MINDFULNESS AND INNER BEAUTY

A mindfulness student recently experienced her body as beautiful during a body scan in class.  You may already have a positive self-image and feel good about your body. You may consider your body to be “the temple of the Holy Spirit.” Or you may have a negative body image, even hating your body. Whether you love your body or hate it, you can benefit from the body scan, a foundational practice from mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).

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MINDFUL SELF-COMPASSION

Your compassionate human desire to take good care of others is critical to the well-being of your family, friends, co-workers and community – and taking good care of yourself is the foundation for your care of everyone else.  However, it is sadly true that we often take better care of others than we do of ourselves. It’s as if we need a new Golden Rule: Do unto yourself as you do unto others. We would never say or do to someone else some of the things we say and do to ourselves.

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MINDFULNESS FOR SENIORS

You and I have two primary modes of mental activity: the doing mode and the being mode. Although we are called human beings, we spend the majority of our time in the doing mode rather than the being mode.  Your “doing” mode is highly prized in our culture for schooling, work and career. It demonstrates your mastery and command of detail, data, thinking, intellect and your goal-oriented ability to get things done. We depend heavily on the doing mode to take care of all our daily affairs at home and work,….

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MINDFULNESS AND GRATITUDE FOR YOUR AGING EYES

Most people say the gift of sight is their most valuable sense perception – and almost everyone experiences decline in visual function with aging. B One of the most common symptoms of aging is the decline in accommodation, the process by which the eye changes (accommodates) focus to maintain a clear image of objects at different distances. This decline often begins before age 50 years. Accommodation acts like an automatic reflex, but it can also be consciously controlled.

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THE MINDFUL GIFT OF LOVING KINDNESS

The holiday season is filled with emotion for most people. While this emotion is often happy, positive and loving, for many people it can be very unhappy and even depressing. Holiday music can trigger emotional associations with the absence of a loved one or unhappy memories from the past. The gap between the smiling faces of holiday ads and one’s unhappy emotional experience can actually lead to a deepening of the emotional darkness that often accompanies this season of lights.

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COMBINING MINDFULNESS AND EXERCISE FOR HEALTH

As you approach the new year, you may be making resolutions for positive health behavior changes. Birthdays and other anniversaries also prompt us to take stock and vow to adopt healthy lifestyle habits. Two of the most common promises we make to ourselves are to increase our physical activity level and our stress management skills. Research is now showing that combining mindfulness meditation and physical activity can dramatically improve physical and emotional health.

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MINDFULLY MANAGING ANGER

Anger can be a healthy emotional response or a serious health risk.  Managing anger appropriately does not require that we deny it, repress it or get completely rid of it. Brief, mild-to-moderate episodes of anger and righteous indignation can be a useful stimulus to positive and constructive action on both the personal and societal levels. However, severe, repeated or uncontrolled anger can lead to serious harm to oneself or others.  The body’s stress (“fight or flight”) response is triggered by anger.

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LET FOOD BE YOUR MEDICINE

The Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) is the world’s premier nutrition education resource. Harvard Medical School and the Department of Nutrition at HSPH developed the Healthy Eating Plate to provide the general public with up-to-date, science-based nutrition education. They recognized the need to provide more scientifically accurate information than is provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) MyPlate, which does not accurately reflect current, science-based nutrition advice.

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LIVING WELL WITH CANCER

Both my parents experienced the sudden change in life’s priorities associated with the diagnosis of inoperable cancer.  Suddenly, things that have occupied our mind, time and energy are reappraised in light of a stark reminder of life’s uncertainty and our mortality. Hope is kept alive by modern medicine’s remarkable results with conventional treatments and the fact that some individuals do much better than expected, even with serious and advanced cancer.

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YOGA + KIDS = FUN

Yoga can be fun and healthy for you and your kids – physically, mentally and emotionally.What is yoga?   The word “yoga” means to yoke, unite, connect or join together. Yoga helps connect the body, mind, heart and emotions. It can also help connect you to other people, animals, trees and all of nature. We tend to think of physical movements and body postures when we think of yoga. Yoga looks like exercise, but its intent is very different. Physical hatha yoga is traditionally performed as a means of .....

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MANAGING WEIGHT WITH MINDFULNESS

Where is your attention when you eat?  Do you love the pleasure of eating so much that you overeat from sheer enjoyment rather than from physiologic hunger cues? Do you overeat as a self-soothing antidote for emotional stress, anxiety or depression?  Or do you consider eating a necessary but boring interruption in your busy day at home and work and overeat while reading, watching TV, driving or talking?  If any of these eating patterns describes you, the power of your attention is being used unskillfully.

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BEFRIENDING YOUR BODY WITH MINDFULNESS

Being disconnected from or being self-critical of your body can have serious health consequences. An 18-year-old woman had bilateral breast implants at an out-of-state clinic. Since her early teens, she had wanted this surgery because she thought her breasts were too small and unattractive. When she saw me the week after her surgery, her breasts were painful, tender, red and obviously infected. She was now ashamed and deeply regretted her decision to alter her body based on social pressure and images....

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STRESS AND ORAL HEALTH

For many people, there is a relationship between stress and oral health. The presence of oral disease and dental disorders can cause stress from low self-image, which can have a negative effect on well-being and personal happiness. Stress, chronic anxiety and depression can lead to self-neglect, including neglect of dental hygiene. For many people, dental self-care is not a high priority. It is especially common for stressful economic times to be associated with lapses in the proper oral hygiene habits.....

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MINDFULNESS FOR OVERALL FITNESS

The three primary domains of your overall fitness are physical activity, healthy eating and emotional well-being.  These three foundational domains interact with each other to help you maintain whole-person health of your body, mind and emotions. Physical therapists and dietitians know that without emotional well-bring it is difficult to achieve therapeutic goals in the other two domains – physical activity and healthy eating.

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CHOCOLATE MEDITATION

Surely one of the best things about modern science is the discovery that chocolate can actually be good medicine!  Chocolate As Preventive Medicine?  Cocoa contains phytonutrients (plant chemicals) called flavanols that may help protect you against coronary heart disease (heart attacks). Compared to milk chocolate, dark chocolate contains two to three times the amount of these beneficial plant chemicals. A possible mechanism by which flavanols protect the heart may be enhancing.....

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LIFESTYLE MEDICINE FOR CANCER SURVIVORS

A cancer survivor is anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer, from the time of diagnosis through the rest of his or her life. Modern medical, radiation and surgical treatments have led to a growing population of cancer survivors, who now number over 12 million, or one in 25 Americans.  Lifestyle choices such as health-supportive nutrition, maintaining a healthy weight, participating in regular physical activity, practicing stress management, seeking group support and practicing spirituality.....

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USING ANTIBIOTICS WISELY

Is it necessary, or even safe, to take an antibiotic for your next illness?  This question is becoming a routine part of conversations between consumers and health providers. The way we answer this question has serious implications. Consumers and health care providers are both being urged to help achieve the goals of good medicine and public health: making a correct diagnosis, using antibiotics only if the diagnosis war- rants and avoiding harm to patients and the general public caused by unnecessary antibiotic use.

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STRESS AND DIABETES

I will never forget my patient who developed Type 1, insulin-dependent diabetes after her spouse was violently murdered. While there is no research supporting a causal link between the two, it seemed to us both that the intense emotional trauma of this sudden, tragic, life-altering loss was a contributing factor to the onset of her diabetes.

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MINDFUL EATING - WHAT YOU EAT & HOW YOU EAT

What to Eat?  The world’s  leading nutrition researchers are sending a very clear public health message based on the best scientific evidence available: To promote health, prevent disease and extend life, half your food servings should come from fruits and vegetables. For more than 70 years, the Department of Nutrition of the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) has conducted rigorous scientific research on the relationship between food and health.

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SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER

In addition to cold weather, winter sometimes brings sadness and depression.  Some people experience depression only during the winter. Others with year-round depression have worsening symptoms in winter. Terms such as “winter blues,” “wintertime depression” and “winter-onset depression” refer to a potentially serious form of depression called “seasonal affective disorder” (SAD), which affects people during the coldest and (most importantly) darkest months of the year.

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S.T.O.P. A SIMPLE MINDFULNESS PRACTICE

The fast pace of modern life is taking its toll on our mental and physical health. Multiple surveys in the past year have documented an alarming increase in perceived stress, anxiety, depression and suicide.  Our  health – our very lives – depend on our ability to manage stress in healthy ways at home, at work, in traffic, in relationships – and simply inside our own  skin. We need simple tools to bring some calm to the chaos – some peace to the frenzy – some kindness to the aggression and competition.

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PRACTICE MINDFUL BREATHING FOR ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

A recent American Psychiatric Association poll found anxiety in Americans has increased sharply over the past year, up five points since 2017.  Also in the past year, a Blue Cross Blue Shield report found major depression has risen by 33 percent since 2013. This rate is rising even faster among millennials (up 47 percent) and adolescents (up 47 percent for boys and 65 percent for girls).

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MINDFULNESS FOR A NATION UNDER STRESS

Are you a victim of the epidemic of stress we are experiencing as a nation?  We have a serious public health epidemic. Public health officials are increasingly alarmed by the growing epidemic of stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness and suicide in America. The American Psychological Association recently found more than half of Americans said they consider this the lowest point in U.S. history they can remember.(1)   An American Psychiatric Association poll found anxiety levels in…

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MINDFULNESS AND COMMUNICATION

Human beings are social creatures by our very nature. We depend on each other. We need each other. Even though we may feel self-sufficient and fiercely independent, research shows our interpersonal relationships and social support are extremely important to our physical, mental and emotional health. The increasing epidemic of loneliness caused by aging, poor health and geographic dislocation is associated with increased perceptions of stress, anxiety and depression, aggravation of symptoms of…

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MINDFUL HEARING, MINDFUL LISTENING

Hearing and listening are often confused. Hearing is one of the five major sense perceptions, along with seeing, tasting, smelling and touching. We use the sense of hearing when we are in conversation with another person and we may refer to that elemental sense of hearing as listening. But listening also has a much deeper meaning. In the corporate world and the medical and psychological sciences, the quality of active listening or deep listening is recognized as a critical element in interpersonal….

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MINDFULNESS CAN HELP US BE KIND

As our annual holiday of giving comes to an end, we often begin a new year full of hopes, intentions and resolutions to take better care of ourselves. Many of us also vow to take better care of others. We want to be more kind. But it’s hard to be more kind to others when we feel our own cup of kindness is running low or is completely empty. It is difficult or impossible to relieve the suffering of others without first wisely managing our own suffering. Self-care is not selfishness.

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MINDFULNESS & EXERCISE ARE GOOD MEDICINE

You may have recently made 2019 resolutions for positive health behavior changes. Each new birthday and each new year often prompts us to take stock and vow to adopt healthy lifestyle habits of mind and body. Two of the most common promises I hear are to increase exercise/physical activity and learn to manage stress in a healthy way.

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MINDFULNESS FOR KIDS AND THEIR ADULTS

Recent surveys describe an alarming level of stress in the United States. Anxiety, depression, loneliness and suicide are increasing – not just in adults, but also in children and youth. Public health officials and educators are looking for ways to limit the harm caused by the fast pace of modern life and the endless stream of disturbing news. Mindfulness practice has emerged as an important tool that can benefit children, teachers and parents.

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THE RELAXATION RESPONSE

Just relax! It sounds so simple, but it isn’t necessarily easy. There are many unskillful, unhealthy ways to relax. But you can achieve significant cardiovascular and other health benefits from the regular practice of skillful relaxation for stress management.  One of the best ways to skillfully relax is by practicing the Relaxation Response. Harvard cardiologist Herbert Benson coined the phrase “relaxation response” after studying meditation’s affects on cardiovascular disease….

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GOOD MEDICINE IS INTEGRATIVE

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is your best resource for evidence supporting the combination of mainstream medicine with safe, effective complementary approaches for health promotion, disease prevention and the treatment of acute and chronic conditions.

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MINDFULNESS, KINDFULNESS AND KIDS

Children and teens are experiencing increasing levels of stress. Parents and teachers are struggling to understand the sources of this stress and find ways to help manage it. Those same parents and teachers have their own increasing levels of worry, fear, anxiety, depression and chronic stress-related physical symptoms. These symptoms can worsen chronic conditions affecting every organ system.

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MANAGING CRAVINGS WITH MINDFULNESS

By our very nature, human beings are craving creatures. Cravings can occur in response to natural physiologic needs such as hunger, thirst and social contact. Cravings can also become unhealthy habits in response to emotional cues such as anxiety, depression, anger, grief or loneliness. Mindfulness can help us take control of our wants, needs, urges and cravings so we can stop being controlled by them.

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MINDFULNESS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS

Cancer survivor” refers to anyone who has been diagnosed with cancer from the time of diagnosis through the rest of their life. Early cancer detection and improved treatments, including surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, biological therapies, bone marrow and stem cell transplants, have led to a growing population of cancer survivors, which now exceeds 12 million, or 1 in 25 Americans.

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A SIMPLE MINDFULNESS PRACTICE

Mindfulness can help us promote resilience, the ability to bounce back from life’s stressors as they push and pull us off our center. Mindfulness can help up manage stress and even find its energy potentially motivating. Mindfulness can help us prevent the burnout and exhaustion so prevalent across society. Mindfulness can be practiced by anyone. It can help us avoid self-violence, improve our health and even save our lives.

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MINDFUL WALKING MEDITATION

Walking and mindfulness both have significant physical, mental and emotional health benefits. You can combine them by practicing mindful walking. Empirical evidence over centuries from many cultures and traditions supports the use of mindful, meditative walking as part of a conscious, contemplative lifestyle.

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MINDFULNESS OF THE BODY

Our lives are filled with busyness, moving at high speed to achieve goals, solve problems and get somewhere else. We see obstacles, conflict and painful experiences as unwanted and undesirable impediments to happiness and getting things done. We are rewarded for our ability to do more and more, faster and faster. We are trained from childhood to use the doing mode of our brains to recall facts for passing exams and train for our adult work.

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OPTIMISM IS GOOD MEDICINE

Surveys show increasing levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, substance abuse and suicide. Optimism can help you fill your cup, promote resilience, prevent burnout and perhaps save your life – and you can cultivate it.

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BEING MINDFUL - BEING KIND

Even before the current pandemic, surveys over the past couple of years showed increasing levels of anxiety, depression, chronic pain, sleep disturbance, substance abuse, addiction, loneliness and suicide. Sadly, these trends have affected Americans of all ages, including teens and youth. New polls taken during this coronavirus pandemic show even more people are anxious about the possibility of themselves or their loved ones becoming seriously ill or dying.

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MINDFUL BREATHING REDUCES STRESS

The current pandemic is a global stress we are all experiencing together. By managing our own stress, we contribute to the relief of stress throughout society. Research shows mindfulness can help you cope with stress and improve your health, allowing you to better serve others in need. Mindful breathing is a simple stress-reduction practice that anyone can do, and it can help reduce physical, mental, emotional, behavioral and relationship stressors.

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MINDFUL JOURNALING

Modern research shows journal writing is an effective, simple, inexpensive and convenient form of self-care. The goal is the interior heartfelt experience that results from mindfully paying attention to your emotions. You may wish to save your writing, but you can also destroy what you’ve written. The goal is connecting to your unique, internal wisdom, intuition and self-knowledge – identifying your emotions and writing them down, not necessarily keeping a written product.

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