A recent Harris Poll commissioned by the Samueli Integrative Health Foundation found that 80% of the more than 2,000 representative adults surveyed in the U.S. say they intend to become more mindful about practicing self-care as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.  It seems that COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for most Americans. For many years the medical-pharmaceutical establishment has cultivated an unhealthy dependency on doctors and their prescriptions or surgeries to get us well when we get sick.  What patients can do for themselves in terms of building health with good diet and healthy lifestyle is often minimized and even actively discouraged by doctors.  Thus, cancer patients are told it doesn’t matter what they eat—that they can eat sugar, and they’ll be fine as long as they get their chemotherapy or radiation.  Heart patients are told by their doctors to skip vitamins and rely instead on harmful medications.  But with COVID-19, w…

According to the National Institutes of Health the average American adult gains one pound every holiday season. Those who are already overweight tend to gain even more. Unfortunately that weight is usually there to stay; holiday weight gain is the primary reason weight creeps upwards with age. With so many reasons to overeat during the holidays, it’s surprising we don’t gain more. The holidays are traditionally a time for feasting and drinking. But historically, this occurred in the context of food scarcity; many pilgrims starved to death before food sources were established, and abundance was something to be celebrated. We hardly need to celebrate food abundance today, but that hasn’t stopped us from bringing out the cookies, cakes and pies for the holidays. We combine this with alcohol, which impairs inhibitions, stimulates appetite and intensifies the brain’s reward center in response to food! Then there’s stress. Our already challenging to-do lists expand during the holida…

The new COVID-19 world is a world beset by fear. Unseen viral particles can be lurking anywhere. Should one find us, we don’t know for sure how we would respond. And with social patterns dramatically altered and the economy collapsing, we are losing our sense of comfort, safety and being in control, leading to a stressful sense of chronic uncertainty and anxiety. We know from many scientific studies that stress negatively affects health. But although there may be little we can do to avoid stress in a COVID-19 world, we can use self-care to decrease and minimize the negative effects of stressful feelings. For example, you can pray or meditate.  Or you can simply bring calm and non-judgmental attention to how you’re feeling.      We’ve talked before about a helpful exercise called Body-Feelings-Mind. In this exercise, you find a comfortable position in a quiet place and, with eyes closed, check in with how you’re feeling, first ph…