Use Mindfulness to Lose Weight

Could losing weight be all in the mind? Meditation 'helps keep the pounds off by stopping us eating out of habit'

• Mindfulness meditation helps people become aware of their body's signals
• Obesity expert Dr Ian Campbell says it may be the key to weight loss
• Dutch study found naturally mindful people's weight fluctuates less
• Experts: They are better able to recognise when they are hungry or full

By FIONA MACRAE

Forget endless salads and early-morning gym sessions, the key to losing weight could be all in the mind.

Scientists claim that mindfulness, a meditation-like technique that is becoming increasingly trendy, can help us tune into our body’s hunger signals.

This will mean we only eat when we need to – and so stop the pounds from piling on.

While the idea may seem wacky, mindfulness has been credited with a host of health benefits from easing depression to boosting the immune system and lowering blood pressure.

And a leading British obesity expert has said it may be the ‘missing link’ in the search for an effective weight loss technique.

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Mindfulness, a meditation-like technique which teaches people to become more aware of their body's signals, may be the‘missing link’ in the search for an effective weight loss technique, an obesity expert claims

Dutch researchers carried out a series of studies to see if mindfulness, which involves blocking out distractions, focusing in the present and listening to your body, stops people from eating mindlessly.

In some of these, volunteers were quizzed to find out if they were naturally high in mindfulness.

Questions included whether they were normally aware if their breathing rate changed and how good they were at finding words to describe their feelings.

The volunteers were then given milkshakes to drink and then watched as they snacked on chocolates later.

Importantly, some of the shakes contained cream and so should have made the volunteers feel much fuller and led to them eating fewer chocolates.

This was the case for the volunteers judged as being high on mindfulness.

However, those less able to listen to their body dug into the chocolates, no matter how creamy and calorific the shake.

Another experiment suggested that listening to a mindfulness tape for a few minutes made it easier for people to realise if they were hungry.

Finally, the team from Wageningen University analysed data on more than 400 people who had undergone regular weigh-ins over two and a half years.

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A Dutch study found people who are 'naturally mindful' are better able to recognise when they are hungry - meaning their weight fluctuates less than people who are less aware of their body's signals

Like the first group of men and women, they were also asked questions to determine how naturally mindful they were.

Weight fluctuated less in the more mindful sorts, the Journal of Consumer Research reports.

The researchers believe that by listening to the body and blocking out distractions, we become more aware of whether we really are hungry or whether we simply want to eat out of habit.

Just telling people to eat less and exercise more doesn't tend to work, we have incorporated mindfulness into our weight loss programme and the results have been fantastic 

Ian Campbell, a Nottingham GP and weight loss expert 

Ian Campbell, a Nottingham GP and weight loss expert, said eating mindfully makes dieters aware of what and how much they eat, while regular meditation boosts self-esteem and self-control.

This gives people more will power to limit calorie intake and change their eating habits for good.

Dr Campbell also who runs a private weight loss clinic, where he advises patients to follow he practice.

He said: ‘Just telling people to eat less and exercise more doesn't tend to work, we have incorporated mindfulness into our weight loss programme and the results have been fantastic.

‘It addresses emotions and relationships with food and tackles the fact that so much of what we do is out of habit.’

He added that mindfulness could provide the ‘missing link’ between the biology and psychology of weight loss.

A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body

7 Habits for a Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body

The secrets to well-being can be found in our evolutionary biology.
by Christopher Bergland

To find clues for healthy living today, we must look to our past. The history of human evolution shows a definitive link between our physical health and psychological well-being. The Greeks understood the importance of a Sound Mind in a Sound Body. That credo became the foundation of their civilization. For clues on how we can best survive the 21st century we should look to the wisdom held in our ancestry and evolutionary biology.

In this entry I will explore ways in which modern living is causing our bodies and minds to short-circuit. I will recap the major periods of human evolution and offer a simple prescriptive that can insulate you from the ‘future shock’ that rapid advances in technology have created in our bodies, minds, and society. “Future shock” is a term for a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies, introduced by Alvin Toffler in his book of the same name. Toffler's most basic definition of future shock is: “ too much change in too short a period of time.”  Do you feel future shocked? What ways are you coping with it?

The 7 Habits for a Healthy Mind in a Healthy body are simple daily lifestyle choices. These 7 principles are the foundation of The Athlete’s Way (link is external) philosophy:

7 HABITS FOR A HEALTHY MIND IN A HEALTHY BODY

Daily Physicality: Exercise for at least 20 minutes most days of the week.

Intellectual Curiosity: Spend some time in focused thought, exploring new ideas every day.

Foster Creativity: Challenge your mind to connect unrelated ideas in new and useful ways.

Human Unity: Create and maintain close-knit human bonds and a social support network.

Spiritual Connectedness: Identify a Source of inspiration that is bigger than you.

Energy Balance: Balance Calories in/Calories out, and reduce your carbon footprint.

Voluntary Simplicity: Embrace the liberty that comes with wanting and needing less.


Technology vs. Evolutionary Biology

A visual image that I find useful for putting human evolution in perspective is to picture that if the entire length of your arm represented human evolution, the past 200 years would be represented by the white tip of a freshly clipped finger nail. We often forget the lightning speed with which recent modern inventions have reshaped our lives after hundreds of millions of years of very gradual change.

Here is a quick timeline of major inventions that have changed our lives since the 1800s: The steam engine and locomotive were invented in 1804, the telephone in 1876, the first electrical power plant in 1882, the production-line automobile in 1902, the television in 1927, the jet airplane 1943, the ATM in 1967, the cell phone in 1973, the internet in 1983. Isn’t it amazing to realize how recently these changes have occurred considering the first primate fossils date back some 20 million years?

The first seeds of the information age began in 1888 when an American inventor, Herman Hollerith, developed a successful computer, using punched cards and electricity. In 1911 he sold his company, the Tabulating Machine Company, which then became the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. In 1924 this company became IBM. Analog computers were developed in 1930 and the first electronic computer was in use by 1946.

The digital revolution was officially born late in 1947 when two Bell Labs scientists demonstrated a transistor that could take electric current, amplify it, and switch it on and off. By the late 1960s, large companies used computers. Personal computers were introduced in 1975. The internet and social media have changed the way we live, work and communicate in ways that would have seemed unimaginable just a decade ago. We are all scrambling to keep our bearings in this digital whirlwind.

Like many people, I believe that we have to be proactive in order to combat the potential of digital technology to zap our minds and bodies of their vitality. Obviously, digital advances have improved our lives in so many ways, but there are so many uncertains. For example: As a parent, I wonder if iPads as a learning tool help raise a generation that is being spoon fed too much over-processed everything or do they enhance learning and creativity? I think it’s a dual-edged sword.

Technology has the ability to greatly enhance our lives, but it also has the power to cause our bodies and brains to atrophy. What are the consequences to our biology of living in a virtual reality, where we don’t have to work physically to stay alive? Will our children be able to adapt to these changes better than we did or will it only get worse? The advice herein is a prophylaxis to help insulate your biology so you can continue to climb ever-higher and maximize the potential of your body and mind.


Humans are Built to Run

As hunter-gatherers, the human body evolved to run great distances hunting prey and gathering food. The ability to spring through the air using our gluteus maximus muscles is what sets us apart from primate cousins. This pogo-stick ability of each leg allowed us to travel long distances and to hunt and gather a high protein diet, using relatively little fuel. We are very fuel-efficient machines. As our brains grew, so did our prefrontal cortex, the seat of human intelligence, and we became better hunters. It also kept our cerebellum bulked up, which gave us the benefit of a strong ‘up brain’ and a strong ‘down brain.’ I wrote a Pyschology Today blog about this split-brain model that you can check out here.

Endurance running is unique to homo sapiens among all other mammals except for dogs, horses and hyenas. Drs. Lieberman and Bramble, paleontologists at Harvard, established that our slender legs, shorter arms, narrower rib cage and pelvis, skulls with overheating prevention features, and the nuchal joint, which keeps our heads steady when we run, set us apart from chimpanzees.

The scientists concluded that running improved our chances of survival and reproduction. Although we were not as swift as our four-legged competitors, we could (and still can) out run and hunt over greater distances than other predators. Lieberman says, “Endurance running may have made possible a diet rich in fats and proteins thought to account for the unique human combination of large bodies, small guts, big brains, and small teeth.” It also imbedded the need to stay active into our biology.


Unity, Creativity, and Adventure are in Our DNA

One reason the Neanderthals may have became extinct is that they stayed in certain caves in France and parts of Spain for endless generations, relying on the same simple chiseled tools. Homo sapiens, on the other hand, were inclined to keep pushing into new areas, and inventing new technology. This is believed to be one reason that human lineage did not become extinct.

The first jewelry that archeologists have discovered dates back as far as 75,000 years ago. It is believed that homo sapiens in Africa began making beads, and piercing holes in the teeth of deceased loved ones to wear as adornment around this time. These findings illustrate that creativity and a deep need for human connection are embedded in our DNA. As the hunter-gatherers traveled the land in small bands, they also made sharp spears and other tools. Creative thinking and innovation have been linked to human survival for millennia.

Early agriculturists faced many challenges that hunting-gatherers didn't have to deal with. Farming meant the agriculturists needed to figure out how to exploit a relatively small amount of land very intensely, rather than taking advantage of a large amount of land as hunter-gatherers did. Early agricultural life, didn't require us to run, but it did require superior intelligence, physical stamina, and close-knit human bonds. Humans were able to do this and continued to evolve.

Agrarian society created a new lifestyle and social network. Pre-industrial farming required intense physical labor. The harvest cycle required a sustained physical effort a few times of the year based on seasonal weather patterns. Just as hunter-gatherers traveled in bands together, agrarian farming built tight communities. The necessities of agrarian life molded human behavior and society in ways that were uprooted by industrialization and commercialized farming.

Early farmers had to store food and to refrain from consuming whatever was available at the moment. If an agricultural community behaved like hunter-gatherers by grazing as they gathered food, they would starve to death in the winter. As agrarians we had to practice delaying gratification and not feast when there was abundance. Given the abundance of calorie-dense, nutritionally low food constantly at our disposal today—and the innate hunter-gatherer wiring embedded in our biology—it is understandable why so many people binge and have trouble delaying gratification.

Industrialization + Energy Gluttony = Global Warming

The first Industrial revolution occurred in Great Britain between 1750 and 1830. The use of automated machinery and the arrival of mass production created a new consumer society in the late 18th Century. Industrialization was a shock to the human system. Developments in Europe moved the population from a largely rural population, that made its livelihood from agriculture, to a town-centered society increasingly engaged in factory manufacturing. Later in the 19th century, similar revolutionary transformations began occurring in the United States.

Homo sapiens evolved to be very fuel-efficient machines. This is one reason it’s so easy for us to gain weight when we don’t have to do physical work to hunt or harvest our food.  With industrialization, physical expenditure dropped drastically. A typical hunter-gatherer required only 2,000 to 5,000 kilocalories of energy a day obtained through direct caloric consumption. Early agricultural societies required the equivalent of 20,000 kilocalories per person daily to maintain a farm. Early industrial societies required 60,000 kilocalories worth of energy, and modern post-industrial information societies require the equivalent of 120,000 kilocalories. The impact of this energy consumption on our environment are well known and one reason voluntary simplicity will benefit us all in the long run.


Socio-Economic Stratification

With industrialization, people moved into cities and began to work in factories. The human relationship to physicality and to nature changed. Much of the Romantic movements of the 19th century were a reaction to industrialism, by a class of people who could afford to appreciate nature and translate it into art. The Romantics wanted to reconnect with nature for creative and spiritual reasons. They realized that in gaining a command over nature, humans had lost something visceral and mystical that occurred through a connection to nature. How is the disconnect from nature and our own biology impacting our spiritual connectedness today?

I decided to embrace voluntary simplicity and live closer to nature a few years ago. Getting out of the city and de-cluttering my life was the most liberating thing I’ve ever done. Today I can fit all of my material possesions in the back of a small station wagon, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I keep the overhead very low and am able to live by the 7 principles here on a spartan budget. You can, too! One great thing about the digital age is that it allows you to work from anywhere. I have chosen to live closer to nature with visits to the city. I find that it is the perfect balance for optimal creativity and well-being. I feel very lucky to have the best of both worlds.

The socio-economic stratification of those who make a living doing creative jobs and who also exercise regularly is a point of interest to me. When I look at the record number of high-achievers entering local road running races, marathons, triathlons...and compare those statistics to the nationwide averages of obesity, I ask myself the chicken-or-the-egg question of which came first: their creative success or their dedication to regular physical activity? I fear that exercise, obesity, and creativity will become more and more of a class-divider in years to come. I am working to combat this through everything I do with The Athlete’s Way platform and corporate partnerships geared at funneling resources towards wellness initiatives aimed at underserved American youth.


Conclusion: Sweat is the Most Effective Elixir for Future Shock

I strongly believe that the 7 Habits for a Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body presented here are an antidote for future shock. Adopting these habits into your daily routine will keep you healthy, happy, and young at heart. Daily physical activity is ultimately the single most important elixir for staving off the negative impacts of modern life. Just 20 minutes most days of physical activity makes a huge difference in your state of well-being.

As Hippocrates said, “Walking is the best medicine.” A short, brisk daily walk could make all the difference in your long-term mental and physical health. If you want to be a resilient thought leader or innovator, you need to flex muscles in your mind and your body. Physical activity clears the cobwebs from your mind and makes you more creative. Almost every successful person I know who has an enduring career and remains prolific with fresh ideas has made the connection that regular physical activity is a requisite for his or her mental, physical, and professional longevity.

You don’t have to become an exercise fanatic, but nobody can sweat for you. If you want to stay competitive in a modern world you have to make physical activity a part of your daily routine. A generation ago before the digital revolution, in accepting his 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature Bertrand Russell—who was a zealot for the power of physical activity—addressed the pitfalls of modern living and offered some advice. I close with a quote from his speech titled: What Desires are Politically Important?

Our mental make-up is suited to a life of very severe physical labor. I used, when I was younger, to take my holidays walking. I would cover twenty-five miles a day, and when the evening came I had no need of anything to keep me from boredom, since the delight of sitting amply sufficed. But modern life cannot be conducted on these physically strenuous principles. A great deal of work is sedentary, and most manual work exercises on a few specialized muscles. Civilized life has grown altogether too tame, and, if it is to be stable, it must provide the harmless outlets for the impulses which our remote ancestors satisfied by hunting… More seriously, pains should be taken to provide constructive outlets for the love of excitement. Nothing is more exciting than a moment of sudden discovery or invention, and many more people are capable of experiencing such moments than is sometimes thought.

Gratitude to Enhance Well-Being

A Year-Round Gratitude Practice Through Mindfulness by Stephanie Cordel

Mindfulness First has been implementing a school-wide mindfulness program at David Crockett Elementary School in Phoenix, Arizona since August of this year. Our goal is to make it the first entirely mindful school in Arizona. Our instructors regularly visit each classroom and practice mindfulness with the students as well as teach them various concepts that relate to it.

Mindfulness is the practice of actively paying attention to what is happening in the present moment without attaching judgment. A structured way of cultivating this awareness is by taking time each day to sit and focus on your breathing. This seemingly simple act of bringing attention to your breathing helps you to recognize all of the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that serve as distractions from the present experience. It is during this time that we learn how to practice bringing attention back to our original focus by developing better awareness and concentration. We practice this routine with students of all ages to aid in their own cultivation of mindfulness.

Gratitude is one of the important concepts that we incorporate into our curriculum and teach to all of our students as well.You may be wondering how gratitude fits into a mindfulness curriculum. Well, because Mindfulness First seeks to provide mindfulness as a social and emotional learning tool, we pair mindfulness with other concepts that are shown to support positive social and emotional development among children of all ages. In fact, there are numerous scientifically-proven physical, psychological, and emotional benefits to consciously practicing gratitude on a regular basis.

Several studies have researched the impact of gratitude across different domains. One study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies found that men and women who wrote letters of gratitude consistently over the course of 3 weeks showed an increase in happiness and life satisfaction along with a decrease in depressive symptoms. Another study in the Journal of Counseling Psychology highlighted that gratitude helps to strengthen and maintain relationships. In the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, researchers report that practicing gratitude positively impacts a person's well-being and people who practice gratitude are even more likely to exercise regularly.

Another reason we link mindfulness with gratitude is that regularly practicing gratitude is not easy. It's not conventionally emphasized and we often forget to consider the aspects of our lives that give us joy, fulfillment, and meaning. This is especially true when we experience tough times. It can be difficult to consciously practice gratitude when we deal with challenging situations. However, it is during those difficult moments that gratitude can help us the most. That's where mindfulness comes in.
When we are experiencing a difficult moment we can easily lose ourselves and our perspective with the intense emotions and consuming thoughts associated with a painful or challenging experience. This entanglement can give a sense of overwhelm and inability to act. If we can take a moment and focus on our breathing when we are caught up with our thoughts and feelings, we can create a pause during this automatic whirlwind. During this pause, if we gently bring awareness to our internal experience of thoughts and feelings, we can become an observer of what is happening instead of a passive participant. This is done by simply recognizing what is actually happening in the moment instead of ruminating, speculating, or judging.
Once we have created enough of a separation to not become consumed by our internal experience, we can then make a choice to shift our thinking by bringing awareness to a different aspect of life such as the things we are grateful for. This active choice of practicing gratitude is how mindfulness can assist in changing the direction of our thoughts and feelings. It is important to keep in mind that this ability to pause during an overwhelming moment takes time to develop. It requires a consistent mindfulness practice to cultivate a habit of purposeful awareness.

At Mindfulness First we recognize the numerous benefits that have been scientifically studied along with the important link between mindfulness and choosing to practice gratitude. Thus we teach gratitude as a tool for students to utilize and a way to personally benefit from when experiencing, particularly when experiencing difficult moments.

During this holiday season don't limit your recognition of the positive things in your life to just this time of the year. Remember that any moment of any day throughout the year provides an opportunity to practice gratitude, which can benefit you all 365 days.

Keep Your Mind Engaged and Healthy

An engaged mind is a healthy mind

By Manali Chavan | 

Weekly chess society meetings are a relaxed environment. Classical music plays from a Pandora station while a number of chess games are ongoing. Members focus on the game before them, occasionally breaking their concentration to share a laugh with their opponent.

Engaging in activities that exercise the mind is beneficial to a student’s overall health and often, overlooked in today’s day-in-age. A typical college student spends most of his or her day attending classes, studying for exams and going to work, with their few hours of spare time they engage in sports, clubs and spend time with friends.

With an ample amount of activities to fill the day with, students can easily become overworked and stressed. Erin Trujillo, associate director and clinical director for ASU Counseling Services says in an email that the body needs a certain amount of stress to perform at its best, but that the amount of stress a body can take does reach a limit.

“Our bodies tell us when we move past our optimal level and into a place where we are impacted,” Trujillo says. “We’ll lose sleep, our eating patterns change and we’ll become either more or less emotional than our norm.”

Along with busy days many students find themselves engaging in more than one activity at a time. It has become rare for students to simply focus on one task at hand. However, Trujillo says there are certain activities, such as chess that provoke critical thinking and strengthen intellectual activity.

“When we are fully engaged in an intellectual activity, we are fully present in the moment,” Trujillo says.

Max Fechtmeyer, president of the Chess Society of Arizona State, has been playing chess for most of his life. Although he enjoys playing the game against his fellow club members, he praises the skills it has given him.

“It’s more of an endurance test and takes a lot of concentration,” Fechtmeyer says. “It’s such a good mental sharpening block that it should be focused on more.”

Brady Madden, director of Well Devil Coalition says in an email interview he stresses the importance of engaging in activities that promote a healthy lifestyle.

“A healthy lifestyle can promote greater concentration and focus, better memory and other mental benefits,” Madden says.

Madden shares that participating in activities such as playing chess or listening to TED Talks can sharpen the mind with new information and teach students how to strategize.

When Ben Jones started playing chess regularly he found himself appreciating other art forms such as classical music and NPR radio segments more.

“Chess really makes you slow down and take a couple steps back and think about what you’re doing,” says Jones, vice president of the Chess Society of Arizona State.

For students who are looking to sharpen their mind and increase their focus, the difference can come from simple activities such as playing a game of chess once a week or listening to NPR while driving in the car. Trujillo reminds us that these tiny activities can have a major effect on our overall health.

“All of these opportunities sharpen our minds through inspiration,” Trujillo says. “It keeps us balanced and intrigued.” 

Grow your own Happiness

Grow your own happiness: how meditation physically changes the brain

By Sarah Knapton

People can boost their happiness by growing a part of the brain which increases positive thinking, scientists believe.

Aristotle said that ‘happiness depends upon ourselves’ and a new study suggests it is possible to physically grow a happier brain through practices like meditation.

Although scientists have known which hormones produce emotions like pleasure or desire, it has been unclear where the feeling of overall contentment and well-being stems from.

To find out, scientists at Kyoto University asked 51 volunteers to rate their own happiness levels and then scanned their brains to see if they could spot any differences between the upbeat individuals and their more glum counterparts.

"This does not surprise me at all. The brain is malleable, just like other organs"

Prof Paul Dolan, London School of Economics

Intriguingly they discovered that an area of the brain called the precuneus was larger in people who were happier. It suggests that happiness can be worked like a muscle.

Previous studies have shown that regular meditation can boost grey matter in the precuneus, which could explain why those who meditate report experiencing feelings of general contentment and even bliss.

The scientists behind the finding said it will now be possible to clinically measure what things make people happier.

"Over history, many eminent scholars like Aristotle have contemplated what happiness is," said author Dr Wataru Sato said. "I'm very happy that we now know more about what it means to be happy.

"Several studies have shown that meditation increases grey matter mass in the precuneus.

“This new insight on where happiness happens in the brain will be useful for developing happiness programs based on scientific research.

“This study suggests it is possible to grow a happier brain.”

Researchers believe that the precuneus is particularly important for subjective happiness, such as where someone chooses to make the best of a situation and see it in a more positive light.

Volunteers who scored higher on the happiness surveys had more grey matter mass in the precuneus.

In other words, people who feel happiness more intensely, feel sadness less intensely, and are more able to find meaning in life have a larger precuneus. The difference in size between the person with the biggest and the smallest was about 15 per cent.

“Happiness is a subjective experience that has special significant for humans,” added Dr Sato,

“Our results suggest that psychological training that effectively increases grey matter and volume in the precuneaus may enhance subjective happiness.”

Happiness expert Prof Paul Dolan at the London School of Economics said it was clear that the brain could be changed.

Speaking about the new research he said: “This does not surprise me at all. The brain is malleable, just like other organs.

“Paying attention can literally change your brain. In London, Black Cab taxi drivers have to pass a very difficult test that requires them to know and be able to navigate 25,000 different city streets.

“Only half of the prospective cabbies who take this test pass it. Those that do pass have larger hippocampi – the part of the brain that corresponds with spatial processing – than those who fail.

“Yet it isn’t that the drivers started out with better spatial processing; instead, as they studied for the test, their hippocampi became larger as they learned more.”

Prof Dolan, who is a government advisor on how to make the population more contented, and author of the book Happiness By Design, claims that many of the things people believe will make them happy are fleeting and can actually alter their lives in a negative way.

“Most things we think will make us happy won’t,” he said “We’re really always happier if we are focussing on the person we are with and the thing we are doing right now. So make that something you enjoy.

“You should listen to music that you like listening to. That has a substantial effect on your mood. Your brain literally lights up. There is no other stimulation like music to arouse the brain.”

The research was published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.

Mindfulness to Treat Depression

Mindfulness is a way to Treat Depression

By Papiya Bhattacharya BENGALURU:  Familial support, yoga and mindfulness techniques with cognitive behaviour therapy have more than fifty per cent chance in  successfully treating victims of depression, according to Dr Mallika Sundaram, consultant psychiatrist at Kent and Medway NHS, United Kingdom.

Speaking at an international conference on women’s health and empowerment organised by Maharani Lakshmi Ammani College for Women and People Tree Hospitals. She said that medicines play a major role in treating depression, but are not enough. “Complete treatment of depression or anxiety disorders must not stop with medicication alone, as causes of the condition are multifaceted. The condition is not limited to the in take of antibiotics that can treat only physical aspects of depression.”

She believes that attaining mindfulness, a psychological state of actively participating in the present is the solution to depression.

The therapeutic sessions of attaining mindfulness are unique. A person is taught that the past is history, the future is a mystery and the present is a gift. “A child is a perfect example of being mindful because they give hundred percent to their activies, be it playing or listening to music. When a person drives to work and there is music playing in the car, chances are that he is not enjoying the music because his mind could be potentially preoccupied,”Dr Mallika said.

She also elaborated on another alternative technique to solve mind problems.”In cognitive behaviour therapy, people are taught to understand their thoughts, feelings and the  physical changes within themselves causing particular types of behaviour.” said Dr Mallika.

Women more prone

Women are more susceptible,“More women than men suffer from mental disorders.In fact one in three women suffer from common mental health disorder," she said.

From her extensive experience she drew the conclusion that women are predisposed to the disease,”Women are socially, genetically and culturally predisposed to common mental disorders such as depression and anxiety. This is probably because men and women respond differently to stress and perceive it different. Gender issues also increase anxiety.”