Promoting Mental Wellness with the Healthy Mind Platter | Episode 24 | Reviving Vet Med

The food guide plate or Healthy Eating Platter was introduced more than 10 years ago to demonstrate visually what we should be eating to maintain a healthy body. Since then, neuropsychiatry expert Dr. Daniel Siegel partnered with his colleague and friend Dr. David Rock to share what is referred to as the Healthy Mind Platter. This collection of activities is designed to promote neural connections within the brain that foster mental health and wellbeing.    

In this episode, I review the difference between mental illness and mental health, and describe the seven activities within the Healthy Mind Platter and why they are important for our mental health and wellbeing.  

Resources

Why every veterinary professional needs a healthy mind platter (article): https://medium.com/creatures/what-every-veterinarian-needs-a-healthy-mind-platter-ece4182faf7c 

Online Programs

To learn more about our 4- and 8-week online programs approved for CE credit in jurisdictions that recognize RACE, please visit:
https://revivingvetmed.com/programs/


Newsletter

For more practical pointers and tangible tips related to veterinary mental health and wellbeing, subscribe to our e-newsletter:
https://revivingvetmed.kartra.com/page/newsletter

Questions or Suggestions
Email podcast@revivingvetmed.com

Transcript

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Reviving Vet Med. October is a really great time to revisit our mental health and to talk more openly about mental illness. Earlier this month, mental illness awareness week was acknowledged and we also had World Mental Health Day. As some of you already know, mental illness is a very important topic to me, and this is for personal reasons.

I live with mental illness myself in the form of depression and anxiety. This is also important to me on a family level. I have a long family history of mental illness that includes suicide, depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. I currently am going through a situation with someone very close to me who has been living through a severe mental health crisis that has required hospitalization, and this has been very upsetting and distressing for everyone involved and has reminded me so much of the importance of mental health and of reducing mental illness stigma. This important topic is especially relevant for those of us in the veterinary profession because there are studies that reveal that mental illness is more common among veterinarians compared to the general population as is stigma amongst both veterinarians and veterinary students.

So, in today's episode I'm going to be reviewing the difference between mental illness and mental health and how nurturing what is referred to as our healthy mind platter is important for our mental health and well-being. So, there's a lot of information to unpack here, and I'm anxious to get started. Let's go ahead and get into the episode. This is the Reviving Vet Med podcast, and I'm your host, Dr. Marie Holowaychuk. My mission is to improve the mental health and well-being of veterinary professionals around the world.

So, I think it's really important anytime we have a conversation about mental health and mental illness to really get clear on the difference between the two. So, by way of definition mental health describes a person's psychological and emotional well-being. Remember that mental health is something that all of us have. It's something that all of us experience and our mental health can range from very good on some days to not so good on others. Similar to our physical health, there's some days where we feel very physically well and vibrant and mobile and active and other days where we might be experiencing illness because of a virus or because we haven't slept enough and so on and so forth.

Mental illness, on the other hand, also is referred to as having mental health disorders. And mental illness refers to a wide range of mental health conditions or disorders, really, that can affect your mood, your thinking, and your behavior. So, some examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, or substance use disorders, just to name a few. Now we know based on recent research here in Canada that veterinarians are more likely than the general population to experience mental illnesses, including depression and anxiety. And it's important for us to recognize this and to talk about this.

Mental illness is something that can be managed. Like many illnesses. And we can do this with medication, psychotherapy, and other treatments. Which we're not going to get into today. On the other hand, mental health is also something that can be helped by many different activities, including spending time with family and friends, spending time in nature, exercising, and meditation.

Of course, these are just a few of the topics that many of you know I'm passionate about and speak about and blog about frequently. Now, I said that I would be discussing the Healthy Mind Platter in today's episode. And the Healthy Mind Platter is something that was created by Dr. David Rock and Dr. Daniel Siegel.

You probably recognize Dr. Daniel Siegel's name. He's a very famous neuropsychiatrist and very prolific author. He's written many books pertaining to raising and parenting children. One of my favorite books from him is The Whole Brain Child.

And it contains very useful information to help our children when they become dysregulated in order to promote mindfulness and manage their emotions. Now in the context of the healthy mind platter, what the two doctors did is to really organize thinking around the different activities that can nurture our mental health. So, they devised this platter similar to the way of eating healthfully in terms of the healthy eating plate in order to nurture our body's brain rather than nurturing our body's health as the healthy eating plate does. So let me explain this a little bit more. Most of us remember the food guide pyramid where there was the pyramid of foods with cereals and grains on the bottom, fruit and veggies that were the next highest, dairy and meat, the next highest level up, and then fats, oils, and sweets were at the top.

And in 02/2011, this way of thinking in terms of our healthy eating was really largely replaced by the food guide plate, which depicts what portions we should be eating according to a plate, whereby half of the plate is fruits and veggies, a quarter of the plate is protein, and a quarter of the plate is grains. So, we know that following the healthy food plate or the healthy food guide, whatever context you wanna look at it, this prevents us from developing nutrient imbalances or deficiencies, and it also helps to prevent obesity and other health concerns from developing. And the Healthy Mind Platter is very similar in this way, and that Dr. David Rock and Dr. Dan Siegel created the Healthy Mind Platter so that we would know how to fill our days in terms of ensuring that we have activities that nourish our mind, keep our neural pathways functioning in a healthy way, thereby improving our mental health and helping to prevent mental illness. So, I've written a blog about this that I will link to the show notes, but I'm gonna take time during today's episode to talk you through the seven different activities within the healthy mind platter.

And the first of those activities is focus time. So, if you're anything like me, then you probably do, on occasion, struggle with your focus. You might find it difficult to complete a task fully without getting interrupted, whether it be by someone who you live with or by yourself interrupting you in terms of checking your email, pulling up social media, listening to a notification, and so on and so forth. So, what focus time does in terms of an activity is it really helps to build that part of our brain that keeps ourselves focused, that allows us to complete task to completion. And the way that you would practice focus time would be to set out to complete a task without any interruption.

So very often, if I'm doing something like writing a blog or editing a paper, I will make sure that my email is closed, that my social media is logged out, and then I have no distractions. And I commit to following through with the task until it is completed. So, focus time. Again, this is something that is really, really important and something that I think many of us are struggling with more so with how many distractions we have now with technology. Now the second activity that I want to share with you within the context of the healthy mind platter is playtime.

And playtime is time where we forget about work and any other commitments that we have, and we are social, but in a completely unstructured way. So, the benefits of playtime are that it enables flexible emotional responses to unexpected events, Because we're not in control. Right? You can't predict who's gonna win the game of monopoly or who is going to drop the ball, when you're playing toss in the backyard. These are spontaneous and novel motor and social skills that we are developing, which also then have translatable benefits for life.

This is why playtime that is unstructured is so important for children because they're learning how to interact with one another, how to maneuver themselves, you know, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. So, a recommendation for how you can incorporate playtime into your daily or weekly routine is to organize a game night with friends, to get outside and throw the Frisbee around with your kids. Or if you live in a climate like me, maybe you already have snow on the ground and you could have a snowball fight. Really, whatever you can do to surround yourself with other people who are playful, willing to engage in play, and not have any set structure around how that play is going to unfold. Now, the third component of the healthy mind platter I'd like to share with you is connecting time.

So, it's really important to recognize the importance of feeling connected. Social experiences and really perceived, emotional support, so having the perception that we have people in our lives that we can rely on if things get tough is directly related to mental health because it has a buffering effect on stress. So, what that means is the more I feel that I have good social supports and connections in my life, the less likely I am to succumb to very stressful circumstances. So, this is really important for us to make time for really satisfying social relationships. And there's research to demonstrate that those who do make time for the relationships in their life have a more positive outlook on life.

They have more secure attachments, and they have healthy and healthier interactions with other people. So really, really important. So how can we, you know, create connection time or connecting time into our routine? We can make sure that we schedule time for this. So, I really try to make a point of on a weekly basis scheduling a walk with a friend, a phone call with someone, some sort of opportunity to connect with someone who I trust and who I have a mutual, you know, mutually beneficial relationship with.

And, you know, sometimes it's there's not an opportunity to do that in person, in which case, I might leave a long voice mail for that person just to catch up, or we might connect over email. The point is that you want to continue to nurture these relationships that so that you do feel during difficult times that you have people that you can call upon when you need support. Now, the fourth component of the healthy mind platter is physical time. So, we know, through much research that has been done how important exercise is, not just for our physical health, but for our mental health as well. Regular exercise has been proven to maintain brain plasticity, to enhance learning and memory, and to reduce stress, anxiety, and depression.

And I shared in the introduction that I live with depression and anxiety, and I can tell you firsthand that if I am not getting movement on a regular basis, usually in the form of a higher intensity exercise, that I definitely feel it in terms of my mental health and my energy. So definitely get into a habit of carving out time on a daily basis, certainly on a weekly basis to have some form of physical activity. Now I don't need to get into all the benefits because there is so much research to indicate really, again, on a physical and mental level how important this is. And the guidelines really clearly do state that at least from a cardiovascular health perspective we should be getting about a hundred and fifty minutes of cardiac pumping exercise per week. So, something that elevates your heart rate.

So that's about thirty minutes five days a week. And I really try to aim for something physical seven days a week in order to maintain my mental health on a regular basis. So, whether you incorporate thirty minutes of heart rate increasing activity into your weekday routine or whether you extend this into your weekend. I'll leave that up to you. You've probably heard me talk about exercise before, in which case you've heard my tips around the importance of scheduling this, being very specific with how you plan it.

So, it's not just saying I'm gonna exercise at some point tomorrow, but to say, I'm gonna wake up at 06:30 and I'm gonna do a thirty-minute strength training, exercise. That you really establish some sort of accountability, whether it's with a workout buddy or sharing your workout with a friend. All of these tools are going to ensure that you absolutely do commit to doing the exercise. Now, the fifth activity as part of the healthy mind platter that I'm gonna share with you is called time in. So, this is time dedicated to reflection, to self-awareness, to mindfulness, and really just paying attention to our present moment and not in a judging way.

So, we're not sitting here and just scrutinizing our present moment or we're not ruminating, you know, and dwelling on what might be happening, but we are really noticing and having a little bit of distance from it. So, you can do this on a regular basis by tuning into your physical senses. Just noticing how your body feels. Doing a five four three two one exercise. So, thinking about five things that you can see, four things that you can hear, three things that you can touch, two things that you can smell, and one thing that you can taste.

Any opportunity to tune in to the physical senses is going to bring you into the present moment and is going to give you this opportunity to really notice what is happening, not just in your internal environment, but potentially externally to you as well. So that might be, you know, as I said, the things that you're picking up through your senses or it could be internally, the thoughts that are coming up for you, the feelings that are arising, the sensations that you're experiencing in your body. Now, again, I can't stress enough the benefits of meditation as a form of mindfulness practice. There are many cognitive, emotional, and social benefits ranging from reducing blood pressure, to reducing stress, to enhancing mood, and improving mental health. And we know that there is a lot of research as well amongst health care practitioners recognizing the importance of meditation and mindfulness on preventing burnout and increasing self-care.

So, there's a lot of evidence even outside of the context of the healthy mind platter to suggest that this opportunity for time in, for pause, for reflection in a non-judging way is a really important thing that we can do on a regular basis for our mental health and well-being. Now the sixth component of the healthy mind platter is downtime. So, what I mean when I say downtime is not necessarily what you might be thinking. So, I'm not referring to leisure time. You know?

It's like, oh, I got some downtime. Why don't we go visit a new, coffee shop or go browse it, you know, you know, the store to look for those items I need for the spare room. This should be an activity whereby whatever happens in the moment, it's unplanned. That you're not setting an agenda. There's no particular goal.

So, some people might call it chilling out, lazing about, goofing off, but really, it's about intentionally having no intention of doing anything that's pre planned, which I know you're probably thinking, Marie, who has time for that? And I remember speaking with my psychologist many years ago, not someone who I've seen recently, but someone who I used to see. And I remember her saying to me how clear it was to her that I really needed to have more downtime in my day. And I said to her, like, you don't understand. I'm, you know, scheduled on a minute-by-minute basis.

This is how I stay productive, etcetera, etcetera. And she really emphasized to me how important it was to even just have five minutes of downtime. So, I'm not suggesting that you take an entire day to just sit and do nothing. That wouldn't be realistic. And I'm not even sure that would be beneficial for your mental health.

But to have moments of unstructured time within your day or at the very least within your week is really, really important for your mental health and well-being. This is something I've really tried to incorporate on my weekends with my daughter So that it's not planned out to the minute and that there is opportunity for the two of us to do, you know, whatever might come up for us. And it worked out perfectly this weekend because we did happen to have a snowstorm, and we went outside, and we made a snowman. That was just ended up what happening. We sort of went outside with the idea of just doing whatever came to us, whether it be walking or, playing with the snow or whatever it might be.

And it ended up being that this is this was the playtime that we engaged in. So, in some sense, we were able to practice not only downtime, but also playtime for the two of us as well. So, I would urge you to start by carving out even five minutes a day or thirty minutes on the weekend. You could even do this, you know, just on a moment-by-moment basis while you're waiting for an appointment or you're standing in line or you're on hold on the telephone to do absolutely nothing. So not to pick up your phone and scroll, not to look for a distraction, but to sit and do nothing and see where your mind goes.

And very often, it is the best epiphanies that arise when we allow ourselves that downtime. And last but not least, for the healthy mind platter, the seventh activity is sleep time. And we know based on a ton of research that sleep has tremendous benefits for us. There's lots of things that happen when we sleep including processing our memories, integrating things that we did during the day, both emotionally and physically, regulating our emotions, boosting our creativity. Sleep is also needed for a lot of emotional and feeling processing that really allows us to wake up the next day with a fresh perspective.

You know, there's something to be said for the notion of sleeping on it because our subconscious does a lot of processing and integrating while we sleep. And it's so important to do that so that we can make better decisions and better tune into and address our emotional experiences the next day. So, I'm gonna talk more about sleep time in an upcoming episode, but just briefly, I want to reinforce the recommendation, which is that most adults require at least seven hours of sleep per day. On average, it's about eight hours per individual. Some individuals need as many as nine or more and that this can include naps.

So, it does not necessarily have to be consecutive. All of the research would suggest from a mental health perspective that consecutive sleep is better for those who experience mental illness. Now the reason for that is because our REM sleep, REM, rapid eye movement sleep, is where our mind is moving and, really the brain waves are such that it would seem that our mind was awake, but we are fully asleep. And what's happening during REM is that we are really processing those emotions. We're reliving those experiences we had during the day.

This is where a lot of our dreams occur. And sometimes we wake up and we're like, oh my goodness. Why did I dream that? Well, that was your subconscious processing something. And what we know about REM is that REM tends to happen more the longer that we are sleeping for.

This is why a lot of people, you know, they really say, gosh, I had such a great sleep last night, but I had the weirdest dreams. You know? They probably had the, quote, unquote, weirdest dreams or they recognize their dreams because they slept long enough to experience many cycles of REM where they have those dreams. So, again, if you're a person like me who lives with mental illness, then you will want to try and consolidate your sleep so that it can be for the longest duration if possible. Now, that said, there is research to show that a ten-minute nap during the day for many people does increase alertness and performance.

So, if you do not live with mental illness, then you could very well benefit from about a ten-minute nap. I think the sweet spot for napping is about ten to twenty minutes. Gives you that boost of alertness without that sense of grogginess and sluggishness where you feel like you're waking up all over again. So, at this time, you know, there's not really a specific ratio or recipe for balancing these seven components of a healthy mind. It's not like we have a plate or a pie that's divvied up into equal amounts of each one.

Of course, it wouldn't be possible for us to have as much physical time in the day as we do sleep. The important thing is just for us to simply be aware of the spectrum of mental activities that we need to make sure that our brain stays healthy and that we can do our best to set goals and establish habits that allow us to incorporate these activities into our lives as often and as best as we can. So that's it for this episode of Reviving Vet Med. Thank you so much for listening. I really hope you found this episode helpful and that you'll look for ways to incorporate the seven components of the Healthy Mind Platter into your routine.

I know every time I review the information around the Healthy Mind Platter, I'm reminded of the importance of downtime, the importance of focus time, and all of the other activities including play and everything else that we discussed today. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to send it to a friend or a colleague. You can click on the link and fire it off in an email or in a text message. And I would also really appreciate it if you would subscribe to get the episodes when they drop. I'm really excited to share that I have started planning for my next round of online programs, which will be continuing next year.

If you're interested in checking out more information or signing up for those wait lists, please visit my website marieholowaychuk.com. I wanna thank my amazing assistant, Jamie, for producing this episode, and I wanna thank you so much for listening through to the end. Until next time, take care of yourself. Bye now.