By: Christine B. Tenekjian, MPH, RDN, LDN, NBC-HWC, Dietitian Clinician, Duke Lifestyle & Weight Management Center, and Kim Ha, Dietetic Intern at Duke Hospital. As the weather becomes colder and the leaves are changing color, the holidays seem to be right around the corner. With this, there may be mixed emotions of anxiety, joy, and confusion around food. Anticipating and ...
By Duke Integrative Medicine Programs Team The “Three Good Things” exercise is a powerful positive psychology technique. From a biological perspective, our brains are hardwired to reflect, notice and remember the negative as a survival mechanism and a way to avoid that which causes physical and emotional discomfort. This tendency to focus on the negative can feed depression and burnout. Taking ...
By: Duke Integrative Medicine Psychotherapy Team It is natural to feel afraid, exhausted and overwhelmed as we continue to navigate these uncharted waters of life during a pandemic. Maintaining mobility in our bodies and a sense of connection to self and others will help us to ride the waves of our varied emotions, rather than crashing with them. Check out our ...
By Duke Integrative Medicine Psychotherapy Team We can easily let go of our healthy routines and boundaries when dealing with crises. During a crisis, we may let go of important practices that cultivate the four pillars of a stable mood: nutrition, connection, movement, and rest. During highly stressful times, it's important to do what we can to maintain and bolster ...
By Duke Health & Well-Being Programs Team How many of us have had the experience of eating an entire bag of chips or a pint of ice cream without even realizing it? When this happens, most (if not all) of us notice and appreciate the full taste of our first few bites, but can hardly remember the rest. Mindless eating can ...
By Duke Integrative Medicine Programs Team Guided imagery, or visualization, encompasses a number of techniques meant to explore our beliefs and attitudes about ourselves and the world around us by tapping into our subconscious mind. This exploration is intended to impact our physical and mental well-being, bringing about positive changes such as relaxation, better focus and improved performance. Guided imagery has ...
By the Duke Health & Well-Being Programs Team Mindfulness is an ability that can be practiced at any point in our day, either in stillness or in movement. For many of us, the idea of sitting still to meditate can be challenging, especially with long days of commuting and sitting at work. Though generally performed with the primary purpose of ...
The Duke Diet and Fitness Center will now be called the Duke Lifestyle and Weight Management Center. The center’s director explains why the new name more accurately represents his team’s holistic approach to health. Darla Olson has lost 80 pounds in one year. She’s traded breakfast biscuits for fruit and yogurt parfaits. She’s walked five miles daily. And she’s embarked ...
By: Jocelyn Weiss. When we fail to reach our goals, a lack of willpower often takes the blame. There are many definitions of willpower. At its simplest, willpower involves the ability to put off what we want at the moment for the sake of what we want in the future. In recent years, however, psychologists and researchers have doubted the role ...
By: Riitta H Rutanen Whaley, Mindfulness Instructor, Yoga Teacher The current global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a holiday season, unlike anything most of us have experienced before. We may be grieving the death of a loved one, have been sick or limited in our movement, seen our children miss their friends and school, or lost some or all of ...
