How to Support Your Mental Wellbeing
Neurofeedback is an effective way to calm and stabilize the brain.
Mental wellbeing is one of the most important areas of health and wellbeing. If our mental wellbeing is out of balance, it is nearly impossible to feel fully healthy.
To comprehend the impact our mental health has on our overall health, we must understand the components of mental wellness. How do we break this down?
The three concepts that we feel are key to mental wellbeing are: regulation, flexibility, and the bodymind. Let’s dive into these a bit further for more clarity.
Regulation speaks to the balance of the signals sent between the brain cells, which drive how our minds work. Diagnoses such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, and PTSD, are all examples of dysregulation within the mind. According to renowned neurobiologist Dr. Daniel Siegel, a well-regulated mind is flexible, adaptable, cohesive, energized, and stable. Our goal is one of self-regulation, where the mind doesn’t need external support like medications, supplements, or other therapies to feel regulated. Yet, at times, these external supports can be helpful, if not essential, when working towards independent self-regulation within the individual and societal stresses in our lives today. Ideally, these things are temporary assistance, until we can train our brain to self-regulate on its own.
Flexibility in the brain refers to neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity acknowledges the brain as a dynamic organ, one that is flexible and adaptable. It speaks to the brain’s ability to repair damaged mental pathways and create new, healthy pathways that encourage balance in our mental functions. Simply put, we can change the way our brains and mind work.
Bodymind is the concept that the body and the mind work as an integrated system. It is the idea that physical movements, activities, and touch integrate seamlessly into the health of the mind. We see examples of this through things like art therapy, somatic bodywork and movements, and dance therapy, to name a few.
Fostering healthy regulation, flexibility in the mind, and bodymind health, is important in today’s accelerated culture. We are regularly bombarded with distractions and input that pull us out of a balanced mental state. Every little step we take towards supporting balance is cumulative, positive, and worth the effort.
Action Steps:
At home:
o Move your body: go for a walk, dance, ride a bike, yoga-- anything that gets your body moving. Movement helps regulate the brain, helps stimulate flexibility and muscle growth, supports memory, and prevents dementia and Alzheimer’s.
o Get creative: tapping into creativity helps support a balanced mind. What gets your creative mind rolling? Things like art, acting, writing, building, designing, and imaginative play are all fair game!
With a practitioner:
o Neurofeedback: the focus of neurofeedback is to help the brain learn to be calm and stable, by supporting the brain’s ability to self-regulate. This learning process is neuroplasticity in action. Neurofeedback is one of our favorite therapies for mental wellbeing.
o Biofeedback: like neurofeedback, biofeedback also works as a training system for the brain. It focuses more on biological practices (like breath work) that you can do in your day-to-day life that help empower you to calm and stabilize your nervous system when it feels dysregulated.
o Naturopathic care: assess the need for therapeutic nutrients or medication to aid in regulating your brain. It’s wonderful that we have so many tools to help with brain regulation. A perk to working with a naturopathic doctor is that we can assess if your body may be missing key nutrients for neurotransmitter production, or if medication is necessary to get you to the next step.
Resources:
Books
o “Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory,” by Deb Dana
o “The Matter with Things,” by Iain McGilchrist
o “The Anxious Generation,” by Jonathan Haidt
o “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Bessel van der Kolk
o “Stolen Focus,” by Johann Hari
o “A Symphony in the Brain,” by Jim Robbins
o “Back in Control, A Spine Surgeon’s Roadmap of Chronic Pain,” by David Hanscom
o "The Emotional Life of Your Brain: How its Unique Patterns Affect the Way You Think, Feel, and Live—and How You Can Change Them,” by Richard Davidson and Sharon Begley
Podcasts for Mental Balance
o Mental: interviews with guests who share various aspects of mental health to help destigmatize some of our mental health conditions and experiences.
o Feel Better, Live More: stories from health experts who offer easy health-life hacks, debunk, health myths, give tools to change how you eat, sleep, move, and relax.
o Where is my Mind: a podcast about how we can better look after our heads and hearts in the modern world.
o Not Another Anxiety Show: a podcast about moving through anxiety as an inside out transition.
o Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman: discusses how our brain interprets the world and what that means for us.
o Huberman Lab: Andrew Huberman, professor of neurobiology at Stanford talks about science-based tools for everyday life.
o The Science of Happiness: this podcast explores a variety of evidence-based topics about how to live a happier, more fulfilled life.
o The Happiness Lab: a show with relevant scientific research on happiness and inspiring stories that help us think a bit differently about “happiness” and how we relate to it in our own lives.
Apps
o Headspace
o Dare
o Ten Percent Happier
o DOC Journey
