Treatments and Therapies

Benefits of grateful thinking

August 25, 2015 By Kay Walker

Whether you’re depressed or not, thinking negatively about life or yourself, from time to time, is simply part of being human. Unfortunately, no one has ever figured out how to be perpetually happy. Though most of us would like to.

The truth is, being upset or depressed is a survival mechanism that your brain uses to tell you to take an action that moves you from pain to pleasure. This is the brain’s job. So, it helps to learn how to break away from negative thoughts and to think more positively.

One strategy that will help you set negative self talk aside is the practice of bring gracious. Conjuring up feelings of gratitude towards people, situations or objects can help you by either: a) temporarily setting aside your negative thoughts, or, b) completely shifting your context of your current situation.

This quick article shares why and how to practice gratitude so you can get happy on-demand. Or, at the very least, understand that there are things to live for.

The benefits of grateful thinking

Your brain on gratitude

Even though it often seems like you have many thoughts reeling through your mind at the same time, what’s cool about your brain is that it can only think one thought in one given moment of time. This means, pondering positive stimuli means no attention allotted for negative thoughts.

Being grateful is a positive mind state. And when you focus your awareness on a memory, person, or object that you are grateful for, your brain activates blood flow in brain regions that increase production of a crucial “happy” brain chemical called dopamine. This quick release sends your body a quick flood of feeling good emotions.

In 2009, the National Institutes of Health examined brains of subjects thinking thoughts of gratitude. They had higher levels of hypothalamus activity and increased dopamine levels.

How to be grateful

Many experts suggest keeping a gratitude journal and logging what you are grateful for each day to help you cultivate this type of positive thinking, so it comes more naturally. This can be a useful practice. A study from UC Davis (2003) reported that adults who keep gratitude journals are more determined, attentive, enthusiastic and have higher energy levels than those who don’t.

But, being grateful doesn’t have to be even this complicated. It’s as simple as thinking about a memory, person, or object for as little as five minutes a day. Follow these quick steps when you feel negative or catch yourself putting yourself down:

Step 1: Stop all activities.

Step 2: Do whatever you need to, to take a five or ten minute “time-out”. You may need to close your eyes. You may need to physically leave your environment.

Step 3: Inhale and exhale deeply while you think about a memory, a person, or an object, that you feel blessed to have in your life. **If it helps to look at a physical object, like a picture, you can use that, as an aid**

Follow these three steps whenever you need to or want to. The more you do it the more you will help your brain stimulate the release of dopamine. This is good news, because when dopamine is released in the brain your brain responds by saying “I want more”. [It’s the same chemical that’s produced when alcohol is ingested, which is also how addictions occur.] But this is a a very healthy addiction to cultivate.

And if you’re in such a bad mood you can’t think of anything to be grateful for, refer to this quick list:

Think of a moment in your life where you accomplished something you are proud of
Think about the birth of your child or children
Think about your first kiss or your first love
Think about the day you married your significant other
Think of how grateful you are to be in a body that works
Think of a moment where someone made a difference in your life
Think of a pet that you love

What’s important to remember is that being grateful is not about putting others down by thinking thoughts. It’s about acknowledge the incredible life you’ve led and lead.

Why you crave sugar when you’re depressed

August 18, 2015 By Kay Walker

There is a close connection between the foods you eat, your mood and your brain chemistry. When one of the three components malfunctions the others often do too. This is why many people with major depression or mood disorders have intense cravings for unhealthy foods that are high in sugar, and/or struggle with obesity issues.

This article explains the physical relationships between eating sugary foods, what it does to your brain and how it affects your mood, and what you can do to restore yourself to balance.

Why you crave sugar when you’re depressed

If you’re reaching for foods high in sugar (candy, chocolate, ice cream, soda) or refined carbs (bread, chips, crackers, potatoes) you likely have a beta-endorphin deficiency. These are brain chemicals that allow you to feel a sense of well-being, self-esteem, give you a tolerance for managing physical and emotional pain, and encourage you to feel like you want to connect socially with people. In other words, they make you feel confident and positive.

Eating sugar stimulates the release of beta-endorphin chemicals. This is why you crave sugar when you aren’t getting enough. Your brain is imbalanced and it’s sending signals to you to say “hey, my beta-endorphins are low, send me something I can work with”. It’s also why many people feel inclined to reach for alcohol and heroin, because, like sugar, these substances all known as “opiates”, have the same effects. (So does the pain reliever morphine).

But consuming large amounts of sugar only temporarily boosts your beta-endorphin levels. And this is a major problem because when you receive a giant boost of energy from sugar your body runs out quickly and goes looking for more. You become hungry for sugar again and intensely crave it.

Overtime, the pattern becomes worse and harder to control. It leads to sugar-addicted cycle that affects long-term mood and weight. It can also lead to binge eating disorder.

You do want to raise your beta-endorphin levels, but slowly. Here’s how:

Eat complex carbohydrates and avoid refined ones: Your brain desperately needs complex carbohydrates to function. So avoiding them is a terrible thing to do. And, eating too many refined carbs is also bad because it throws you brain chemistry out of balance and ultimately this affects your food choices.

The difference between the two types of carbs has to do with the level of sugar each one pushes into your blood. When you eat a food, the carbohydrates in it are converted to sugar, ( aka glucose or blood sugar), which provides energy that fuels your body.

Foods with refined carbohydrates are already broken down. Your body doesn’t have to do any work to process them. What that really means is they go through your system quickly. You receive a boost in energy, which allows you to be highly productive, sometimes agitated and overstimulated.

The problem is, you expend the energy quickly cause you use it faster and then your body is looking for more. Without more sugar your body will experience a major drop in energy. You’ll start to feel weak, fogging, and depressed and you you’ll crave more sugar to give you energy again.

On the other hand, complex carbohydrates (listed below) give you a slow release of glucose so your body does not run out of energy and you feel full longer.

So, you want to avoid these foods: Cookies, ice cream, cakes, pastries, chocolate, candy, chips, white rice, white pasta, white bread, potatoes

Eat more of these foods: Whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, brown rice, farro, amaranth, barley, oats, starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes. It’s very important that they are whole grain not whole wheat (whole wheat products are usually processed and contain a great deal of sugar)

As a general rule, 10% or less of your daily intake of calories should come from refined carbs.

Making the switch from refined to complex carbohydrates can be very difficult if you’ve become used a to sugary diet. Start this process by make very small changes. Replace some foods at first, and slowly move towards a better diet.

Remember that your body and brain are used to a certain type of pattern, so sometimes it can be very difficult to stop the cycle. This is why small changes overtime work better than quitting refined carbohydrates immediately.

How your digestive system affects your mood

July 15, 2015 By Kay Walker

If you’ve seen a health professional (or professionals) for depression and no one has asked you the question: “Are you regular?”, you need to understand how having a healthy bowel is related to your mood. (Aside from the fact that having irregular bowel movements is uncomfortable).

I learned about the connection in 2008. I was taking a low dose of an antidepressant (prescribed to me during my teen years) that I was trying to wean off of, and went to see a naturopathic doctor.

He asked me how often I passed a bowel movement. I explained I was constantly irregular: “Sometimes I only go once a week!” I told him. He explained that the situation was problematic and was likely causing my depressed mood. He prescribed me a combination of healthy bowel supplements, which I took by mouth. I started having daily bowel movements. My mood improved and I was able to discontinue my antidepressants. At the time, I never felt happier.

Your digestive system impacts your mood

Did you know, your body has two brains?

Your gut is the component of your digestive track that allows your body to digest food and process it into waste and eliminate it, by sending it out your anus.

What most people don’t know about the gut is that it works independently. It’s the only organ that works without being controlled by your cranial brain (the one inside your skull). That means, it’s also wired with a network of neurons (brain cells). There are approximately 400 to 600 million neurons in your gut.

For this reason, the gut is commonly called the “second brain” or “gut brain”. And it’s pre-empted a new school of research called neurogastroenterology.

How the cranial brain and gut brain interact

Your gut brain manufactures approximately 30 neurotransmitters (brain chemicals). It talks to the brain in your head, your cranial brain, by sending messages through a region at the based of your brain that extends to abdomen, called the vagus nerve.

Your gut brain sends signals to your cranial brain that affect feelings of sadness, stress and that influence your thinking processes. Both brains produce the neurotransmitter (chemical messenger) serotonin. And get this: Your gut produces 95 percent of all the serotonin in your body. Your guts also makes 50% of the dopamine (another feel good brain chemical) in your body.

So, are you regular?

Frequency: Are you passing a bowel anywhere from 1-3 times a day. These averages suggest a normal range, though some individuals go slightly less (3-5 times per week) and some go more (up to 4 times per day). As you long as you are going at least every other day and you feel comfortable (you’re not dealing with stomach pain or discomfort) it’s likely not affecting your mood.

Appearance: Your bowel movements should be a shade of brown. They are brown because your liver produces a substance called bile, which helps your body break down and eliminate food. If your stool (your poop) is black or has red in it, you may have blood in your stool. This may suggest other serious illnesses.

Ways to improve your bowel health

If you are irregular, you’ll want to tell your doctor. You’ll be able to learn ways to get your bowels back in working order.

You may also want to consider speaking to a naturopathic doctor. They may be more familiar with your the gut brain and cranial brain connection and will be able to suggest supplements to improve the function of your digestive system.

Supplements they may recommend are:

PREBIOTICS AND PROBIOTICS

Prebiotics are non-digestible fibers found in various foods that are used by the gut in the growth of bio cultures. They are food for an essential good bacteria your digestive system requires to function optimally, called probiotics. When prebiotics are present in the gut they induce metabolic activity, driving the growth of healthy bacteria in the intestine. They are found in foods which contain a source of dietary fiber called inulin.

Are dietary fibers that you don’t digest but that the gut uses to promote the growth of good bacteria in the gut. They are food for probiotics, which are good bacteria located in your gut.

Recent studies have also shown prebiotics and good bacterial gut balance play a direct role in mental health. Individuals who consume prebiotics on a daily basis have fewer issues with anxiety, depression and stress. In fact, when their saliva was tested, it contained lower levels of cortisol. High levels of this hormone have been linked directly to mental health disorders.

Mindfulness exercises for depression

July 10, 2015 By Kay Walker

One form of therapy that helps with depression is mindfulness. It has been show as a highly effective method to help resolve the symptoms of depression. (See mindfulness-based cognitive therapy article)

Mindfulness exercises for depression

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the act of maintaining moment-by-moment awareness of your thoughts, feelings, the sensations your body experiences, as well as, your surroundings. It involves being non-judgmental of each experience that you observe. From this perspective there is no morality, no “right” or “wrong”.

The practice comes from the fundamentals of Buddhist meditation. In 1979 a secularized version of mindfulness was used in Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), that was launched at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

This new form of mindfulness can also be practiced without mediation. It is done while you conduct yourself as you would normally, though you do it with a heightened sense of awareness to what’s going on during the present moment.

What’s the purpose of mindfulness?

The purpose of mindfulness is to heighten your sense of awareness of yourself. This way you learn to see yourself from a perspective an outside view. You see in yourself as another person may experience you. The notion is that when you learn to see yourself more clearly you can learn how to deal with your thoughts, feelings and behaviors in a way that is proactive and beneficial for what you truly desire.

Mindfulness training teaches you:

How to notice what you experience at any given moment. Being in a mindful state is like observing an object under a microscope. You don’t just see the object, you see all facets of the object.
Be aware of your sensations and your breathing, and avoid reacting to negative emotions.
Recognize your thoughts and how they create your emotional experience. Learn that your thoughts and feelings change, and are not based in reality.
Get more joy out of life by being hyper-focused on the experience of life.

A quick exercise in mindfulness: An easy way to understand mindfulness is to take five minutes to do this quick exercise:

Prepare a small segment of orange. If you don’t have an orange you can use a different piece of fruit, or a small piece of food (like chocolate).
Set a five-minute timer.
Sit in a quiet place with little distractions.
From the moment you start the timer you will spend five minutes examining the orange (or piece of food). Look at it as if you are looking at it under a microscope. Observe the texture of its peel. Observe it’s pulp. Observe the color. Smell the orange. Now put the orange in your mouth. Feel the way it feels. Take a bite. Taste it but don’t indulge in the flavor. Mindfulness is about observing how something is without judgement. If you have thoughts about how good it tastes acknowledge your thoughts and bring your awareness back to the orange. Experience the orange for the entire five minutes.

Spending five minutes observing an orange may seem silly. The point is to learn how to refine your awareness. It’s also to learn to accept how things are, to accept reality without judging it. Mindfulness practice helps you to understand why you do the things you do. When you understand that you are doing something, or what thoughts are involved in making you behave in ways you don’t want to, you can learn to choose new ways of handling situations.

What is: Mindfulness?

June 29, 2015 By Kay Walker

What is mindfulness?

The practice comes from the fundamentals of Buddhist meditation. Though, it can be practiced during daily life away from being in a meditative state.

Since 1979 a secularized version of mindfulness was used in Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), that was launched at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

What’s the purpose of mindfulness?

Mindfulness training teaches you:

How to notice what you’re experience in a given moment. Being in a mindful state is like observing an object under a microscope. You don’t just see it you see it’s particles.
Be aware of your sensations and your breathing, and how not to react to negative emotions.
Recognize your thoughts and how they create your emotional experience. Learn that your thoughts and feelings change and are not based in reality.
Get more joy out of life by being hyper-focused on the experience of life.

A quick exercise in mindfulness:

An easy way to understand mindfulness is to take 5 minutes to do this quick exercise.

Prepare a small segment of orange. If you don’t have an orange you can use a different piece of fruit, or a small piece of food (like chocolate).
Set a 5 minute timer.
Sit in a quiet place with little distractions.
From the moment you start the timer you will spend 5 minutes examining the orange (or piece of food). Look at it as if you are looking at it under a microscope. Observe the texture of it’s peel. Observe it’s pulp. Observe the color. Smell the orange. Now put the orange in your mouth. Feel the way it feels. Take a bite. Taste it but don’t indulge in the flavor. Mindfulness is about observing how something is without judgement. If you have thoughts about how good it tastes acknowledge your thoughts and bring your awareness back to the orange. Experience the orange for the entire 5 minutes.

Spending 5 minutes observing an orange may seem silly. The point is to learn how to refine your awareness. It’s also to learn to accept how things are, to accept reality without judging it.

Mindfulness practice helps you to understand why you do the things you do. When you understand that you are doing something, or what thoughts are involved in making you behave in ways you don’t want to, you can learn to choose new ways of handling situations.