Verified Document

Life Coaching Research Paper

Mind and Mediation Body, Mind, and Meditation

Different cultures throughout time and geography have viewed the mind and body connection from vastly different perspectives. Most ancient healing practices, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, emphasize the links between the mind and the body (Ehrlich, 2011). However, most of the Western medical perspectives viewed the mind and the body as two entirely separate systems that do not influence each other. Western medicine separated these two systems and ultimately treated them individually. However, Western medicine is beginning to accept a new paradigm that mirrors some of the more ancient perspectives.

One of the first psychologist to recognize that the mind in the body influence each other was George Solomon in 1964 when he noticed that some people with rheumatoid arthritis suffered worse symptoms when they were also depressed (Ehrlich, 2011). Since that time there have been many other psychologist and physicians that have begun to realize that the two different systems do in fact influence each other. Studies have shown that meditation can affect the blood pressure and mental and emotional cues could affect the immune system and its response to illness (Ehrlich, 2011).

Many psychologists believe that antidepressants are the ultimate treatment...

However, over the past decade many psychologists have come to recognize that depression is not merely a brain disease and altering chemicals alone will never work to overcome depression (Kirsch, 2011). One meta-analysis focused on depression studies in order to investigate the placebo effect and found that seventy-five percent of the benefits that antidepressant medication offered to a sample of over three thousand collective participants could be explained by the placebo effect (Kirsch, 2011).
Once the realization of the mind and body connection is made, the next step is determining what to do about it. There are many techniques that can train the brain how to focus with the ultimate goal of improving an individual's health such as providing biofeedback, cognitive behavioral therapy, and relaxation techniques. With biofeedback, people are trained to control certain bodily processes that normally occur involuntarily, such as heart rate or blood pressure (Ehrlich, 2011). Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses more on changing an individual's negative thoughts by conditioning more positive ones. Furthermore, there is a wide array of different relaxation techniques that can reduce stress and promote mindfulness.

The mechanisms that explain the ways in which the mind and the body are connected are beginning to be…

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Ehrlich, S. (2011, October 2). Mind-body medicine. Retrieved from University of Maryland Medical Center: http://umm.edu/Health/Medical/AltMed/Treatment/Mindbody-medicine

Kirsch, I. (2011, November 17). Antidepressants: The Emperor's New Drugs? Retrieved from Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irving-kirsch-phd/antidepressants-the-emper_b_442205.html
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Life Coaches
Words: 1028 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Life Coaches Hi! My name is Jane and I will be your personal life coach. Thank you for choosing me. I know you have a choice in life coaches, with over 12,000 of us worldwide (Pawlowski, 2007, p. 1). Now, I would like to introduce myself further and let you know what I can do for you. I became a life coach five years ago, after experiencing a personal crisis of

Life Coach
Words: 1113 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Life Coach Congratulations for choosing a life coach. You have just taken an important step towards achieving all your goals: in the realm of personal life and relationships as well as in the realm of your career and creative pursuits. As your coach, I will be working with you to provide you with the guidance and support you need. I can point you to resources, and help you remove the obstacles

Life Coach
Words: 651 Length: 2 Document Type: Research Paper

Life Coach Loving the plateau begins with learning how to appreciate the journey, notes Leonard (1992). As Leonard (1992) also points out, most of our lives is spent in a plateau period. The reason why many people struggle against the plateau is that we have been taught to only appreciate the prizes or the end result of effort. We have not been taught how to appreciate the path, only the destination.

Life Coaching
Words: 1196 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Life Coaching How would you construct a guided imagery session for a client? Create a real or fictional case study. First, the client needs to choose an area of focus. In this case, the client wants to focus on prosperity with the express goal of achieving success in her career. Therefore, prior to starting the guided visualization, I would have the client speak or write down the overall goals. Next, I would need

Life Coaching Methods
Words: 981 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

Life coaching is an innovative field that aims to motivate the individual to find answers to their own questions and solutions to the major obstacles that might hinder their ability to achieve their life goals. Traditional life coaching focuses on this idea that the individual should be guided to their own solutions. Hybrid strategies have been born out of life coaching methods with other professional fields, like business and nutrition.

Life Coach E Focuses Informative Style Expository
Words: 1150 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Life Coach e focuses informative style expository writing. To convincing, essays driven critical thinking analysis. Throughout, learned aspects effective writing Final Project. Your Final Project end a hero's journey: sharing wisdom audience The hero's journey -- into weight loss and into a healthier future The journey of weight loss is a challenging one, further complicated by the fact that so many people have tried and failed to improve their diet and exercise habits

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now