How Taking One Breath at a Time Can Improve Your Mental & Physical Health
By now, most of us know the importance of mental health. Whether you followed the Olympics and watched as top-tier athletes advocated on behalf of their mental health, or are a student with high stress and anxiety, the prevalence of mental health and its treatment become more apparent each day. With staggering statistics on adults who experience daily anxiety and stress-related symptoms (a whopping 72% of working American adults), mental health treatments have gotten lots of attention from top researchers in the field. And although pharmaceuticals are an important part of treatment for some, holistic and integrative treatment options that consider the lifestyle, history, physical, mental and spiritual aspects of the individual are becoming more commonplace in the West.
Experts in the field such as Drs. Bessel van der Kolk and Deepak Chopra continue to conduct studies from which conclusions about the connection between mindfulness and trauma-healing can be drawn. Since mindfulness practices employ developing better mind-body awareness, individuals can often heal trauma from within, thus healing exterior, physiological symptoms. This often averts the need for symptom-treating medication, like SSRI’s, pain receptor-blockers and hormonal treatments, allowing the body to heal naturally, and on the patient’s terms. Van der Kolk explains in his bestselling book, The Body Keeps the Score, “neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going inside ourselves,” thus providing hard evidence to support integrative medicinal practices.
Practices that enhance mind-body connection include meditation, breathing exercises (box-breathing, alternate-nostril breathing), yoga, and exercise/movement. There are additional mindfulness practices such as mindful eating/resting, and resources can be found below for more ways to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life. Overall, science shows us that the more we practice mindfulness and mind-body awareness, the more we can heal our inner trauma, and have better physical experiences.
Check out these resources for more on trauma healing and mindfulness:
- The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
- The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga by Deepak Chopra
- Ayurveda for Modern Life by Emine Rushton
- Summa Health’s Integrative Medicine Program: Summa Health | Overview of Integrative Medicine
Studies to read:
- “Highlights: Workplace Stress; Anxiety Disorders Survey.” Highlights: Workplace Stress & Anxiety Disorders Survey | Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA, adaa.org/workplace-stress-anxiety-disorders-survey.
- Lang, A. J. et al. (2021). A randomized controlled trial of yoga vs non aerobic exercise for veterans with PTSD: Understanding efficacy, mechanisms of change, and mode of delivery. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 21, 100719.
- Carei, T. R., Fyfe-Johnson, A. L., Breuner, C. C., & Brown, M. A. (2010). Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Yoga in the Treatment of Eating Disorders. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46(4), 346–351.
- Boni, M., Schütze, R., Kane, R. T., Morgan-Lowes, K. L., Byrne, J., & Egan, S. J. (2018). Mindfulness and avoidance mediate the relationship between yoga practice and anxiety. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 40, 89–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ctim.2018.08.002