Matthew Solan is the Executive Editor at Harvard Men’s Health Watch and previously served as executive editor for UCLA Health’s Healthy Years and as a contributor to Duke Medicine’s Health News and Weill Cornell Medical College’s Women Nutrition Connection and Women’s Health Advisor.

Recently, Mr. Solan reviewed the evidence surrounding the degree to which practicing mindfulness in daily life can help address issues of concentration, distraction, and stress management.

You can read the full article at Harvard Health Publishing online, entitled “Evoking calm: Practicing mindfulness in daily life helps,” his 3 tips are summarized below.

Simple meditation

A quick and easy meditation is an excellent place to begin practicing mindfulness.

• Sit on a straight-backed chair or cross-legged on the floor.
• Focus on an aspect of your breathing, such as the sensations of air flowing into your nostrils and out of your mouth, or your belly rising and falling as you inhale and exhale.
• Once you’ve narrowed your concentration in this way, begin to widen your focus. Become aware of sounds, sensations, and ideas. Embrace and consider each without judgment.
• If your mind starts to race, return your focus to your breathing. Then expand your awareness again.
• Take as much time as you like: one minute, or five, or 10 — whatever you’re comfortable with. Experts in mindfulness meditation note that the practice is most helpful if you commit to a regular meditation schedule.

Open awareness

Another approach to mindfulness is “open awareness,” which helps you stay in the present and truly participate in specific moments in life. You can choose any task or moment to practice open awareness, such as eating, taking a walk, showering, cooking a meal, or working in the garden. When you are engaged in these and other similar routine activities, follow these steps.

• Bring your attention to the sensations in your body, both physical and emotional.
• Breathe in through your nose, allowing the air to fill your lungs. Let your abdomen expand fully. Then breathe out slowly through your mouth.
• Carry on with the task at hand, slowly and with deliberation.
• Engage each of your senses, paying close attention to what you can see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.
• Try “single-tasking,” bringing your attention as fully as possible to what you’re doing.
• Allow any thoughts or emotions that arise to come and go, like clouds passing through the sky.
• If your mind wanders away from your current task, gently refocus your attention back to the sensation of the moment.

Body awareness

Another way to practice mindfulness is to focus your attention on other thoughts, objects, and sensations. While sitting quietly with your eyes closed, channel your awareness toward each of the following:

Urges: When you feel a craving or an urge (for instance, to eat excess food or practice an unwanted behavior), acknowledge the desire and understand that it will pass. Notice how your body feels as the craving enters. Replace the wish for the craving to go away with the specific knowledge that it will subside.

Sensations: Notice subtle feelings such as an itch or tingling without judgment, and let them pass. Notice each part of your body in succession from head to toe.

Sights and sounds: Notice sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches. Name them “sight,” “sound,” “smell,” “taste,” or “touch” without judgment and let them go.

Emotions: Allow emotions to be present without judging them. Practice a steady and relaxed naming of emotions: “joy,” “anger,” “frustration.”

While many assume that Andy Williams was singing about Christmas in his well known song many would argue the most wonderful time of the year is fall. Leaves are changing colors, there are ample excuses to leave hearty meals simmering in the crockpot, and pumpkin spice is everywhere! But how do we maintain our wellness as the days get shorter and the weather gets cooler? Here are some tips to consider:

1. Get Outdoors – Spending time outdoors has been shown to improve mental health, concentration, and focus while lowering heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels. Consider a daily walk to enjoy the color of the changing leaves, or lean into the yard work you know you need to get done. Want something more fun? Head to your local farm to pick apples, pumpkins, and other spoils of the season.
2. Stay Hydrated – While we associate the summer with dehydration cooler weather can also dehydrate you as you sweater under layers of warm clothes, so be sure that while you out and about your requisite water based on this chart.
3. Eat Autumnal – Fall gives us many delicious and healthy nutrition options including pumpkins, apples, pumpkins, pears, squash, cranberries, sweet potatoes, eggplant, and beets. All of these are perfect for a warm and healthy soup!
4. Mind Your Mental Health – Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) often sets in during the fall and affects million Americans. But even if you don’t suffer from seasonal depression, autumn is a good time to refocus on your mental health as it’s easy to get down when the days begin to turn cold and sunlight wanes. Practice mindfulness or start journaling, focusing on the positives in your life without invalidating any difficulties you are experiencing and the emotions that come with them, or do a digital detox.
5. Get Social – Cooler weather often means more time indoors, but that can put you at risk of social isolation during the fall. Considering that social isolation can increases premature death risk, staying connected is every bit as important as other wellness activities. You can stay connected as the weather cools by attending holiday celebrations, volunteering, attending or hosting backyard bonfires, or joining in person or online clubs (books, films, cooking, sports, etc.)

Adapted from https://www.wellsteps.com/blog/2024/09/16/fall-wellness-tips/

Many people at present are seeking help solving problems and coping with a variety of concerns that have become a typical but unwelcome part of daily life. But how do you know who to turn to when you need a hand making sense of life’s challenges?

Emily Hemendinger is an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Recently, Dr. Hemendinger offered her perspective on the increasingly popular field of coaching. As a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in mental health and public health, she has observed coaching’s growing popularity and how patients’ interest appears to stem from a lack of affordable and accessible mental health care. Coaches have the potential to fill a gap and work alongside therapists to assist clients. Many people seek coaching to help them make a big decision or hold them accountable for making progress toward a set goal – from launching a business to sticking to their wellness routines. Because the industry is unregulated, however, it’s important for people to understand its limits before using a coach’s services.guidance on how to seek the right type of professional to help you to continue to work through whatever life brings your way.

Dr. Hemendinger full article can be read at NPR.org, but in sum she recommends that following considerations if you are considering coaching.

• What training does the coach have? What’s their background? I recommend looking into their education and licensing, as well as any titles or certificates that you find unfamiliar.
• Is someone telling you that they can cure you or that they have a product that can fix your problem – a meal plan, diet, coaching course, etc.?
• Do they have research and evidence, not just anecdotes, to back up the claims they are making? If something is being touted as “tested” or “proven,” make sure you ask about the data.
• Is the person touting their service as the “only” way to get better? Are they making unrealistic claims, such as being able to cure someone of their trauma symptoms in one month? A credible life coach is not going to promise to completely change your life or cure you.
• Is there a formal contract with the services provided clearly laid out? Does this contract discuss limitations of services provided? Is there clarity around fees and charges
• Is the coach willing to be flexible about their approach? Do they become defensive when you ask questions?

Welcome to the first part of a series of occasional posts meant to help us think about some of the most common areas humans value through the lens of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Today we will be focusing on the ACT value area of Partnership. No matter which of the 35 or more terms that you use to describe your most intimate relationship types and dynamics, it is worth asking ourselves some important questions from time to time to assess the status of those relationships and, if they need a tune-up, how.

ACT starts by asking some foundational questions. Setting aside the most fundamental question of what kind of partner you want, one might ask themselves “what kind of partner do you want to be?” You might also ask what are the qualities that would describe a relationship you want to be a part of.

To that end, Catherine Pearson at the New York Times recently interviewed therapists and relationship researchers who shared 6 additional questions that can bring couples closer after the relationship has been up and running for a while. You can read the full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/10/well/family/marriage-midlife-counseling.html, the questions are summarized below.

1. What is our next chapter? Orna Guralnik, a Manhattan-based clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst who stars in the Showtime documentary series “Couples Therapy,” encourages her clients to consider their plans for the third chapter of their relationships (when the marriage is neither fresh and new, nor consumed by domestic demands). It’s a conversation she sees many couples having organically, particularly those in their 50s and 60s whose children have left home. “Where are they going to turn that attention?” she often asks. “And how is that going to inflect the couple?” Galena Rhoades, a psychologist and research professor at the University of Denver, has advised clients to ask one another: “What are our big hopes and dreams?”
2. What are we modeling for our children or other couples? What do we want others to learn from our relationship? How might that shape their own relationships? For instance, maybe you want to make it clear that relationships take work, Dr. Rhoades said, so you talk to your children about how you handle conflict. Perhaps it’s emphasizing the importance of date nights and prioritizing coupledom.
3. How do I contribute to any problems we have or are currently facing? This kind of self-reflection is easier said than done, admitted Adam R. Fisher, a psychologist and sex therapist based in Salt Lake City. But by midlife, most of us have learned something about ourselves and our relationships. Dr. Fisher said that taking time to reflect on the type of partner they want to be — regardless of what their partner does or doesn’t do — ultimately gives his clients a greater sense of agency within their relationships.
4. What skills have we developed? By the time couples reach middle age, many have fallen into decades-long communication patterns, some better than others, said Jeffrey Chernin, a marriage and family therapist based in Los Angeles and the author of “Achieving Intimacy.” So he often encourages partners to think about the positive communication skills they have developed. “You want to fortify those,” he said. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Maybe you’re both good at listening without interrupting, for example. Maybe you are pros at apologizing. Simply acknowledging some of those strengths can be a useful bonding exercise, Mr. Chernin said. “Let’s strengthen what’s going well,” he said, “not just address what needs to be improved.
5. Is this relationship worth it? With experience, most people come to understand that no one gets everything they want from one person, said Terrence Real, a family therapist and author of “Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship.” Which is why middle age can be a good time to have what he calls a “relational reckoning.” “A relational reckoning is a question,” he explained, “and the question is: Am I getting enough in this relationship to make grieving what I don’t get OK with me?”
6. Should we get outside help? It is important to approach the questions above with a sense of curiosity and openness, said Tiana Frazier, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in Texas. Try to stay present and avoid becoming defensive, she said, and “if the conversation becomes overwhelming, it’s OK to take a break.” Couples who are contemplating whether they want to stay together — or perhaps to radically change the structure of their relationship — may want to engage professional help. Discernment counseling is an option for couples who are pondering big changes, Ms. Hershman said. Depending on your circumstances, you might consider a specific form of counseling, like sex therapy, or individual therapy if your partner is reluctant to join you.

“Hidden Brain” is a podcast that explores the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior and questions that lie at the heart of our complex and changing world. Hosted by Shankar Vedantam, NPR’s social science correspondent, former reporter and columnist at The Washington Post, and columnist, and wrote the Department of Human Behavior column for the Post, and fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, the series transforms what are sometimes dry, academic research topics into compelling stories that offer a total and complete escape.

Recently, Vedantam explored a topic the hits close to home for many of us: time as a limited resource. As Shankar puts it: “many of us feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day. We struggle to make time for all the competing demands at work and at home, and inevitably feel like we’re letting someone down. But what if there were a way to reclaim our time and, as a result, get more joy out of our lives? This week, psychologist Cassie Mogilner Holmes explains how we’ve fallen victim to the illusion of time scarcity, and what we can do to spend our time more wisely.”

If this is something you can identify with be sure to listen to the full episode at https://hiddenbrain.org/podcast/taking-control-of-your-time/.

Marielle Segarra hosts the show Life Kit on NPR and Philadelphia native, recently revisited the topic of forest bathing. For those unfamiliar with this, it is the act of spending time in the forest in what the Japanese call shinrin-yoku, a term originating in the 1980s that means “bathing in the forest atmosphere.” Qing Li, a researcher on this topic and a professor at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo, says that “This is not exercise or hiking or jogging, it is simply being in nature, connecting with it through our sense of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.”

Not only is “forest bathing” a magical way to explore nature, decades of research has shown that it’s good for your health. It can boost your immune system, lower blood pressure and help with depression. It can also reduce the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline and turn down the dial on your body’s fight-or-flight response.

You can read Segarra’s full piece at https://www.npr.org/2023/08/22/1195337204/a-guide-to-forest-bathing, and a starters guided is offered below.

1. Find a location where you’re surrounded by trees – The ideal place to forest bathe is well, in a forest. But if you live far away from one or don’t have the means to get there, any place that has a lot of trees and quiet spaces will do.

2. Set aside a good chunk of time – To reap the ultimate rewards of shinrin-yoku, plan to spend two to six hours in the woods, says Li. A 2019 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that walking just 15 minutes through the woods can help relieve stress and anxiety.

3. Aim to reduce heart rate – Your forest bathing session is a good time to sit or walk or do some gentle yoga or tai chi. It’s not the time to squeeze in your hardcore cardio for the week.

4. Breathe in the scents of the forest – Many of the benefits of shinrin-yoku come when we inhale the chemicals that trees release into the air, called phytoncides, says Li. They can reduce our stress hormones and increase our levels of white-blood cells known as natural killer cells, according to his research. In one study from 2009, his team ordered special concentrated essential oils made from Japanese cypress trees and then pumped them into the hotel rooms of test subjects using a diffuser. The people staying in those rooms saw about 40 to 50% of the health benefits as those who did a forest bathing session.

5. Bolster your forest bath with meditation – When you get to the forest or the park, walk a little bit and then find a spot that speaks to you. Now sit down, says Evans, and try this exercise. “Inhale for a count of one, two and then exhale for double the length of time, so it’s one, two, three, four. Then keep that going.” “When the exhale is slower than the inhale, it sends a physiological message to your body that says: ‘I’m safe. I can relax. It’s OK,’ ” he adds.

Vacations often find ourselves behaving the way we would want to behave everyday were it not for our mountains of responsibilities and the toll they take. We slow day, have more in-depth conversations with loved ones, move more, eat better, and engage in activities that bring us joy. And there is research suggesting connections between vacations and lower stress, a healthier heart rate and increased creativity, the benefits of which can last for weeks after the vacation is over!

But how do we keep the good vibes going? Dr. Sarah Pressman, a professor of psychological science at the University of California, has a few suggestions:

Do a “mini version” of your favorite thing: The first step, Dr. Pressman said, is to reflect on your vacation: What did you love doing the most? Was it family dinners with great conversations? Was it daily naps? Then, she said, “try to find a mini version of that.” If you loved biking on vacation, she said, start with a weekly bike ride.

Get outside: Some people spend more time outdoors on their vacations, and the research is robust that green spaces provide health benefits galore. If you miss being outside, aim for “snackable bits of nature” near your home, e.g go to a park for a few minutes or hang a bird feeder just outside your door.

Engage your senses: If certain scents, tastes or sounds lifted your spirits on vacation, try to replicate them at home. Cook a meal that you loved on vacation or play some local music that you heard.

Display a memento: Don’t discount the value of souvenirs. They can have a lasting effect on our happiness. In fact, research has found that items with high sentimental value can bring us sustained happiness.