Can mindfulness really enhance your health and wellbeing?
Nearly 4.3 million U.S. adults think so. That's how many engage in 'mindful practices.'

Popular media refers to mindfulness as any generic process of paying attention in life (mindfully doing the laundry.) True mindfulness is more precisely defined as "being fully aware of one's own mind, body, and surroundings by paying attention on purpose, in the present moment nonjudgmentally and without attachment."

Mindfulness as a practice to improve health originated with research by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. He demystified the traditional Buddhist form of meditation and founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. Today, MBSR is used in hospitals, wellness centers, senior centers, inner city schools, colleges, elite sports programs, and rehabilitation clinics around the world. It's proven to be beneficial for various health concerns, often as good as, or better than, medication for:

• lowering blood pressure
• managing chronic pain and illness
• enhancing decision-making
• improving depression and anxiety
• recovering from surgery, trauma, and injury.

The MBSR Program helps people learn to be non-reactive to stress, pain or other triggers, and to decentralize it from the focus of their lives. This results in a cascade of hormonal effects that take the body out of high-alert mode. When the body and mind are relaxed, immune function is enhanced and healing can take place.

An 8-week MBSR program is led by a certified teacher experienced in related practices, such as mindful eating, breath awareness, gentle movement, and walking. Programs can also be designed for specific concerns such as post-traumatic stress, grief, addiction, cancer or back pain. The course is designed to help participants establish an at-home practice that becomes habitual. Check it out here

While in-person programs are ideal, there also are excellent online programs. Verify that the instructor is certified in MBSR.

How would you like to understand, once and for all, the relationship between what you're eating and how you feel? Keep a mind-body food journal. It's a powerful way to gain insight into eating habits and the impact of food choices on your mental and physical wellbeing. A mind-body food journal is different from a "diet diary" because the intention is different: it's not just about the fit of your jeans, it's about how food fits your life and your lifestyle.

Too often we eat mindlessly - on the run, watching television, behind the computer. A mind-body food journal helps create clarity between what we choose and how we feel. It leads the way to improved choices and - because food is medicine - supports total mind-body health and healing.

Start your journal today. Track your eating habits for a few weekdays and at least one weekend day. Do this for at least two weeks.

What to Track in a Mind-Body Food Journal

Food Factors

• When did you eat?
• What did you eat?
• How much did you eat?
• Why did you eat?
• How did you feel after eating?

Mind Factors

• What was your overall mood before and after eating?
• Did you have headaches, or mental/emotional fatigue?

Body Factors

• What did you notice about your body before and after eating?

Social & Environmental Factors

• Who were you with for the meal?
• Did you eat hurriedly or calmly?
• Were you doing another activity while eating?

Review your journal at the end of each day and summarize your habits. Note the key factors for why you chose to eat the way you did, what was going on, how you felt and if there were any physical symptoms. You and your holistic healthcare practitioner can use this information to help make healthier food choices.

There's no doubt about it: what we eat, and how much we eat, has a direct impact on our physical health. But did you know that those same choices also influence mood, mental alertness, memory, and emotional wellbeing? Food can act as medicine, have a neutral effect, or it can be a poison to the body and mind.
When food acts as poison, it creates inflammation, which alters the body's balance of nutrients, hormones, and neurotransmitters. This directly affects your body's ability to manage and heal from stress or illness.
While some body-mind effects are due to naturally occurring nutrient content in food, much is due to hidden additives. Below, are four common culprits. If you're experiencing symptoms that interfere with your quality of living, talk with your natural health practitioner about the role these or other foods may play in your health.

Foods that Impact Body-Mind Wellbeing:

Caffeine: The most socially accepted psychoactive substance in the world, caffeine is used to boost alertness, enhance performance, and even treat apnea in premature infants. Caffeine is frequently added to other foods, so be mindful of total consumption. Too much caffeine (500-600 mg daily) interferes with sleep quality, which affects energy, concentration, and memory. Caffeine can aggravate other health conditions, cause digestive disturbances, and worsen menstrual symptoms and anxiety.

Food Dye: Those brightly colored, processed and packaged foods come with a rainbow of health risks. Listed on ingredient labels as "Blue 2," or "Citrus Red," food dye has been documented to contain cancer-causing agents (e.g., benzidine). They're also associated with allergic reactions and hyperactivity in children. Dyes are sometimes used to enhance skin color of fruits and veggies. A number of dyes have been banned from use in foods and cosmetics around the world.

Sugars: Increased sugar consumption (as much as 30% over the last three decades for American adults), is linked to decreased intake of essential nutrients and associated with obesity, diabetes, inflammatory disease, joint pain and even schizophrenia. Too much dietary sugar can result in blood sugar fluctuations, causing mood swings, anxiety, irritability, headaches, and increased depression. Sugars that can act as poison include High Fructose Corn Syrup, table sugar, artificial and "natural" sweeteners.

MSG: Monosodium glutamate is a flavor enhancer common in packaged and prepared foods. Although the FDA considers MSG "generally safe," some individuals experience a complex of physical and mental symptoms after eating MSG-containing foods. Symptoms vary but can include headache, sweating, nausea, chest pain, heart palpitations, and overstimulation of the central nervous system which can lead to alterations in sleep, mood, and immunity.
Becoming aware of your food choices, why you make them, and how you feel mentally and physically is an important first step in understanding your personal body-mind food connection. Your practitioner may ask you to keep a mind-body food journal to provide a clear picture of how your food choices affect your health.

The father of medicine, Hippocrates, once wrote, "The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well." However, as the quest for proof about how the body becomes ill and heals became the focus of the medical paradigm, the study of the mind and body were split apart.

Twenty-first century medicine is nearly coming full circle, returning to a foundation that advocates the mind and body are one, and the interaction between the two has an effect on well-being and healing from illness. Consequently, a number of terms and types of healing practices have been marketed to the public.

Let's examine those healing practices, what the research says, and how to determine if a particular treatment method is right for you.

Energy Medicine (EM) or Energy Healing is based on the supposition that illness results from disturbances in the body's energy fields. To restore and maintain flow and balance of one's 'life force energy'--also known as chi or prana--practitioners utilize noninvasive techniques from ancient traditions (e.g., acupuncture, Ayurveda, yoga, Reiki, kinesiology, and qigong). Many EM techniques involve tapping, massaging, twisting, or connecting specific energy points (acu-points) on the skin or along specific energy pathways (meridians).

Because so many people are trying these methods and expressing improvements in their health --with or without their doctor's support--there has been an increase in quality research and case studies demonstrating effectiveness for some people and some health conditions.

Quantum Healing (QH), sometimes called the "new physics of health," is based upon the premise that our bodies are fields of information, intelligence, and energy. As Deepak Chopra, MD, explained in an interview:

"Quantum healing is healing the bodymind from a level which is not manifest at a sensory level [visible or tactile] … a shift takes place in the fields of energy information, so as to bring about a correction to something that is out of balance. Quantum healing involves healing one mode of consciousness, mind, to bring about changes in another mode of consciousness, body."

QH embraces the view that some 'force' or 'spirit' is involved in healing; an example of QH is spontaneous healing from terminal illness. Distance healing, prayer, bioenergetics, and spiritual healing are some of the difficult-to-study methods that fall under QH.

Mind-Body Medicine (MBM) focuses on the interactions between mind and body, and the powerful ways in which emotional, mental, social, and spiritual factors directly affect health. It is being studied at research centers across the U.S. and throughout the world. In fact, the effect of our thoughts on our immune system is so powerful that a relatively new field of study has developed called psychoneuroimmunology.

What is different about MBM is the strong emphasis on scientifically validated techniques. MBM techniques typically include meditation, guided imagery, massage therapy, biofeedback, mindful movement (including yoga, tai chi), and acupressure or acupuncture. As more techniques are studied and validated, they make their way under the MBM umbrella.

The Truth Is Still Out There

Attempts to explore these 'energetic' and MB modalities scientifically--to understand if and how they work, for whom, and for what health conditions--is of great interest to both medical doctors and scientists. Researchers are looking for ways to measure clinical and biological changes that occur during and after a healing technique is administered, or used over time. They aim to demonstrate the mechanisms that cause healing to take place.

One intriguing question some scientists are exploring involves spontaneous healing from terminal illness--situations in which no medicine or surgery has worked and death is imminent. The question often posed: Is it the modality that heals or is it the power of belief that heals?

The so-called Truth could be related to one simple fact: The majority of alternative healing techniques all promote the Relaxation Response. Simply, this means that things like massage, meditation, acupuncture, and yoga create positive chemical and emotional changes in the body (e.g., lower heart rate and blood pressure, elevated mood, changes in brain waves, and lower stress hormones in the blood). These changes create a biochemical environment ideal for good health and for healing. Add in social support and a healthy dose of positive thinking, and you have a formula for optimal well-being.

Another possibility is the power of belief. We know that not every medicine works for every person with the same health problem. We know that some people benefit from alternative treatments and others see no change in their health. Is it because one person believes more strongly than another that something will work for them? If so, then that is the power of the mind over the body--but scientists struggle to measure that phenomenon.

What Can Science Tell Us?

MB research is a burgeoning field. "The health benefits of mind-body medicine have barely touched the surface of what it offers for future health and well-being," says Jim Massey, N.D. Techniques that have received the most research attention are those that have variables we can measure easily, such as physical changes in health, changes in hormone levels, and changes in self-reports of emotional states. Tai chi, qigong, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, meditation (various styles), acupuncture/acupressure, yoga, and biofeedback are some of the most commonly researched. But the results are mixed. Evidence shows that these techniques are beneficial for alleviating or reducing pain, anxiety, and emotional stress. But benefits depend on a wide variety of factors including age, gender, social support, and use of other interventions. It makes for complicated research!

Is It Right for You?

To decide if an EM/MB method is right for you, carefully look at information about the modality to see how it might apply to you. Does it sound too good to be true? Has it been studied in a scientific way? How reliable are the first-person accounts?
Become an informed consumer and consult with your health practitioner to best assess if any alternative healing technique could benefit you.

Types of Energy Medicine/ Mind-Body Practices

• Magnetic Therapy
• Biofeedback
• Hypnosis
• Color / Light Therapy (Chromotherapy)
• ThetaHealing™
• Therapeutic Touch, Reiki
• Aromatherapy
• Flower Essence Therapies
• Sound Healing (e.g., with Tibetan bowls)
• Chi Gung, Qigong, Yoga
• Spiritual Healing

If daily hassles, constantly chiming cell phones, and past-due deadlines have you at the boiling point, simmer down to the yoga mat and find a little peace of mind.
 
A mind-body practice, Yoga combines physical poses (postures) called asanas, simple breathing exercises and guided meditation. Anyone can practice yoga and experience the health-enhancing benefits:

• Reduce blood pressure
• Lower resting heart rate (so the heart works more efficiently)
• Promote mental alertness
• Better manage symptoms of anxiety and depression
• Improve muscle tension associated with stress and chronic health conditions

 
There are many 'styles' of Yoga for you to try. Styles vary in how many and the intensity of how the poses are performed; some styles are more intense (Bikram, Power) and others more restorative (Kundalini, Ashtanga). All yoga styles originate from Hatha Yoga, which was developed in India about 5,000 years ago. Hatha Yoga is a good choice for managing stress and chronic health concerns. It also is ideal for beginners.
 
A yoga class begins with breathing exercises and gentle movements to clear the mind and limber the body for the "active postures." Next, you'll move through a series of poses (standing, seated, and lying down). During class an instructor may use the ancient Sanskrit (Hindu) names and the English names for poses, e.g., Mountain Pose (Tadasana) or Triangle Pose (Trikanasana). A certified instructor helps participants modify poses to suit their unique needs.
 
The focus of practicing yoga is not on how long or how perfectly you perform the pose. Nor is it competitive - so no making comparisons or judgments of self and others. Yoga is all about letting go of your mental chatter by focusing on the breath and allowing it to guide your body into a calm, centered state.
 
Yoga class concludes with a guided meditation or relaxation exercise. This may help you learn to be more mindful and aware of yourself in any moment of your day, not just the time you spend on the yoga mat.