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Embracing Your Comfort Zone Can Help Rewire Your Brain/Create New Healthy Habits

The AHA! Team — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 08:10:41 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #485) and blog, I talk to bestselling author, editor and journalist Adam Bornstein about his latest book You Can’t Screw This Up, the mental health benefits of enjoying food, the science of self-perception, the power of releasing mental baggage, why most diet plans fail, and so much more! Adam is a New York Times best-selling author and an award-winning fitness and nutrition journalist and editor. Named “one of the most influential people in health”, Bornstein is the CEO and founder of Born Fitness. Previously, he was the editorial director for LIVESTRONG.COM and the fitness editor for Men’s Health magazine. His first book, The Impact! Body Plan, was a fitness bestseller, and that was followed by The Men’s Health Diet (with Stephen Perrine), The Women’s Health Big Book of Abs, and The Men’s Health Big Book: Getting Abs. Adam has articles featured in publications such as The New York Times, ESPN the Magazine, Forbes, and Fast Company. He also has a monthly column in Men’s Fitness magazine called “Learn It.” Bornstein has appeared on Good Morning America, The Early Show, and E! News. He also blogs at bornfitness.com to discuss all topics related to health, fitness, and nutrition. As Adam notes in his book You Can’t Screw This Up, the diet industry is great at making us follow more diets, not making us leave dieting behind. But why is it that the more diet books and nutrition information we publish, the more unhealthy we become? What is going on here? We tend to associate health with extreme cost and sacrifice. However, even though change can be hard, improving our health doesn’t have to be painful. This has warped our belief on what it takes to become healthier. But the reality is that we don’t need another restrictive, unrealistic plan. We need tools that help us enjoy what we eat (including takeout!) and be healthier at the same time. In his incredibly easy-to-follow book, Adam gives us these tools, showing us how upgrading our health and losing weight for good requires us to turn our back on the typical dieting culture by following successful habits and frameworks not typically seen in nutrition and fitness. As Adam notes in his book, once we learn a better way to build healthy habits, we can leave behind the shame and guilt of most plans and make the healthy lifestyle changes we’ve been chasing. Our ability to create healthier habits relies not on abandoning our comfort zone, but expanding it. This means doing some things that are new and challenging, while keeping some things that are old and familiar, based on where and how we thrive as individuals. Yet one of the biggest barriers to this approach is our self-perception. So many of us have a mental boundary when it comes to food and health. Diets have taught us to expect a level of perfection and adherence that is not realistic or possible, and we end up just waiting for failure to come. Dieting culture has also taught us to measure success using ephemeral things like a number on a scale, counting calories or eating superfoods, which only add to our stress. This, in turn, affects how we feel mentally and physically, impacting our ability to become healthier and taking away from what we should really be focusing on: what we think of ourselves. Self-perception plays a key role in our ability to change our behaviors and improve our health When we want to change, we can’t just wait to become motivated, take action and change. The research on behavioral change shows us that we need to start with our relationship with our selves. If we don’t think we can be healthy or succeed, or if we do not fundamentally like who we are, then we are setting ourselves up for failure even if we experience short term success. Improving our self-perception starts with understanding what it truly means to be healthy. This means being vulnerable with ourselves, having self-compassion, and developing a positive self-perception; it is the understanding that “I am a healthy person, I am just figuring this out as I go along.” We know we are not a finished product; we are works-in-progress, not failures. This starts with setting small, easy goals, which are the foundation of successful behavioral change. Dieting tends to throw people in the deep end and then makes them feel weak for failing. However, when we set small, attainable health goals, we are far more likely to reach our goals and feel empowered to continue moving forward—the research consistently shows that success breeds success. We can go fast by starting slow! It is also important to remember than no diet works for everyone. Different ways of eating work for different people. Research shows that the key factor when it comes to healthy eating is what is sustainable—the way of eating we can maintain for the longest period of time. The question isn’t what food we need to remove or what dietary tribe we need to follow; rather, it is what is sustainable for us in the short and long term. For more on healthy habits and dieting culture, listen to my podcast with Adam (episode #485) and check out his amazing book You Can’t Screw This Up. Podcast Highlights 2:14 Adam’s journey 3:50 The truth behind dieting & diet books 7:10 Adam’s amazing new book You Can’t Screw This Up 12:24, 20:00 The science of self-perception 20:45 How the wellness industry manipulates our emotions 21:40 How shame & guilt impact our health 24:20 The importance of setting easy goals 26:34 We are incredibly resilient! 29:24 It’s okay to eat takeout! 31:50 The power of community meals 36:30 Why we should allow ourselves to enjoy eating This podcast and blog are for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. We always encourage each person to make the decision that seems best for their situation with the guidance of a medical professional. To read the original article click here.

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How Many Hugs a Day Does a Person Need? (Plus Top Hug Benefits)

AHA Publisher — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 08:00:15 +0000

Rachel Keck, MS via Dr. Axe – A hug is universal. Hugs are so versatile, people all around the world use them to express everything from joy and affection to sadness and despair. During times of social, emotional and mental turmoil, individuals seek out the comfort and social bonding that hugs bestow. Some people even believe a hug is at the heart of humanity since it has the ability to transcend race, religion, gender and age. In fact, being a professional hugger and/or cuddler is a legitimate job. Professional huggers and cuddlers provide hug benefits to people during all different points of their lives. For instance, some specialize in using this touch therapy on premature babies in neonatal intensive care units. Other hug and cuddle professionals focus on nursing home or hospice situations, while others are available for hire by anyone in need of human touch. Similarly, Ken Nwadike Jr., a peace activist and founder of the Free Hugs Project, attends rallies and protests to spread love and compassion. During the 2016 protests in Charlotte, Nwadike wore a “free hugs” T-shirt and was captured sharing hugs during a time of riots, protesting and intense emotion. How to Hug During a Pandemic During a pandemic, keeping social distance is important. We also know about the importance of human connection, so if you’re going to hug a loved one, there are ways you can do it more safely. For starters, both huggers should wear masks. During your embrace, put your faces in opposite directions in order to reduce the risk of exposure. For children, hugging an adult around the waist is safer. You should also keep your hugs brief during a pandemic. It’s also helpful to wash hands after hugging and avoid making contact with someone’s skin. Although the idea of changing up your hugging may seem strange, it’s best to make these little adjustments right now so we can continue occasional close contact with loved ones while keeping them safe. How Many Hugs a Day Does a Person Need? How many hugs a day does a person need? Although not technically proven by science, the late psychotherapist Virginia Satir once said: “We need four hugs a day for survival. We need eight hugs a day for maintenance. We need 12 hugs a day for growth.” Although these numbers aren’t an exact science, it suggests that we could probably all stand to give (and receive) more hugs every day. There is a pretty large body of research proving the importance of hugs and physical contact. It’s not only the amount of hugs you give or receive in a day, but the amount of time that the hug lasts that’s important. While the average length of a hug is about three seconds, some researchers suggest that longer hugs, lasting 20 seconds or more, are even more therapeutic for the body and mind. The science behind a longer hug being better comes from the oxytocin release that occurs during an extended hug. This “love hormone” is able to calm our anxiety and ease our fears. Benefits of Hugs In order to understand the benefits of hugs, we have to first take a look at the sensory pathway involved. When an individual is hugged, the sensory receptors in the skin are activated. There are several sensory receptors within the skin, and they respond to touch or distortion on the skin. Along with the sensory receptors, there are also sensory nerves that innervate the skin and respond to touch. One group in particular, the C-tactile afferents, play a major role in the effects of hugging and touch. Research shows that C-tactile afferents are found in hairy skin and respond optimally to a low-intensity, stroking touch, and they have been shown to fire most strongly to what people perceive as pleasant touch. These sensory nerves also play a prominent role in the touch hypothesis. This hypothesis states that the sensory nerves are developed to signal the rewarding value of physical contact. Once activated, the sensory receptors and nerves transduce the mechanical stimulation into electrical and chemical signals that travel along the peripheral nerve to the spinal cord and continue onto the opposite side of the brain. Sensory pathways activate brain regions associated with: Social bonding Pleasure Pain Now that we’ve got a little pathway education under our belts, let’s take a look at the fun part: hug benefits. 1. Vital for Healthy Childhood Development Ever wonder what a hug does? Turns out, hugs/human contact are a vital first part of life. Interaction through touch is so crucial to the human experience, especially to a child’s well-being. The sense of touch is widely believed to be the first of the senses that develops in utero. Immediately following the birth and the early stages of life, physical contact (skin-to-skin) between the mother/caregiver and the infant is crucial for child development. That’s why whether you’re having a natural childbirth or C-section, getting that mother-to-child, skin-to-skin contact as soon as possible is so very important. The touch of the mother enhances feelings of attachment, security and positive emotions. A 2010 study showed that babies with affectionate mothers grew up to be happy, resilient, less stressed and less anxious adults. Studies using EEG to measure brain activity have shown cuddling increases brain responses when infants are presented with displays of affection from parents, which may cause lasting effects on the way the brain builds connections. These interactions and new-forming brain connections enable children to learn how to manage stressful situations on their own and how to manage their emotions appropriately. On the other hand, children with little affection or skin-to-skin contact following birth have been shown to have cognitive, emotional and physical issues, as well as have an increase in cortisol levels. (Cortisol is the hormone commonly associated with stress.) In 2015, a study done at Notre Dame found that children experiencing just a small amount of touching and hugging in early infancy grew up to have worse health and more emotional problems compared to kids experiencing more hugs. This illustrates the damaging effects of a lack of affection. 2. Boosts Oxytocin Following activation of the C-tactile afferents, the “love” hormone, oxytocin, is released from the neurons projecting from the hypothalamus, the region of the brain that is part of the limbic system or reward system. It is responsible for regulation of many of the metabolic processes of the autonomic nervous system. Oxytocin is made within the hypothalamus and is largely known for its effects on social bonding. Studies indicate that neurons that produce oxytocin project widely throughout the brain, including into regulatory regions associated with social interaction, fear, aggression, calm and stress. While much of the oxytocin that is released acts on various structures that have an impact outside of the brain, some of the oxytocin remains within the brain and influences behavior, mood and physiology by acting on the limbic (emotion) center, stimulating the feeling of contentment, decreasing anxiety/stress and increasing social bonding. 3. Provides Immune System Support The increase of oxytocin also helps the effectiveness of the immune system. Yes, that’s right: Hugging can be considered a natural immune system booster. Hugging induces the “stress buffering effect” in which an individual who is hugged often is less likely to become sick due to stress-induced illness. Oxytocin acts on the pituitary gland to decrease the stress hormone cortisol. Along with a decrease in cortisol, the social support through physical contact also allows an individual to cope with stressful situations, rather than wearing down the immune system and leaving room for illness. A study in 2015 at Carnegie Mellon exposed healthy adults to the cold virus and found that individuals with social support had a decreased chance of getting sick due to the stress-induced buffering effects of hugging. The results concluded that those individuals who did get sick had less severe symptoms if they were hugged and had a stable social support than those that did not. Simultaneously, as the activated sensory receptors send signals to the brain, signals are also sent to the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the cranial nerve that helps mediate the parasympathetic response of the heart, lungs and digestive tract. This decreases the blood pressure, helping both individuals involved in the hug feel calmer. In animal studies, activation of the vagus nerve has also been shown to increase the release of oxytocin, decreasing the heart rate and cortisol, leaving the person feeling less stressed and more relaxed. 4. Produces “Chill Out” Neurotransmitters Several neurotransmitters are increased in the brain following the activation of the sensory neurons that play a role in the positive emotions associated with being touched. The neurotransmitter dopamine is associated with motivation, goals and reinforcing behavior. Research shows that hugging releases dopamine within the limbic pathway in the brain, creating feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. Studies also indicate that another neurotransmitter, serotonin, is increased due to the activation of sensory receptors and leads to a general feeling of satisfaction and an increase in mood. It is through the increased release of oxytocin, in conjunction with the neurotransmitters, that creates the soothing and calming feelings one experiences following a hug. 5. Boosts Self-Esteem Hugging and human contact are critical for infants, children and adults. There are also associations of self-worth and tactile sensations that are established when we are babies, which have a lasting impact on our nervous system. Who knew that hugs have a major impact, even at a cellular level? Research shows that hugging is an effective means of conveying social support, which we know is so important for our self-esteem and sense of self-worth. Final Thoughts The simple act of human touch, including a hug, causes a cascade of events, beginning with the sensation of a touch on the skin traveling along nerves to the brain, causing changes that affect the entire body. Sensory receptors and nerves work together sending signals to the central nervous system to provide enough information for the individual to create an appropriate motor and emotional response. This allows an individual to engage with the environment through the neuronal processing of a touch stimulus, which leads to eliciting a response that is often emotional in nature. Hugging increases oxytocin and other neurotransmitters associated with happiness and pleasure, while decreasing stress hormones, blood pressure and heart rate. The overall general effects of hugging lead to an increase in social bonding, relaxation and a decrease in stress — and therefore result in a better quality of life. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Axe click here.

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