While emotional eating is something we’ve all heard of (and probably participated in, truth be told), how many of you have heard the term ‘emotional exercising?’ As I mentioned last week, I’m on a journey to get fit and I’m struggling with motivation.  As I pay more attention to the people exercising around me, I’ve started wondering about the opposite end of the spectrum.  How much is too much?

At first, the concept of working out your tension in the weight room or going for a celebratory run seems like a pretty decent idea, and one that many doctors and psychologists recommend to their patients.

Many of the physical health benefits associated with regular exercise are obvious: stronger muscles, healthier body weight, better cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, lowered chance of diabetes, improved sleep and increased energy. Although the psychological benefits you can reap from regular exercise are a lot harder to monitor, staying fit has indeed been proven to ease depression, anxiety and other mental health conditions.

I’ve read several studies that even showed improvements in brain function after cardio workouts, including better memory, attention and learning abilities. One recent and particularly large study that took place at King’s College in London, summed up their results as such: “Healthy body; healthy mind.”

Like all good things, exercising can become addictive.  Because of its awesome ability to activate the brain’s pleasure center, some people take exercising to the extreme, wanting more and more of the feel-good hormones that working out releases.

Take Jeff Tweedy, for example.  Jeff is the lead singer of the band Wilco, and he developed a nasty combination of drug and alcohol addictions due to the rock and roll lifestyle and a lifelong affliction with migraines (for which he took prescription pain killers).  Several years ago, Jeff went to rehab, got clean, and has been sober ever since. After rehab, he took up running.

In fact, he ran so much, he broke both of his legs doing it. When interviewed, Jeff had this to say: “Just because I found something good to do doesn’t mean I’m not going to hurt myself doing it.”

Because exercising activates the brain’s pleasure circuit so well, it can indeed become a problem – especially for those people who are more prone to addiction in general.

If you’re putting important life events and people on the back burner in order to work out, it may be time to take a look at your attitude toward exercise. Outwardly, it can be difficult to differentiate between a healthy athlete and an exercise addict. What I’ve learned is it’s the attitude that matters.

People who become addicted to exercising will lose perspective and balance in their lives. Just like a drug, working out becomes their first priority, regardless of who or what it replaces. Increased miles on the pavement, extra hours in the gym, multiple workouts every day. More is always better to the addict.

Exercise is an amazing tool for many reasons, and most of us should be doing more of it. However, if you had an ‘a-ha’ moment while reading about exercise addiction, your next move should be to find a good therapist. Leading a healthier, happier, and more balanced life will come when you are able to separate your emotions from exercise. And a little Ellen DeGeneres can’t hurt, either: “I really don’t think I need buns of steel.  I’d be happy with buns of cinnamon.”

I used to be a chronic worrier.

In fact, I spent the better part of three decades intensely worried about a plethora of highly unlikely disasters.

If you’re a worrier, you’re not alone. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting about 18% of the population. However, just because it’s so prevalent doesn’t mean that it’s ok to ignore your chronic anxiety. Studies show that regular, unsubstantiated worrying will eventually catch up with you, leading to progressive physical and psychological problems as well as interpersonal difficulties.

When worrying began to manifest itself in the form of physical damage to my body, I put my foot down and called a therapist. Getting a handle on my anxiety was something I had to do before I could move toward the life I really wanted.

The first thing you should know about what feels like uncontrollable worrying is that there’s a scientific explanation for it.  While observing their patients’ PET scans, physicians have noted that the orbital cortex of the brain goes into overdrive during periods of anxiety.

The orbital cortex is the underside of the front of the brain. Feelings of worry stem from a slight abnormality in this area, leading it to “overheat” or simply overwork itself.  In other words, your orbital cortex is easily aroused, which sounds a lot more fun in theory.

Suppose a thought enters your mind, such as, “Why do I have such a headache?” For the chronic worrier, faulty beliefs about this thought will quickly take over. “My headache is worse than normal. I probably have a brain tumor. I should see a doctor at once.”

Anxious people have an extremely tough time letting go of these thoughts because their orbital cortex becomes aroused so easily. It lights up quickly, generating heat and energy, causing the worrier to become stuck in the worry cycle without being able to move forward past the feelings of anxiety. The non-anxious patient may experience the same thought process, even fleetingly pondering that the headache may be a brain tumor, but is able to recognize the thought as irrational, letting go of it before it becomes a worry.

Many worriers develop techniques to ease their anxieties, which may sound like a good thing, but these “neutralizing rituals” are typically quite disruptive to the worrier’s lifestyle, and can cause problems in relationships and at work.

Luckily, it is possible to cool down your orbital cortex and get your worries under control. The technique that worked best for me, and the treatment that is most widely-used for anxiety disorders is called cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).

During this type of self-therapy, you’ll examine your thoughts (cognitions) and take back control over your reactions (behaviors) to the thoughts. Some basic steps include:

1. Cognitive Restructuring -  This involves identifying your specific fears that are the most irrational and most destructive and then persistently asking yourself for evidence that your fears are legitimate.

2. Fear Facing - Sometimes referred to as ‘exposure therapy,’ this component of CBT is necessary because avoidance of your fears will prevent you from ever overcoming them.

3. Thought Replacement - Some therapists advise their anxious patients to come up with more accurate thoughts or relaxing mantras after specific fears are identified. I experienced the most success when I turned my anxious thoughts into cartoons, amplifying their absurdity. My therapist also suggested speaking irrational thoughts aloud, or singing them to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell” or another familiar children’s song. For me, this works every time.

For many people, obsessing about irrational fears is a habit that they’ve been developing for years and years.  It may take quite some time to break out of the worry cycle, but it can be done with some practice and a lot of dedication. Anyone who is willing and ready to make an effort can get control of their worries. Nobel Prize winner Winston Churchill suffered from anxiety, but went on to lead an extremely successful life. To quote him, ”When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life — most of which had never happened.”

The first step to recovering from a drug or alcohol addiction is acceptance. We’ve all heard that saying before, and many of us probably know someone who’s dealt with a substance abuse problem. Once a drug or alcohol addict admits to having a problem, the solution is removal of the addictive substance and learning the self-awareness skills that will help them avoid temptation in the future.

Plenty of people use drugs and alcohol for a variety of acceptable social and medicinal reasons, but an addict has reached a sense of physically and psychologically craving their substance of choice. Did you know that a very similar addiction can also happen with food?

I started thinking about this topic when I read a few very disturbing news articles last week. One reported that 25% of women would rather be severely depressed than overweight. In fact, 15% would rather be blind. When I delved a little deeper into the topic, I realized that food addiction is a huge psychological issue for many people.

The culture that we live in glorifies emaciated and gaunt women (as well as thin, muscular, attractive men), and has created a sense of desperation in some people to live up to those glorified images. The problem? In order to do so they must kick their secret food habit, and that is much, much harder than it seems.

Food addicts need food to survive, so unlike alcohol or drugs, avoidance of the very thing that has become an addiction is nigh on impossible. Thus, these people slide into self-hatred at their inability to quit over-eating.

Guess what goes really well with self-loathing? You’ve got it – comfort food.

Thus begins a seemingly unbreakable cycle of self-starvation, hunger, binge-eating, and self-hatred. Pepper in a little depression, fatigue, and what you end up with is someone who sees food as an enemy and a best friend.

Breaking the cycle of turning to food for comfort is difficult because we’re surrounded by food every day. A food addict must continue to feed herself and her children in order to simply stay alive, whereas a drug addict can flush his pills down the toilet and begin “recovering.”

The secret to breaking the food-as-comfort cycle is self-acceptance. Come to terms with the fact that you may never be a size two. Love yourself anyway. Focus on all the things that you love about being you and get rid of negative influences. Even if you’re “overweight,” it’s ok. Stop the struggle. Just be you. Eat to nourish your body, not to comfort your emotions. Change starts on the inside, even when we’re talking about physical appearance.

By fully accepting yourself just as you are, and allowing for the fact that you may never be any thinner than you are right this very second, you release the pressure from yourself to be something that you’re not. Stop dieting and start living. Many food addicts can only lose excess weight once they enter into a healthier relationship with themselves. But even if you’re never as thin as you want to be, it’s ok. You’re beautiful how you are, here, now, today.

Do you feel like you’re on a search for truth as you make your way through the world, dodging hyperbole as you go?  For a long time it was the opposite for me. I felt like I was blatantly avoiding some hard truths in my own life. I buried my head in the sand, thinking that avoidance would keep me safe and help me hide from the truth.

Looking back, I thought I knew my own truth for a very long time, but only on a subconscious level. Knowing your truth and acting on it are two very different concepts, because when you finally begin to share your truth with others, they will react accordingly. Those who have different truths and beliefs will potentially be hurt or offended.

Staying silent when you know your own truth is perhaps one of the most detrimental forms of dishonesty. It has been called the ‘Disease to Please’ and curing yourself can be quite difficult. If you question your own truth, you may end up trying to please others forever.

But here’s some food for thought – some people who are convinced that they know their own truths may actually be wrong.

Is it possible to be wrong about your own truth?

People in the public eye are the most notorious of all for not living truthfully – we see examples of this in the news, in Hollywood, in politics and in professional sports. Our society seems to be riddled with untruths everywhere we turn. If everybody’s doing it, then why can’t we?

Should we give up on honesty and truth?

We should not give up on truth! It is empowering and liberating, even while it may be complicated. Living untruthfully can ruin just about anything - including your health, according to recent research presented at the American Psychological Association’s 120th Annual Convention.

In order for you to live a truly authentic and (mostly) truthful life, you’ve got to really get in touch with yourself. Having the confidence to live a truthful life is never easy, because it means taking responsibility for all of your actions and decisions. Be able to answer for yourself with self-assurance. What you know to be true for you may not sit well with others, but what matters is that it works for you, and that you feel good about your decisions.

As important as it is to live your truth, remember that others around you are attempting the same thing, and their truth may not look like truth at all to you. Only when you can learn to accept other people as they present you with their truths is when the truth really will set you free.

I’d like to leave you with an open-ended, thought provoking concept today.

Does absolute truth exist?

If everyone’s versions of the truth are ’right’, even if only for them (I imagine Hitler thought his truth was ‘absolute truth’), what then?

My truth, your truth, we all fall down?

Photo courtesy of Cornelia Kopp

Although Thanksgiving day isn’t here yet, there are many things that we should be thankful for every day of our lives. Sometimes we forget to appreciate what we consider to be the ‘little things’, and by the time we realize their importance, it’s far too late. Take the time now to get into the habit of being cognizant of everything and everyone that makes your life worth living.

Part of being thankful is being aware, and the most effective way to be aware of everything around you is to live mindfully. Mindful living ensures that you don’t miss all of the wonderful things in your life that are happening to you every day. You know the saying, “stop and smell the roses?” Well as it turns out, you really should.

Here are 10 other things that many of us forget to appreciate.   See if you can expand this list each day by mindfully noticing all of the good things that surround you.

1.  You are the thing that you should be most thankful for.  Be mindful of yourself first, and all other relationships become instantly that much better.
2.  Appreciate all of the difficult things you’ve made it through. Because of those hurdles, you’re that much stronger, smarter and more capable.
3.  Enjoy your children every single day.  The more you enjoy them, the more they will enjoy you – guaranteed. When your children become adults, the bonds you create with them now will turn into lifelong friendships. This can be applied to nieces and nephews, too!
4. Love the shape of your body. Many people spend such a wasted amount of time dieting and cursing the image they see in the mirror. The better choice is embracing the body you’ve  been given and appreciating all of the good things about it. Every body is different and there is beauty to be found in each one.  You just have to be looking for the beauty instead of the flaws.
5. Be thankful for your enemies.  They teach you valuable lessons – what not to do, how not to act, and why your friends are so amazing (and that you should be extra thankful for them!)
6.  Look around and be grateful for this earth that we live on.  It is filled with beauty, life, and vivid colors in more areas than not.  Take time to travel to some of the most breathtaking places on earth. And don’t forget to appreciate the nature that is in your own backyard, which sometimes goes blindly unnoticed.
7.  Remember to appreciate your ability to eat food and all that it brings to your life – from the delicious experience of eating it to the strength and nutrition it delivers to your body.
8.  Make sure that you are not only thankful for your soulmate, but that you show him or her how much they mean to you.  If you haven’t found your soulmate yet, be thankful for your friends for being your constant companions.
9. Be grateful for your health as you journey through this life. If you do live with pain or disease, be thankful that you live in a time of advanced medicine so that you can exist in a much higher degree of comfort than many people in the past.
10. When is the last time you were thankful for your senses? Without them, you couldn’t experience the beauty and the brilliance of everything else on this list.

Make every day a day of thanks. Appreciating the good things in your life means that you’re really noticing them, and that’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Photo courtesy of Ganesha Isis

Hurricane Sandy has disrupted the lives of many people hailing from Jamaica all the way up to Canada. I’m lucky enough to live just far enough off the coast of New Jersey, and although my family and I were mighty scared during the high winds and rain, we’re very thankful that we didn’t suffer any structural damage to our home, or, more importantly, to any of us.

In today’s post, I wanted to take the opportunity to give all of our readers a virtual hug in case any of you were deeply affected by the storm. I know, I know.  “A hug?  Is that all she’s got to offer?” – is what you’re probably saying. It’s true; I admit that those people directly in the path of something as intense and destructive as a hurricane will ultimately need much more than hugs to get back on their feet.

However, hugs can do quite a lot more than we give them credit for.  In fact, although most couples might claim to prefer passionate kisses, regular hugging has been shown to create a deeper bond, as it increases the amount of three neurotransmitters being released in the brain.

It doesn’t even seem to matter who we are hugging - our significant other, our friends, our children, our parents, or a person who needs our help (such as someone in the aftermath of a natural disaster). Just the simple act of hugging causes dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin to be released. Dopamine is responsible for giving us that feel-good feeling, and it’s also responsible for motivation!  Serotonin puts us in a better mood and quells our fears and feelings of loneliness. Oxytocin is responsible for building bonds and trust with the person we are hugging.

Even more interesting is that children who are hugged often end up growing a 10% larger hippocampus – the part of the brain responsible for memory, learning, and responding to stress. People with a larger hippocampal volume have been shown to have a better capacity for learning and a much lower chance of developing an anxiety or depression problem during their lifetime.

As soon as I learned just how effective hugs can be, I wanted to run out and hug everyone I could find! But…then I realized that might be creepy.  It’s pretty important that both people involved in the hug feel good about it, and I’m fairly certain that being hugged by a creep doesn’t feel good. Knowing that being hugged regularly can actually make substantial changes to the brain, and can create smarter, happier, more motivated individuals is pretty powerful information. I say: let’s see what kind of a difference we can make on our friends and loved ones, and those in need around us by hugging it out, just a little more often.  It’s worth a shot, no?

A great appreciation for music is something that many of my family members share – ranging from musical inclinations to having a general love of music. Throughout my life, I’ve often used specific songs to put me into the right frame of mind for certain situations, and I have a sibling who is veritably obsessed with the entire concept of music.

Of course, music has been used for thousands of years to enhance a variety of situations, so I realize that it’s not just my little family that has discovered the amazing benefits of song. Marching bands get fans into the spirit of football games, lullabies tend to soothe and calm fussy babies, and teachers use catchy tunes to help students learn. What I wanted to know was: why?

After doing a little research, I discovered that there appears to be a very real connection in the brain between music and mood. Congratulations to us for being onto something all of these years!

Recent research shows that even the anticipation of your favorite song will give you a rush, but for the full benefits, you’ll have to keep listening until you reach your peak emotional arousal. Sounds worth looking (or listening) into, no?

Dopamine, a neuro-transmitter, is released by nerve cells in response to the feeling of pleasure that we get from external (and usually tangible) rewards like food, money, drugs, sex, and some activities that may signal that one of these rewards is imminent, like falling in love.

However, since listening to music isn’t really thought of as a tangible reward, the brain’s dopamine response to music had not been studied until recently.

The results are impressive.

The levels of dopamine in the brain increased by up to 9% in people who were observed while listening to some of their favorite music.  This is exciting news, because it verifies that “we can release dopamine in anticipation of something abstract, complex and not concrete, such as an aesthetic stimulus,” according to Valorie Salimpoor, co-author of the study.

The study also cemeted the fact that the chills you get during your favorite part of a song are due to the levels of dopamine spiking in your brain.  This moment is also called a musical ‘frisson.’

This tells me that Gloria Estefan was right – eventually, the rhythm is gonna get you – to smile! People have been telling us for years to listen to more music when we’re feeling down. With scientific proof that it works, what’s stopping you?

Photo courtesy of digitalART2

This is the second post in our Mindful Mondays series, where we will focus on improving mental clarity, memory and mood.

All week I’ve continued toward improving my mental clarity. I incorporated all of the items I listed out for you last week, hoping to have a somewhat clearer head by today. I have meditated every single day for over an hour. I spent time outdoors and had no alcohol or aspartame. I did better at eating smaller meals but I still have to improve in that area. I was able to continue to live my life drama-free with limited television time.

I failed miserably at getting eight hours of sleep each night though. Some nights I almost managed, but not every night, and that meant I fell asleep during meditation a few times. That is not the desired outcome of meditation, so I must make a concerted effort to ensure that my sleeping is done during the appropriate hours in order for my brain to function at full capacity.

Despite not sleeping as much as I should, I have already noticed a difference in my brain function. I find that I’m not “searching” for words as often as I used to. I have also felt myself taking what I can only describe as mental stops. It’s as if I’m in a movie and everyone else continues to move while I remain still. I just enjoy the action, feeling completely absorbed in the moment. Long after time has sped up again, I still have great retention of what happened during those mental stops.

I’ve been diligently researching the next steps in my Better Memory Mission, and this week, along with continuing the behavioral changes I’ve already implemented, I will be adding supplements to my diet. Here is what I will be taking, and why:

• Gingko biloba – As a well documented treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease, Gingko has also been shown to improve normal age-related memory loss as well as boosting memory in the young.
• Ginger extract – Along with soothing upset stomachs, ginger has now been shown to improve memory and cognitive function in middle aged women.
• B-Complex – Low levels of vitamin B6 and B12 have been associated with impaired cognitive function.
• L-theanine – Shown to have a calming effect on the brain, allowing it to focus, L-theanine is available as a supplement but can also be found in green tea, which is how I will be taking it.

I’ve also ordered some organic oat straw tea, as I’ve been reading a lot about its benefits on attention and focus and I’m going to be ramping up my intake of healthier foods in general, and cutting out as much sugar as possible. Overall, I think I’ve got a fairly solid plan to move forward. I’m pretty psyched that I’ve already made progress!

That pesky little matter of sleeping enough at night is going to be my biggest hurdle, but I am going to make a stupendous effort this week to get back on track. I had an excuse last week – I got an iPhone and I stayed up way too late trying to figure out just how it got so smart.

Much like Apple, we should all work to upgrade our memory and capabilities regularly. After all, if basic phones are null and void, what good is a basic brain?

Taking a sick day when you’re feeling physically horrible is generally considered acceptable by most employers, as long as it doesn’t happen all the time. However, tending to your mental health can be slightly more controversial if not handled correctly.

Nearly every job entails some amount of stress.  Add to that the high paced personal lives that many Americans are living, and you end up with a very mentally weary workforce, pushing themselves day after day to make it to their jobs. If you’re not physically ill –  is it ok to call in “sick?”

The answer doesn’t seem to be very cut-and-dried in very many employee handbooks.

If you’re feeling mentally drained, your workplace probably won’t benefit from your presence anyway, so taking an unscheduled day at home recovering your brainpower might be really beneficial. Just keep a few things in mind:

• Remember to call your boss.
  Forgetting to let your superiors know that you won’t be at work is definitely not a good start to a relaxing day off. Call (don’t text) any and all management who need to know of your absence.
• Use generalities.
  Explain that you are just not feeling well and that it would be best if you did not come in to the office that day. Avoid saying that you are sick so that you aren’t actually lying and to avoid the day after ”How are you feeling?” conversations.
• Choose your day appropriately.
  Taking a day off when the office is already understaffed or super-busy will irritate co-workers who have to pick up your slack. Choose a slow day to take a mental rest.
• Plan ahead.
  Avoid anything stressful on your mental health day - figure out how you’re going to spend your time before the actual day. Rent movies, borrow books, buy that ice cream you want to indulge in. Have everything on hand so that you don’t even have to leave the house.
• Unplug.
  If you must, give yourself 30 minutes to answer personal emails, and then disconnect from the outside world. Turn off your computer and cell phone in order to focus entirely on relaxation.
• Choose your company wisely.
  Spending your mental health day with a friend might possibly lead to drama or conflict. Don’t take that chance on your day off. Go solo and make all of the decisions yourself.
• Don’t be seen in public.
  Why take the risk of being spotted by a coworker or superior? Stay at home, where you can recover your mental clarity while staying out of the spotlight.

The bottom line is this: your mental health is just as important as your physical health, and although a small number of managers still expect their employees to tough it out, many employers today understand the value of a mental health day. In order to limit your need for excessive absences, though, make sure you are constantly making tiny improvements in your everyday life, leaving you better equipped to handle stressors without becoming overloaded.