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8 Mind Tricks to Cope with Chronic Pain | The Health Sessions

8 Mental Techniques to Cope with Chronic Pain

There’s an overwhelming amount of advice available about how to reduce pain. But how exactly do you deal with pain that won’t go away?

Millions of people around the world suffer from pain that continues beyond the expected period of healing. When you experience chronic pain, your body is in a constant state of fight-or-flight. This on-going stress damages your body and even changes the neural circuits in your brain. Chronic pain can also lead to depression, anxiety, sleeping disorders and avoidant behavior, which in turn worsen your existing pain.

Everyone copes with pain differently, but some ways are more effective and constructive than others. When it comes to chronic pain, there’s one group of strategies you may easily overlook: how to manage pain with your mind.

Aqua Yoga: For an Accessible Yoga Practice, Just Add Water

This article is written by Isabel Speckman.

Yoga. You’ve probably heard that word many times. Particularly if you’re a fitness enthusiast or a yogi. But have you ever considered combining yoga’s mindfulness with the comfort of water?

Combining yoga with water is also known as aqua yoga. This outdoor exercise can be an exciting way to shake things up in your workout regimen.

As claimed by a fitness expert from Vivotion, aqua yoga is one of the popular trends that combines the benefits of yoga with something we love to do, like yoga with our dogs, mermaid yoga or trampoline yoga, just to name a few. Summer is fast approaching, and this is the perfect time to plunge yourself into the pool or any natural body of water that is safe to swim in and start your aqua yoga routine. Whether you’re a seasoned yogi or a novice to this kind of exercise, you might be amazed by what this outdoor exercise can do to your health and body when you start taking your aqua yoga class.

Below, we have listed the fantastic benefits of aqua yoga, plus the types of aqua yoga poses you can perform.

7 Exercises to Strengthen Your Balance Practice

This article is written by Brittany Waddell.

Navigating through life is all about balance—balance in your work, your play, your sleep, and even your health and fitness. As you move your way through this physical world, it is necessary to strike a balance within your physical body because imbalances can lead to illness, premature aging, and chronic disease.

Improving your physical balance and well-being is not difficult; with a few well executed exercises on a consistent basis, you will find improved health and improved balance. Follow these recommendations for greater health and wellness, and better balance in life:

How Yoga Helps Rachel Marie White Heal | The Health Sessions

Teaming Up with Your Body: How Yoga Helps Rachel Marie White Heal

When you’re diagnosed with chronic illness, is there anything you can do to improve your health and happiness? Can you (fully) recover from persisting health problems, and if so, how? In this interview, Rachel Marie White from Sleepy Santosha shares her story. Tell us a little about yourself. Hi, my name is Rachel. I’m a certified yoga … Read more >

11 Natural Ways to ‘Detox’ Your Body Without Depriving Yourself

After months of cocooning indoors and indulging in heavy meals, early spring is a great time to get out of hibernation mode and shed your ‘winter coat’. And not just those dead skin cells from the dry winter air – your sluggish digestion and lymph flow can use a boost too.

Over the last few years, detoxing has become a major buzz word. The idea is that our modern world contains so many toxins – in our food and water, cleaning and beauty products, in the air we breathe – that your body doesn’t have enough capacity to fully flush them out. Especially not when your sedentary lifestyle with too much processed foods and too little sleep puts an extra burden on your body’s natural detoxification process.

So these toxins build up over time, clogging up your gut and internal environment, leading to common symptoms such as unexplained fatigue, irritated skin, bloating and digestive problems.

The solution? Doing a detox to cleanse your body.

Or at least, that’s what the thousands of detox programs and juice cleanses available tell you to do.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with the general concept of detoxing. Yes, your body naturally detoxes every day, but it makes sense to want to optimize that process – especially if you lead a typically Western lifestyle and suffer from (minor) health problems.

But although some people have had specular results from juice cleanses, I don’t think going on a detox is right for everyone.

Most detox programs focus on a variety of juices, sometimes supplemented with raw fruit and vegetables. Even though (veggie) juices contain lots of vitamins and minerals, they don’t pack enough protein, fiber, fat and calories to sustain a person in the long run. That doesn’t have to be a problem when you’re on a health retreat. But if you try following a detox program while balancing work and family, you might feel hangry and tired instead of revitalized.

A ‘3-day detox’ or ‘master cleanse’ also feels like a quick fix for a bigger problem. First we overeat during the holidays and then ‘compensate’ by restricting ourselves. This cycle of binge-eating and fasting might lead to a disordered relationship with food. Of course, a short detox program can also be a great kickstart of a healthier lifestyle. But when you make drastic changes, it’s easy to fall back into your old habits – hello cookie cravings! – as soon as your juice cleanse ends.

So can you support the natural detoxification of your body without depriving yourself? Sure! Take a look at these 11 simple ways.