Posts Tagged ‘mental health’

Pregnancy and Mental Health

Friday, March 30th, 2012

Pregnancy brings about drastic fluctuation in hormones; including mood swings and anxiety. It can be a joyous, overwhelming, terrifying, and transforming journey to becoming a mother. Maintaining a healthy balance of emotions is the key to a happy (and of course healthy) baby. Women’s mental health can greatly impact the outcome and demeanor of their unborn baby.

Throughout pregnancy it is important to identify core issues that may have impacted your own growth and development. Being mindful of your own emotional wellbeing and beginning a therapeutic journey may help you throughout your new journey to motherhood. Exploring past issues and resolving them before the baby arrives can put you at a greater advantage to bond and create secure attachment with your baby.

Mindfulness is the first key. As mothers, we have intuition about our babies and their needs. We need to turn on that intuition early in pregnancy and turn it towards ourselves. This can help us to identify where we need to concentrate in terms of our own mental health.

Identifying past issues and resolving them can help create a more stable environment for when your baby arrives. Do you and your partner continuously have the same fight? Do you never get along with your in laws? These are things that are important to work on now! Family and those peripheral relationships are the backbone for your child’s life. Increasing positive familial relationships will help give you support throughout your pregnancy and love and support when the baby arrives.

Trust yourself. Pregnancy is a rollercoaster of emotions and hormones. It is important to trust in your decisions that led you to this point. Trust in your partner and family members, and most importantly, trust yourself. Whether you wanted to be in this situation or not, if you have decided to stay, stay. Make smart choices and follow through. This will increase your perseverance and improve your motherhood qualities in the future.

Cultivate a positive mindset. It is hard to think positive when your bloated, gaining weight, nauseous, sore, or all of the above. However, our mindset can be directly correlated to how we feel. Utilizing positive affirmations can increase our productivity and get us through a tough day. Creating your own personal affirmations is a crucial piece of the puzzle. Where do your thoughts turn negative? Turn those negative thoughts into positive ‘I’ statements to generate healthy and positive feelings. As your baby grows, it will notice the difference between a happy womb and an unhappy womb.

All of these tools can help improve mental health from the beginning of pregnancy. In turn, it will help you put your best foot forward into the realm of motherhood. It is important to prepare yourself physically and mentally for the changes that life is bringing you. Utilizing these tools will help create a positive atmosphere for your growing baby to thrive.

 

KC Putterman LMHC,HC

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The secrets of Meditation

Friday, February 24th, 2012

Most of us have been told at one time or another that meditation is a powerful tool. When used correctly, it can help calm our mind, body, and soul. So how come there aren’t more yogis’s out there? Probably because mastering meditation is hard.

Meditation is a complex process of slowing down your breathing and your mind. It is not an easy feat to accomplish. The definition of meditation is the emptying of the mind of thoughts, or the concentration of the mind on one thing, in order to aid mental or spiritual development, contemplation or relaxation.

Meditation can bring about spiritual transformation. This can help improve your overall mental health. Learning ways to channel your thoughts can help reduce aggression and violence and increase nurturing and loving environments. Here are some easy tools to help you begin your meditation practice:

1. Pick soft music. You can buy or download relaxation cd’s or create your own with soft melodic music. The music must be melody only. No words.
2. Sit comfortably. If cross legged is your most comfortable position that is fine, if it’s not, pick a sitting position that you feel comfortable in. Try to achieve a balanced posture.
3. Close your eyes. It is easier to concentrate if your eyes are closed. You can become in tune with your consciousness by closing your eyes and listening to your inner thoughts.
4. Experience what is around you. Use all your five senses to distinguish your environment and focus solely on this.
5. Incorporate deep breathing. Inhale for five counts and exhale for five counts. (Yes it is that easy to breathe). Utilize your deep breathing as a way to measure your tranquility. Inhale your thoughts and feelings and exhale your worry. Continue this process for up to 5 minutes (the length of meditation is solely based on what you want to achieve).
6. Utilize visualization techniques to focus on something. Whether it is a crystal ball, sunset on a beach, or the Rocky Mountains. Visualize a particular place and concentrate on that place alone.
7. Involve all the five senses into your visualization so you can truly experience it. Touch it, taste it, smell it, see it, hear it. Let yourself sit with this until you feel calm. (Length of visualization varies from person to person).
8. Slowly open your eyes, continuing your deep breathing, and re engage with the world.

Now you can incorporate these easy steps to help begin your meditation practice. You may be surprised what a difference it can make. Meditation helps put your life into perspective so you can focus on what really matters. Take some time out of your busy schedule to meditate today and reap the benefits that yogi’s have been gaining for years.

KC Putterman LMHC,HC

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Thinking positively really can help

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

People learn to be more positive from the inside out. We need to train our brain to think positive. Throughout the day, we get many negative comments and images passed through our way. We don’t need to strain ourselves to think of something negative that happened throughout our busy day, however, It takes time and energy to determine the ‘happy things’ that happen each day. My challenge to you is to start writing down these affirmative things that happen to you and create your own personal affirmations.
For treating common mental health illnesses such as Depression and Anxiety, it has been shown that positive thinking can increase one’s response to treatment. People who suffer from Depression are often instructed to recite daily affirmations as part of their treatment. Even in the depths of Depression, vocalizing these positive mantra’s can help shift our mind’s focus over time.
Affirmations help us motivate and encourage ourselves. Whether it’s an inspirational quote, or a reminder of something you did well on your fridge, these are all examples of simple ways to affirm ourselves.
It starts with a list. Make a small list, either typed or handwritten, of things that are going well in your life, things that make you happy. From here you can create your own personal affirmation. Some examples are “I am good at my job”; “I am a beautiful person inside and out”. The only rules to affirmations is that they are positive and in the present tense.
One of the benefits of affirmations is that it tricks the brain into positive thinking. When we send more positive messages to the brain it makes us happier beings. This helps mental clarity and increases positive awareness.
Self affirmations should be done daily in order to effectively recondition the brain into thinking positively. Put it on your fridge, at your desk, or by the bathroom sink. Put them somewhere that you will see them daily and can incorporate them into your daily routine.
Starting out with these positive thoughts in the beginning of your day can help set the pace for that day. Ever wake up feeling gloomy? And the day gets worse from there on out? Start with a positive affirmation the next day and see how that day turns out. It just may be a happier, more positive day.

 

KC Putterman LMHC,HC

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Anxiety, Depression, Personal Growth, Self-esteem, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Proper nutrition as an adjunct therapy for ADHD

Monday, January 16th, 2012

A healthy diet can be helpful to adults and children alike. It can be especially beneficial in supporting brain development and calming one’s behavior. In children diagnosed with ADHD, a proper diet can be a powerful adjunct therapy in conjunction with medication and psychotherapy. There have been anecdotal reports on the benefits for high protein, low carbohydrate, and sugar free diets in improving symptoms of this disorder. Some examples of the benefits are improvement in a person’s body chemistry, blood sugar levels and healing abilities.

High sugar diets may aggravate or potentate disturbances throughout the body, including those that are symptoms of ADHD. By improving overall eating patterns these aggravations can be minimized. There is a significant causal relationship between sugar consumption and children with ADHD. Children with ADHD that consume high sugar diets are shown to have more fluctuations and aggravations in their symptoms. By consuming low carbohydrate foods you can lower the amount of sugar-consumed daily. Incorporating whole grains and complex carbohydrates that take longer to digest can help to sustain blood sugar levels throughout the day. This can in turn help children’s behavior to stay balanced.

Instead of relying on pure sugar for energy, incorporating a steady supply of protein throughout the day can be more beneficial. High quality protein from meat, fish or poultry gives our muscles fuel. Utilizing protein as fuel can help make your body more efficient and improve the body’s chemistry and healing abilities.

Involving leafy green vegetables, calcium, and essential fatty acids is another key ingredient in proper nutrition. Fatty fish (Tuna and Salmon), flax seeds, nuts (walnuts and almonds), low fat yogurts and cheese are important “brain foods”. Spinach and Brussel Sprouts are the “super vegetable of 2012”. Combining all of these suggestions can help stabilize your child’s behavior, provide proper nutrition, and improve brain development. Try implementing these changes with the whole family to improve success.

KC Putterman LMHC,HC

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »