THE POWER OF THE MIND:
THE WELLNESS PHILOSOPHY
By Monica A. Frank, Ph.D.

WHAT IS THE WELLNESS PHILOSOPHY?

Too often, mental health professionals focus on treating illness rather than maintaining wellness. However, the skills we bring to the treatment of psychological disorders are the same skills that can aid people with enhancing wellness. More importantly, the focus on wellness can prevent the life disruption caused by illness and the need for further treatment. What does it mean to focus on wellness? Basically, it means life style enhancements that protects the individual's physical well-being and improves the ability to cope with stressors. Frequently, these are simple techniques that most people just don't take the time to include in their lives. How many times have you said or heard others say, "I don't have time to exercise" or "I don't have time to relax?" Thus, a very important contributor to wellness is attitude: a thought process that influences the way a person approaches dealing with life.

Whether we allow ourselves to recognize it or not, we choose the type of thinking and approach we have to the world. This choice then influences other choices. For example, we may choose to think we have to prove ourselves as an employee or as a parent by perfectly meeting the demands of others. With such an attitude we will more likely forego our own needs in order to meet the expectations we believe others have of us. Our awareness of our ability to make choices can be a powerful factor in our experience of life. Too frequently, people believe that they can't have an impact on their lives, that they are just helpless victims of fate or of other people's behaviors. The truth is, however, that we have the choice available to us to be responsible for our lives. Even when someone has been mistreated or abused, they still have choices available to them. We can choose to blame others for our life situation or we can choose to examine ourselves and see what we can do about it. The power of our mind can greatly determine whether we will be healthy and happy.

HOW CAN I TAP INTO THIS POWER OF THE MIND?

You can start by examining your thinking styles for irrational reasoning. Look for the following cues: 1) A tendency to blame other people for how you feel. If you are unhappy, it isn't because of other people. It is because you choose to be unhappy. People who blame others will argue with this statement because it is uncomfortable to recognize that they are responsible for how they feel. The tendency to blame prevents people from seeing clearly what they can do to impact their lives. In terms of leading a healthy and happy life, people who blame don't believe that they have any control over their life. 2) Using "shoulds" to determine your behavior. "Shoulds" are rules you set for yourself that may be demanding and unnecessary. For example, "I should make my bed everyday or I am a lazy person." One good way of recognizing a "should" is that they usually are judgmental and you feel bad about yourself if you don't do what you think you "should," but you often feel resentful or pressured if you do it. The tendency to use "shoulds" prevent people from taking care of their needs. In terms of leading a healthy and happy live, people who "should" believe that all the "shoulds" are more important than taking care of them- selves.

Once you have honestly assessed yourself, you are in a position to challenge these irrational beliefs. If your tendency is to blame, you can tell yourself "I can impact my life. I am responsible for my health and happiness." If your tendency is to "should," you can tell yourself "It is okay and good for me to take care of my own needs. I don't have to meet unnecessary expectations." By using statements such as these whenever you catch yourself engaging in the irrational thinking, you will begin to change your thinking. Very importantly, notice that I just said whenever you catch yourself engaging in the irrational thinking. When people are trying to change their thinking, they believe they can use these statements once or twice and their thinking should miraculously change. But it takes more work than that. You probably think the irrational thoughts many times a day and to change the thinking you need to challenge the thoughts just as frequently. Once you have changed these attitudes, you then have the opportunity to discover just how powerful your mind is to impact your life. The power you have is a very natural process that is available to everyone.

The ability to be healthy and happy is related to several simple techniques that are all related to relaxation, exercise, and nutrition. The interesting thing about these techniques is that research is beginning to show us how they impact us at a very basic level--our chemical processes. These processes involve everything about us: our thoughts, our emotions, and our behavior. For instance, relaxation produces the chemical norepinephrine with which low levels are implicated in depression. Also, exercise has been shown to produce another chemical known as endorphins which help with depression, anxiety, sleep, and sexual activity. Research is also showing that some foods such as bananas and turkey have proteins that help to create the chemical seratonin which helps with anxiety, sleep, and depression. All of these chemicals are natural chemicals that affect our bodily processes. And relaxation, exercise, and eating certain foods are things that we do that can affect the level and activity of the chemicals.

HOW CAN I USE THIS POWER TO ENHANCE MY HEALTH AND HAPPINESS? Once you have changed your attitude and made a commitment to being healthy and happy, you can then use a variety of techniques to help. Some of the most common ones are explained here further:

1) VISUALIZATION. This is a simple process involving relaxation and visualizing. At a very basic level it may be used just to enhance mood through relaxing and imagining a very pleasant scene. However, at more advanced levels, it can also be used to enhance performance such as in a sporting event or giving a speech. I have also used it to deal with illness. If I feel myself starting to feel the effects of a virus, I will visualize my white blood cells attacking the virus. Doing such prevents me from becoming ill. Hypnosis is a form of more advanced visualization.

2) EXERCISE. A variety of exercise techniques can be used for different purposes. Aerobic exercise helps to strengthen the heart muscles and to reduce depression. Strength training helps to improve bone density and protects the body from physical strain. Yoga helps to improve flexibility and reduce anxiety.

3) MASSAGE THERAPY. The benefits of massage include relaxation, improved circulation, and enhanced mood. A variety of techniques can be used depending on the needs of the individual. Certainly, the massage therapy is a more passive technique for the individual, but it can also encourage you to take more active control of your life in other ways.

Wellness Books

The following are books that we recommend because they are solution-focused using a cognitive-behavioral approach. If you are interested in purchasing a book, click on the icon and you can obtain it through Amazon.com.

Wellness Book: The Comprehensive Guide to Maintaining Health and Treating Stress-Related Illness
by Herbert Benson & Eileen M. Stuart (Editors)

Millions of readers are familiar with the work of Dr. Herbert Benson and the Mind/Body Medical Institute from the mega-bestselling book The Relaxation Response. With over three million copies in print, it is a classic in the field of mind/body medicine. Now, in The Wellness Book, Dr. Benson, Eileen Stuart, and their colleagues at the Institute have created the definitive resource that shows you how to maintain your health and treat stress-related illnesses, including: high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, infertility, insomnia, women's health concerns, anxiety, cancer. The Wellness Book reflects the cutting edge of health care, giving you the opportunity to gain more control over your own well-being. Use of the book, in combination with modern medical treatments, will aid in prevention and treatment of a number of illnesses and, according to USA Today, "legitimizes the mind/body connection in traditional medicine."

The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook
by Martha Davis, Matthew McKay, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman

Although the sheer size of this dense workbook might cause initial hyperventilation--280 full-size sheets of text--take heart (and a deep breath!): the many self-assessment tools and calming techniques presented in this fifth edition can help overcome anxiety and promote physical and emotional well-being. First introduced in 1980, the book received praise for presenting a comprehensive look at stress, its physical manifestations, and the multiple ways it can be managed. Twenty years later, its well-organized chapters on breathing, relaxation, meditation, thought stopping, and body awareness still guide the reader through copious self-help techniques to try and, eventually, master. Other chapters, including job stress management, goal setting and time management, and assertiveness training, focus on daily scenarios people often find distressing. Lessons in identifying key elements that trigger unpleasant responses and in reacting differently to these elements are designed to defuse perceived conflicts. For this edition, coauthors Martha Davis (psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Santa Clara, CA), Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman (licensed clinical social worker with Kaiser Permanente Online), and Matthew McKay (clinical director of Haight-Ashbury Psychological Services, San Francisco, CA) have added topics on worry control, anger management, and eye-movement therapy. New diagrams and a more reader-friendly format should appeal to readers, despite a few typos and graphical mishaps. This is a valuable tool for therapists, their patients, and the stressed-at-large.

Natural Health, Natural Medicine: A Comprehensive Manual for Wellness and Self-Care
by Andrew Weil

Health can be defined in any number of ways, from the simple fact that you're not lying on a hospital bed to an overall sense of well-being and connectedness. One person may not feel healthy unless he's carrying around mounds of gym-built muscle, while another doesn't feel healthy unless she's eating an intestine-scrubbing macrobiotic diet and practicing an hour of yoga each day. Dr. Andrew Weil looks at every aspect of health in Natural Health, Natural Medicine. He's quite cynical about bodybuilding and the emphasis on protein in our diets, while making a strong case for paying more attention to the way we breathe and the degree to which we interact with family, community, and nature. An interesting--but, unfortunately, short--section on loving says that most people have no idea what to do when they fall out of romantic love with a partner, which helps explain the high divorce rate. Other sections of the book focus on healthy self-care practices ("nasal douching" is recommended for sinus sufferers), supplements (he believes most benefits that seem to come from these are placebo responses), and natural home remedies for an A-to-Z list of problems (the section on depression states that people experience low mood because they constantly seek highs; eliminate the quest for highs, and you eliminate the rebound experience of lows). Many regard this book as the bible of natural healing; but even those who are on the fence about alternative medicine should find it to be an entertaining, informative, and highly opinionated beginner's guide to achieving better health without conventional medicine.

Wellness Links

Children and Health
Improving Health
Nutrition
Smoking Cessation
Weight Loss

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Children and Health

Take Charge of Your Health: A Teenager's Guide to Better Health

Helping Your Overweight Child

Improving Health

Take Two Laps and Call Me in the Morning

Can Anger Predict Heart Disease Risk?

    The NIH Goes New Age: Experts Probe Link Between Emotions and Health

    Does a Religious Heart Make for a Healthy Mind?

    Level of Mental Stress May Help Doctors Predict Heart Attack

    Using Mind Power for Healing