JustCare

Tag: Meditation

  • Five Proven Interventions for Insomnia

    Five Proven Interventions for Insomnia

    With age, the total amount of time we sleep decreases, and sleep becomes more fragmented. So, we shouldn’t expect the same sleep patterns we had when we were younger. Many people’s body clocks seem to advance, so that they go to sleep earlier and awaken earlier. Most people need about 7-9 hours of sleep each night, though the right amount for any individual leaves them awakening refreshed and allows them to remain alert throughout the day (without resorting to stimulants like caffeine.)

    If insomnia is a problem, the first things to address are medical problems that may be interfering with sleep. These include sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) or heartburn, heart failure, pain, frequent urination, and medication. Alcohol too interferes with good, restorative sleep.

    Second, while sleeping pills work, they are best used on a short-term basis. Even in the short term, sleeping pills can have side effects, such as impairing your ability to think clearly and leading to falls. In the long-term they can be habit-forming, lose effectiveness, and some may contribute to cognitive decline.

    Third, basic sleep hygiene measures are important for just about everyone; a previous post describes them.

    If sleep continues to be a problem after getting back to these basics, working with a therapist or even on your own on a program of cognitive-behavioral measures specially designed to help with insomnia has proven to be very successful.

    Finally, mindfulness meditation helps with a variety of problems such as anxiety and depression, and has also been shown to be helpful for sleep. A therapist or counselor can guide a patient in learning how to do it, and again there are books and online programs that can be used by do-it-your-selfers. Of course there’s an app for that too; Headspace is a popular one.

    This post was originally published on May 31, 2018.

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  • The power of self-care

    The power of self-care

    Tara Parker Pope reports for the New York Times on the power of self-care. Haenim Sunim, a Buddhist, writes about self-care in his book, Love for Imperfect Things. Self-care recognizes the value of paying attention to your own wellbeing before caring for others.

    There’s evidence that self-care can lead to a better quality of life. Self-care includes physical activity, healthy eating and getting enough sleep. It also means mindfulness, meditation, self-compassion and stress management.

    Self-care is not easy, especially when your parents, kids, partners and dear friends need your attention. Self-care takes time. And, it’s hard to know how to allocate that time. Haemin Sunim offers five simple steps.

    Breathe. Accept. Write. Talk. Walk.

    You can begin by breathing deeply. Taking deep breaths can bring calm to your life. It helps ground you. And, it need only take a few minutes each day.

    Accept your struggles. Life is not perfect. There are many things we cannot control or change. It will help quiet your mind.

    To help you accept life’s struggles, put pen to paper. Write down the things you are struggling with and how you can best move forward. Putting your struggles on paper can help you let go of them and ease your mind. Then, after a good night’s sleep, do something easy that moves you forward.  Once that’s done, you can move to more difficult tasks.

    Reach out to a close friend who is good at hearing your concerns and let them out. As you talk, you will gain better insight into how to move forward. You will have a better sense of the issues.

    And, take a walk. Walking also calms the mind and can alleviate stress. It not only is good for the body, it is good for your mental health. Focus on nature.

    The goal is not perfection. That’s not possible. The goal is to find meaning and comfort in the imperfect.

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  • The value of integrative care

    The value of integrative care

    As much as we may believe that different health conditions from which we suffer can be treated independently of one another, there is ample evidence to suggest that they tend to be interconnected and often should be treated as such. Katherine Gergen Barnett, M.D. explains in a Health Affairs post the value of integrative care, doctors who look at the whole patient when providing treatment, not discrete conditions.

    In short, Barnett explains that a good doctor treats the person–understands the range of personal, social, medical and emotional issues his or her patient is facing–in order to heal the patient. Put differently, as Hippocrates is believed to have said, “It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease that person has.” In turn, it’s generally helpful for the millions of people who suffer from chronic conditions to have peer support as well as lifestyle support, in addition to medical support, to promote better health.

    Dr. Barnett, along with her colleagues at the Boston Medical Center, have created an integrative medicine group to better treat patients with multiple conditions. Their patients, all of whom suffer from chronic pain–as do some 100 million Americans–benefit from group medical visits, the principles of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and evidenced-based complementary medicine.

    • Group medical visits: In this care model, as many as 12 patients with a shared condition–e.g., diabetes, back pain, high blood pressure, arthritis–see the doctor at the same time. These visits allow for peer-to-peer support–a type of buddy system–as well as more time for the medical visit. The social aspect of the visit also can promote better health.  The research suggests that these group visits can improve quality of life for patients.
    • Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR): Research further shows that mindful meditation and purpose promote better health. They can ease stress, improve mental health and reduce pain.
    • Integrative medicine: With integrative medicine, doctors see and understand the whole person requiring treatment and recognize that treatment can include help with lifestyle changes. Patients may be offered evidence-based complementary medicine, such as tai chi to improve balance, yoga to promote calm, or acupuncture, all of which can help reduce pain.

    Integrative care is still a relatively new concept. To see if it’s available in your community, contact your local hospital. And, if it is, and you’re suffering from pain and other chronic conditions, you might consider learning more about it. You might also want to learn more about good incremental care, another evidence-based approach to alleviating pain that treats the whole person.

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  • Mindful meditation could prolong your life without exercise

    Mindful meditation could prolong your life without exercise

    Meditation could prolong your life without exercise.  A study by Nobel Prize winning researcher Elizabeth Blackburn and others show that some forms of meditation might slow down the cellular aging process. Blackburn and colleagues won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2009 for their work on telomeres, which sit at the ends of our chromosomes.  Stress exposure and depression can shrink telomere length, which promotes physical aging.

    Blackburn’s more recent work shows that mindful meditation transforms stressful experiences into challenging ones and positive states of mind. As a result, we create more of the enzyme telemarese, which keeps our telomeres from shrinking and possibly prolongs our lives.