Tag: Mental Health

You may have heard the concept of ‘self-care’ being bandied about but what does that really mean? Yes, we understand the basic principle of self-care however how can it be put into practice, do we need it and honestly, how can it help?

Life can be hectic, taking a toll on our physical and mental health. We all suffer from stress, pressure and the need to meet expectation yet constant stress uses up our adrenaline and cortisol leaving our energy and resilience levels low. Lack of time for ourselves and quiet can make us irritable, impact out interactions with friends and family and make us less productive.

Even though I am a doctor and therefore ought to be aware of how to ‘look after myself’ it can be incredibly difficult to implement changes that may be ‘good for us’. Everyone experiences stress differently meaning forms of management can be different for everyone.

When it comes to self-care, it is undoubtedly a very personal issue, only you can know when you are running low or struggling. Therefore to begin with, in the first noticeable instance, make a note of what keeps coming up so the ability to tackle this stressor is maximised.

However, until these stressors can be identified and acted upon, here I will give you a few tips that I have found useful for me and my family. These are tiny baby steps that each member of my family has used to make a little more space and positivity in our lives and that enhance our overall well-being.

I am a firm believer in taking responsibility for your health and wellbeing, being your own advocate and taking control when things feel like they are running riot.

Tip 1 – Reframe things in your mind

I have been known to grumble at getting up in the morning to prepare my daughter’s breakfast. Sometimes working a late shift provides even less incentive to do so, making a lie in way more attractive. Historically, I felt duty bound to make breakfast as the guilt would slowly creep in if I didn’t. This then manifested in me being grumpy and snippy with my daughter.

After attending some training on improving happiness and cognitive behavioural therapy, I decided to try the concept of ‘reframing the situation’. This simply made me change my way of thinking to, the decision to get up and make breakfast for my child is mine. I could do it with grace or grumpiness. I thought about how much I would miss her when she leaves home and how I will miss seeing her in the morning. Just thinking about the situation in this way has made me positively jolly about getting her breakfast in the morning. It is small isn’t it, nothing medically ground breaking, but it makes my life (and by default the rest of my family’s lives) better.

Tip 2 – Take ownership of your health

I have recently lost some very dear friends to cancer and see people daily who struggle with illness. We don’t have control over many aspects of our health, but we are fortunate enough to have some tools in our armoury.

I was spurred into action by the loss of my friends, I had my cervical smear, colonoscopy (as I was aware of my strong family history of colon cancer), general blood tests and a mammogram. You do have a responsibility to yourself and your loved ones to look after yourself and to me, this was my way of doing so. Don’t put it off if you know there is a susceptibility towards an illness in your family, see your doctor and modify your risk.

If you are smoking, maybe consider for a moment if this is something you might try to stop this year. If your diet and weight are putting you at increased risk of cardiac events or diabetes, what might motivate you to change your lifestyle? Figuring out your motivation, sticking to it and taking responsibility for yourself is important for you and you alone. Be it wanting to get into an item of clothing, or so you can be around for your kids, find your motivation and stick with it.

Tip 3 – Technology

I despair at the time my daughter wastes on her phone. If she just studied half as much she would be a genius. I am being facetious – there is increasing evidence that social media and being exposed to the constant stream of Instagram, Snapchat, trolling, comparing and selfying puts our children’s mental health at risk.

I have seen the highs and lows of it in my own child. When it comes to studying and phones, my daughter recently showed me an app called Forest, where she can decide the length of time the app is active so that her phone is inaccessible to her friends and herself. She sets herself targets, gets rewarded by the app, she has taken control of time spent off the phone and in doing so does something constructive. However, I can’t help but think, is this where we are now when it comes to technology? Are we that immersed? I think this realisation is one of the hardest, as once we can get there, break away and give our minds a break, we really are helping our own mental health. Try it, I dare you!

Tip 4 – Exercise

It is old news but it’s true. There is no arguing the evidence in favour of exercise in terms of improving health outcomes in so many parameters. Exercise is used to improve outcomes after a heart attack or breast cancer, to improve mood disorders or stave off immobility and pain brought on by osteoarthritis. The science is there, this is proven, however somehow we all know that come what may there is just not enough time in a day to get everything done.

I don’t have much spare time in my life, however I choose to stick on my headphones, listen to podcasts and jog everywhere. I put on my rucksack, pack light and change for work or dinner when I arrive. My friends think I’m a bit odd (and probably sweaty) but it makes me feel relaxed. I solve problems in my mind as I go and love running past stationary buses and traffic jams. My husband is a walker, if he is stressed he gets out of the house and walks, day or night.

The thing with finding the time is that you need to find your niche. When you find exercise that you enjoy, you are more likely to want to do it and therefore more likely to find time for it. Find your thing and go for it!

These are the small self-care efforts we make in our house. It is about taking charge of your wellbeing and actively finding a bit of peace and positivity, the act of taking control and participating in your own sense of wellness is very empowering.

How Stress Can Contribute to Injury

A wide variety of stress related problems can increase your risk of injury. We give you the tools to combat them. 

Our psychology is not only crucial to how we perform but also plays a vital role in predisposition to injury. While previously the mind and body would be regarded separately, modern medicine now understands that our thoughts, beliefs and emotions are intrinsically linked to our physiology. The mind and body closely interact. To try and heal the body without paying attention to the mind and vice versa is, well, mindless.

Who is at risk?

Generally, in medicine, we split stress into intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic stress is the type of stress we place on ourselves while extrinsic stress is caused by external factors. An increased susceptibility to injury has be found to occur with both of these types of stress. People who tend to be generally anxious or of a nervous, jittery disposition and those who become very nervous or anxious in certain situations, such as before a big competition are more likely to suffer injury. It is not only those who inherently tend to be more anxious that have a higher injury risk. People with a “Type A” personality, those who are irritable or untrusting of others and people with have poor coping strategies to deal with stress also have a higher risk of injury. 

External stress also plays a role in injury risk. Negative life events, daily hassles and strains and stress related to training itself such as feeling stiff or tense, feeling vulnerable to injury and feeling insufficient rested all contribute to an increased likelihood of injury. 

How Does Stress Increase Risk of Injury?

Stress impacts the body in a number of ways. The mind and body interact through a continuous flow of hormones, neurotransmitters and immune cells from one to the other. One such hormone, cortisol, is under the control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This elegant axis uses a biofeedback loop whereby a gland in the brain senses what is going on in the body and then releases chemicals that stimulate the adrenal glands in our stomach to produce cortisol, the “stress hormone”. 

Our brain also controls the release of a calming hormone. Oxytocin promotes growth and repair as well as creating feelings of well-being and reducing sensations of pain and anxiety. 

Stress also impacts our injury risk in other ways. Athletes who are under stress have reduced peripheral vision compared to athletes who are not stressed. Pressure also makes athletes more distractible and increases muscle tension. These factors lead to increased fatigue and crucially impair both timing and coordination predisposing to injury. 

Using the Mind To Prevent Injury

It is vitally important to be proactive in using a psychological approach to prevent injury. There are several techniques that can help you become more mentally resilient. This not only can help reduce the risk of injury but also promote recovery and prevent and minor injury from becoming a major one. There are 5 key steps to managing stress and reducing risk of injury. 

Check-In: It’s vital to understand what are the triggers are for you to feel good and what makes feel down. Knowing these triggers means that you can invest time in the tasks that will make you feel good and minimise the tasks that make you feel bad. A great tool for this is the Hassles and Uplifts Scale. This is completed before bed to establish what annoyed you that day and what gave you a lift. Another great tool you could use for this is the app Inflow. 

Manage Load: By tracking your mood you can see when you are under the most stress. At these times you can mitigate injury risk by dialling down your training a little. A good tool to assist with this is measuring heart rate variability (HRV). The app HRV4Training is great for this. HRV gives us a clue as to how we have recovered from the previous day’s training and stress and can act as a guide to how much training load you should take on each day. 

Build Resilience: Developing resilience to adverse life events is hugely important in both injury prevention and rehabilitation. When faced with a difficult or stressful situation use of the ABCDE Method can help you understand the relationship between negative life events and the thoughts and feelings that arise from them. This method helps challenge any negative beliefs you may have leaving you energised. 

Chill-Out Like a Pro: Learning to relax properly is a real skill that takes time to develop. Different relaxation techniques suit different people and you can find what works best for you using by “checking-in” on your mood regularly. Meditation, mindfulness, reading, Centering, Progressive muscular relaxation, spending time with friends or family may all work. Experiment to find which works best for you. 

Go with the Flow: Having an approach that is geared towards mastering a task or process is much more likely to lead to success and satisfaction than a task that is focused on a bettering someone else. A task mastery approach is also more likely to help you get in the “flow state” or “zone” where you become fully immersed in what you are doing and stresses and strains fall away. 

Be Positive: There are a number of tools that can help your psychology become more “positive’ even if that is not your natural disposition. A gratitude journal filled out first thing in the morning listing three or four things that you are grateful for that day is a fantastic way to start the day. Throughout the day, performing small acts of kindness and generosity and engaging with other people by smiling and chatting is fantastic for maintaining positive feelings.