Take it with a pinch of salt?

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Admin

‘A Proverb Is To Speech What Salt Is To Food’, (unknown author).

When you think about it, what exactly is salt to food? Is it something we need to flavour our food or is it an essential mineral our body needs to function like the well-oiled machine it’s supposed to be? Salt has had quite a bit of bad press over the years from the media so let’s find out more and have a heated debate!!

Why Salt is Bad For Us?

Too much salt in our diet, according to the NHS, (2018) can increase the risk of heart disease and stroke due to a rise in blood pressure. Salt, otherwise known as sodium, according to The World Health Organisation, (2012 pg 2) has a clear link to increased risks of “…..incidental stroke, fatal stroke and fatal coronary heart disease…..”, so their choice of language based upon research gathered suggests salt is very much a bad guy and we need to take serious notice of how much we are consuming.

What exactly is salt?

Consisting of Sodium, (40%) and Chloride, (60%), salt is the common name for Sodium Chloride. Our love affair with salt historically, began when we used salt as a means of preserving food by way of preventing the growth of bacteria that would spoil fish or meat.

Do we really need it?

Yes! Salt is needed to help balance the body’s fluids, (i.e. blood and cells), it promotes muscle and nerve function as well as stabilise blood pressure. Without salt we can become susceptible to Hyponatremia, low sodium which can cause confusion and fatigue. Salt is found naturally in some foods but we often add it to enhance the flavour. But with our fast paced, fast food lifestyles, we are taking on board too much salt and that is where the issue lies.

How Much Do We Need?

The powers that be tell us we should cut back on salt, consuming no more than 2,300mg a day, ideally less. That is as much as one small teaspoon a day, (WHO, 2012). Providing we are within this daily range we should be fine, (well obviously other factors need to be considered, such as age / genetics etc). In fact, reducing salt intake is one of the primary recommendations in anyone who has high blood pressure, (Weinberger, 1996).

Yes, We Know All That But, Is Salt Really Really Bad For Us?

Whilst the majority of research suggests salt is bad for us, there is new research emerging that is debunking this, with some studies suggesting salt restriction does little to reduce the risk of heart attacks or strokes as we are led to believe, (Adler et al, 2014). Other studies have shown reduced salt intake can increase renin secretion by the kidneys, (renin is an enzyme that helps restore normal blood pressure). Too much renin in the body can increase risk of heart disease mortality, (Parikh et al 2007). Whilst Konerman and Hummel, (2015) argue there is inconclusive evidence to validate the universal blanket, one size fits all advice of restricting our intake of salt as being healthy, suggesting this needs to be done on an individual basis.

What Type of Salt Is Best?

When I was little, salt came in a slim, white container from Walter Wilsons shop across the road to where we lived and it had a blue and red label, ‘Table Salt’. These days we have so many to choose from; Himalayan pink salt, kosher salt and sea salt.

Himalayan Pink Salt is mined at the Khewra Salt Mine, near the Himalayas in Pakistan. The salt is extracted by hand, minimal processing ensures it is free of additives and thereby believed to be one of the healthiest salts to use. Some estimate it can contact as many as 84 different minerals and trace elements vital for the functioning of our body.

Kosher salt is used in certain Jewish culinary customs such as when Jewish law requires blood to be extracted from meat before it is eaten. Since Kosher salt is flaky with a rough feel, it is good at this process of blood extraction.

Sea salt is made by evaporating seawater and is mostly sodium and chloride, but caution is urged as the darker it is the more impurities and may contain heavy metals like lead, even microscopic remains of plastic waste.

Personally, I like to use Himalayan Salt, as it ‘feels’ healthier and looks pretty, (yes I’m a girl!). I also have Himalayan salt lamps, pendulums and a range of other salt items for the positive effects it is said to have on us spiritually. But more about that another day!

The jury is still out about salt, and again like all other things, it comes down to personal responsibility and a sensible attitude.

By Lisa Watson, 25.01.2020

References

Adler A.J., Taylor, F, Martin N., Gottlieb S., Taylor R.S. and Ebrahim S. (2014) Reduced dietary salt for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in Cochrane Database System Review. 2014 Dec 18;(12)

Konerman, M.C. and Hummel, S.L, (2015) Sodium Restriction in Heart Failure: Benefit or Harm? In Current Treatment Options Cardiovascular Medicine 2014 Feb; 16(2): 286.

NHS, (20018) Salt: The Facts https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/salt-nutrition/

Parikh, N.I., Gona, P., Larson, M.G., Wang, T.J., Newton-Cheh,C., Levy,D., Benjamin, E.J., Kannel,W.B. and Vasan, R.S. (2007) Plasma Renin And Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease And Mortality: The Framingham Heart Study in European Heart Journal, Volume 28, Issue 21, November 2007, Pages 2644–2652

Weinberger M.H., (1996) Salt Sensitivity Of Blood Pressure In Humans in Hypertension, 1996 Mar;27(3 Pt 2):481-90.

WHO, (2012) Guideline: Sodium Intake For Adults And Children. Geneva, World Health Organization (WHO)

Autonomy – one of the keys to success

Posted on January 25, 2020 by Admin

I talk to people a lot about ‘flow’. This is a concept that I first came across in the landmark book ‘Flow’ by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is essentially the state that you can find yourself in when you are totally absorbed in something to exclusion of all other things. A mindful state if you like. You have the skills and knowledge to me master of what ever you are doing and you are engaging in it purposefully. Crucially alongside those elements in generating flow is autonomy.

Autonomy is the ability to make your own decisions and exercise control over the tasks that you have to engage in. Now, this can be difficult as in paid employment our tasks are given to us, often by a manager. So, how do we engage autonomously and create flow there.

Well, even though our tasks are often set out for us they are almost always set out as an end goal. We can often, particularly in professional practice, exercise autonomy in how we get to the end result. We can also be in control of how we break the task up and when we set time aside to do it.

In the midst of a world that often seems outside of our control if we control the bits we can control we will generate more flow. You can’t control what is given to you to do, you can’t control how people act towards you, but you can control how you respond. The more in control you feel of things in general in your life the more likely you are to respond from a place of control.

Take the tasks you have been given and control them. As David Allen, author of “Getting things done: The art of stress free productivity”, says, “if you don’t control it, it will control you.” So, take the task. Figure out the end goal and usually the end date. Then break the task down into the manageable chunks that will get you to the end goal. This method works well for tasks that have both a long and a short time frame.

Where a task has a short time frame – the “I need it by this afternoon” tasks – people tend to jump straight in in a state of panic and just start doing. You must stop and take stock and plan how to get to the end even when the end is only a few hours a way ….And still diary the tasks. Writing things down helps consolidate them. I find that it also helps you spot flaws in your strategy to get to the end point because the act of writing things down slows you down and allows your deliberate brain to take charge of your automatic brain. ‘You can’t plan and do at the same time’, as Allen also says. So plan it then simply execute your plan.

The method also works with long terms tasks for one key reason. If all you set out in your head or diary is what the end task looks like and when the end date is you are more prone to procrastination. If you set the end point and dairy in all the steps so that you can chip away at the task a step at a time you are more likely to do those little steps when you hit them in your dairy than you are if all you have to think about is the big task. The thought of the big task will sap your psychological energy to the point you don’t make a start. And, as we know, “making a start is the hardest part!” It’s easier to make a start on a small task. So, a bigger task, broken down into lots of smaller tasks, is easier to get going on. If your a last minuter… take note! You all know who you are 🙂

In whatever you do find what you have control over and be autonomous in how you think about those elements.

Get your flow on!

Where’s your ‘self’?

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Admin

I am, it seems, mildly obsessed with the idea of ‘self’. I just think who we are is so important. Often our public selves and private selves lack the connection that I feel is so important to well-being. When you are at odds with yourself, that is, you have to present yourself in a way that doesn’t match how you are, or how you are feeling, then you hit problems. We have to be authentic.

I’m reading ‘Ice’ by Anna Kavan and while my interpretation of what I’m reading doesn’t match what I’ve read about the novel (isn’t that the point of art to put your own interpretation on it?) I feel what I’m struck by resonates with the narrative undercurrent. The man in the novel is searching for a woman who keeps alluding him. It feels like the author is talking about searching and, for me, it feels more specifically searching for oneself. Our identity, our self, I feel, often alludes us. We are often frustrated when trying to find who we are. Just as we feel we are grasping who we are we somehow escape ourselves.

Cicero (Philosopher in the Stoic tradition 107-44 BCE) suggests that people’s sense of self, their sense of who they are, is created by being free to choose – autonomous, and therefore making their own decisions. He also suggested that the human community is the bond between people. The people we are connected to somehow helps us construct our sense of self. How people perceive us and how they interact with us gives us a sense of who we are. This seems to show that how we are constructed has an internal and external dimension. Indeed, I’d suggest I am not the man I was 20 years ago, 5 years ago, a year ago, or even yesterday. We are constantly being reformed and shaped.

In reflecting on my own ‘self’ I started by thinking that I am more consolidated in my sense of who I am at this point in my life – my public and private selves occupy a very similar space. I am not much different at work than at home for example. This gives me a feeling of settledness. An authenticity. I don’t think though this is because of chronological age. “I am older therefore I understand myself better.” I think it is simply that I do understand myself better. I could have arrived at this point at age 24, or 42, or now, or indeed never. Sadly I fear that ‘never’ may be the reality for many people. They never discover who they are, they never discover their ‘self’.

The reality is that the discovery of self is a multifaceted journey. Not only is it a spiritual one – a discovery of your inner-self, but also a discovery of your physical self, your emotional self, and your mental self (which I think is different to your spiritual self). Your ‘self’ is constructed from all of these things. You only discover who you are from testing yourself in all of these areas to a point where you can conclude ‘that is me’.

For me, discovering your ‘self’ is often about discovering both your talents and limitations. We are all good at some things and we are all limited in certain areas. Knowing what these things are and knowing where your ‘lines in the sand’ are is the secret to an understanding of self. Such knowledge comes from self reflection.

Self reflection should lead us to understand our strengths and limitations in terms of our physical self, emotional self and mental self. Such knowledge leads to us knowing where to expend our energies, what our talents are if you like – Where we can make our contribution. Doing things well builds our self esteem – this is good for our wellbeing. As Cicero points out our internal self is important – our sense of autonomy, of being in control. He also notes the importance of how we connect in building our ‘self’. Making a contribution individually and collectively builds our sense of who we are. We need to engage with an internal process and connect externally.

My advice with regard to reflection is to spend time in quiet. Meditate. Record what you are thinking in a journal. Every so often read over what you have written and think about your journey. Think about who you are. Enquire upon your ‘self’ Don’t let ‘you’ allude ‘you’. Knowing oneself I feel leads to peace.

Amazing!

Posted on January 19, 2020 by Admin

I tend to start from a position of scepticism. It stops me spending money on shiny things and new-fangled things that I spot in adverts. Despite desperately trying to avoid the latest fad for this or that I’m often sucked in. So when adverts for Shakti mats kept appearing in my facebook feed I looked and then looked away. But, they kept appearing and I kept being intrigued. So I did a bit of research and decided there was enough of a groundswell of opinion from a range of sources that this was a good thing that I thought, ‘let’s give it a go!’

The Shakti mat is a spikey affair! With some 6000 spikes in the form of little plastic disks attached to a mat. You lie on it! Yes! Lie on it – all 6000 little spikes digging into your back. The mat is about torso length so stretches from the small of the back to the nape of your neck. It works, so the adverts say, by stimulating acupressure points resulting in the release of endorphins and a range of other calming hormones.

Now, you know me, I think about and write about stress and how to overcome it. I’m a big fan of meditation and mindfulness and a big fan of giving things a try! So this seemed right up my street. I’m also not very good at meditation. My mind wanders off at the drop of a hat and I have to refocus. From what I was reading I thought this might be a good opportunity to feel overwhelmed by something to the effect that I cleared my mind.

The advice was to lay it on the floor or bed. I went for bed as I thought it would be a bit more comfortable. You then lie down on it and stay there for anything up to 20 minutes. I’m not going to lie, as reported in some of the blogs I read, when you first lie on it, it bloody hurts! But, then, as the blogs went on to say, after about 3 or 4 minutes the pain subsides and you get a wonderful warm sensation across your back. This is exactly what happened!

The feeling, I find, is quite euphoric. You have to steal yourself for the first few minutes but once through that the feeling is wonderful. I’m not being paid to say this. I bought my own mat. I’d tell you if I thought it was rubbish and not worth enduring those first few painful minutes.

Here’s the other thing! It has really improved my meditation. I stick my mediation music on, light an incense stick, and drift off. What I think is happening and what helps is that the pain takes some bearing, so, when you first lie on it you can’t think of much else other than the fact there are 6000 spikes sticking in your back! By the time this subsides you have removed all other thoughts from your mind. The discomfort distracts you from thinking about anything else, switching off invasive thoughts. It works for me!

It’s reported in various places that the mat can reduce stress and anxiety and help with muscle pain. Here’s what I think is going on. Resilience to stress is multi-faceted. One aspect is physical resilience which I feel is related to mental resilience. There is plenty of research that talks about the mind-body loop. We know that good physical health can lead to good mental health and vice versa. When you lie down on the mat your stress response is activated. You are causing yourself pain. You are physically stressing your body. This will initiate your bodies stress response which is the release of cortisol and adrenaline. The act of lying on the mat and learning how to maintain calm while experiencing the discomfort and waiting for it to subside ‘teaches’ your body and your mind how to manage your stress response. We already know that those who practice mindfulness can ‘train’ themselves to respond less emotionally and in a more balanced way to stressors and this mat I feel helps us learn to control such response.

I can’t recommend the Shatki Mat enough! I was cynical but I am absolutely convinced. Not a little bit convinced! A lot convinced!

Give it a go…. you’ll be surprised …and you might be amazed!

I bought mine from here

It takes longer than you think…

Posted on January 17, 2020 by Admin

Turns out writing a book takes longer than you think and takes up more time than you could ever imagine!

I’ve recently finished writing a book with Lisa Watson and Steph Hunter and it’s been wonderful experience to get my words onto paper ‘long form’. I love writing blogs that are quick to read but for anyone who enjoys writing then writing a book has to be something on your things to do list! So the book “How to Thrive in Professional Practice: A Self Care Handbook” will be out in the spring – in early May! Now that’s exciting! Available now to preorder. We talk about stress and burn out in social work and the context in which social work takes place because we’re all social workers but, to be honest, social work barely gets a mention in a lot of chapters. So it won’t matter what profession you are from what we are talking about will resonate. The reality is that all professional practice is blighted by the same problems these days. Too much to do, too little time, too few people to do it.

That means that people short change themselves by not prioritising their self-care. In professional practice and, to be honest, in all walks of life, self care is a necessity not a luxury.

So here’s the ironic thing! While writing the book on self-care my own self care took a bit of a nose dive! This means I can completely relate to people when they say, “But I don’t have time to go for a run / meditate/ eat well [delete as applicable or add your own!!]”. I didn’t lose the thread completely. My nutrition wasn’t too bad, I still did some yoga and meditation (but not a lot), and I still managed to run at least once a week.

But you see, this is the point with the model of self-care that I endorse. Life does come with its ups and downs. Your available time comes and goes. Your motivation waxes and wanes. But, if you know the golden rules you know where to get back to when you’ve ended up in the undergrowth. You won’t have completely ‘got lost’ along the way. You’ll have still done some things because once you create habits the are difficult to completely break free from. Good ones and bad ones.

So if you find you’ve lost your way a little, don’t sweat it. We all do. Make those small changes, step by step, that I talked about in the last blog and get yourself back on track. Don’t set your goals too high but do set them.

Here’s mine for the coming weeks:
Have more nights per week with no alcohol than nights I have alcohol (because I do like a glass of red)
Run twice a week (I already do parkrun every week so that’s just one more)
Cycle once a week
Meditate for 5 minutes a day
Drink more water
Eat exactly what I’ve been eating but smaller portion sizes

Doable? I think so!
You on board
2020 is going to be great!

You can preorder the book at the following link
How to Thrive in Professional Practice

Small steps

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Admin

Here’s an idea! Never mind a Dry January or a Sugar Free February… How about an Everything in Moderation Life?

If you are like me you will make grand statements like “I’m giving up booze”, “I’m going to run a marathon”, “I’m going to exercise everyday”, “That’s it! No more coffee”, “I’m done with pizza”. And what happens is such grand statements are short lived. We set ourselves up to fail by making such huge, generally unachievable goals. It’s hard not to have a drink of alcohol from time to time. It’s hard not to have pizza, or a coffee. It’s difficult to run a marathon.

There are two things to consider here.

First, set realistic goals. I genuinely like the taste of beer and red wine. I love to have a drink or two. I don’t like drinking too much. Well, I do, but I don’t like how it feels the next day! So how about planning to have some alcohol free nights, or sticking to a glass of wine with a meal, or having just one night a week when you have a few drinks. Why not? There are risks with everything we do, yes, but also there are benefits. Having a drink relaxes you, red wine is full of antioxidants, and can be good (in moderation) for your heart.

Beer can be good for you as well! It can fight inflammation and aid digestion. It can also help maintain healthy bones. Obviously drinking too much too often is not good but, is not drinking all together really the answer? Set yourself the target to drink less and have a few days a week alcohol free. Get the benefits from these things rather than eliminate them all together.

The second thing relates to setting yourself goals that are too big and not achievable in the short term. Take the, ‘I’m going to run a marathon’ statement. Running a marathon is a great thing. I’ve done 3 myself. But it’s also a gargantuan effort. If you want to do something like this you need to break it down into small steps. So, week 1, run 2 miles, week 2 run 2 miles 3 times, week 4, run 3 miles 3 times. …and on you go. Setting yourself small goals and nailing them relies on a psychological ‘buzz’ called the power of small wins. If the goal is the marathon you don’t get the buzz until you do the marathon. But if the goal is broken down into lots if smaller goals then you get a psychological boost every step of the way.

So, set realistic goals and break down big goals into smaller goals

A little of what you fancy does you good. Don’t remove things completely from your diet. Enjoy a small amount. Coffee, alcohol, sugar, chocolate are all fine. In excess they are bad for you. But a little bit will be fine (unless you have a medical problem of course!)

Small steps lead to big changes over time.

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Monthly Archives: January 2020