Good Vibes, Good Life explores ways to unlock your true potential by loving yourself more, practicing self-care, manifesting your wishes, and transforming negative emotions into positive ones using simple tips and tricks for a happy life.This might sound like a cliche, but a happy life doesn’t necessarily come from more money, more possessions, or a different job. A fulfilling life is about finding what makes you happy and then doing that thing.

Good Vibes, Good Life Summary – Book Summary

A fulfilling life means being content with what you have. It means being grateful for the little things in life that make you happy—like spending time with friends and family, having a good meal, and watching a movie with your partner, all while knowing that you deserve more.Good Vibes, Good Life doesn’t promote staying in your comfort zone, but rather that happiness doesn’t come from changing your life drastically or having more of everything. It comes from figuring out what makes you happy and embracing that.

<ul><li>The law of attraction isn’t enough – you need to master the law of vibration and control your emotions. </li><li>Boundaries are not rigid – they’re necessary when it comes to your social life.</li><li>In life, you have to choose to plant good or bad seeds into your subconscious mind.</li></ul>

Here are three of my favorite lessons from the book:

The book talks about how we attract what we focus on, whether it’s positive or negative. It also talks about how we need to improve our ways of thinking and doing things, so that we’re more aware of our limiting beliefs and change them for better outcomes.The Law of Vibration states that your emotions have an effect on your reality. You can’t just manifest something—you need to believe in it and channel those emotions toward your dream. You can’t just wish for something; you have to feel it! This is how you will bring yourself closer to your goals and make them a reality.

Lesson 1: Controlling your emotions and manifesting your dream reality is what will make you successful.

If you’re spending your days with negative people, studies show that you too will feel and act in a negative way. You become who you spend your time with, so make sure to surround yourself with happy people. To increase confidence, the book shows that sitting in a straight pose for a minimum of 20-minutes per day should do it.Body language is also extremely important in the process of improving yourself. Smiling and thinking positively, even if you don’t always feel like it, can help you become more joyous and activate the “feel-good” hormones.

Another great cure for an impaired mind is spending time by yourself in nature.Nature is known for its healing properties and for helping you achieve a higher frequency. For this reason, make sure to dedicate some quality time for self-care in nature once in a while. Forest bathing is a popular practice in this regard – and for a reason!

Setting boundaries means creating rules for yourself about what behaviors are acceptable and unacceptable in your relationships. This way, if someone steps out of bounds (i.e. acts like a jerk), then they’ll know what they did wrong and how to fix it next time around.When it comes down to it, setting boundaries isn’t about hurting anyone else—it’s about taking care of yourself first. In the long run, people will respect you more and you’ll get to enjoy quality time by yourself without feeling bad.

Lesson 2: Setting boundaries can help you cut toxic people and work on yourself more.

It’s important to recognize when you’re feeling overwhelmed, or like you’re taking on too much. When this happens, it can be easy to let other people’s needs take precedence over yours—but if you don’t set boundaries around what’s okay for you, others will continue to take advantage of that generosity and exhaust you.

<ul><li>Identify the situations that are causing you pain or stress.</li><li>Figure out what you want for yourself in those situations.</li><li>Decide how much time and energy you’re willing to put into making them better (or not).</li></ul>Setting boundaries isn’t just about cutting toxic people out of your life; it’s also about helping yourself grow as an individual. When we allow others to dictate how things go for us, we often end up feeling resentful toward those people, and we don’t get what we want out of life because we’re too busy trying to please them.

Let’s see how you can start setting boundaries in three simple steps:

In life, you can choose the way you want your mind to work for you. Let’s imagine, for a moment, that your beliefs are the seeds that take root in your unconscious mind. You either have helpful or unhelpful beliefs, which in turn lead to either a joyful, serene garden or a toxic wasteland. To successfully change your reality, you need to weed out the bad seeds. In order to do this, you first need to recognize that you have limiting beliefs and then develop an awareness of how these beliefs are impacting your life.

Lesson 3: Learn to work on yourself, plant happy seeds in your mind, and enjoy your presence.

Once you’ve done this, you can make changes by replacing old limiting beliefs with new empowering ones. Let’s say you want to be healthier. You’re eating better and exercising more, but every time you look at yourself in the mirror, you don’t like what you see.This negative belief can manifest itself as an unpleasant emotion like frustration or anger—or it might even cause physical symptoms like tension headaches or fatigue. The first step is recognizing that this negative seed has taken root in your subconscious mind.

Next comes uprooting those poisonous weeds by replacing them with positive beliefs about yourself: “I’m starting to feel stronger every day!” “My friends think I look great!” “I feel so empowered when I walk upstairs!”​

Good Vibes, Good Life is a book about manifesting what you want, living meaningfully, and appreciating the little things. The author explains how to be happy with yourself by embracing what is already there. With this knowledge as a foundation, you can start manifesting right away. One of the most interesting parts of this book is how our thoughts can change our moods at any time. Vex King encourages us to take care of ourselves physically and spiritually so that we are ready for whatever may come into our lives.

Good Vibes, Good Life – Book Review

The 27-year-old woman who realized the importance of self-care and wants to learn how to practice it, the 33-year-old divorced person who wants to start all over, or the 45-year-old person who wants to find new meaning in their life.

Who would I recommend the Good Vibes, Good Life to?

“Self-love is the balance between accepting yourself as you are while knowing you deserve better, and then working towards it.”-Vex King

Author Quote

Good Vibes, Good Life summary explores loving yourself, self-care, manifesting your wishes, and transforming negativity into positivity.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

mentalhealth

Mental Health

books

Books

Good Vibes, Good Life Summary

The central goal of Slow Productivity is to keep an individual worker’s volume at a sustainable level. When our work volume increases, so do the accompanying overhead and stress, reducing both the time remaining to actually execute the tasks and the quality of the results. If we can work more sequentially, focusing on a small number of things at a time, waiting until they're done before bringing on new obligations, the rate at which we complete tasks might actually increase.

Slow Productivity

When there’s too much for us to imagine actually completing, we short-circuit our executive functioning mechanisms, resulting in a feeling of anxious unease.The autonomy that defines the professional lives of those who toil in front of computer screens has led us into a trap of excessive work volume. We cannot escape this trap by expanding the weekend. We must ultimately brace ourselves for the larger challenge of slowing down the pace of the workday itself.

As long as the economy rewards productivity and efficiency, there will always be people:<ul><li>piling on the work</li><li>working on the weekend.</li></ul> It’s nice to think that some companies might adopt anti-burnout measures—minimizing those small tasks, and doling out fewer projects.

Rewarding Productivity

<ul><li>When only one basket holds all of your self-esteem eggs, bad things happen. If we feel like we need to do something or prove ourselves in one area to feel good about ourselves, our self-worth is based on something.</li><li>Contingencies of self-worth represent specific domains on which people stake their self-esteem.</li><li>Contingent self-worth is an ineffective source of motivation; although boosts to self-esteem feel good, they can become addictive, requiring ever greater success to avoid feelings of worthlessness.</li></ul>

Self-Esteem and Productivity

Burnout happens when, over a period of time, our resources are depleted faster than they’re restored. It’s partially explained by exhaustion at work, cynicism toward the meaning of work, and a sense of inadequacy at work. It’s mediated by workload, control, reward, community, fairness, and values. There’s a pretty substantial overlap between the symptoms of burnout and depression, as both entail a loss of motivation.

Burnout Is On The Rise

productivity

Productivity

career

Career

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

Slow Productivity is Already Here

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Perceive your work-related stress as positive and useful way.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Reduce stress and promote greater well-being (mindfulness meditation).</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Be aware of your breathing and calming down.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">“Befriend” your own awareness.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Begin to see yourself as larger than your problems and emotions. You can also alter your relationship to time.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Being truly present is a timeless moment. Notice how much you distract yourself and allow yourself to be distracted. Instead, ask, “What is most important now?”</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Then you can redirect your attention to that. It may be the people in your life.</li></ul>

Full Catastrophe Living

Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

A guide to awareness meditation methods offers a program for coping with illnesses as well as everyday stress.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

mindfulness

Mindfulness

health

Health

The landmark work on mindfulness, meditation, and healing, now revised and updated after twenty-five years   Stress. It can sap our energy, undermine  our health if we let it, even shorten our lives. It makes us more vulnerable to anxiety and depression, disconnection and disease. Based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction program, this classic, groundbreaking work—which gave rise to a whole new field in medicine and psychology—shows you how to use medically proven mind-body approaches derived from meditation and yoga to counteract stress, establish greater balance of body and mind, and stimulate well-being and healing. By engaging in these mindfulness practices and integrating them into your life from moment to moment and from day to day, you can learn to manage chronic pain, promote optimal healing, reduce anxiety and feelings of panic, and improve the overall quality of your life, relationships, and social networks. This second edition features results from recent studies on the science of mindfulness, a new Introduction, up-to-date statistics, and an extensive updated reading list. Full Catastrophe Living is a book for the young and the old, the well and the ill, and anyone trying to live a healthier and saner life in our fast-paced world.   Praise for Full Catastrophe Living   “To say that this wise, deep book is helpful to those who face the challenges of human crisis would be a vast understatement. It is essential, unique, and, above all, fundamentally healing.”—Donald M. Berwick, M.D., president emeritus and senior fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement   “One of the great classics of mind/body medicine.”—Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom   “A book for everyone . . . Jon Kabat-Zinn has done more than any other person on the planet to spread the power of mindfulness to the lives of ordinary people and major societal institutions.”—Richard J. Davidson, founder and chair, Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin–Madison   “This is the ultimate owner’s manual for our lives. What a gift!”—Amy Gross, former editor in chief, O: The Oprah Magazine   “I first read Full Catastrophe Living in my early twenties and it changed my life.”—Chade-Meng Tan, Jolly Good Fellow of Google and author of Search Inside Yourself   “Jon Kabat-Zinn’s classic work on the practice of mindfulness to alleviate stress and human suffering stands the test of time, a most useful resource and practical guide. I recommend this new edition enthusiastically to doctors, patients, and anyone interested in learning to use the power of focused awareness to meet life’s challenges, whether great or small.”—Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Spontaneous Happiness and 8 Weeks to Optimum Health   “How wonderful to have a new and updated version of this classic book that invited so many of us down a path that transformed our minds and awakened us to the beauty of each moment, day-by-day, through our lives. This second edition, building on the first, is sure to become a treasured sourcebook and traveling companion for new generations who seek the wisdom to live full and fulfilling lives.”—Diana Chapman Walsh, Ph.D., president emerita of Wellesley College

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition)

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Stress is good and bad. A little can help you grow. A lot can ruin you. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Professional athletes face constant stress, but don’t let it rule their lives.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Elite athletes’ lives demonstrate four steps to deal with stress:</li></ul>1: Develop an informed mind-set and attitude.2: Alter behavior to increase oxytocin levels.3: The vagus nerve is like a switch that turns off stress. Activate it with yoga and other practices.4: Right stress-management program stimulates hormones that reduce stress.To manage stress, implement a “resilience model,” and be the CEO of your physical and mental health.

The Stress Code

Stress also can improve personal development and growth.  Adopt a “resilience model” you can implement.

Stress impacts all facets of our lives and has devastating effects on the global economy, including reduced productivity and the huge burden being placed on healthcare systems. Decades of research reliably show that chronic stress severely compromises our physical and mental health. Now it has been discovered that stress can actually destabilise our DNA and compromise our genetic integrity. This promotes many of the diseases that societies are currently grappling with and could potentially impact on future generations. Yet stress has two faces. Ongoing stress is one of the biggest challenges faced globally, but short intervals of stress can actually offer tremendous potential to grow, break personal barriers and excel. Turning the traditional stress paradigm on its head, this book does not advocate stress avoidance, but rather stress resilience, providing tools and skills to buffer the adverse effects of stress as well as enhance our functionality and health. The Stress Code is a response to the global call for stress management solutions. Supported by extensive scientific research, this book offers comprehensive and structured insights along with interventions that will help you to thrive in adversity.

Stress impacts all facets of our lives and has devastating effects on the global economy, including reduced productivity and the huge burden being placed on healthcare systems. Decades of research reliably show that chronic stress severely compromises our physical and mental health. Now it has been discovered that stress can actually destabilise our DNA and compromise our genetic integrity. This promotes many of the diseases that societies are currently grappling with and could potentially impact on future generations. Yet stress has two faces. Ongoing stress is one of the biggest challenges faced globally, but short intervals of stress can actually offer tremendous potential to grow, break personal barriers and excel. Turning the traditional stress paradigm on its head, this book does not advocate stress avoidance, but rather stress resilience, providing tools and skills to buffer the adverse effects of stress as well as enhance our functionality and health. The Stress Code is a response to the global call for stress management solutions. Supported by extensive scientific research, this book offers comprehensive and structured insights along with interventions that will help you to thrive in adversity.

Richard Sutton

Some people seem to quickly bounce back from personal failures and setbacks, while others find it much more difficult.When life knocks you down, are you quick to pick yourself up and adapt to the circumstances? Or do you find yourself completely overwhelmed with little confidence in your ability to deal with the challenge?If you find yourself in the latter category, not to worry. Luckily there are many practical strategies for building mental resilience; it is a quality that can be learned and honed through practice, discipline and hard work.

How resilient are you?

Mental Strength is the capacity of an individual to deal effectively with stressors, pressures and challenges and perform to the best of their ability, irrespective of the circumstances in which they find themselves (Clough, 2002).Building mental strength is fundamental to living your <a href="https://positivepsychology.com/life-satisfaction/">best life </a>. Just as we go to the gym and lift weights in order to build our physical muscles, we must also develop our mental health through the use of mental tools and techniques.Optimal mental health helps us to live a life that we love, have meaningful social connections, and positive <a href="https://positivepsychology.com/self-esteem/">self-esteem </a>.

How to Be Mentally Strong

In order to be mentally healthy, we must build up our mental strength! Mental strength is something that is developed over time by individuals who choose to make personal development a priority. Much like seeing physical gains from working out and eating healthier, we must develop healthy mental habits, like practicing <a href="https://positivepsychology.com/gratitude-exercises/">gratitude </a>, if we want to experience <a href="https://positivepsychology.com/positive-psychology-and-mental-health/">mental health </a>gains.Likewise, to see physical gains we must also give up unhealthy habits, such as eating junk food, and for mental gains, give up unhealthy habits such as feeling sorry for oneself.

These practical strategies can teach you or your clients to become mentally strong through practice, discipline, & hard work.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

How to Be Mentally Strong: 14 Ways to Build Mental Toughness

OCD is an unhealthy mania for doing certain things. Like washing 50 in a row, counting in their head, checking the lock 20 times etc .... If the obsessions are like itches, in OCPD they go away with scratching, and they intensify in OCD. Having such a personality can have benefits, with the itches acting as rewards for progress, but a disorder is debilitating. As high as 4% of the world population suffers from OCD. It rank the 7th the most debilitating disease, because of the shame associated with the obsession and the sheer amount of wasted time.

OCD (Obsesive Compulsive Disorder) vs OCPD (Obsesive Compulsive Personality)

<ul><li>Repetition: "when you check the lock 30 times before leaving the house" Endless loops of the same action.</li><li>Counting: "when you have do to something 5 times in a row" It could be an action or a mental counting. </li><li>Order: "spend days perfecting the perfect email" or "ordering the dolls in the exact way" It manifests as incompleteness, symmetry or disgust (thinking something is contaminated)</li></ul>

Types of OCD obsessions

Anxiety is a state of fear or alertness without the clear & present danger. It's what binds obsessions and compulsions. A person suffering from OCD is aware his belief is irrational. But it feels like the right intuition. "I know nothing bad will happen if I turn right but it feels like something bad will if don't."

Anxiety - the common thread

The only form of proven therapy for OCD. It is a cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), a talking therapy, however unlike counselling, it is much more structured and tailored around the individuals ‘here and now’ obsessive behaviour.The goal is to get the patient face his/her fears caused. Unlike other treatments where the focus is calm, safety and so on, this therapy is about creating and facing the uncomfortable states.CBT is done by professionals, takes a long time.

Exposure Therapy 

Most of them don't seem to have any significant impact. There is research looking into:<ul><li>Psychedelics. The idea is that serotonin would improve the obsessions. So far, the data showed little benefit.</li><li>Ketamine. Another drug used for trauma showed little benefit here.</li><li>Cannabis: it can relieve anxiety temporarily, but showed little OCD specific relief. Since it also increases focus it may do more harm than good. </li></ul>

Drug Based Therapy For OCD

A deep look into a very common mental problem

In this episode, I explain the biology and psychology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)—a prevalent and debilitating condition. I also discuss the efficacy and mechanisms behind OCD treatments—both behavioral and pharmacologic as well as holistic and combination treatments and new emerging treatments, including directed brain stimulation. I explain the neural circuitry underlying repetitive “thought-action loops” and why in OCD, the compulsive actions merely make the obsessions even stronger. I review cognitive-behavioral therapies like exposure therapy and SSRIs, holistic approaches, and nutraceuticals, detailing the efficacy of each approach and what science says about how to combine and sequence treatments. I describe an often effective approach for treating OCD where clinicians use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to deliberately bring patients into states of high anxiety while encouraging them to suppress compulsive actions in order to help them learn to overcome repetitious thought/action cycles. This episode should interest anyone with OCD, anyone who knows someone with OCD or OCPD, and more generally, those interested in how the brain works to control thoughts and actions, whether those thoughts are intrusive or not. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman Thesis: https://takethesis.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://www.eightsleep.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman. For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Timestamps (00:00:00) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) (00:03:01) Momentous Supplements, AG1 (Athletic Greens), Thesis, Eight Sleep (00:08:28) What is OCD and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder? (00:11:18) OCD: Major Incidence & Severity (00:15:10) Categories of OCD (00:21:33) Anxiety: Linking Obsessions & Compulsions (00:27:33) OCD & Familial Heredity (00:29:10) Biological Mechanisms of OCD, Cortico-Striatal-Thalamic Loops (00:39:36) Cortico-Striatal-Thalamic Loop & OCD (00:46:39) Clinical OCD Diagnosis, Y-BOCS Index (00:51:38) OCD & Fear, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) & Exposure Therapy (01:01:56) Unique Characteristics of CBT/Exposure Therapy in OCD Treatment (01:10:18) CBT/Exposure Therapy & Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) (01:22:30) Considerations with SSRIs & Prescription Drug Treatments (01:25:17) Serotonin & Cognitive Flexibility, Psilocybin Studies (01:31:50) Neuroleptics & Neuromodulators (01:36:09) OCD & Cannabis, THC & CBD (01:39:29) Ketamine Treatment (01:41:43) Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) (01:46:22) Cannabis CBD & Focus (01:47:50) Thoughts Are Not Actions (01:51:27) Hormones, Cortisol, DHEA, Testosterone & GABA (02:00:55) Holistic Treatments: Mindfulness Meditation & OCD (02:03:28) Nutraceuticals & Supplements: Myo-Inositol, Glycine (02:09:45) OCD vs. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (02:20:53) Superstitions, Compulsions & Obsessions (02:31:00) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous Supplements, Instagram, Twitter, Neural Network Newsletter Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

In this episode, I explain the biology and psychology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)—a prevalent and debilitating condition. I also discuss the efficacy and mechanisms behind OCD treatments—both behavioral and pharmacologic as well as holistic and combination treatments and new emerging treatments, including directed brain stimulation. I explain the neural circuitry underlying repetitive “thought-action loops” and why in OCD, the compulsive actions merely make the obsessions even stronger. I review cognitive-behavioral therapies like exposure therapy and SSRIs, holistic approaches, and nutraceuticals, detailing the efficacy of each approach and what science says about how to combine and sequence treatments. I describe an often effective approach for treating OCD where clinicians use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to deliberately bring patients into states of high anxiety while encouraging them to suppress compulsive actions in order to help them learn to overcome repetitious thought/action cycles. This episode should interest anyone with OCD, anyone who knows someone with OCD or OCPD, and more generally, those interested in how the brain works to control thoughts and actions, whether those thoughts are intrusive or not. For the full show notes, visit hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1 (Athletic Greens): https://athleticgreens.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Supplements from Momentous https://www.livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) (00:04:06) Sponsors: AG1, LMNT (00:08:28) What is OCD and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder? (00:11:18) OCD: Major Incidence & Severity (00:15:10) Categories of OCD (00:21:33) Anxiety: Linking Obsessions & Compulsions (00:27:33) OCD & Familial Heredity (00:29:10) Biological Mechanisms of OCD, Cortico-Striatal-Thalamic Loops (00:39:36) Cortico-Striatal-Thalamic Loop & OCD (00:46:39) Clinical OCD Diagnosis, Y-BOCS Index (00:51:38) OCD & Fear, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) & Exposure Therapy (01:01:56) Unique Characteristics of CBT/Exposure Therapy in OCD Treatment (01:10:18) CBT/Exposure Therapy & Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) (01:22:30) Considerations with SSRIs & Prescription Drug Treatments (01:25:17) Serotonin & Cognitive Flexibility, Psilocybin Studies (01:31:50) Neuroleptics & Neuromodulators (01:36:09) OCD & Cannabis, THC & CBD (01:39:29) Ketamine Treatment (01:41:43) Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) (01:46:22) Cannabis CBD & Focus (01:47:50) Thoughts Are Not Actions (01:51:27) Hormones, Cortisol, DHEA, Testosterone & GABA (02:00:55) Holistic Treatments: Mindfulness Meditation & OCD (02:03:28) Nutraceuticals & Supplements: Myo-Inositol, Glycine (02:09:45) OCD vs. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (02:20:53) Superstitions, Compulsions & Obsessions (02:31:00) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube Feedback, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, Momentous Supplements, Instagram, Twitter, Neural Network Newsletter Title Card Photo Credit: Mike Blabac Disclaimer

Huberman Lab discusses neuroscience: how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance. For more than 20 years, Dr. Huberman has consistently published original research findings and review articles in top-level peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, Cell, Neuron, and Current Biology. He is a regular member of several National Institutes of Health review panels and a Fellow of the McKnight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts. Dr. Huberman regularly consults for technology development companies, professional athletic organizations, and various units of U.S. and Canadian Special Operations.

Huberman Lab

The Science & Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

The Science of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

The absence of some vitamins and nutrients in your diet could lead to some mental health issues. That's why it's important to know the types of vitamins linked to mental health and how they affect the human brain.

Vitamins And Mental Health

There are 13 types of vitamins including:<ul><li>Vitamin A</li><li>The B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, B6, B12, and folate)</li><li>Vitamin C</li><li>Vitamin D</li><li>Vitamin K</li><li>Vitamin E</li></ul>

Types Of Vitamins

Any disorder that affects mood, thinking, and behavior can be described as a mental health problem. There are different ways to treat mental health issues including psychotherapy or medication. However, medical treatments do not always work best for some individuals. This creates the need to seek alternative solutions such as nutrition therapy.

Various mental health conditions could have adverse effects on your lifestyle. Among them is depression, a condition that is associated with a lack of some vitamins. It is the most common mental health condition. It affects people of all ages, races, socioeconomic backgrounds, and ethnicities.

Impact of Vitamins on Mental Health

Low levels of folate have been linked to depression. Folic acid helps the body make healthy red blood cells.Folic acid can be found in green leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, beans, fortified bread, and cereals. With folic acid, you should only consume around 1 milligram daily.

Where To Find Folic Acid

Mental health problems such as memory loss, anxiety, depression, irritability, and insomnia are also associated with deficiencies in vitamin B1. The brain uses this vitamin to help convert glucose or blood sugar into energy. This means that without it, the brain may not have enough energy to function normally. Lack of enough vitamins may also lead to fatigue, loss of appetite, and gastrointestinal disorders.

Vitamin B1(thiamin) and mental health

Vitamin B12 is a key component in the formation of red blood cells. Its deficiency could lead to an oxygen-transport problem in the blood known as pernicious anemia. This disorder may cause issues like mood swings, paranoia, irritability, confusion, dementia, and hallucinations (or mania).A diet that includes vitamin B complex helps boost mental health.Vitamin B deficiency could negatively influence your memory function, and cause cognitive impairment and dementia.

Vitamin B12 and mental health

When Vitamin B12 and folate supplements are combined, they enhance the production of serotonin and dopamine. The two vitamins both play important roles in regulating and maintaining a good mental health state. It is important to note that older people are more susceptible to deficiency of vitamin B12.

Vitamin B12 and Folate Combined

Vitamin B12 can be found in plenty in animal products such as fish, lean meat, poultry, eggs, and low-fat and fat-free milk. Fortified breakfast cereals also are a good source of B-12 and other B vitamins.

Where to get vitamin B12. 

Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with active mood disorder and depression. Further investigations point out that vitamin D is important and is used during brain development. Vitamin D can be gotten naturally from the sun, inadequacy of vitamin D has been positively linked to mental problems.

Vitamin D and mental health

Maintaining a healthy diet may help you avoid nutritional deficiencies that cause mental health problems. It is not difficult to stay on a healthy diet plan including daily vitmain and mineral pills.Reducing or avoiding alcohol intake, cigarette smoking, refined sugars, and caffeine may help to maintain good mental health.

Summary

Why the brain needs vitamins and minerals⁉️

food

Food

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

What To Know About Vitamins And Mental Health

It is believed that in 30 seconds, the human brain goes through roughly the same amount of information as the Hubble Space Telescope processes in 30 years. Part of that data comes from the world around us; another part comes from our inner world—the body. Indeed, among the grandest feats of the brain’s spectacular repertoire is its ongoing conversation with the body. Science has much yet to uncover about the mysteries of this conversation. A good place to start is interoception.

Humbling Hubble

Interoception is “the process by which the nervous system senses, interprets, and integrates signals originating from within the body, providing a moment-by-moment mapping of the body’s internal landscape across conscious and unconscious levels” (Khalsa et al., 2018). This feedback loop of incoming and outgoing information between the brain and body has also been called our “sixth sense.” The brain’s ability to register, interpret, and integrate bodily signals is undoubtedly consequential for our well-being.

What Is Interoception?

Psychologist Jennifer MacCormack investigates interoception, how it develops and ages, and how it interacts with bodily states like hunger to impact our emotions and behavior (such as feeling hangry)."The brain and body are deeply interconnected”, MacCormack said in a recent interview. “I think of them as equal co-partners, or as one organism that is managing and processing different aspects of data from the environment (internal and external)”.

Brain And Body: Two Equal Co-Partners

“If we were to eavesdrop on the conversation between the brain and body, it might sound like two very chatty co-partners driving a car together (Body: ‘Oh, look, this and that are changing!’ Brain: ‘All good here. Maybe then turn this up and maintain that .’). Since the brain and body are allies, both are responsible for keeping the ‘car’ (us) moving.”

Brain And Body: Two Very Chatty Co-Partners

“We often think in terms of dualities: emotion versus cognition, body versus mind, and peripheral versus central nervous system. While these divisions are useful in daily conversation and philosophical debates, we should be careful not to overlook how deeply intertwined these processes may actually be.”

Dualities: Clearing Up Is Not Cutting Up

“Many researchers have proposed that bodily awareness (the body’s position in space, i.e., proprioception, or internal bodily sensations like your heart beating, i.e., interoception) is an early, foundational part of our sense of self. The body constantly sends afferent signals via the spinal cord up to the brain, communicating about its current resources and needs, which the brain then uses to guide how we feel, think, and react. Cognitive science has not always appreciated this bottom-up, body-to-mind path. We’ve long focused on the brain as the central driver of the ‘self’.”

The Body And Our Sense Of Self

“But each body has unique structural and functional variations shaped by epigenetics, environment, and lifestyle. This embodied variation helps determine more stable differences in the self (e.g., temperament) as well as brief within-person differences (e.g., being more easily upset when tired versus rested). Several experiments also reveal that afferent bodily signals can shape our emotions, social perceptions, and decisions. For example, people who are more interoceptive appear to make better intuitive gut decisions, such as placing bets or stock trading.”

Our Embodied Variation And Our Self

“By necessity, the brain must constantly monitor and manage what is happening in the body (known as allostasis). The brain relies on afferent bodily signals to ensure that there are enough physiological resources (e.g., glucose, oxygen) for behavior at any given moment. For example, during a perceived threat, the brain tells the heart and lungs to pump more blood to the arms and legs to help fuel the muscles for action (e.g., fight or flight).”

Allostasis: Are There Enough Resources?

“To counter a threat, the brain also needs to know the body’s available and reserved metabolic energy and any other relevant energy constraints (e.g., if the body is fighting off an infection). This vigilance helps the brain better coordinate an efficient response to whatever life events or challenges we encounter.”

Allostasis: How Are These Resources Allocated?

"How much and which bodily signals become conscious is a complex question. Of course, it would be information overload if we were consciously aware of every little fluctuation in our body’s homeostatic parameters. Instead, conscious bodily sensations likely depend on whether and how much of that bodily signal the brain predicts will motivate the needed behavior.”

Not All Signals Become Conscious

“If your blood sugar dips, it’s important to make those metabolic signals more conscious as unpleasant hunger sensations, helping motivate you to eat. Conversely, if you’re under a prolonged stressor, minimizing conscious bodily sensations could help you better cope.”

There Is Signal Switching And Signal Mixing

“However, there are many other interoceptive differences that help determine when and how much some people experience their bodily signals more than other people. For instance, some people preferentially focus on interoceptive cues in how they describe and relate to the world. Some individuals are also more accurate or sensitive to their bodies. We aren’t sure yet why people have these interoceptive differences. But it’s likely a combination of factors—such as how we’re raised, the kinds of life experiences we have, and differences in nervous system functioning and development.”

Some Of Us Experience These Signals More Than Others

Another important question is how the brain makes meaning of bodily signals. As ‘raw’ bodily signals enter the spinal column, some afferent nerves connect to the same spinal neurons. This means that sometimes signals get mixed together.“A good example of this is referred pain during a heart attack, when people can experience arm rather than chest pain because cardiac and arm nerves connect at the same spinal location.”

Sometimes Signals Get Mixed Together

“The brain then must solve the puzzle of incoming bodily information by inferring the signal’s source (in our example, heart or arm?) and making coherent meaning out of it. It does this in many ways—by monitoring relevant hormone levels that cross the blood-brain barrier, by using temporal information (how frequent is the bodily signal? what time of day is it?), and likely also by considering the current situation we’re in. The brain processes this bodily meaning below the threshold of conscious awareness—we simply experience the product, such as feeling our heart racing, being tired, etc.”

And Yet, We Simply Experience The Product

“The brain, however, is not a perfect predictor of bodily meaning. Referred pain is one example. Other times, whether due to signal intensity or ambiguity, due to environmental distractions, etc., our brains might attribute bodily signals differently. Furthermore, because sometimes bodily signals become conscious sensations, and other times they don’t, this leads us to make different mental attributions about why we feel the way we do, based on where we’re focusing awareness. For instance, feeling ‘hangry’ occurs when we aren’t aware that hunger is influencing our feelings.”

Misunderstandings Happen (Like In All Conversations)

“Another way that we can apply meaning to bodily sensations is through our interoceptive beliefs. Interoceptive beliefs, such as how valuable or dangerous people believe their bodily signals are, can matter for experiences like stress. For example, individuals with anxiety<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/anxiety"> </a>sensitivity are more likely to ‘catastrophize’ and become distressed by increased heartbeats during a stressor compared to individuals without anxiety sensitivity.”

Interoception And Interoceptive Beliefs

“Interoception is central to many emotional processes. Both interoceptive skills (e.g., being more sensitive to or aware of specific bodily sensations) and interoceptive knowledge (e.g., meta-cognitive awareness, beliefs) likely matter. Higher interoceptive accuracy also helps people more accurately identify when their feelings and behaviors are rooted in internal bodily changes versus external social events.”

Interoception And Emotional Intelligence

“Positive interoceptive beliefs include beliefs that bodily signals are a valuable source of insight and that bodily signals, even unpleasant ones, are not necessarily distressing or detrimental. Many studies suggest that this comfortable, trusting mindset towards the body may have positive effects for well-being. For instance, people with more positive interoceptive beliefs had better outcomes during a social stressor than people with negative or neutral interoceptive beliefs.”

Interoceptive Beliefs May Contribute To Well-Being

While being able to accurately identify your bodily signals is important, what might matter more for well-being is how you then interpret and react to your identified sensations.

Most of us don’t fully appreciate how the body matters until we experience illness, disease, or interoceptive dysfunction. But it is important to find a middle ground. On the one hand, people who over-focus on the body may be more likely to “over-detect” or overinterpret their bodily signals—such as in cases of hypochondriasis or anxiety. But it’s also problematic to go too far the other way and actively ignore, suppress, or discount bodily signals. For example, tracking unusual bodily changes (e.g., frequent blood sugar crashes) could help you identify when you need to go to the doctor.

Aim For An Interoceptive Middle Ground

A middle ground—not too much and not too little interoception—is likely optimal for physical and psychological health.

One sense to rule them all, one sense to find them, one sense to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them?

Inside the mystery of brain-body communication.

Understanding Interoception, the Sixth Sense

There are four main hormones (a type of chemical your body makes) that trigger feelings of happiness, and each chemical is connected to specific events or rewards. Understanding these chemicals and how they work can help you figure out even small ways to feel better amid such a stressful time.

Four Main Hormones

The hormone <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326090">dopamine </a>is associated with motivation and reward. It's why you feel gumption when you set an exciting or important goal, and why it feels good to reach that goal. On the flip side, if you have low dopamine (which experts say <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326090#related-conditions">can occur with depression </a>), it can explain feelings of low motivation or loss of interest in something you used to enjoy.

Dopamine

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays a role in mood, but it also helps regulate <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/serotonin#functions">other functions </a>in your body like digestion, sleep and bone health. When it comes to happiness and how you feel every day, serotonin is important for <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/serotonin#functions">reducing depression and regulating anxiety. </a>

Serotonin

<a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/love-hormone#motherhood">Oxytocin </a>is sometimes called the "love" hormone and is associated with how people bond and trust each other. Certain activities like kissing, hugging and having sex can trigger the release of oxytocin in the brain.

Oxytocin

"In the state of nature, it helps an injured animal escape from a predator. It helped our ancestors run for help when injured. Endorphins evolved for survival, not for partying. If you were high on endorphins all the time, you would touch hot stoves and walk on broken legs," Breuning explains.Endorphins are released in response to pain, but that doesn't mean you should seek out ways to cause yourself harm (like by overexercising or pushing yourself beyond your limits) just to feel good.

Endorphins

There are simple ways to produce more dopamine, serotonin, endorphin and oxytocin. Here's how.

habits

Habits

You Can Boost Your Brain's 4 'Happy' Hormones. Here's How to Do It Naturally

Trauma at any age can cause a cluster of symptoms that occur in the wake of a distressing incident. There are 3 components of trauma, the 3 E's:<ul><li>the Event</li><li>the Experience</li><li>the Effects</li></ul>PTSD is about the effects. It is one of the mental disorders in the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM). A person diagnoised with PTSD has 4 main symptom clusters:<ol><li>Intrusive symptoms</li><li>Avoidant symptoms</li><li>Depressive symptoms</li><li>Arousal/Reactivity symptoms</li></ol>It is really important to note that PTSD is not the only way trauma impacts our mental & physical health.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

This is the first cluster of PTSD, which includes recurring, unwanted images & thoughts of the traumatic event, and dreams or nightmares. This is related to the brain's effort to make sense of the world. Trauma is threatening & far outside of our usual experience, shattering our inner landscape and worldview. This process involves both conscious and unconscious repetitive "reenactment" behaviors, or writings, drawing, sculpting, or playing. Again & again, revisiting the moment, looking through the wreckage, take something and move it to a safe haven.

Intrusive Symptoms 

These arise when someone feels distressed after being reexposed to people, places, or other reminders of the original traumatic events. In some ways, avoidant behaviors are an attempt to regain control over what feels like the uncontrollability of the traumatic experience. It is a part of the dissociative response to a threat, especially when it is unavoidable & distressing, to give yourself the sense of protection.

Avoidant Symptoms 

This alteration in arousal and reactivity are derived from the sensitized stress-response networks being overactive and overly reactive. They include anxiety, hypervigilance, increased startle response, high and variable heart rate and sleep problems. Having the survival mode of fight, flight or freeze activated even in the absence of presence threats causes the body to lose a calibrated response to normal daily life.

Arousal/Reactivity Symptoms

When all 4 of these categories are present, then it is labeled as PTSD. The majority of the long term effects don't manifest as PTSD.The effects of trauma stretch far & wide across generations & communities, & it is important to come to the central question with compassion:What happened to you?The objective question helps you to remove the personal narrative assigned to your traumatic experience, with the intention of bringing yourself into the awareness of what occurred and how you were impacted.

PTSD is Just One Of The Outcomes From Trauma

Findings show that your history of relational health - connectedness to family, community, & culture - is more predictive of your mental health than your history of adversity. Connectedness has the power to counter balance adversity.The timing of the adversity makes a huge difference in determining overall risk. Put simply, if you experience trauma at age 2, it will have more impact on your health than the same trauma taking place at age 17.Experiences of the first 2 months of life have a disproportionate important impact on your longterm health and development due to rapid brain growth.

Adversity Vs Connectedness

Trauma, PTSD, and how Connectedness counteracts them

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand. “Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.”—Oprah Winfrey This book is going to change the way you see your life. Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question. Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.

ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Our earliest experiences shape our lives far down the road, and What Happened to You? provides powerful scientific and emotional insights into the behavioral patterns so many of us struggle to understand. “Through this lens we can build a renewed sense of personal self-worth and ultimately recalibrate our responses to circumstances, situations, and relationships. It is, in other words, the key to reshaping our very lives.”—Oprah Winfrey This book is going to change the way you see your life. Have you ever wondered "Why did I do that?" or "Why can't I just control my behavior?" Others may judge our reactions and think, "What's wrong with that person?" When questioning our emotions, it's easy to place the blame on ourselves; holding ourselves and those around us to an impossible standard. It's time we started asking a different question. Through deeply personal conversations, Oprah Winfrey and renowned brain and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry offer a groundbreaking and profound shift from asking “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?” Here, Winfrey shares stories from her own past, understanding through experience the vulnerability that comes from facing trauma and adversity at a young age. In conversation throughout the book, she and Dr. Perry focus on understanding people, behavior, and ourselves. It’s a subtle but profound shift in our approach to trauma, and it’s one that allows us to understand our pasts in order to clear a path to our future—opening the door to resilience and healing in a proven, powerful way.

As the visionary and leader behind OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network and formerly the supervising producer and host of the top-rated, award-winning “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Oprah has entertained and inspired millions of viewers to live their best lives. Her accomplishments as a global media leader and philanthropist have established her as one of the most respected and admired public figures today.

Oprah Winfrey

Bruce D. Perry is an American psychiatrist, currently the senior fellow of the Child Trauma Academy in Houston, Texas and an adjunct professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.

Bruce D. Perry

What Happened to You?

Find 100+ Mental Health Tips & Facts - Curated from sources like Books, Podcasts, Articles - Insights by Real Users looking to share Insights on Mental Health