In honour of International Mental Health week, I (Dr. Ivey) wanted to share an excerpt form my book that is coming out in the next month, “Living Through the Storms of Life”.
There is a quote that I really like.
“Depression, Anxiety & Panic Attacks are not a sign of weakness.
They are signs of having tried to remain strong for way too long”.
If you are dealing with mental health issues, it is not a sign of your weakness, or the weakness of your faith. There are many causes and factors…
A few years ago, a friend of ours saw her medical doctor about several health conditions she was experiencing. She had difficulty sleeping, headaches, skin problems and digestive issues. She was amazed when the doctor told her that he thought these symptoms were all the result of stress and she told us she thought she didn’t have any stress in her life. When she told us this, we just about fell off of our chairs, as we could think of about five different significant stressful situations in our friend’s life.
If we remain unaware that a situation is affecting us in a stressful manner, we will not make changes to handle that stress. It may be that we cannot permanently escape the stress- but if we can be aware that stress is affecting us we can look at taking steps to take a break from that stress. Perhaps scheduling a day off for “down time” or hiring additional assistance or taking a walk to get away for an hour will offer huge benefits. I will talk about more practicals in future chapters, but for them to be effective we must first see the impact stress is having on our body, and the need to take action.
One of the simplest things to combat stress is to exercise. I would like to teach you about Burst Training, an exercise that I do with participants in workshops about managing stress. It only takes about 5 minutes and you can do it anywhere. It uses principles of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) to increase your metabolic rate, so it “burns up” the stress hormones and increases production of Human Growth Hormone. So as well as helping you fight stress, it will make you more alert and will help you burn fat too!!!
Practical Exercise: Burst Training
Find a fast paced song that you love (this is very important!). Wear comfortable supportive shoes (such as running shoes) and play the song at a fairly loud volume. (this is also important- to cover up your huffing and puffing!). If you have any ankle, knee, hip or mobility/balance problems, you may do this exercise sitting down. If not, just stand in place and lightly jog to the music, dancing around to allow yourself to loosen up for 2 minutes.
Then, watching a clock, spend 30 seconds working as hard and fast as you can. Run on the spot like you see football players in movies, racing your feet as fast as you can. Involve your upper body by pumping your arms up and down at the same fast speed as your feet. As I said, if you have mobility issues, you can still accomplish this sitting down. If you have a cardiac condition, you should check with your cardiologist before trying this. Keep up the intensity to your maximum possible speed- it’s only 30 seconds!
When 30 seconds are done, lightly jog on the spot and dance around for 30 seconds, then repeat the 30 seconds of intensity! You will ultimately do 3 sets of intensity for 30 seconds each, with a 30 second break in between each one. When you are done, lightly jog and stretch any tight muscles. Notice how awake you feel!
Practice Burst Training everyday or every other day to fight the effects of cortisol and adrenaline on your body and increase your metabolism.