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You are here: Home / Archives for Mental Fitness

Mental Fitness

How Fishing Makes You A Better Person: Psychological Benefits of Fishing

October 9, 2019 by Joi Leave a Comment

by Mila Foster

There aren’t as many rewarding and thought-evoking sports as fishing is. Going out to the great outdoors, connecting with nature, having a relaxing and exciting time while at the same time reaping the benefits of your catch is what fishing is all about, and more. Fishing is a type of sport or hobby that allows you to be who you are, lets you wander in your thoughts and enables you to become a better person. If you are wondering how can all of that be true, read on to find out.

Fishing helps you combat stress and agitation

The fact that you are constantly outdoors has numerous psychological benefits. Just listening to nature around you, birds chirping, water splashing on your boat, and even indulging in the dead silence can help you push any stressed-provoking thoughts far from the mind. Fishing can not only help you fight off stress, but it can even enable you to feel more relieved, mindful and grateful. As you sit and wait for minutes, hours for your pray, you are psychologically learning how to be more patient, stress-free, and careless.

Fishing enables you to get more physically active

Amongst many other health benefits of fishing, staying in regular physical motion will help you stay fit and agile. Any type of physical exercise is extremely productive to our organism, and the moment you step outside your car, walk up and down the shoreline, carry your fishing rods and other gear, and even while riveting and casting for hours can help you burn up to 200 calories per hour. These repetitive moments as you have to cast your line into position, retrieve and cast again, trigger adequate muscle movement which is also quite beneficial.

Fishing triggers positive emotions

There are many more reasons that can trigger a keen fisherman to go fishing. Sometimes it is just the will to catch a nice trout and serve it to your guests, in most cases it is the sheer will of doing something productive and psychologically effective. Believe it or not, but when done with a family member, or a buddy or two, fishing can also help you uplift your spirit and boost up your mood no matter how run down or apprehensive you might have been feeling. When you are outside, in a serene atmosphere, surrounded with captivating nature and a peaceful environment, your serotonin level arises and you start feeling more content and ready to take up any challenges.

Fishing helps you sharpen up

Probably you have never wondered that going fishing can help you with your memory problems. Well, one of the most effective ways to keep your mental health in order, improve your memory and brain function is to go fishing. Simply being in a tranquil setting, surrounded by your thoughts, having the time to think about important life’s decisions can stimulate faster brain activities. Therefore, if you wish to fight off memory loss, or any other cognitive declines, you should take up fishing.

Fishing can prolong your life

Going fishing outdoors during daylight increases your vitamin D intake. As you are regularly exposed to the sun, you will also feel more joyous, your mood will be uplifted, plus you will never feel depresses. Not only that but preparing and eating your prized catch can help you intake healthy an nutritious protein. Eating fish on a regular basis can help you live longer since it is rich in omega-3 fatty acids, low-fat protein, and other healthy properties that are vital for the organism. Even if many recreational anglers release their catch, if you were to eat some of them, you can decrease your blood pressure, reduce irregular heartbeats, and even lower the risk of stroke.

All in all, fishing is definitely more than just a sport or a pastime. It is a way of love. And by reading all of these benefits, you will realize that fishing can really make you become a better person.

Filed Under: Articles by Various Authors, General, Health, Mental Fitness

An Integrated Approach to Treating Anxiety

October 4, 2019 by Joi Leave a Comment

Dealing with Anxiety

Anxiety is a condition that humanity has struggled with for time untold, and in the modern era, the world has become more aware of it than ever. The everyday stresses of life constantly push employees, students, and people of nearly every occupation and lifestyle into fretting, anxious patterns of thought. And the effects go further than that.

In fact, anxiety has been connected to many different symptoms and health concerns. For instance, while it is clearly related to temporary spikes in blood pressure, the effects of those increases have actually been shown to be as damaging as long-term hypertension, creating the same effect in a fraction of the time. In other words, while anxiety may not directly lead to hypertension, its effects in the short-term are just as harmful to your body. In addition, anxiety has also been shown to be a direct consequence of and emotional reaction to chronic pain, a condition leads tens of millions of Americans to find ways to deal with pain, and many people in the disability community are quite familiar with these approaches.

And yet, anxiety is far too often treated as a secondary illness of little concern or consequence. It’s seen as an issue that can be solved with a simple pep talk or encouragement to “calm down.” As is so often the case in life, though, the best solution for anxiety comes not from one specific panacea, but from a collection of integrated activities and options that work together towards one united solution.

If you struggle to cope with stress, here are a few different ways that you can attempt to address those anxious thoughts, behaviors, and your overall health in order to manage stress.

Understanding Your Mind

While things like anxiety medication and exercise often come to mind when addressing acute mental illnesses like anxiety and depression, the truth is, the process begins in your mind. Facing your anxiety “on its own turf” so to speak, is an excellent way to quickly get to the bottom of what has you so stressed out.

Cognitive behavioral therapy has long been used as an effective tool to diagnose and manage stress and anxiety. Identify warped patterns of thinking that most anxious people — no matter their circumstances, culture, background, or limitations — slip into in one way or another. Things like mental filters, all-or-nothing thinking, and jumping to conclusions all factor into an anxious mindset, and the simple act of being aware of them can help you begin to regain control over your thoughts.

In addition to cognitive behavioral therapy, it can be incredibly helpful to take the time to meditate each day. The simple act of slowing yourself down and calming your mind in order to focus on what truly matters can do wonders to increase relaxation, decrease muscle tension, and reduce those anxious thoughts.

Living a Healthy Lifestyle

Along with taking care of your mental health, it’s critical that an anxious person takes the time to care for their physical body. Regular exercise is an obvious solution. Even though it can be challenging to work up the motivation to find new methods to exercise, there are many different yet effective options the disability community has explored in order to get some reps in throughout the day. From seated tricep dips to water aerobics and even, if you’re the competitive type, wheelchair sports, there are plenty of opportunities to get your heart rate up.

While physical exercise is key, it’s just as important that you also take the time to regulate your diet in order to keep yourself healthy. Food is typically seen as fuel, but it’s actually much more than that. When properly used, food can serve as medicine in and of itself. For instance, zinc-rich foods like cashews, beef, egg yolks, fatty fish (with Omega-3 fatty acid), kefir, and even pickles have been linked to reduced levels of anxiety. You can also avoid things like processed meat and bleached flours in order to reduce chronic pain — and often, by extension, anxiety symptoms as well.

In summary, how you exercise and what you eat can factor heavily into how you treat your anxiety.

Natural Remedies

Along with a healthy diet and exercise, it’s important to be aware of the many natural remedies for anxiety that don’t necessarily require prescription medicine. Passionflower supplements, for instance, have long been seen as an ancient yet excellent natural anxiety solution. The same goes for other herbal supplements like lavender and chamomile.

Another trending solution is CBD oil. Humans’ endocannabinoid systems have been directly connected to regulating emotions and can affect both anxiety and depression. Evidence is mounting to support the fact that taking CBD oil can have a direct impact on the struggle against anxiety.

Seek Professional Advice

Not all doctors are equal. However, many modern medical professionals are well aware of the power of an integrated approach to dealing with anxiety. Therefore, it can be worth taking the time to seek out professional help in order to make sure you’re taking every possible step towards both the healing of current symptoms as well as future prevention.

As you do so, though, make sure you inquire about their knowledge of mental health in order to vet their methods and beliefs when it comes to using a holistic approach. Roughly 77 million Americans still live in areas with a shortage of mental health professionals, and you want to make sure that you find a doctor or nurse practitioner who is both informed and willing to work with you.

A Holistic Solution for Mental Health

As a quick review, some of the best ways to deal with anxiety in a holistic manner include:

  • Implementing cognitive behavioral therapy.
  • Practicing meditation and mindfulness.
  • Eating a healthy diet.
  • Getting exercise regularly.
  • Using natural remedies like herbal supplements or CBD oil.
  • Seeking informed professional advice.

When approached from multiple angles like this, it’s much easier to diagnose, address, and reduce the numerous physical and mental symptoms of anxiety. This, in turn, helps to restore a sense of peace and tranquility to your thoughts, no matter what stressful situations you may find yourself confronted with.

Filed Under: Health, Mental Fitness, Problem Solving, Stress Management Tagged With: axniety, battling anxiety naturally

The Importance of Sleep for Your Mental Health

September 26, 2019 by Joi Leave a Comment

Tulip and Huck

by Brooke Faulkner

Sleep. It’s not just a morning love affair with your warm cozy bed, it’s essential to your survival. It is as important as eating, breathing, and keeping an adequate water intake. Slumber is a way to refresh your eyes and your body while the brain restores itself. It helps your mind clear out the unnecessary “clutter” that accumulates within it throughout the day. Sleep helps you in your waking life to make decisions, create and organize memories, make creative connections, and learn/remember how to perform specific physical tasks.

Despite the importance of sleep on our functioning, it is severely lacking. In the US, 70 million adults suffer from some type of sleep disorder. Insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and movement syndromes (commonly known as restless leg syndrome) are only a few of the most common 70 different types of known sleep disorders.

Over half of all insomnia cases in the United States directly correlate to psychological stress, anxiety, and depression. Chronic sleep problems affect 50 to 80 percent of patients seen in a psychiatric practice, compared to just 10 to 18 percent of the general U.S. population.

The point: those suffering with depression and anxiety are more prone to sleep disorders, and those with sleep disorders are more prone to suffer from anxiety and depression.

Cause or Effect?
For many years, sleep problems were thought to be a symptom of mental problems, but new studies suggest that the opposite may be true. New or worsening mental health conditions may actually stem directly from a lack of sleep.

A lack of sleep can cause a decrease in alertness and diligence along with a general decline in mood and energy. Sleep issues such as insomnia have more than just drowsy effects on your brain. They have negative effect on other parts of the body like the central nervous system, the immune system, the digestive system, and the respiratory tract.

Whether a lack of sleep is causing an increase in mental illness issues, or the mental illness issues are causing a lack of sleep, both exacerbate one another, and trying to pinpoint which came first will really only keep us going in circles. So instead of searching for the answer to which came first, let’s focus on what is easily within reach. Sleep; let’s get some.

Focus on these to improve sleep:

Sleep Hygiene: This involves creating a series of different habits that are necessary to have a restful slumbrous sleep.

  • Make sure you are spending an appropriate amount of time asleep.
  • Limit daytime naps to 30 minutes or less.
  • Avoid caffeine and other stimulants like nicotine before bedtime.

Live Stressless:

  • Try quieting the mind with meditation.
  • Use essential oils.
  • Try an at home yoga class.

Feng Shui your bedroom:

  • Keep technology out of the bedroom.
  • Find a comfortable temperature for sleeping.
  • Create a mindset before bed that you will help you have a successful night’s sleep.

Mental health issues can go far deeper than a sleep problem and often need specific treatments on their own to be resolved or relieved. But correcting one pillar of health, one habit that directly affects mental stability, can help make overall treatment more effective. At the end of the day, it may not be the end-all-be-all but treating a sleep problem can help to alleviate the mental health issues an individual is suffering from. By addressing what is within your control, and acknowledging the status of your own mental health, you can help yourself contribute to an effective treatment.


Filed Under: Improve Your Sleep, Mental Fitness Tagged With: benefits of sleep, importance of a good night's sleep, mental fitness

Learning How to Relax May Be the Best Gift You Can Give Yourself

September 24, 2019 by Joi Leave a Comment

Quote About Relaxation

They say that the weather is something everyone talks about, yet nobody does anything about it. If you ask me, relaxation is right up there with the weather. Seems like everyone wants to relax more but few…very few actually.. take steps to make it happen.

I’m as guilty as anyone! In fact, my own frustrating behavior is the inspiration for this post. Earlier, I felt a little stressed out and a lot tired. I work from home which means a couple of things..

  1. I still know what stress is. Just because you work from the happy confines of your own home doesn’t mean you and stress are strangers. Somehow, when you work from home, people think you are immune to stress and can relax anytime you want. Those who aren’t employed are considered to be as stress-free as a house cat! When I was raising my three daughters and teaching them in our home school, I got the impression that everyone thought I had the life of a pampered cat – lying around all day, only moving when absolutely necessary. Ha!
  2.  I do have the luxury of pacing myself. This one is a huge luxury for those of us who spend our days at home. If we need to simply sit and read a book for 30 minutes, we almost always can do so.

Earlier, because of a few things online that were fighting me with all they had and because of having to take more allergy medicine than usual lately, I felt like I was about to come unwound. So I grabbed an Agatha Christie book and, wisely, decided to sit in my favorite chair and read a few chapters.

I wasn’t even through one before my restlessness got the better of me and I was back at the computer fighting everything that had it in for me today. This did not make me valiant. This did not make me a warrior princess. This did not make me a fighter.

It made me ridiculous.

A real fighter or warrior would have done exactly what they needed to do to refuel – in order to come back stronger and better than ever. They would have taken the time to restore their mind, body, and soul.When it comes to getting in my own way, I’m so good at it I could go pro. Maybe you can relate.

The thing that got me UP from the chair and squarely IN my own way was one single thought, “I have so many things to do!”

We are becoming more and more programmed to believe that we have to be productive every waking hour. This mindset isn’t doing our minds or bodies one ounce of good – in fact, the mindset is responsible for so many ills, I honestly couldn’t even begin to name them all.

Sometimes, the smartest thing to DO is to DO nothing. As Mark Black says, “Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.”

The next time you feel stressed, anxious, wired, or just plain gassed, find a comfortable chair and just RELAX. Put down your phone and put your thoughts at arm’s length. Give yourself at least 20 minutes to simply sit and relax. Read a great book, pet your cat, drink some tea… or, as I’m 5 minutes away from… do all three!

~ Joi (“Joy”)

Filed Under: General, Mental Fitness Tagged With: how to relax, relax, relaxation

Foods to Help Reduce Anxiety: So Many Problems Start in the Gut!

June 30, 2019 by Joi Leave a Comment

A number of years ago, my oldest daughter and I both had to give up wheat and gluten entirely, for health reasons. In addition to cutting out certain foods, we also added a great number of healthy foods to our diets. Partly because we needed food to replace all the food we’d now be missing out on, but mostly because when you feel terrible, it serves as a wake up call. Life is a beautiful, beautiful thing and we want to feel our best while enjoying it. For our bodies to perform their best, we have to stop giving them junk and give them good food. Healthy food.

While I wasn’t terribly surprised when the digestive problems cleared up, I was surprised by a few other improvements (more energy, more “give-a-darn,” etc.) Many people, after adopting healthier eating (which, obviously, doesn’t always include having to give up wheat or gluten), rave and rave about the “unexpected” benefits. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read and heard testimonies such as, “Sure, the lost weight is nice, but the best thing is I FEEL better than I have in years. I have my life back!”

Come on, it doesn’t get any better than that.

More and more experts have figured out something that has gone unnoticed for years – there is a direct correlation between what we eat and not only how healthy we are but also HOW WE FEEL. Our emotions, anxieties, moods… they’re all as tied into what we eat as our waistlines.

The gorgeous infographic, below, from Snap Kitchen, tells how different (delicious!) foods can actually help with anxiety. Most people who live with anxiety look for healthy, easy, natural ways to deal and cope. It’s hard to get much healthier, easier, or natural than food. If you’re all too familiar with anxiety, try adding the following foods to your diet.

You may find more benefits than you ever hoped for!

Click for a larger version of the infographic…

Foods to Reduce Anxiety Infographic

Infographic Source: Snap Kitchen


Filed Under: Infographics, Mental Fitness, Stress Management Tagged With: anxiety, foods to help anxiety, foods to reduce anxiety

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