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The Many Benefits of Meditation

5/16/2017

“Just take a minute to just calm down, and breathe,” we’ve all heard it, and in a moment of despair you think to yourself, how can I possibly calm down at a time like this! According to scientific studies, not only is it possible, its recommended! Meditation is considered the act of finding balance and harmony in your body to promote relaxation. In turn you are cleansing your mind, body, and soul. We shower daily to clean our bodies, why wouldn’t you take 20 minutes a day to clean your mind as well?

According to the American Meditation Society, clinical studies that span 30 years all show significant positive effects on the mind and body. When you take 20 minutes to meditate your blood pressure improves, your immune system gets stronger, it slows the aging process, reduces anxiety and stress, and decreases insomnia.
By improving your mental clarity, you can increase self-awareness and concentration. By improving just these two aspects of your life, you can learn to accept yourself in your own skin, make good healthy lifestyle changes, and increase your happiness.

Where do you begin? There are several resources available for people who want to learn to meditate properly. Local gyms generally offer classes that teach meditation in conjunction with yoga, some churched offer classes, and even smart phones offer apps that guide you through meditation. Here are some simple meditation steps for beginners:

1.     Sit or lie comfortably. You may even want to invest in a meditation chair.
2.     Close your eyes.
3.     Make no effort to control the breath; simply breathe naturally.
4.     Focus your attention on the breath and on how the body moves with each inhalation and exhalation.

Whether you’re just trying to find inner peace, or trying to overcome something more, it’s clear that meditation is a treatment that you can take with you anywhere! So the next time that someone says “Just calm down and breathe,” Give it a try, you may be pleasantly surprised by the results!

Resources:
Instantly download some free books on meditation here:
http://americanmeditationsociety.org/media-type/free/
Find a meditation teacher in your area:
http://americanmeditationsociety.org/classes/meditation-teachers/
Watch some short clips from historical videos of Gururaj Ananda Yogi here:
http://americanmeditationsociety.org/teachings/satsangteachings/videos/

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Mental Health Stigma

5/1/2017

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According to the National Alliance of Mental Illness, 1 in 5 adults experience a mental illness in a given year. That translates to roughly 43.8 million adults every year, with nearly 10 million living with a serious mental illness. Astoundingly, 60% of those adults didn’t receive mental health services last year, which leaves many wondering why that number is so high.
Mental health stigma is a large contributor to blame for the lack of treatment being sought out by these adults. Mental health stigma is defined as the negative perception of a person based on prejudice and misinformation about a mental health diagnosis. These actions often lead to discrimination, social isolation, and negative attitudes towards individuals with a mental illness. As a result, patients refuse to be “labeled” and deny themselves treatment, causing a decrease in self-esteem, and possibly leading to more diagnosis as a direct result of not getting help in the beginning.
In a world where labels are an unconscious act, how do we decrease the stigma among us? It starts with healthcare professionals. It’s essential that healthcare providers break down the walls that seem to separate mental illness from other illnesses. Dr. Arthur Evans is the commissioner of Philadelphia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services and is trying to do just that. He is making a nationwide stance for providers to open their doors to treatment programs and private offices, so that people in the community become aware of the services provided. Offering free screenings, special events, and educational training to the members of a community provide the opportunity for them to be accepted as “part of the community, instead of just in the community.”
So what can you do? Educate yourself, and then educate others. Some of the most frequently diagnosed mental illnesses in the United States are major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and bipolar disorder. Having less interest in favorite activities, being less energetic, feeling helpless, worthless, or hopeless are all signs and symptoms of depression. You often notice changes in people, sometimes they diminish, sometimes you distance yourself from these people because it seems like they are pushing you away. In fact, it’s the opposite, these are signs people are signaling for support in the most desperate of ways.
An innovative approach that is being tested by Dr. Evans is “Mental Health First Aid.” Dr. Evans describes his one day course as a, “course that really helps the general public understand mental illness, understand or recognize when someone might be having a mental health problem and know how to support the person and/or refer the person for other help or to seek self-help.” Much like a CPR course, this one day course is aimed at giving people the knowledge and confidence to take appropriate action in the case that they see someone who is suffering from psychiatric symptoms.
If your local community doesn’t offer a class for educating about mental health, take the initiative to educate yourself through other resources such as the local health department, accredited websites/blogs, or even visit your local psychiatrist’s office and pick up some pamphlets. Overall, remember that having a diagnosis of a mental illness, versus a diagnosis of a physical illness are one in the same—a diagnosis neither patient asked for, but struggle with, yet with proper treatment both can be manageable.

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