PLEASE RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING POST OF A CLASSMATE IN 100 WORDS:

 Stress, illness, lifestyle challenges, chronic conditions, and mental illness can significantly impact our health and well being on a daily basis. There are therapy methods that help connect the mind and body to help aid in mental and physical recovery. Mind-body therapies such as meditation, relaxation, biofeedback, and hypnotherapy activate the relaxation response to counter the effects of stress (Micozzi MD PhD, Marc S., 2018) These modalities also reduce muscle tension, lower blood pressure, improve circulation, decrease pain perception, help regulate emotions, and change brain wave patterns to induce a deeper calm. Evidence suggests that mind-body practices help regulate emotions, build resilience, and support mental health such as depression and anxiety. Meditation specifically suggests alleviating anxiety, promoting a positive attitude, and improving immune response (Micozzi MD PhD, Marc S., 2018). Some of these therapies such as meditation directly target conditions like stress, anxiety, PTSD, and attention disorders. For example, mindfulness meditation has shown effectiveness comparable to medications and cognitive behavioral therapy for recurrent depression (Sharma & Rush, 2014). Mind-body strategies also empower psychological self-care and coping skills. These therapies also help patients with chronic diseases by addressing quality of life, mental health, and inflammation that impact disease progression (Bower et al., 2014). These approaches manage stress tied to illnesses like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and arthritis. 

For this class activity, I listened to the relaxing music for stress relief, etc. I have recently started getting into meditation and working on relaxing for a full 10-20 minutes. I find that I am fidgety and have a hard time sitting and relaxing for that long but am getting better at it. When I sit, I move around and change positions a lot so it is taking a lot of discipline for me to stay still. This audio was very good for relaxing, when I know I’m deep in the meditation is when my facial and jaw muscle lose all their tension and completely relax, and my head/neck feels like it’s floating, I almost have to remind myself to keep holding my head up. I really enjoy these exercises and hope to incorporate it more into my daily living. 

References:

Bower, J. E., Crosswell, A. D., Stanton, A. L., Crespi, C. M., Winston, D., Arevalo, J., Ma, J., Cole, S. W., & Ganz, P. A. (2014). Mindfulness meditation for younger breast cancer survivors: A randomized controlled trial. Cancer, 121(8), 1231–1240. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.29194Links to an external site.

Micozzi MD PhD, Marc S. (2018). Fundamentals of complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine (6th ed.). Saunders.

Sharma, M., & Rush, S. E. (2014). Mindfulness-based stress reduction as a stress management intervention for healthy individuals. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine, 19(4), 271–286. https://doi.org/10.1177/2156587214543143Links to an external site.