Mind Body Techniques used by Dr Ivana
Positive Psychology - Positive Medicine
So what is positive psychology, and how can we use it for our health benefit?
Positive Psychology applied to a medical model activates our positive, healthy psychological resources (our strengths) to reintegrate and rebalance the healthy self. That is Positive Medicine.
Our bodies constantly interact with the environment; in that interaction process, our bodies change as an adaption to the environment. During this interaction, there are constantly millions of processes happening inside our bodies and our minds, potentially leading to different forms of physiological mistakes. This is a normal phenomenon. Our bodies are naturally repairing those “mistakes” all the time, and that process of returning to a healthy state is called Homeostasis.
One starts developing a disease if the body does not return to homeostasis. Sometimes in our life, we are more susceptible to developing a disease, like when we are going through big life transitions like (peri)menopause, ageing, etc. In those times of hormonal fluctuations, the rebalancing act of returning to homeostasis is more difficult. Understanding these processes and allowing the body natural recalibration is at the core of Positive Medicine.
Finding small or big “nuggets” of mental and physical strength amid difficulty and exercising them, allowing them to flow and engage all other healthy functions of our bodies in a naturally healthy way, is what I call Positive Medicine.
I call it Positive Medicine.
At the core of Positive Psychology is understanding and acknowledging our emotions and their role in our health. That is also called Emotional Awareness.
Positive Psychology and Emotional Awareness are about recognising, reconnecting and then befriending our emotions, becoming increasingly aware of their constant presence, and acknowledging their transitory nature and significance. It is an excellent starting point for restoring our body and mind balance, which leads us towards ease and away from the disease, especially in those turbulent times of our lives as Peri/Menopause.
Mindfulness Practice
Mindfulness is a mind/body technique, but what does that mean?
Their many definitions of what mindfulness is - here are a few that might help explain this practice:
Mindfulness is being truly present and able to hold whatever emotion arises internally as a reaction to our thoughts and surroundings without losing oneself in that constantly changing flow of internal and external experiences.
Mindfulness is being fully aware of the flow of our internal physiology and psychology.
Mindfulness is awareness of our thoughts, emotions and body sensations inside oneself at the present moment and simultaneously holding an understanding of the external environment and an interaction between those two experiences.
Mindfulness is being consciously present in ‘Now’.
Mindfulness does not mean having an empty mind. Mindfulness is being aware of your fully active, sometimes hectic mind.
Science strongly supports the importance of daily mindfulness practice on our mental health.
Another more scientific synonym for mindfulness is emotional awarenes.
The opposite of mindfulness is an ‘Autopilot’ mode. There is nothing wrong when it happens sometimes. We, humans, can be capable of both states of mind. The problem arises when we spend 99% of our awake time in autopilot mode. This is a recipe for mental and physical disease. This is not a good starting point for health or any healing process.
Most of us who live in the developed Western world are primarily in autopilot mode. Regular mindfulness practice is essential in cultivating a focused, steady, and clear mind. Mindfulness is the clear path to a Healthy Mind. A healthy mind leads to a healthy body.
