Mental Health, Stress, Anger & Anxiety
We often rush through life without stopping to notice the precious, joyful moments. Stress of everyday life can accumulate and become destructive. This is why it is important to take a step back and focus on our mental health.
Mindfulness is one of the most powerful methods in dealing with stress. You may be wondering what is Mindfulness? The concept is very simple; it means paying attention to the present moment. Once we allow ourselves to see the present moment with clarity, it brings positive changes in our lives. By noticing our thoughts and feelings, it can help us improve our wellbeing and relieve stress, anger and anxiety which in turn improves our mental health.
We know the mind and body are connected. So, by addressing our mental wellbeing we will cause changes in our physical bodies.
There are many ways to practice mindfulness. Sometimes it can be difficult to start if going it alone. This is where a coach like myself can help. Mindfulness programs have become the ‘go to’ for those who want to boost their overall health. These programs have been proven to improve:
Wellbeing – help you to focus and experience happiness in the moments of your life, as they occur. Help alleviate the need to worry about the past and future but rather be mindful of the present.
Physical health – relieve stress, anger, anxiety, improve sleep, lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, improve heart disease through chemical and structural changes in your body.
Mental health – helps problems such as depression, anxiety and destructive behaviour such as substance abuse.
Stressors are part of reality and normal life. Mindfulness helps by improving your ability to handle and react to stress (Remmers, Topolinski, & Koole, 2016). If not treated, stress can impact your physical health resulting in headaches, fatigue, sleep deprivation, muscle tension and pain, gastrointestinal symptoms, obesity, diabetes, the list is endless. In modern life we do not take steps to address this, as a result our bodies feel it is under a state of attack. The constant release of stress hormones such as cortisol in our system can lead to anger and anxiety.
Through mindfulness we can re-programme our self-protective mechanism and activate the body’s natural relaxation system with happy hormones such as serotonin.
The MindfulDoc programme is based on a fusion between Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), which helps people to cope with stress, and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) for depression. Both programs are backed by scientific evidence.
The numerous mental health benefits of Mindfulness:
Decrease depressive symptoms (Falsafi, 2016)
Increased activity in the area of the brain associated with positive emotion
Decrease anxiety
Decreased stress
Increasing self-compassion (Falsafi, 2016)
Regulate emotions better
Mindfulness brings joy and happiness and it is time to bring positivity into your life. Some more great tips about managing stress in this article I have contributed to.