of your thoughts surrounding the situation and it is in this space that you will notice your resilience in life growing.
It is very important to look at the patterns we keep in our life. The patterns of our thoughts and the patterns of our self talk and the patterns of our actions and beliefs and behaviors. It is in the knowing of our patterns that we are able to gradually change them, thus improving our overall mental and physical health. For example if you notice that you are extremely stressed on the days that you work, stressed throughout the day and stressed when you get home from work, and feeling sluggish or foggy in the evenings, write down what your daily pattern at work looks like. What do your thoughts look like throughout the day and what are you physically doing throughout the day? Do you sit at a desk and focus on your work all day or do you schedule in breaks to talk to people, go for a walk, or watch a funny video? If you notice that you are doing negative behaviors at work which is leading to negative thoughts then you can change your schedule to incorporate things that will break up your day bringing in more humor and human connection which will likely greatly improve your thoughts, your mood, and your over all wellness.
How bad do you want mental and physical health?
Are you willing to make the effort needed to transform your thoughts and patterns, and challenge your beliefs in an attempt to change your behaviors? Changing your thoughts and patterns can be extremely difficult and time-consuming and motivation comes and goes. In order for you to make consistent, life long changes within your life to change your mood, you must get up and show up for the work every single day no matter how good or bad you feel. On the days where you feel good you cannot skip reflecting on your thoughts and self talk because they might go right back to being negative and harmful without you even knowing it. And on the bad days you can’t ignore reflecting on your thoughts and patterns because you’re feeling bad but rather you need to push through and find that inner motivation to make the changes necessary within your life. Often times when people suffer with depression symptoms they want to give into them and shrink into the negative feelings that they are having. However, if you do this depression wins and you will likely feel worse and worse as time goes on. However if you just go through the actions even if you don’t want to in an attempt to change your thoughts, self talk, and patterns of behavior or the patterns within your schedule, you will notice that after a few hours or days you will feel much better.
Accountability is a huge part in making consistent, effective change within your thoughts and your actions. Personal accountability can be difficult because if we give ourselves an option to do something or not do something and you will most likely choose the easiest option. And usually the things that are good for us, the things that we should do, are the things that we don’t necessarily want to do, or the things that aren’t as much fun so we try to avoid them and focus on the things that are more fun. Without personal accountability and pushing ourselves to do things that we might not feel like doing we are unable to make the necessary changes in our lives that will positively impact our patterns of thinking and patterns of behavior. Personal change requires determination and the willingness to do things every day that will promotes reflection, self-awareness, growth and change. Remember, you can’t keep doing the same thing every day and thinking the same thing every day and expect to miraculously change the way that you feel or the way that you think. You are the only one that can make changes in your life so that you might holistically feel better.