Wellness Wednesday

For centuries, slow deep breathing has been practiced as a part of certain forms of meditation and as part of developing focused concentration and calmness. 

Multiple scientific studies have shown its benefits for people with hypertension, heart disease, lung disease, anxiety, and excessive stress. 

You can learn how to properly utilize slow deep breathing in Qigong classes, in many yoga meditation classes, and from select psychotherapists who specialize in breathwork.

Soulful Sunday

Know it or not, the world communes with us. To commune is to share and in every drop of water we drink, breath we take, or morsel of food we eat, the world communes with us. The need for communion; to be in contact with nature and to express and share thoughts and feelings with empathic people, can supply a kind of energy and inspiration that sustains you in the new week. 

Nature is as close as the nearest tree or bird or blade of grass, or the picture in your mind of peaceful nature in a park, field, or forest. If supportive friends or family are not available, empathic people are as close as the local crisis line, community center, ethical society, or religious center.

Thoughtful Thursday

Does your mind know where you are? Behind on a deadline? Beside yourself? Over a barrel?  Unemployed? Underemployed? 

Is your mind asking questions like “What am I learning to make my life easier (or at least more bearable)? Is it coming up with answers or at least making a date with you for later that day to look for answers on the web, in libraries, and from people with more experience? 

Answers are out there. From Hi Tech: A wristwatch (google ‘personal management wristwatches’) that will download your schedule from your personal computer, display it on your watch, and help you manage your time with alarms, to Low Tech: Advice on innovative strategies for finding jobs by asking priests, ministers, or Rabbis, etc. There are more out there than you could ever use, so set your mind out after them!

What Does COPOW Mean?

"COPOW" is just a short way of saying Cognitive Power. In my practice as a psychiatrist, my patients who use COPOW/ Mental Self Defense (or Cognitive Therapy) feel better much faster, are more likely to stay healthy with less medication, fewer therapy sessions, and are more likely to stay out of the hospital. They're also more likely to stay free from clinical depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders. Those very few who have needed hospitalization, have shorter hospital stays than the predicted average. This translates to faster relief for my patients, and lower health care costs which is a central goal of healthcare reform.

Cognitive refers to your thoughts or your mind. Power has been defined as a thing having control or command, as well as speed in doing work.

Together, "COPOW" really stands for your mind's power to quickly control your health, both emotional and physical.
How much Power?

Think about this: Your mind can process 24-40 bits of information per second. What does that mean? Picture any busy place where peole or objects are moving around like downtown of a big city at rush hour or a popular beach on a sunny weekend. What did your mind just do?

Computer users know that when you create or store a picture of a moving image, it takes a tremendous amount of memory space. That's only a small fraction of what your mind can do. In one second, if you entered that scene you pictured, your mind would process and recognize all kinds of colors, shapes, textures, symbols, sounds, smells, and that's not even using all the senses we have, like feeling a breeze in the air. All that in just one second! So your mind is really incredibly powerful and fast. We just don't normally think of our minds as being powerful, but when we recognize that power we can use it to help us feel better, stronger, and happier. That's what cognitive therapy is all about and I feel lucky that I was taught how to use it when I was trained as a young psychiatrist.

Mental Self Defense is a system of techniques designed to allow all of us to tap into that cognitive or mind power.  The power is vastly magnified by repeating the technique of detecting, and identifying any thoughts and images in your own mind that are destructive or unhealthy, and using the systematic techniques to shift your focus of attention to more constructive, uplifting ways of seeing yourself and the world around you.

When you have COPOW under your belt, you can systemically focus on healthy, common sense ideas, and images to improve your emotional and physical health, and feel better.

Dale J. Anderson, M.D.