Psyche & Soul 31: ENHANCING MENTAL HEALTH: 7 MORE SIMPLE PRACTICES

Podcast link

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-31-Psyche--Soul--69-epka22

Hello, this is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha Centre for Psychospiritual Wellbeing at Jeolikote, Uttarakhand, with another edition of Psyche & Soul. 

In the last podcast I presented 7 simple practices that can help us enhance our mental health and wellbeing. In this weekend’s podcast I present seven more simple but very effective practices. 

1.    Laughter

Laughter is an ever available means to enhance our mental health and wellbeing. Laughter and mental distress cannot go together. Every time we laugh, more oxygen courses to our organs, blood flow increases, and stress evaporates. In fact, just thinking about having a good laugh is enough to lower our stress levels.

When we watch some silly videos or comedy films, laughter flows effortlessly. Norman Cousins, American journalist, author and professor, healed himself of a painful and rare form of spondylitis that rendered him immobile, staying in his hospital bed and watching comedy movies and reading humorous books – also lots of vitamin C- rather than taking medication. “Hearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without going outdoors” he wrote.

2.    Time with Pets

Spending some time with pets boosts our energy level and creates good mood. When we play with them, we take our mind off our problems. And when we take care of them, we are focused on something outside ourselves. This can be very therapeutic. Even if we don’t have a pet of our own, we can occasionally spend some playful moments with those our friends or neighbours may have.

When we pet our dog or cat, for example, even for just a few minutes, our body releases feel-good brain chemicals like serotonin, prolactin, and oxytocin. At the same time, it decreases the amount of the damaging stress hormones.

3.    Time with Friends

Even if we don’t or can’t afford to have pets, we can always have good friends. Spending time with friends energises us and fills us with positivity. When we spend time with people or causes we care about, it provides us with meaning and contentment, which boosts our wellbeing.

4.    Mindfulness

Mindfulness can mean meditating or simply stopping to observe or listen to something with love and attention. We can do anything with mindfulness, being fully focused on whatever we are doing or is happening in the here-and-now, including mundane activities like dish washing and sweeping! However we do it, studies show mindfulness reduces stress, relieves pain, and improves our mood.

Meditation is a mindfulness practice that takes us, when done regularly, into the deep place from which all our intentions and activities flow and provides us with self-knowledge, which in turn provides insights about the source of our dis-ease and invitation to make shifts in our intentions, attitudes and behaviour that will enhance our wellbeing. Regular meditation can change parts of our brain related to emotions, learning, and memory.

5.    Restful Sleep

Sleep, besides providing us the needed rest, restores and rejuvenates. Good, restful sleep makes our mind and body feel better. It keeps us in a better mood, sharpens our memory and focus, and helps us learn new things better and faster.

It has a positive impact on our health.  It repairs our body tissues, boosts our immune system, builds up energy for the next day, and lowers our risk of heart disease. On the other hand, serious health conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke, have been associated with chronic lack of sleep.

Sleep is an inexpensive anti-inflammatory medicine. Sufficient sleep is essential to produce and maintain healthy levels of the hormone melatonin which helps to fight off infections. Recent research has suggested that melatonin may provide protection against Covid-19. Clinical trials are being carried out to confirm the hypothesis. If it does, writes Dr. James Hamblin in The Atlantic magazine, “it would be the cheapest and most readily available medicine to counter Covid-19.” And there will be no adverse side effects that vaccines may cause.

Working on the computer or watching TV before going to bed, is not a good idea. Both are stimulants. The light and noise from these devises can reduce melatonin levels. Reading a book, instead, would be a better idea.

Some people sleep too much. Others don’t get enough sleep. Health experts recommend 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night for adults.

Good regular hours of sleep help. Going to bed and getting up at the same times each day is a good practice. Getting up later on a holiday, does not help us catch up on lost sleep, though many people think otherwise. Instead it messes up our regular sleep rhythm, which is not good for wellbeing.

6.    Healthy Diet

Healthy meals enhance our physical and mental wellbeing.  It is very good to build our meals and snacks around plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Some studies say omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B12 may play a role with brain chemicals that affect mood and other brain functions. Low levels of these may be linked to depression. Fatty fish like salmon, tuna, sardines and mackerel have omega-3s. Seafood is a good B12 source,

Researchers say vitamin C may help people manage their stress more effectively, in part by lowering levels of stress hormones like cortisol. As an added bonus, vitamin C-rich foods such as orange juice, grapefruit juice, strawberries, can help boost our immune system.

Health and nutrition experts recommend eating a healthy breakfast, not to miss it, even if it is a light one consisting of nuts and fruits.  Studies show that adults who have a healthy breakfast do better at work, and kids who eat a morning meal score higher on tests. Interestingly, St. Bernard of Clairvaux exhorts, “Do not forget to eat your bread, or your heart will dry up”!

7.    Treatment

Laughter, a healthy diet, good sleep, and other good practices mentioned above may help us feel positive about life and enhance our mental health and wellbeing. But they won't replace need for medical treatment or psychological therapy if we are suffering from some mental illness. This is the minimum necessary care we have to take to restore and enjoy wellbeing when we have lost it. So, don’t neglect this important wellbeing requisite and resource.

Introspection and Prayer

May be we are already engaging in some of these suggested practices. If we are, what is their impact on us? Are there any other practices suggested that we could take up? Which?

In the Book of Deuteronomy (30, 19) God through Moses tells us: “Choose life!” In engaging in these simple practices we are choosing life, and enhancing it. We could spend some time in the presence of this God of life, reflecting over the state of our life, our mental health and wellbeing, and express our desires to God in simple heart to heart conversation.

….

Take care and enjoy mental health and wellbeing! Try practising some of these suggested simple measures of health and wellbeing during this weekend. Have a healthy, happy and blessed 2021!

Thank you for listening/ reading.

Pictures: Courtesy Google Images

Jose Parappully SDB, PHD

sumedhacentre@gmail.com 

 

Psyche & Soul 28: ENHANCING MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLBEING THROUGH GRATEFUL LIVING

 podcast link:

www.anchor.fm/boscom

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-28-Psyche--Soul-63-eomm2u 

Hello, this is Jose Parappully, Salesian priest and clinical psychologist at Sumedha Centre for Psychospiritual Wellbeing at Jeolikote, Uttarakhand, with another edition of Psyche & Soul.

In this weekend’s podcast I shall continue exploration of mental health and wellbeing by looking at the role of gratitude.

Role of Positive Emotions in Mental Health

There is a growing body of psychological and medical research that shows positive emotions have a profound impact on our physical and mental wellbeing. Positive emotions like love, joy, hope, contentment are robust predictors of increased psychological well-being, especially during upsetting times.  They optimize health, and psychological resilience. One major reason for this is that positive emotions strengthen our immune system.

An important feature of positive emotions, psychologist Barbara Frederickson observes, is that their effects do not end once suffering is prevented or alleviated. Positive emotions lead to an increment in personal resources that help us both in the present and the future to cope more effectively with challenges and adversities and in that way help promote physical and mental wellbeing.

Power of Gratitude

Important among the dispositions, or virtues, that promote positive emotions is gratitude. Frequent expressions of gratitude evoke in us a sense of wellbeing and strengthen us to face adversity. We feel good when someone thanks us. So too, we can make others feel good by genuinely thanking them and expressing our appreciation.

However, gratitude is much more than saying “thank you” to someone who has given us a gift or helped us in some way, or to God for a blessing received. Gratitude, as defined in research literature, is —“the capacity to feel the emotion of thankfulness on a regular and consistent basis, across situations and over time.” In other words, gratitude is a disposition that accompanies us through good times and bad, when things go well and things go wrong, in illness and health, in success and failure.

It does not take great effort to be grateful. There is so much goodness and blessings even in the midst of all the disruptions and distress that is part of our lives.

Awe and Wonder

For us to grow in gratitude and thankfulness we need to cultivate what the great scientist Albert Einstein called a sense of “awe and wonder” - our ability to be amazed by the daily miracles that happen around us. He wrote: those “who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead.” Further, “There are only two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle.”  When we see these daily miracles around us, we cannot but be grateful and feel good about ourselves and the world around us.

Daughters of St. Paul Sister Caroline Duia has a lovely song entitled “Miracles.” (available on YouTube). Its lyrics speak of these daily miracles “There are miracles every moment… each day is a miracle with its countless blessings. …Yes, it’s a miracle to be alive and be living… to see the golden sunrise, to hear the birds sing, to feel the gentle breeze, to see the wind dancing in the trees… Isn’t it a miracle that just when you feel lonely and blue, then an unannounced friend comes to sooth and comfort…?”

Life is full of these little miracles that should truly make us stand in awe and wonder and experience gratitude and reverence.

Antidote to Mental Illness

Gratitude is an important antidote to mental illness. We cannot, for example, be grateful and depressed at the same time. The moment we begin to be grateful, the depression lifts, even if it is only momentary. The more frequently we express gratitude, the more our depression will be lifted. The more grateful we are, the more we enhance our wellbeing.

There are certain dynamics that mediate the relationship between gratitude and wellbeing. Clayton McClintock, professor of psychology at Columbia University, observes that gratitude “is fundamentally a way of seeing that alters our gaze.” It begins with “a simple recognition that nothing at all can be taken for granted. And if that is so, this life that we have in all its ephemeral particularities, is a precious gift. To recognize this gift is the beginning of gratitude” (Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 2014, 2(1), 21-22).

McClintock’s observation was confirmed by a cancer patient during a patient-physicians conference which about a hundred persons attended. Based on his experience, he observed: “When you don’t consider life as a gift, then you become sick.” He had been too busy with work to notice and appreciate his life and the gifts that life brought him.

According to McClintock “Gratitude immediately shifts one’s attitude away from the negative, away from the seemingly ordinary, and into the new, the good and the beautiful.”

Gratitude is an attitude and disposition that we can consciously cultivate. Gratitude, McClintock observes, “depends on inner intention and not on outer circumstance.” Hence we can be grateful in all circumstances good and bad by shifting our intention and changing our disposition.

Ways to Cultivate Gratitude

One easy means to cultivate gratitude is the daily practice of the Examen of Consciousness that is at the heart of Ignatian spirituality. We take a few minutes at the end of the day to sit quietly and allow memories of the good things – the little miracles - that have happened during the day to come into awareness and we let our heart fill with thankfulness. Gradually we will become more and more sensitive to these gifts and develop a grateful disposition and enhance our mental and emotional wellbeing.

A second means, one that McClintock recommends, is the practice in Buddhist tradition, of calling to mind, at least occasionally, a benefactor, a person whom we actually know, and wanting for the person deep happiness and wellbeing.

A third practice, which many psychologists suggest, is keeping a daily Gratitude Journal. We look back over the day that is ending and pick up at least three blessings, even little ones, we have experienced, list them and describe in writing our feelings about them and whatever else these evoke in us. Gradually, with regular practice, we will cultivate an enduring disposition of gratitude.

We could stay quietly for a while with whatever this podcast is evoking in us today….

For Introspection and Prayer

We often find Jesus giving thanks to his Father. For example, in the Gospel of Mathew he says: “ I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes” ( 11, 25)…. In the Gospel of John, he acclaims at the tomb of Lazarus: “Father, I thank you for you have hard me.” (11, 41)…

In his first letter to the Thessalonians Saint Paul exhorts us:  “Give thanks in all circumstances” (5, 1-8). Writing to the Philippians he says: “I thank my God every time I remember you…” (1, 3).

 We could now look back over the year that has ended and allow memories of good things that have happened to us, the blessings we enjoyed in the midst of the pandemic, and spend some time filling our hearts with gratitude. It’s good to be aware of what happens to us when we do that. We can also consider how we can live more gratefully - feeling and expressing gratitude in our daily lives.

Thank you for listening/reading.

Pictures: courtesy google Images

JOSE PARAPPULLY SDB, PHD

sumedhacentre@gmail.com

 

 

Psyche & Soul 26: MOVING INTO THE NEW YEAR WITH HOPE!

Podcast link:

https://anchor.fm/boscom/episodes/2-26-Psyche--Soul--59-eo70mr

As 2020 comes to a close, we look forward to 2021 with Hope.

2020 changed our world. 2020 has been very distressing and disruptive and in some sense a disastrous year. A year which has affected the global society in so many negative and painful ways. Covid-19 blighted our hopes and dreams, disrupted our lives in drastic ways. It undermined our sense of security and predictability. Uncontrollable spread of the deadly virus led to over a million being infected and to the death of hundreds of thousands, leaving families in grief, sometimes in despair. The lockdown caused immense suffering, especially to the vulnerable. Travel was curtailed, social contact was restricted, and we were forced to be homebound. Economy collapsed, leading to loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Haunting pictures of deprivation and death on the road have seared into our collective memory. There is a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, increase in mental illness and suicide.

In this context, hope is our greatest ally. Every New Year brings a fresh outlook; we look forward to better times. We dream.

And we really hope that 2021 will usher in that freshness and newness in a very special way. We need this newness very badly in every sphere of our lives. A newness that will help us wipe away the bad memories, the nightmares, of 2020. Hope that the New Year will dissipate the virus, restore health and wellbeing to all of us, usher in a safer, more peaceful, and a more equitable and compassionate society.

WHAT IS HOPE?

Hope is the conviction of having a meaningful future despite obstacles and difficulties, and also choosing the pathways and means to make that future real.

Persons high on hope have visions of who they want to be and what they want to accomplish in life and are able to motivate themselves, and feel resourceful to accomplish their objectives.

 Hope includes practical pathways to realize the bright future we envisage. We work hard at realizing that dreamed of future. We persist in seeking goals despite setbacks and obstacles. We are also flexible enough to find different ways to get to our goals or to switch goals, if needed.

Hope and optimism go together. Optimism provides us with a faith that the future is going to be bright, that we can accomplish our goals, whatever they may be. When in a tight spot, we reassure ourselves that things will get better. Hope thus involves faith, belief in one’s capacity to achieve desired results.

 

HOPE THEORY

This is the understanding of hope provided by C. R. Snyder, the leading psychologist exploring hope. Snyder and his colleagues have come up with what they call the “Hope Theory.” The theory holds that hope involves two types of thinking: agency thinking and pathway thinking.

 Agency thinking refers to our determination to achieve our goals despite possible obstacles,

When we are high on hope, we embrace such self-talk phrases as “I can do this” and “I am not going to be stopped.”

Pathways thinking refers to the ways in which we strive to achieve these personal goals.

It involves generating an effective route to a desired goal. When that route does not bear the desired fruit, we create alternate routes and persist until desired outcomes are realized.

 

HOPE IS NOT WISHFUL THINKING

Hope, thus, is not mere wishful thinking, an illusion. It is real. It involves having goals and working towards realization of those goals, despite obstacles. Hope calls for determination, commitment and persistence. Hope is aptly expressed in Barack Obama’s famous election slogan. “Yes, We Can!” It was not just a slogan, a belief. He set in motion a powerful election machine, and organized an army of committed volunteers working hard to make the dream come true.

BENEFITS OF HOPE

A large body of research shows that hope promotes health and happiness. Hope buffers individuals against a number of physical and mental problems and helps them heal faster and easier. Individuals who maintain high levels of hope when battling illness significantly enhance their chances of recovery. They remain appropriately energized and focused on what they need to do in order to recuperate.

 Hope is negatively correlated with depression, anxiety, and anger and positively correlated with life satisfaction, positive physical and mental health, self-esteem, ability to adapt and cope in various situations and longer life.

Because of these benefits, hope would be our best companion to journey through 2021. We need to believe that 2021 will be a better year, and strive with confidence and persistence to make it a better year for us and our world.

 

Introspection

·         How do we really feel as we come to the end of 2020 and move toward 2021?

·         What is it that we hope for us and our world as we move into 2021?

·         What is the newness that we would like to experience in the New Year? What is it we need to do to bring about that newness?

Prayer

Sacred scripture provides frequent assurance from God that he will bring about better times. Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah especially speak of the better times that God will usher in particularly after times of suffering and deprivation. For example, Isaiah says, something which is very relevant in the context of the suffering and hopelessness brought by Covid-19.: “And (God) will destroy…the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces…” (25, 6-8)

In the Book of Revelation, we hear the One sitting on the throne in heaven saying: “See, I make all things new!” (21, 5)

Christmas, the Incarnation of God, that we just celebrated, is not only about the embodiment of God, divinization of nature, as we heard in last week’s podcast, but also about God’s comforting presence with us. Through the prophet Isaiah God assures us: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you…. Fear not, for I am with you” (43, 2-5). And Jesus’ final words in the gospel of Mathew is: “I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (28, 20)

This protective and caring God, our Emmanuel, is very much with us here and now, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves at year end. We could consciously attune ourselves to God’s presence to us and spend some time talking to God about our travails of 2020, about our hopes for 2021, the newness that we would like to experience. And listen to what God has to tell us, to discern what God’s New Year gift/message is to us.

I wish you a very happy, safe, healthy and blessed New Year.

Thank you for listening.

Jose Parappully SDB, PhD

sumedhacentre@gmail.com