Are You Angry – or Grateful?

Author Info By:Tara Haelle

Reviewed by: Robert Carlson, M.D

Spiritual coping among teens with chronic illness affects behavior and depression

(dailyRx News) Seeking strength from God to deal with illness is just as common as being angry at God for an illness. But the way these two attitudes affect an individual is quite different.

 

A recent study looked at how teens with chronic illness cope with their diseases using spirituality.
The study found that negative spirituality, like being angry at God, was linked to more behavior problems in the teens.

The teens who used spirituality in a positive way to cope with their illness did not have those behavior problems. They also tended to be more optimistic, less depressed and less anxious.

The study, led by Nina Reynolds, MA, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, aimed to find out how using spirituality to cope affects teenagers with a chronic illness The research included 128 teens, with an average age of 14, in their study. All the teens had been diagnosed with either diabetes or cystic fibrosis.

The teens filled out questionnaires to assess how much they relied on their spirituality to help them cope with their illness and whether they tended to be more optimistic or pessimistic.

The teens and their parents (or caregivers) also filled out questionnaires to assess mental health symptoms related to "internalizing" and "externalizing."

Externalizing problems refer to behavior issues like acting out, aggression, rule breaking and hyperactivity. Internalizing refer to issues like depression, anxiety and antisocial behavior.

While analyzing the results, the researchers took into account the teens' age, race/ethnicity, gender, annual household income, disease severity (rated by doctors on a scale of 1 to 4) and how long since they had been diagnosed with their disease.

The analysis revealed that teens who used their spirituality to cope in a positive way with their illness (such as deriving strength from a higher being) were more likely to be optimistic as well.

These teens also showed fewer behavioral problems reported by their caregivers and reported fewer internalizing problems, such as depression and anxiety, themselves.

However, the teens who reported more negative spiritual coping (such as being angry at God for their illness) also tended to have more outward behavioral problems, such as aggression.

While the teens with diabetes who use negative spiritual coping did not show more depression or anxiety, the teens using negative spiritual coping for their cystic fibrosis did tend to have more depression and anxiety symptoms.

The researchers did not find any link between teens who used negative spiritual coping and whether they tended to be more or less optimistic.

"The results provide support for the importance of spiritual coping in both internalizing and externalizing problems of pediatric patients," the researchers wrote. These findings highlight the need for clinicians to assess spiritual coping when they suspect adjustment difficulties, and to consider spiritual issues as an important part of the adolescent’s psychosocial functioning."

They noted that helping teens deal with the way they respond to their illness in terms of their spirituality might help the teens cope better overall.

"Helping adolescents address negative spiritual coping and explore positive spiritual coping, while also developing more optimistic general attributions, may translate into better psychosocial adjustment," they wrote.

They also explored how the differences in positive and negative spiritual coping might be affecting the teens' behavioral and depression/anxiety issues.

"It is possible that positive spiritual coping strategies are used to buffer not only feelings of anxiety and depression, but also behavior problems that might arise from the illness experience," they wrote.

 "It is possible that negative spiritual coping may contribute to behavior problems by increasing adolescents’ perceptions that difficult situations are not within their control."

The study was published November 17 in the Journal of Adolescent Health. The research was funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Sigma Xi Grants-in-Aid Research program.

5 steps to ensure your children’s mental health

Posted on December 29, 2012By Bloomberg NewsHealth

 

As a pediatric surgeon, I have spent my career giving children a chance to become healthy adults. When children are struck by serious medical conditions, their loved ones and doctors wrestle to understand what happened and how we can make it better. We use every advantage — research, technology, our understanding of the human body — to help children heal and secure a chance to live out their full potential.

Since becoming chief executive of Children’s National Medical Center, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about the larger issues that affect children’s health and their ability to reach their full potential in adulthood. For me, no issue is more critical than ensuring both healthy bodies and healthy minds.

Today, a staggering number of families struggle with a spectrum of conditions that affect the minds and brains of children and, if untreated, limit their ability to live happy, healthy lives. As a father, and as someone who has dedicated his life to children, I find it devastating to watch families reach out for help for a child’s mental health issue when we have so few answers — and resources — to offer them.

Steps to ensure a child’s mental health

One in five children in the United States suffers a medical condition that affects their mental health (Shuttershock photos)

We must change our thinking and our approach to ensuring mental health for children. I propose beginning with the following steps:
1. Accept that mental health is a children’s health issue. One in five children in the United States suffers a medical condition that affects their mental health. These encompass a wide range of diagnoses, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders and developmental disorders. Of the 15 million children affected by such conditions, only 20 percent ever receive treatment. This is especially sobering when we consider that by age 14, half of all lifetime diagnoses of mental illness will begin manifesting, and that 75 percent will show up by age 24. In the face of these numbers, children and families urgently need better ways to get necessary support.
2. Start screening early. As with obesity and diabetes, pediatricians know that, by detecting disease in childhood and intervening early, we can have a tremendous effect on the health of that person in adulthood. By contrast, there is an average delay of eight to 10 years between the onset of symptoms and treatment for children with mental health issues. This is driven in part by a lack of focus on early identification. For the one in five children who has a mental health condition, such early recognition could be lifesaving.
3. Treat the child, not the diagnosis. A diagnosis is, at best, a start, not an end. This is especially true in mental health. Children with the same diagnosis can exhibit profoundly different behaviors and need very different approaches. To be effective, the treatment of mental health in children must be individualized for the child and his or her family, and it must include an understanding of environmental, social and developmental factors.

Children with the same diagnosis can exhibit profoundly different behaviors and need very different approaches. To be effective, the treatment of mental health in children must be individualized.

4. Address genetics. As with several forms of cancer or metabolic diseases, many mental health conditions have a significant genetic predisposition. Technological breakthroughs the past few years — in molecular evaluation, genetic sequencing and variation, biomarkers and advanced imaging — have helped us understand, identify and intervene in many medical issues before they manifest symptoms. It is time to use these tools as much for mental health as we do for cancer and other diseases with a high genetic predisposition.
5. Ensure access to medical care. Even with the most advanced approaches, real change cannot be achieved if the significant shortages in pediatric mental health providers are not addressed. This is a profound failing in a health system that is supposed to ensure children receive the best care.
Now is the time for leadership. As we form task forces, forums and expert panels to respond to the shootings in Newtown, Conn., a discussion must take place about how we ensure the mental health and well-being of our children. If it does not, we will have failed both the children who perished Dec. 14 and those we are fortunate enough to still have in our care.
- – -
Kurt Newman, a pediatric surgeon, is president and chief executive of Children’s National Medical Center in Washington.


Read more: http://www.voxxi.com/steps-to-children-mental-health/#ixzz2GX9V1uWX

From My Files: How Important Is Spirituality?

by Pete Earley 1 Comment

 

I first posted this blog in April 2011 after being asked about spirituality and mental health. Since it was posted, I have learned that several National Alliance on Mental Illness chapters have reached out to religious organizations to promote local educational and recovery programs or have helped spawn groups that address the spiritual needs of persons with mental disorders.

 

A weekend conference in Boulder, Colorado, led to the creation of the Interfaith Network on Mental Illness. After Gunnar Christiansen’s son developed a mental illness in college, Gunnar got involved in the NAMI chapter in Orange County, California. A member of the Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana, Gunnar asked why NAMI wasn’t reaching out to religious groups. That question eventually led to the creation of NAMI Faith.Net, an organization that links mental health advocates with religious groups.

What’s happening in your community when it comes to mental health and religious organizations? Is there a tie between spirituality and recovery? Is this an issue that your local minister should address?

From my files: Spirituality, Mental Illness, and Recovery

My father is a retired protestant minister and I grew up attending church…I am writing about religion because of a question that I was asked recently at Viterbo University, a beautiful school in La Crosse, Wisconsin. About 550 people attended my speech at Viterbo, which traces its origins to a small school founded by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.

“How important is spiritually to mental health recovery?” a woman in the audience asked me.

I wish that I could tell you that I gave her a great answer. But I didn’t.

Instead, I talked about how I had encountered people in some religious groups who still believe that persons with mental disorders are harboring devils. And I’ve met with other religious based groups that are active in helping the homeless and ministering to persons with mental illnesses. In Knoxville, Tennessee, I actually had a mental health provider tell me that the local churches were hurting recovery efforts because their members were too generous. They were so eager to give away clothing and food that it was difficult to persuade persons with mental disorders to go into treatment because life on the streets was “too comfortable.”

I told the woman in the Viterbo audience that I felt religious groups should be doing more. I wasn’t referring to more money, more food, and more clothing, which are always needed. Rather, I was referring to doing more to educate their members and eliminate stigma.

Bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major depression impact as many as one in four families. Yet, these are not subjects that I’ve ever heard mentioned in a church sermon. Because these illnesses are believed to be biologically based disorders, there should be no shame in getting them, only shame in not helping someone who does. But many ministers seem uncomfortable discussing mental disorders, perhaps because of Biblical passages that refer to the casting out of demons, etc.

One reason why I wasn’t able to answer the woman’s question is because I really don’t know of any studies that looked at how important spirituality is to recovery. Recognizing a higher power is a vital step in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. But I have never heard it mentioned in treatment sessions that I attended with my son, Mike. When I mentioned my standard refrain – the heart can get sick and so can the mind so we must understand that mental illnesses are exactly that: illnesses — the woman in the audience agreed. But gently chastised me for not saying more about the healing power of spiritual beliefs.

So here is a question that I want to pose. How important is spiritually to recovery when a person has a mental disorder? Last week, I wrote that I believe HOPE is essential. That comment irked a reader who sent me an email. He noted that if bipolar disorder is a chemical imbalance in the brain than a person’s attitude is immaterial. “Does HOPE matter if you have a broken leg?” he asked. For him, medication is the solution.

What’s your view? How important is spirituality in recovery if you have a mental illness or love someone who does?

Share your thoughts and your stories please.
***
If you are not following me on Twitter, you missed this tweet from last week.

Getting spiritual is healthy, too

By CHELCEY ADAMIStaff WriterImperial Valley Press

11:08 p.m. PST, December 29, 2012

As they ring in the New Year, most people begin to look inward and wonder how their lives could improve.

While becoming physically or mentally healthier is great, it can also help to consider improving spiritual health as well.

“To be spiritually healthy in my world is to be in conversation with God all the time,” said the Rev. Suzi Jacobson of Holtville United Methodist Church. “It means a person is in contact with that part of ourselves and our world … that gives us hope for the future and the ability to see and understand through the present.”

Numerous studies have found links between increased spiritual health and its correspondingly positive effects on mental and physical health.

For example, a 2004 study by Duke University Medical Center found that religious activities, attitudes and spiritual experiences by older hospitalized patients are linked to greater social support, better psychological health and, in some ways, better physical health.

A University of Missouri study published in May also shows a correlation between health and spirituality, regardless of religious differences.

The study participants included Catholics, Buddhists, Protestants, Muslims and Jews, and people from all of those faiths showed less neuroticism and greater extraversion.

“Spiritual beliefs may be a coping device to help individuals deal emotionally with stress,” study co-author and religions studies assistant professor Dan Cohen told the MU News Bureau.

Traditional religion is not for everyone, but it appears that at least a level of spirituality can be beneficial.

All major religions and most spiritually healthy people incorporate the Golden Rule.

“If everyone else in the world treated everyone else the way they want to be treated themselves, we would have ourselves a wonderful world,” Jacobsen said.

Volunteer work is a widely accessible first step.

“The easiest way for one person to become spiritually aware is to reach out to another person, especially another person in need,” Jacobson said. “I think it’s really important for anyone, whether part of faith tradition or not, to reach out, not to just stay in your church for example.”

The community offers plenty of places to do that whether helping out at The Salvation Army in El Centro on New Year’s Day, making sandwiches for the homeless each Sunday at First United Methodist Church or helping community youths as a court appointed child advocate.

The Imperial Valley Interfaith Council holds several interdenominational gatherings a year, and Jacobson said visiting one could also possibly improve one’s spiritual health.

“It’s not only just the kinds of acts that have to do with material things, but one needs to be generous in spirit so that just being with a person in a different faith and tradition and extending generosity, compassion and peace to that person is something that goes beyond any expectation,” she said.

Her final recommendation is to simply be thankful since it will create a ripple effect of positive energy in your life.

“Just get up in the morning and stretch and yawn and say, ‘Thank you … for another day here where I’m breathing and have the ability to think and enjoy life.’ Just do that little bit,” she said. “You don’t need to do 25 jumping jacks, but wake up and realize you are here and it’s a new day and you can give thanks for it.”

Staff Writer Chelcey Adami can be reached at 760-337-3452 or cadami@ivpressonline.com.
To comment on this story click here to be directed to Facebook.

The treatment of mental conditions must start early

By Kurt Newman,

Dec 28, 2012 01:09 AM EST

The Washington Post Published: December 28

Kurt Newman, a pediatric surgeon, is president and chief executive of Children’s National Medical Center.
 

As a pediatric surgeon, I have spent my career giving children a chance to become healthy adults. When children are struck by serious medical conditions, their loved ones and doctors wrestle to understand what happened and how we can make it better. We use every advantage — research, technology, our understanding of the human body — to help children heal and secure a chance to live out their full potential.

Since becoming chief executive of Children’s National Medical Center, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about the larger issues that affect children’s health and their ability to reach their full potential in adulthood. For me, no issue is more critical than ensuring both healthy bodies and healthy minds.

 

 

Today, a staggering number of families struggle with a spectrum of conditions that affect the minds and brains of children and, if untreated, limit their ability to live happy, healthy lives. As a father, and as someone who has dedicated his life to children, I find it devastating to watch families reach out for help for a child’s mental health issue when we have so few answers — and resources — to offer them.

We must change our thinking and our approach to ensuring mental health for children. I propose beginning with the following steps:

1. Accept that mental health is a children’s health issue. One in five children in the United States suffers a medical condition that affects their mental health. These encompass a wide range of diagnoses, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders and developmental disorders. Of the 15 million children affected by such conditions, only 20 percent ever receive treatment. This is especially sobering when we consider that by age 14, half of all lifetime diagnoses of mental illness will begin manifesting, and that 75 percent will show up by age 24. In the face of these numbers, children and families urgently need better ways to get necessary support.

2. Start screening early. As with obesity and diabetes, pediatricians know that, by detecting disease in childhood and intervening early, we can have a tremendous effect on the health of that person in adulthood. By contrast, there is an average delay of eight to 10 years between the onset of symptoms and treatment for children with mental health issues. This is driven in part by a lack of focus on early identification. For the one in five children who has a mental health condition, such early recognition could be lifesaving.

3. Treat the child, not the diagnosis. A diagnosis is, at best, a start, not an end. This is especially true in mental health. Children with the same diagnosis can exhibit profoundly different behaviors and need very different approaches. To be effective, the treatment of mental health in children must be individualized for the child and his or her family, and it must include an understanding of environmental, social and developmental factors.

4. Address genetics. As with several forms of cancer or metabolic diseases, many mental health conditions have a significant genetic predisposition. Technological breakthroughs the past few years — in molecular evaluation, genetic sequencing and variation, biomarkers and advanced imaging — have helped us understand, identify and intervene in many medical issues before they manifest symptoms. It is time to use these tools as much for mental health as we do for cancer and other diseases with a high genetic predisposition.

5. Ensure access to medical care. Even with the most advanced approaches, real change cannot be achieved if the significant shortages in pediatric mental health providers are not addressed. This is a profound failing in a health system that is supposed to ensure children receive the best care.

Now is the time for leadership. As we form task forces, forums and expert panels to respond to the shootings in Newtown, Conn., a discussion must take place about how we ensure the mental health and well-being of our children. If it does not, we will have failed both the children who perished Dec. 14 and those we are fortunate enough to still have in our care

Greek Crisis Harms Nation's Mental Health

Text Size

Published: Friday, 28 Dec 2012 | 2:05 AM ET

By: Joshua Chaffin

Steve Allen | Brand X Images | Getty Images

 

For the past five years, Lisa Kalbari has observed the impact of Greece's economic crisis from an airy office on a quiet side street far removed from the teargas and tumult afflicting central Athens.

Dr Kalbari is a psychologist. Each day her couch hosts a procession of patients suffering from anxiety, sleep disorders, depression and other maladies - many of them exacerbated, she believes, by a crisis that has pushed the unemployment rate above 25 per cent while depriving Greeks of any certainty about the future.

"We have a lot of panic attacks," she says. "For the older generation, it's like a form of post-traumatic stress disorder. They have experienced war and poverty. For them, it's about dignity - they don't want to be humiliated again after reaching a high point."

The toll the crisis has taken on Greece's mental health tends to be overshadowed by more urgent concerns about hunger or poverty. Nonetheless, there is increasing evidence of the psychological strain on Greek society - from increased diagnoses of depression to an uptick in suicides - and the human wreckage it may leave behind long after the economy has been mended.

"All types of psychological disorders have increased - anxiety, depression, abuses, somatisation, antisocial behaviour," says Argyro Voulgari, a clinical psychologist at the Hellenic Centre for Mental Health and Research.

At the centre's office in Piraeus, a city that has been particularly hard hit by the crisis, the number of child and adolescent patients - who often suffer from their parents' psychological strain - increased 51 per cent between 2006 and 2011. The publicly-funded centre has not yet tabulated figures for adults, although Dr Voulgari suspects they would also show sizeable growth, particularly for young men.

"Even the people who have money are depressed," he says.

The most harrowing - and debated - measure of psychological strain may be the suicide rate. It rose 37 per cent from 2009 to 2011, according to the Greek ministry of public order.
Other figures vary - to the extent they are even available. Public health experts caution that reporting is often imprecise in Greece because of the shame attached to suicide. For example, the Greek Orthodox Church has been known to withhold funeral rites from its victims.

The country's shrinking health service has struggled to accommodate a flood of patients as people who once paid for private care seek free treatment at public hospitals. Waiting times for appointments now stretch to two months or more, according to psychologists.

"If you need a psychiatrist, good luck," says one former politician, who counts his family as "one of the lucky few who have benefited" from therapy.

Thanks to the crisis, the stigma against mental health treatment in a conservative, Orthodox society is rapidly melting away, he says: "Something that happened in the US 20 years ago is now coming to Greece."

From a psychological perspective, one of the most corrosive problems is the duration of the crisis. It has now produced five years of recession with no end in sight - an uncertainty is its own form of psychological torment, say doctors.

"It doesn't finish. It's always there," says George Christodoulou, a psychiatry professor at the University of Athens and the honorary president of the Hellenic Psychiatric Association. "This represents a chronic stress, and chronic stress is worse than acute stress."

Dr Christodoulou draws a distinction between depression - a medical diagnosis - and the more widespread sadness and anger that have permeated Greek society. As with any loss, the latter was to be expected, he argues, and could ultimately be productive.

"When you talk to people in-depth, there is an element of self-criticism that is arising gradually, and this is encouraging," he says.

Greeks appear to benefit from the unusually close bonds within families, which tend to create their own informal support network and blunt psychological blows. But there are other aspects of Greek culture that present their own problems.

Andrew Armatas, an Athens psychologist, believes the crisis has played on a typical Greek neurosis: an ever-present fear - communicated by overbearing elders who suffered Nazi occupation, civil war and famine - that disaster is just around the corner.

"That's the shocking thing: we always heard our parents telling us what they lived through," he says, noting the feelings of guilt and shame displayed by many of his patients.

Among others, Dr Armatas now counsels parents mourning children who have moved overseas to find work, as well as executives who have either lost jobs or are struggling to hold on to them.

"You can help someone with their emotions", he says, "but practically, you know they will be unemployed for a very long time."

How to Be Mindful During the Holidays, in 350 words

“Smile, breathe and go slowly.” - Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen Buddhist monk

Post written by Leo Babauta.

The holidays are a busy and stressful time for most people — with work and gift shopping and get-togethers and all kinds of other events and worries, it’s a wonder we stay sane at all.
The secret to survival — and in fact to having a wonderful time during these holidays and any stressful situation — is to stay in the moment, as much as possible. This is something I work on all the time, and it’s easy to forget.

However, it’s also easy to do, if you stay conscious of it. Here’s how:

1. A simple practice. Take a fruit — an apple, a pear, a peeled banana or kiwi, some berries — and eat them mindfully. Slowly. Take a small bite, and really experience it. Feel the texture in your mouth. Savor the taste. Smell the fruit. Think about how you feel as you eat the fruit. Feel the juices in your mouth. Feel yourself swallow the bite. Eat the entire fruit this way, one bite at a time, really feeling and tasting and smelling and experiencing this fruit.

2. A simple mantra. Each time you feel yourself getting stressed or overwhelmed, remember the fruit. Say to yourself “apple” or “banana” or “berries” (or whatever fruit you ate), and remember what it was like to be mindful as you ate that fruit. Now do the same thing with whatever you’re doing right now — whether you’re out shopping, or spending time with loved ones, or doing a work task. Focus on one thing, and really be in the moment with that thing or that person.

3. Remember what’s important. During these holidays, think about what’s most important to you. That might be your loved ones, or a loved one, whether that’s a spouse or friends or kids or parents or whatever. It might be your work — what you create and are passionate about. It might be something else. Focus on that during these holidays, and remember that the rest is just noise. It’s not important. Fully experience what’s important to you, and let the rest fade away.

10 Mindful Ways to Enjoy the Holiday Season

Posted: 12/27/11 09:21 AM ET

 

1. Set an intention for this holiday season. It can be as broad or specific as you wish, but take a moment to consider how you'd like to spend this time and where you want to focus your time and energy. This simple action creates awareness, and will help you prioritize.
2. Acknowledge your entrenched holiday habits. The force of habit (also known as our habit energy) is the momentum that propels us down familiar paths in life. Even when we've acknowledged the need to change our habits, it's easy to stay in autopilot. Change requires a conscious effort. You likely have specific holiday season patterns, such as rushing, over-committing, overspending or over consuming. What else? Without blaming yourself, look at these habits and ask: Do these habits serve me well?
3. Practice compassionate listening with friends and family. In order to truly appreciate the time we have with loved-ones, we must be fully present. The perfect time to practice compassionate listing is when it's most difficult to remain present -- when we have disagreements with a loved one or strong emotions have built up over time. When we leave our body and disconnect our consciousness from the present moment, we miss valuable lessons, connections and understanding. Remember to observe whatever emotions arise, and to treat yourself with loving compassion too.
4. Take time to do nothing. Even a few restful moments in between activities, or at the end of the night, can reduce stress and improve awareness and mood. Remember: Doing nothing doesn't mean checking email or chatting on the phone. Need some help winding down? Consult the "Doing Nothing" guide.
5. Just breathe. We put so much on our to-do list that we may be stacking up tasks back to back. We need mini breaks to refresh ourselves. For example, if you are waiting for a slice of bread to come out of the toaster, refrain from doing another task. Take the two minutes to just breathe...
"Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.
Breathing out, I know I am breathing out."
6. Start or renew your meditation practice. Do NOT add meditation to your to-do list. Instead, consider it a tool to enhance your everyday experiences. Meditate while standing in line, while cooking, or while walking down the street. Regular meditation can improve focus, reduce stress and anxiety and offer great joy.
7. Invite deep sleep with a bedtime meditation:
"Breathing in, I am conscious of all that I still have to do
Breathing out, I park them in my 'to-do' box until tomorrow to get a good rest"
8. Savor sweets. Treats are some of the best foods to savor as they are so rich in flavor. And if we really enjoy them, we are less likely to mindlessly over-consume them. Eating while full of guilt isn't helpful. Choose your sweets thoughtfully, and enjoy them fully.
9. Enjoy the splendor of this time! The 2011 holiday season will soon be over. Relish the unique sights, smells and sounds. Do not miss the magical moments!!
An inspirational passage on impermanence from Thich Nhat Hanh:

Nothing remains the same for two consecutive moments. Heraclitus said we can never bathe twice in the same river. Confucius, while looking at a stream, said, "It is always flowing, day and night." The Buddha implored us not just to talk about impermanence, but to use it as an instrument to help us penetrate deeply into reality and obtain liberating insight.

10. Give thanks. Recent studies show that practicing gratitude improves health, perspective and relationships. Practicing gratitude reminds us that we are part of a beautiful whole, supported and loved. When you begin to feel stressed, alone or anxious, consider the things you are thankful for.

Mindfulness in a Frantic World

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy techniques for dissolving anxiety, stress, and unhappiness.

by Mark Williams, Ph.D., and Danny Penman, Ph.D.

Christmas Stress Relief: A Mindful Ten Day Guide

Christmas can be stressful, but it doesn't have to be this way...

Published on December 16, 2011 by Danny Penman, Ph.D. in Mindfulness in a Frantic World

 

Christmas can be the most stressful time of the year, but it doesn't have to be this way... If you follow this ten step guide to ‘de-stressing' your Christmas then it just might become one of the most relaxing times of the year.

One step should to be carried out on each of the next 10 days. They're based on the ideas found in the international bestseller Mindfulness: An Eight Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World. The book uses a unique program based on mindfulness meditations developed by us at Oxford University in the UK to relieve anxiety, stress, exhaustion and depression. It's been proven by countless clinical trials to be at least as effective as drugs or counselling for dealing with these conditions.

       
Day 1 Eat some chocolate

At this time of year it's all too easy to eat too much chocolate and scoff down far too many mince pies. At first, all that lovely rich food is packed with flavour and is totally irresistible... but after a while, you hardly notice it at all. And if you are in a rush, it tends to be wolfed down by the handful.

When you eat without thinking you miss out on so many wonderful flavours, textures and aromas. A single bar of chocolate, for example, has over 300 different flavours. How many of them do you normally taste?

 

Reconnecting with your senses is the heart of mindfulness so why not try this chocolate meditation to help you enjoy your food again?

You can listen to it here: http://franticworld.com/free-meditations-from-mindfulness/

 

What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is quite simply paying full whole-hearted attention. A typical meditation involves paying full attention to the breath as it flows in and out of the body. Focusing on each breath in this way allows you to observe your thoughts as they arise in your mind and, little by little, to let go of struggling with them. You come to the profound understanding that thoughts and feelings (including negative ones) are transient. They come and they go, and ultimately, you have a choice about whether to act on them or not.

 

Mindfulness is about observation without criticism; being compassionate with yourself. When unhappiness or stress hover overhead, rather than taking it all personally, you learn to treat them as if they were black clouds in the sky, and to observe them with friendly curiosity as they drift past.

 

Scientific studies have shown that mindfulness not only prevents depression, but that it also positively affects the brain patterns underlying day-to-day anxiety, stress, depression and irritability so that when they arise, they dissolve away again more easily. Other studies have shown that regular meditators see their doctors less often and spend fewer days in hospital. Memory improves, creativity increases and reaction times become faster.

 

Day 2 Go for a short walk
Walking is one of the finest exercises and a brilliant stress reliever and mood booster. A good walk can put the world in perspective and soothe your frayed nerves. It's the ideal way of taking a break from all of those projects that have to be completed by Christmas.

 

So today, why not go for a 15-30 minute walk? You don't have to go anywhere special. A walk to the shops to do a bit of Christmas shopping, taken in an open frame of mind, can be just as interesting as a hike through the mountains.

 

There's no need to feel that you have to rush anywhere; the aim is to walk as mindfully as you can, focusing your awareness on your feet as they land on the ground, and feeling the fluid movements of all the muscles and tendons in your feet and legs.

 

Pay attention to all of the sights, sounds and smells. You might see the deep red colour of the berries on the holly bushes or the pearlescent white of mistletoe - or perhaps the inky greyness of slushy ice and snow. See if it is possible to be open to all your senses: smell the mustiness of the winter leaves; feel the rain on your head; the breeze on your face; watch how the patterns of light and shade shift unexpectedly.

 

Day 3 Take a three minute breathing space
When you're becoming angry, exhausted, anxious or stressed, it's difficult to remember why you should remain calm. And at times, it can feel as if Christmas was created just to bait you.

The Three-minute Breathing Space was created to deal with such feelings. Its impact is twofold. Firstly, it's a meditation that's used to punctuate the day, so that it dissolves negative thought patterns before they gain control over your life. Secondly, it's an emergency meditation that helps ‘ground' you when your thoughts threaten to spiral out of control.

 

When you are carrying out the meditation you may find that your mind repeatedly runs away with itself. This is entirely natural. It's what minds do. They leap around and offer up thoughts to your conscious self, much as a child hold's up its toys to an approving adult. When you find that your mind has wandered, gently escort it back to full awareness and continue following the instructions on the track as best you can.

 

You can listen to the meditation here:http://franticworld.com/free-meditations-from-mindfulness/

 

Day 4 Do something pleasurable
At this time of year, exhaustion, stress and unhappiness can easily dominate our lives. It's almost as if we are subconsciously reacting against the ‘enforced merriment' of Christmas. You can start to experience ‘anhedonia' - that is, you can't find pleasure in life. The things you used to enjoy now leave you ‘cold' - you feel as if a thick fog has put a barrier between you and simple pleasures, and few things seem rewarding any more.

 

You can counteract this by taking baby-steps towards the things that you used to like doing but have since forgotten about. You can make a start by choosing one or two of the following things to do (or perhaps come up with your own ideas):

 

• Be kind to your body. Have a nice hot bath; have a nap for thirty minutes (or perhaps a little less); treat yourself to your favourite food without feeling guilty; have your favourite hot drink.

• Do something you enjoy. Visit or phone a friend (particularly if you've been out of contact for a while); get together what you need so you can do your favourite hobby; take some exercise; bake a cake; read something that gives you pleasure (not ‘serious' reading); listen to some music that you have not listened to in a long while.

 

Day 5 The Intensely Frustrating Line Meditation
Christmas often seems like one big, long line..... You have to line up to buy presents, to pay for the food in the supermarket, and all of the bars and restaurants are crammed with people waiting to order.

 

Next time you feel like screaming ‘why don't they just get on with it!' try carrying out our Intensely Frustrating Line Meditation instead.

 

When you are in a line, see if you can become aware of your reactions when something holds up your progress. Perhaps you joined the ‘wrong' line, and are obsessing about whether to make a dash for another one that seems shorter? At such times, it is helpful to ‘check in' with what's going on in your mind. Taking a moment to ask yourself:

- What is going through my mind?
- What sensations are there in my body?
- What emotions and impulses am I aware of?

Mindfulness accepts that some experiences are unpleasant. Mindfulness will, however, help by allowing you to tease apart the two major flavors of suffering-primary and secondary.

 

Primary suffering is the initial stressor, such as the frustration of being in a long queue. You can acknowledge that it is not pleasant; it's OK not to like it. Secondary suffering is all of the emotional turbulence that follows in its wake, such as anger and frustration, as well as any ensuing thoughts and feelings that often arise in tandem. See if you can see these clearly as well. See if it's possible to allow the frustration to be here without trying to make it go away.

 

Day 6 Set up a mindfulness bell

Pick a few ordinary activities from daily life that you can turn into ‘mindfulness bells', that is, reminders to stop and pay attention to things in great detail. There's a list below of things you might like to turn into bells. You don't have to turn them all into ‘mindfulness bells' - they are just suggestions.

Preparing food for Christmas: Food offers a host of opportunities to become more mindful. If you're preparing food - particularly Christmas ones that are rich in flavours, smells and textures - then try and pay full mindful attention to all that you are doing.

Wrap the presents: Focus on the sound and feel of the scissors as they slice through the wrapping paper. How does the paper feel? Soft and slippery or stiff and sharp-edged? How do the presents look, feel and

smell?

Listening to friends: At Christmas parties it's easy to lapse into the same tired-old conversations, so why not turn a friend's voice into a ‘bell' that's a signal to pay full attention to what they are saying? Notice when you are not listening - when you start to think of something else, what you are going to say in response, etc. Come back to actually listening.

 

Day 7 The ten-finger gratitude exercise

To come to a positive appreciation for the small things in your life, you can try the gratitude exercise. It simply means that once a day you should bring to mind ten things that you are grateful for, counting them on your fingers. It is important to get to ten things, even when it becomes increasingly harder after three or four! This is exactly what the exercise is for - intentionally bringing into awareness the tiny, previously unnoticed elements of the day.

      

Day 8 Do the sounds and thoughts meditation
Sounds are as compelling as thoughts and just as immaterial and open to interpretation. The sound of Jingle Bells or White Christmas might cheer you up - or send you into an emotional tailspin. Sensing the power of sound - and its relationship to thoughts and emotion - is central to mindfulness and to becoming a happier, more relaxed and centred person.

Today, why not try our sounds and thoughts meditation? This elegantly reveals how the mind conjures up thoughts that can so easily lead us astray. Once you realise this - deep in your heart - then a great many of your stresses and troubles will simply evaporate before your eyes.

The Sounds and Thoughts meditation gradually reveals the similarities between sound and thought. Both appear as if from nowhere and we have no control over their arising. They can easily trigger powerful emotions that run away with us leaving us feeling fragile and broken.

You can download the meditation from here:
http://franticworld.com/free-meditations-from-mindfulness/

Day 9 Reclaim your life
Think back to a time in your life when things seemed less frantic, before the time when some tragedy or increase in workload took over your daily existence. Or it might be more recent than that, before the run-up to Christmas say, or perhaps a relaxing break in the summer.

Recall in as much detail as you can some of the activities that you used to do at that time.

These may be things you did by yourself (reading your favourite magazines or taking time to listen to a track from a favourite piece of music, going out for walks or bike rides) or together with friends or family (from playing board games to going to the theatre).

Choose one of these activities and plan to do it today or over this weekend. It may take five minutes or five hours, it might be important or trivial, it might involve others or it could be by yourself. It is only important that it should be something that puts you back in touch with a part of your life that you had forgotten - a part of you that you may have been telling yourself was lost somehow, that you could not get back to. Don't wait until you feel like doing it; do it anyway and see what happens. It's time to reclaim your life!

Day 10 Visit the movies
Ask a friend or family member to go with you to the movies - but this time, with a difference. Go at a set time (say 7 p.m.) and choose whatever film takes your fancy only when you get there. Often, what makes us happiest in life is the unexpected - the chance encounter or the unpredicted event. Movies are great for all these.

Before you go, notice any thoughts that may arise such as, ‘I haven't got time for pleasure', or, ‘What if there is nothing on that I'll enjoy?' They undermine your enthusiasm for taking action and discourage your intention to do something that might nourish your life in important ways. Once you're inside the cinema, just forget about all this and be consumed by the film!

Feeling Overwhelmed?

By Marla W. Deibler, PsyD
We’ve all been there. Sometimes, demands on us exceed our ability to cope and we reach a point of feeling overwhelmed. We feel completely overcome in mind and/or emotion and feel ill-equipped to cope.

When we are faced with stressors, good (eustress) or bad (distress), we experience physiological, emotional, and cognitive arousal. Activating chemicals, such as endorphins, cortisol, and adrenalin, are released in order to help us rise to the challenge of meeting the demands of these stressors so that we may effectively manage them and reduce the arousal or tension we are experiencing. This state of arousal is known as the fight-or-flight response. Essentially, it is the sympathetic branch of our nervous system (our alarm system) taking control from our parasympathetic branch (our state of calm and homeostasis).

Events that trigger these overwhelming feelings differ from person to person. For example, we may feel overwhelmed by items on our “to-do list,” if we think we cannot accomplish them. Or, we may feel overwhelmed by emotionally evocative events, such as a birth, wedding, death, or divorce. Any single stressor or a number of stressors concurrently that tax our ability to cope may cause us to feel overwhelmed.

Overwhelm may manifest itself as experiencing intense emotion (i.e., anxiety, depression, irritability, anger), maladaptive thought processes (i.e., worry, rumination, unhelpful thoughts, doubt, helplessness, hopelessness, guilt), and behavior change (i.e., lashing out, crying, panic attack).

Potential consequences of acute or chronic stress and feeling overwhelmed include anxiety, depression, irritability, sleep disturbance, appetite disturbance, interpersonal strain, headache, gastrointestinal distress, and increased vulnerability to medical as well as psychiatric illness.

Those who have an internal locus of control (belief that they have control over that which affects them), those who have strong coping skills, those who have strong social support, those who have greater cognitive flexibility, problem-solving skills, and adaptability are less likely to feel overwhelmed. Those who have belief systems that maintain maladaptive, unhelpful thought processes are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and overwhelm.

Feeling overwhelmed? Try some of these strategies:
1. Practice acceptance – Some degree of anxiety is “normal”, healthy, and motivating. It is what helps us get to appointments on time. It’s “normal” to experience some degree of anxiety when stressors are unfamiliar, unpredictable, and/or imminent. Anxiety, in itself, feels bad, but is not harmful and always passes. Think of it like a wave of the ocean; allow it to come in and ride it out.

2. Change your thoughts – We all have moments in which we increase our own anxiety by worrying about that which we cannot completely control. These thoughts are often unrealistic, inaccurate, or to some extent, unreasonable. Catch those thoughts, think about them and how they affect you, and change them to more helpful, adaptive thoughts.

3. Be in the “now” – Too much focus on worrying about what may or may not come and you will not be able to enjoy the present moment. So, schedule some time to plan for what is to come, but take in all that is your present moment and enjoy the present.

4. Take a deep breath – Practicing diaphragmatic breathing or other relaxation-inducing practice (e.g., progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery exercises, tai chi, yoga) can reduce stress by helping to encourage the relaxation response.

5. Behavioral activation – Take action. Engage in an activity you may enjoy, such as, taking a walk, listening to music, reading a book). Engage in problem-solving (In what ways might you address the stressors that are causing these feelings?)
With the end of the year approaching, it is common to experience anxiety. Whether it is a number of family obligations, preparing for winter holidays, or the frustration of circling around the mall parking lot on Christmas eve trying desperately to find a spot, acknowledge your stress and take steps to effectively cope.
Happy Holidays!
Dr. Deibler