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A Year Since Lockdown: Lessons The Pandemic Taught Us

Leave a Comment / Miscellaneous / Inner Space Team / April 3, 2021 / covid 19, health and wellness, mind and body, pandemic, reflections

It’s been a year since the lockdown was first imposed when the unknown and rather scary COVID-19 virus affected all our lives. It not only affected the way we lived and worked but impacted the way we behaved, thought and felt. Doesn’t it all still seem so recent ? While we continue to navigate the ongoing changes and challenges the pandemic poses, let’s pause and reflect at the year gone by. Let us create space for some of the lessons the pandemic taught us and some key takeaways. A year since lockdown and we learnt that… We are a lot more resilient that we give ourselves credit for Looking back at the year since lockdown can bring up difficult feelings of loss, change, uncertainty frustration, fatigue and so much more. After all, we had to rapidly change and adapt to an ever evolving situation. Working not just from but with home became the norm. Virtual learning became the mode of transmitting knowledge and information. Health care services also started being offered online. Moreover, Zoom meet ups and Netflix parties became a way of socialising. Did you ever think you would be able to adapt to such changes ? And yet here we are, still adapting, trying our best to be flexible and creative in the face of ongoing uncertainty. Doesn’t it just go on to show that we are a lot more resilient that we give ourselves credit for ? That despite the many struggles, we do have an innate ability to navigate stressors as best as we can. In many ways the pandemic seems to have redefined resilience or the ability to ‘bounce back’. The pandemic seems to have taught us that bouncing back does not need to be a huge jump or leap from where we are. It can be a small step in the present moment that simply helps us cope better. While we often undermine our capabilities, reflecting at the year gone by highlights the many small and big ways in which we have adapted individually and collectively. We need to rest to be able to feel productive The very first lockdown felt unique. It was new and created an unexpected break in our routines. But very soon we translated this break as a test of productivity. It suddenly became about reinventing ourselves. Little did we realise that the constant striving could also make us feel drained and tired. And so, the pandemic taught us that it is OK to rest. Rest does not have to be a reward, one that we give ourselves only when we accomplish a certain number of tasks on our to do list. Rest is something that we all need to be able to survive and thrive. It is required for the nervous system to regulate itself, to maintain adequate levels of energy and to recover. A key takeaway from the year gone by is that we don’t always have to strive to fill up our routines or fight boredom or be doing something. Instead, we can spend time with ourselves, engage in leisurely pursuits and rest knowing that it is important for us. We can build acceptance for what we cannot control One of the most challenging yet empowering lessons this pandemic taught us was that of acceptance. A year ago, we were confronted with having no choice but to accept that ‘this is what it is’ and that somethings were beyond our control. While in some ways we could influence certain aspects of the situation, a large part of it was out of our hands. It could not be ‘fixed’ and that we continue to be in this waiting period as the pandemic continues to unfold. In many ways we did start accepting the changed life as our ‘new normal’. Acceptance may not come easily, at the same time planting the seed for it does allow us to sail through tough times. So, while the pandemic does continue to impact our lives, recognising that we are doing what we can while the rest will continue to evolve may just help us feel more at peace ! Wishing that these reflections foster a sense of hope as we continue to ride through the highs and lows of the present moment ! This post has been contributed by Amrita Kajaria, counsellor and psychologist at Inner Space

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coronavirus, isolation, quarantine, anxiety, loneliness, therapy

Dealing with Anxiety in the times of the Coronavirus

2 Comments / Stress Management / Inner Space Team / April 6, 2020 / covid 19, health and wellness, managing anxiety, mind and body, pandemic, stress management

Historically, a pandemic seems to have occurred once in a 100 years, roughly. That means, for most of us alive today, this is a completely new experience! We have had little experience with a situation like this. What does this bring about? Uncertainty, change leading to more change, unexpected change bringing about anxiety – anxiety about getting infected, family getting infected, anxiety about pay cuts, lost jobs, about having to stay home. Sometimes, the lack of activity and distraction can even bring up stored emotions or past hurt. Dealing with this can be difficult. We’ve tried to put down some ideas about how one can deal with this: Working through Anxiety during a Pandemic – What it could mean for you Recognize and Reconcile: ‘What you resist, persists’ In a situation like this, the mind and the whole psyche wants to push to feel in control and on top of the situation. Expecting yourself to feel in control will only worsen your irritability and helplessness. The first step to any kind of mental peace always starts with recognition and reconciliation. Recognize deeply that you needn’t fight your feelings. While you can take all the precaution needed, recognize that it is understandable to feel anxious, worried, bored, restless and uncomfortable. This situation is uncomfortable for every single one of us. Taking some comfort in the fact that your feelings are valid and understandable can do a lot to ease your emotional burden. Observe and Breathe: The mind is like Velcro. It pulls attention to its thoughts and what’s more, it tries to beat one thought with another. Very often, you will see that one thought leads to another and before you know it, you’ve spun a web of stories about the situation, how bad it is, what you could have done to prevent it, how so and so is responsible and so on. Most of us don’t recognize that we have an option to ‘watch’, or ‘notice’ the mind, without necessarily engaging too much with it. The mind has its own nature and its own wiring. No matter how much you know consciously that worrying is not of much use, it continues to have thoughts and thought streams of worry. What you can do is, instead of trying to beat one thought with another, just observe that thoughts of worry have come up, that it is natural for this to happen, and gently come back to the present moment. You can return to your breath or to any aspect of the present moment. Learning to gently let go of chatter and rest in the moment is immensely valuable in a situation like this. Accept: Seeing this word might trigger irritation at the beginning and that is understandable! Contrary to this initial reaction, accepting the moment does more for us than we typically imagine. We think of acceptance as passive surrender, but that’s not the case. Acceptance is an active recognition that – this is what it is. This situation is what it is. Pushing and pulling, fighting your feelings is only going to worsen it. Acceptance allows you to work with what is, than what is not. It brings down stress and hypervigilance and clears your mind to work and support yourself best in this situation. As I often tell my clients when they are in a similar space – ‘half your energy is getting spent on resisting the situation mentally.’ Once you allow yourself to accept the situation, you start generating energy to truly support yourself through it. It gets easier here onwards – these three steps are difficult, and most of you who have already been through this would agree that to reach acceptance is the hard bit, once you’re through with that, the rest becomes easier! Access the Calmer Side of the Brain: The limbic system is the part of the nervous system that is responsible for the fight or flight response, and for anxiety. It’s job is to alert you so that you can protect yourself. However, because as human beings we have the function of thinking, we get stuck in the anxious mode. Letting go of thoughts for a while and consciously calming down gives you access to the calmer side of the brain that has less extreme, more realistic ideas about the situation. Look for the Hidden Treasures: Every situation has something to offer. Even seemingly dull, boring situations like these have something to offer – maybe it is opportunity to deeply introspect, maybe it is opportunity to reflect and develop some part of yourself that you haven’t been able to, maybe its just about developing some comfort with doing less and staying with yourself; or about doing your workout through household chores! Whether you know it or not, you are constantly learning and growing through situations. Once you see this, you will be in a more joyful and less negative space. Connect, connect! You must have seen enough information on social media about how social distancing does not have to mean disconnecting. In fact, it could actually mean connecting in a whole different way! Just getting time and space to have deep conversation, to really observe and get to know your family or roommates better, notice and savor the little things and we don’t get the space to savor otherwise! Rest and Rejuvenate: More space and less stimulation have been seen as the essentials of mental health. They have also been seen as the bedrock of creativity. Most of us live our lives being bombarded by stimulation and information. We constantly do and rarely get space to just be. While it is understandable that this is a bit of a prolonged break, it still is a break unlike one you may not have had in a long time. Use it to rejuvenate. Explore the things you were never able to do while you were constantly outside. Once you get comfortable with doing less and with being with yourself, your need to constantly distract

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How Loneliness Affects your Physical Health : World Health Day Series

4 Comments / Depression / Inner Space Team / April 9, 2019 / article series, depressed, feeling lonely, health and wellness, managing depression, mental health, mind and body

Loneliness: Not Just An Emotional State, But A Physical Risk Too This is the third, concluding post in our World Health Day series. The first one was on lack of routine and its impact on physical health and the second one spoke about how developmental trauma could cause psychosomatic symptoms. Today’s post, written by Prerana Dharnidharka, a couples and sex therapist who worked with us from 2018-2020, looks at how loneliness affects your physical health and what you could do about it. The quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives – Esther Perel, a famous relationship therapist. This is not just a philosophical stance. The lack of fulfilling relationships or loneliness, in fact, makes us prone to poor physical heath and a lower quality of life. In honor of world health day, I want to highlight the significant risk loneliness poses to our health and happiness, especially among older adults. Impact Of Loneliness On Physical Health Loneliness (or the perceived gap between the relationships we want and the relationships we have) is a common and universal human experience. Feeling persistently lonely however, increases the likelihood of death loneliness and can harm our bodies too. Loneliness can reduce our lifespan, just like smoking, physical inactivity and obesity do. We have public advisories about the harmful effects of smoking but no one tells us that not having a solid network of friends and family (i.e. social isolation) can harm us by increasing the risk for coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, chronic diseases and a dysregulated immune system. It can also make it difficult to sleep restfully which has a cascading effect on our physical health. So loneliness hurts and it hurts more physically than we imagine. Why Do We Feel Lonely? We could experience loneliness for a host of reasons. Life events such as moving to a new place, children moving away or getting divorced can trigger a period of loneliness. Even positive life changes such as getting married or having a baby can make you feel very lonely as you transition into a new life phase and struggle with the inherent challenges. As we age, we may lose family members friends to death or health issues might restrict our ability to be social. Or we could just feel subjectively lonely even if we have a network of friends and family. Is Loneliness Impacting Your Well-Being? Counseling can be a great tool for you to manage and overcome your loneliness and lead a happy, balanced life. We are here for you. Book an Appointment Why Is Loneliness So Harmful? How and why loneliness affects us so negatively is a complex answer involving our genetics, physiological functioning, immune system, sleep and the perception of stress. To simplify however, one way in which loneliness hurts us is by making us feel unsafe and perceive the world as an unfriendly place. When we perceive this lack of safety, we expect more negative experiences with others. When we expect negative interactions with others, we tend to get negative interactions and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Disappointed by this negativity, we might withdraw socially and feel more anxious, stressed and pessimistic. This might then contribute to the development of health problems. Loneliness can also make us poor at self-regulation, i.e. the way we manage our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. We might have a harder time doing things that take effort, coping with negative emotions and engaging in health promoting behaviors like exercise and monitoring alcohol use. All of this would increase our risk for poor physical health. What Can You Do? Evaluate your own level of loneliness: Reflecting on your own level of loneliness is a good first step. Respond to the 3-item loneliness scale (Hughes, Waite, Hawkley, & Cacioppo, 2004) below. This is not a clinical measure that can tell you if your level of loneliness is unhealthy or not. But it is one way you can quickly assess if loneliness is an area of stress for you. How often do you feel that you lack companionship: Hardly ever, some of the time, or often? How often do you feel left out: Hardly ever, some of the time, or often? How often do you feel isolated from others: Hardly ever, some of the time, or often? If you responded with “often” to all 3 statements, then loneliness might be a stressor for you. Reflect on your existing relationships: Ask yourself, how are my current close relationships going? Do I feel understood and connected? Am I getting what I need? Am I making active efforts to make them fulfilling? Based on this reflection, you can decide if your relationships need more time, effort and communication. Proactively invest in building and maintaining your relationships: Next time you’re faced with a choice, to binge watch something on Netflix or go out and do something social, go out. Take initiative, plan more social experiences, reach out without being asked, show up for your friends and family and ask for what you need. It’s worth it. About the Author This article was written by Prerna Dharnidaraka, Counselor at Inner Space. This post was consulted & approved by professional therapists practicing online therapy and counseling. Ask a Therapist If you are interested to know more about loneliness and other mental health topics, ‘Ask A Therapist’ is a platform for you to ask your questions related to Mental Health, Mindfulness & Emotional Well-Being to our team of qualified Therapists. Ask a Therapist Related Blogs Overcome Depression And Reclaim Your Life Preventing Depression: Boosting Your Psychological Immunity Coping with Social Anxiety: The Fear of Being Judged

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How Developmental Trauma Causes Psychosomatic Symptoms : World Health Day Series

Leave a Comment / Mental Health Week Series / Inner Space Team / April 8, 2019 / article series, health and wellness, mental health, mind and body, trauma informed

This is the second sharing in our World Health Day series. The last one was on Lack of Routine and its impact on physical health. Today’s sharing is on Psychosomatic Symptoms and its relationship with chronically unprocessed emotions. In my therapy practice, I see several clients coming in with complaints like chronic body pain, asthma, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, even life threating cancers. They have typically spent years on various medical regiments before coming in for therapy. Some clients experience a sudden loss of functioning in a part of their body, which cannot be explained medically. Again, several years pass by before they think of seeking therapy for their concerns. Their history suggests normal lifestyles with no big ‘trauma’, man-made or natural, to offset such intense chronic concerns. Can psychological therapy make a difference in these cases? Turns out it can! After a considerable amount of therapy, some clients experience even a complete resolution of symptoms, whereas some became more responsive to their medical treatment, leading to a better prognosis. So What Worked? Why Did Therapy Help? Becoming aware and working on the common thread running through these apparent physiological concerns is what helped. The root cause was in the mind, not in the body. Though they hadn’t experienced big traumas, a closer analysis of their life suggested the presence of “developmental trauma” in many cases. Experience or perception of negative, abusive, neglectful (lack of warmth) harsh environment in childhood left them ill equipped to deal with stressors as life progressed. To deal with their circumstances, they numbed themselves, suppressing and cutting off from their emotional pain. Unfortunately, if you numb the negative emotions, the positive ones get numbed too. Hence, this compromised their capacity to feel positive as well. They interacted with the world more cognitively, focusing on getting things done and moving on. Over a period of time this unprocessed emotional energy started to manifest in bodily symptoms. Chronic body pain for instance was associated with the burden of carrying responsibilities from a very young age and a lack of love and support. Asthma was associated with a suppression of one’s own voice and not articulating one’s feelings in most situations. Ulcerative colitis and cancer were associated with huge amounts of guilt and anger. Some people I have worked with haven’t undergone developmental trauma but have experienced prolonged stress and are left with issues like migraines and repetitive eruptions of ulcers and skin conditions. Mobilizing and processing the emotional energy in a safe and holding environment began the psychological healing process, which started reflecting on the body as well. Clients with complaints of different aches and pains demonstrated remarkable improvement while patients suffering from advanced conditions like Cancers felt more in control of their diagnosis and medical treatment. A unanimous feeling they all shared was a regret of not keeping their mental health in check and seeking psychological help at an earlier stage that could have perhaps averted the physiological condition altogether. One of the other key commonalities was the complete lack of awareness of the emotional suffering they were experiencing over a period of time. On the contrary, they dismissed their suffering as trivial and unimportant. They were either not feeling the pain as a consequence of numbing themselves or were in state of (helpless) denial about its existence that ultimately led to chronic physical diseases that warranted attention. Breaking The Cycle: Preventing Psychosomatic Symptoms ‘The past is present for new learning to occur’. Tune into your inner world, be honest with yourself and answer the following questions: Do you generally feel little or no emotions? It’s like being on neutral in every situation. Do your thoughts comprise primarily of things to do? Quickly shunning away emotionally loaded material? Do you have past experiences that you believe you are over however get uncomfortable when triggered? Do you consider others’ needs before yours and have a hard time saying no? If the answers to the above questions is a “yes” you are prone to developing psycho- somatic symptoms because of your tendency of coping by suppression and by not putting yourself as priority. As they say – A healthy body is a reflection of a healthy mind. On this “World health day” make a resolve for improving your mental- health as your physical health depends on it. Attune to your emotions, as they are messengers guiding you through life. When there are pleasant experiences allow yourself, to feel the pleasant feelings completely. Challenging situations will produce unpleasant emotions. Instead of resisting it, embrace it as it teaches you to bring about a change towards healthy growth. Is Trauma negatively impacting your life? Counseling can be a great tool for you to manage and learn more about trauma and lead a happy, stress-free life. We are here for you. Book an Appointment Frequently Asked Questions What are some ways to manage Developmental Trauma by myself? Some of the best ways to manage developmental trauma is through mindfulness practices, learning and being informed about trauma, and being in groups to provide support to yourself and others from trauma. Can all trauma be Developmental Trauma? No, as there are multiple forms and types of trauma. Developmental trauma, in particular, occurs in childhood and can hinder a normal development of the child. Can I get better from Developmental Trauma? Certainly. Trauma can be effectively healed and managed with the help of various therapeutic and self-help strategies. About the Author This article was written by Gitali Chatterjee, Counselor at Inner Space. This post was consulted & approved by professional therapists practicing online therapy and counseling. Ask a Therapist If you are interested to know more about Developmental Trauma and other mental health topics, ‘Ask A Therapist’ is a platform for you to ask your questions related to Mental Health, Mindfulness & Emotional Well-Being to our team of qualified Therapists. Ask a Therapist Related Blogs Coping With The Psychological Effects Of Traumatic News Vicarious Trauma and PTSD Disciplining Children With Compassion

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How Does Lack of Routine Impact Your Health? : World Health Day Series

Leave a Comment / Mental Health Week Series / Inner Space Team / April 5, 2019 / article series, health and wellness, mental health, mind and body, setting goals, stress management

Today is World Health Day! We don’t need ‘days’ to look after ourselves. However, they are good reminders to look into anything we might be missing out on. After all, they make us think of whatever the day is about, even if for a few moments. This World Health day, we decided to write about ways in which Mental Health affects Physical Health. With the boom in mental health awareness, we all know that mental health affects physical health. However, the specifics of this are still not known to many. How does mental health affect physical health? What factors can affect it? To what extent can the effect be? To shed light on these questions, over this week, we will share an article on the effect of 3 factors on mental and physical health: Lack of a Routine – irregular sleep, lack of proper eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle Loneliness – lack of companionship and feelings of isolation Developmental and Relational Trauma – chronic and intensely distressing experiences in childhood and adulthood Today’s sharing is the first of these three. It is a sharing from Nandita Sarma, one of our therapists. Stay tuned this week for the other two! How is Lack of a Routine Detrimental to Physical and Mental Health? What is lack of a routine? It is irregular sleep, eating habits and exercise. Most often we think of mental health and physical health as two separate entities but they are often very closely linked. These irregular habits often show immediate effects on our emotional well being. It often makes us restless, focus in our day to day activities becomes a task, we feel fatigue or a dip in energy and we become short tempered…to name just a few effects. A lot of us suffer from poor sleep patterns and we often blame – stress, taking work home, our relationship with our gadgets. What Are We Missing? The cost of a lack of routine is much higher than just bad moods and lack of focus. There is research evidence that irregular sleep habits put you at a risk of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and it shortens your life expectancy. If you seem to catch almost every flu and cold that is going around, your bedtime could be to blame. Extended periods of lack of sleep can disturb your immune system and your body might not be in a position to fight, like it used to. Regular sleep habits boosts your immunity, prevents diabetes, increases sex drive. Regular sleep habits generally help us function better mentally and physically. Lack of irregular eating habits and exercise may lead to many mental and physical ailments. The National Institute of Health links long-term poor nutrition with a number of physical issues. These include obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, gallstones, gout and many other health problems. According to them, a sedentary lifestyle increases the risk for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis and infertility. In recent times, I have noticed that a lack of routine in the lifestyle has become a norm. There is no consistency, therefore people struggle to maintain a balance in their personal, professional and social lives. It is sometimes difficult to identify what comes to the forefront first – mental stress or physical ailments. But maintaining a routine will definitely help in functioning to the best of your abilities at a steady pace. We almost always put a lot of thought before doing anything….on this World Health Day, leave the thinking aside and just start. It’ll do a lot of good to both your mental and physical wellbeing. ADD THIS SIMPLE PRACTICE INTO YOUR LIFE TO CREATE A ROUTINE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDP181LvDrc&ab_channel=InnerSpace about the author share this blog! read similar blogs

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EMOTIONAL EATING: DO YOU EAT TO FEEL BETTER?

Leave a Comment / Stress Management / Inner Space Team / July 27, 2016 / binge eating, body image issues, emotional eating, health and wellness, managing emotions, mental health, mind and body, negative thoughts

If you’re new to the term “emotional eating,” reflect on these questions below: Do you eat to feel better (to comfort yourself when feeling upset, angry or anxious)?Do you use food as reward or an incentive?Do you feel like food is a friend?Do you unwittingly turn to food when you’re bored or simply need to while away time?Do you share a love-hate relationship with food? What is Emotional Eating? “When feeling unloved, facing rejection/ even processing the pain of rejection, or feeling abandoned, you want to make the pain go away. In an attempt to defend yourself from such pain and insecurity, you seek comfort and security through different means – food, being one of them.” – Kunjal Thus, emotional eating is turning to food for comfort, for relief from a distressing emotion, as a reward or an incentive or out of any emotional state rather than to satisfy hunger. How is Emotional Eating Different from Eating out of Hunger? • Emotional eating may involve craving for specific kinds of ‘comfort’ food – while hunger does not. Hardly will you crave for vegetables or ‘healthy’ foods when it is out of an emotional cause. In fact, there’s a tendency to crave for foods high on sugar content or fats is more, when it is for an emotional need. • Emotional hunger can come on suddenly – in response to a trigger, a situation or an emotion, as opposed to physical hunger, which tends to build gradually. • You may be less aware of how much you’re eating when there’s emotional hunger. You may suddenly realize that the entire packet of chips is empty or you’ve finished the whole bar of chocolate without really experiencing it. • Emotional eating makes you feel guilty and ashamed after having eaten, as opposed to eating for physical hunger – which makes you feel content and calm. How are Eating and Emotions Related? Food as a means of exercising control: “When emotions are experienced as overwhelming i.e. when there is a belief that ‘I cannot tolerate this emotion’, there is a need to do something about the feeling. One starts feeling helpless and feels the urge to do something to alleviate the experience of the emotion.” – Namrata It is in such a state of helplessness, feeling out of control, that emotional eating comes in as a ‘relief’ – a) more directly as a result of consuming food containing sugar or fats, which are physiologically are capable of having a calming, soothing effect and b) because the act of eating distracts us from experiencing the disturbing emotion and gives us the feeling that we are ‘doing’ something and so are not totally helpless. Food as a means of seeking nurturance: Food is unconsciously associated with nurturance since we are born – of being fed, being looked after and a feeling of safety. Thus, one may find themselves binging on food, when they are looking for comfort. “It’s not an uncommon scene to watch mothers forcing their little ones to eat and the mothers themselves feeling guilty if their child hasn’t eaten well.” – Megha. Food as coping mechanism for survivors of abuse: Some of the survivors of sexual abuse eat a lot so as to gain weight as a means of protecting themselves from unwanted attention or sexual advances. On the other extreme, they may starve themselves of food over the feeling that they don’t deserve anything good. “Individuals who have experienced neglect, abuse or deprivation in their childhoods may have a tendency to hoard food, as food is associated with nurturance, which they may experience a lack of.” – Ashwini Treating oneself harshly: The lack of self-worth “Back in the days, most of us woudl feel happy about a meal and not bother talking about it. Now after every meal, we tend to analyse every bit of it. Can you imagine how exhausting it is? To constantly feel guilty, sad and get worked up after everything we eat!” – Nandita This tussle sometimes, is really between yourself and your Inner Critic – the part of you that constantly tells you to keep doing better, pointing out your flaws – at times keeping you motivated but often, making you feel like you are not good enough! The Inner Critic sometimes believes strongly in either or all of the following, each of which, realistically speaking, may be extremely idealistic: • I must look and be perfect • I must not make any mistakes • Everyone must like me “The Inner Critic ties our self-worth, the way we feel about ourselves, tightly to the realisation of these beliefs. It makes you believe that if these expectations aren’t met, you aren’t good enough. Thus, the Inner Critic has us on a leash, constantly asking us to strive for most ideal standards.” – Sindhura Thus, when self-worth becomes dependent on such unrealistic expectations, the tendency to be self-critical can show itself in making us feel extremely conscious about our eating habits and giving rise to guilt. Understand And Practice Mindfulness Through Our ‘Free Mindfulness Videos’ Click here Aiming for perfection: The role of guilt “We live in the generation of constantly being preoccupied with our dietary needs and fitness goals. We are all very self-conscious.” – Michelle Usually, the problem does not lie in aiming for healthy weight and then making efforts to maintain it. The issue really is the intense need to go beyond and attain perfection, the definition of which itself, can be very subjective and often dictated by society. “Anyway once the ‘ideal’ weight is attained, we find it difficult to accept even a slight change in the measurements and if there is an increase the automatic thought would be- “I guess I ate too many sweets yesterday” rather than thinking about other contributing factors like stress or hormonal changes.” – Gitali Instead of eating healthy or exercising most of us spend time feeling really guilty about eating and not exercising. Overwhelming guilt could lead you to stay away from certain foods for a long period and then suddenly make

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EMOTIONAL HEALING: GETTING IN TOUCH WITH EMOTIONS IN THE BODY

Leave a Comment / Mindfulness and Meditation / Inner Space Team / March 7, 2015 / binge eating, body image issues, emotional eating, health and wellness, managing emotions, mental health, mind and body, negative thoughts

I feel so worried

I’m extremely sad today

I’m very very angry

A feeling is equal to some thoughts and a state of mind – is that it though? When you speak of sadness, anger, fear, despair what do you think these emotions really include? A lot of us mistakenly believe that emotions are just about some thoughts and the way one feels.

This understanding is hugely incomplete

Emotions have a big, big manifestation in the body too. In fact, the body is the seat of emotions.

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IS IT ONLY YOUR MIND THAT’S ANXIOUS, OR YOUR BODY TOO?

Leave a Comment / Anxiety / Inner Space Team / October 10, 2013 / health and wellness, managing anxiety, mind and body, negative thoughts, overthinking

It is World Mental Health Day!

There wouldn’t have been a better time to talk about one of the most common afflictions as far as mental health is concerned, something that almost all of us face – ‘Anxiety’.

Be it seeing after your children or making it on time to work, several situations give us the “on the edge” feeling.

When we talk of dealing with or managing anxiety, we think about it the mental way. We try to take things easy, we try to consciously ask ourselves to ‘calm down’ and stay focused.

However, what we tend to ignore is that –
Anxiety is as much in the body as it is in the mind

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Mental Health - Attention and Introspection

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH WEEK 2013 IS HERE!

Leave a Comment / Mental Health Week Series / Inner Space Team / October 7, 2013 / article series, health and wellness, mental health, self help

To all of you who have been reading what we share, and to those who have stumbled upon our website more recently – World Mental Health Week is here!

We’ve always been excited about this week… more so because we hold mental health very close to our hearts. So over 2011 and 2012, we have been posting something special for all of you throughout this week..and the tradition continues this year as well.

Before we share what we are up to for Mental Health Week 2013, we want to ask you – what does mental health mean to you?

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FINDING THE MIDDLE ROAD TO MENTAL HEALTH

2 Comments / Stress Management / Sadia Saeed / March 13, 2013 / health and wellness, mental health, mind and body

“Maybe you could try to get something done by this week”,

“Maybe you’re trying too hard, you could do with a little bit of letting go”

“There may be a lot more options you haven’t explored”

“It would help if you would stop exploring more and more options and instead focus on one”

“Maybe you could reach out to your partner more”,

“Maybe you could detach a bit from your partner and work with yourself instead!”

Yes I’m quoting myself! What in the world am I trying to do contradicting myself all over???

You’ll soon know!

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health and wellness

A Year Since Lockdown: Lessons The Pandemic Taught Us

Dealing with Anxiety in the times of the Coronavirus

How Loneliness Affects your Physical Health : World Health Day Series

How Developmental Trauma Causes Psychosomatic Symptoms : World Health Day Series

How Does Lack of Routine Impact Your Health? : World Health Day Series

EMOTIONAL EATING: DO YOU EAT TO FEEL BETTER?

EMOTIONAL HEALING: GETTING IN TOUCH WITH EMOTIONS IN THE BODY

IS IT ONLY YOUR MIND THAT’S ANXIOUS, OR YOUR BODY TOO?

WORLD MENTAL HEALTH WEEK 2013 IS HERE!

FINDING THE MIDDLE ROAD TO MENTAL HEALTH

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