As we age, sleep changes and may become more elusive. And sleep is mission critical for our mind/body health and longevity. Personally, as I have gotten older, I’ve kind of become obsessed with sleep, wanting to make sure that I get enough that includes adequate REM and deep sleep. I recently started to wear the Oura Ring to track my sleep and learn what I might be able to change in order to improve my sleep scores. I also read any new research that comes along related to sleep, including the benefits of it, the impact of the lack of it, and what life style changes support better sleep. So, I always get excited to see how such research continues to validate my own personal experience as it relates to the connection between yoga and sleep.
When working with clients and I learn about their struggles with their mental health, I explore their experiences with sleep, including perceptions and barriers to quality sleep. It is important to know that our sleep patterns do change as we age and the days of sleeping “soundly” for 8 hours as a child are behind us. Our circadian rhythms shift, leading to feeling sleepy earlier and going to bed earlier. It can also result in more difficulty staying asleep through the night. Hormonal changes, such as a reduction in melatonin that regulates sleep, can impact our sleep. Data shows that there is a change in our sleep architecture as we age, including spending less time in deep, restorative sleep stages and sleep becomes lighter and more fragmented, with more awakenings throughout the night. Knowing this information is important so we don’t develop thoughts like “I had a lousy night sleep.” just because we woke up several times throughout the night. These thoughts, when repeated, tend to become beliefs that incorrectly inform your mind/body health status. The best indicator of a good night’s sleep is not based upon how many hours of “solid sleep” you get, but instead waking up feeling refreshed and ready to start your day and not relying on caffeine to stay awake during the day.
Dealing with medical conditions, such as pain and urinary problems, can impact our ability to fall asleep and stay asleep as well. If you are taking prescription medications for chronic medical conditions, these medications can impact the quality of your sleep too. Changes in our activity level, diet and social habits as we move into the later stages of life can also impact our sleep. So, when we take a look at the broader view of sleep, we might feel like there is not a lot we can do to improve our sleep. But wait! Knowing that lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, and social interactions, have up to an 80% impact on our health and longevity, we do have the opportunity to make such changes.
The benefits of a yoga practice at any age has been shown to have many positive impacts on our mind/body health. And, as the number of people aged 65 and older increases, there are more yoga teachers and classes focused on this population, making gentle yoga and chair yoga options more available than ever. So no need to twist yourself into a pretzel or flip upside down to integrate the practice into your life and reap the benefits from it.
Research continues to show the many benefits of yoga. Specifically, how it improves sleep quality in the elderly, including improvements in sleep disturbance, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and overall sleep quality. If you would like to read more on the recent research into the beneficial effects of yoga on sleep quality in the elderly, click the link below:
Prescribing yoga before medication for sleep disorders?
/in Yoga/by LindaAs we age, sleep changes and may become more elusive. And sleep is mission critical for our mind/body health and longevity. Personally, as I have gotten older, I’ve kind of become obsessed with sleep, wanting to make sure that I get enough that includes adequate REM and deep sleep. I recently started to wear the Oura Ring to track my sleep and learn what I might be able to change in order to improve my sleep scores. I also read any new research that comes along related to sleep, including the benefits of it, the impact of the lack of it, and what life style changes support better sleep. So, I always get excited to see how such research continues to validate my own personal experience as it relates to the connection between yoga and sleep.
When working with clients and I learn about their struggles with their mental health, I explore their experiences with sleep, including perceptions and barriers to quality sleep. It is important to know that our sleep patterns do change as we age and the days of sleeping “soundly” for 8 hours as a child are behind us. Our circadian rhythms shift, leading to feeling sleepy earlier and going to bed earlier. It can also result in more difficulty staying asleep through the night. Hormonal changes, such as a reduction in melatonin that regulates sleep, can impact our sleep. Data shows that there is a change in our sleep architecture as we age, including spending less time in deep, restorative sleep stages and sleep becomes lighter and more fragmented, with more awakenings throughout the night. Knowing this information is important so we don’t develop thoughts like “I had a lousy night sleep.” just because we woke up several times throughout the night. These thoughts, when repeated, tend to become beliefs that incorrectly inform your mind/body health status. The best indicator of a good night’s sleep is not based upon how many hours of “solid sleep” you get, but instead waking up feeling refreshed and ready to start your day and not relying on caffeine to stay awake during the day.
Dealing with medical conditions, such as pain and urinary problems, can impact our ability to fall asleep and stay asleep as well. If you are taking prescription medications for chronic medical conditions, these medications can impact the quality of your sleep too. Changes in our activity level, diet and social habits as we move into the later stages of life can also impact our sleep. So, when we take a look at the broader view of sleep, we might feel like there is not a lot we can do to improve our sleep. But wait! Knowing that lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, and social interactions, have up to an 80% impact on our health and longevity, we do have the opportunity to make such changes.
The benefits of a yoga practice at any age has been shown to have many positive impacts on our mind/body health. And, as the number of people aged 65 and older increases, there are more yoga teachers and classes focused on this population, making gentle yoga and chair yoga options more available than ever. So no need to twist yourself into a pretzel or flip upside down to integrate the practice into your life and reap the benefits from it.
Research continues to show the many benefits of yoga. Specifically, how it improves sleep quality in the elderly, including improvements in sleep disturbance, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and overall sleep quality. If you would like to read more on the recent research into the beneficial effects of yoga on sleep quality in the elderly, click the link below:
5 Intention-setting Ideas to Celebrate National Craft Month
/in Newsletter/by LindaMarch is National Craft Month!
National Craft Month was established to encourage creativity and exploration. Crafting has been shown to relieve stress and boredom. It can spread passion and identify hidden talents!
Crafting includes a broad range of mediums: paper, fabric, wood, paint, glass, clay, yarn, beads, leather, stone, crystals and metal. The art of crafting is dedicated to inspiration and motivation.
Learning a craft offers many mind-body benefits. Most crafts require fine motor skills and concentration, which support the development of these skills in children and maintain them as we get older. Discovering a craft that allows you to express your creativity provides stress relief and can lower blood pressure. Many people struggle with stillness meditation, so crafting becomes a moving meditation. Also, whenever we learn a new skill, there is a natural positive reinforcement that builds confidence from the inside out. With each new step learned, the satisfaction from gaining the skill is rewarding, reinforcing our motivation to continue to learn. When we craft in a group, it builds community and a strong community contributes to longevity.
When creativity becomes stress relieving and inspirational, it fills the soul!
Below are some intention-setting ideas for celebrating this month of creativity, exploration, and inspiration:
5 Intention-setting Ideas to Strengthen Our Courage
/in Newsletter/by LindaWith the new calendar year comes intentions for change. As we welcomed the Chinese New Year of the Snake on January 29th, the snake encourages all of us to embrace change and growth. Yet change is scary as it requires us to open our hearts up and take a risk to try something different. It invites us to face the fear of failure, even when the simple act of trying is evidence of our courage, regardless of the outcome.
Change requires courage, so below are some intention-setting ideas to strengthen our courage in these times of change:
5 Intention-setting Ideas to Raise Poverty Awareness
/in Newsletter/by LindaJanuary is Poverty in America Awareness Month!
National Poverty in America Awareness Month is observed in the month of January. I experienced food scarcity as a child, so this topic is close to my heart. Food scarcity can have a profound and wide-ranging impact on a child’s mental health. It affects their emotional well-being, cognitive development, and social interactions, and it can have lasting effects into adulthood. Addressing food insecurity is essential not only for physical health but also for the mental well-being and future development of our children.
Congress officially recognized Poverty Awareness Month in 2009 to raise awareness and bring attention to the growth of poverty in the United States. The poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5% or 37.9 million people living in poverty. Poverty can arise from many factors, including but not limited to limited access to education, disabilities, and/or social discrimination.
Organizations like the Community Action Network focus on efforts to raise awareness about poverty by sharing stories of people experiencing financial hardship.
What new non-drug approaches to treating PTSD are on the horizon?
/in Neurofeedback/by LindaMy husband purchased a virtual reality headset a couple of years ago to enhance his workout routine. I thought whatever supports his efforts to maintain his health and increase his chances of a longer life, go for it! Two years later, he continues to use it, so I’m grateful it was not just another impulse purchase that sits on a shelf somewhere. His continued use of it reflects virtual reality’s potential staying power. What does any of this have to do with PTSD treatment?
One of the first-line evidence-based treatments for PTSD is prolonged exposure therapy. Prolonged exposure is a trauma-focused psychotherapy that supports people as they confront memories, feelings, and situations that they avoid since their trauma. The premise of this approach is to gradually teach them that their trauma-related memories and cues are no long dangerous in the present and don’t need to be avoided. One approach to prolonged exposure is imaginal exposure where the person revisits the traumatic memory in their imagination and recounts the event. This imaginal exposure causes the person a great deal of distress, promoting emotional engagement with the trauma memory. It is then followed by cognitive processing of the experience of revisiting their trauma. Although effective, might there be another approach that might reduce the level of distress by speeding up the psychophysiological habituation process through this approach?
That is the exact question that the VA attempted to answer in a recent research study. They wondered if they added repeated, bifrontal direct neurofeedback (AKA transcranial direct stimulation) to therapeutic exposure using virtual reality, would it reduce the symptoms of PTSD perhaps faster. The VA already recognized the significant potential of noninvasive brain stimulation as a novel treatment to reduce PTSD symptoms, specifically in the particularly difficult population of military veterans. They had conducted a prior pilot study that showed promising findings which prompted them to move forward with the gold standard of research, a double-blind randomized clinical trial. This RCT replicated the key findings of the pilot study, including significant improvements in self-reported PTSD symptoms, reductions in autonomic arousal, and improvements in their social functioning. They concluded that combining repeated direct neurofeedback with virtual reality is a promising strategy and highlights the innovative potential for these combined technologies.
If you are interested in reading the full research article, click below:
5 Intention-setting Ideas to Protect Your Identity
/in Newsletter/by LindaNational Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness Month!
With a recent burglary and learning that part of my Social Security number was found on “the dark web’ rattling my cage so to speak, I felt compelled to alert others to perhaps raise their awareness as to what they might be able to do to protect themselves. December brings the holiday season and. along with it, an increased vulnerability to identify theft.
So, to bring more peace of mind to this season, below are some intention-setting ideas to consider to keep you and your information safer:
5 Intention-setting Ideas to Strengthen Your Kindness Muscles
/in Newsletter/by LindaWorld Kindness Day was first introduced in 1998 and is observed each year on November 13th. The World Kindness Movement (WKM) introduced World Kindness Day to promote awareness of global goodwill and offers an opportunity to highlight good deeds in the community. People around the world are encouraged to perform acts of kindness every day throughout the month. If you need some ideas to stir your motivation, The Mayo Clinic offers a Kickstart Kindness program that you can check out.
Kindness is not simply an action. It is a quality of being that can be cultivated. Demonstrating kindness can be simple and free and has been shown to be health-enhancing!
Below are some intention-setting ideas for why kindness matters and why you might want to catch the kindness wave this month:
5 Intention-setting Ideas for Expand Awareness of ADHD
/in Newsletter/by LindaOctober is ADHD Awareness Month!
When you hear the acronym PDA, what do you think of? Up until recently, I would have said ‘public display of affection’. Well this acronym has more recently taken center stage in the world of neurodiversity as a new symptom of Pathological Demand Avoidance.
What is that you might ask? Well, it is estimated that 30% of individuals diagnosed with ADHD may have PDA. Symptoms of PDA may include, among others, resistance to demands, refusal to follow rules, and a tendency to be argumentative. People with PDA may have sensory processing issues, such as intolerance to certain noises or textures, and exhibit obsessive behavior, often focused on people.
If this is all new to you, or perhaps you identify with some of these symptoms, this is a great month to get involved! The theme for this year is “Awareness is Key!“.
Below are some intention-setting ideas for participating in ADHD Awareness month:
New Year Vision Board Playshop!
/in Events/by Linda5 Intention-setting Ideas to Bust the Myths of Suicide
/in Newsletter/by LindaSuicide Prevention Month
Suicide is a public health crisis that affects millions of people worldwide. Unfortunately, many misconceptions and myths exist around it, which hinder understanding, empathy, and effective prevention. September is Suicide Prevention Month to help raise awareness of suicide prevention and of actions that can be taken to promote healing, offer help, and give hope.
Below are some intention-setting ideas for busting some of the most common myths: