Put on Your Life Ring!

As many of us are discovering, a large part of our health and well-being depends on our self-care -- the health choices that we make every day.  Self-care encompasses a wide range of choices – from where we choose to put our attention and our energy, to our eating habits, or perhaps how we relate to others, manage risks, and use health care resources.  The good news is that over 50% of chronic disease can be prevented based on the choices we make.  The bad news is that we may feel overwhelmed and unprepared to take on the responsibility of managing our self-care effectively.

As a nurse practitioner and a health coach, it is my joy and passion to assist people in taking on their self-care in a proactive and powerful way.   Becoming an expert in your own self-care is a journey that involves increasing knowledge, deepening self-awareness, building skills, and taking action.  It’s a lot of work – exhilarating work – but work nonetheless!  To support those who are embarking on this journey, I’m beginning a series of blog posts that will offer resources on various aspects of self-care.  These posts are based on my program, Supporting Optimal Self-Care (SOS) for Life, and I hope that you will find them helpful.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed – like you were drowning and having trouble keeping your head above water with all the demands of life?  You are not alone!  In our busy culture, it seems that this feeling is becoming more common.  We are constantly being exposed to new information and new expectations, and it can feel hard to “keep up.”  Unfortunately, when we are faced with challenges, most of us are inclined to work harder and faster, which often only adds to our stress and overwhelm.

The metaphor of “drowning” suggests a powerful solution.  When we’re “in over our heads”, we need a Life Ring  (or life preserver) to keep us afloat.  Without this additional support, we risk having a bad outcome.  When we feel overwhelmed, what is the Life Ring that helps you keep your head above water? 

For me, the Duke Wheel of Health is a great visual tool to accompany the idea of a “Life Ring”.  This model depicts a comprehensive view of different aspects of self-care and professional care that relate to our health and well-being.  I invite you to consider using it as a way to support your health journey! 

Too often, when we are overwhelmed, our self-care goes out the window.  We may stop exercising, fail to get enough rest, eat poorly, ignore our body signals  -- you get the picture.  My experience is that, in order to address stress effectively, we need to increase our level of self-care to help us through the challenges!  The Wheel of Health reminds us that well-being begins with paying attention to what we need and taking appropriate actions in different areas of self-care and professional care to get our needs met.

As you consider the Wheel of Health, I invite you to think about what self-care strategies are most helpful for you when life gets challenging.  Then, the next time you feel yourself “drowning”, remember to put on your Life Ring!

Your well-being begins with YOU!

Seven Guidelines for Mindful Eating

How do you nourish yourself?

These days we’re hearing a lot about the power of mindfulness, and its amazing capacity to help us increase awareness, decrease stress and make wiser choices.  Although programs like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), originated by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts, continue to provide opportunities for individuals to explore pathways to mindfulness, the concept may still seem a bit nebulous to the general public -- particularly folks who aren’t used to the idea of a meditative practice.

Mindfulness and  "The Wheel of Health"

The good news is that mindfulness is something that we’ve all experienced, and it can be cultivated simply.  It is nothing more than “paying attention on purpose”, and it can be developed through formal or informal practice.  Like any habit, mindfulness becomes easier the more we do it.  As a coach, I find mindfulness to be a powerful tool in facilitating behavior change, and it is at the very core of the model that guides my practice.

Mindfulness is a particularly important habit to cultivate with respect to nutrition.  We’ve all heard about the trends – U.S. citizens are becoming increasingly obese, and our nutrition choices are a major reason why.  According to a 2006 study by the Pew Research Center, more than half of U.S. adults estimate that they overeat “junk” food at least some of the time.  Increasing our mindfulness about how we nourish ourselves, is an important first step towards making healthier choices.

Dr. Lilian Cheung, a nutritionist and health promotion researcher at Harvard School of Public Health, identifies seven behaviors that are key to mindful eating. 

1)  Honor the food – In remembering where our food comes from, we enhance our sense of connection to our food and our appreciation of its role in supporting our well-being.
2)  Engage all your senses – Sensory awareness is a mindfulness strategy that, when applied to eating,  allows us to fully experience our nutrition choices.  In addition to helping us slow down, this practice also allows us to notice what thoughts or feelings come up to interrupt our full participation.
3)  Be mindful of portion sizes – When we cultivate the habit of taking smaller portions, we reduce the likelihood of overeating.  Cheung recommends using a plate no larger than 9 inches.  A number of research studies confirm the link between large portions and overeating.
4)  Chew your food – Many of us have trained ourselves to eat quickly, but this habit does not promote healthy nutrition.  Chewing food completely allows us to fully experience our food and to digest it more completely.  It also helps us to eat more slowly.
5)  Eat slowly – Our sensation of being satisfied after eating (satiety), is driven by stretch receptors in our digestive system.  It takes approximately 20 minutes for these receptors to provide feedback to our brains that we are full.  If we eat too quickly, we are more likely to overeat because we don’t sense that we’ve had enough until we’ve already eaten too much.  Studies confirm that eating slowly reduces our food intake!
6)  Do not skip meals – Skipping meals during the day can negatively impact your nutrition plan for a couple of reasons.   Skipping meals alters your metabolism and may increase your risk for diabetes. Also, when you skip meals, you are less likely to make thoughtful food choices the next time you eat.
7)  Eat a plant-based diet – Plants are rich in fiber and phytonutrients, both essential to a healthy metabolism.  In addition, all the fiber that comes with eating plants increases our sense of fullness.  While one can find a wide variety of nutrition advice, all eating plans seem to agree on the value of eating more vegetables.  For an interesting summary about the research on plant-based diets, I recommend viewing the documentary Forks Over Knives.

In this three-minute video, Dr. Cheung shares her perspective about these habits.  It’s well worth your time!



What about you?  Which of these strategies have you tried and what have you discovered?  I’d love to hear what you think!

Balance

"So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. 

And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act." ~ Dr. Seuss

At Christmas last year, I received a wonderful gift that had been on my “wish-list” for some time. It was a balance board. If you haven’t ever seen or tried one out, it is a simple device, but not as easy to master as one might think. It is a short, rectangular board with a non-slip surface on top.  On the bottom are strips of wood that create a groove which fits onto a round cylinder that is placed below it.  Imagine a plank laid on top of a barrel.

The challenge of a balance board, of course, is to position yourself with your feet at each end of the board, and then achieve balance.  A first attempt often looks like this: You step on one end, and the minute you try to get into position, the board flips like a wild seesaw. You, or the cylinder, are likely to go flying. If you read the directions, you hopefully took precautions!

With practice, it becomes easier to balance, and there is a certain satisfaction that comes. You can never be complacent, though. As you “balance”, you are actively managing lots of different variables simultaneously. The balance board, in addition to building balance and coordination, works lots of core muscles too. The minute you stop paying attention, you are in for a quick dismount!

As I’ve enjoyed this new activity, I’ve had time to reflect on what “balance” really is.  It is interesting, I think, that many of us think of “balance” as a static process.  Physics teaches us that bodies in motion tend to stay in motion, and bodies at rest, tend to stay at rest.  From the time that we are children and are learning how to position our building blocks to build a tower, we tend to expect things to “stay” where we put them. 

The balance board gives a more realistic picture of what balance really requires.  Balance is a dynamic process that requires intention and attention.  It doesn’t “stay” unless we work at it.

Our lives are much the same way.  For example, many of us aspire to balance our professional and personal lives in ways that honor all of our values.   At the same time, conditions in our home and work lives are constantly changing and requiring us to re-evaluate how to maintain this balance.  This, too, requires intention and attention.

The concept of balance is important in my work as an Integrative Health Coach. In that work, I use a model developed by Duke Integrative Medicine that is called “The Wheel of Health”.  This model identifies seven different areas of self-care that make up the “spokes” of the wheel.   As you can imagine, when one or more areas in a client’s life is out of balance, it can affect the whole “wheel”.   By helping clients identify and address the areas that aren’t in line with their values, they are able to restore a sense of wholeness and balance in their health and well-being.

Where are you looking for balance in your life?  Wherever that is, I wish you well!