“It looks more and more like the positive stress of exercise prepares cells and structures and pathways within the brain so that they’re more equipped to handle stress in other forms,” says Michael Hopkins, a graduate student affiliated with the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Laboratory at Dartmouth, who has been studying how exercise differently affects thinking and emotion. “It’s pretty amazing, really, that you can get this translation from the realm of purely physical stresses to the realm of psychological stressors.”
Many of us could do with the benefits that come with regularly practising meditation – as it can help develop qualities such as calm, focus and compassion. And perhaps nowhere are these qualities needed more than in the hustle and bustle of modern city life.
However as much as we may want to go and learn meditation at a class or course, many of us simply have no time. And even if we do have time, then there is the often problem that many such courses have too many spiritual and new age trappings that just don’t quite feel right.
But no more… the Hear&Now Project is here. This revolutionary and innovative approach has been designed to help people of all backgrounds develop the benefits of meditation in a way that fits convienentially into the realities of their lives without losing any of the authenticity of traditional approaches.
“Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world’s newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases “I feel” and “I am feeling”. When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the “feeling” expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved.”
Glenn and Jessie Close have launched a really interesting new mental health campaign called bringchange2mind.
“1 in 6 adults and almost 1 in 10 children suffer from a diagnosable mental illness. Yet, for many, the stigma associated with the illness, can be as great a challenge as the disease itself. This is where the misconceptions stop. This is where bias comes to an end. This is where we change lives. Because this is where we Bring Change 2 Mind.”
The Mindapples blog has been a little quiet lately as Tessy and me have been super busy. We like to think our tweets are happy and interesting ( Thanks ArrivalEd for confirmation ) and we would like to invite you to follow us:
Mindapples has been on its summer holidays for a month, but with World Mental Health Day and New Year’s Resolutions fast approaching, we’re back and kicking up a gear again (in a nice sustainable, healthy sort of way).
So, to kick things off, here’s a video of me pitching Mindapples at the Innovation Exchange Festival of Ideas two weeks ago, in which I invite ideas from organisations about how Mindapples can support their work and partner up to get the word out about everyday mental health. If you’re an organisation looking to fund innovations in stigma reduction and public mental health, or if you’d like to run a Mindapples 5-a-day survey on your website or promote us to your community, e-mail me at andy[at]mindapples.org.
My friend Sorrell at the Chamomile Clinic has sent me something to share with you: her five herbs for happiness.
Lemon balm – a truly balancing herb, whether you are anxious or depressed this herb can bring back a sense of balance into your life and it tastes delicious as a herbal tea.
Valerian – a great sedative for anxiety and insomnia with no hangover effects
Chamomile – a safe remedy for children, it soothes them to sleep, has a reputation for preventing night terrors and helps relieve grumpy tantrums
Peppermint – traditionally known as a herb for grumpy old men (but if you hadn’t noticed women are grumpy sometimes too), it will work to settle an upset stomach too.
Skullcap – for the overactive mind that can’t switch off, this herb can help those who don’t let go so easily from the troubles of the day, or just need a break from their own thoughts when times are tough.
I’ve tried 2, 3 and 4 myself and they definitely helped me calm down and sleep better. You can contact Sorrell by email for more tailored advice and recommendations, or find a herbalist near you via the NIMH.
And for those of you who don’t believe in all that herbal medicine gubbins, Sorrell has shared her Mindapples five-a-day with us too:
taking at least 10 minutes a day to be alone and meditate, or practice self-hypnosis
drinking some herbal tea
enjoying a soak in a warm bath with my favourite essential oils
tending to the garden
smiling at a stranger everyday – spread the happiness
We’ve been a bit quiet here on the Mindapples blog (my book coming out, Lauren’s MA due in, Tessy on holiday…), but there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.
One of the things I’ve been up to is contributing to a new Channel 4 programme, Alone in the Wild, in which Ed Wardle will be living alone in the Yukon wilderness for 3 months, starting this week. Adam Gee at Channel 4 tells me that no experiments in human isolation have ever gone beyond 8 weeks, so no-one is sure what Ed will experience towards the end of his stay. He’s a brave guy and I’m watching his progress with interest.
Channel 4 interviewed me for their website , along with Terry Waite, Sarah Maitland and other more qualified people than me, about what I thought would be the impact of solitude on Ed’s mental health. I drew on many of the Mindapples responses to inform the discussion – thanks to all of you for contributing – and as you can see, from reading your 5-a-days it’s clear that solitude is good for the mind, but connection with people is really important too. Spending time with people is the most popular of all the activities you picked. I also mentioned some of the other things which you said helped you, including reading fiction (also a popular choice), and attention and relaxation techniques such as morning pages and mindfulness.
I’m not sure I was quite as confident as I sound from the interview – I’ve certainly never wanted to be seen as an expert on mental health – but I hope it’s interesting and gives you food for thought. Let me know what you think, or if you have anything to add, either here or on the Channel 4 site. You can also follow Ed’s progress on Twitter and join the conversation there too. After all, it’s nice to know we’re not alone!
We’ve known for a long time that exercise reduces stress … but new research on rats
Posted by Lauren
Posted by Lauren
