Health & Vitality
In addition to nourishing and delicious food, there are at least four important factors to consider when you wish to improve or maintain your health. So, to be healthy and vital, think about:
Cultivating a Positive Mental Attitude
There is a growing body of evidence which demonstrates that, although life is full of events that we cannot control, we can control our reactions to the events. By and large, people who believe they have this control, have better physical, emotional and mental health. The one key attitude to good health is optimism and the new science of psychoneuroimmunology shows us that a positive, optimistic attitude is strongly linked to a more highly functioning immune system.
There are a number of ways to generate optimism and positive thinking, for example:
- By becoming aware of our own positive or negative internal dialogue, e.g.,
- "I'm going to fail this" (negative)
- "This is really going to work" (positive)
- By asking ourselves questions in a positive way, e.g.,
- "What's there to love about me?" (negative)
- "Who loves me and who do I love?" (positive)
- By setting positive goals, e.g.,
- "I'm not going to eat chocolate, chips and ice cream" (negative)
- "I'm going to eat health nutritious food that will make me feel good" (positive)
When you are trying to heal, it's really important for you to become more aware of your own attitudes. Within nutritional therapy sessions, Anne can help you engender a more positive and optimistic attitude that will help you to maximise your physical, emotional and mental health.
Exercise
Only 20% of people in the UK get enough exercise to maintain a healthy lifestyle and satisfactory fitness level (NHS 24, 2007). Let's try to improve on that because regular exercise has many health benefits and should be built into your daily routine. Some of the benefits are:
- Reduced risk of heart attack
- Keeps blood pressure down
- Reduces the risk of blood clots
- Helps to relieve depression
- Provides pain relief
- Reduces stress and modulates appetite
- Improves the quality of sleep
Therefore, it's really important to get regular exercise that's in keeping with your physical, emotional and psychological needs.
Anne will be happy to discuss exercise with you and, depending on your needs, she can recommend some straightforward exercises to maintain your health or advise you where to go and who to speak to for more specialist help.
Air and Light
One of the best ways to improve our mood and feelings of wellbeing is to spend time out-of-doors in the fresh air and, if we're lucky, the sunshine as well. As most of us work inside most of the time, we need to think about ways of getting out into the fresh, invigorating air. Think about taking a short walk either before or after work and, perhaps instead of sitting chatting after lunch, take a walk with friends and colleagues, even if it's only for five or ten minutes. A brisk walk in the fresh air and light will make you feel energetic and sparkling, ready to face an afternoon's work.
Fresh air and light usually help lift sagging spirits in the gloom of late autumn and winter. Vitamin D is manufactured by our skin's reaction to sunlight, and as low vitamin D levels are associated with depressed mood, it's important to get out into the light as much as possible in out long winters. Frank Schneider, president of the German Society of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Nervous Diseases and Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at Aachen University Hospital believes that "One reason for low spirits is that we spend less time out of doors and are less active in the winter". So, instead of thinking that you don't have enough time to get out in the fresh air and light, make time to do it and Anne's willing to bet that you'll feel more alive, animated and vigorous as a result.
Reducing stress
The demanding work culture in the UK is one of the most pressing challenges to the mental health of the general population. The Mental Health Foundation (2003) found that:
- When working long hours more than a quarter of employees feel depressed (27%), one third feel anxious (34%), and more than half feel irritable (58%)
- The more hours you spend at work, the more hours outside of work you are likely to spend thinking or worrying about it
- As a person's weekly hours increase, so do their feelings of unhappiness
- Many more women report unhappiness than men (42% of women compared with 29% of men), which is probably a consequence of competing life roles and more pressure to keep a lot of plates spinning
It's also important to know that stress has a very negative impact on our health and many diseases are strongly linked to stress:
| Angina | Cardiovascular | Diabetes (type 2) | Irritable bowel |
| Asthma | Common cold | Headaches | Menstrual problems |
| Automimmune diseases | High blood pressure | Arthritis | Colitis |
| Cancer | Depression | Immune suppression |
We need to pay attention to our stress levels and, eating nutritious and delicious food, cultivating a positive mental attitude, exercising more and getting out into the fresh air and light, can really help us to do this. There are protective factors which can induce relaxation and calm, such as meditation, engaging with family and friends, leisure activities and friendships. Reducing caffeine, alcohol, refined carbohydrates and sodium can also help reduce stress and its effects on the body.
Anne can help you develop a more positive mental attitude and reduce stress through the use of diaphragmatic breathing, guided imagery, meditation and other helpful techniques, as well as recommending dietary guidelines to combat the effect of stress on physical and mental health.