May is Mental Health Month, a month to recognize the importance mental health plays in all of our lives. According to NAMI, “1 in 5 Americans will be affected by a mental health condition in their lifetime and every American is affected or impacted through their friends and family.”
From an integrative health perspective, our emotional and mental health is an important component of our overall health and wellbeing. How well we feel mentally or emotionally influences our physical health just as our physical health affects how we feel. We all know this intuitively. Think of the last time you had a bad cold. It affected your mood. Likely you were grumpier and maybe even felt a little blue. Most everyone has also experienced making it through a stressful period in life and, not surprisingly, developed a cold afterwards. Many chronic physical health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease and more are associated with leading mental health problems such as depression or anxiety.
Over 2000 years ago Plato warned “you ought not to heal the body without the soul, for this is the great error of our day in treating the human body.” A foundational figure for both philosophy and science, Plato spoke of the importance of not neglecting the soul or the mind in treating the whole person. Yet, somehow over the centuries we began to separate the two. Recently, the medical field has started to remember that how we feel and what we think impacts our physical health just as much as our physical health influences how we feel. Integrative healthcare brings body, mind, and spirit back together as an interconnected map of how we live.
This month, honor your mental health by incorporating mind body practices into your life.
- Pay attention to how you feel both from the neck up and neck down. Try a body scan which will also soothe the nervous system.
- Drop in on a yoga class. Yoga supports both your physical and mental health by improving mood, flexibility, heart health and decreasing stress.
- If you are struggling with anxiety or depression consider meeting an integrative therapist to learn how both therapy and medical interventions can help.
- Worried your physical health is being impacted by your mood? Consider an integrative health consult, which is a whole health check-up for YOU.
- Feeling stuck? Integrative health coaching can help you organize and prioritize your goals with compassion.
Mental Health month is not just about your emotional wellbeing, but about your whole health.
Namaste,
Julie |
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