Health and Wellness
Health and wellness are related to your overall physical, mental, and emotional well-being. When your body, mind, and emotions are balanced, the ability to engage in daily activities, pursue goals, and interact with others is increased. It is not uncommon for individuals who struggle with physical issues such as substance abuse, body image concerns, or mental illness to struggle to meet the typical demands of the day. It is easy for many people to neglect basic self care… the cost can be quite high when the choice is made to put basic physical, mental, and emotional needs on the backburner. Maintaining adequate levels of health and wellness involves gaining the awareness, knowledge, and motivation to make meaningful changes in daily living. For some people, this might mean attending to basic nutrition needs or proper sleep hygiene. For others, optimal health and wellness involves seeking help for a substance abuse issue from friends, family, and mental health professionals. For those struggling with mental illness, maintaining health and wellness typically involves seeking the services of a psychiatrist, psychologist, or counselor and adhering to their individual treatment plan. Depending on the particular mental health issue, following treatment guidelines may involve psychotherapy, psychiatric medication, or another intervention recommended by your provider.
The application of mindfulness to your overall health and wellness involves attending to the cues provided by your mind, intuition, and emotional experience. When you observe and accept your overall well-being with an attitude of mindfulness, it can become easier to identify what aspect of your life is out of balance. When you become mindfully attuned to potential imbalances between physical, mental, and emotional wellness, you are naturally better equipped to make informed decisions about how to take action to stabilize your health and wellness.
10 Ways to Improve Body Image
“Outside show is a poor substitute for inner worth.” – Aesop The way that you see yourself when you look into the mirror and the way that you feel about your body when you put on your clothes can be potentially sensitive topics for many people. Even people who feel comfortable within their own skin…
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Yoga: Mindfulness in Motion
“Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.” – Krishnamacharya Mindfulness is about being fully present in the moment and noticing all aspects of your internal and external experience with equanimity. You do not have to engage in…
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How to Drink Moderately and Mindfully
“Drunkenness is temporary suicide.” – Bertrand Russell Choosing to alter your relationship with alcohol and drink moderately can be achieved through mindfulness and deliberate behavior modifications. Mindfulness allows you to become aware of your ongoing moment-to-moment experience. It is the opposite of “checking out.” When you choose to tune in to the present moment and tap…
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Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention
“What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.” – Abraham Maslow Mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) is treatment approach developed at the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington to assist individuals interested in maintaing their recovery from substance abuse or dependence. Through the practice of mindfulness, you are…
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Attentional Myopia: In with Alcohol, Out with Mindfulness
“When the wine goes in, strange things come out.” – Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller Alcohol has a reputation for causing a wide variety of effects on different people in different contexts. We all have the images in our minds from the media or from our own experiences of the angry drunk, the flirtatious drunk,…
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Mindfully Reconnect with Your Body
“To come to our senses, both literally and metaphorically, on the big scale as a species and on the smaller scale as a single human being, we first need to return to the body, the locus within which the biological senses and what we call the mind arise.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn A mindful stance towards…
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11 Ways to Cut Back on Drinking
“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” – Ernest Hemingway When drinking alcohol begins to interfere with your life, it is time to reassess your relationship with alcohol, your tendencies to drink to excess, or typical situations with alcohol that lead to problems. For…
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The Importance of Trying New Things
“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.” – Soren Kierkegaard Many people struggle with feelings of anxiety or resistance to novel experiences. Often, this fear of the “unknown” is instilled in us in childhood, when we are learning from our parents what things are safe and unsafe.…
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Mindfulness & Eating
“He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton; he who does not cannot be otherwise.” – Henry David Thoreau When we apply the practice of mindfulness to eating, our whole relationship with food begins to change. Mindfulness involves being fully present, aware, open, curious, accepting, and without judgment. It…
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Mindfulness & Addiction
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl Addictive behaviors, such as drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, binging on food, or compulsively gambling, all provide a temporary escape from reality. When we choose to…
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