Mindfulness For Health Providers

MindBodyHealth recently held a free 2-hour mindfulness seminar for health care professionals, based on a September 2009 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) posting research findings that mindfulness training reduces burnout, fatigue, and stress for these providers. (Article Link). Building on this seminar, we are offering a 5-week mindfulness course for health care professionals, beginning Monday December 14 from 6 - 730 PM. The course will follow a similar pattern to the JAMA article research design, and is of importance to health care providers for the following reasons:

• 60% of health care providers experience burnout, fatigue, or significant stress.
• Burnout is linked to poorer quality patient care, increased patient dissatisfaction, and increased errors in diagnostic and decision making. Burnout is also correlated with substance abuse, family discord, automobile accidents, stress related health problems, and suicidal ideation in physicians (particularly with medical residents).
• Health care professionals often struggle with daily self-care management of stress.
• Mindfulness training has been demonstrated to decrease fatigue, stress and burnout in health care professionals while at the same time increasing overall mood stability, and ability to monitor and cope with stress.
• Increased mindfulness skills and decreased levels of stress led to increased patient directed care, and lower levels of reported patient dissatisfaction.

Space for this group course is limited and filling up quickly. Reserve your space today by calling (303) 831.6248 or emailing (mail@mindbodyhealth.us).

MindBodyHealth, LLC
1115 Grant Street, Suite 103
Denver, CO 80203
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Exercise Addiction

Do you know someone like this:

Robin wakes up three mornings a week at 5am to run five miles before she takes her children to school and heads to work. Every weekday evening she goes to the gym to attend a yoga or aerobics class. On the weekends she weight trains. All of her family and social activities are scheduled around Robin's exercise regime. Her family, particularly her children, complain that she is rarely home. And despite having a stress fracture, Robin continues to run.

Many individuals, myself included, utilize exercise as a vehicle to promote wellness and overall well-being. For some, however, exercise involves body obsession or is tightly integrated in body image distortions. For others, exercise is a problematic behavioral symptom of larger concern with an eating disorder.

Although the vast majority of people who exercise do so in a healthy, balanced manner, there exists a small percentage of the population, such as Robin, that have an exercise dependency or addiction.

Here are some signs that suggest exercise has become problematic:

• Rigid adherence to working out.
• Dependency or compulsion to exercise.
• Irritability when even 1 work out is missed.
• Exercising in addition to planned workout time if one has the opportunity.
• Loss of perspective on exercise as a PART (not the central focus) of a balanced life.
• Exercise affects family, social and/or career obligations or other important areas of life.
  
• Events with important others are skipped, canceled or lied about in order to exercise.
• Exercising despite being injured or ill.
• Fixation on calories burned or weight loss achieved.
  
• Obsession with specific body parts, toning specific areas, gaining muscle mass etc.
• Exercising in secret or lying about time spent working out.

If you know someone who is struggling with over-exercise, exercise dependency, or exercise addiction, it is important that you approach the individual with your concerns. Describe the impact that their working out has had in your relationship and other important areas of the individuals life. Recommend help knowing that this person will likely deny having a problem. Trained therapist can assist in helping individuals deal with exercise addiction and help determine if exercise is a part of a larger problem.

Do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.



MindBodyHealth
1115 Grant Street, Suite 103
Denver, CO 80203

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Free Mindfulness Seminar

The September 2009 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) presented a research article regarding the increasing problem of physician burnout. Of particular concern are the consequences of physician burnout: poorer quality of life, poorer quality of services, and lowered ability of 'being present' with their patients. Implementing mindfulness training was found to have significant positive effects at increasing mindfulness skills, empathy, and emotional stability while reducing burnout and total mood disturbance. Physicians were thus better able to attend to their patients and engage in a more productive manner. Health care providers need to find a way to reduce job burnout in order to provide quality patient care. To this end, MindBodyHealth is offering a FREE 2-Hour Mindfulness Seminar for all those working in a health care related field in which they have direct contact with patients (physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, PA's, dietitians, chiropractors, dentists, social workers, massage therapists etc). This class will include a mindfulness tutorial and experiential mindfulness exercises of Body Scan, Sitting Meditation, and Walking Meditation, that reflect skills taught in the JAMA research article. These skills are crucially important to helping YOU reduce burnout and improve quality direct patient care. DETAILS *FREE Mindfulness Seminar *Saturday December 5th *10AM - 12Noon *Healthcare Providers with Direct Patient Care *MindBodyHealth Offices: 1115 Grant Street, Conference Room *RSVP Today! (Space is limited) Article Link (JAMA, September 23/30, 2009-Vol 302, No. 12)

Stress in America

The American Psychological Association (APA) recently released the 2009 Stress Campaign Results. Aptly titled: "Stress in America. Mind/Body Health: For a healthy mind and body, talk to a psychologist" the study reveals not only national trends, but also highlights results specific to several major metropolitan areas, including Denver (Denver Results Here). Weaknesses in the study include a low number of Denver residents sampled (N = 202) used to generalize results, limited robustness in findings, and a lack of statistical comparison between Denver resident ratings and National results. None-the-less, APA concluded the following:

• Overall, Denver residents appear to be more stressed compared to Americans nationally; more Denver residents rate their stress levels in an extreme range and Denver residents are more likely than Americans nationally to consider several factors significant sources of stress.
• Employed Denver residents are less satisfied with their current employment than Americans overall and report more difficulty with balancing work and home responsibilities.
• Denver residents rate their health relatively high overall. They are less likely than Americans overall to have high cholesterol or Type-2 Diabetes.
• Denver residents are more likely to cite work and job stability as significant sources of stress than Americans overall.
• Overall, Denver residents appear to be more stressed compared to Americans nationally, with more Denver residents rating their stress levels in an extreme range.
• 10% of Denver resident's utilize mediation or yoga for stress management. (Compared to 7% Nationally).

Due to a lack of statistical comparison and relatively low percentage differences between Denver and National results that have led APA researches to make the conclusion that Denver is 'America's Most Stressed City', these results do indicate that more is needed to aid in Stress Management.

MindBodyHealth
1115 Grant Street, Suite 103
Denver, CO 80203

(303) 831.6248
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3 Minute Breathing Space

3-Minute Breathing Space

Having a rough day? Feeling stressed out? The beauty of the 3-minute breathing space exercise is that it quickly helps you step out of autopilot in order to reconnect to the present moment.

1st Minute: Awareness
Adopt an alert yet comfortable posture, close your eyes, bring your attention inward. Ask yourself, “What is my experience right now ...in thoughts...in feelings...and in bodily sensations? Acknowledge your experience in this moment, even if it is unwanted.

2nd Minute: Gathering
Gently direct awareness to breathing, following each inbreath and each outbreath, one after the other. Your breath can function as an anchor to bring you into the present and help you tune into a state of awareness and stillness.

3rd Minute: Expanding

Now, expand the field of your awareness around your breathing, so that it includes a sense of the body as a whole, your posture, and facial expression. The breathing space provides a way to step out of automatic pilot mode and reconnect with the present moment. When you’re ready, open your eyes and return to your day.


MindBodyHealth
1115 Grant Street, Suite 103
Denver, CO 80203

(303) 831.6248
mail@mindbodyhealth.us
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"Mindfulness isn't difficult. What's difficult is to remember to be mindful."

"Mindfulness isn't difficult. What's difficult is to remember to be mindful."

Stumbled upon this article today. A great piece on The Neuroscience of Mindfulness.

http://bit.ly/1X0acG

Guide To Intuitive Eating

Intuitive Eating is a concept that is intended to help individuals create healthy relationships between food, mind, body and health. In practice, it may sound simplistic. However, the basic tenets are often overlooked. Significant problems with relationship to food, maladaptive coping with weight fluctuation, eating disorders, shame/guilt about one's appearance, and general dissatisfaction can occur when intuitive eating is not a principle of everyday life.

The basic premise of Intuitive Eating is to pay attention to your body's hunger cues, rather than focusing on caloric intake or to count grams of carbohydrates, fat or protein. In many ways the basic principles of Intuitive Eating are the direct opposite of dieting which. Intuitive Eating involves learning the distinction between true physical hunger cues and emotional cues, the latter of which drive compulsive eating behaviors such as overeating, binge eating, and choosing unhealthy foods. This process involves making amends with your own beliefs about food, including what food you label as "bad" or "fatty."

Some tips for incorporating Intuitive Eating into your life:

1. Rid the notion that you have to eat at set times with set portions.

2. Think of hunger much like a gas tank, with extremes of Empty and Full. Consider Empty to be a score of 0 and Full to be a score of 10. The goal is to keep your level of satiety between a 3 and 7 at all times, to ensure that you are never completely empty nor completely stuffed.

3. Address when you are eating to cope with stress, pain, sadness, anxiety, or any other emotional reason. Examine if there are other coping skills to address these emotions rather than food.

4. Spend some time exploring your own food beliefs, specifically which labels you give to certain foods that lead to rigid eating behaviors.

5. Stop counting calories, carbohydrates, fat grams etc. Pay attention to your own bodily cues for hunger. Do you notice hunger pangs in your stomach, a drop in energy, or increased irritability when you are hungry?

Screen Time Advice

The transition from spring to summer means increased free time for many of us, especially for families and those with children. Many popular television networks that offer programming for children and families promote 'special summer schedules.' Research indicates that the average American youth between the ages of 8 - 18 spends approximately 4 hours per day watching television or DVDs/videos, 1 hour per day on the computer, and roughly 45 minutes playing video games. That totals roughly 6 hours per day of total screen time for the typical American youth. As little (or much, pending your viewpoint) as 2 hours of total daily screen time has been shown to be problematic. Research indicates connections between 2 or more hours of total screen time and obesity, lowered self-esteem, behavioral problems, academic difficulties, sleep disturbances, and overall health problems.

MindBodyHealth has several guidelines to consider to promote a healthy relationship with screen time.

Monitor Overall Screen Time:
Are you aware of how much time you, your family, and your children are spending in front of television and computer screens? Monitor overall usage for one week. You may be surprised at your findings.

Set Limits:
Be firm with how much time you allow yourself and your family to spend in screen time on a daily basis. Let expectations be known ahead of time. MindBodyHealth recommends no more than 2 hours of screen time per day (which is liberal considering most research recommends no more than 1 hour per day). A good rule of thumb is to break total screen time down into smaller increments, for example, 2 hours could be best used in four 30 minute chunks.

Be A Good Model:
Most of us remember the slogan "Parents who use drugs, have children who use drugs." The same concept applies to screen time. Parents who model excessive television and computer usage tend to have children who learn similar behaviors. Parents who model appropriate exposure to television and computer consumption have children who grow up learning this valuable lesson.

Explore Other Activities:
There are numerous other activities to explore, especially in the summer time. Activities can range for outdoor physical exercise, to reading or drawing on a blanket in the park, to indoor arts and crafts activities. Get creative - you and your family will be appreciate it.

Make Screen Time Family Time:
Screen time should never be used as a distraction or babysitter. One way to promote overall family functioning is to utilize screen time as a family movie or game night. Time spent in front of the television can be promoted as another means of quality family time. MindBodyHealth also recommends active programs, such as Wii sports.