The importance of balance between mind and body was understood by ancient Chinese medicine, which viewed holistic health as a yin-yang dynamic – placing emphasis on balance for a healthy life.

The fact is that our lives are in a constant state of change. Life is not static; it changes with every moment. ‘Our levels of rest, stress, and nutrition are constantly shifting. Whether we realise it or not, we are constantly altering ourselves so that we feel more grounded and whole.’^[1]

Of course, we all struggle to maintain that necessary balance but it’s important to remind ourselves that it’s OK to lose our footing. Equally important is the reminder that we can find that balance once again.

When we are struggling or feeling lost, confused or out of balance, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by feelings of negativity and pessimism, and believe that the world is working against us.

However, if we take a step back and foster a sense of curiosity about our feelings, we can begin to ask ourselves why we might be feeling a certain way.

Many of us are guilty of blaming our feelings on external circumstances. We might blame our boss for causing us stress, or a spouse or friend for not listening to us in a time of need. However, blame is rarely fruitful. Instead, it is worth exploring our internal environment and figuring out what might be happening within, and how that could be impacting our mental health and wellbeing.

Throughout this blog, we will consider the relationship between mind and body as it relates to mental health, and we will look at proven methods for improving our mental health with a physical health approach.

The Importance of Exercise

We live in a time where both physical and mental difficulties are met with almost immediate medical intervention. Unfortunately, many medications carry harmful or adverse side effects. This is not to say that one should not take medication if it is needed, but there are alternatives and preventative measures one can take in dealing with mental and physical illnesses, one of those being regular exercise. There is, in fact, evidence to suggest that exercise may be an intervention often neglected when it comes to mental health care.^[2]

Common mental health issues, like anxiety and depression, have been proven to be reduced by doing aerobic exercises such as jogging, swimming, cycling, walking, gardening, and dancing.^[3] In her article, Guszowska proposes that the reduction in these issues, and the reported improvement in mood, is due to improved blood circulation to the brain, specifically the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. This influences a person’s physiological reactivity to stress.’^[4]

According to Callaghan, exercise improves mental health by ‘reducing anxiety, depression, and negative mood, and by improving self-esteem and cognitive function.^[5]

The myriad of health benefits – both physical and mental – resulting from regular exercise should not be underestimated. Some of these benefits include:

• Reduced stress.
• Improved sleep.
• Increased libido.
• Improvements in mood.
• Increased energy.
• Increased stamina.
• Reduced tiredness.
• Reduced cholesterol levels.

Meditation

Yoga and meditation are commonly known to promote deep breathing and the relief of stored physical tension, which can translate to emotional tension. By incorporating yoga and meditation practices into your daily routine, you allow your mind and body to relax which, in turn, mediates the adverse effects of stress.^[6]

How Diet Influences our Mental Health

How we nourish our bodies has been found to strongly correlate to our mental health and wellbeing, according to a study published in 2014.^[7] The study examined behavioural factors relating to mental health, and found that consistently correlating behaviour was the level of consumption of fruits and vegetables. The study involved almost 14,000 participants aged 16 and over, including both men and women. It was found that higher consumption of nutrient-rich foods like fruits and vegetables was associated with ‘increased odds of high mental well-being and reduced odds of low mental wellbeing.’^[8]

The aforementioned study notes that mental health and wellbeing constitutes more than just the lack of illness, disease, or psychiatric pathology.^[9] It is also concerned with positivity, optimism, emotional resilience, positive interpersonal relationships, positive functioning, and a sense of agency and autonomy.^[10]

Serotonin

Our mental health and wellbeing is largely influenced by a neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, known as serotonin. Serotonin helps us in regulating our sleep and appetite, inhibiting pain, and mediating our moods.^[11] Though it is released in the brain, up to 95% of our serotonin is produced in the gastrointestinal tract, which is lined with about 100 million nerve cells. The functionality of these nerve cells and the production of serotonin is greatly influenced by the good bacteria within an area of the intestine known as the microbiome. It makes sense, then, that the quality of food that we introduce into our gut greatly influences our mental wellbeing, which is dependent on sufficient levels of serotonin.

Studies and research aren’t necessary when it comes to understanding the positive impact a nutrient-rich diet will have on your mind and body so mental health will also be improved. You can discover the beneficial effects yourself by increasing your intake of healthy foods and reducing your intake of unhealthy, highly processed foods. Notice your mood and energy levels, and any shifts that happen as a result of your dietary improvements.

Sources:

^[1] Spencer, J., 2008. Food for thought: the role of dietary flavonoids in enhancing human memory, learning and neuro-cognitive performance. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 67(2).

^[2] Callaghan, P., 2004. Exercise: a neglected intervention in mental health care?. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 11(4).

^[3] Guszkowska M.. Effects of exercise on anxiety, depression and mood [in Polish] Psychiatr Pol. 2004;38:611–620.

^[4] Guszkowska M.. Effects of exercise on anxiety, depression and mood [in Polish] Psychiatr Pol. 2004;38:611–620.

^[5] Callaghan, P., 2004. Exercise: a neglected intervention in mental health care?. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 11(4).

^[6] Desai, M., Kapadia, M. and Parikh, R., 2019. Yoga And Meditation In Promoting Mental Health. [ebook] Department of Psychiatry, Jaslok Hospital and Research Center, Mumbai, India. Available at: <https://www.actascientific.com/ASNE/pdf/ASNE-02-0100.pdf> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

^[7] Stranges, S., Samaraweera, P., Taggart, F., Kandala, N. and Stewart-Brown, S., 2014. Major health-related behaviours and mental well-being in the general population: the Health Survey for England. BMJ Open, [online] 4(9). Available at: <https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/9/e005878> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

^[8] Stranges, S., Samaraweera, P., Taggart, F., Kandala, N. and Stewart-Brown, S., 2014. Major health-related behaviours and mental well-being in the general population: the Health Survey for England. BMJ Open, [online] 4(9). Available at: <https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/9/e005878> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

^[9] Stranges, S., Samaraweera, P., Taggart, F., Kandala, N. and Stewart-Brown, S., 2014. Major health-related behaviours and mental well-being in the general population: the Health Survey for England. BMJ Open, [online] 4(9). Available at: <https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/9/e005878> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

^[10]Stranges, S., Samaraweera, P., Taggart, F., Kandala, N. and Stewart-Brown, S., 2014. Major health-related behaviours and mental well-being in the general population: the Health Survey for England. BMJ Open, [online] 4(9). Available at: <https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/9/e005878> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

^[11] MD, E., 2015. Nutritional Psychiatry: Your Brain On Food – Harvard Health Blog. [online] Harvard Health Blog. Available at: <https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626> [Accessed 29 May 2020].

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“Anxiety for me is extreme negativity, a general sense of aching. Not like a muscle aching, but an aching in my soul. It makes it difficult to appreciate myself.”

Let’s face it – anxiety can be downright crippling sometimes. Rumination, excessive worrying, sweaty palms, heart racing, dizziness and more can make anxiety a nightmare come true for many of us. If you have found it difficult to manage your anxiety, you’re not alone; the ADAA states that approximately 40 million adults in the United States experience anxiety – wow, that’s a lot! For many with anxiety disorders, medication is a vital component. Depending on your needs, holistic activities such as mindfulness and meditation can be beneficial either alone or alongside your medicinal plan.

Mindfulness and meditation have become more widely practiced in the United States now than ever before. There are so many amazing benefits of mindfulness and meditation that have been found through numerous research studies, especially for those with anxiety:

1. Quieting the overactive mind
2. Detaching from thoughts that once had control over you
3. New pathways are formed in the brain, opening a healthier way of thinking
4. With a calmer mind, the body can relax, too – which means you may experience less chronic pain, digestive issues, and more
5. Practice can be done at anytime, anywhere, with no cost

According to the National Public Radio (NPR), meditation has been shown to improve conditions for those with anxiety, depression, and pain, and that’s just after a review of 47 studies published in the journal JAMA International Medicine. What’s even better is that mindfulness and meditation are non-invasive practices, meaning that you can feel safe and comfortable, with no intrusion of needles. For many, however, holistic practices such as these work best alongside medication and other interventions for optimal outcomes.

If you haven’t already, speak with a professional from a reputable treatment center to learn more about how you can incorporate mindfulness and meditation into your treatment program.

Trauma is most often the root cause of many emotional, behavioral, and mood disorders. Until you can heal your trauma, you will find great difficulty finding the healing you need to live a life of recovery, health, and wellness. At Khiron House, we provide effective residential treatment and cutting edge therapies which seek to transform mind, body, and spirit from the effects of trauma. Call us today for information. UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours) USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).

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The following are some excellent tips for creating your own family this holiday season:

• See what’s going on at your treatment center. Do they have an event that you can attend to meet others in recovery who may not have family? Talk to a leader in your program to learn more about holiday opportunities.
• Host your own get together. Invite those you’ve met in your program to get to know them better and celebrate. After all – when it comes to recovery, you’re all in this together.
• Recognize that family can be one person – even a pet. Many people have this grand envision that families all over the world, of at least 10 people are more, are getting together in harmony. This isn’t true! In fact, more and more people are creating their own families – even if for a brief while it only includes your partner, your pet, or a good friend.
• Celebrate your own progress. One of the most important people whom you need to get to know and love is…..you guessed it…. yourself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending time alone this holiday season, playing some “feel-good” music and cooking up a beautiful holiday dinner that you can eat as leftovers for the next week. Many people do this, and it can even make you a stronger person in doing so.

A 2016 study published in the journal Substance Abuse highlighted the importance of social support in building one’s sense of community in recovery. Find people who want you to succeed, and who are trying to push forward in their recovery journeys as well. You never know who may become part of your family until you try.

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Hopelessness Can Be Transformed

As much as hopelessness might be a part of trauma and living with the manifestations of trauma, finding hope, restoring hope, and becoming more hopeful is part of recovery from trauma. Through treatment, therapy, and our ongoing recovery, hope becomes part of our lives once more. Each moment we find healing, we find a little more hope in ourselves and in the world around us. We realize that our traumatic experiences, no matter how terrible, don’t place the rest of our lives in a vacuum. Trauma recovery takes our life from a dull greyscale into full color, transforming our perceptions from limited to unlimited, absolute to infinity.

How Can I Start Finding Hope Today?

The very prospect of healing from trauma should inspire hope. When your mental and physical health have been deeply affected by trauma it can be hard to hold onto hope for a long time until you find healing. Not every area of your life is hopeless. Look for hope where you find it most, even if it is external to you. Watch happy videos. Surround yourself with happy colors. Read inspiring stories of hope. All hope and all possibility is yours in recovery. A better life is waiting.

Stop the cycle of merry-go-round treatment and find the solution you’re looking for in trauma treatment. Through effective residential treatment, Khiron House helps you find the path you need toward health and wellness in recovery. For information, call us today. UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours). USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).

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You will be stronger than you feel right now. Each day that you work on your trauma through therapy, treatment, and recovery, you will become stronger. With each tear you shed, each painful memory you walk through, each traumatic memory you reprogram, each moment of healing you bring to your body, mind, and spirit, you will grow stronger. Trauma is only as strong as we allow it to be. When we live our life without recovery from trauma, we allow trauma to have all of the power over our life.

Finding Strength In Surrender

Holding on to whatever we have to keep it together one day longer isn’t a sign of strength, though it certainly takes strength to keep going. There’s a spiritual paradox when it comes to strength. In order to find our greatest strength, we often have to surrender. Admitting that we don’t have the strength we need to operate at our best in life is one of our greatest moments of strength because we overcome the powerful components of shame, pain, and pride.

Save your pride for the moments that count. Ask for help today.

Stop the cycle of merry-go-round treatment and find the solution you’re looking for in trauma treatment. Through effective residential treatment, Khiron House helps you find the path you need toward health and wellness in recovery. For information, call us today. UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours). USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).

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You don’t have to try and jam in a bunch of “epic” summer moments to qualify your summer as memorable. You don’t have to make your life seem or be anything other than what you want it to be or how it is. If you are living with symptoms of anxiety or depression due to the expectations of summer, there is something much deeper going on beneath the non-sun kissed surface of your seemingly summer deprived life. FOMO, the fear of missing out, comes from living in comparison. Comparison comes from thinking you are not good enough, that someone or something else is better than you; moreover, that you are missing something. Believing that there is something deficient in you is not something that you are born with- it is something that you are given over the course of your lifetime.

The best way to kick the fear of missing out to the curb is to stop thinking you are missing anything at all. Living in trauma recovery as a trauma survivor, just “stopping thinking” can be incredibly hard to do. Trauma takes away pieces of your life and can make you feel as if you will never be whole again. For years you might live under the belief that you can never be “fixed” or “completed” because you will always be “broken” by trauma. However, the longer you work toward your recovery, the more you will grow to understand you have nothing to fear about missing. Everything you have felt you are missing you are creating for yourself because you are a strong, courageous, empowered human being. Summer is just one of many seasons of life. You’re in recovery for a lifetime. All of life has the adventure of summer.

Trauma is most often the root cause of many emotional, behavioral, and mood disorders. Until you can heal your trauma, you will find great difficulty finding the healing you need to live a life of recovery, health, and wellness. At Khiron House, we provide effective residential treatment and cutting edge therapies which seek to transform mind, body, and spirit from the effects of trauma. Call us today for information. UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours) USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).

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Through her insightful, easy to understand writings, Pema is touching on one of the most difficult yet important lessons we come upon in trauma recovery. Letting go of the past and letting go of the future is incredibly challenging. How do we let go of pain we feel so realistically in our minds, bodies, and spirits, but cannot actually hold onto with our hands? The frustration is so complex and real that it drives us to seek that tangibility somewhere else, namely security and certainty. Unfortunately, security and certainty can be deceiving. Like attempting to carry a fistful of sand, we hold our grip so tightly in a manner which prevents us from seeing the many ways even single grains of sand- single moments of security and certainty- are slipping through the cracks between our fingers. What we think we are clutching so dearly to is actually escaping us all of the time. We are only satisfied by the illusion of the captivity until we realize we don’t have all the control and certainty we were hoping for.

This is very much the experience of living in trauma without living in recovery from trauma or seeking trauma healing through treatment. Try as we may to find safety and security, we end up looking for it in all the “wrong places”; moreover, the places which never provide us the security we need. Our reasons for seeking safety are innumerable and understandable, which we will look at in our next blog. Once we understand our attachment to these needs we can let them go- ultimately resulting in the peace and serenity we desperately crave.

Trauma is most often the root cause of many emotional, behavioral, and mood disorders. Until you can heal your trauma, you will find great difficulty finding the healing you need to live a life of recovery, health, and wellness. At Khiron House, we provide effective residential treatment and cutting edge therapies which seek to transform mind, body, and spirit from the effects of trauma. Call us today for information. UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours) USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).

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It is also said that recovery is progressive. Recovery is the way we live our lives to fight the progression of trauma effects and the effects of all of trauma’s manifestations. Living in recovery means living in a way that progresses our healing, progresses our trauma resolution efforts, and progresses our freedom from the imprisonment which trauma can create. If we care to progress our recovery, we have to live in such a way which disallows the effects of our trauma to progress. Sometimes that can mean removing trauma from our lives.

Of course, we cannot erase our memories, delete trauma from our muscles, or pretend like nothing ever happened and that said “nothing” has no effect on us, even though it never happened. Trauma is a part of our lives. Through recovery, trauma becomes part of the past so we can live in the present, instead of being a living past preventing us from being present. Unfortunately, there will be people in our lives who keep our trauma alive, continue acting in traumatizing ways, and challenge the sanctity of the safety we work hard to create in our trauma recovery. Removing trauma from our lives can mean more than living differently- it can mean living without certain people in our lives at all. If you have someone in your life who actively triggers your trauma, abuses you, or acts in traumatizing ways— permission granted. You don’t have to live that way.

Trauma recovery is about empowerment which benefits the greater good of your life and the lives of others. Having relationships which cause undue yet ongoing emotional distress doesn’t have to be part of your trauma recovery, especially if these relationships were part of your trauma. You have suffered long enough and are doing incredible work to end your suffering as much as possible. You have permission to live your life in a safe way which brings you peace and serenity. Together with your trauma therapist, you can eliminate relationships from your life which do not contribute to your recovery.

Khiron House is the only private treatment center in the UK who independently publishes an annual report on outcomes. We believe in the treatment we’re providing because we see the results every single year. Effective residential treatment utilizing cutting edge treatment and therapy options puts an end to the roundabout revolving door of treatment many people suffer. For information on our programs, call UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours) USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours)

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Your recovery is going to inspire many people in a variety of ways. The more people who are encouraged by your strength, confidence, and bravery, the more you will realize how transcendent what you are doing in trauma recovery truly is. If there is a particular person in your life, perhaps someone who is an abuser or a cause of trauma, you might find yourself thinking, If I can change, so can they. If I can change, they can change, and we can have a happy, healthy, normal relationship again. There is an unfortunate caveat to being a warrior of trauma recovery- just because we are choosing to recover and change, not everyone will. The fear of change is so great that your changes might inspire someone to feel even more afraid of confronting themselves and changing the way they live their life. As you grow, learn, heal, and evolve, you’ll see that certain people stay remarkably the same. How they treat you, how they treat themselves, may not change. One of the great powers which comes with the empowerment of trauma recovery is being able to choose who you want in your life. If someone continues to act in ways that are traumatizing, abusive, or intentionally triggering, you have the power to say “No more” and remove that area of trauma from your life.

We’ll discuss this more in our next blog.

Khiron House is the only private treatment center in the UK who independently publishes an annual report on outcomes. We believe in the treatment we’re providing because we see the results every single year. Effective residential treatment utilizing cutting edge treatment and therapy options puts an end to the roundabout revolving door of treatment many people suffer. For information on our programs, call UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours) USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).

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Secrets do indeed keep you sick. Trauma recovery is all about resolving the anchors of the past which keep you tied to somewhere in time other than the present. Keeping secrets is like keeping our soul tethered to more moments of shame, blame, guilt, and fear, which extend beyond our trauma. Many of our trauma experiences include secret-keeping. Keeping secrets is often part of the abuse cycle, part of sexual assault, and witnessing violence. When we are forced to keep a secret, we are forced to deny the liberation of our authenticity. Secrets are small parts of our soul-experiences which we banish away in punishment.

The moment we choose to seek trauma recovery, we choose to release our secrets over time. Trauma recovery gives us the safety, security, and space we need to tell our secrets with confidence, heal the negativity associated with them, and let ourselves heal.

Providing effective residential care and cutting edge treatments, seeking trauma recovery at Khiron House offers healing for many common mental health problems and manifestations of trauma. If you haven’t found the treatment solution you need to sustain a life of recovery, your journey is here waiting for you to begin. For information, please call UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours) USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).

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