Falling forward to stay well this winter

If you are like many people, the shift in time and

“falling back" with our clocks the passing of day light savings time means a bonus hour of sleep and a progressive shift towards shorter and darker days as the sun sets earlier each night.  It also means that you likely experience changes in your mood (you may even experience the "winter blues," otherwise known as seasonal affective disorder), experience lethargy, a loss of motivation, and increased cravings for foods (particularly sweets).     

Your sleep and wake cycles are regulated by your circadian rhythm and the amount of day light you are exposed to each day.  Your circadian rhythm also affects your appetite and hunger, concentration, mood and desire for foods, particularly sweets that are rich in quickly digested carbohydrates.^1,2  Your desire for these foods that leads to more insulin being produced and gaining weight is an evolutionary mechanism to gain weight and "hibernate" for the winter. 

It is only because of the year round availability of these foods (e.g., tropical fruit, potatoes, rice) and the artificial changing of time (some states like Hawaii and most of Arizona and most countries in Africa and Asia do not participate in DST.   In South America most countries in the north of the continent near the equator do not observe DST, while Paraguay and southern parts of Brazil do.) that you may struggle with "cravings" and judge yourself harshly instead of embracing your body, changes in dietary cravings and feel "down."

So rather than reaching for that extra "cup of Joe," feeling guilty for wanting more foods that may lead to adding a few transient pounds for the winter or engaging in compensatory behaviors (e.g., over exercising and "punishing" your body or skipping meals), be gentle and kind with your body-mind and realign with the seasonal changes in day light, food and "fall forward" instead to stay well this winter.

Focus on spending as much as is feasible for you during the day outside and practice sensible sun light exposure while you avoid the unnecessary use of electronics like your smartphone, your computer or watching  T.V. after sunset as these devices emit blue spectrum light that interferes with your pineal gland's secretion of melatonin and keeps you awake at night.  Instead, spend time with your friends and family playing board games, read paper books and magazines, listen to music or develop a hobby like drawing.  In addition, make sure that you practice good sleep hygiene to help your sleep improve, reduce your cravings and make smarter choices that will satisfy your cravings for sweets while nourishing your body.  To help you, experiment with my suggestions below:

1. The most effective and simplest strategy to improve your quality of sleep is going to bed at the same time each evening and waking up at the same time every morning.
2. You also want to develop a night time ritual to help you transition into sleep. Try reading or meditating (e.g., Mindfulness Meditation or Loving Kindness Meditation) an hour before you go to bed. 
3. To help you sleep more easily, it is also important to avoid certain stimuli and avoid drinking or eating within 3 hours of your bed time.   Eating before you sleep can interfere with restful sleep as your body is still digesting food. 
4. As a rule of thumb, you also want to dim the lights in your room or house 2 hours before bed time to help your body produce more melatonin.  
5. Wear a sleep mask or install black out curtains in your bedroom to keep artificial lights from interfering with your sleep.  
6. If you must work and use a computer or your smartphone, use software like f.lux to reduce the interference of your computer and IPhone or EasyEyez for Android. Or wear orange or red tinted sunglasses like BluBlockers to protect you from blue spectrum lights. 
7. Set your smartphone on “airplane mode” and unplug your Wi-Fi router at home as you will not be using the internet during your sleep and the EMFs produced by your phone and Wi-Fi router may interfere with your sleep. 
8. Set the ambient temperature in your bedroom down to at least 68 degrees Fahrenheit or lower. Your core body temperature drops during sleep and setting your climate control higher can contribute to restless sleep.
9. Choose slower digesting foods that will satisfy your "sweet tooth" that are seasonal like cranberries, kiwi fruit, figs, pomegranates, and squashes and pumpkin. 

To your health,
Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

1. Ilardi, S. (2010). The Depression Cure: The 6-Step Program to Beat Depression without Drugs.
2. Wiley, TS & Formby, B. (2001). Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival.

The information, published and/or made available through the www.fullofradiance.com website, is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.  Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.

How to grow love and kindness for yourself and others . . .

You may face situations that are challenging

and perhaps even overwhelming each day.   You may be "tested" at the expense of your inner peace and personal resources.  Illness, the loss of loved ones and simple everyday experiences like bumper to bumper traffic can provoke feelings of pain, sadness, anxiety and anger.  Such experiences not only produce painful emotions, they are also very damaging to your body.  

While practicing different forms of relaxation, skills like progressive muscle relaxation, diaphragmatic breathing or receiving massage therapy are effective in helping you to reduce your stress; new research suggests that cultivating and practicing Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) provides you distinct benefits that go beyond managing your stress.   

Researchers at Emory University have found that LKM may improve your physical and emotional responses to stress.  Consistently practicing LKM every day for as little as 10 minutes helps you to reduce feeling of stress and depression,  reduces physiological inflammation, illness, and chronic pain as well as enhances your empathy and feelings of social connection to others, self-acceptance, and physical resilience and well-being (i.e., increases the vagal tone and changes the neural circuitry of the insula and temporal parietal junction in the brain).^{1, 2,3,4}

Having a LKM practice is simple and easy.  To practice, visualize and generate positive,  loving feelings towards yourself and others by gently repeating the following phrases:  

• May I be filled with love and kindness.
• May be I safe and protected.
• May I love and be loved.
• May I be happy and contented.
• May I be healthy and strong.
• May my life unfold with ease.
• May I be a person of joy.

After visualizing and sending love and kindness to yourself,  follow by visualizing and then generating and sending these feelings to the following: 

1. someone who you love deeply (e.g., your husband, mother, son). 
2. a good friend.
3. someone who is "neutral"  who you have neither very positive or negative feelings towards (e.g., the cashier at your grocery store).
4. someone who you do not like who may have hurt you and provokes feelings of discomfort or pain (e.g.,  your boss).
5. all beings everywhere alive.

You may also listen to a free guided LKM practices offered by the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center.

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

1. Carson, JW, Keefe, FJ, Lynch, TR, Carson, KM, Goli, V, Fras, AM and et al. “Loving-Kindness Meditation for Chronic Low Back Pain: Results From a Pilot Trial” Journal Of Holistic Nursing. (2005). 23: 287-304. 
2. Fredrickson, BL, Cohn, MA., Coffey, KA, Pek, J, and Finkel, SM. “Open Hearts Build Lives: Positive Emotions, Induced Through Loving-Kindness Meditation, Build Consequential Personal Resources.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.  (2008). 95(5), 1045-1062. 
3. Hutcherson CA, Seppala EM, and Gross JJ. “Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness.” Emotion. (2008). 8(5):720-4. doi: 10.1037/a0013237. 
4. Lutz A, Brefczynski-Lewis J, Johnstone T, and Davidson RJ. “Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation: Effects of Meditative Expertise.” PLoS ONE. (2008). 3(3), e1897. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001897.

 

The information, published and/or made available through the www.fullofradiance.com website, is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.  Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.

How to nourish your body and cut your cravings for sugar . . .

If your like many people this time of the year, you are

anticipating the beginning of the fall and holiday season.  Whether you are a kid at heart  and look forward to celebrating Halloween or spending time with your friends and family for Thanksgiving, you can have fun, celebrate the love in your life and boost your immune system to avoid getting the flu or feeling run down by adopting simple guidelines in the foods that you choose to eat most of the time and HOW you eat.

Sugar in soda, lollipops, cakes, ice cream and other processed foods replace the calories and nutrients you could get from eating more nutrient-dense and mineral-rich real foods.   When you consume sugar, you deplete your body of essential vitamins and minerals.  As an example, your body needs 54 molecules of magnesium to be able to process every molecule of sugar you eat.  Sugar is such a problem that it is now recognized by many health experts, that sugar and not fat is the leading cause of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, fatty liver disease and several digestive disorders.

Eating real, nutrient dense  foods is simple and the most effective way to nourish your body, avoid having cravings for sugar  and reverse numerous health problems like diabetes and heart disease. When investing in the foods that you prepare and eat at home most of the time (i.e., 80% of meals that you cook), strive to eat a variety of real, unprocessed, whole foods. 

Real Whole Foods

• Grass fed, pasture raised meats, poultry and wild caught seafood all are great sources of essential fatty acids and many of the minerals and fat soluble vitamins, like vitamins A, E, D and K2 that regenerate your cells, help you to build your brain,  stabilize your blood sugar levels and support your immune system.

• Organic dark, green leafy vegetables, nuts, seeds and berries like kale, bok choy, mustard greens, collard greens, Brazil nuts,  pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, as well as tubers like potatoes and sweet potatoes, squash, pumpkin,  strawberries, raspberries and blue berries provide many nutrients like magnesium, potassium, selenium, fiber and folate that are essential for your body. 
• Cultured and fermented foods like sauerkraut, kim chi, miso, chutney and kefir are all great foods rich in beneficial bacteria and yeast that support and enhance your immune system, digestive health and help you to reduce your craving for sugar. 

When you are invited or go out to celebrate and enjoy a holiday party, you'll also want to use the following suggestions to help you slow down and enjoy your experience.  Before attending a celebration or going out, make sure that you are fully hydrated and fully nourished.  It's inevitable that whether you're attending your friend's Halloween party or partaking in a holiday meal with family, there will be several opportunities to overindulge if you do not remember WHY you are celebrating and have not nourished your body with real, unprocessed, whole foods that provide your body with the nutrients that you need.

When you are present and enjoying the company of the people and festivities of the celebration, focus on the people who you love to spend time with, love and "make contact" with your experiences (i.e., get out of your mind so that you notice the sounds, colors, smells and tactile sensations as you greet, hug, dance and listen to music, talk to your friends and family using your 5 senses.). If you choose to eat, allow yourself to relax and savor every bite that you ingest.  Notice the colors, shapes, aromas or smells of the food, notice the sounds and texture of each morsel as you chew your food mindfully.  Chew your food slowly to allow the salivary enzymes in your mouth to coat the food that you are eating and embody your eating experience so that you can observe and allow your body to signal when you are satiated (i.e, you want to chew each bite of food at least 20 times to enhance your digestion and have your stomach produce sufficient stomach acid). 

While your cravings for sugar may be challenging, it may simply be an indication that you are wanting a deeper connection with people or fear of being judged.  Many times your challenges around food are your body's innate wisdom speaking to you.  Perhaps, you need to venture out, socialize more frequently  and love yourself first.  By nourishing your body with nutrient rich foods and changing HOW you eat, your craving for sugar will diminish. 

 

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.  

The information, published and/or made available through the www.fullofradiance.com website, is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.  Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.

Why mindfulness meditation can help you to transform your life . . .

If you struggle with feelings of anxiety and

depression, you very likely also are your own worst critic, judge yourself harshly and negatively compare yourself to other people.  You may engage in this behavior believing that this is an effective way to motivate yourself to do better, as a habit that you picked somewhere in your past or simply because we live in a culture that reinforces the message that demanding more of yourself is the way to move ahead in world.  If this sounds like you, you probably also do everything that you can do to run away and avoid difficult and painful feelings (e.g., watch TV, smoke, drink alcohol to “numb out,” or  binge on food), experience guilt or shame when you do not do as well as you wanted to and have a difficult time expressing your emotions to people.

While short term many of these behaviors do provide relief and pleasure, in the long run they are not sustainable and adversely affect your health.   By ignoring your emotions and avoiding your difficult thoughts and emotions, your “fight or flight” (i.e., amygdala and adrenals) and PIN systems (psychoimmunoneurology, the study of how your thoughts and emotions interface with your immune and neurological systems) get ramped up, which damage your body by releasing more stress hormones like cortisol and inflammatory cytokines.

On the other hand, when you express yourself and “talk it out” with your friends and family or practice affect labeling (i.e., simply labeling and mentally acknowledging your experiences), you activate a region in your brain (i.e., right ventrolateral frontal cortex) that helps you to process your thoughts and emotions and mitigates the damaging effects of running away from your experiences.^1,2  By talking to other people, you’re likely to also receive caring and loving words of support and affection that increase the amount of the “bonding hormone” (i.e., oxytocin) and feel good and pain relief chemicals (i.e., endogenous opioids) that your body produces.

Learning and practicing mindfulness meditation will lead to and produce many of these same beneficial effects.  Research suggests that cultivating self-compassion and mentally noting your experiences (i.e., an essential aspect of mindfulness meditation), help to significantly down regulate your “fight or flight” and PIN systems.^3,4,5   These practices will also help you to produce more feel good and pain relief chemicals.  You can practice mentally noting your experiences and cultivate self-compassion by simply labeling your thoughts and emotions (e.g., each time you experience any unpleasant or painful thoughts or feelings of anxiety, gently repeat “fear” or “tension” and affirm “It’s okay.”).  

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

1. Nakazawa, DJ. (2013). The Last Best Cure: My Quest to Awaken the Healing Parts of My Brain and Get Back My Body, My Joy, and My Life. 
2. Lieberman, MD, Eisenberger, NI, Crockett,MJ,  Tom, SM,  Pfeifer, JH and Way, BM. “Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling Disrupts Amygdala Activity in Response to Affective Stimuli .” Psychological Science. (2007). 18(5), 421-428.  doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916. 
3. Leary, MR, Tate, EB, Adams, CE, Batts, AA, Ashley; and Hancock, J. “Self-compassion and reactions to unpleasant self-relevant events: The implications of treating oneself kindly.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. (2007). 92(5), 887-904. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.92.5.887 
4. Neff, KD and McGehee, P. “Self-compassion and psychological resilience among adolescents and young adults.” Self and Identity. (2010). 9 (3), 225-240. doi:10.1080/15298860902979307. 
5. Creswell, JD, Way, BM, Eisenberger, NI, Lieberman, MD. “Neural correlates of dispositional mindfulness during affect labeling.” Psychosomatic Medicine. (2007). 69(6), 560-565.

The information, published and/or made available through the www.fullofradiance.com website, is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.  Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.

How mindfulness meditation can extend and revitalize your life.

If you’re reading my blog, there’s a good

chance that you’re not fully aware of what is happening right now and you are distracted by a torrent of thoughts and feelings.  Researchers from Harvard University have found that people spend 46.9% of their waking time thinking about something other than what they’re doing and that this generally leads to a state of unhappiness.  Furthermore, painful and unpleasant emotional states like dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety and depression can contribute to and accelerate the speed of cognitive decline.  It’s no wonder then that you may be searching for a way to help you improve your life satisfaction and enhance your cognitive abilities.  Fortunately, the simple skill of paying attention to and noticing your breath will help to restore you and may even extend your life. 

Research has found that learning and practicing mindfulness meditation (i.e., observing your breath and simply noticing your thoughts, emotions and sensations with curiosity and non-judgmentally) can lower your levels of stress, increase telomerase activity (i.e., your telomeres play a key role in the aging of your cells), enhance cognitive abilities like your memory and ability to focus and may even extend your lifespan by warding off the physiological effects of aging.^{1, 2, 3}  
  
This is significant news since research from the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study has found that having early life experiences like physical, emotional or sexual abuse, having parents who divorced, abused alcohol and drugs or family mental illness significantly increases the likelihood that you will experience emotional and cognitive impairments, adopt heath risk behaviors, chronic disease and lead to premature death.⁴ 

To learn mindfulness meditation is simple but not easy.   Several resources exist, however; to support you and provide guidance as you cultivate a consistent practice.  The Center for Mindfulness, developed by Jon Kabat Zinn, offers an 8-week MBSR training program.  You can also find MBSR programs locally or online.  

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.

1. Epel, E, Daubenmier, J, Moskowitz, JT, Folkman, S, and Blackburn, E. “Can meditation slow rate of cellular aging? Cognitive stress, mindfulness, and telomeres.” Annals NY Academy of Science. (2009). 1172: 34–53. doi:  10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04414.Jacobs, TL, Epel, ES, Lin, J, Blackburn, EH, Wolkowitz, OM, Bridwell, DA et al. “Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators.” Psychoneuroendocrinology. (2011). 36(5) 664–681. 
2. Hölzel, BK, Carmody, J, Vangel, M, Congleton, C, Yerramsetti, SM, Gard, T, and Lazar, SW. “Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density.”  Psychiatry Research.  (2011). 191(1):36-43. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006. 
3. Kim, S, Bi, X, Czarny-Ratajczak, M, Dai, J, Welsh, DA, Myers, L, et al. “Telomere maintenance genes SIRT1 and XRCC6 impact age-related decline in telomere length but only SIRT1 is associated with human longevity.” (2012). Biogerontology.  13(2):119-31. doi: 10.1007/s10522-011-9360-5. 
4. Teicher, MH, Anderson, CM and Polcari, A. “Childhood maltreatment is associated with reduced volume in the hippocampal subfields CA3, dentate gyrus, and subiculum.” Proceedings in the National Academy of Science U S A. (2012). 109(9) 563-572. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1115396109.

The information, published and/or made available through the www.fullofradiance.com website, is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.  Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.

How externalizing your awareness can rein in your mind's stories

If you experience bouts of anxiety, worry and

depression or you obsess with unproductive and painful thoughts, you’ll likely benefit by learning to cultivate and externalize your awareness.  You may believe that suppressing what your mind tells you or replacing your mind’s stories with better thoughts or self-affirmations will lead you to live your life in alignment with your values.  Long-term; however, trying to not to think about your mind’s many stories is not effective and very often increases your suffering.  

Research suggests that instead of helping you to experience more vitality, attempting to control your mind and get rid of the many painful thoughts and emotions that you experience will actually increase your pain (i.e., the rebound effect).¹ Rather than attempting to control your mind and attempting to suppress your painful private experiences, learning to monitor your thoughts and simply notice the frequency, duration and situations in which they occur is both simple and effective as it will allow  you to focus on creating a life of meaning and purpose.  

To separate your actions from your unproductive private experiences and help you to get into your life, you can self-monitor by physicalizing each occurrence of a painful thought or feeling with a tally counter.  Using this simple object will help you to interrupt any covert behavioral patterns that lead to your suffering, realign and proceed in the direction of what you value (e.g., being a loving parent, using your creativity in your work, helping other people in your community, being healthy in order to play with your children).  

While at first this may lead you to experience more discomfort as you realize how your control strategies have been ineffective in eliminating your pain, over the long term you will create a rich and meaningful life that measures up to your life’s purpose as you continue to self-monitor,  expand and externalize your awareness. 

To your health,

Dr. Sandoval

To learn more about how working with a psychologist and holistic health coach can help you to enhance your health and well-being, call or email Dr. Sandoval to schedule a free consultation.  

1. Abramowitz , JS, Tolin, DF and Street, GP.   “Paradoxical effects of thought suppression: a meta-analysis of controlled studies.” (2001). Clinical Psychology Review, 21(5) 683-703.

 
The information, published and/or made available through the www.drjosesandoval.com website, is not intended to replace the services of a physician, nor does it constitute a physician-patient relationship. This blog is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should not use the information in this post for diagnosing or treating a medical or health condition. You should consult a physician in all matters relating to your health, particularly in respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.  Any action on the reader’s part in response to the information provided in this blog is at the reader’s discretion.