Ingredients of Wellness

Big question?  Actually, the study of what it means to have a meaningful life has been tackled for many years, probably even before the introduction of positive psychology.  But thanks to the founders of this field, Martin Seligman, Chris Peterson, Barbara Frederickson and many, many others, we’ve seen the emergence of the exploration of human […]

The 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) of the Amer Psychiatry Association has attracted a barrage of criticism from many sources.  From my research I see an overarching issue being over-diagnosis potentially leading to the over-medicalization of children, adolescence and adults. Particularly worrying is over-diagnosis of ADHD in kids.  Does your child […]

Mind-body wellness is the use of therapies that change thought patterns, emotions, behaviors and attitudes to improve health, support healing and promote wellness. I recently talked about mind-body wellness and the role of mind-body therapies play as we attempt to take control of our own wellness and healing, and how the research is supporting the […]

As the name suggests Mind-Body Wellness considers the effect of the mind and emotions on the physical body.  A definition I relate to is this: how mental activities (like beliefs), influence health and how using mental interventions (like meditation or hypnosis), can change the content of these mental activities by either reducing stress or affecting […]

Recently I asked a business owner friend if they have implemented any wellness practices for staff in their office. She thought for a while and then reflected her frustration that the staff did not utilize the wellness benefit.  I was intrigued at this response.  Through my work in researching workplace wellness, I’d suggest that most […]

While the idea of ‘Wellness’ is obviously quite distinct from the concept of mainstream health, it is interesting that as yet no fixed definition or theory exists for Wellness.  Yet this is not to be viewed as a bad thing.  The wide use of the term Wellness results in different meanings, for different groups, in […]

Welcome to the Ingredients of Wellness. When I first mentioned the name of this blog to a friend the first thing that came to mind for her was that it may be about cooking wholesome food.  Well that’s not such a bad first impression, but that’s not all I intend for this blog.  Sure we will […]

A friend recently shared her concern of a great anxiety she was experiencing and how it was impacting her ability sleep leaving her regularly relying on sleeping tablets.  Sleep did not come partly because of what many refer to as the ‘monkey mind’ working overtime. You’ve heard the yoga teacher refer to the monkey mind […]