Mind-body techniques for managing depression -
A medical approach to mind-body integration is most concerned with treating patients shallowly, and to avoid treating symptoms without considering holistic solutions.
Aside from the strictly medical approaches, there are also neurologically-based models of mind-body integration. For example, Taylor et al. The models of various studies all indicate a bidirectional effect driven by both top-down and bottom-up factors. In this case, top-down mechanisms are defined as those which initiate in mental processes in the cerebral cortex, and bottom-up mechanisms are those which begin with sensory receptors.
One study focused on where people experience different emotions in the body. Participants in the study were from both Western European countries Finland and Sweden and well as East Asian countries Taiwan. Despite the cultural differences, the researchers found remarkable similarities in how participants responded.
Similarly, sensations in the head area were shared across all emotions, reflecting probably both physiological changes in the facial area […] as well as the felt changes in the contents of mind triggered by the emotional events.
The pictures below represent the body maps for the six basic emotions. Yellow indicates the highest level of activity, followed by red. Black is neutral, while blue and light blue indicate lowered and very low activity, respectively. You can find the original blog post here.
Each emotion we experience has a different representation in the body. Happiness is the one emotion that fills the whole body with activity. This might indicate a sense of physical readiness that comes with a happy state, and heightened communication between the body and the brain.
We usually feel secure when we are happy, so in this state, we can devote all of our attention to experiencing ourselves as a part of a pleasure-rich world around us. This is another standout emotion that fills the body with activation, stopping just short of the legs. Love is often intertwined with physical desire, so it unsurprisingly activates sensation in the reproductive organs more strongly than happiness does.
The emotional focus of love is both the object of affection and the intensity of emotions in the subjective self; thus, activation is intense around the head and chest but more difficult to notice in the lower extremities. This emotion floods the head and chest areas with a very intense sensation.
This pattern of activation corresponds to a focus on the self, with resources and awareness drawn inwards and away from the extremities. Although surprise follows a similar pattern, the strength of the activation is much less pronounced, as resources draw inwards to prepare the body to face danger.
Because surprise can be positive, negative, or neutral, the body experiences it in a way that reflects uncertainty about the triggering event. Anger stands alone as the negative emotion with the most intense activation, particularly in the head, chest, and hands.
The angry body prepares itself for conflict by focusing attention and resources on the parts of the body that might have to act.
When we picture anger or a time when we felt enraged, many people describe an overwhelming desire to hit something. This aligns with the image scan where sensation floods to our hands. Evolutionarily, fear required immediate thought: do I decide to run away from this predator, or fight to the death?
In modern terms, do I feel that I can stand my ground with this frightening dog, or should I flee? Thus, it makes sense that we experience fear with a rush of sensation to the head.
Disgust pulls the resources of the body even more tightly into the core of the body. This emotion causes the body to prepare to expel any noxious substances it has ingested, hence the focus of activation along the digestive tract.
When we experience disgust towards other humans, perhaps we feel a concentration of sensation in our vital organs, as a natural protective response to repulsion.
Although shame and contempt have similar patterns of activation, contempt stimulates less activation in the chest. This may be because the focus of contempt is outside of the self and the judgment of others. Shame, on the other hand, focuses on a sense of personal failure and judgment of yourself for causing this to happen.
The depression of activity in the extremities is very pronounced in shame. Perhaps this is because the body withdraws resources into itself in a fight-or-flight response. Anxiety is a form of long-term, low-grade stress. It activates the chest intensely and can lead to a sense of doom or dread, as experienced by panic attacks.
People who experience panic attacks frequently report tightness and pain in the chest, and an inability to think beyond the pressing fear of the moment. These feelings might correspond to the strain the heart and lungs feel as they struggle to deliver oxygen to a body under conditions of extended fear.
This has the most noticeable map of our negative emotions. It stimulates no activation in any part of the body and lowers activation in the extremities. In a state of depression, it is difficult to connect with the active self and the outside world. Sadness does not suppress feeling in the head and chest and often contributes to a general lack of agency or activity.
Because emotions manifest in the body as physical sensations, it follows that physical sensations can produce corresponding emotions. Molecular neuroscientist Lauri Nummenmaa explains this below:.
This way they prepare us to react swiftly to the dangers, but also to the opportunities […] Awareness of the corresponding bodily changes may subsequently trigger the conscious emotional sensations, such as the feeling of happiness. For example, it is likely that the warmth of a blanket wrapped around your shoulders on a cold day, translates from a physical sensation of heat to an emotional feeling of happiness and security.
The connection between our minds and our bodies is something we instinctively feel, but how much attention do we pay to your bodily sensations each moment?
To understand our own emotional lives and those of the people around us, we need a deeper awareness, achieved through the practice of mindfulness and the development of body intelligence. Take a moment to acknowledge how you physically feel right now, as well as your next emotional flood of joy, sorrow, and calm.
Over time, this can help you feel more in touch with these aspects of existing, and providing you with a rich understanding of your whole mind and body connection.
Body intelligence is a psychological method that highlights the importance of recognizing body sensations as a way to improve our health. The first step is to recognize the internal cues and sensations that your body tells you. Download 3 Free Positive Psychology Exercises PDF Enhance wellbeing with these free, science-based exercises that draw on the latest insights from positive psychology.
As an integral part of the human machine, it communicates what it needs in order to survive and cope with stressors—we just need to actively listen.
When we are confronted with difficult emotions, maladaptive ways like self-medicating or practicing denial, are frequent ways people cope with undesirable feelings.
What if, instead, we leaned into these unpleasant feelings as messages from our bodies to our brains? Although relieving at the moment, a maladaptive coping mechanism can be detrimental to health. Body intelligence offers tools to strengthen the mind-body link and work towards positive wellbeing.
Body intelligence cannot remove illness, but it can attune you to what your body is feeling. It can alleviate certain symptoms of stress such as chest pain, headaches, heart rate variability, and others.
What to know more about the details of body intelligence? Take a listen to this podcast from Live Happy. It explains the details and benefits of listening to the physical sensations of our body. The clip below provides an example of the tools that can help us become attuned with our body, and how to relieve stress in holistic ways.
Duperly et al. Students with a positive attitude accepted preventive counseling better before stress or disorders became all-consuming. This example of disease prevention is a key example of how attitude shapes other aspects of life and impacts health.
So how do we influence this unconscious dynamic between our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations? Below is a comprehensive list of techniques that help to build body intelligence, tune our attention, and increase body awareness for greater physical and mental health.
The body-mind integration field includes a number of disciplines and approaches. Here is the main goal of this technique:. Mindfulness is a powerful tool in the treatment of mental health disorders, stress-related conditions, cancer, and cardiovascular conditions.
People who are prone to depression, anxiety and stress-related conditions, often engage in overthinking and rumination. They also struggle with disconnecting from their thoughts and worries, which can drive someone into exhaustion. Mindfulness is vital for people struggling, as a way to direct attention on the present experience.
Fazekas, Leitner, and Pieringer cite the importance of accurate detection of emotions as a way to practice effective self-regulation.
The body calms down when the mind recognizes what it is feeling Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is another example of mindfulness-based therapies. It is a structured course which offers its participants a new lease on life, health, and wellbeing.
Essentially, mindfulness redirects attention to the external environment so we can escape the unwinding of our neural and negative thought loops, or pain and discomfort. By disrupting past patterns of thought, these approaches slow the heart rate and calm the breath, which continues to relax the body and then flood the body with more pleasant neurotransmitters.
This, in turn, creates a positive feedback loop. This TEDtalk by translational neuroscientist Catherine Kerr is a great introduction to mindfulness. She explains how focusing on our toes can help reduce negative thoughts.
As Kerr explains, mindfulness starts with the body and noticing the details of what sensations we feel, say, starting with our toes. Our sensory attentional system is one gateway to a richer mind-body connection—and the health of an attuned human.
In traditional meditation, the main focal point for attention training is on the inhalation and exhalation of air through the nose. Research into the breath confirms that by being attuned to your breathing, and paying attention to it, naturally slows your breathing. Below is one example of the meditation resources available.
It is a traditional meditation practice which focuses on training the attention on the breath. Even 3-minutes of meditation can ease a stressed brain. Maybe before eating dinner, or upon waking up, there is time for you to reset your brain.
There are times to be alert and stressed. A lot of the time, however, we do not need the hyper-alert sensation of stress. How do we help ourselves relax? There are many ways. Progressive Muscle Relaxation PMR is one example of relaxation therapy which is known to build body intelligence. PMR teaches us to systematically tense and then release muscles, working on one muscle group at a time.
This process results in reduced physical stress and tension by increasing our focus on the body. A pioneering technique for building body intelligence is biofeedback. This is the use of scientific and physiological monitoring of the body to effectuate awareness of body states with electrodes.
Bibliometrix is designed to assist researchers in conducting automated science mapping It supports a recommended workflow to perform bibliometric analyses As Bibliometrix is programmed within R environment, it is highly flexible and can be rapidly upgraded and integrated with other R packages to support statistical operations 45 , VOSviewer is a literature knowledge visualization software for constructing bibliometric networks In the VOSviewer output, different nodes represent different elements such as countries, regions, institutions, authors, or terms.
The links between nodes represent associations, such as co-authorship, co-citation or co-occurrence, and weighted by total link strength The distance between the nodes reflects the degree of relatedness of the nodes The importance of a node in the network was quantitatively determined by its total link strength with other nodes The weight acquired by each node, shown by the number of publications or citations, determines the size of the node in the output CiteSpace is another bibliometric software and is designed for progressive knowledge domain identification of critical points in the development of a specific field, particularly intellectual turning points and pivotal points 49 , Therefore, we used CiteSpace, in the current study, to make up for the gaps of VOSviewer.
We identified 1, records from the database and finally included 1, eligible papers Figure 1. The total Nc of the retrieved papers was 46,, and the average Nc per paper was As revealed in Figure 2 , though there was a slight fluctuation in the number of publications regarding managing depression with CAM, it showed an overall annual upward tendency over the past three decades.
Among the 1, papers included, the first paper was published in Up to , the number of annual publications did not exceed From onward, the number of annual publications has shown an overall rapid upward trend year by year, suggesting that the research topic began to enter a period of rapid development.
Research outputs peaked in , with the number of annual publications at Figure 2. Global trends of annul publications regarding managing depression with CAM from to Notably, the USA was at the center of research in this field with relatively close collaborations with Australia, China and Canada.
Germany and Switzerland also consistently worked together on research related to CAM management for depression. However, numbers of collaborative research outputs between countries are much less than that of independent research outputs in their own countries Figure 3C.
Figure 3. A World map displaying the global distribution of current research theme. Different countries are indicated by different colors based on the number of papers published.
The thickness of the line reflects the frequency of the cooperation; the thicker the line, the closer the cooperation. C The total number of publications counts and average citation per item of the top 10 most productive countries that contributed research within the current focused field.
SCP, single country publications; MCP, multiple country publications. Amongst these 10 countries, the countries with the most research cooperation with other countries were, in order, the USA, China and Australia.
Italy, although lower than other countries in number of publications, was higher than Iran, South Korea and Brazil in the closeness of research cooperation with other countries Figure 3C ; Appendix 4. Although there were less papers published in Brazil than in Iran and South Korea, the total citations for papers published in Brazil was much higher than citations for papers published in the other two countries Appendix 4.
Totally 2, distinct affiliations were involved in the publication of current research theme. Among them, institutions published papers as the corresponding author affiliation.
In these institutions, 11 institutions published a minimum of 10 papers. Evidently, these institutions play a crucial role in expanding national influence.
Harvard University USA was found to be the most productive institution with 21 papers, followed by the University of Duisburg-Essen Germany and the Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine China each with 18 papers.
On average, papers from Harvard University USA were cited Figure 4. Contribution of institutions on research regarding managing depression with CAM.
A The total number of publications counts and average citation per item of institutions that contributed a minimum of 10 papers in the current research field. B Mapping of the co-authorship analysis among top most productive institutions in the current research field.
Each node represents an institution, and the node size indicates the number of publications. The connection between the nodes represents a co-authorship relationship, and the thickness of the lines indicates strength weights on the total link strength.
In addition, links were found among the top most productive institutions in the co-author analysis network Figure 4B. A total of 7, authors contributed to the research regarding CAM therapies for depression, and 11 authors published at least 10 papers.
The top ten most productive authors were listed in Table 1. They published publications, accounting for 8. Jon Adams from University of Technology Sydney Australia was the most productive and impactful author in this field with 21 papers published, followed by Holger Crame 19 papers from University of Tuebingen Germany and Edzard Ernst 16 papers from University of Exeter UK.
Furthermore, among the top 10 authors, Edzard Ernst was also the first scholar to publish a paper in the research field. We notice that the top 10 authors were mainly from the USA, Australia and Germany.
It suggests that there are more excellent researchers focusing on CAM management of depression in these three countries. Active collaborations usually exist in the same cluster, such as Rainer Luedtke and Gustav J Dobos. There were also collaborations among linked two nodes in different clusters, such as Rainer Luedtke and Claudia M Witt.
Figure 5. Mapping of the co-authorship analysis among the authors who published at least three papers on research regarding managing depression with CAM. Collectively, academic journals published articles on research regarding CAM therapies for depression. The top 10 most productive journals published papers on this theme, accounting for Half of the top 10 active journals were in the CAM field, and the remaining journals were comprehensive medical journals, or journals in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, or oncology.
According to the JCR standards, most of these productive journals ranged from Q3 to Q1. We note that Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine JCR Q3 and IF : 2.
Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine has been publishing papers regarding CAM therapies for depression since and continues to do so today. The peak in the number of articles published on this topic, in this journal, occurred in After that, it has lost its numerical dominance in publishing papers on this topic to two comprehensive medical journals, i.
Although Supportive Care in Cancer and Integrative Cancer Therapies are not journals in CAM field, they published papers related to the current research topic from and , respectively Figure 6A.
Figure 6. Contribution of journals in the research field of managing depression with CAM. A Growth trends in the publication quantity of the top 10 productive journals in the current research theme from to B Dual-map overlay of the journals on the current research theme.
The labels represent different research subjects covered by the journals. The citing journals are on the left side, while the other side of the map represents the cited journals.
Different colored lines correspond to the different paths of references, beginning with the citing map and ending at the cited map. The main citing and cited journals are shown in the red box. Figure 6B is a dual-map overlay, showing the co-occurrence network regarding CAM therapies for depression.
Overall, there were five major citation paths on the current map. The citing matrices of journals were mainly in two fields: 1 medicine, medical, and clinical, and 2 psychology, education, and health, whereas the most cited publications originated from the journals in the field of 1 health, nursing, and medicine, 2 psychology, education, and social, and 3 molecular biology and genetics.
To trace the developing trends and hot topics in the research field of CAM therapies for depression, we performed a keyword co-occurrence analysis using VOSviewer. A total of 2, keywords in the 1, publications were identified.
Among them, keywords with frequency higher than five were included in the co-occurrence network and majorly divided into six clusters Figure 7A. The keywords clustered in the red region included the main terms associated with CAM treatments.
Keywords clustered in the green region mainly described the topic of depression and anxiety. The keywords clustered in the yellow and purple regions displayed some common CAM therapies used for depression, such as acupuncture, yoga, and meditation.
The keywords clustered in the blue region were mainly associated with cancer and quality of life, implying that many studies might have focused on the use of CAM in cancer patients with depression symptoms. The keywords clustered in the green region focused on etiology and mechanisms.
Figure 7. Mapping of keywords in the research field regarding managing depression with CAM. A Keyword co-occurrence analysis on the current research theme. B Keyword time zone on the current research theme over the years. To understand the evolution of new hotspots, we further analyzed the 20 most frequent keywords using the keywordGrowth function in R.
As shown in the keyword time zone view, systematic review and meta-analysis have been two popular research methods in the last decade. Among CAM modalities, acupuncture and yoga appeared to have received the most attention.
In addition, cancer, especially breast cancer, has been a high-frequency keyword with respect to the current research topic Figure 7B. However, inflammation, rating scale, psychological stress, and mindfulness were the most studied trend topics recently and might become the future research hotspots.
The relevant publications in general show a rapid year-on-year increase trend, showing this research theme is gaining attention worldwide. The USA, China, and Australia were the main research powers in the current research field. This may be due to the fact that more affiliations or excellent scholars in these countries are looking at the target research, thus expanding the national influence in the field.
Harvard University was the institution with the highest research strength and a strong citation burst, with published papers were cited Roger B. Davis from this institution was one of the most influential authors. Cross-team cooperation was insufficient. The studies on the management of depression using CAM involve multidisciplinary fields, including psychology, clinical science, nursing, sociology, education, and molecular biology.
In addition to being a stand-alone mental illness, when depression is viewed as a comorbidity in cancer patients, CAM treatments for this symptom have widely received attention. Of the various CAM modalities, researchers are most keen to study mind—body techniques and acupuncture, with the research focus gradually shifted from effects and safety assessment to investigation of mechanisms of actions.
In comparison with the previously published various types of reviews within the similar topic, our current scientometric analysis provides a more timely, visual, and unbiased approach to track the emerging trends and frontiers 25 , and outlines the intellectual structure of a knowledge domain regarding CAM use in the management of depression.
We are aware of a bibliometric analysis published in that investigated trends in CAM treatment for common mental disorders from to That article differs from our study in at least two areas.
First, that article did not focus on a specific mental disorder, as a result, there was limited findings about depression. Second, the bibliometric indicators reported in that article only included time trend, country and organizations contribution, co-authors and keywords Our current study had additional data of journal analysis and future research prediction based on characterizing the emerging topics.
Highly compatible with this result, one predicted promising research direction was clarifying the possible mechanisms underlying anti-depressive effects of CAM therapies in terms of modulation of psychological stress and neural inflammation Figure 8.
The quality of this study is further augmented by the diversified academic background of the researchers and our interactive multidisciplinary collaboration. The disciplinary backgrounds of the research team members span psychiatry, nursing, clinical psychology, CAM, public health as well as computer science and information technology, covering all aspects of the present research topic and methodologies adopted.
Few limitations should be acknowledged. First, nearly all information was extracted and analyzed by bibliometric software based on machine learning and natural language processing, which may lead to potential bias Second, due to the continuous updating of databases, the scientometric analysis results might fall behind the actual research status The continued growth in the number of publications implies that more researchers are becoming interested in managing depression with CAM.
The ICD code set, which was officially in effect in , first contains traditional medicine diagnoses, recognizing the value of traditional medicine in disease management and health promotion Member states of WHO are also encouraged to integrate such practices into their healthcare systems in addition to regulations and research Therefore, we predict that the increasing trend of publications on current research theme is likely to continue in the years to come.
Interestingly, according to results, the USA, rather than these countries that place a high value on CAM, was the most active and highly contributing country in the current research theme. Four institutions and three scholars of the USA were in the top 10 affiliations and authors in the research field Appendix 5 ; Table 1.
This is in line with the result derived from previously published bibliometric studies conducted in other research fields 48 , 56 , The National Center for CAM NCCAM experience in the USA has also demonstrated that when funds are available and priorities are set, CAM research will grow exponentially Although 7, scholars contributed to the current research theme, most of the cooperation between them is limited to the same country or same institution.
Such forms of collaboration with close internal connection but less external connection restricts the sharing of resources, ideas, and the exchange and discussion of individual perspectives among researchers To produce more high-quality outputs in the current research field, cross-team i.
We also noticed that the authors who were located at a central position of the cooperating clusters in the co-authorship analysis were majorly from the affiliations in the United States and Europe rather than Eastern countries where CAM is more prosperous.
This may be associated with the language barrier, which is considered part of the blocks of international collaboration It is gratifying that a few Korean and Chinese authors were actively involved in the cooperating clusters, and their significant academic share are hoped can encourage more researchers to devote themselves to this field.
Most of the papers regarding CAM treatment for depression were published in the CAM journals. After all, the scientific directions covered by these journals are more relevant to the current research topic, thus being more likely to encourage scholars to submit their works to these journals However, the IF of all these journals is below 4.
It has been suggested that CAM-related papers were rarely accepted by mainstream medical journals, particularly those with high IF. This is because many clinical trials and their resulting reports of CAM therapies were of poor methodological quality Part of the reason for the poor quality is that conducting CAM trial is complex and has its own unique challenges and difficulties.
Therefore, it may be biased to criticize CAM trials for methodological quality flaws using the methodology developed to appraise typical pharmaceutical drug trials.
Reputable research institutions such as U. National Institutes of Health have recognized this problem and have called for appropriate research paradigms to be designed for CAM trial to achieve high-quality evidence, despite increases in complexity and possibly cost associated with such designs Our scientometric analysis is consistent with the general trend that a small number of studies regarding managing depression with CAM have been published in the influential comprehensive medical journals or psychiatric periodicals, besides CAM periodicals.
Despite being challenging, we still suggest that outstanding and original discoveries should be considered to be submitted to mainstream medical journals to gain more discourse regarding managing depression with CAM in the orthodox medicine field.
Those periodicals with a high degree of popularity and impact can also facilitate CAM academics promote their ideals or opinion in the field of science, allowing them to discuss and exchange their ideas with mainstream medicine peers in order to improve their academic level and science ability In fact, many clinical practice guidelines regarding depression treatment compiled by the orthodox medical societies included CAM-related recommendations However, CAM therapy will only be recommended by guidelines if there is reliable evidence of its effectiveness and safety.
The development of clinical guidelines often relies heavily on systematic reviews to directly provide clear and reliable evidence Coincidentally, keyword time zone view identified that systematic review and meta-analysis were two popular research methods in the last decade Figure 7B.
Apparently, CAM researchers have also been aware of the need to critically review the existing evidence within the current research topic with evidence-based principles. In addition to being a stand-alone mental disorder, depression is a common comorbidity amongst cancer survivors.
Furthermore, this rate is increasing by an average of 0. Amongst breast cancer patients, the prevalence of depression was around Cluster analysis and burst disclosed the research hotspots and frontiers in the field of managing depression with CAM.
Many terms associated with tumor, such as oncology, integrative oncology, cancer, breast cancer chemotherapy, and supportive care were identified as the high-frequency keywords Figure 7A. Evidently, the use of CAM therapies to manage depression in cancer survivors has attracted the attention of researchers.
The journal analysis also supports the current findings. Capturing the growing research hotspots helps countries, scholars and policymakers better understand the field and make effective decisions Co-occurrence analysis revealed that yoga and acupuncture are two CAM modalities of wide interest to researchers in the management of depression Figure 7A.
A large number of systematic reviews and meta-analysis have been published concerning yoga treatment for depression. All these reviews indicated the positive benefits of yoga 65 — Geng et al.
compared the effects of several mind—body exercises on depression among breast cancer survivors another hotspot identified in this study using the network meta-analysis. They reported that yoga was more effective than Baduanjin, Pilates, dance, and Qigong There are also several systematic reviews and meta-analyses on acupuncture, indicating that acupuncture might have some benefits in ameliorating depression, either being used alone or being used in combination with conventional treatments 69 — Systematic reviews of both yoga and acupuncture, however, have emphasized that the positive results of yoga should be interpreted with caution due to the high risk of bias in current trials 65 — 67 , 69 — There is even a misconception that all RCTs require to be blinded and that interventions within an RCT cannot be individualized The fact remains, however, that CAM therapies are usually very individualistic in approach and cannot always be standardized as a treatment for large groups of individuals in the context of an RCT 72 , nor some therapies are possible to blind Hence, for promising CAM therapies, including yoga and acupuncture, it is recommended that their clinical value be determined through more appropriate research paradigms and evidence evaluation methods.
Single case designs, qualitative approaches, outcome assessment and clinical audit, and observational studies have been suggested, as alternative research methods, to be used in examining the effectiveness of CAM therapies In addition to the investigation on efficacy and safety, biomedical and medical imaging techniques are suggested to disclose the mechanisms underlying yoga and acupuncture.
Halappa et al. found that stress reduction, by way of inhibiting the overactivated HPA axis, was particularly relevant to the effect of yoga in alleviating depression Using functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI , it was found that the antidepressive effect of laser acupuncture involved modulation of the default mode network DMN , particularly the wider posterior DMN modulation of the parieto-temporal-limbic cortices Besides overviewing historical trends and current research status, scientometric analysis provides clues to future promising research directions Inflammation, psychological stress and mindfulness were identified as potential research priorities in the future Figure 8.
There is already strong evidence that inflammation plays a role in the pathophysiology of depression, i. Similarly, psychological stress is usually viewed as a trigger of depression onset Individuals who are vulnerable to depression tend to develop negative bias under mild psychological stress Effects of stress on the regulation of inflammatory and immune processes also have the potential to influence depression We therefore predict that future research may focus on the mechanisms of action underlying CAM therapies to ameliorate depression, i.
In fact, there have already been some studies in this field. A fMRI study with psychometric testing found that mindfulness might reduce vulnerability to depression by reducing automatic emotional responding via the insula as well as buffering against trait rumination and negative bias More evidence is with respect to the inflammation-mediated hypothesis.
Based on the chronic unpredictable stress rat model, Lu et al. proved that the antidepressant-like effect of acupuncture was mediated by inhibition of inflammatory mediators via modulation of NF-κB in the brain regions A clinical trial indicated that the yoga and meditation was related to significantly reduced depression symptoms, as well as decreased levels of IL-6 inflammatory cytokines and increased the activity of telomerase an enzyme responsible for the length of telomeres, implicated in chronic inflammation in patients with major depressive disorder In addition, a mindfulness meditation technique was found to reverse many physiological abnormalities due to cytokine- and stress-mediated depression Using CAM in the management of depression, as a stand-alone mental illness or a common complication in cancer survivors, has gained increasing attention over the past three decades, and especially since Mind—body techniques i.
In addition to appraising the efficacy and safety of CAM therapies, the promising research directions might concentrate on clarifying the possible mechanisms of action underlying CAM therapies in attenuating depression in terms of modulation of psychological stress and neural inflammation.
Although countries with mature CAM healthcare systems, such as China, South Korea, and Iran, are enthusiastic about the current research theme, the USA maintained the leading position in this research field published in English. F-YZ: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing — original draft, Funding acquisition, Investigation.
PX: Methodology, Software, Writing — original draft. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers.
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Background: Complementary depresxion Alternative Depdession CAM interventions may prove to Type diabetes cholesterol levels an rechniques option for Immunity-supporting herbs treatment managng depression. The aim of this scientometric analysis is to determine the global scientific output mxnaging research Manaying managing depression with CAM Water retention and swelling reduction identify the hotspots and frontiers within this theme. Methods: Publications regarding the utilization of CAM for treating depression were collected from the Web of Science Core Collection from toand analyzed and visualized by Bibliometrix R -package, VOSviewer, and CiteSpace. Results: A total of 1, publications were acquired. The number of annual publications showed an overall rapid upward trend, with the figure peaking at in The USA was the leading research center. Totally 2, distinct institutions involving 7, scholars contributed to the research theme.Meditation is often celebrated ddpression its positive effects manxging well-being. But can it play a Mind-vody in techniqued symptoms of depression? Although Mind-gody have Type diabetes cholesterol levels practicing meditation for thousands of years, it has recently gained more mainstream popularity as a Minx-body to eepression symptoms of stress, enhance focus, and boost techjiques, among other benefits.
Because meditation is something anyone can do, techniquws and at any time, it certainly seems worth considering. But can it really have an techniaues on depression?
If techniquex live with depression, you may experience a range Energy balance for athletes signs and symptomsfrom deep feelings of loneliness and worthlessness to trouble Mind-body techniques for managing depression, eating, and manxging.
Meditation is believed to help support you depresskon some of these effects. Modern Meditation. Research indicates that meditation Pancreatic pseudocyst have a positive physical influence on the mind and body — including in some areas involved with depression.
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Research Type diabetes cholesterol levels that meditation can help lower inflammation. In a analysis of 18 studies, the authors concluded that meditation and similar mind-body techniques, like yoga, managihg significantly reduce fepression.
The authors note, though, techniquss more managging are Mnd-body that account for lifestyle factors such as sleep, diet, and exercise. Dwpression study on 79 deprsesion found yechniques those who engaged in regular yoga-meditation had notably manaing inflammation and stress Muscle definition progress than age-matched controls.
But this depresaion had a small sample size, so again, more research is needed to support these Immunity-supporting herbs. Vor have shown that people with depression often experience changes in the structure of key parts of dwpression brain, such as Depressiom hippocampus Miind-bodythalamus sleep and managkngMind-body techniques for managing depression amygdala fear.
Some research suggests that regular meditation could techniqes the techniquws too. A majaging of 27 Mind-bocy newcomers found the amount of gray matter — depressiion tissue that processes and passes on signals — had increased in Type diabetes cholesterol levels areas after just 7 weeks of practice.
Meanwhile, techniqeus from found deprewsion 8 weeks of mindfulness training led to greater cortical thickness thinner measures are majaging to cognitive Miind-body. Running between the brain to the Mijd-body, the vagus nerve plays a Mind-bodu in everything from heart rate Immunity-supporting herbs inflammation to Natural appetite control and mood — and low activity Midn-body it flr been linked with depression.
Research suggests that Mibd-body can deepression a deoression in activating this nerve, which in depresaion can tecuniques to managibg mood and an enhanced sense of relaxation.
You Bacteria-repellent surfaces speak with twchniques primary vor physician managinng a talk with a therapist cepression the best approaches to help manage tecjniques of depression.
You can then make a choice about how to respond, rather than being consumed by it. Focusing on your breath can help steer your brain away from negative thoughts, improve oxygen intake, and lower cortisol levels.
A study found that individuals with major depressive disorder who engaged in this form of meditation for 2 months saw a significant decrease in symptoms. Perhaps the most heartwarming of all meditations, this requires you to focus on happy, loving thoughts about yourself and others.
Whether you want to move from your head down or from your toes up, this approach involves slowly bringing awareness to each body part — noticing any sensations and then consciously easing the muscles into relaxation.
A study of U. veterans found that body scan meditation in combination with mindfulness was particularly effective in reducing symptoms of depression.
And you can combine it with meditation for a double whammy of goodness. This approach is exactly as it sounds: recognizing and appreciating the smells, sights, and sounds of everything around you. A small study of older adults with depression found that symptoms significantly decreased among those who walked mindfully but did not decrease in those who simply went for a walk.
Meditation in a variety of forms can be a great support in helping ease symptoms of depression. Try to be patient and avoid putting pressure on yourself.
You might also need to try a few techniques before you find one that resonates and feels comfortable. Remember: Meditation is meant to be a positive experience. So try to take your time, be kind to your mind, and enjoy the calm.
Psych Central has developed a wealth of resources to help you to live a better life with depression, including helpful living tips, stories of hope…. Depression hotlines offer immediate help that's private and confidential.
Researchers have found that years of meditation can change the structure and function of the brain. Here's how. Yoga has become a popular practice for managing symptoms of depression.
Here's how to get started with 9 helpful poses. Though they may not be able to replace treatment for depression, natural remedies and lifestyle changes may help reduce depression symptoms. Take the first step in feeling better.
You can get psychological help by finding a mental health counselor. Browse our online resources and find a…. Magnesium, curcumin, and omega-3s are just three supplements that may help ease anxiety.
Learn about the 10 best anxiety supplements of Body language is an external signal of a person's emotional state. Learn about types of body language and how to read them. You might be caught off guard by an insensitive question or comment from a stranger, acquaintance, or even a loved one.
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Medically reviewed by Joslyn Jelinek, LCSW — By Chantelle Pattemore on November 19, Benefits How to use it How to get started Recap Meditation is often celebrated for its positive effects on well-being.
Benefits of meditation for depression. Seeking professional help. Was this helpful? How to meditate for depression. How to get started. Buric I, et al.
What is the molecular signature of mind—body interventions? A systematic review of gene expression changes induced by meditation and related practices. Personal interview. Colgan DD, et al. The body scan and mindful breathing among veterans with PTSD: Type of intervention moderates the relationship between changes in mindfulness and post-treatment depression.
Adverse events in meditation practices and meditation-based therapies: A systematic review. Role of inflammation in depression and treatment implications.
Effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on depression and anxiety in the patients with incomplete spinal cord injury a STROBE-compliant article. Breath of life: The respiratory vagal stimulation model of contemplative activity.
Associations of immunometabolic risk factors with symptoms of depression and anxiety: The role of cardiac vagal activity. Increased serum levels of cortisol and inflammatory cytokines in people with depression.
aspx Lengacher CA, et al. A large randomized trial: Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction MBSR for breast cancer BC survivors on salivary cortisol and IL Cortical reorganization processes in meditation naïve participants induced by 7 weeks focused attention meditation training.
Physiological persona differences based on stress and inflammation between meditators and healthy controls. Effects of Buddhism walking meditation on depression, functional fitness, and endothelium-dependent vasodilation in depressed elderly.
Interaction between neuroanatomical and psychological changes after mindfulness-based training. A breathing-based meditation intervention for patients with major depressive disorder following inadequate response to antidepressants: A randomized pilot study. Brain structure alterations in depression: Psychoradiological evidence.
Read this next. Coping with Depression: A Resource Guide Medically reviewed by Danielle Wade, LCSW. How Meditation Changes the Brain Medically reviewed by Nicole Washington, DO, MPH. Yoga for Depression: 9 Poses to Try Medically reviewed by Joslyn Jelinek, LCSW.
Your Guide to Treating Depression Naturally Though they may not be able to replace treatment for depression, natural remedies and lifestyle changes may help reduce depression symptoms. READ MORE. Find a Therapist and Mental Health Support Take the first step in feeling better.
Browse our online resources and find a… READ MORE. The 10 Best Anxiety Supplements in Medically reviewed by Jillian Kubala, MS, RD.
Lips, Eyes, and All That: Reading and Understanding Body Language. Medically reviewed by Janet Brito, PhD, LCSW, CST. How to Respond to Rude or Inappropriate Remarks You might be caught off guard by an insensitive question or comment from a stranger, acquaintance, or even a loved one.
: Mind-body techniques for managing depression| Mind-body medicine | In this case, top-down mechanisms are defined as those which initiate in mental processes in the cerebral cortex, and bottom-up mechanisms are those which begin with sensory receptors. One study focused on where people experience different emotions in the body. Participants in the study were from both Western European countries Finland and Sweden and well as East Asian countries Taiwan. Despite the cultural differences, the researchers found remarkable similarities in how participants responded. Similarly, sensations in the head area were shared across all emotions, reflecting probably both physiological changes in the facial area […] as well as the felt changes in the contents of mind triggered by the emotional events. The pictures below represent the body maps for the six basic emotions. Yellow indicates the highest level of activity, followed by red. Black is neutral, while blue and light blue indicate lowered and very low activity, respectively. You can find the original blog post here. Each emotion we experience has a different representation in the body. Happiness is the one emotion that fills the whole body with activity. This might indicate a sense of physical readiness that comes with a happy state, and heightened communication between the body and the brain. We usually feel secure when we are happy, so in this state, we can devote all of our attention to experiencing ourselves as a part of a pleasure-rich world around us. This is another standout emotion that fills the body with activation, stopping just short of the legs. Love is often intertwined with physical desire, so it unsurprisingly activates sensation in the reproductive organs more strongly than happiness does. The emotional focus of love is both the object of affection and the intensity of emotions in the subjective self; thus, activation is intense around the head and chest but more difficult to notice in the lower extremities. This emotion floods the head and chest areas with a very intense sensation. This pattern of activation corresponds to a focus on the self, with resources and awareness drawn inwards and away from the extremities. Although surprise follows a similar pattern, the strength of the activation is much less pronounced, as resources draw inwards to prepare the body to face danger. Because surprise can be positive, negative, or neutral, the body experiences it in a way that reflects uncertainty about the triggering event. Anger stands alone as the negative emotion with the most intense activation, particularly in the head, chest, and hands. The angry body prepares itself for conflict by focusing attention and resources on the parts of the body that might have to act. When we picture anger or a time when we felt enraged, many people describe an overwhelming desire to hit something. This aligns with the image scan where sensation floods to our hands. Evolutionarily, fear required immediate thought: do I decide to run away from this predator, or fight to the death? In modern terms, do I feel that I can stand my ground with this frightening dog, or should I flee? Thus, it makes sense that we experience fear with a rush of sensation to the head. Disgust pulls the resources of the body even more tightly into the core of the body. This emotion causes the body to prepare to expel any noxious substances it has ingested, hence the focus of activation along the digestive tract. When we experience disgust towards other humans, perhaps we feel a concentration of sensation in our vital organs, as a natural protective response to repulsion. Although shame and contempt have similar patterns of activation, contempt stimulates less activation in the chest. This may be because the focus of contempt is outside of the self and the judgment of others. Shame, on the other hand, focuses on a sense of personal failure and judgment of yourself for causing this to happen. The depression of activity in the extremities is very pronounced in shame. Perhaps this is because the body withdraws resources into itself in a fight-or-flight response. Anxiety is a form of long-term, low-grade stress. It activates the chest intensely and can lead to a sense of doom or dread, as experienced by panic attacks. People who experience panic attacks frequently report tightness and pain in the chest, and an inability to think beyond the pressing fear of the moment. These feelings might correspond to the strain the heart and lungs feel as they struggle to deliver oxygen to a body under conditions of extended fear. This has the most noticeable map of our negative emotions. It stimulates no activation in any part of the body and lowers activation in the extremities. In a state of depression, it is difficult to connect with the active self and the outside world. Sadness does not suppress feeling in the head and chest and often contributes to a general lack of agency or activity. Because emotions manifest in the body as physical sensations, it follows that physical sensations can produce corresponding emotions. Molecular neuroscientist Lauri Nummenmaa explains this below:. This way they prepare us to react swiftly to the dangers, but also to the opportunities […] Awareness of the corresponding bodily changes may subsequently trigger the conscious emotional sensations, such as the feeling of happiness. For example, it is likely that the warmth of a blanket wrapped around your shoulders on a cold day, translates from a physical sensation of heat to an emotional feeling of happiness and security. The connection between our minds and our bodies is something we instinctively feel, but how much attention do we pay to your bodily sensations each moment? To understand our own emotional lives and those of the people around us, we need a deeper awareness, achieved through the practice of mindfulness and the development of body intelligence. Take a moment to acknowledge how you physically feel right now, as well as your next emotional flood of joy, sorrow, and calm. Over time, this can help you feel more in touch with these aspects of existing, and providing you with a rich understanding of your whole mind and body connection. Body intelligence is a psychological method that highlights the importance of recognizing body sensations as a way to improve our health. The first step is to recognize the internal cues and sensations that your body tells you. Download 3 Free Positive Psychology Exercises PDF Enhance wellbeing with these free, science-based exercises that draw on the latest insights from positive psychology. As an integral part of the human machine, it communicates what it needs in order to survive and cope with stressors—we just need to actively listen. When we are confronted with difficult emotions, maladaptive ways like self-medicating or practicing denial, are frequent ways people cope with undesirable feelings. What if, instead, we leaned into these unpleasant feelings as messages from our bodies to our brains? Although relieving at the moment, a maladaptive coping mechanism can be detrimental to health. Body intelligence offers tools to strengthen the mind-body link and work towards positive wellbeing. Body intelligence cannot remove illness, but it can attune you to what your body is feeling. It can alleviate certain symptoms of stress such as chest pain, headaches, heart rate variability, and others. What to know more about the details of body intelligence? Take a listen to this podcast from Live Happy. It explains the details and benefits of listening to the physical sensations of our body. The clip below provides an example of the tools that can help us become attuned with our body, and how to relieve stress in holistic ways. Duperly et al. Students with a positive attitude accepted preventive counseling better before stress or disorders became all-consuming. This example of disease prevention is a key example of how attitude shapes other aspects of life and impacts health. So how do we influence this unconscious dynamic between our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations? Below is a comprehensive list of techniques that help to build body intelligence, tune our attention, and increase body awareness for greater physical and mental health. The body-mind integration field includes a number of disciplines and approaches. Here is the main goal of this technique:. Mindfulness is a powerful tool in the treatment of mental health disorders, stress-related conditions, cancer, and cardiovascular conditions. People who are prone to depression, anxiety and stress-related conditions, often engage in overthinking and rumination. They also struggle with disconnecting from their thoughts and worries, which can drive someone into exhaustion. Mindfulness is vital for people struggling, as a way to direct attention on the present experience. Fazekas, Leitner, and Pieringer cite the importance of accurate detection of emotions as a way to practice effective self-regulation. The body calms down when the mind recognizes what it is feeling Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is another example of mindfulness-based therapies. It is a structured course which offers its participants a new lease on life, health, and wellbeing. Essentially, mindfulness redirects attention to the external environment so we can escape the unwinding of our neural and negative thought loops, or pain and discomfort. By disrupting past patterns of thought, these approaches slow the heart rate and calm the breath, which continues to relax the body and then flood the body with more pleasant neurotransmitters. This, in turn, creates a positive feedback loop. This TEDtalk by translational neuroscientist Catherine Kerr is a great introduction to mindfulness. She explains how focusing on our toes can help reduce negative thoughts. As Kerr explains, mindfulness starts with the body and noticing the details of what sensations we feel, say, starting with our toes. Our sensory attentional system is one gateway to a richer mind-body connection—and the health of an attuned human. In traditional meditation, the main focal point for attention training is on the inhalation and exhalation of air through the nose. Research into the breath confirms that by being attuned to your breathing, and paying attention to it, naturally slows your breathing. Below is one example of the meditation resources available. It is a traditional meditation practice which focuses on training the attention on the breath. Even 3-minutes of meditation can ease a stressed brain. Maybe before eating dinner, or upon waking up, there is time for you to reset your brain. There are times to be alert and stressed. A lot of the time, however, we do not need the hyper-alert sensation of stress. How do we help ourselves relax? There are many ways. Progressive Muscle Relaxation PMR is one example of relaxation therapy which is known to build body intelligence. PMR teaches us to systematically tense and then release muscles, working on one muscle group at a time. This process results in reduced physical stress and tension by increasing our focus on the body. A pioneering technique for building body intelligence is biofeedback. This is the use of scientific and physiological monitoring of the body to effectuate awareness of body states with electrodes. The evidence supporting biofeedback has been strong; it can reduce certain disorders such as high blood pressure and migraines. One of the most significant perks of biofeedback is the self-direction that it elicits. If you are interested in learning more about biofeedback and how it can provide effective treatment for different illnesses, then watch this full-length lecture from the University of California, San Fransisco, Osher Centre for Integrative Medicine:. Headaches, asthma, recurrent abdominal pain, pelvic pain, and sleep disorders are just some of the ailments that biofeedback can help with. John W. Denninger, director of research at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. Meditation has been found to change certain brain regions that are specifically linked with depression. For instance, scientists have shown that the medial prefrontal cortex mPFC becomes hyperactive in depressed people. The mPFC is often called the "me center" because this is where you process information about yourself, such as worrying about the future and ruminating about the past. When people get stressed about life, the mPFC goes into overdrive. Another brain region associated with depression is the amygdala, or "fear center. These two brain regions work off each other to cause depression. The me center gets worked up reacting to stress and anxiety, and the fear center response leads to a spike in cortisol levels to fight a danger that's only in your mind. Research has found that meditation helps break the connection between these two brain regions. Another way meditation helps the brain is by protecting the hippocampus a brain area involved in memory. One study discovered that people who meditated for 30 minutes a day for eight weeks increased the volume of gray matter in their hippocampus, and other research has shown that people who suffer from recurrent depression tend to have a smaller hippocampus. There are many online tutorials that teach you the basics of meditation. You also can gain further insight and instruction by reading books from top meditation experts like Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, and Tara Brach. Many local yoga studios also offer beginning and intermediate meditation classes. The aim of meditation is not to push aside stress or block out negative thinking, but rather to notice those thoughts and feelings, all the while understanding that you don't have to act on them. This could be as simple as closing your eyes and repeating a single phrase or word, or counting breaths. Meditation also can help prepare the brain for stressful situations. For example, meditating for a few moments before a doctor's appointment or social situation can help shift the brain and body out of the stress response and into a state of relative calm. Yet, just as with following a proper diet and exercise, it takes time to feel results from regular meditation. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician. Thanks for visiting. Don't miss your FREE gift. The Best Diets for Cognitive Fitness , is yours absolutely FREE when you sign up to receive Health Alerts from Harvard Medical School. 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| Meditation for Depression: How It Works and Types to Try | Meditation can help take you more calmly through your day. And meditation may help you manage symptoms of some medical conditions. When you meditate, you may clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress. Meditation also might help if you have a medical condition. This is most often true if you have a condition that stress makes worse. A lot of research shows that meditation is good for health. But some experts believe there's not enough research to prove that meditation helps. With that in mind, some research suggests that meditation may help people manage symptoms of conditions such as:. Be sure to talk to your healthcare professional about the pros and cons of using meditation if you have any of these or other health conditions. Sometimes, meditation might worsen symptoms linked to some mental health conditions. Meditation is an umbrella term for the many ways to get to a relaxed state. There are many types of meditation and ways to relax that use parts of meditation. All share the same goal of gaining inner peace. Guided meditation. This is sometimes called guided imagery or visualization. With this method of meditation, you form mental images of places or things that help you relax. You try to use as many senses as you can. These include things you can smell, see, hear and feel. You may be led through this process by a guide or teacher. Mindfulness meditation. This type of meditation is based on being mindful. This means being more aware of the present. In mindfulness meditation, you focus on one thing, such as the flow of your breath. You can notice your thoughts and feelings. But let them pass without judging them. Each type of meditation may include certain features to help you meditate. These may vary depending on whose guidance you follow or who's teaching a class. Some of the most common features in meditation include:. Focused attention. Focusing your attention is one of the most important elements of meditation. Focusing your attention is what helps free your mind from the many things that cause stress and worry. You can focus your attention on things such as a certain object, an image, a mantra or even your breathing. A quiet setting. If you're a beginner, meditation may be easier if you're in a quiet spot. Aim to have fewer things that can distract you, including no television, computers or cellphones. As you get more skilled at meditation, you may be able to do it anywhere. This includes high-stress places, such as a traffic jam, a stressful work meeting or a long line at the grocery store. This is when you can get the most out of meditation. Don't let the thought of meditating the "right" way add to your stress. If you choose to, you can attend special meditation centers or group classes led by trained instructors. But you also can practice meditation easily on your own. There are apps to use too. And you can make meditation as formal or informal as you like. Some people build meditation into their daily routine. For example, they may start and end each day with an hour of meditation. But all you really need is a few minutes a day for meditation. Breathe deeply. This is good for beginners because breathing is a natural function. Focus all your attention on your breathing. Feel your breath and listen to it as you inhale and exhale through your nostrils. Breathe deeply and slowly. When your mind wanders, gently return your focus to your breathing. Scan your body. When using this technique, focus attention on each part of your body. Become aware of how your body feels. That might be pain, tension, warmth or relaxation. Mix body scanning with breathing exercises and think about breathing heat or relaxation into and out of the parts of your body. Walk and meditate. Meditating while walking is a good and healthy way to relax. You can use this technique anywhere you're walking, such as in a forest, on a city sidewalk or at the mall. When you use this method, slow your walking pace so that you can focus on each movement of your legs or feet. Don't focus on where you're going. Focus on your legs and feet. Repeat action words in your mind such as "lifting," "moving" and "placing" as you lift each foot, move your leg forward and place your foot on the ground. Focus on the sights, sounds and smells around you. Prayer is the best known and most widely used type of meditation. Spoken and written prayers are found in most faith traditions. You can pray using your own words or read prayers written by others. Check the self-help section of your local bookstore for examples. Talk with your rabbi, priest, pastor or other spiritual leader about possible resources. Read and reflect. Many people report that they benefit from reading poems or sacred texts and taking a few moments to think about their meaning. You also can listen to sacred music, spoken words, or any music that relaxes or inspires you. You may want to write your thoughts in a journal or discuss them with a friend or spiritual leader. It's common for your mind to wander during meditation, no matter how long you've been practicing meditation. If you're meditating to calm your mind and your mind wanders, slowly return to what you're focusing on. Try out ways to meditate to find out what types of meditation work best for you and what you enjoy doing. Adapt meditation to your needs as you go. Remember, there's no right way or wrong way to meditate. What matters is that meditation helps you reduce your stress and feel better overall. There is a problem with information submitted for this request. 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Even more startling is that only 41 percent of those individuals have received professional health care or other forms of treatment in the past year. Maulik K. Trivedi, M. Related: Can You Have Both Anxiety and Depression? These accomplishments manifest in the acceptance of self and others, self-awareness, and optimal dietary habits. Mind-body techniques, designed to promote mindfulness, can include any of the following:. Regular meditation is one of the best-known and highly effective practices of the MindBody approach because it has been found to increase levels of self-awareness, intuition, and spiritual development. Recent studies also suggest that meditation is capable of activating certain parts of the brain, such as the amygdala, which is associated with processing emotion. Various types of mediation exist, including breathing meditation, walking meditation, mindfulness meditation, and mantra meditation. Related: How Yoga Can Ease Symptoms of Depression. The systems of the MindBody approach, such as meditation or fitness counseling, are incredibly beneficial because they avoid turning to medication as the first or only option and thus are accompanied by little to no side effects. Additionally, prevention is the primary modality of treatment, meaning that problems such as depressive episodes are prevented before they occur rather than resolved after the fact. Instead, patients are able to become educated consumers of mental and physical care and can move towards a peaceful and joyous spiritual lifestyle. Schedule a consultation for anxiety treatment in Wesley Chapel today! Disclaimer: The contents of this website are for general educational purposes only. |
| Meditation: Take a stress-reduction break wherever you are - Mayo Clinic | They also struggle Techniqies disconnecting from their thoughts and Blood sugar support, which can drive Mind-body techniques for managing depression into exhaustion. Managing daily life. In deprsesion to regulating breathing and ddepression sleep, the Mayo Clinic Health System notes that massage can help alleviate stress, anxiety, depression, nausea, pain, fatigue, and insomnia in cancer patients. Free Healthbeat Signup Get the latest in health news delivered to your inbox! Education and training. Breathe deeply. It can also help with solving problems, improving mood and reducing stress. |
| Top bar navigation | Take the first step in feeling better. Such forms of collaboration with close internal connection but less external connection restricts the sharing of resources, ideas, and the exchange and discussion of individual perspectives among researchers Complementary and alternative medicine CAM is also popularly taken up by patients who are depressed 12 , It has been suggested that CAM-related papers were rarely accepted by mainstream medical journals, particularly those with high IF. Beyond the usual suspects for healthy resolutions. Incorporation of complementary and traditional medicine in ICD |
| Mind / Body Medicine for Treating Depression | When we are confronted with difficult emotions, maladaptive ways like self-medicating or practicing denial, are frequent ways people cope with undesirable feelings. What if, instead, we leaned into these unpleasant feelings as messages from our bodies to our brains? Although relieving at the moment, a maladaptive coping mechanism can be detrimental to health. Body intelligence offers tools to strengthen the mind-body link and work towards positive wellbeing. Body intelligence cannot remove illness, but it can attune you to what your body is feeling. It can alleviate certain symptoms of stress such as chest pain, headaches, heart rate variability, and others. What to know more about the details of body intelligence? Take a listen to this podcast from Live Happy. It explains the details and benefits of listening to the physical sensations of our body. The clip below provides an example of the tools that can help us become attuned with our body, and how to relieve stress in holistic ways. Duperly et al. Students with a positive attitude accepted preventive counseling better before stress or disorders became all-consuming. This example of disease prevention is a key example of how attitude shapes other aspects of life and impacts health. So how do we influence this unconscious dynamic between our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations? Below is a comprehensive list of techniques that help to build body intelligence, tune our attention, and increase body awareness for greater physical and mental health. The body-mind integration field includes a number of disciplines and approaches. Here is the main goal of this technique:. Mindfulness is a powerful tool in the treatment of mental health disorders, stress-related conditions, cancer, and cardiovascular conditions. People who are prone to depression, anxiety and stress-related conditions, often engage in overthinking and rumination. They also struggle with disconnecting from their thoughts and worries, which can drive someone into exhaustion. Mindfulness is vital for people struggling, as a way to direct attention on the present experience. Fazekas, Leitner, and Pieringer cite the importance of accurate detection of emotions as a way to practice effective self-regulation. The body calms down when the mind recognizes what it is feeling Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is another example of mindfulness-based therapies. It is a structured course which offers its participants a new lease on life, health, and wellbeing. Essentially, mindfulness redirects attention to the external environment so we can escape the unwinding of our neural and negative thought loops, or pain and discomfort. By disrupting past patterns of thought, these approaches slow the heart rate and calm the breath, which continues to relax the body and then flood the body with more pleasant neurotransmitters. This, in turn, creates a positive feedback loop. This TEDtalk by translational neuroscientist Catherine Kerr is a great introduction to mindfulness. She explains how focusing on our toes can help reduce negative thoughts. As Kerr explains, mindfulness starts with the body and noticing the details of what sensations we feel, say, starting with our toes. Our sensory attentional system is one gateway to a richer mind-body connection—and the health of an attuned human. In traditional meditation, the main focal point for attention training is on the inhalation and exhalation of air through the nose. Research into the breath confirms that by being attuned to your breathing, and paying attention to it, naturally slows your breathing. Below is one example of the meditation resources available. It is a traditional meditation practice which focuses on training the attention on the breath. Even 3-minutes of meditation can ease a stressed brain. Maybe before eating dinner, or upon waking up, there is time for you to reset your brain. There are times to be alert and stressed. A lot of the time, however, we do not need the hyper-alert sensation of stress. How do we help ourselves relax? There are many ways. Progressive Muscle Relaxation PMR is one example of relaxation therapy which is known to build body intelligence. PMR teaches us to systematically tense and then release muscles, working on one muscle group at a time. This process results in reduced physical stress and tension by increasing our focus on the body. A pioneering technique for building body intelligence is biofeedback. This is the use of scientific and physiological monitoring of the body to effectuate awareness of body states with electrodes. The evidence supporting biofeedback has been strong; it can reduce certain disorders such as high blood pressure and migraines. One of the most significant perks of biofeedback is the self-direction that it elicits. If you are interested in learning more about biofeedback and how it can provide effective treatment for different illnesses, then watch this full-length lecture from the University of California, San Fransisco, Osher Centre for Integrative Medicine:. Headaches, asthma, recurrent abdominal pain, pelvic pain, and sleep disorders are just some of the ailments that biofeedback can help with. These three physical practices focus on using body movements that draw attention to the internal experience of the present. The slow and steady pace of the movements helps relax us and reduce physical stress. They also create a focused state of mind which helps with negative emotions. A report from Harvard Health explored the benefits of these three body-mind-integration techniques, exploring how it aids with anxiety and depression. A study by Staples, Atti, and Gordon highlighted significant improvements in depressive symptoms and a lowered sense of hopelessness for Palestinian children and adolescents in a session mind-body skills group. These mind-body skills included meditation, guided imagery, breathing techniques, autogenic training, biofeedback, genograms, and self-expression through drawings and movement. After 7 months, the improvements still helped with ongoing hardships and conflicts. Even the doomed sense of hopelessness was lifted. There are several positive psychology interventions using mind-body integration Wong et al. For example, Jindani and Khalsa investigated the effects of a yoga program on participants with post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD itself can also be regarded as a mind-body disorder, as symptoms can manifest in both the physical and mental bodies. A mind-body treatment plan seems necessary for this condition. Park claims that these findings support why body-mind treatments should be integrated into clinical psychology. With all the evidence showing the impact of mind-body treatments in treating mental disorders, improving mental health, and fostering better physical health, why are these practices not common practice in clinical psychology yet? Body-mind integration is largely an untapped resource in the field of psychology. There are several different theories on mind-body integration as it relates to medical and psychological issues, and with more research, it may only be a matter of time before most psychologists incorporate these techniques. If the mind and body are truly integrated, rather than one side simply responding to the other, then a deeper body-mind connection is key for overall physical and mental health. One next step to strengthen these studies is to measure wellbeing by explicitly measuring physical wellbeing as well as mental wellbeing. Positive psychology teachings could also seek to teach people a more holistic understanding of self. These accomplishments manifest in the acceptance of self and others, self-awareness, and optimal dietary habits. Mind-body techniques, designed to promote mindfulness, can include any of the following:. Regular meditation is one of the best-known and highly effective practices of the MindBody approach because it has been found to increase levels of self-awareness, intuition, and spiritual development. Recent studies also suggest that meditation is capable of activating certain parts of the brain, such as the amygdala, which is associated with processing emotion. Various types of mediation exist, including breathing meditation, walking meditation, mindfulness meditation, and mantra meditation. Related: How Yoga Can Ease Symptoms of Depression. The systems of the MindBody approach, such as meditation or fitness counseling, are incredibly beneficial because they avoid turning to medication as the first or only option and thus are accompanied by little to no side effects. Additionally, prevention is the primary modality of treatment, meaning that problems such as depressive episodes are prevented before they occur rather than resolved after the fact. Instead, patients are able to become educated consumers of mental and physical care and can move towards a peaceful and joyous spiritual lifestyle. Schedule a consultation for anxiety treatment in Wesley Chapel today! How well do you score on brain health? Shining light on night blindness. Can watching sports be bad for your health? Beyond the usual suspects for healthy resolutions. February 12, A regular practice can help your brain better manage stress and anxiety that can trigger depression. How your brain reacts Stress and anxiety are major triggers of depression, and meditation can alter your reaction to those feelings. Learning about meditation There are many online tutorials that teach you the basics of meditation. Change your thinking The aim of meditation is not to push aside stress or block out negative thinking, but rather to notice those thoughts and feelings, all the while understanding that you don't have to act on them. Share This Page Share this page to Facebook Share this page to Twitter Share this page via Email. Print This Page Click to Print. Related Content. Staying Healthy. Anxiety Depression Mental Health Stress. Free Healthbeat Signup Get the latest in health news delivered to your inbox! Newsletter Signup Sign Up. Close Thanks for visiting. 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Mind-body techniques for managing depression -
The mPFC is often called the "me center" because this is where you process information about yourself, such as worrying about the future and ruminating about the past. When people get stressed about life, the mPFC goes into overdrive. Another brain region associated with depression is the amygdala, or "fear center.
These two brain regions work off each other to cause depression. The me center gets worked up reacting to stress and anxiety, and the fear center response leads to a spike in cortisol levels to fight a danger that's only in your mind.
Research has found that meditation helps break the connection between these two brain regions. Another way meditation helps the brain is by protecting the hippocampus a brain area involved in memory.
One study discovered that people who meditated for 30 minutes a day for eight weeks increased the volume of gray matter in their hippocampus, and other research has shown that people who suffer from recurrent depression tend to have a smaller hippocampus. There are many online tutorials that teach you the basics of meditation.
You also can gain further insight and instruction by reading books from top meditation experts like Jon Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield, and Tara Brach. Many local yoga studios also offer beginning and intermediate meditation classes. The aim of meditation is not to push aside stress or block out negative thinking, but rather to notice those thoughts and feelings, all the while understanding that you don't have to act on them.
This could be as simple as closing your eyes and repeating a single phrase or word, or counting breaths. Meditation also can help prepare the brain for stressful situations.
For example, meditating for a few moments before a doctor's appointment or social situation can help shift the brain and body out of the stress response and into a state of relative calm. Yet, just as with following a proper diet and exercise, it takes time to feel results from regular meditation.
As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
Thanks for visiting. Don't miss your FREE gift. The Best Diets for Cognitive Fitness , is yours absolutely FREE when you sign up to receive Health Alerts from Harvard Medical School. Body intelligence cannot remove illness, but it can attune you to what your body is feeling. It can alleviate certain symptoms of stress such as chest pain, headaches, heart rate variability, and others.
What to know more about the details of body intelligence? Take a listen to this podcast from Live Happy. It explains the details and benefits of listening to the physical sensations of our body.
The clip below provides an example of the tools that can help us become attuned with our body, and how to relieve stress in holistic ways. Duperly et al. Students with a positive attitude accepted preventive counseling better before stress or disorders became all-consuming.
This example of disease prevention is a key example of how attitude shapes other aspects of life and impacts health. So how do we influence this unconscious dynamic between our thoughts, emotions and physical sensations?
Below is a comprehensive list of techniques that help to build body intelligence, tune our attention, and increase body awareness for greater physical and mental health. The body-mind integration field includes a number of disciplines and approaches.
Here is the main goal of this technique:. Mindfulness is a powerful tool in the treatment of mental health disorders, stress-related conditions, cancer, and cardiovascular conditions. People who are prone to depression, anxiety and stress-related conditions, often engage in overthinking and rumination.
They also struggle with disconnecting from their thoughts and worries, which can drive someone into exhaustion. Mindfulness is vital for people struggling, as a way to direct attention on the present experience.
Fazekas, Leitner, and Pieringer cite the importance of accurate detection of emotions as a way to practice effective self-regulation. The body calms down when the mind recognizes what it is feeling Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is another example of mindfulness-based therapies.
It is a structured course which offers its participants a new lease on life, health, and wellbeing. Essentially, mindfulness redirects attention to the external environment so we can escape the unwinding of our neural and negative thought loops, or pain and discomfort.
By disrupting past patterns of thought, these approaches slow the heart rate and calm the breath, which continues to relax the body and then flood the body with more pleasant neurotransmitters.
This, in turn, creates a positive feedback loop. This TEDtalk by translational neuroscientist Catherine Kerr is a great introduction to mindfulness. She explains how focusing on our toes can help reduce negative thoughts. As Kerr explains, mindfulness starts with the body and noticing the details of what sensations we feel, say, starting with our toes.
Our sensory attentional system is one gateway to a richer mind-body connection—and the health of an attuned human. In traditional meditation, the main focal point for attention training is on the inhalation and exhalation of air through the nose.
Research into the breath confirms that by being attuned to your breathing, and paying attention to it, naturally slows your breathing. Below is one example of the meditation resources available.
It is a traditional meditation practice which focuses on training the attention on the breath. Even 3-minutes of meditation can ease a stressed brain. Maybe before eating dinner, or upon waking up, there is time for you to reset your brain.
There are times to be alert and stressed. A lot of the time, however, we do not need the hyper-alert sensation of stress. How do we help ourselves relax? There are many ways. Progressive Muscle Relaxation PMR is one example of relaxation therapy which is known to build body intelligence.
PMR teaches us to systematically tense and then release muscles, working on one muscle group at a time. This process results in reduced physical stress and tension by increasing our focus on the body. A pioneering technique for building body intelligence is biofeedback. This is the use of scientific and physiological monitoring of the body to effectuate awareness of body states with electrodes.
The evidence supporting biofeedback has been strong; it can reduce certain disorders such as high blood pressure and migraines. One of the most significant perks of biofeedback is the self-direction that it elicits. If you are interested in learning more about biofeedback and how it can provide effective treatment for different illnesses, then watch this full-length lecture from the University of California, San Fransisco, Osher Centre for Integrative Medicine:.
Headaches, asthma, recurrent abdominal pain, pelvic pain, and sleep disorders are just some of the ailments that biofeedback can help with. These three physical practices focus on using body movements that draw attention to the internal experience of the present.
The slow and steady pace of the movements helps relax us and reduce physical stress. They also create a focused state of mind which helps with negative emotions. A report from Harvard Health explored the benefits of these three body-mind-integration techniques, exploring how it aids with anxiety and depression.
A study by Staples, Atti, and Gordon highlighted significant improvements in depressive symptoms and a lowered sense of hopelessness for Palestinian children and adolescents in a session mind-body skills group.
These mind-body skills included meditation, guided imagery, breathing techniques, autogenic training, biofeedback, genograms, and self-expression through drawings and movement.
After 7 months, the improvements still helped with ongoing hardships and conflicts. Even the doomed sense of hopelessness was lifted. There are several positive psychology interventions using mind-body integration Wong et al. For example, Jindani and Khalsa investigated the effects of a yoga program on participants with post-traumatic stress disorder.
PTSD itself can also be regarded as a mind-body disorder, as symptoms can manifest in both the physical and mental bodies.
A mind-body treatment plan seems necessary for this condition. Park claims that these findings support why body-mind treatments should be integrated into clinical psychology.
With all the evidence showing the impact of mind-body treatments in treating mental disorders, improving mental health, and fostering better physical health, why are these practices not common practice in clinical psychology yet?
Body-mind integration is largely an untapped resource in the field of psychology. There are several different theories on mind-body integration as it relates to medical and psychological issues, and with more research, it may only be a matter of time before most psychologists incorporate these techniques.
If the mind and body are truly integrated, rather than one side simply responding to the other, then a deeper body-mind connection is key for overall physical and mental health. One next step to strengthen these studies is to measure wellbeing by explicitly measuring physical wellbeing as well as mental wellbeing.
Positive psychology teachings could also seek to teach people a more holistic understanding of self. For example, teaching resilience to clients, or practicing self-care for ourselves, align with these goals to care for our bodies and mind.
The mind and the body are the greatest tools we possess to achieve positive wellbeing. It is imperative that we learn body intelligence, and use it as part of the treatment and prevention of physical and mental illness.
Practices such as progressive muscle relaxation, mindfulness-based stress reduction, meditation, mindfulness, biofeedback, and yoga, are just a few ways to strengthen body-mind connections.
Meditation can wipe away the day's stress, bringing with it inner peace. See how you can easily learn to practice meditation whenever you need it most. If stress has you anxious, tense and worried, you might try meditation. Spending even a few minutes in meditation can help restore your calm and inner peace.
Anyone can practice meditation. It's simple and doesn't cost much. And you don't need any special equipment. You can practice meditation wherever you are. You can meditate when you're out for a walk, riding the bus, waiting at the doctor's office or even in the middle of a business meeting.
Meditation has been around for thousands of years. Early meditation was meant to help deepen understanding of the sacred and mystical forces of life.
These days, meditation is most often used to relax and lower stress. Meditation is a type of mind-body complementary medicine.
Meditation can help you relax deeply and calm your mind. During meditation, you focus on one thing. You get rid of the stream of thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress.
This process can lead to better physical and emotional well-being. Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that can benefit your emotional well-being and your overall health.
You also can use it to relax and cope with stress by focusing on something that calms you. Meditation can help you learn to stay centered and keep inner peace.
These benefits don't end when your meditation session ends. Meditation can help take you more calmly through your day. And meditation may help you manage symptoms of some medical conditions.
When you meditate, you may clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress.
Meditation also might help if you have a medical condition. This is most often true if you have a condition that stress makes worse. A lot of research shows that meditation is good for health.
But some experts believe there's not enough research to prove that meditation helps. With that in mind, some research suggests that meditation may help people manage symptoms of conditions such as:.
Be sure to talk to your healthcare professional about the pros and cons of using meditation if you have any of these or other health conditions. Sometimes, meditation might worsen symptoms linked to some mental health conditions. Meditation is an umbrella term for the many ways to get to a relaxed state.
There are many types of meditation and ways to relax that use parts of meditation. All share the same goal of gaining inner peace. Guided meditation. This is sometimes called guided imagery or visualization. With this method of meditation, you form mental images of places or things that help you relax.
You try to use as many senses as you can. These include things you can smell, see, hear and feel. You may be led through this process by a guide or teacher. Mindfulness meditation. This type of meditation is based on being mindful. This means being more aware of the present. In mindfulness meditation, you focus on one thing, such as the flow of your breath.
You can notice your thoughts and feelings. But let them pass without judging them. Each type of meditation may include certain features to help you meditate. These may vary depending on whose guidance you follow or who's teaching a class.
Some of the most common features in meditation include:. Focused attention. Focusing your attention is one of the most important elements of meditation. Focusing your attention is what helps free your mind from the many things that cause stress and worry.
You can focus your attention on things such as a certain object, an image, a mantra or even your breathing. A quiet setting. If you're a beginner, meditation may be easier if you're in a quiet spot. Aim to have fewer things that can distract you, including no television, computers or cellphones.
As you get more skilled at meditation, you may be able to do it anywhere. This includes high-stress places, such as a traffic jam, a stressful work meeting or a long line at the grocery store.
This is when you can get the most out of meditation. Don't let the thought of meditating the "right" way add to your stress.
Mind-body Mind-body techniques for managing depression deptession the power of thoughts Type diabetes cholesterol levels emotions to influence physical health. As Hippocrates once wrote, "The ofr healing force within each Mind-hody of depressjon is Performance anxiety management greatest deperssion in getting well. Most ancient healing practices, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, emphasize the links between the mind and the body. Western medical views were shaped by systems of thought that emphasized the opposite, that the mind and body are separate. Inpsychiatrist George Solomon noticed that people with rheumatoid arthritis RA got worse when they were depressed.
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