Did You Know That Physical Health Is Connected To Emotional Health?
Taking care of your body is a powerful first step towards mental and emotional health. The mind and the body are linked. When you improve your physical health, you’ll automatically experience greater mental and emotional well-being. For example, exercise not only strengthens our heart and lungs, but also releases endorphins, powerful chemicals that energise us and lift our mood.
The same applied in reverse when your emotional health is not balanced it affects your body. Dr Selye the father of stress observed that patients suffering from different diseases often exhibited identical signs and symptoms. They just “looked sick”. This observation may have been the first step in his recognition of “stress”.
Scientists are finding more and more proof of the remarkable way our emotions can affect our immune system. Dr Martin Seligman, PhD, author of the new book Flourish “the data has grown year after year, and it’s become a scientific certainty”. Scientist now understand that negative feelings like stress, sadness, and worry cause a spike in the hormone cortisol, which in turn suppresses the immune system.
Here are just some of the physical signs that your emotional health is out of balance:
Back pain
Change in appetite
Chest pain
Constipation or diarrhoea
Dry mouth
Extreme tiredness
General aches and pains
Headaches
High blood pressure
Insomnia (trouble sleeping)
Light headedness
Palpitations (the feeling that your heart is racing)
Sexual problems
Shortness of breath
Stiff neck
Sweating
Upset stomach
Weight gain or loss
Medical research has shown that sustained high cortisol levels (the result of unremitting stress) have very destructive effects on the body, including weight gain, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, suppression of immune function and acceleration of aging. Another effect of unresolved emotional issues is a systemic inflammation which has implicated as a contributing factor in a host of diseases, including cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’.
What makes this problem really dangerous for many of us is that we tend to dismiss it. Then we enter a vicious circle where we feel even more depressed because we do not feel well and not take care of your health as well as you should. Which in turn further reduces our immune system and lower our emotional health.
Introducing our Emotional Health Approach
Our Emotional Health program is based on our Living Calm framework that provides you with life long strategies that will enable you live a calmer and more fulfilling life.
We take a physical and skills based approach to emotion health at Health By The Bay. We believe that you need to have the energy resources and the skills to to deal with any emotionally charged situation.
We take the approach to provide you with a circuit breaker to your current situation, develop a health plan that enables you restore your energy and give you the skills that you need to deal with difficult circumstances. Our approach involves a 3 step process which is:
Step 1 – Discovery
This is the initial consultation where is all about your current health issues and the health goals you want to achieve. In this step we define our goals, we begin the analysis and identify the most appropriate tests for your situation. We also provide some initial relief to get you going.
Step 2 – Testing
Testing sets the baseline for your personalised program and helps us zero in on areas needing urgent attention. Testing eliminates any guessing work and allows me to create a personalised targeted health plan.
The testing protocol will vary depending on your health problem and the findings from the initial consultation. That said, testing will involve a combination of in clinic testes and data from other sources including blood/other test results we may request from your GP or functional testing.
Step 3 – Plan of Action
In this step we present the results and recommendations. We understand that any plan needs to be sustainable and achievable so any recommendations will have been taken your lifestyle into account. From there we explore an action plan to meet your needs and agree on a set.
We want you to help you enjoy and live the life you want. You now have an option that will help you to get you one your way.