[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Mental Self-Care: Health Psychology ©2023]

In a book on mental self-care – we begin with the body.

While this may seem counterintuitive, I trust that in the wake of our introductory chapter this beginning point is clear. Mind and body aren’t separate, even though we speak in categories of physical and mental health, and the effects of physical care – exercise, adequate sleep, nutrition and hydration, somatic therapies such as massage – on mental wellbeing is powerful medicine.

This is an easy way to ease into better mental care, too – even if many a New Year’s resolution for diet or exercise has been quickly broken – as there’s no need, in this key anyway, to analyze or understand our thoughts or emotions in order to improve our mental health – instead, the much more direct approach of caring for our body. If for any reason you’re feeling fragile of late, for example, these improvements to your physical strength will help to stabilize your mental state, after which you can proceed with more introspective methods.

The underlying message of such tender care is this: I am worthy of care. I can nurture myself.

If we think just in terms of the body’s nervous system, we can understand how exercise and sleep, improving our nervous system’s function, can affect the brain, or central nervous system. If we consider the circulatory system, we understand instantly that better circulation means more blood flow, with all its nutrients, to the brain. Healthy sleep, of course, is a deep period of relaxation and ‘reboot’ for the brain; nutrition provides the very ingredients on which brain health relies.

Meanwhile, somatic therapies – massage, acupuncture, reflexology, chiropractic, and many more – work on muscles, bones, and nerve endings, but are also balancing mind as well as body – and far beyond relaxation or stress reduction, while those are profoundly beneficial to mental health in and of themselves. A related and especially profound approach can be seen in Asian forms of exercise which are also focused on balancing the body’s energy, such as yoga, makko ho, taijiquan or other qigong, among others.

What’s more: our physical body holds memories, as the peripheral nerves are branches of that same master computer system, so to speak. A good deal of research supports the embodied aspects of trauma, or cellular memory, for example, and it’s not at all uncommon for someone on a massage table or following acupuncture or an osteopathic manipulation to find themselves filled with emotions or memories. The body remembers, and what we experience becomes imprinted not only in the brain but also in our soft tissue.

For 2 decades, I had a clinic in New York (I’ve now lived abroad for an equal number of years), in which I provided not only psychotherapy but also acupuncture, massage, nutritional counseling, and a number of other somatic therapies. There were countless times that the person on the treatment table found themselves able to access thoughts, feelings, or memories long buried, or to find that those same mental phenomena had somehow been transformed. I’ve also been the recipient of many somatic therapies over the years, and had similar experiences myself.

Too, I worked in a hospital addictions unit, supervising an acu-detox treatment (ear acupuncture), and it was exceedingly common for people receiving this simple treatment of a few tiny needles in each ear, essentially meant to support the body in early recovery (needles for liver, lungs, kidneys, for example), to find that their thoughts and emotions had also somehow changed.

I am a very strong supporter of mental care via the physical body.

We all know that we hold stress in our bodies. While psychological distress is an intangible, mental-emotional response to either an extraordinary event or a series of lower-grade, chronic occurrences, it manifests without question in the physical body. Well beyond muscle tension and ‘frayed nerves’, stress response can affect organs as well, resulting in a host of stress-related conditions – – from hypertension and breathing difficulty to stomach ulcers and gut issues, just to name a fraction, and all very real. In medical science and the clinical world, these effects are well known – and it’s commonly agreed that if we could control for stress response, countless other conditions both physical and mental would remarkably improve.

Interestingly, as we’re surely social creatures and even mimic one another unconsciously via mirror neurons and other bodily processes, we resonate with one another in terms of stress response, too. Known as ‘stress contagion’, ‘empathic stress’, or ‘stress resonance’, we can experience a stress response based on another person’s experience of stress (Engert et al., 2019).

The most profound stress response then, in relation to trauma, is surely held in the body – short-term when faced with acute trauma and normally beginning to resolve within the first month, or becoming an entrenched, long-term problem when the result of chronic or multiple traumas or when the original one wasn’t sufficiently processed psychologically – in all likelihood couldn’t be, for various reasons including the profundity of the trauma itself. This is what we refer to as posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Trauma, according to van der Kolk (2014) and others, reshapes body and brain in a way that not only brings a variety of symptoms but also restricts the ability to experience pleasure, joy, engagement, or trust. Somatic Experiencing is a form of body-oriented therapy for the resolution of trauma (Kuhfuß et al., 2021); others include trauma-informed yoga, bioenergetic therapy, and more.

Our physiology holds emotional content, too, often in ways that we can’t access in the mind; in other words, emotions are often considered unacceptable for one reason or another and suppressed, not only buried in the unconscious mind but also in our physical body. Think about repressed anger, perhaps even over years, and what that does to the physical body – and the conditions or even disease that can result. Greenberg (2021) argues that becoming aware of the bodily-felt emotions and expressing or processing these feelings in whatever way possible is critically important to health.

The reverse is also true. How we view our bodies powerfully affects our mental state; if you dislike your body shape or size, or some features, this can have great impact on your psychological wellbeing. Body appreciation or positivity is meant to reverse this effect, as we learn to love our bodies as they are – and as who we are, as we’re not in any way separate from our body even though we’ve all come to think of ‘it’ as something objective.

In a review of 240 studies, Linardon et al. (2022) found body appreciation to be negatively associated not only with eating disorders and body image disturbances but also with mental illness such as depression and anxiety. Appreciation of one’s body is positively associated with wellbeing, especially in forms of self-esteem, self-compassion, and sexual satisfaction.

Fully inhabiting the body, expanding our sense of self from the ‘ghost in the machine’ or that kernel within the mind as we commonly conceive, to a sense of self infused throughout the physical body – an embodied self – is essential to psychological wellbeing, I believe.

And we include caring for our physical self, of course, in all those ways grandmothers have always taught us; good nutrition (Christodoulou et al., 2023), adequate and good quality sleep (Guida et al., 2023), and physical exercise (Nowacka-Chmielewska et al., 2022) have all been directly associated with psychological wellbeing and resilience. Body-oriented therapies such as those mentioned in the beginning of this key, and those specifically for trauma resolution, all contribute strongly to mental wellbeing, as by now I trust is very clear. Kidd et al. (2023) have proposed that, while we know social support (which we’ll see much later, in our 8^th key) is essential to mental health, it’s the proximity and affective touch of others that’s the most healing of all. (Hint: online communities can be very supportive – but they don’t replace physical human contact, for which we’re hard-wired.)

And don’t forget: singing and dancing are physical – and thus, mental – care, too!

So, how else can we boost our mental care via the care of our physical body?

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Exercises:

We begin with the obvious: exercise. Literally any form of physical exercise will boost mental health, in its effect on the blood circulation and nerve conduction, balancing of the endocrine system, and more. Starting small helps to ensure success; choose a form you like for just 15 minutes a day, something that can be done at home, and build slowly from there.

Consider too, Asian forms of exercise that are also meditative and focused on balancing of the body’s energy, whether yoga, makko ho, taiqi, qigong, or similar. If unfamiliar to you, begin perhaps with a basic stretching routine for flexibility, then you can add one of these as your second stage when ready. Even so, begin slowly – a 15-minute routine of one of these, rather than the full-form of taiqi for an hour, will help to ensure your follow-through.

And: sleep. Even if you think you’re sleeping well, it’s possible you aren’t; check your basic sleep hygiene, by which you do whatever you can to ensure the best possible sleep quality. Dark curtains, a fan for air circulation but also steady sound, temperature, comfort – and, no LED just before sleep. Put the phone or other device away and see that your last 15 minutes before sleep involve reading, stretching, meditating, or anything that doesn’t include a bright light in front of your eyes.

Nutrition: avoid ultra-processed or refined foods at all cost, including sugar and white flour as well. Focus on whole foods as much as possible – and even limit the natural supplements; while good for health, too many is still a strain on the liver. If you don’t know how to cook, consider learning the basics so you aren’t reliant on ready-made foods; consider a more plant-based diet with less meat and dairy (if you aren’t already vegetarian/vegan, that is).

If possible: get a massage, acupuncture, osteopathy, reflexology, or any other somatic treatment from time to time, to help your body remain as balanced as possible – for its best contribution to your mental health.

Do a body scan meditation. (This contributes to body love and appreciation; it also can help to inform us about our body, and gives us an opportunity to access body-based knowledge.) Sitting or lying comfortably, with a quiet mind and minimal distractions, focus on your slow and steady breathing. When you’re feeling peaceful, bring your focus to your feet; staying there for about a minute, notice your feet, their condition, any pain or sensation, their strength, whether they have anything to tell you. Then, move on to your calves, and do the same; progressively move up and to each body region in turn, checking in, seeking knowledge. When finally complete, take a deep breath to come to an alert state; reflect, and repeat often.

If you aren’t so knowledgeable about human anatomy and physiology, seek out some online videos and learn more. It’s very useful to know what’s beneath the skin, and to have a basic understanding of how things work.

Finally: if you feel you have any issues or concerns about your body, you might also meditate on extending love and compassion to your body. As before, get into a meditative state, then shift your focus from your breathing to your body; this time, focus on your whole body, surrounding and filling your body with loving kindness and compassion. Focus on a particular area that you dislike if true for you. Repeat often.

And sing. And dance. (If only at home, in private.)

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References:

Christodoulou E, Deligiannidou GE, Kontogiorgis C et al. (2023). Natural Functional Foods as a Part of the Mediterranean Lifestyle and Their Association with Psychological Resilience and Other Health-Related Parameters. Applied Sciences 13:7:4076. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13074076

Engert V, Linz R, and Grant JA (2019). Embodied stress: The physiological resonance of psychosocial stress. Psychoneuroendocrinology 105, 138-146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.12.221

Greenberg LS (2021). Focusing on bodily feelings: When words are not enough. In: Greenberg LS (ed), Changing emotion with emotion: A practitioner’s guide (pp. 143-160). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000248-007

Guida JL, Alfini A, Lee KC et al. (2023). Integrating sleep health into resilience research. Stress and Health. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.3244

Kidd T, Devine SL, and Walker SC (2023). Affective touch and regulation of stress responses. Health Psychology Review 17:1, 60-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2022.2143854

Kuhfuß M, Maldei T, Hetmanek A et al. (2021). Somatic experiencing – effectiveness and key factors of a body-oriented trauma therapy: A scoping literature review. European Journal of Psychotraumatology 12:1. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1929023

Linardon J, McClure Z, Tylka TL et al. (2022). Body appreciation and its psychological correlates: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Body Image 42, 287-296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.07.003

Nowacka-Chmielewska M, Grabowska K, Grabowski M et al. (2022). Running from Stress: Neurobiological Mechanisms of Exercise-Induced Stress Resilience. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 23:21:13348. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232113348

van der Kolk B (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.

[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Addiction Recovery: Health Psychology ©2023]

We begin our keys to addiction recovery with meaning-making.

This may seem a peculiar place to begin, as addiction can be so profoundly disrupting to one’s life that any sense of meaning and purpose is shattered.

What’s more, whatever meaning we may have derived from our substance of choice or preferred behavior, with its accompanying lifestyle and community, is also now gone, a sense of emptiness and absence in its place, to be grieved – as we’ve seen.

This is precisely when the reestablishment of meaning is critical. The original life was compromised and possibly sacrificed to the using life; the using life is now also gone, and life may seem meaningless and without purpose – a risky place to be.

And so: meaning-making. A foundation.

First, as we’ll see in greater detail in our exercises section to follow, we take a close look at our current life in order to determine meaning that’s still there, however hidden it may be.

Who are the important people in your life? We begin with this. Your active addiction may have chased people away, as is often the case; you may need to work on those relationships in order to restore them. Nevertheless, you can include any of those who you feel are meaningful to you in this process, even if the relationship is currently strained.

Some of the people essential to you may be others in recovery, and even perhaps the therapist or other clinician who’s helping your recovery. If in a 12-step program, your sponsor is surely also significant.

Others may be deceased – but are still meaningful to you. (I have a beloved grandmother who’s been dead for more than 20 years. I still think of her every day, her photo displayed in my living room – and she remains a source of meaning in my life.)

And how about yourself?

Then: what are your priorities? What do you most value? (I hope your recovery is foremost.)

This may include your home, your health, your peace of mind. If you don’t have these right now, then they become goals – and having goals is the definition of purpose.

How about sunshine? Sleep? Waking up in the morning with a clear head? Time?

And maybe, having a future?

I hope that nature is also a source of meaning. If you live in a densely urban city, as I do here in Istanbul, perhaps you can still see a tree outside your window and birds occasionally flying by. You may be near the sea or on a river or lake, and there may be a park nearby. Perhaps you’ve a natural-world getaway not far. (But we’ll talk more about this in our 9^th key.)

Presence of meaning. Meaning provides self-(re)construction, when newly in recovery and in need of a fresh self-identity. Meaning acts as an anchor, when we feel we’re all over the place and not yet very well rooted.

Meaning also comes in the form of giving to others, helping someone – or animals – in need, which also brings a sense of purpose. If you’re very early in recovery you may not be ready for giving to anyone else yet, feeling that you’re in need of receiving care and support now. Yet, even a small amount of volunteer work can restore your sense of identity and self-worth enormously. (I suggest the local animal shelter. Go play with some puppies. It’s great for renewing the soul.)

So, let’s look at some of the latest research.

In a thorough review of the literature, Steger (2022) states unequivocally that meaning in life is an essential protective factor against mental health issues including addiction. This is backed up by numerous studies; in one of the most recent, an online survey study of 546 adults reporting regular alcohol consumption demonstrated that meaning in life was predictive of alcohol use vs abuse (Copeland et al., 2023). Another study, of 378 adults who were inpatients in a psychiatric hospital in Ghana (Nkyi & Ninnoni, 2023), with dual diagnoses of substance use disorder and depression, indicated a significant relationship between meaning in life and decreased depression as well as loneliness, both further identified as closely associated with substance use.

In a qualitative interview study of 5 men in recovery, Iswardani et al. (2022) identified several themes. Meaning-making was an ongoing process before and also during substance use, as well as in recovery, while substance use was a means of coping with distress resulting from childhood trauma, even as it ultimately increased distress. This, along with depressive symptoms and faulty beliefs about addiction and personal use, perpetuated the substance use for a reinforced cycle. A key component of recovery was identified as the need for new, constructive meaning-making, including a reframing of the early trauma, in order to avoid relapse.

Meaning in life is also protective in terms of behavioral addictions. Qiu et al. (2022), in a study of 478 Chinese children and adolescents, found presence of meaning enhancement to be protective against problematic smartphone use. In a Turkish study of 546 adolescent (age 15-18) participants, both personal responsibility and presence of meaning were shown to mediate the relationship between basic psychological needs (autonomy, efficacy, connectedness) and online gaming addiction (Kaya et al., 2023). And in a French study (Harren & Walburg, 2022) of 573 participants, ranging in age from 18 to 78, association between problematic internet use and addictive beliefs was demonstrated, and further associated with both meaning anxiety and meaning confusion.

It seems clear (and this is just a tiny sampling of a host of research in this area): presence of meaning in one’s life is protective against addiction, and meaning (re)construction a key element in recovery.

So how can we engage in meaning-making?

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Exercises:

We begin by exploring, identifying, and gaining clarity in our current sources of meaning. First: a brainstorming exercise. On a blank sheet of paper, write ‘meaning’ in the center; as quickly as possible, fill the paper with associated words, keeping your inner censor at bay. Anything that comes to mind in relation to the core concept of meaning is fair. When finished, take a few moments to reflect.

Conduct a second brainstorming exercise, again beginning with ‘meaning’, only this time, limit your words to sources of meaning in your own life. Fill the page with as many such as you can think of, leaving a bit of space around each of these words.

In a third stage: mind-mapping. Take that second exercise, and now around each of the words you’ve written, continue with a mini-brainstorming, if you will, related to each word in turn; connect the surrounding words with lines to denote relatedness.

Follow the above with a journal-writing exercise, to reflect on that mind-mapping of what sources of meaning you already have in your life, and the people and concepts you’ve associated with each.

Consider a follow-up journal-writing exercise. What new areas of meaning would you like to embrace in your recovery? How can you achieve them? Do you want to join a religion or spiritual group, or perhaps you already belong to such? What about volunteering in a recovery program? If in 12-step, do you see yourself as someone’s sponsor? Would you like to be a mentor, or teacher, or counselor? In this new you, what will you embrace as new sources of meaning?

Meditate on the word ‘meaning’. Sitting comfortably, with a quiet mind and distractions minimized, focus on your slow and steady breathing; once you feel yourself in a deeply peaceful state, bring the word ‘meaning’ to mind, and without judgment or control, simply see where it takes you. Reflect afterward.

Take a walk in the woods, as it were. Immerse yourself in nature, alone if possible (and safe), and take a long walk – or if you aren’t physically able, then just sit in as natural a spot as possible, ideally away from other humans for true natural-world immersion. Spend some time contemplating what nature means to you, how connected you feel to nature, and whether it’s a source of meaning in your life. Repeat as often as possible.

Volunteer. Engage in any prosocial activity. Give back to society, to those in need, in some way. Contribute. This is a key source of meaning.

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References:

Copeland A, Jones A, Acuff SF et al. (2023). Meaning in life: investigating protective and risk factors for harmful alcohol consumption. Addiction Research & Theory 31:3, 191-200.  https://doi.org/10.1080/16066359.2022.2134991

Harren N and Walburg V (2022). Studying the Relationship Between Addictive Beliefs About Internet Use, Meaning in Life, and Problematic Social Media Use. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science 8, 10-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-022-00280-4

Iswardani T, Dewi ZL, Mansoer WW et al. (2022). Meaning-Making among Drug Addicts during Drug Addiction Recovery from the Perspective of the Meaning-Making Model. Psych 4:3, 589-604. https://doi.org/10.3390/psych4030045

Kaya A, Türk N, Batmaz H et al. (2023). Online Gaming Addiction and Basic Psychological Needs Among Adolescents: The Mediating Roles of Meaning in Life and Responsibility. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00994-9

Nkyi AK and Ninnoni JP (2023). Purpose in Life, Loneliness and Depression Among Patients with Substance Use Disorders in the Psychiatric Hospitals in Ghana. PRE-PRINT. https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-2912295/v1

Qiu C, Liu Q, Yu C et al. (2022). The influence of meaning in life on children and adolescents’ problematic smartphone use: A three-wave multiple mediation model. Addictive Behaviors 126:107199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.107199

Steger MF (2022). Meaning in life is a fundamental protective factor in the context of psychopathology. World Psychiatry 21:3, 389-390. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20916

[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Self-Esteem: Positive Psychology ©2023]

Mindfulness. Even the word sounds peaceful.

Once strictly a religious practice within Buddhism, this method, state, and trait – for it is all of those (Bravo et al., 2018; Verhaeghen, 2021) – has been widely adapted not only to the field of psychology but also to medicine, education, business, politics, and more.

Liu et al. (2022) found that mindfulness intervention correlates with the PERMA model (as a reminder: positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment). As state, trait, and active practice, it applies broadly to the enhancement of character strengths; in the study by Pang and Ruch (2019), mindfulness correlated particularly with those of appreciation of beauty, bravery, curiosity, creativity, forgiveness, gratitude, hope, love, love of learning, meaning or spirituality, perseverance, perspective, self-regulation, social intelligence, and zest for life.

But what is it?

I like to say, focus and notice. And also, detach.

Mindfulness as a practice is one of attention to detail, not in an obsessive way of course but in noticing the richness of our own selves, surroundings, and lives. As we refine our attention we become aware of more: more color, light, sound, sense, scents, experiences, emotions, all the details that often escape us in our high-tech, high-pressure, massively distracted world. At the same time, while we become more aware of our feelings, we also detach from them – not in an unfeeling, robotic way, but in noticing what we’re feeling, greeting that emotion like an old friend, and then letting it drift on by in the understanding that emotions are temporary and we don’t need to hold onto them.

Researchers refer to this outcome of mindfulness as time affluence (Bhojani & Kurucz, 2020; Carrus & Panno, 2019; Schaupp & Geiger, 2022) – a richness of time, a return to us of the hours-days-months-years that seem to fly by…because we didn’t notice the detail of them. When we say, “Is it New Year’s again? Already?” this is because we haven’t noticed the richness in each of the past 365 days. If you regularly practice mindfulness, you won’t wonder where the time has gone; you’ll know, and you’ll know too that it was full, and long, and largely fulfilling. Even in the darkest days and difficulties, there’s richness; the sun shines, the prism in your window casts rainbows, your cat comes to you for cuddles, and a million other small joys. And noticing the detail is also noticing the difficulties – just gently noticing, in a curious way of not wanting to ignore any bits of our lives, while not attaching.

Easier said than done, but the practice of it is joyful in itself. We’ll come to that in a minute.

Mindfulness has been correlated with both subjective (self-reported) and psychological (measurable) wellbeing, for which it’s been extensively researched. In just a few of the most recent studies, Bhojani and Kurucz (2020) found that it contributed to wellbeing in the workplace setting, while Carrus and Panno (2019) determined its contribution to wellbeing and resilience in youth. In an intervention with adolescents which was based on both mindfulness and the character strengths of positive psychology, Kennes et al. (2023) demonstrated clear evidence for increased wellbeing and happiness.

The longitudinal study of Schaupp and Geiger (2022) evidenced increase in wellbeing, in part due to a parallel increase in time affluence, following a mindfulness-based stress reduction [MBSR] program. The relationship between mindfulness and wellbeing was found by Klussman et al. (2022) to be indirectly affected by a sense of meaning in life and of self-connection. And in the study by Whitehead et al. (2019), it was the nonattachment feature that mediated the relationship between mindfulness and psychological wellbeing – in other words, we feel better when we experience but then let go of our emotions.

Mindfulness has also been established to bring about greater overall life satisfaction, independent of specific circumstances – what we might call contentment. In their study of 178 adults, Xue and Xiang (2022) demonstrated that daily mindfulness practice, in the form of a mindfulness journal, is predictive of life satisfaction. Participants were measured before and after for trait mindfulness, and daily for state mindfulness as well as rumination (intrusive negative thoughts) and life satisfaction, with improvement of the latter clearly indicated.

Fenzel and Richardson (2022) demonstrated the effects of mindfulness, resilience, life meaning, and self-compassion for improved life satisfaction and reduction of depressive symptoms. And in the study of 322 adults by Heitz and Mitchell (2022), mindfulness correlated with overall life satisfaction despite low social and/or community status.

Naturally, wellbeing, happiness, and life satisfaction contribute to one’s self-esteem, while other studies have demonstrated this relationship more explicitly. In a review of 15 studies for trait mindfulness and 17 for mindfulness practice, in relation to self-esteem, a positive relationship was seen in the former and significant increases of self-esteem in the latter (Randal et al., 2015).

Trait mindfulness has shown to boost self-esteem and reduce social anxiety (Jokar et al., 2021; Rasmussen & Pidgeon, 2011), while mindfulness practice was found to increase self-esteem in participants with depressive symptoms (Bruhns et al., 2021), and to increase both self-esteem and self-regulation when facing negative feedback (Lyddy et al., 2022). In a study by Morley and Fulton (2020), mindfulness meditation was demonstrated as effective for increasing self-esteem and self-compassion among prisoners.

The evidence is clear: mindfulness, whether a trait we have, a state we experience, or a practice we engage in, enhances self-esteem, and in a variety of circumstances.

So how do we engage in mindfulness, both its practice and as a way of living?

First, by noticing everything, fine-tuning our attention. Take a walk in the woods, and notice as much detail as possible. Consider the majesty of your own hand, in all its detail. Pay close attention to your day. Put down your phone. When you’re with another person, give them your undivided attention. Eat your meals without a device or even a book, focusing instead on the food itself, and your experience of consuming it.

Second, by reflection. Noticing isn’t enough; it increases our attention capacity, but we also need to think about what we’ve observed. Whether by writing, talking with a friend, making an audio or video recording of your thoughts, or just sitting quietly and thinking deeply, first observe and then observe yourself as the observer. So to speak.

And thirdly, by letting go of the need to hold on – to those feelings, that is. This may be the most obvious when we hold a grudge; we can also choose to let go, even when we’re certain the other person is in the wrong, or somehow wronged us. And it’s NOT saying that people who feel depressed need to ‘let go’ of those feelings; that’s not how depression works (though that would be a topic for a different book). This falls somewhere in the middle of this continuum.

And so – to specific activities for enhancing our mindfulness, and thus, our self-esteem.

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Exercises:

The classic mindfulness meditation is as follows. Set a timer for perhaps 10 minutes if you haven’t done this before, 20 minutes as your goal for the future. Sit quietly, comfortably, eyes closed, mind calmed, distractions minimized. Begin by focusing on your breathing, slowly in and out, held for a few seconds between. Notice how the air moves into your body, fills your lungs, expands your chest, stretches your diaphragm, feeds your heart and blood and tissues. Notice the warmth or coolness of your breath. Notice the taste of the air, the sound of your breathing, as much as you can. As thoughts and feelings arise, notice them, say hello to them as to an old friend, then watch them gently drift away again like a cloud. When you notice your focus has moved away from your breathing and followed a thought or feeling, just gently bring your awareness back to your breath. At the end of your meditation session, maintain this serene state and reflect on your experience.

Take that walk in the woods, or on the beach, or any other natural setting that’s convenient to your home. (Take a roll, if in a chair.) Walk alone, or if you walk with someone else, make an agreement beforehand to do so in silence; this is about observation, like an explorer, and the focus is on nature, not a conversation (and no music, either). Notice the silence. Or the birdsong. Notice the sounds and sights of nature. Notice how the air feels, the sunlight on your face, the flowers and trees, and so much more – everything you can, through as many senses as possible. Afterward, be sure to take time for reflection, by your preferred method.

Keep a ‘mindfulness journal’. Write at the end of each day if possible. Don’t note the events of your day, but the details. What did you notice today? During the day, you’ll find yourself occasionally thinking about your journaling experience; it will keep you motivated to notice your day and your life.

Do a slow-walk moving meditation. At home, walk as slowly as possible, being mindful of your every movement and how your body feels; when you find your thoughts wandering, just gently bring your awareness back to your body. Alternately, match your steps to your breath: one step per inhalation, one step per exhalation, short pause between. A third option is when in public: match your breath to your pace more normally, perhaps three steps to one inhalation and so on, and keep your focus on both breathing and walking.

Hold a flower and focus your attention on it. Notice as much detail as possible. Write about it afterward. Did any feelings arise during this time? Were you able to maintain your focus?

Eat a meal in a slow manner, savoring each bite. Don’t combine it with any other input or distraction; maintain your focus solely on your food and your enjoyment of it. Reflect on this afterward.

References:

Bhojani Z and Kurucz EC (2020). Sustainable Happiness, Well-Being, and Mindfulness in the Workplace. In: Dhiman, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Well-Being. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02470-3_52-1

Bravo AJ, Pearson MR, Wilson AD, et al. (2018). When Traits Match States: Examining the Associations Between Self-Report Trait and State Mindfulness Following a State Mindfulness Induction. Mindfulness 9, 199-211. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-017-0763-5

Bruhns A, Lüdtke T, Moritz S, et al. (2021). A Mobile-Based Intervention to Increase Self-esteem in Students With Depressive Symptoms: Randomized Controlled Trial.
JMIR mHealth and uHealth 9:7. https://doi.org/10.2196/26498

Carrus G and Panno A (2019). Mindfulness as a Path Towards Sustainable Lifestyle Change, Resilience, and Well-Being: Community, Social, and Environmental Factors. In: Steinebach, C., Langer, Á. (eds) Enhancing Resilience in Youth. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25513-8_7

Fenzel LM and Richardson KD (2022). The Stress Process Among Emerging Adults: Spirituality, Mindfulness, Resilience, and Self-compassion as Predictors of Life Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms. Journal of Adult Development 29, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-021-09384-2 

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[excerpted from, 9 Keys to Optimism: Positive Psychology, ©2023]

Hope is a good place to begin.

Hope can seem fragile. We must consider that it’s not the temporal emotion we mean in this case, but the character strength – the capacity for hope that we all have. It can be severely impacted by circumstances; we can all too easily, it seems, lose hope. And then – sometimes through hard work – we can become hopeful again.

Many people these days find it difficult to remain hopeful about the future of our very planet, and of humanity. It can seem that the damage done to the environment over the past couple of centuries we call the Industrial Age, and by our behavior to this day, is irreversible and the climate on a crash course with collapse. Coupled with the fact that this is also a natural cycle of earth, that another ice age was always inevitable even as we’ve undeniably altered and accelerated its timetable by our actions, many express despair not for the future but for the lack of one.

And yet–

Living without hope isn’t the answer – it’s not living at all, and doesn’t engage us to solve problems, create change, or otherwise do whatever we can for an improved outcome. Hope and motivation are intrinsically connected. Hope is also correlated with our sense of meaning and purpose in life. In a study of young adults aged 18-24, Taruna et al. (2022) found that hope – especially when in combination with gratitude — leads to greater levels of subjective wellbeing. In order to fight for the wellbeing of our planet and our future, we must first strengthen our personal wellbeing – by increasing our hope, and our gratitude.

But how do we retain, or regain, our hope? And how closely do hope and optimism link?

The CSV handbook (Peterson and Seligman, 2004) includes hope in a chapter together with optimism, future-mindedness, future orientation, although time and again throughout the book, hope and optimism are referred to as two distinct concepts. In a follow-up article based on scholarly reviews of the handbook, Park et al. (2005) clarified the concept of hope; on further analysis, they found it to be among the most robust predictors of life satisfaction, along with gratitude, love, and zest. This is borne out by later research, as in the previously mentioned study by Gander et al. (2022).

The character strengths of positive psychology, when referenced elsewhere, often equate optimism with hope. Indeed, when an adjective – I’m optimistic / I’m hopeful for X – they’re commonly used in the same manner. However, optimism as we saw is generally conceived of as both trait and state, our general nature as well as a short-term mindset about a particular topic, while hope is specifically of the latter. For our purposes, then, we will separate them out and focus on hope as a key to optimism.

Dursun et al. (2020) put this succinctly in discussing optimism as a general expectancy of positivity, while hope is described as a cognitive and motivational element. Gasper et al. (2020) define optimism as one’s broad outlook, and hope as rather a wish, more tenuous. ‘I hope it doesn’t rain’ is less certain than ‘I’m optimistic that it won’t rain’, for example.

More importantly, how does hope relate to optimism?

In a study by Tras et al. (2021), the combination of hope and perceived social support were predictive of optimism. Rand et al. (2020) demonstrated that the combination of hope and optimism predicted academic performance of students. Hope has been directly linked to subjective wellbeing across all age groups (Long et al., 2020; Murphy, 2023); hope and optimism, combined with gratitude and overall life satisfaction, were predictors of subjective wellbeing in a study by Kardas et al. (2019), while D’Souza et al. (2020) found that hope, optimism, and self-efficacy were significant predictors of same. And in a clear distinction between the two, Shanahan et al. (2020) demonstrated that hope was a predictor of circumstances with a perceived sense of control, while optimism predicted conditions in which the person had no sense of personal control over outcome.

So, how can we increase our innate character strength of hope?

For a start, we can focus on all that we do in fact feel hopeful about. While certain aspects of one’s life, and even the future of our planet, may not seem hopeful in this moment, there are many others about which we do in fact remain hopeful. If a student, you may hope to do well on tomorrow’s exam. If in the workforce, you may hope to do well at your duties, on that new project, or in your petition for a promotion – or efforts to get a new job. We can hope that our sick animal will soon get well, hope that it will be sunny for our picnic tomorrow, hope that our candidate wins in the upcoming election. And in a million other ways.

It’s when we become overwhelmed by what seems hopeless, as well as in the face of depression or chronic debilitating illness, for example, that we may find it difficult to connect to our sense of hope. In order to keep this spark alive, and to fan it into a conflagration, we need first to identify all those areas in which we remain hopeful.

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Exercises:

And so, let’s begin there. To re-establish your connection to hope or to strengthen and expand it, try various ways to discover all the things about which you are in fact hopeful. Make a list. Keep a ‘hope journal’. Begin each day, before you hop out of bed, by reciting whatever comes to mind for which you feel hopeful – and do the same when you lie down to sleep at night.

Whenever you feel despair, aka hopelessness, threatening to overwhelm you – when that dark cloud comes – take a quick mental break as a method of self-care and recovery. Close your eyes, picture yourself in whatever environment represents paradise and deep peace to you (on a beach? in the mountains? a meadow filled with wildflowers? a forest? the park near your home? your own garden?), take a deep breath as you feel yourself there, then identify in your mind 3 things that you still feel hopeful about. As with stress, it’s critically important to relax our minds and fill them with hope in tiny increments throughout the day – thereby circumventing the accumulation of despair.

Engage with art, music, literature, beauty and excellence. (More on that later, as our 7^th key.) Beauty is not only calm and refreshing, but also has a capacity to expand our sense of wellbeing, and our hope. As well, get creative. Being creative, developing something new – a painting, an idea, a tune, a garden – also helps to restore hope.

Plant a tree. Or a few. Take care of nature in some way. Pick up litter on the beach, Reinforce a small tree struggling to stand upright. Plant some flowers. Feed the birds. Taking care of our natural world, even as we worry about her, also engenders hope – and when we plant a tree, it’s for future generations.

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References:

D’Souza JM, Zvolensky MJ, Smith BH et al. (2020). The Unique Effects of Hope, Optimism, and Self-Efficacy on Subjective Well-Being and Depression in German Adults. Journal of Well-being Assessment 4, 331-345. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41543-021-00037-5

Dursun P (2021). Optimism, Hope and Subjective Well-Being: a Literature Overview. Çatalhöyük Uluslararası Turizm ve Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi 6, 61-74. Retrieved from https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/cutsad/issue/63565/946124

Gander F, Wagner L, Amann L, et al. (2022). What are character strengths good for? A daily diary study on character strengths enactment.  Journal of Positive Psychology 17:5, 718-728. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2021.1926532

Gasper K, Spencer LA, and Middlewood BL (2020). Differentiating hope from optimism by examining self-reported appraisals and linguistic content. Journal of Positive Psychology 15:2, 220-237. http://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2019.1590623

Kardas F, Cam Z, Eskisu M, et al. (2019). Gratitude, Hope, Optimism and Life Satisfaction as Predictors of Psychological Well-Being. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research 19:82, 81-100. Retrieved at: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ejer/issue/48089/608137

Long KNG, Kim ES, Chen Y, et al. (2020). The role of Hope in subsequent health and well-being for older adults: An outcome-wide longitudinal approach. Global Epidemiology 2:100018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloepi.2020.100018

Murphy ER (2023). Hope and well-being. Current Opinion in Psychology 50:101558. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2023.101558

Park N, Peterson C, and Seligman ME (2005). Strengths of Character and Well-Being: A Closer Look at Hope and Modesty. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 23:5. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.23.5.628.50749

Peterson C and Seligman ME (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Oxford University Press; American Psychological Association.

Rand KL, Shanahan ML, Fischer IC, et al. (2020). Hope and optimism as predictors of academic performance and subjective well-being in college students. Learning and Individual Differences 81:101906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101906

Shanahan ML, Fischer IC, and Rand KL (2020). Hope, optimism, and affect as predictors and consequences of expectancies: The potential moderating roles of perceived control and success. Journal of Research in Personality 84:103903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2019.103903

Taruna, Singh S, and Shikha (2022). Psychological Well-Being of Youth: The Role of Gratitude and Hope. Journal of Psychology and Behavior Studies 2:1, 1-4. https://doi.org/10.32996/jpbs.2022.1.1

Tras Z, Sunbul MG, and Baltaci UB (2021). Investigation of the Relationships between Optimism, Perceived Social Support, and Hope. i.e.: inquiry in education 13:1. Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/ie/vol13/iss1/11