Health&Wellness Magazine January 2016 | Page 13

& January 2016 Mindfulness training can help you appreciate that there is more right with you than wrong with you, helping you replace self-criticism and fear with peace, happiness, acceptance, equanimity and compassion for yourself and others. Mindfulness can help you tap into the gratitude that arises when you are fully alive, one moment at a time, one day at a time. Mindfulness can help you learn to appreciate the simultaneous presence of pleasant emotions alongside unpleasant emotions, helping provide an internal, embodied feeling of wholeness and wellbeing even in the midst of pain and suffering. Mindfulness can help you identify your life’s priorities, clarify your most important values and help you begin living in accord with your personal sense of your life’s deepest meaning. The amazing thing about mindfulness training is that these positive transformational benefits can occur even without completely eradicating the anxiety and depression that initiated the mindfulness study and practice in the first place. My students and patients have put it this way: “I have my life back. I am in control. My unpleasant emotions are subsiding and my pleasant emotions are increasing. I am more fully alive.” 13 Research increasingly suggests mindfulness is an important tool in the management of the pain and suffering caused by anxiety and depression. Resources A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook for anxiety, Stahl, MeleoMeyer and Koerbel Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World, Williams and Penman About the Author Dr. Patterson is past president of the Kentucky Academy of Family Physicians and is board certified in family medicine and integrative holistic medicine. He is on the family practice faculty at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and the University of Louisville School of Medicine, Saybrook University’s College of Integrative Medicine and Health Sciences (San Francisco) and the Center for Mind Body Medicine (Washington, D.C.). He operates the Mind Body Studio in Lexington, where he offers integrative medicine consultations. He can be reached through his Web site at www.mindbodystudio.org. Lose the stress. Love the savings. cal anxiety or depression. MBSR can also help manage physical and emotional symptoms of clinically significant anxiety and depression because it is often integrated into a regimen that includes psychological counseling and/or medication. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a more recent combination of MBSR with cognitive behavior therapy. Although initially developed to treat recurrent, relapsing depression, MBCT also helps anxiety. In fact, most treatments for either anxiety or depression, whether counseling, medication or psycho-educational interventions, improve the symptoms of both conditions. If you or a loved one has significant symptoms of anxiety or depression, it is extremely important that you consult with your primary care provider and discuss treatment options. Moderate and severe symptoms may well need either or both counseling and medication, at least initially. Mild symptoms may respond to lifestyle changes concerning sleep, healthy nutrition, physical activity, emotional awareness, substance use and social relationships. Your provider can refer you to a trusted professional for specific training in MBSR or MBCT. You may also benefit from self-directed study, such as the references cited below. $ 49.99 4949 $ $ INTRODUCTORY INTRODUCTORY 1-hour1-hour massage massage * * session session $ 59.99 59.99 5959 $ $ $ INTRODUCTORY INTRODUCTORY 1-hour1-hour MuradMurad Healthy Healthy * * Skin facial Skin session facial session ® ® With low rates on massages, facials and all our 1-hour sessions, now’s the time to relieve your stress. Choose your offer and schedule today. HAMBURG NICHOLASVILLE RD MassageEnvy.com