new habits Archives - Amazing Health Advances

How to Find Yourself Again After Trauma

The AHA! Team — Wed, 07 Aug 2024 08:24:02 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #471) and blog, I talk to holistic psychologist and best-selling author Nicole LePera about finding your authentic self after trauma, identifying and unlearning harmful habits, and so much more! In her first book, How to Do the Work, Dr. Nicole offered readers a revolutionary, holistic framework for self-healing. Now, in How to Meet Your Self, she shares an interactive workbook designed to help every reader uncover their Authentic Self. By objectively and compassionately observing the physical, mental, and emotional patterns that fill our days and create our current selves, we can more clearly see what we do not wish to carry into the future. Why is this important? As Nicole points out, we all fall into conditioned habits and patterns—products of our past—that lead to cycles of pain, “stuckness,” and self-destruction. But we also have the innate ability to awaken to and change the behaviors and habits that no longer serve us, allowing us to step into the highest versions of ourselves, which is why Nicole wrote How to Meet Your Self: to help the reader radically transform their inner and outer world. We all struggle and we all have unique healing journeys. This is a universal aspect of the human experience. No matter who we are or where we come from, we cannot escape the fact that our past experiences color our present realities. For many of us, these patterns go unnoticed; we live our lives unaware of how these habits shape our thinking and actions. How to Meet Your Self, Nicole helps us become more aware and conscious of how the past is affecting our present and gives us practical tips and tools to change and heal the mind, brain and body. Awareness is the first step. When we see these aspects of our lives as habits and not intrinsic parts of ourselves, we can work on changing these patterns in our lives and reconnecting with our authentic self—that deep inner knowing of ourselves. We can’t heal what we are not aware of. But this change doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and effort to do the work. As mentioned above, awareness is just the first step, which then allows us to start our healing journey and discover our true, authentic selves. This change is often hard and difficult, and other things will come to the surface, which is why it takes consistent daily effort to shift our thinking and habits, especially if we have been living a certain way for decades. Learning habits and patterns often begins in childhood. Indeed, childhood is a very vulnerable period in our lives; we are growing, developing and learning how to see ourselves and the world around us. Unfortunately, the adults in the room are often dealing with their own trauma and issues, which can affect how they relate to us as children. This, in turn, can affect how we function as adults through the habits and patterns we learn—soon, a negative, generational cycle can be set up. Thankfully, it is never too late to heal. The brain is neuroplastic, which means that it can change. This is why it is so important that we learn how to connect with and trust ourselves—to reach that authentic self. We need to put on our own oxygen mask first by working through our past and what we need to heal before it starts impacting our wellbeing and our relationships. We need to learn how to embrace, process and reconceptualize what we go through, not push it down, or we may start to resent putting other people’s needs before our own. We need to learn how to process our experiences and feelings, not feel ashamed that we have emotions like frustration, anger and so on. When we do this, we are better able to connect with ourselves and the people in our lives on a deeper level, instead of using boundaries to put up walls around ourselves and keep people out. It is not selfish to work on ourselves and take the time to heal and connect with our authentic self. Rather, doing so promotes interdependence: the ability to truly thrive and connect with others in meaningful ways. This kind of autonomy is not the freedom to do whatever we want without consequences; it is the recognition that we are part of a larger whole, and that we as individuals do not have to do it all by ourselves. Our relationship with ourselves is the foundation of any relationship we will have. For more on finding your authentic self, listen to my podcast with Nicole (episode #471) and check out her amazing work. Podcast Highlights 1:54 Nicole’s amazing work 4:19 Social media & therapy 6:28 Nicole’s new book How to Meet Your Self 8:00 How the past affects our present 10:14 Why it takes time to change past patterns & habits 14:00 The power of the conscious mind 19:33 Getting out of “auto-pilot mode” 26:10 Learning habits starts in childhood 35:17 Healing religious trauma 36:28 How healing ourselves helps us connect with others 41:50 Why we need to allow ourselves to acknowledge our emotions 45:00 What our need for boundaries tells us about ourselves 50:00 Autonomy versus selfishness 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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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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Lockdown Has Encouraged Older People to Embrace Technology, Reconnect and Build New Relationships

AHA Publisher — Tue, 18 May 2021 07:00:12 +0000

University of Stirling via News-Medical – The COVID-19 lockdown was a catalyst for many older people to embrace technology, reconnect with friends and build new relationships with neighbors, according to University of Stirling research. Understanding the coping mechanisms adopted by some over 60s during the pandemic will play a key role in developing interventions to help tackle loneliness, isolation and wellbeing in the future. The study, led by the Faculty of Health Sciences and Sport, surveyed 1,429 participants – 84 percent (1,198) of whom were over 60 – and found many had adapted to video conferencing technology to increase online contact with existing social networks, while others reconnected with previous networks. Participants reported that lockdown had led them to engage with neighbors and other members of their communities for the first time, while several said social distancing had brought an additional meaning to life, by highlighting what was important to them. Published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the paper comes six months after the study – funded under the Scottish Government Chief Scientist Office’s Rapid Research in COVID-19 programme – reported in its preliminary findings that social distancing had increased feelings of loneliness in older people. Professor of Behavioral Medicine, Anna Whittaker, who led the study, said: “Our research found that the COVID-19 lockdown triggered feelings of loneliness in older people – with many experiencing less social contact and support. However, the study also highlighted positive outcomes, for example, lockdown encouraged some older people to embrace and engage with technology – such as Zoom, Whatsapp or FaceTime – to stay in touch with loved-ones or participate in exercise classes or religious groups. Those who engaged in such activity were able to prevent high levels of loneliness, therefore, helping older adults to increase their digital literacy and use of remote social interactions could be a really important tool for addressing loneliness. “Participants also reported actively looking for new social contact while restrictions were in place – such as contacting friends who they had not spoken to in years and increasing interactions with neighbors and other members of their communities. Significantly, many of our participants reported that social distancing has actually led them to find new sources of satisfaction in life. “Our study also highlighted that encouraging safe social contact through physical activity and engaging with people in the community may be an effective way to reduce loneliness, improve wellbeing, increase social activity, and improve social support.” The study – which involved a survey conducted between May and July 2020 – examined the impact of social distancing during the pandemic on loneliness, wellbeing and social activity, including social support, in Scottish older adults. Participants were asked about the strategies they adopted to increase social interaction during this time and reported that the way they interacted with their friends and family, faith, chosen group activities and, to a lesser extent, their employer and colleagues, had changed. More than 300 participants mentioned ‘Zoom’ – the video conferencing tool – in their answers. More than 150 participants reported that their religious gatherings had moved online – replacing face-to-face gatherings – while 91 said that social gatherings with family and friends had changed in favour of online ‘games nights’. New activities included bingo and quiz nights, while other activities moved online – such as bridge nights, book clubs, choir rehearsals, and dance and exercise classes. The role of community – particularly neighbors – was mentioned by more than 300 participants and some reported the common experience of getting to know previously unknown neighbors and increase interaction with others in the community at local shops or parks. A pleasant Scottish summer also supported such interactions, several said. At least 100 people said social interactions were linked to their physical activities – such as time spent outdoors while walking for exercise, walking the dogs or active commuting. Professor Whittaker added: “Our research underlines the importance of addressing loneliness and social support in older adults – but particularly during situations where risk of isolation is high. Although specific to the pandemic, this study has wider implications of helping us to understand the impact of social distancing and social isolation on older people. “The findings may be applicable in the future – both in and outwith pandemic situations. In Scotland, the recommendations for improvement may be through encouraging older adults to get to know their neighbors better, getting involved with local buddying systems and community initiatives, including via digital means, and engaging in physical activity, such as daily walks in the community.” “While it may prove difficult to consider any aspect of the pandemic positive as such, it is important and worthwhile to reflect on what it has taught us, both about ourselves and society and about the necessary tools to tackle Scotland’s increased levels of loneliness and isolation. For example, we’ve seen first-hand how important the community response has been in terms of supporting older people throughout lockdown and it has been inspiring to witness how people across the country stepped in and stepped forward to help those in need around them. Even as restrictions ease, we hope to see this sense of community spirit continue. The ongoing impact of COVID-19 has also demonstrated just how important increased digital inclusion is and how easily those without access to technology can feel out of the loop. It’s reassuring to see so many older people reporting that they have been able to embrace and engage with technology to stay connected and active. However, it’s equally important to ensure those who are unable or do not wish to use the internet have alternative ways to stay connected to their communities and support networks. As we take steps towards recovery together, it is vital that no one is left behind and those most impacted are supported to play a full part in society again. We know we will be living with the ongoing effects of lockdown loneliness for a long time to come, and this research will be incredibly valuable when considering how best to tackle loneliness and isolation and to improve the wellbeing of older people going forward.” Brian Sloan, Chief Executive of Age Scotland To read the original article click here.

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