For many who started the year with great aspirations and goals of creating new habits … it’s coming to the time of year when lots of peopel start to falter on their new habits.
That’s completely normal, but we can do better.
We can figure out how to overcome the difficulties that often plague our habit-changing attempts:
We delay starting on the habit.
Our minds start to rebel from the tediousness of sticking to a plan.
We rationalize not doing the habit.
With those very common obstacles in mind, I’m going to share three powerful techniques for overcoming them. They take effort to implement, but you got this!
Here are the techniques:
Focus on just starting. Set a trigger when you’re going to do the habit each day — let’s say you’re going to meditate when you wake up, or work out when you get home, or read during your lunch break. When the time comes to do the habit (the trigger happens), just launch into doing the habit, without delay. Focus on getting good at this skill of starting. When the trigger happens, have a reminder note nearby that says, “Just start.” Lower the barrier to doing the habit by making it smaller (just meditate for a minute or two), create barriers to doing your usual distractions, and just take the smallest first step. You’re going to practice getting good at starting, every day. If you master this, you’ll also get a lot better at not procrastinating with other stuff!
Be completely with the habit. When you do start the habit, it’s very common to focus on getting through the habit, trying to complete the task. This is a mindset that most of us have all day long — we are just rushing through our tasks, trying to finish each one. But actually this is not helpful for habits. We want to be completely present with the habit, really feel the texture of the experience, and imagine there is no end, that this moment is all there is and ever will be. It can transform the habit, turning it into a mindfulness practice, and we can even find gratitude for being able to do it. We don’t have to do it, we get to do it. This is an act of love for ourselves, and we are doing it to not only be compassionate with ourselves, but to enable ourselves to be more present, compassionate and committed to serving others. This moment of doing the habit is an act of love for everyone we know. This is a wonderful cure for the tedium of sticking to a plan.
Pause when you start to rationalize. The problem with rationalizing not doing the habit is that we don’t often notice we’re doing it. We just start moving away from doing the habit. We just think, “It’s OK, I’ll do it later,” or “Screw it, I don’t really need to do this,” or “Just this one time won’t hurt.” These are not helpful thoughts. Instead, we should learn to pause. Sit still, take a breath, and remind yourself of why you’re committed to this habit. Who are you doing it for? Are you devoted to them, and if so, is your devotion larger than your momentary discomfort and rationalizations? Take this pause and remember your love, and pour yourself into this habit by just starting and being completely present with it.
I offer these three techniques to you, and I hope you’ll give them a full-hearted effort.
Mindfulness & Meditation Summit
This month, I’m going to be part of a free 10-day Mindfulness & Meditation Summit that will include me and more than 30 other renowned meditation teachers, visionary leaders, neuroscientists, researchers, writers, performers, activists, and educators.
The online summit is from Jan. 22-31, 2018 … and includes some incredible presenters: Alice Walker, Sharon Salzberg, Daniel Goleman, Jack Kornfield, Jewel, Kelly McGonigal, Alanis Morissette, and special sessions with Pema Chödrön, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Eckhart Tolle.
Whether you’re new to mindfulness practice or have been meditating for years, this gathering of over 30 leading spiritual teachers and visionaries will be sure to help you transform yourself, your community, and the world.
In a previous post, I spoke about movement in a general sense, and why we are healthier when we move more often in a variety of ways. As I mentioned, this takes awareness of how we relate to and use our bodies. This is a topic worth diving into further, and a prerequisite for all healthy movement. If you aren’t aware moving with awareness, you won’t notice when you are moving poorly, and you won’t be able to correct it. Oh, and the cat represents your body.
Be aware of how you move. It sounds simple, and it is on some level. But it is also a lifelong practice with infinite potential to transform the way you experience life in a human body. In this post I share three entryways to practice moving with awareness: getting into your body, moving gently and slowly with focused attention, and taking an inventory of the stuff that affects your movement. You can think of this as three levels of awareness: an internal awareness of your body, an external awareness of how you move in space and gravity, and a relational awareness of how your body is impacted by your physical environment.
1. Getting into your body
Shifting your awareness to the sensations in your body is profoundly helpful. We as a culture overemphasize our rational minds, so our attention tends to live there and our bodies can become an afterthought. The mind is often in the past or the future, but the body lives in the moment. Bringing your attention into your body allows you to notice discomfort and make a shift. There are many ways to do this! Maybe you already have ways that work well for you. Here are a few that I like to use, I encourage you to try them for yourself.
Shift your focus to your breath and pay attention to the sensations of your breath in your body. Notice the immediate changes you experience.
Drop your awareness down from your head into your belly.
Feel your feet on the ground. Notice where you are and what you are doing.
Feel the weight of gravity and let your body sink and rest with the support of the ground or surface you are on. If this is hard, first tense your muscles and pull away from the ground, then release and allow your weight to settle.
Wiggle your fingers and toes, then shift and stretch your body however it wants to move.
A few common experiences when you tune into your body
When we start paying attention, we often realize how little we employ our awareness. We may catch ourselves in contorted positions and wonder how we got there, or find ourselves reaching for something far away without taking a moment to reposition. When we return to awareness of our bodies again and again, we start to understand more of what we need to do to be happy and more comfortable.
This can be overwhelming at first. I personally know what it is like to feel uncomfortable in my body and how intense it can be to tune in. However, body awareness is a solution to overwhelm based in stress, chronic discomfort, or pain. As our body’s communication is listened to and honored, we gain an opportunity to take action in support of ourselves and and clarity in what to do. Many people start to experience relief from discomfort and newfound connection to and respect for their bodies.
Noticing habits that you don’t want to have can also be an easy way to judge yourself if you aren’t careful. The first thing out of most people’s mouths when they tune into their bodies is that they have bad posture. I’ve often heard people say that every time they noticed their body their shoulders were at their ears or they were slouching again. Implied is that it isn’t even worth paying attention because the task is too large or they are too broken. I have learned to reframe these beliefs by understanding why my body has these habits in the first place.
The myth of good posture: our bodies tell a story
The majority of us have been taught that if we just stopped slouching, stood up straight, and pulled our shoulders back, we’d feel good. This couldn’t be further from the truth. This view of posture implies that there is some static position that is correct for everyone. Holding your body a certain way is like fighting with yourself – it is unnecessary effort and not honoring of the intelligent reasons your body is a certain shape.
Your body is a certain shape and moves in certain patterns because it tells the story of your entire life – your body has adapted naturally to your environment, culture, and experiences. This means you are just as you are meant to be.
Sometimes your body is holding patterns that are no longer relevant or productive for you, and you wish to change them. Your body did the best it could do for you to respond to a given situation, but you are no longer in that situation. If you simply try to force another shape, eventually your muscles will get tired and you’ll go back to your old patterns. The good news is there is a lot we can do to change this, and here my second point is key.
2. Moving gently and slowly with focused attention
Once you’ve arrived in your body, you can begin to move with awareness and relate your internal sense of yourself to your external environment. The ability to sense where your body is in space is called proprioception. Strong proprioceptive ability is correlated with health and more complete recovery from injury. I shared how your brain maps your body in my last post and this is intimately connected with proprioception. The best way to define your map and increase your proprioception is by moving gently and slowly with focused attention.
As an example, say you want to walk from one end of the room to the other. For people with this ability, this is very easy to do. We learned to walk as young children and do it every day without thinking. But when we step back and pay attention, everyone walks a bit differently. As mentioned above, our movements display unconscious patterns based on our unique bodies and experiences. Maybe your dad had an issue with his hip that affected his walk, and when you learned to walk you imitated him. Maybe you wanted to fit in in high school and the cool kids walked with a little dip so you do too. Maybe you hurt your knee years ago and it still affects your walk. Moving slowly with focused attention works by making these unconscious patterns conscious so we have the ability to change what we no longer need.
I will guide you in an example in a moment, but first a few things to know if you wish to explore further. There are entire disciplines that use moving slowing with focused attention to support a lifetime of healthy aware movement. These disciplines, such as Somatics, Feldenkrais, and Alexander Technique, lay the foundation for healthy responsive movement and unravel old patterns. I love the book Better Movement, by Todd Hargrove, which explains all the science behind how this works and provides Feldenkrais inspired exercises to guide your experience. Many of the ideas in this post come from my personal exploration with the information I learned from Todd’s book, Hanna Somatics, and many of the experts on my favorite body nerd podcast by Brooke Thomas, The Liberated Body.
Try it! Let’s return to the walking example with an exercise to try, adapted from Mary Bond’s excellent book The New Rules of Posture. I use walking since it is a common full body activity with many unconscious subtleties.
Walk across the room as slowly as possible and see what you notice. Continue to walk back and forth across the room slowly and focus your attention on each of the following aspects of your walk.
First notice your left side. Then the right. You may notice one side moving more than the other. We are naturally asymmetrical, but if the difference is extreme you may want to investigate further.
Now focus on your feet. Which foot steps out first? Notice how it drives the movement.
Move even more slowly and notice how your heel first contacts the ground. Feel the shift of your weight over your foot, and feel your toes push off behind you.
As you push off your foot, feel your leg swing in front of you as you step again. Notice the difference in the movement of your left leg and right leg. Does one leg swing more freely?
Hips rotate as we walk – notice if you are holding any tension. If your hips are moving well, you can experience a slight rotation in the direction of your belly button back and forth about ten degrees.
Focus on your arms – are they swinging naturally? Are you holding your shoulders or arms stiff? Or are you allowing your body to twist?
Notice how your chest moves in the opposite direction to your hips. Walking is a cross body movement that propels you forward while giving a natural massage to your internal organs.
Where is your head? Are you looking down to focus on what is in front of you? Is your head jutting forward? Are you pulling your chin in? Play with moving your head and feel into the way it affects the rest of your spine.
Hope you enjoyed that exploration! You can apply similar focus and inquiry to any movement. It doesn’t need to be as complex as walking, and it will be beneficial however deep you chose to go.
A note on support. Since our bodies tell our story, engaging with unconscious patterns stored in our tissues can bring up intense experience or emotions. Professional support can be invaluable to guide you when you hold mental and emotional trauma, chronic pain, or old injuries that you wish to release. Even without a specific issue, if you begin this process on your own and it seems daunting, find a friend, partner, group, or professional to work with you. Bodywork modalities such as Rolfing or Craniosacral Therapy, or somatic psychotherapies such as Somatic Experiencing, can support you to shift patterns that could be overwhelming to tackle on your own.
Working with gravity Since we live on earth, developed proprioception also necessitates an acceptance of gravity. Sometimes we feel weighed down or compressed by gravity, but we can use it to our advantage! Our bodies are designed with tension and compression to support us with minimal effort. I love to play with resting my body into itself and into the ground, trusting my structure and the earth. When I allow my body and the earth to support me, I use gravity with awareness. Amazingly, this frees up energy, and I am able to elongate gently upwards. I can stand or sit longer with more ease, and stay active longer without getting tired. I even discover that my posture improves, in the sense that my body feels like it aligns with itself better and I am less likely to slouch.
Try this:
Stand with your feet hip distance apart placing your weight as comfortably balanced right to left as you can.
Move your hips forward and backward in space until you feel you are spreading your weight across your feet evenly. Keep your knees unlocked but not bent.
Now tuck your hips forward engaging your belly and tilt them back engaging your low back and sticking your butt out. Find balance between the two which uses the least muscular effort.
Let your feet sink into the ground, and allow your legs and hips to follow.
Move your attention up your spine to the point where your head meets your neck. As your body from the belly down rests and sinks with gravity, allow your upper body to float upwards as if pulled gently by a hook at the base of your head.
Breathe space in between each of your vertebrae as your body lengthens and settles.
Now try walking again with this new sense of sinking downwards and floating upwards simultaneously. No need to hold yourself stiff to keep a certain posture – more important is resting into gravity and rising up off your support. How does this change the way it feels to walk compared to the first exercise? Imagine how it would feel to use gravity to find ease in other movements throughout your day.
3. Taking an inventory So by now you’ve experienced internal and spatial body awareness through attention and slow gentle movement. You’ve explore how this can support you to make choices to shift your position, move in different ways, and begin to uncover unconscious patterns you no longer need. However, sometimes your body is holding a pattern for good reasons and to shift it you need to change your environment. The ways in which you interact with things on and around you affects the way you move.
In this exercise, I encourage you to enter into relational awareness by taking an inventory of items in your life one by one and questioning how they affect your movement and your body’s shape. You can pick a day or a week to explore specific categories of items, or note these questions and considerations each time you engage with the stuff around you as a practice.
Clothing. Clothing is a beautiful way to express yourself and relate to where you are and what you are doing. Our clothes conform to our bodies, but sometimes we use clothes that force our bodies to be another way. Tight, inelastic clothing can limit our ability to breathe and move in healthy ways. I know I am not supporting the healthy movement patterns I wish to create when my pants are so tight I can’t swing my leg over my bike or bend down easily. I also know that when I don’t wear warm enough clothing, my body stays tense and can hold onto stress or old patterns. Take an inventory of your clothing and ask yourself which clothes don’t allow your body to move freely or restrict your shape. Why not wear clothes that look and feel great.
Shoes. When looking for both style and comfort, our shoes options are seriously lacking. Many people tolerate uncomfortable shoes, but it is seriously not worth it in the long run. First, get rid of any shoes that you can’t wait to take off when you wear them. As you inventory your shoes, pay close attention to two aspects: heels and toe boxes. First, heels. And I don’t just mean high heels. Most boots, sneakers, and athletic shoes, even men’s shoes, have elevated heels. Heels shorten your calves and tilt your entire body forward so you must lean back to compensate. Start today by slowing transitioning to wearing and buying shoes with lower or no heels. Next, toe boxes. Many shoes get super narrow in the front squishing your toes together. Muscles atrophy, toes overlap, bunions develop, your shoes literally deform your feet. Find shoes that stay wide at the end so your feet can breathe and function like they are made to. When you purchase shoes in the store, take out the insole and stand on it. If your feet are wider than the insole, this shoe will squish your feet.
Bags. One of the most common complaints I see as a massage therapist is a tight neck and shoulder with knots around the shoulder blade. The majority of people who have this on one side come in carrying a heavy one shoulder bag or purse. I had a friend who had a knot on one side for years. He switched from a messenger bag to a backpack and it went away never to return. Seriously, make the switch and don’t wait. You will thank yourself. Two shoulder bags are wonderful, and if they get too heavy, getting one with a chest or waist strap can help distribute the weight more evenly. You can always use a rolling bag for style points.
Things that you sit on. Chairs, couches, cars, we spend a lot of time sitting. For each place you regularly sit, ask yourself, does this feel good now? How about later? How does this affect the position of my body? Play with using pillows or other props to make your seats more comfortable. Generally, you want something not so hard that you are sore and not so soft that you sink in and collapse. You want your hips to be in line with or higher than your knees so you sit on your sit bones and not on your low back. You want a back support that allows you to rest into yourself with little effort. If the back rest is overly curved or too far back, your head and neck protrude forward or tuck and stiffen.
Stuff you use. We interact daily with a variety of objects. When they are designed well and we use them in healthy ways, they make our lives easier. But our stuff often causes problems. Ask: is this the right tool for the right job? Is there a better option? How can I use this more comfortably? Does this knife need sharpening? Do I need to be so close to my computer? How can I hold my phone to make my neck feel better? Seriously – the more you are aware of how you engage with the many tools and technologies we use daily, the happier you will be.
Wow.
That was a lot of information. If you made it all the way here, thanks for diving into this ride of awareness with me – for one thing, it never gets boring. If you made it here without a chance to try to exercises, I recommend you try them and read it again. If you can experience anything I shared for yourself, you will be more likely to understand and incorporate moving with awareness into your life. I wish you revelation, fascination, and compassion on your journey of learning, unlearning, and relearning to move well with awareness. I, for one, have completely transformed my relationship to my body and the way I move, and I know you can too.
We are so tired. So tired that we can’t think when we want to, move how we want to, or get up and go the way we feel we need to. Our brains, bodies, and our willpower are all burnt out. This article explains how to tap into your life energy and overcome fatigue.
Jenny told me that, now that she is off of Wellbutrin, she doesn’t understand why she is still tired. She recalled that she has struggled with this fatigue her entire adult life. The thing is that Jenny is totally functional. She gets up, works at a high pressure finance job, takes care of her bills, and appears totally put together, but still this cloud envelops her.
Jenny’s fatigue doesn’t surprise me.
Why should she be feeling energized?
What is energy?
The Hindu term Shakti derives from the Sanskrit, “to be able”. It refers to the primal life force energy. It has, necessarily, a feminine essence.
Have you felt it?
Have you ever felt so enlivened by an experience that your heart was racing, your eyes wild, and tingles ran up your body?
Have you ever been so in your flow that you forgot to eat or pee?
Have you ever greeted your day with a small smile in the corner of your mouth as you felt the mystery of what might unfold?
Have you ever felt head over heels in love?
Have you ever felt so connected to and seen by others around you that you wanted to cry just from the feeling of it?
This is shakti.
And she’s always in there. All the time, waiting to be accessed.
We go to our jobs, we check off the to do list, we contribute our small but significant part to planetary death and destruction, we turn a blind eye to all that might provoke too much feeling.
And then we wonder why we are tired!
Why would you not be tired, Jenny?
What are you doing to connect to or to cultivate your shakti? What in your life really turns you on? If your answer is nothing, then perhaps your soul is saying no and you are calling that fatigue.
What is fatigue?
Fatigue lends itself perfectly to the multiple narrative model of medicine. Psychiatry views fatigue as a brain-based imbalance or deficiency likely responsive to a stimulant or noradgrenergic antidepressant.
Functional medicine views it as potentially stemming from hypothyroidism, B12 deficiency or poor methylation, adrenal fatigue, or general mitochondrial dysfunction where low nutrient supply and abundant toxicant exposure impairs our energy-making cellular centers.
While I believe passionately in healing the body first to clarify matters of spirit, I think it’s important to search for the meaning of fatigue rather than accepting it at face value.
I know that I have never once yawned in my NYC office. Literally never. But that you would think I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome the second I buckle in for the drive to Whole Foods. Well, I know that we are not meant to procure our food from a commercial space (particularly one that is increasingly greenwashed selling more and more conventional food). I also know that the domestic space challenges my ego and sense of identity. Then my disdain for the experience is compounded by the self-conscious guilt around my ingratitude for the fact that I even have the opportunity and wherewithal to even choose to patronize this establishment! In this bundle of neurosis and primal disconnection from Earth energy, it’s no wonder that my soul says no.
When I see that simple context, I cease to take on the pathology and to blame my body for the fatigue.
Context is everything.
How to tap your life force energy
So, how can we cultivate that life force energy in order to dissolve fatigue?
Dance
Plain and simple. Turn on some music, make it loud, and move. Even for 5 minutes a day. Get past the weirdness of it, the awkwardness, and just feel it in your body. In fact, I have one patient who continued to struggle with fatigue after medication taper, who also had a history of having had her thyroid removed for falsely perceiving it as a time bomb for death. Now, after many years of psychiatric medication and general toxicant exposure, she had plenty of reason to be struggling with mitochondrial dysfunction. After thyroid removal, the replacement of hormones can be an inexact and frustrating process, giving her another reason to have chronic fatigue. How do you explain a resurgence of found energy, like a geyser unlocked, after I pushed her to return to a tap class – a form of dance that she had loved but lost. Quite simply, dance class healed her because it gave her the keys to the shakti palace.
Kundalini
Kundalini yoga is a shakti practice. It is, by design, focused on the divine feminine within all of us. This practice is a hard as it is sweet. As powerful as it is subtle. The source of energy that we are looking to cultivate, comes from way down in the creative center – literally and figuratively – of the womb. Start with this 3 minute practice for raising the divine feminine from the dead. Or simply press your left nostril shut with your left pointer finger and then breath long and deep out of your right nostril for 5 minutes. See what happens.
Sensuality
Femininity is feeling. Have you ever lit a candle for absolutely no reason? It seems indulgent and silly. But once you get past that, it may give you a feeling of nurturance inside. Whether it’s baths, essential oils, dance, love making, or self-pleasuring, we need to reunite with our body’s built with desire compass and a deep need to be cared for and luxuriated over. We need to learn how to turn ourselves on, as Mama Gena maps out in her epic bestseller, Pussy: A Reclamation.
Giving
When you feel totally bereft, the last thing you want to do is give. It might break you right? You need every ounce and morsel of everything you’ve got simply to get by, right? Wrong. Our Vital Mind Reset Community Leader, Shauna, was on the verge of homelessness, struggling through every day of her recovery, and she would be the first to tell you that volunteering at a local food pantry may very well have saved her life. Giving fills us up with shakti because we were wired to love each other, to help each other, and to receive in return the energy we put out.
Connecting
Find community. It’s not optional. Isolation is killing us, literally. When we feel a part of a tribe, when we see reflected back to us the many eyes of our peers, we are lifted by their collective life force energy. Our sisters show us our best self, remind us what it is to feel unconditionally seen, and it helps us to fill our cracked places with gold.
Make room for radical, unexpected shifts in your energy. This is rarely a linear process of reclamation. Heal your body first (including a total elimination of addictive foods and drinks like wheat, dairy, processed sugar, alcohol, and yes, coffee, for one month), and then, when you feel tired, ask, what am I saying no to. And then give your mind, body, and spirit, something to say yesto. Watch the energy flow.
You may have been a couch potato for most of your life, but now, if you’re middle-aged and envisioning a healthy retirement, you’d better change your ways.
Moderate-to-vigorous exercise can mitigate some effects of aging, including poor sleep quality and cognitive decline. Research generally supports this claim, so especially if you’re prone to insomnia, you’ll want to check this out.
Age-Related Sleep Problems and Exercise
Sleep tends to be less robust as we age. Middle-aged and older adults get less deep sleep (the restorative stuff) than younger people. Our sleep is less efficient, too, peppered with wake-ups during the night. In the morning, we wake up feeling less rested, with fewer resources to meet the demands of the day.
Investigators are now looking at lifestyle factors that might alleviate aged-related sleep problems. A majority of studies suggest that both male and female exercisers tend to experience better sleep quality and fall asleep more quickly than people who don’t exercise.
Newer Data From Objective Tests
The majority of such studies are based on reports from participants rather than objective tests. In two more recent studies, investigators used objective measures to assess the relationship between participants’ level of physical activity and their sleep.
The SWAN Sleep Study was an observational study involving 339 middle-aged women. Over 6 years, investigators collected data on their activity level in three domains: (1) Active Living (activities like watching TV and walking to work), (2) Household/Caregiving (housework and childcare), and (3) Sports/Exercise (recreational activities and sports).
Toward the end of the 6-year period, the women underwent in-home polysomnography (a sleep study) every night during one entire menstrual cycle or 35 days, whichever was shorter. They also kept sleep diaries and filled out sleep-related questionnaires.
Altogether this made for a lot of data on a lot of women. The findings reported here are both significant and clinically important:
Activities in the Active Living and Household/Caregiving categories had little impact on women’s sleep. Women typically spend a lot of time doing these activities, yet they may not be vigorous enough to affect our sleep.
Women with high Sports/Exercise activity over the 6-year period experienced better sleep, especially on measures of sleep quality and sleep continuity.
Greater recent Sports/Exercise activity was associated with better sleep quality and better sleep continuity—and more deep sleep (insomnia sufferers, take note!).
What About Men?
Routine exercise has similar benefits for men, a small exercise intervention study showed. Via polysomnography, the sleep of 13 men aged 60 to 67 was assessed 3 nights before and 3 nights after they participated in a 16-week exercise program. The program consisted of regular 60-minute workouts on the treadmill. The workouts were fairly rigorous and the results, impressive. Compared with their sleep before starting the exercise program, by the end of the program the men’s sleep
had significantly greater continuity. Acute exercise reduced their nighttime wakefulness by 30%.
was significantly deeper. On nights following exercise, they experienced a 71% increase in slow-wave (deep) sleep. (That 71% is not a typo, by the way!)
Exercise Protects Mental Fitness
If the sleep benefits of exercise don’t move you to action, maybe the high cost of inactivity to your brain will. Regular exercise helps improve cognitive function and protects against cognitive decline. How it does so has yet to be worked out, but one theory holds that exercise has a beneficial effect on the brain due to its positive effect on cerebral blood flow. For optimal functioning the brain has to have adequate blood flow. Moderate-intensity exercise increases blood flow to the brain in healthy adults.
But blood vessels may lose their ability to respond normally in the brain and elsewhere, a situation called vascular dysfunction, which is associated with cardiovascular disease. Systemic vascular dysfunction will likely reduce blood flow to the brain and manifest as cognitive impairment.
“Vascular dysfunction and altered blood flow regulation may be a key link between cardiovascular disease and cognitive decline,” writes Jill N. Barnes in a paper titled Exercise, Cognitive Function, and Aging.
Protecting vascular health—which typically declines with age—may also protect against cognitive decline. Barnes cites a few studies that suggest that exercise is the key to protecting vascular functioning. A few other human studies show that both aerobic exercise and strength training help maintain cognitive fitness. In addition, animal studies have shown that sustained aerobic exercise promotes the growth of new nerve cells in the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with memory.
So particularly if you’re middle aged or older and prone to inactivity, check into starting an exercise program now. It will improve your physical and mental health and—perhaps more relevant if you’re looking for help with insomnia—it will likely improve your sleep.
For the past 35 years, I’ve had the great fortune of bearing witness to the incredible struggle and amazing resiliency of the human spirit. Day after day, year after year, patients have shared their most intimate stories with me — each one unique and each one special in its own way. Whether they were depressed, abused, worried, sad, unfulfilled, anxious, fearful, or just plain lonely—they all shared one common condition — SUFFERING.
Every one of them was suffering and every one of them wanted to know “Can I really get better?” Of course, I would always give them the same answer: IT DEPENDS. But actually, the correct and truest answer is ABSOLUTELY, yes you can get better. But whether you actually get better or not depends entirely on how you define “better.” For you see, there are many different ways of being “better.”
For many people, taking a pill and experiencing fewer symptoms is all they want. Whether the medication actually works or they just think it works—it makes no difference. They feel better and that’s all that matters.
But what if we define “better” not as symptom reduction but rather optimal physical and mental well-being? Now the answer “it depends” has a whole new meaning. The longer I practiced, the more I realized something was missing. So, after spending years in the psychological trenches dishing up delicious words to soothe the soul, I made a startling discovery — WORDS WERE NOT ENOUGH.
To get truly better we needed much more than just words. Psychotherapy was indeed helpful but it was not sufficient. So I embarked on a journey to learn as much as I could about how to achieve optimal wellness. I spent years studying Integrative Medicine and Nutrition, Nutritional Biochemistry, Molecular Genetics, Epigenetics and Nutrigenomics (environmental and nutritional influences on gene expression), the Microbiome and the Gut-Brain Connection, the practice of Yoga and Meditation, and finally, various models of Spirituality.
This extraordinary journey taught me that authentic healing could only occur if we were able to integrate all the parts of ourselves into a harmonious and cohesive whole. But first off, to do this requires an about face regarding our collective belief that all pain is bad and therefore must be avoided for a satisfying life.
We must be willing to look deep inside ourselves and surrender our most cherished beliefs. Beliefs that are so strong (think “defenses”) that they function like our best friends. We must be willing to bear the discomfort of letting go of these beliefs because they do not serve our highest purpose. And we must be willing to do the hard work that is necessary to rid ourselves of toxic emotions so we can transform our suffering into self-caring and compassion.
Now, it seems to me this “wellness” stuff is all fine and dandy but how the heck do you really get there? Simple — you need a road map. So I developed a unique road map (in conjunction with friend and architect Richard Chadwick) that will guide you down the road to optimal wellness. It’s called TheMindful Wellness Wheel and it was created to show how the process of mindfulness can be used to investigate the key aspects of your life objectively.
Many people find the concept of mindfulness difficult to grasp but it can be explained quite easily. Mindfulness simply means being aware of whatever thoughts and feelings you are having in the present moment with full acceptance (i.e. without judging them). Mindfulness can also be thought of as a special or particular way of paying attention. By using this technique, you can look at each area of your life and make whatever adjustments are necessary to correct imbalances. Practicing mindfulness will enable you to respond to life rather than react to it (reacting=mindless, responding=mindful). Developing the capacity to respond to situations with calmness, clarity of mind, and non-reactivity will improve your life in every way possible.
The Manifesto of a New Medical Model
To become healthy, you have to change the way you look at the world. It’s a sad but true fact that so much of what we’ve been taught is blatantly incorrect! This is especially true when it comes to health, nutrition, food choices, drugs, and the practice of modern medicine. Our present medical model is based upon detecting and treating symptoms of disease. This is a fabulous model for acute care. If you or your loved one has an accident or life-threatening emergency, this is the best medicine for helping you.
But if you or your loved one has any of the chronic diseases of modern high-tech civilization, modern medicine is an abysmal failure. The reason for this is twofold:
Modern medicine is treatment focused rather than prevention focused — it focuses on disease rather than health
Modern medicine is managed by huge corporations which control all aspects of how it is taught, practiced, and protected. Pharmaceutical companies fund and conduct their own research. They control what studies are published in medical journals and exert powerful influence through their advertising. Not only is this self-serving, but alternatives to drugs are kept hidden from the public. Most people have no idea that there alternatives to drugs, surgery, etc. which are more effective, safer, cheaper, and align with our bodies natural capacity to heal.
When we go to a psychologist, psychiatrist, etc. to get help with our emotional pain, we are confronted with an archaic system of treatment predicated on “specialization.” Our modern medical model is reductionistic and treats the body like a collection of separate compartments. Therefore, when you need help, you see a “specialist” who focuses only on their area of expertise. There is no attempt to understand the root causes of the problems or to integrate it into the bigger picture. Not only is this of limited benefit, but it doesn’t honor the great reality of the whole person — that is to say, everything is connected! Any type of emotional problem, no matter how mild or severe, depends on the whole body to produce its effects.
In order to overcome these limitations, The Mindful Wellness Wheel was created. I will briefly explain how this model works. As you look at the illustration of the wellness wheel, you will notice at the center of the wheel is “Your Mindfulness.” This is the core and everything is built around this. In this way, the practice of mindfulness can be used to explore each of the 8 areas of your life that are vital to effective and harmonious living. These 8 areas are:
How You Relate to Yourself
How You Relate to Others
What You Eat
How You Eat
How You Move
How You Relax
How You Work
How You Play
Your ability to be mindfully aware of all these interrelated aspects comprises the state of your wellness. Beyond this boundary is our connection to The Natural Universe Outside of Yourself. It is essential to recognize and honor the power of nature and our connection to it. For most of us, this is a lost element in our modern industrialized world. Finally, beyond the natural universe is our Spirituality. This model attempts to integrate all that is necessary for you to be wonderfully healthy and to appreciate your connection to all things, both big and small.
The time has come for a new medical model. One that will allow each of us to achieve our true potential and live healthy, loving, and satisfying lives without chronic disease and the feelings of dis-connectedness that is so pervasive in our modern world. I hope this discussion is helpful to all readers in ways that will lead to a new view of the way things are.
BE OPEN MINDED BUT NOT SO OPEN MINDED THAT YOUR BRAINS FALL OUT”- Groucho Marx
• • •
Dr. Stephen C. Fischer, grew up in Detroit, Michigan, the son of a pharmacist and a homemaker. He studied Pre-Med in college majoring in Biology and Chemistry. Then spent 3 years doing graduate work in Psychopharmacology and Experimental Psychology before deciding he wanted to be a psychotherapist. Dr. Fischer then spent 4 more years getting his M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology and Psychiatry.
For the first half of his career, he focused exclusively on the psychological side of healing. Then, about 15 years ago, began to study nutrition, alternative medicine, holistic healing and integrative psychology. “As a psychologist first and foremost, I encourage nutrition, but never push it on my patients.” he says.
In his free time, he reads, eats healthy food, cooks healthy food, watches movies, exercises, does yoga, and enjoys sitting motionless in a chair for long periods of time doing absolutely nothing.
It can seem like our lives are filled with busyness, noise, distractions, and often meaningless activities.
What if we could filter out all that noise, and focus on the meaningful?
What if we could find stillness instead of constant distraction?
I believe that most of us have that power. In my experience, most of the noise is there by choice, but we’ve fallen into patterns over the years and it can seem like we’re not able to change them.
Let’s talk about ways to filter out the noise, then how to find stillness and meaning.
Ways to Filter the Noise
Take the rest of today to notice what noise you find in your life. Even take a little time to make a list, whenever you find distraction or busyness.
For example, noise in my life comes from: email, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Twitter, blogs and other sites I like to read, text messages, Slack, and watching Netflix. You might have other sources: Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, news, cable TV.
Once we’re aware of the noise, how can we filter it out? We have to decide that we want more quiet and meaning in our lives. That it’s important enough to “miss out” on some things in those noisy channels.
Then we can take action:
Turn off notifications as much as possible. Including the unread messages count by each app on your phone.
Decide to check on some things (like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) just once a day. Others you can check twice a day, or three times if needed (like email or Slack). But set a limit.
Delete accounts or delete apps that aren’t giving you real meaning (I deleted my Facebook account years ago).
Unsubscribe from everything possible in your email account. And from Twitter or any other app where you’re “following” people or blogs/websites. If you use an RSS reader, unsubscribe from as many feeds as possible. Leave only a handful that give you meaning.
Tell people that you are only checking your messages once a day, to set expectations. Don’t use an autoresponder — I find those annoying. Instead, just send a message to the people who matter most, and ask that they be understanding.
Set a time each day when you watch TV or movies (if at all). Set a time of day when you read news or blogs (if at all). If you say, “I only watch TV after 7 p.m.,” then you’ve limited how much space this takes up in your life.
If there are some things (like email, for example) where you need to stay connected because of work, try to negotiate with your boss or team so that you can find periods of disconnection. For example, ask if you can take a couple hours in the morning and a couple in the afternoon to be disconnected, to focus on more important work.
If you take these actions, you’ll filter out most of the noise.
What’s left? Time for quiet, stillness, focus and meaning.
Finding Stillness & Meaning
Once you’ve filtered out the noise, you are left with a few interesting problems:
Changing your habits of busyness and constant movement.
Figuring out what’s meaningful.
Learning to stop and stay still.
I think those are wonderful problems to be faced with. Most people never even consider them. Find gratitude that you can work on this at all.
Take some time to notice your constant need for busyness or distraction. For example, if you have a moment where you’re not doing anything — you’re waiting in line, you’re alone at your restaurant table while your friend goes to the bathroom, you’re sitting on your couch — what do you try to do out of habit? This is your pattern of busyness and movement.
Now see if you can let go of those patterns. Catch yourself, and instead opt for stillness and quiet. Try to just sit there and notice your surroundings. Soak it all in. Savor the moment. Meditate on your breath. Reflect on your day. Ask yourself what you’re grateful for right now.
Start building new patterns of stillness. For example, try morning meditation on your breath, even if just for a few minutes every day. Try going for a morning or evening walk, without your phone. Try turning the phone and computer off and just journal.
Start finding activities that are more meaningful to you. This doesn’t have to be done in one day — you can slowly experiment to figure out what’s meaningful to you. You might start writing a book or screenplay, for example, or taking photos or drawing or making music. You might decide to start a business or charity that changes the world. You might start to learn something that’s meaningful, or teach others. Find ways to help others and make the world a better place. Journal, meditate, exercise, make healthy food, declutter, make dates with people who are important to you.
When you notice yourself running to busyness and distraction, pause. Turn instead towards stillness and your meaningful activities.
Build a life around stillness and meaning, and notice the difference it makes in you.
This is a perpetual problem for a lot of people, but it seems to be especially pronounced during the holidays. With holiday events, shopping, travel, family visiting … things tend to pile on top of our already busy lives.
But no matter what time of year it is, the problem is the same: our list of tasks is neverending, and our days are too short.
How can we deal with this in a sane way?
I’ll offer five suggestions that work for me.
1. Use this as an opportunity to practice mindfulness. In the middle of your stress and feeling of being overwhelmed … you have the opportunity to be present. When you notice yourself feeling this way, drop in: notice how your body feels. Take a second to observe the physical sensations of your surroundings (sounds, light, touch sensations, etc.). Notice how your body feels as your mind is spinning with anxiety or busyness.
No, stress and overwhelm are not the two most pleasant feelings, but they’re also not the end of the world. And if you see them as an opportunity to practice, to learn, to get better, then they can actually be good news. They are your teachers, and this is your time to be mindful.
You don’t have to spend a whole minute dropping in, but just take five or 10 seconds. Just observe how you’re feeling, observe your surroundings, observe how your thoughts are affecting you. Just notice, briefly, and in that short time, you’ve woken up from the dream we’re in most of the time.
2. Realize that you can’t do it all right now. You might have 20 things to do, or 100 … but you can’t do all of them right now. You probably can’t do them all in the next hour even. How many can you actually do right now? One.
This reminder is meant to free us from the idea that we need to do everything right now. We can’t. So instead, this allows us to focus on just one thing. Just pick one task, and focus on that. Because the others, as urgent as they might seem, can’t possibly be done right now. You can delegate them, eliminate them, defer them, but you can’t do them all right now. So focus on one, and give it your full attention. This is the most helpful way to work, in my experience.
3. Pick a high impact task to focus on. When we’re busy, we often get into the mode of doing a lot of small tasks really quickly. It feels like we’re knocking a lot of things off the list, which can feel productive. But it’s just running around like a chicken without a head.
If you’re going to focus on just one task, it’s best to make it a good one. Something that will have a decent impact on your day, your work, your life. That probably isn’t answering a bunch of unimportant emails or checking Facebook messages. One important email that will close a deal, move along a key project, help someone’s life … that’s a higher impact task. For me, writing is almost always the highest impact thing I can do. It’s hard to figure out what the highest impact task might be, but if you give it some thought, you can see which ones are probably not that important, and which ones are more important. Pick one from the latter category when you can.
That said, you still have to do the smaller tasks. Answer the other emails, run the errands, clean the kitchen counter. I like to take care of those between the bigger tasks, as a way to take a break. Do something important with focus, then relieve my brain by cleaning or answering a few emails. The key is not to procrastinate on the bigger tasks by doing the smaller ones.
4. Be present with this task, with intention. Once you’ve picked an important task, set aside everything else for now. You can’t do them all now, so be here with the one you’ve chosen. Breathe. Set an intention for this task: who are you doing this for, and why? For me, I am often doing my work tasks for you guys (my readers), but I do personal tasks for my family or to help myself. Set a simple intention: I’m writing this article to help my readers who are struggling.
Then let that intention move you as you focus on the task. Be present with the task, noticing how your body feels as you do the task, letting yourself melt into the doing of it, pouring yourself into it as fully as you can. You might get the urge to switch to something else — just notice that and stay with the urge, not letting yourself follow it unthinkingly, then return to the task when the urge subsides. Remember your intention, then let yourself be fully immersed in the task.
5. Practice letting go, with a smile. Having too much to do, and wanting to get it all done as soon as possible … can actually get in the way of doing. This desire to get it all done is an obstacle. Luckily, it’s a great practice to work with this obstacle!
The practice is letting it go. Notice what you think you need to do (your ideal), and let go of it. Instead, tell yourself you don’t know, and instead be open to the reality that’s right in front of you: you can only do one task. Be open to that idea, and the stress will be lowered.
And as you let go of your ideal and open to the reality, smile. Be grateful for the moment you actually have, rather than wishing for the one you don’t have. Smile, and be happy now, rather than waiting for happiness to come at some unspecified date.
In the end, will these suggestions clear away your to-do list? No. You’ll always have a lot of things on your list, and not enough time to do them all. What this does is help you to deal with that fact, and make you more mindful and focused in the middle of that reality.
Life is too short to spend most of it stressed out by an unchangeable fact. We don’t have to waste our time and mental energy worrying about too much to do. Instead, we can smile and be happy doing what we can do now.
Take some time and reflect on what you are doing to achieve the goal of becoming an incredibly powerful source of love, whether you spend it solo or with a partner.
Start the morning with yoga.
The sun salutation is a complete Ayurvedic exercise also known as Surya Namaskara. This series of postures simultaneously integrates the whole physiology including mind, body, and breath. It strengthens and stretches all the major muscle groups, lubricates the joints, conditions the spine, massages the internal organs and increases blood flow and circulation. (1)
Write a love letter and tap into your anandamaya kosha (the bliss sheath).
Write a letter to someone you love fully, completely, someone you trust with all your heart. Tell them all the ways that you love and appreciate them. While writing it, know that they will never read this letter. It is for your eyes only. As you write it, become aware of how you feel.
You will see that as you write this letter, you will actually feel loved, appreciated, cared for, and even important. All the things we so desperately think we need from someone else to make us feel good, we actually experience all by ourselves when we give love freely, without any concern that the other person will love us back.
Infuse your food with love.
Always prepare, cook and eat your food with love, even if time is short. Infuse your food with a positive emotional charge.
If the mind is over-stimulated, stressed, or distracted (rajasic) while cooking and/or eating, the food will be charged with stress and hurry. If the mind is depressed or withdrawn (tamasic) while eating, the food will be negatively charged. If one is cooking and/or eating in a relaxed, calm (sattvic) manner, the food will be positively charged.
Relax and dine.
Valentine’s weekend (and any other time for that matter), relax and dine. No eating on the run or in front of the TV. If the thought of cooking triggers you to stress or rush, order takeout from your favorite restaurant, set a beautiful table, light a candle and enjoy a relaxing royal meal that you didn’t have to cook.
Sit at the table after the meal to relax and digest over a cup of herbal tea and some good contemplation or conversation.
Eat with your fingers.
Eating with your hands means you can’t read, check email, text, or answer the phone. With food all over your fingers, you are stuck doing one thing at a time, and this is the time to eat. Eating with the fingers allows all the senses to be stimulated and involved in the process of eating.
Eating with your hands also allows the many thousands of microbes on the food to get acquainted with the many thousands of microbes on your fingers. Our hands feel the world around us, attaching to microbes found on most everything we touch. (2) As all these microbes are ingested, they act as your evolutionary eyes of change.
Take a walk.
After your meal, take a walk breathing through the nose to drive more prana (life force) into the body. Slow, deep, abdominal and nose breathing (nasal breathing) has been shown to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (famously known for the “rest and digest” relaxation response), which is responsible for bodily restoration and rejuvenation.New studies are linking deep breathing to numerous and profound health benefits. (3)
Taking a 15-minute walk after meals has been shown to lower after-meal blood sugarlevels. (5,6,7)
Studies have also shown that taking a walk shortly after a meal supports healthy weight loss compared to not walking or waiting an hour after the meal. (8,9)
Prep a bath for a loved one or yourself and add a few drops of aromatherapy.
For those with a primarily pitta dosha: sandalwood, marjoram, or benzoin resin oil (which is vanilla-scented) are best.
For those with a primarily kapha dosha: marjoram, frankincense, rose, or ylang-ylang essential oils are best.
For those with a primarily vata dosha: sweet orange, geranium rose, jasmine, ylang ylang, or frankincense are best.
Give a massage to your partner or yourself.
Massage (abhyanga) releases the infamous oxytocin bonding hormone. (10,11) Oxytocin has been studied to increase when one feels trust and/or empathy. It is the giving hormone, released during acts of appreciation, gratitude, emotional connections and giving touch.
The sense of touch has also been linked to healing. The laying on of hands has been described in many traditions as a form of energetic healing. While the mechanism for this form of healing has yet to be fully understood, much has been written about the healing power of touch.
Breathing, called Pranayama in Sanskrit, is a balancing way to start and end each day. Follow this breathing technique for 5-10 minutes at least once per day, and ideally twice per day. You can do the breathing practices anytime of the day that works best for you.
The aim of breathing meditation techniques to pump prana and oxygen into the brain, allowing for greater stillness and a deeper experience of calm. (4)
Prepare an ojas tonic before bed.
Ojas (OH-jas) is considered to be the most refined by-product of digestion, said to reside in the heart. Ayurveda considers ojas to be an essence of nature and a cosmic substance that directly influences our experience of life.
A plentiful reserve of ojas is reflected in the luster of the eyes, radiance of the skin (that glow so detectable in babies and pregnant women), potent fertility, tenacious immunity, strong digestion and clarity of mind.
Certain herbs in Ayurveda are also prized as great ojas-builders. Traditionally, a concoction of these herbs, including Ashwagandha and Shatavari, were blended with ojas-building foods like dates, almonds, coconut, saffron, ghee, honey and cardamom in a milk base. This mixture was warmed and taken before bed as a sleep aid and an ojas-builder to boot.
Burn-out is the mortal enemy of Vitality. If you’re suffering from burn-out, your life is out of balance by definition. Burn-out is much more than a cliché’, or something to take foolish pride in which demonstrates your commitment, dedication and persistence to a cause. It’s a state of physical, psychological and mental exhaustion, and a warning signal of lifestyle choices that need attention immediately. Your health, along with your relationships and psychological well being, are threatened. It may seem like burn-out “just happens” to us, but the reality is that it comes from a combination of factors and environmental conditions, each of which is unique to our own situation, which creates a potent brew. The good news is that we can change this trajectory. There are things that we can do to combat burn-out and get our lives back into balance.
Tchiki Davis, M.A.,Ph.D, is a University of Berkeley graduate and expert on well-being technology and self-described burn-out “survivor”. She’s reflected and written about her own personal experience of burn-out as a Ph.D. student at Berkeley. Like many who find themselves burned-out, her reasons for this condition were not fully apparent as they were occurring, she was just really, really busy achieving her goals. In her case, she was not only writing her Doctoral dissertation, she was also getting another advanced degree in a different field, and fund raising for her new start-up business all at the same time. Here are some of the signals and lessons she’s learned about how to spot the path to burn-out and some suggestions on what to do about it:
Your personality may be a risk factor: You see yourself as highly motivated and persistent. You take great pride in showing off your dedicated work ethic to your co-workers and superiors. You “live to work”, working long hours and regularly miss out on non-work time with family and friends. If this is you, you may be at risk of burn-out.
What to do: Apply your hyper-focused planning skills to your own life and schedule in some recurring non-work time with friends and family to help achieve better balance.
Social comparison is a risk factor: If you believe you are surrounded by people who are amazing at the same thing you’re supposedly amazing at, you’re likely doing an internal comparison and working harder and harder to demonstrate your own mastery.
What to do: If you can work in an environment where everyone has mastery of different skills, or more defined responsibilities, you will be less likely to fall into this comparison trap.
Local culture can be a risk factor: If you find yourself in a local culture, such as a business or university, where everyone is expected to be, or known to be, a star you’re at risk of feeling pressure from outside forces that you must work harder and harder to keep up with the pack.
What to do: Recognize that no one has the right to diminish you or make you feel inferior. We all have certain gifts, knowledge and skills that may be different and better than others. Be aware and acknowledge that everyone can grow and change, and practice self acceptance and self compassion.
Broader culture can be a risk factor: Davis uses the example of Silicon Valley, home to some of the most successful technology companies and smartest individuals in the world, to demonstrate how an entire community can set the bar of success unreasonably high. It may be inspiring and invigorating, but it may also lead to burn-out if you feel you’re not keeping up.
What to do: Set boundaries for yourself. Take control of the situation and decide how many hours are acceptable to you in order for you to maintain a work-life balance. Ask yourself where the deal breakers are. Then be assertive about protecting those boundaries.
Dr. Davis also has some advice for reversing burnout, but warns that burn-out doesn’t happen overnight and it isn’t resolved immediately. It may take chunks of time to reset your well being. But the sooner that you acknowledge that you’re heading down this dangerous road, the sooner you can get your life closer to balance.
The original article by Dr. Davis can be found here on LinkedIn.
Note: The author acknowledges, with great compassion, that this is a challenging topic for the many individuals who make the difficult decision to begin treatment with psychiatric medication. All patients must be given the most complete and accurate information about these medications, including side effects (risk for dependence, violence, impulsivity, etc), the importance of properly tapering off medication, the institutional incentives for medical doctors, educators, and others to advocate for their use, and the availability of effective non-pharmaceutical avenues of treatment that can address root causes of mental illness and behavioral problems. What follows herein is a discussion of steps that the author believes should be taken in anticipation of any medication taper, and the subsequent taper should be handled by an experienced professional. Despite these considerations, some patients may be unable to taper which, in the author’s opinion, speaks to the important of true informed consent prior to medication initiation. This blog is not medical advice and does not replace consultation with a qualified medical professional of your choosing.
If you squeeze a spring and you hold it there, steadily for a couple of hours, and then you suddenly let go, what happens? It bursts into expansion, maybe double its natural size and reverberates for a while until it comes to a resting place. This is the example that I use when I describe the effects that antidepressants have on brain chemistry over time – they squeeze the spring and if you let it go too quickly, it’s mayhem.
Despite being taught, in my training, that antidepressants were to the depressed (and to the anxious, OCD, IBS, PTSD, bulemic, anorexic, etc.) what glasses are to the near-sighted, I don’t buy this anymore. I don’t think patients are getting the whole truth.
Here’s the deal: There is not a single human study that supports the “monoamine hypothesis” of depression, which is the idea that depression is caused by a certain kind of chemical imbalance in the brain, such as under-activity of serotonin. The only studies in which tryptophan (an amino acid precursor to serotonin) depletion resulted in depression were in patients who had previously taken antidepressants.
Imaging studies, post-mortem suicide assessments, and animal models have never yielded consistent patterns of neurotransmitter levels, metabolites, or receptor profiles. Compelling discussions like this one by Moncrieff and Cohen suggest that antidepressants actually createabnormal states rather than repair them. They use the analogy of alcohol’s disinhibiting effects: just because booze can ease one’s social phobia, does not imply that alcohol is an appropriate treatment nor a correcting agent.
Direct-to-consumer advertising in America has allowed pharmaceutical companies to “teach” the public about brain chemical imbalances and serotonin deficiencies through cleverly worded taglines and absent FDA-policing. The disconnect between available evidence and advertisements is explored in this excellent commentary.
But they do work! say many patients and their prescribers. And they do work! Sometimes. Thanks to active placebo effect or expectations of relief that manifest as actual physiologic changes as demonstrated by this metanalysis by Dr. Irving Kirsch, a placebo effect expert. He also collected unpublished data to show that more studies demonstrated lack of effect compared to marginal benefit largely attributed to placebo.
So what? Why come off antidepressants?
What are some of the undisclosed concerns about long-term treatment? They include chronic illness, risk of “relapse” increased by treatment as demonstrated by this study, increased disability, and even decreased benefit from exercise! Read more about the potential concerns here.
With some of these considerations in mind, you may be thinking, get me off this stuff! I’m done!
Not so fast.
What has fueled my fire about the irresponsible prescribing of psychiatric medications is bearing witness to cases of “severe discontinuation syndrome,” as the field euphemistically refers to the months to years of nervous system instability that can result from medication taper. The process of coming off of antidepressants is just that, a process.
If you’ve been treated for longer than two months it must be (painstakingly) slow with small incremental decreases in medication doses and use of liquid preparations and compounds when small increments are not available.
My approach to supporting medication taper is to promote resilience before the taper so that your body is very able to adapt to the change. This is the idea of draining your bucket so that it doesn’t overflow when the “Where-are-my-meds?!” brain and body bomb drops.
Here are what I believe to be the most important preparatory steps:
1. Balance blood sugar, support natural fats, and calm inflammation
Blood sugar instability can drag your insulin and cortisol levels around to an extent that impacts your thyroid, sex hormones, and immunity. Low fat or diets that are heavy on the wrong fat diets (trans, hydrogenated, heated vegetable oils) can compromise your central nervous system’s ability to support cell membrane functioning as well as hormone production.Inflammatory foods like gluten can also provoke brain-based reactions and immune system dysregulation. For these reasons and more, I recommend a high natural fat, no-suger/no-grain/no-legume month that eliminates corn, soy, dairy, and gluten, at a minimum. It’s the most effective way to control for these variables.
2. Support your adrenals
If you want to promote resiliency, train your body to respond with ease to stress. One of the most powerful ways to send a signal of safety to your nervous system and to retrain your response to stress is breathwork, and specifically kundalini yoga. If you’re like me, mindfulness meditation, aka “watching your thoughts” feels like an advanced course in impossible. Kundalini offers usable tools for rapid shifts. The goal is a pervasive feeling of trust in the process and an attitude of “I got this”. Start with three minutes!
3. Heal the gut
Make sure you’re pooping daily, have resolved gas, bloating, and indigestion through dietary change, relaxation during eating, and possibly the strategic the use of herbal anitmicrobials, gut healing agents like aloe and glutamine, and probiotics. The gut/brain axis is a major focus of resolving underlying inflammatory drivers of what likely got you on meds in the first place. Diet and stress minimization will go a long way toward resolving gut problems, but a stool analysis may also be indicated.
4. Clean house – inside and outside
In the past 100-150 years, we’ve done quite a number on this planet. The 100,000+ chemicals, largely unstudied for human safety, including pesticides, fluoride, and plastics put quite a demand on our defenses including our immune system and liver.
Movement and sweating are also powerful ways to detox. I recommend 20 minutes of burst intervals (high intensity, low-volume) weekly as a starting point.
5. Seek strategic support
I recommend a slow taper using a compounding pharmacy and discuss more details here, but suffice it to say that shoring up the body with strategic supplements can help. I focus on calming the nervous system during medication tapers. Agents that have been identified as NMDA modulators or natural molecules that buffer the effects of excitatory glutamate are magnesium, zinc, N-acetylcysteine, and phenibut or GABA. I don’t always use amino acids as primary therapy, but they can be essential during a taper because of signals of “deficiency” that the body may be getting in the wake of medication discontinuation. Tryptophan and 5HTP, and L-tyrosine and dL-phenylalanine can be effective support. Inositol, a membrane stabilizer, and St. John’s Wort can also serve as transitional aids, which can relieve symptoms of anxiety or dips in mood.
Mostly, I counsel patients not to be afraid.
Psychiatrists are so driven by fear and a need to control and regulate the emotional experience. Once these first several steps are underway, there is a strong possibility that the original driver of your symptoms has been addressed. You may not have the same need or even be deriving much benefit from medication. In the end, I believe it is everyone’s choice to manage their health in a way that resonates with their beliefs about health and wellness.
This decision should be made with eyes wide open; however, and preferably with gentle interventions preceding more aggressive ones. The complexity of the body is awe-inspiring, and depression is a syndrome that has many many different causes. Look to the root, look to healing, and look to restoration for real lasting change.
Once you remember what we have forgotten – that the body is best at self-healing if we just get out of our own way – then you might shift into a new mindset of empowerment. You might just realize that you can reclaim something you gave away. Something that’s not available to you through a model of care based on life-long pharmaceuticals. It’s that feeling that we are always missing something even if our symptoms are “managed”. It’s our personal power and fearlessness. With this, anything is possible including becoming medication free after decades of exposure. Remember, this is your journey for a reason and there are no regrets.
are healthier when we move more often in a variety of ways. As I mentioned, this takes awareness of how we relate to and use our bodies. This is a topic worth diving into further, and a prerequisite for all healthy movement. If you aren’t aware moving with awareness, you won’t notice when you are moving poorly, and you won’t be able to correct it. Oh, and the cat represents your body.
move with awareness and relate your internal sense of yourself to your external environment. The ability to sense where your body is in space is called proprioception. Strong proprioceptive ability is 
the difference in the movement of your left leg and right leg. Does one leg swing more freely?
I see as a massage therapist is a tight neck and shoulder with knots around the shoulder blade. The majority of people who have this on one side come in carrying a heavy one shoulder bag or purse. I had a friend who had a knot on one side for years. He switched from a messenger bag to a backpack and it went away never to return. Seriously, make the switch and don’t wait. You will thank yourself. Two shoulder bags are wonderful, and if they get too heavy, getting one with a chest or waist strap can help distribute the weight more evenly. You can always use a rolling bag for style points.
