THE HOLISTIC PSYCHOLOGIST

 I love writing little summaries of the books I read in this blog. It allows me to review the book and reflect on the messages I learned from it. I used to enjoy various classic fiction and murder mystery books but these days I prefer non-fiction. Psychology and human behaviour are something I have been curious about for a long time. wondering why we behave the way we do. Psychology or teaching are some of the favourite alternatives I would have done if I didn’t step into clinical medicine. Being an OBGYN today, I see many women who require a holistic psychology approach. The way I open the consultation towards mental health is to ask about their sleep. Women with anxiety or depression often complain about poor quality of sleep or waking up in the middle of the night.

I found the book “How to Do the Work” by Dr Nicole Lepera pretty useful in terms of understanding the underlying causes of human behaviour for example childhood trauma etc, and the ways to heal and make progress. She often emphasizes in her chapters how troubled humans keep repeating the same troublesome behavioural patterns and drifting towards destructive behaviours such as binge alcohol drinking, and sex addiction to feel better.

It is important to know that the mind and body are one unit and she would often point out how her own stressors lead to episodes of collapse or mental breakdown. One of the key aspects to help the troubled mind is emphasis on good sleep. Improving sleep quality by shutting down electronics, taking a bath, and reading a book. She pointed out in her book that she would even put an alarm clock to remind her at 6 pm to start winding down.

The author mentions moving the body and a healthy diet as part of the holistic approach to a healthy body and mind. Just taking a walk in nature can do magic for our body and reset a lot of brain fog. She also pointed out how changing her living environment to California and a more relaxed time helped her to recover faster.

Childhood trauma and the different toxic parenting styles were quite enlightening for me. Bringing out the various treatments we received from our parents up can be pretty uncomfortable. We know our parents were no perfect child psychologists. They were just hustling adults trying to make it through their days with their jobs and other day-to-day problems.

The most important chapter of the book talks about boundaries. It is one pf the most difficult to achieve especially with friends and family. It is very important to maintain healthy physical and mental health. I really enjoyed the book. The journaling tips at the end of each chapter was helpful in sustain most of the reflections and behavioural changes.

 

 

PLANT BASED DIET

When it comes to dietary patterns, the South Africans have one of the worst diets

                      I have ever seen. I was shocked when I learned the favourite food items such as fat cakes, bunny chow, chips, Russians, McDonald's, and KFC. All of them have high starch and fat content and low fibre. Later on, I got married in 2020 and moved in with my grandmother-in-law for three months, while I was waiting for our home transfer documents to go through. She was a lovely and friendly lady, and A very good cook. We mostly had some sort of curry with roti and rice. I soon realized that there is hardly any fruit or vegetable in that house. I started getting my own fruits and vegetables to be able to survive. In my home country, fruits and vegetables were an important part of our diet. We always had one or two fruits in the season and veges such as herbs and lettuce.

In recent years, there have been extensive studies on the relation of dietary patterns and various cancers and cardiovascular risk. The Mediterranean diet is known to be mainly plant-based with lots of nuts and olive oil, which is associated with less cardiovascular events.

A plant based diet is a broad term that covers many different diet patterns. From vegetarian to vegan etc. A diet that has at least more than two thirds of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans, and no more than a third of animal protein. It does not have to be entirely vegan or vegetarian. It simply means that we are consuming more plants than anything else. This diet definitely has a profound effect on the person’s general health.

Digestive system cancers, including cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, rectum, liver and possibly pancreas, appear to be cancer types that are reduced with a plant-based diet. Studies show there was a 9% reduction rate of breast cancer, 13% prostate cancer, and 18% of digestive tract. This is something to think about next time we go grocery shopping to try and make small changes in our diet and become healthier.

 

THE CHALLENGES OF MODERN WOMEN

 Women in the twentieth century enjoyed significantly more freedom and independence compared to their predecessors. In earlier times, a baby girl was often viewed as a burden to the family until marriage. They were not seen as a part of the workforce that could contribute financially to the household. Even today, in India, many families choose to abort female fetuses out of concern for the future costs associated with dowries, weddings, and wedding jewelry. are outshining men in colleges, universities, and the job market. Women are prospering in their careers and achieving a lot. A lot of them have chosen to dedicate their full time and energy to their jobs and give up on dating, the ones who are looking for partners can hardly find any suitable matches. So they wait until the biological ticks to settle or they settle for someone with lower standards.

Men are not formulated to juggle a million things during the day. Even though they have a part-time job with more free time at hand, we often find the female partner juggling a lot of things during the day, which can lead to the rapid burnout of the female partner.

Let's hope we are all kinder to that work colleague who needs to go for a school pick up or has a sick child in the future, and let's hope the male partners actually start helping more around the house and with the kids