Nutmeg “Nuggets”


Stress, Anxiety, Depression… Is It All In Your Head?


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o cut to the chase, the simple answer is, probably not. According to a recent study published in the Journal Epidemiology and Psychiatry Science, there is an epidemic of anxiety and depression sweeping our country. One in six Ameri- cans take at least one psychiatric medication and many more people are living life with undiagnosed feelings of low grade anxiety and depression.


After spending 3 years working in the psychiatric field some 20 plus years ago, I came to the conclusion that mental and emotion issues are not just situational or behavioral. Nor are they resolved through medication. This revelation changed the course of my life as I was determined to understand what I observed in institutions whose approach rarely resolved the patient’s condition. It wasn’t until I started practicing functional medicine, reading the scientific literature and seeing the turnaround in many patients that I began to understand what was happening. Specifically, that the root of much of the suffering is based on both a nervous sys- tem entrainment, functional imbalance in multiple organ systems, nutrient deficiencies and hormonal dysfunction. This root of the problem either creates or perpetuates the feelings of negativity, anxiety and low grade stress.


For example, your nervous system regulates the fight/flight


mechanism vs the rest/repair. When you condition it to overreact to non-life threatening situations, eventually, for lack of a better description, the body will get stuck in fight/flight. You will feel anxious, tired but “wired”, hormones will get depleted and you may feel depressed. You may have difficulty sleeping or a host of other symptoms. A simple test using Heart Rate Variability can tell us if this is the case and then through the use of acupuncture, stress reduction techniques, specific herbal and nutriceutical therapy you can help your body pivot back to its normal rest and relaxed state. Then your body can heal, hormones can regener- ate and you will feel more able to handle life. Another example is the relation between digestive health and mood. Most of the “feel good” hormone, serotonin, is made in the digestive track. If you have a poor diet or poor digestive health, it can trigger everything from depression to chronic migraines. So repairing digestion would be the path to improving mood. In most cases I have seen, there is generally a dysfunction in multiple systems, not just one.


These are just examples that show that the way to good mental health is not necessarily through the pharmaceutical approach but from finding the root cause. It is then that you can restore your mental wellness and have a more positive outlook in life.


Dr. Kenneth Hoffman, DACM, L.Ac. is the Medical Director for Sophia Natural Health Center in Brookfield. He has serviced thousands of patients in his clinic, combining the traditional healing arts of Chinese and Naturopathic medicine with modern science. Dr Hoffman is also host of the radio talk


show, “The Natural Medicine Connection”, Fairfield County’s only health talk radio show, every Saturday from 10-11 am. You can listen on 94.1/800 WLAD or wlad.com to live stream. You can also visit his website or call his office for a free consulta- tion at 203.740.9300 and www.inm.center. See ad on page 8.


Workshops on Consciousness,


Transformation and Mindfulness at The Graduate Institute


psychology and happiness. However, more recently, Seligman has said that the good life is more akin to flour- ishing than happiness. Flourishing, Seligman points out, includes these


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five essential elements: (1) positive emotion, (2) engagement – the flow state, (3) relationships, (4) meaning, and (5) accomplishments. What might be missing from the five elements of flourishing is the element of Self-Realization, as exemplified by the being of existence rather than the doing. This domain includes being present, holding conscious awareness, and experiencing the benefits that derive from a contemplative practice.


Let’s take a deep dive into the self-realization aspect called the “holding of conscious awareness.” First, one recognizes that on the one hand, there is the awareness of consciousness, and on the other hand, there are the objects of that awareness. The objects of aware- ness are the thoughts, feelings, sensations and emotions that we experience. In our everyday life, awareness moves from one thought, feeling, sensation, or emotion to another. The day goes by with a steady stream of thoughts and feelings and we never think about who is doing the thinking and feeling.


Often, instructions for meditation include following the breath, or repeating a mantra. Awareness of the breath or the mantra is a focusing meditation in which one focuses on a fixed object, a form of mind training moving away from the usual state of the constantly moving mind. But holding conscious awareness without content is different in that there is no focusing on any content at all. Instead there is awareness of awareness itself. Thoughts may come and go, like clouds moving in the sky, but the awareness is on the awareness itself, not the clouds. We just let the clouds be clouds and not get hooked by them. The benefit of this practice is learning to be present in open awareness, which leads to the opening of the heart and a growth in compassion.


When you think a thought, say to yourself that this thought


is just my mind, then notice the space within which the thought arises. That is the nature of mind. This is naked awareness. The nature of mind is like the clear sky, while the mind is like the clouds of thoughts, feelings, sensations and emotions that float by. Sometimes there are so many clouds one can’t even see the sky. Other times, the clouds dissipate, and the sky appears. Then the sun shines with rays of light penetrating the sky and reaching the earth. This represents the spiritual flow of light to the heart and awakening of compassion.


Charles Silverstein, PhD has held a lifelong interest in the variet- ies of spiritual practices and consciousness-based healing from a nondual perspective. He is the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Academic Director of Consciousness Studies at The Graduate Institute and a board member of the International Society of Con- sciousness Studies. For degrees, see www.learn.edu/conscious. For the next workshop in Consciousness, Transformation and Mindfulness see learn.edu/mindfulness. Next workshops are July 20 – 21 and September 14 – 15. Also offered are Mindfulness Classes on Tuesday evenings, learn.edu/mindfulness-meditation. See ad on page 35.


www.NaturalNutmeg.com 9


he pioneering efforts of Martin Seligman have resulted in pop- ular books about both positive


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