Take 5 for Your Health and Wellbeing

"All children want to develop and grow and get better at things, so it's a fun way to work together to say, 'Look do you want to learn something cool?' and kids obviously want to learn something cool."

"I'll be honest, the first time I heard about clinical hypnosis, I was a little bit skeptical. My only experience with hypnosis was in high school when a performer came and made a whole bunch of my classmates do a bunch of crazy things on stage, like walking like a duck, or clucking like a chicken, or doing Elvis impersonations. That was my experience with hypnosis. So, when I first heard this researcher talk about the benefits of clinical hypnosis I was really skeptical, but he made such a strong case for the scientific basis for hypnosis and all the different things it can help that I quickly changed my mind and started looking into it more, and found that it can really be beneficial for a large range of clinical entities."

The holiday season is a time for family, friends, food... and stress. While many people enjoy celebrating with loved ones, the pressures of holiday gift-buying, travel, and overindulgence can take their toll. In this holiday special, adapted from one of our live webinars, Mary Jo Kreitzer, the Center's founder and director, offers tips to deal with the different stressors that arrive during the holidays. Canon and Variation by Twin Musicom http://www.twinmusicom.orgCreative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/canon-and-variationMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/PPxWIOz6EZM

"I'm really interested in the intersection of healing work, spirituality, expression, and activism. Those are kind of the four corners or pillars of what I'm trying to create."

Mindfulness can be hard to learn, and it can be even harder for those who have ADHD. The month of October is ADHD Awareness Month, so we sat down with Center faculty Lidia Zylowska, a psychiatrist with a speciality in adult ADHD and integrative psychiatry. Zylowska has a history working with mindfulness meditation and adapting it for adults and teens with ADHD, and she explains how it can be beneficial for those patient populations.

"I have a colleague who has an answering machine on his phone-- you know when you call him and you leave a message--it says, 'At the sound of the tone please leave your answer to life's two eternal questions: who are you, and what do you want?'"

"We know if we're taking care of ourselves we are healthier, happier people. And we know if we're caring for ourselves we're much more able to care for others, and that tends to be an important thing for the majority of us humans. We've also seen that better self-care--paying attention to your health and wellbeing--results in less illness, better immunity, more positive thinking, better self-esteem. There's all sorts of data emerging."

Often, when people think about integrative healthcare, they may not think about children. But integrative practices can be beneficial for kids as well as adults. When children learn certain techniques, such as mindfulness, we know that it helps them with emotional regulation and cognitive focus.

"I think that women right now are just being called to a new level of personal empowerment--just based on what's happening culturally in our society here in America. And at the same time it comes with a lot of responsibility--we can have more satisfying, high-level, and time consuming careers, still raise and care for our families, and be more independent than ever."

"We're always dancing. Dance isn't just the kind of rhythmic, big movement stuff that most people might imagine. We're always moving, so that's kind of the meaning of dance."

"There's a very good chance that you've actually tried some type of botanical therapy and didn't even know it. A really common example of this is if you've ever had an upset stomach and you've taken ginger ale. Ginger is a well-known botanical that helps settle the stomach--it can really help relieve nausea, and that's why so many people will consume ginger ale if they've got some stomach upset."

"How we eat is directly correlated to the health of the environment, and vice-versa, how we take care of the environment is directly correlated to our own personal health," says Jenny Breen, a professional chef who is an expert in culinary nutrition and a faculty member at the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing.

"What the research or the literature suggests is that physical activity in general--so moving your body whether it's yoga or otherwise--is both supported in terms of efficacy trials and effectiveness trials at moderating depressive or anxiety symptoms."

We used to think the brain was a static organ after we reached maturity, but now we're starting to see it has a lifelong dynamic ability to change in response to its environment. Neuroplasticity is the term used to explain the brain’s ability to change. This could be anywhere from small cellular changes to complete remapping, and it usually happens in response to new learning, experience, or injury. This new understanding underlines the importance of paying attention to our brain health and development. Sitting down with us today are experts in the field, Laura Sandquist and Gisli Kristófersson.

Nature-Based Therapeutics focuses on the healing power of nature through interactions with plants, animals and natural landscapes. Through research and courses, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and the Bakken Center are working together to advance this emerging field. Dr. Jean Larson is our expert this episode exploring the intersection between wellbeing and environment.

Valentine’s day is a wonderful time of the year, filled with sweets, candles, and heart throb rom coms. Most people will celebrate it with their romantic partner, but many also send flowers to their family and chocolates to their friends. At the core of Valentine’s Day we are celebrating our relationships with those in our lives. And those relationships are not static. Join us for today’s discussion: building personal relationships.

In this episode, we sit down with Bakken Center Integrative Health Faculty Research Fellow Brent Leininger to discuss the details of low back pain, and an emerging new study on the topic.

January is the start of the new year and with it are many people's resolutions to make a life change. Something they have been meaning to do year after year but never seem to get around to. This episode we are sitting down with Theresa Nutt to talk about how we can set our goals better and achieve our resolutions.

With the days growing shorter and the weather getting colder, gathering around the fireplace with loved ones can bring a great feeling of togetherness. There's something about being in the company of other and sitting around a fire that brings a tacit sense of comfort and security. Grab a mug and join us for a Take Five for Your Health & Wellbeing holiday special.

With the end of the year on the horizon, stress seems to be looming over everyone's heads. I sit down with Dr. Doug Kennedy to discuss the topic of stress and how we can mitigate it.