Mental Health

Lately, it seems as though there’s a yoga studio popping up on every corner. Yoga is an ancient practice for connecting the mind and the body and it’s way more than just exercise. Yoga can have spiritual and mental components, as well. The word “yoga” translates as “to yoke” or “to unite” and it’s all about uniting the mind and the body through our movements and breath. Here, we’ll take a look at some of the amazing benefits of yoga and why it’s so wonderful to have a regular practice. If you’ve ever completed a yoga class, you know that you feel very different at the end than when you walked in. Yoga has a way of resetting the brain and making us feel both calm and energized, aware and soothed. Our bodies are more limber and our minds are clearer. Physical benefits of yoga include increased strength and flexibility, as well as improved heart health and reduced inflammation. If you’re doing a very physical type of yoga, such as vinyasa or Ashtanga, you’ll notice a serious boost in your stamina and overall aerobic capacities. Additionally, yoga helps us to become more aware of our mental states, our breath, and the intricate connection between body and mind. Yoga is a practice of concentration and when we look at it as a way to connect as opposed to just a physical exercise, we start to notice some of the mental health benefits. It helps decrease stress, anxiety, and depression, while also increasing overall mood, memory, and concentration. The spiritual aspect of yoga helps us to feel more connected to not only ourselves but the world around us. When we start to get in the flow of breath and movement, we realize that we are one part of a whole and that everything truly is connected. In this sense, we can see yoga as a path for spiritual transcendence and heightened awareness.

It’s so important to allow ourselves to truly feel our feelings. Here are a few tips for accessing your emotions and why it’s so important to do so. When we start our recovery journeys, we’re often coming from a past of numbing our feelings with drugs and/or alcohol. Additionally, other addictive behaviors and negative coping mechanisms like avoidance and dissociation can add to this numbing effect. We enter recovery with months or years of accumulated emotions that we haven’t dealt with. In addition to those stored emotions, we also have a whole slew of other feelings that arise because we’re in a new place, learning new things, meeting new people, and most of all, we don’t have our substances of choice to lean on. The process of getting to know our deepest emotions is not easy and it’s not a straight line. We spend time and effort in recovery learning to get to know ourselves again, learning about our triggers and our strengths, and discovering how to access our long-neglected emotions. It’s a lot to deal with and it’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed or even like you don’t know where to begin. Here are a few reasons why it’s so important to access our emotions and truly let ourselves feel them, as well as some tips for how to go about this very rewarding process.

The media can have a negative impact on body image and self-confidence. Here are some ways to support yourself. The media in general, and social media, in particular, is overflowing with images of what society tells us we should look, act, and feel like. When we spend time scrolling through Instagram or Facebook or even looking at some of our favorite magazines or website, we’re getting bombarded by subliminal messaging whether we know it or not. When we constantly see images of ultra-thin and athletic men and women, we begin to internalize those values as our own. This can lead to a lack of self-confidence and body image issues. In recovery, it’s important that we consume media that’s helping our mental health, rather than hindering it. We need all the support we can get. If you find that you’re not feeling good about yourself or your body after spending time on social media, it might be time to cut back on social media and/or change some of the accounts that you’re following. Body image issues can quickly overtake us, causing negative feelings and the urge to go on extreme diets. Self-acceptance is a huge component of a healthy recovery. Even though we’re developing healthy habits and changing our outlook, we need to love and accept ourselves, above all.  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been shown to improve body image issues. Additionally, therapy can help us to deal with the underlying causes of body image issues, resulting in improved self-awareness and less susceptibility to media influences. Mindfulness exercises such as meditation can help us to more fully accept ourselves, stay present in the moment, and get more in touch with our true feelings. Lastly, it can help to locate the people, places, and things that trigger our body image issues. Following body positive accounts on social media, reading about body image issues, and talking about our feeling in a support group are all ways to feel better about our bodies and ourselves.

A pen and paper are powerful tools for mental health.  Journaling is easy, practically free, and anyone can do it. The best part is, the simple act of journaling carries an array of benefits for our minds. Journaling lets us access creativity and greater self-awareness. It’s a simple, therapeutic, and a great addition to your recovery toolbox. In this article, we’ll delve into some of the many benefits of this simple practice.

How do we get back in touch with emotions after feeling numb? During active addiction, our emotions often get squashed beneath our dependence on drugs and/or alcohol. We learn to avoid our emotions, act on them impulsively, or stay numb to the rhythms of our feelings altogether. Negative, positive, and neutral emotions are a normal part of life. When they come rushing back in early recovery, it can be difficult to know how to sort through them or even get in touch with them in the first place. How can we access our emotions in healthy ways and understand what we’re feeling? Coping with the nuances of deep and everchanging feelings is a lifelong process. However, here are a few simple ways to get back in touch with your emotions.

Most of us know that exercise is a quick and healthy way to feel more positive, fit, and generally happier. Working up a sweat while using the cardiovascular system and getting in touch with the body feels good and is good for us. Exercise is known to boost endorphins, which are the chemicals in the body responsible for making us feel positive and happy. At the end of the day, the best exercise for your recovery is the one that you enjoy doing. Working out shouldn’t feel like a chore, so choose a fitness routine that you’re going to look forward to doing, rather than dread. It’s also great to switch up your routine to avoid boredom and keep things interesting. Here are a few of the best mood-boosting exercises.

The mind-body connection has been getting a lot of mainstream attention. Ancient practices like yoga, acupuncture, and meditation have become accepted complementary therapies and activities. For a long time, mainstream western medicine took the stance that the mind and the body were separate entities, largely uninfluenced by each other. Parts of the body, brain, and self were often treated as separate from the whole. Holistic medicine and practices, which have been gaining popularity and seeing a resurgence over the past several years, recognizes the intricate connections between all parts of ourselves. Holistic medicine can simply be defined as a practice that considers all parts of the whole person including mind, body, spirit, and emotions. By looking at the whole person and addressing the interconnectedness of the mind and the body, we can strive for optimal wellness and integration. To achieve health and an overall feeling of wellbeing, holistic medicine stresses the importance of the mind-body connection, and in fact the connection between all parts of ourselves, including the ways in which our environment might be impacting us. In this article, we’ll dive into the definition of the mind-body connection, why it’s important, and some practical ways we can strive to improve this connection.

Stressed out? Here are some sustainable ways to cope during hard times. Finding and living with healthy coping mechanisms is a lifelong practice that we learn to harness in recovery. There are many ways to cope, both healthy and unhealthy, which we will discuss in this article. We will also dive into the importance of self-awareness and preparing for times of increased stress using self-care rituals. Most importantly, be kind to yourself as you take the journey into healthy coping mechanisms. It’s not always easy, but it will make life more sustainable, less stressful, and more full.

A look at the profound effects of the breath on our state of mind. We breathe involuntarily. It’s one of the many functions that our body performs naturally, without our conscious awareness. Have you ever stopped to notice your breathing patterns during a stressful event? Typically, the breath is shallow, quick, and focused on the chest. It may even be hyperventalatory, meaning that you’re not taking in enough oxygen. Likewise, if you stop and observe your breath while you’re relaxed, either in meditation or sitting near the ocean or chatting with loved ones, your breath is likely to be slow, steady, rhythmic, and deep. While the breath is something that happens naturally in the body, we can also control it. The beauty of being in tune with the breath is that we can actually change our states of mind when we change our breathing patterns. Here, we’ll discuss how breath impacts mental health and a few ways to use the breath in order to live a calmer, more relaxed life.

Meditation has become mainstream due to its incredibly powerful effects on our minds, bodies, and spirits. It’s often touted as simple. After all, meditation is all about stilling the mind, sitting in one place, and basically “doing nothing.” How hard could it be? The truth is because our minds are so active, often bouncing from one subject to another all day, it’s very difficult to quiet the chatter in our heads and simply sit. While our brains need to rest and reset, our egos are naturally very resistant to quietly observing our thoughts instead of taking action, thinking about the future, or dwelling on the past. Here are a few tips for the beginner meditator to keep in mind while attempting to still the mind and be here now.

As kids, our creativity and imagination are often nurtured and encouraged. We played, felt carefree, and ran around. As adults, it’s easy to forget that we are all inherently creative beings, as creativity simply refers to imagination, innovation, vision, and originality. While we all have the potential for creativity and innovation, we don’t always feel the creative fire. You don’t need to be a self-described artist to be creative. We all possess the power of self-expression. In this article, we’ll discuss some simple ways to boost creativity and feel more enlivened.

The colors of the rainbow, found in the natural world, offer powerful healing benefits and meaningful insight.  Colors have been used for centuries to induce certain moods, promote healing, ease stress, and create a mood. All of the colors of the rainbow are found in various forms throughout nature. All we have to do is pay attention and be present. Artists, interior designers, healers, and color therapists understand the tremendous impact that colors have on our moods. As humans, we are susceptible to the energy of our environments. For instance, a room painted red will have a very different feeling, look, and effect on your mood than a room painted white or beige. Similarly, when we spend time in nature, we typically feel more alive, refreshed, and connected than when we spent lots of time indoors. In this article, we’ll look at various colors, where they can be found in the natural world, and what kind of healing powers and mood enhancements they can offer. We’ll also talk about some practical ways to incorporate the magic of color into your everyday life.