How Mindfulness Can Enrich Your Life

by Auti Scolman

Mindfulness. We hear that word all the time, but what exactly does it entail? Think of it as the practice of focusing your awareness on the present moment, and acknowledging and accepting your feelings, thoughts, and sensations in your body. In other words, mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the here and now in a non-judgmental way.

There are so many benefits to practicing this therapeutic technique. Here are just a few:

Respond to Stress and Anxiety More Effectively:

One of the most well-known benefits of mindfulness is its ability to help us cope with stress and anxiety. When we’re mindful, we’re better able to regulate our emotions and handle difficult situations. Mindfulness takes us off autopilot and creates a space from which we are more able to identify our triggers and take thoughtful steps to manage them.

Improve Physical Health:

Research has shown that mindfulness can improve physical health in a number of ways. It has been linked to lowered blood pressure, improved sleep, and a strengthened immune system. It can also help ease chronic pain and other physical conditions that impact your quality of life. 

Enhance Mental Health:

Mindfulness can also improve our overall mental health. It’s been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and improve overall well-being. Many people who practice mindfulness report an increased ability to be present rather than stuck in rumination, a greater enthusiasm for life, and improved self-compassion.

Promote Better Relationships:

When we’re present and aware, we’re able to actively listen and be fully attuned in our interactions with others. This can lead to stronger communication and deeper connections.

Increase Self-Awareness:

When we’re mindful, we’re better able to witness our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, which can help us make informed decisions that move us toward our values and help us live a more authentic life.

In conclusion, mindfulness is a powerful tool that can bring about a number of benefits to your daily life. Mindfulness, or Present Moment Awareness, is one of the six core processes taught in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and is one of the skills that helps increase our psychological flexibility. In other words, it helps us observe and make space for uncomfortable thoughts and feelings so that we’re able to move toward the things that matter most to us. There are a lot of activities that incorporate mindfulness and it may take some time to find what practices work for you. You can try journaling, meditating, or restorative yoga, or simply pay attention to the present moment using your senses—notice what you see, hear, smell, touch, and taste in a non-judgmental way. The key to developing a mindful mindset is consistent effort- you’ve got this! If you would like some support in practicing mindfulness and increasing psychological flexibility, CSAM can help.

IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE NEEDS SUPPORT AND MIGHT BENEFIT FROM COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT) OR ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY (ACT) FOR ANXIETY, PANIC, PHOBIAS, STRESS, PTSD, OCD, OR STRESS RELATED TO COVID-19, OR IF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR TELEHEALTH SERVICES, PLEASE CONTACT US AT (858) 354-4077 OR AT INFO@CSAMSANDIEGO.COM

0 Likes

Reference: 

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_ways_mindfulness_meditation_is_good_for_your_health

Exercising Your Willingness Muscles

by Annabelle Mebane, MA, AMFT

When you’re someone who experiences a lot of anxiety, it’s easy to end up internalizing unhelpful messages like “you’re too sensitive,” or to think that any time you are having any big feelings, it’s “just anxiety” and that you need to push through or get over those feelings. But a crucial component of learning to respond to anxiety more effectively involves learning to respond more flexibly.

The goal of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) – an evidence based transdiagnostic treatment model – is to increase what we call psychological flexibility:

the ability to do what matters most to you no matter what uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, memories, or sensations arise in the process. It’s to accept painful feelings, notice painful thoughts as thoughts rather than always buying into them, and choose to move toward your values even when it’s uncomfortable. Without a solid understanding of values, it might be easy to confuse accepting painful feelings and getting distance from painful thoughts with needing to push through all discomfort no matter what.

But acceptance is not about white knuckling your way through pain,

and defusing from your thoughts is not about writing off all uncomfortable thoughts as “just anxiety.” Yes, anxious thoughts can be unhelpful. Yes, they can get you stuck. But rigidly pushing through all anxiety without getting curious about your pain can be just as unhelpful as rigidly buying into every anxious thought and avoiding anything that brings up those anxious feelings.

Here is the thing: your pain is full of really important information.

Sometimes the way your mind tries to deliver that information is not helpful or accurate. But the pain shows up for a reason. And usually that reason is linked to your values. Sometimes, the reason is that you care so much about something that it hurts. When you care deeply, you risk feeling the pain of failure, loss, rejection, grief, etc. Other times, painful feelings show up to alert you that there is something untenable about a situation, relationship, or context, and to compel you to take actions to protect, advocate for, and take care of yourself.

Acceptance allows you to make space for your feelings, to notice your experience with curiosity and compassion, and to choose how to respond in a way that moves you toward your values.

Sometimes that response involves persisting and acknowledging that the discomfort is likely to come along for the ride as the price of growth and vitality. Sometimes the response involves setting a boundary, saying no, speaking up for yourself, or removing yourself from a situation that is unsafe or out of alignment with what you want or need.

Think of acceptance in the context of working out.

If you want your muscles to grow, you will be required to experience and allow for some discomfort. But there is discomfort that feels like pushing yourself in service of growth, and then there is discomfort that feels like you may be injuring yourself and to persist would actually impede your growth. When we are mindful of our feelings and willing to experience and notice them, we are empowered with important information about how to proceed in a way that ultimately moves us toward our values.

IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE NEEDS SUPPORT AND MIGHT BENEFIT FROM COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT) OR ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY (ACT) FOR ANXIETY, PANIC, PHOBIAS, STRESS, PTSD, OCD, OR STRESS RELATED TO COVID-19, OR IF YOU WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OUR TELEHEALTH SERVICES, PLEASE CONTACT US AT (858) 354-4077 OR AT INFO@CSAMSANDIEGO.COM

Lessons from Traveling in Time

By Annabelle Parr, MA, AMFT

Have you ever wished you could have a do over? Go back in time and alter an embarrassing moment, or seize a missed opportunity, or simply get more time to do the things that matter most to you?

What might we learn if we could travel back in time and do things differently?

Every year around New Year’s, I watch my favorite movie, About Time. It’s a rom com about a man who learns that the men in his family can travel back in time within their own lives, and it is filled with sweetness and some profound messages that are remarkably consistent with the core principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). If you haven’t seen the film, warning: spoilers ahead. In his travels through time, Tim, the main character, learns a number of lessons about creating and living a full, vital life.

Lesson #1: Traveling in time gives you unlimited chances to behave differently, but the outcome of your behavior is still always beyond your control.

Upon learning that he has the ability to time travel, Tim quickly clarifies that what matters most to him is love (values), and what he most wants to use this unique ability to achieve is finding someone with whom to share his life (goal). One of the first things he learns is that even with the ability to go back in time and try things differently, he ultimately cannot control the outcome of his behavior, just like the rest of us. He can pursue his goal by showing up to each moment bringing the qualities he most wants to embody (values), but the outcome of his actions is outside of his control. He may get to test things out more than the rest of us, and may gather more information on what behaviors may make a particular outcome more likely, but just like the rest of us, in the end, the outcome is still beyond his control.

Lesson #2: All the time travel in the world can’t erase pain.

Nevertheless, Tim continues to show up to each moment fully (present centered awareness), holding his goals for the life he hopes to build lightly and being the kind, loving, humorous man he hopes to be (committed actions), and ultimately he does build a beautiful life and family filled with love. As he does so, he learns that even his gift cannot shield him from the pain that comes with being human. Just like the rest of us, if he wants to engage in the joys, he must also be willing to have the pain that is inevitable if we are willing to care, to love, and to be loved (willingness).

Lesson #3: The secret to a rich, meaningful life is being fully present and choosing how you will meet each moment. 

Toward the end of the film, Tim shares my favorite lesson of all. He shares his father’s secret to a good life. His father tells him to live each day twice: “the first time with all the tensions and worries that stop us noticing how sweet the world can be, but the second time noticing.” In the simple act of noticing (present centered awareness), and making a conscious decision about how he responds (committed action), Tim finds how much richer and fuller life can be.

The film finishes with Tim sharing,

“And in the end I think I've learned the final lesson from my travels in time; and I've even gone one step further than my father did. The truth is I now don't travel back at all, not even for the day. I just try to live every day as if I've deliberately come back to this one day, to enjoy it, as if it was the full final day of my extraordinary, ordinary life.”

In this final lesson, Tim sums up the goal of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: to meet each day fully, with openness to whatever shows up and awareness of our experience, and to choose to actively engage in each moment with the qualities that we most hope to embody. When we are fully present, we begin to notice all of the opportunities we have to engage in our lives as the people we most hope to be. As Tim discovers, we don’t actually need time travel at all; the moments we are given are already full of opportunity to be who we most hope to be right now.

CSAM IS HERE TO HELP

If you or someone you love needs support and might benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for anxiety, panic, phobias, stress, PTSD, OCD, uncertainty or stress related to COVID-19, or if you would like more information about our telehealth services, please contact us at (858) 354-4077 or at info@csamsandiego.com

Fostering Resilience during COVID-19 by Connecting with Our Values

By Annabelle Parr

As we enter Mental Health Awareness Month this year, we are collectively experiencing not only a global health crisis, but also a stressor which has potentially significant repercussions for our mental health. At the very least, we are likely to be experiencing a range of painful emotions as a result of this crisis. On any given day, I find myself feeling at least some combination of the following: anxiety, fear, stress, grief, frustration and/or exhaustion. 

As an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) therapist, when I am struggling, I ask myself the question: can I be willing to have this pain, and still choose to move in the direction of what matters most to me? The goal of ACT is to help us to live more vital, meaningful lives even as we struggle with the inevitable pain and discomfort inherent in being human. And goodness knows this pandemic has given us all a whopping dose of pain and discomfort.

But what does a meaningful life look like during a global crisis?

Prior to COVID-19, I felt like I had developed a pretty good sense of how to move toward what matters even when I feel anxiety or fear or frustration. But this pandemic has challenged me. At first, I felt overwhelmed as it seemed the world had turned upside down, and I struggled to find ways to live my values when life suddenly felt so restricted by forces beyond my control.

So I began to consider: how can I continue to move toward what matters most to me, even as life has become more restricted by this pandemic?

A few weeks ago, I was scrolling Instagram and came across a post posing the question: “if someone told you that you could save a life, would you?” The post went on to remind us that we are all being given that otherwise very rare opportunity, and that in staying home right now, we are actually saving lives.

https://www.instagram.com/igo_medical/

After reading this Instagram, it clicked for me: I don’t necessarily have to do anything monumental or new or different right now in order to make significant, values based decisions. Instead, I can consider what I am already doing – like staying home except for essential errands, or wearing a mask and maintaining six feet from others when I do need to go out, or calling and connecting with friends and family – and I can connect these actions with my values.

What are values?

Values from an ACT perspective are a collection of verbs, adverbs, and adjectives that describe qualities of being; a.k.a. who and how do I want to be in the world? For me, a few of my values include being compassionate, conscientious, kind, and loving.

Connecting with our values can infuse the choices we are already making with purpose.

When I connect even the simple action of staying home with being compassionate or loving, rather than becoming fused with thoughts about how terrible, frightening, or overwhelming this all is, I can ground myself in a sense of purpose and meaning beyond my discomfort. And I can bring my values to anything I do: when I call family or friends, I can choose to show up lovingly; when I go to the store, I can offer gratitude to the essential workers I interact with; when I watch my favorite TV show, I can connect with my value of being kind and gentle with myself. The key is being intentional about why I do what I do.

You are enough just as you are.

Navigating a pandemic is exhausting; it demands so much of us already, and additional pressure to do more when just getting through the day feels taxing enough can feel less than helpful. Part of the beauty of ACT is that values based actions are not always huge, monumental gestures; in fact, more often, they are the small, intentional choices we make to show up in a particular moment as the type of person that we hope to be in the world. So rather than beating ourselves up for feeling like we are falling short somehow, we might ask ourselves instead, how can I bring the qualities I hope to embody to the actions I am already taking? How can I connect the things I am already doing back with the kind of person that I hope to be? 

“Those who have a why to live can bear almost any how.”

I keep coming back to the wisdom of Viktor Frankl during this time; as a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, he is particularly well suited to guide us through crisis. He noted that “those who have a why to live can bear almost any how,” and I might add that those who have a why to act can bear almost any how. The “how’s” of our day-to-day right now pose a whole host of new challenges for us, but when we can connect with a why behind these challenges, we are likely to meet them with much greater resilience.

CSAM IS HERE TO HELP

If you or someone you love needs support and might benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for anxiety, panic, phobias, stress, PTSD, OCD, insomnia, or stress related to COVID-19, or if you would like more information about our telehealth services, please contact us at (858) 354-4077 or at info@csamsandiego.com

Warning Signs of Mental Illness

by Sarah Bond

Living in a Western society, it is considered part of our yearly routine to visit our primary care physician, dentist, and optometrist for yearly check-ups. While the aforementioned doctors are important and play an active role in managing our health, it is crucial that we do not minimize the significance of other medical professionals, such as those in the field of mental healthcare. Unfortunately, there are many people who are living with distressing symptoms without an awareness that they are afflicted with a mental disorder.

A mental illness can be defined as a “health condition that changes a person’s thinking, feelings, or behavior (or all three) and that causes the person distress and difficulty in functioning” (NIH, 2005, p. 1).  According to the NIH (2005), approximately one in four Americans are known to be impacted by mental illness. Thus, it is likely that either you or someone close to you has suffered from the symptoms of a mental illness in some way. Data indicate that mental disorders account for four of the 10 most predominant causes of disability in America (National Institutes of Health, 2005).

While the symptoms vary in intensity from one person to another, ranging from mild to severe, they cause unnecessary problems for people that can be managed or treated with appropriate care. Thus, it is critical to raise awareness about mental healthcare, so that more individuals will take action and seek the care from mental health professionals that can alleviate unnecessary distress from their daily lives. Although mental disorders each have their own set of specific symptoms, the NIH (2005) has created a list of “general warning signs” that can be used as a guide to help you determine whether someone should seek professional help (p. 1).

“Warning Signs” from the NIH (2005):

• Marked personality change
• Inability to cope with problems and daily activities
• Strange or grandiose ideas
• Excessive anxieties
• Prolonged depression and apathy
• Marked changes in eating or sleeping patterns
• Thinking or talking about suicide or harming oneself
• Extreme mood swings—high or low
• Abuse of alcohol or drugs
• Excessive anger, hostility, or violent behavior

If you or a loved one has experienced any of the previously mentioned “warning signs,” or if you are interested in learning more about your current state of mental health, then contact a local mental healthcare professional. If you are in the San Diego area and would like to speak to a professional at CSAM who specializes in stress and anxiety problems, please contact us.

Reference

National Institutes of Health. (2005). The science of mental illness. Retrieved from http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih5/mental/other/copyright.htm

Tags: anxiety, CBT, psychologist in san diego, mental health tips, therapy in san diego, PTSD san diego, warning signs