by Marina Edelman, LMFT #51009 | Apr 15, 2015 | Blog
Have you ever felt butterflies in your stomach, what about an upset belly while nervous, or experienced gut in your chest when scared. There is no denying the fact that our brain is directly connected via neural pathways to our gut. And new research from UCLA, Harvard, etc. have dubbed a new term Psychobiotics to illustrate how probiotics affect our mood.
I have compiled a list of Probiotics that have been shown to be effective to regulate mood:
Beneficial Probiotic Strands:
- Lactobacillus helveticus {Reduces levels of stress hormones and helps with anxiety and depression}
- Bifidobacterium longum {Normalizes Anxiety and Depression}
- Lactobacillus Rhamnosus {Reduces stress and alleviates OCD behavior}
- Lactobacillus acidophilus {Helps send message to the brain that happy chemicals are alive in the gut}
- Lactobacillus brevis {Minimizes Anxiety}
- Bifidobacterium infantis {Reduces depression and increases brain chemical – norepinephrine, which is linked with well-being}
Utilizing the kind that contain live cultures of the probiotic is a key element. Another important consideration is the storage of the supplements. Unlike vitamins that generally do well on any pantry shelf, probiotics should be stored in a controlled cool environment that is dry and out of direct sunlight. http://www.probiotic.org
Bowel MGRx™ by Welltrients has all of they key bacteria mentioned above. I do not endorse particular products but in my research has found this one to contain key strains. It may be purchased online or a local company Holistic Heaven has some in stock.
by Marina Edelman, LMFT #51009 | Apr 15, 2015 | grief
One of the crucial differences between guilt and remorse is that while guilt can lead to self destructive tendencies, remorse usually materializes constructive action.
Guilt is a useless emotion that reinforces self punishment or sabotage and often leads to shame.
Top 6 things we all feel guilt over:
- Balancing life by doing things for ourselves
- Relaxing and doing nothing
- Spending too much money
- Breaking resolution to exercise and eat healthy
- Not taking better care of others (children, parents, spouse, etc.)
- Receiving praise we feel is undeserved
We can all relate to one of the items listed above now let’s begin eliminating guilt.
- Begin examining what is causing guilt and re-frame the emotion as remorse. Remorse comes from a sense of awareness and taking full responsibility for ones actions.
- Once awareness is achieved decide if your action deserves scrutiny or was it justified and acceptable.
If acceptable, as in the case of skipping the gym, then use the process of visualization and let go of the negative emotion.
If upon review you believe that a different course was in order then make a mental note of it for the future. It seems easy but because we have been raised with guilt and then accepted it as a fitting emotion we struggle with releasing guilt from our lives.
We use guilt to avoid people being mad at us or letting someone down. We erroneously believe “if I feel guilty and demonstrate my shame, then the other person will not be so upset or disappointed”. In reality taking this weaker stance does the opposite in the long run. What our partner, boss, children really want to hear is us take ownership of a situation and resolve to have a different outcome.
Next time you catch yourself feeling guilty try to take a new fresh approach and feel remorse. Since definition of insanity is doing the same thing expecting different result – try something new.
