injury

Guided Imagery for Pain Relief

Curious about how guided imagery can be used for pain relief, stress reduction, and healing? Below is a short interview with Leslie Davenport, licensed therapist, clinical faculty at the integrative medicine center of a major hospital in San Francisco, and one of my psychology continuing education instructors, who gives a great example of how guided imagery works:

Self-Coaching in 10 Steps

Something has happened to change your life. It may be an injury, illness, surgery, or other loss of health. It may be a change in lifestyle, career, or the role you play in the family. Or maybe it was the death of a loved one, end of a relationship, or loss of a dream that kept you going. Now what?

Transitions in life are often difficult and energy draining. Our brain can get stuck on what has happened even though life continues to move on all around us. How can we take care of our need for processing all the emotions and still prepare to recharge our batteries and re-enter “real life” as it is now? Coaching can help. Read more...

Posted in Articles, Coaching, Healing, New Life Story®, Psychological Effects, Wellness | Tagged Coaching, goals, Healing, injury, motivation, recovery, stress, support, surgery, wellness | Leave a comment

How HealYourBest Coaching Works

Whether you’re newly injured, preparing for, or recovering from surgery, you need tips and tools to make the healing process easier and less stressful. HealYourBest Certified Wellness Coaching provides the right tools for you at just the right time. From the moment you decide to invest in this program you will benefit from having an experienced and highly trained guide along during your journey of recovery. I’ll personalize a program starting with where you are currently, will encourage you as you look at your old story in order to know what to change, and will “walk beside you” as you create your new story of wellness. Read more...

Posted in Coaching, Grief, Healing, Mental Training, New Life Story®, Stress, Wellness | Tagged Coaching, fear, goals, grief, grief recovery, Healing, injury, Mental Training, motivation, Performing Edge, recovery, stress, support, surgery, wellness | Leave a comment

Using Imagery to Feel Successful

Imagery Through the Senses

Excerpt from the book Your Performing Edge*
Dr. JoAnn Dahlkoetter Best-selling Author

Let’s talk about a variety of imagery categories and see how visualization incorporates the senses. After you become familiar with the various options, you can then select a particular type of imagery that matches your own perception style. Most experts agree that for maximum effectiveness, mental images should be positive and vivid, and evoke as many senses as possible. Why should imagery be a sensory experience? Read more...

Posted in Articles, Healing, Mental Training | Tagged Coaching, Dr. JoAnn Dahlkoetter, goals, Healing, injury, Mental Training, Performing Edge, recovery | Leave a comment

Grieving Loss of Health?

Injury and illness are losses that may need grieving.

There are at least 43 losses which can produce the range of emotions we call grief. The long list includes:

Death of a loved one
Divorce or end of a relationships
Major financial changes
Loss of health

Grief is normal and natural, but many of the ideas we have been taught about dealing with grief are not helpful, for example: Read more...

Time heals all wounds
You must grieve alone
Be strong
Don’t feel bad
Replace the loss
Just keep busy

Posted in Articles, Coaching, Grief, Healing, Health, Psychological Effects, Uncategorized | Tagged anxiety, Coaching, depression, goals, grief, grief recovery, Healing, injury, psychology, recovery, stress, surgery | Leave a comment

Asking for Help While Healing – Top 10 Tips

Asking for help is not always easy, especially when we are not used to doing it. When we are recovering it is sometimes even harder because we want to prove to others (and ourselves) that we can be independent, while secretly wishing others would “just know” what we need. While it is not reasonable to expect all our needs to be met just exactly when and how we want, it is possible to help others help us simply by letting them know what we need. So, what is the best way to communicate to others so that they will understand the things we cannot do for ourselves and be willing to help? The following is a list of ten tips for getting the best response. Read more...

Posted in Articles, Healing, Health, Mental Training, Uncategorized | Tagged Healing, injury, recovery, stress, support, surgery | Leave a comment

Orthopaedics and Alternative Therapies

The world of integrative and alternative medicine is more popular now that ever. But how do you wade through the vast amounts of information available online without becoming more confused, or falling for scams from unsafe practitioners and their advice? I have spent many years reading books, magazines, peer-reviewed journal articles, and following discussion groups moderated by highly trained naturopathic doctors and herbalists, and yet there are still many times when I am not certain how to choose between two or more conflicting opinions. Oftentimes we ask our physicians for advice on certain modalities or supplements we’ve read about and they may know from personal experience which ones are good and which aren’t. But other times, physicians have not studied these modalities in depth and prefer to stay within the boundaries of what they were taught as generally accepted practices in medical school. That does not mean that many of the alternative therapies are not good, or even bad, it just means that your doctor either may not know enough about it or does not want to recommend it to protect their practice from liability. Read more...

Posted in Articles, Health, Uncategorized | Tagged alternative medicine, doctor visits, Healing, injury, support | Leave a comment

EFT for Sports Performance & Injury Recovery

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No matter what sport you play; golf, tennis, baseball, basketball, football, hockey, soccer, track and field, or any other athletic endeavor there’s one thing for certain:

You would love to reach your full potential in the shortest time frame possible.

What if I told you that sports performance can be enhanced in just minutes a day using a simple technique that has been tested by professional and amateur athletes worldwide, with amazing results.

The technique I’m referring to is called Emotional Freedom Techniques or EFT. Read more...

Posted in Articles, Coaching, Mental Training, Products, Uncategorized | Tagged anxiety, Coaching, Healing, injury, Mental Training, motivation, psychology | Leave a comment

Talking with Your Doctor

If you have been injured or seriously ill you will inevitably find yourself sitting in the doctor’s office with a lot of questions. What often happens is we feel rushed or nervous and forget to ask or forget WHAT to ask. Here is a list of reminders that will help during those times when it is important to know all the facts before making any decisions.

How to Talk to Your Doctor

How do you talk to your doctor? Does he or she do all the talking while you do all the listening? Are you afraid to ask questions? Do you leave the office feeling like you just sat through a foreign language class? Read more...

Posted in Articles, Uncategorized | Tagged Coaching, doctor visits, Healing, injury, support | Leave a comment

Positive Coaching

Coaches need to read their athletes correctly and understand them for who they are.

- Dr. JoAnn Dahlkoetter http://www.DrJoAnn.com

Unless you’re a competitive athlete, chances are you have not had a “coach” since high school PE class. But you have probably had a boss, a neighbor, or a parent who made a big impression on you. Was that impression positive or negative? What about their interaction with you made it positive or negative? Would you have wanted it to be different? What would you do differently if you were in that position? Read more...

Posted in Articles | Tagged Coaching, goals, Healing, injury, support | Leave a comment

Sports Psychology – Not Just for Athletes Anymore

Sports Psychology Can be Used by “Regular People”

Part of my training as a certified coach has been to read and absorb a book called, Your Performing Edge: The Complete Mind-Body Guide for Excellence in Sports, Health and Life by Dr. JoAnn Dahlkoetter. My goal from the very first chapter was to take the concepts used by athletes and sports coaches, and translate them for use by the “rest of us.”

Below is an article by Dr. JoAnn along with my take on how to use the “3 P’s,” which are the core of the Performing Edge Method, for helping people to heal and recovery from injury, surgery, or both. Read more...

Posted in Articles, Mental Training, Psychological Effects | Tagged Coaching, fear, Healing, injury, Mental Training, psychology | Leave a comment

Using Mental Training to Recover from Injury

People from all walks of life may at some point in their lives experience an accidental injury. Trainers and coaches have been using some powerfully effective mental training tools to help athletes return to their sport, while the rest of us have probably only just heard of them. The mental training tips listed in following article can be used by anyone who is experiencing a season of healing and recovery. Just exchange any references to athletes and sports with activities related to physical therapy and rehabilitation. Welcome to the exciting world of sports psychology! Read more...

Posted in Articles, Coaching, Mental Training, Psychological Effects | Tagged Coaching, Healing, injury, Mental Training, psychology | Leave a comment

How to Deal with Everyday Life Grief

How to Deal With Everyday Life Grief

by Isabel Kirk

What comes to your mind when you think of the word grief? Most people think of death. Even if you Google it, the listings that come up are related to the emotional response that surfaces from the death of a love one. There is very good information and help out there related to that topic. So the purpose of this article is to talk about the silent discounted grief that is part of our daily life but we don’t even know is there for the most part. Believe it or not we all grief since we are born and our emotional health depends on grant part on the mastering of this process. We all hear the word grief here and there but even people who are in the midst of the process don’t know what the word grief means or what the process really involves. The English word comes from the Old French grève, meaning a heavy burden. This makes sense when you consider that grief often weighs you down with sorrow and other emotions that can have both psychological and physical consequences.

There are many unconventional situations that produce grief reactions and most of them are just part of being alive. Judy Viorst in her book “Necessary Losses: The Loves, Illusions, Dependencies, and Impossible Expectations That All of Us Have to Give Up in Order to Grow” talks about most of them in great depth. She mentions how since the moment that we leave our mom’s wound we experience our first loss which is necessary to being alive. Why? Because loss is not a one-dimensional process. When we loose we also win but sometimes the pain from the loss might blind us from seeing the winning aspect of it.

Everyday we confront different and many type of losses – loss of independence, loss of a loved one, break ups and divorces, loss of security when we move to a new place or loose a job, disappointments, pervasive loss of one’s personal sense of well being and adequacy. . . so forth and so on. Even each positive stage of life carries on a loss, going to college, getting married, having a baby, retiring…just to mention a few. So if we can look at grief, sometimes, in a different way, as an essential part of living and growing, we could start understanding and accepting grief as a normal part of life. Here some tips to help you cope with it:

• Like with any sad or uncomfortable feeling or part of life, our reaction might be to try to run away from it. With grief the same happens. Contrary to what we do, it is important to understand that it is better if we welcome and try to go through it. “Easier said than done,” you might be thinking but you just can’t go around it. Grief is a process and you have to move through it to come across the other side.

• Be careful with judgment and allow all your feelings to come up. Since judgment is part of being humans we tend to classify feelings as good and bad. While grieving something or someone, try to stay away as much as you can from judging what you feel. Just feel it.

• Be patient and give yourself time. When there is a change it takes sometime for our internal worlds to adjust to a new reality. Grief requires adjustment and is a healing process. Notice the word process, which means takes time. Even though it doesn’t feel good, it is invaluable for the redefinition of our core self.

• Allow yourself to have fun. Sometimes because something bad happened we don’t allow ourselves to have some joyful moments. Why? Because we tell ourselves that might mean that we don’t care or that we are bad people. Judgment again! Well, let me tell you that the human nature has the amazing capacity to tolerate or do more than one thing at the same time. So you can be grieving and can fun at the same time.

• Surround yourself of familiar things and faces. A change increases uncertainty and vulnerability so the more you can be around routine and all time friends and family members the better.

• Tolerate the discomfort and hang in there. Try to do it without resorting to substances or unhealthy behaviors. Knowing your coping style when under stress might help you to know what to do while grieving. Easy recipe to follow: do exactly the opposite. Eg. If you tend to eat, try to exercise; if you tend to isolate, call a friend, if you try to overdo things, try to relax etc.

• Do not compare yourself to others. This is an easy trap. Because we know other people that went through a similar situation we push ourselves to heal as other did. Celebrate your uniqueness and allow yourself to have your own process.

• Keep in mind that grief is about remembering while attaching to something new. It is not about forgetting the past but it is about finding a way to keep people, places or experiences as part of who we are but being able to look into what the new horizons offer to us and see the beauty of it.

• Ask for help if necessary. If things get out of hand, the pain becomes intolerable for too long or adjustment doesn’t happen, do not hesitate to ask for professional help. Sometimes friends and family mean well but they don’t really give you the best advice.

As Karen O. Johnson MEd, founder & CEO of Everyday Life Grief Consulting says: “Life is made up of loss and it needs to be accepted and addressed to survive it in a healthy manner. Transforming the shattered dreams of grief can be a painful, but illuminating experience.” And remember that there is not a typical response to loss, as there is no typical loss (regardless of its nature). Our grieving is as individual as our lives.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Isabel_Kirk Read more...

Posted in Articles, Psychological Effects | Tagged anxiety, depression, fear, Healing, injury, psychology

Five Steps for Managing Depression

Take Charge of Your Depression in Five Simple Steps

By Deborah Kukal, Ph.D.

Depression is one of the most common experiences in the United States today, but it doesn’t have to be YOUR experience.

Yes, it’s true that depression is ‘biochemical’, that it happens in your brain. And yes, it’s true that your brain processes change what you think and how you feel. And your brain processes change what you do and how you choose.

But luckily, what you think and how you feel, what you do and how you choose, also change the way your brain works! And that gives you power. You can manage, reduce, and even reverse your depression!

Here are some points of power that have been proven by research to change how your brain works. They rebuild healthy brain structure and healthy brain function. And when you choose to do these things, you don’t just change your brain. You also change your experience. You feel happier, more energetic, hopeful and free. You sleep better, and you’re more fun to be around! No, change won’t happen overnight. But when you use your power, when you tip the scales-the changes WILL happen!

#1: Exercise

I know. You can’t. You don’t have time, you don’t have a place, you hurt too much, and you just aren’t motivated. Yep, that’s depression talking! You can exercise at some level, and you gain power when you discover what that level is, and do it! The more you do, the more you can do, and your power grows. Aerobic exercise causes a wash of healing biochemicals throughout your brain and body, and it’s been shown to be as effective as an anti-depressant for many people. And the biochemical changes from exercise help your brain re-build. Exercise is one powerful way to change your brain.

#2: Thought Patterns

Automatic negative thoughts-ANTS! They dig ruts in your brain, so your thoughts just automatically slide into the same old patterns-negative, self-critical, hopeless. Stop! That doesn’t get you where you want to go! Find your affirmations, statements of worth and meaning, purpose and love in your life. Don’t have any? Then write some-it will be hard, but energizing. Nourish the little green shoots of love and acceptance that are struggling to grow. As you do, you will develop your power, and build hope. And at the same time, you’ll develop the healthy brain you need to enjoy your life.

#3: Meditation

When you meditate, you ‘turn on’ the well-being biochemicals in your brain, and let them wash away the damaging effects of stress biochemicals. Then the well-being biochemicals go to work rebuilding, soothing, growing healthy new neurons in your brain-and rebuilding health throughout your whole body. It’s like washing out your brain, and then nourishing it with a rich biochemical chicken soup! Don’t know how? Try one of the many resources you can find on the web, and check it out. Meditation is a gift to enrich your life-mind and brain, body and soul.

#4: Touch

In your heart, you know the power of touch. Caring, gentle, loving. What a wonderful way to change your brain! Yes, you can even pay for touch-with massage! Massage does change the biochemicals your body makes, and over time, it will begin to change your brain. But you don’t have to pay for touch. Embrace your child, sit and rock-kids eat this up! Snuggle with your dog, pet your cat, hug a friend. And do it every day, at least 5 times a day.

#5: Sleep techniques

You may already sleep all day. Or perhaps you CAN’T sleep at all! Either way, it’s true-depression changes your sleep patterns. But in this area, as in all the others, your choices also make changes, and you can make the choices that will get your sleep back on track. Healthy sleep choices are clear and easy to follow-and there are resources here on the web.

You’ll need to explore each of these areas, to learn more-changing your brain takes time and practice. But you want to learn, and you believe there’s help-that’s why you’re reading this article.

Keep it up. You are changing your brain!

Dr. Deborah Kukal is a licensed psychologist who has been teaching patients how to change their brains and change their lives for more than 10 years. She has engaged patients from virtually every walk of life in the successful and rewarding practice of health focused meditation.

Dr. Kukal’s Christian meditation CDs nourish your physical health and enrich your emotional life, as well as deepening your intimacy with the Lord.

Try a FREE guided Christian meditation by Dr. Kukal at her website, http://www.joyofchristianmeditation.com Learn to meditate and experience the healing joy of Christian meditation.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Deborah_Kukal,_Ph.D.

Posted in Articles, Psychological Effects | Tagged Coaching, depression, Healing, injury, psychology