BLOG

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 36% of Canadians already reported experiencing sleep difficulties such as issues with falling asleep, staying asleep and early morning awakenings. Since the onset of the pandemic, the shift to work-from-home schedules (or lack of defined schedules), plus the addition of increased stressors and mental health concerns, the prevalence of sleep disturbances has increased to 51%. More importantly, these sleep disturbances that a majority of us are facing influence our risk of infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, cancer and other chronic conditions at a time when we are trying to stay in peak health.

Is the answer as simple as adding more movement into our day? Quite possibly.

Since the start of the pandemic, social distancing measures have played a role in decreasing our physical activity levels. Research has shown those who engage in physical activity are 33% more likely to meet sleep guidelines. Individuals with chronic insomnia who engage in regular physical activity are also found to fall sleep faster and stay asleep longer. The timing of our physical activity may also be an important factor to consider. Some research shows that getting active in the early morning can positively impact sleep quality compared to the same activity later in the day. If you prefer activity in the evening, yoga has been shown to have similar effects through its encouragement of relaxation.

Keep in mind, our changes can be small. As little as 10 minutes of walking per day can increase sleep quality. If you’re ready to make a change, Find a Kin to help you.

There’s a common misperception that “good mental health” means feeling happy and “bad mental health” means feeling sad. In fact, a mentally healthy life includes the full range of human emotions—even the uncomfortable ones like sadness, fear and anger.

While feeling well means different things to different people, some things might actually apply to all of us: in order to thrive, we all need a good sense of self, and we all need purpose, contribution, hope, resilience and belonging.

We’ve condensed that knowledge into an informal list that you can use to check your own mental health. (You can find the sources we consulted below). It’s not a scientific tool, or a way to diagnose yourself. It’s just one way to check in with yourself about your mental health, and maybe guide you on how to support and improve it.

Read each statement and consider whether you “agree” or “disagree” with it.

Your sense of self

• I feel confident about my own opinions, even if they’re different from what other people think or believe.
• I think people respect me, but I can disagree with others and still feel ok about myself.
• I feel that I am the expert on my own life.
• I consider myself to be a good person.
• I deserve to feel well.

Your purpose and sense of meaning

• I feel like I’m reaching my potential.
• I feel I am growing as a person.
• I challenge myself.
• I have a sense of purpose and meaning in my life.
• It is a better world with me in it.
• I am good at things that matter to me.
• I get something out of the things I do.

Belonging

• I get along with others, and I feel good about my personal relationships and social interactions.
• I feel like I am part of something bigger than myself.
• I feel like I belong.
• I have people in my life to support me.

Contribution

• What I do matters a lot to others.
• I feel useful and productive.
• I make the world a better place in my own way.
• I am making a difference.

Hope and enjoyment

• I am optimistic about my future.
• I feel good about myself.
• I like and accept myself.
• I usually expect good things will happen.
• I enjoy life.

Resilience

• Things are hard sometimes, but I think I deal pretty well.
• I know I can’t control everything, but I take action where I can.
• If you knock me down, I get back up again.

If you or someone you love is struggling, there is hope and help:

• Please contact your local CMHA.
• Visit www.cmha.ca/bounceback.
• Visit the Government of Canada’s Wellness Together portal.
• Thinking of suicide? Please call 1-833-456-4566 toll free in Canada (1-866-277-3553 in Quebec).

Sources

http://midus.wisc.edu/findings/pdfs/830.pdf

http://goodmedicine.org.uk/files/assessment,%20diener%20flourishing.pdf

https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/23185_Chapter_67.pdf

http://www.heretohelp.bc.ca/visions/wellness-vol7/wellness-grappling-with-its-simplicity-and-complexity

https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/2014009/article/14086-eng.htm

https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/framework-action-2017-2022

http://frameworksinstitute.org/mental-health.html

http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/mental_health/en/

http://thunderbirdpf.org/first-nations-mental-wellness-continuum-framework/

Spring is just around the corner, which means more sunshine, warm weather and outdoor activities and exercise. With the Covid-19 pandemic still going on, having to isolate ourselves from friends and family is having a negative impact on our health and wellness. Many of us are suffering from anxiety and depression, which can lead to other health issues like high blood pressure, fatigue, muscle aches and pain, breathing problems, headaches, panic attacks, etc.

Green exercise is our best solution for better mental health. Being outdoors in nature with trees, sunshine, lakes and rivers can produce a calming effect and have a positive impact on our health and wellness. Our brain is the command center and it controls our body’s physiological functions, so a healthy mind means a healthy body. Exercising in the sunshine, our body naturally increases (the feel good hormone) serotonin, which improves our mood and makes us feel happy. Improved mood means more energy, better mental capacity, improved breathing, and less fatigue.

Exposure to the sun several times a week improves Vitamin D levels in our body which is essential for brain health and function and can help reduce depression and anxiety. Vitamin D also improves muscle strength, immune function, and calcium absorption for stronger bones.

Spend 30 minutes several times a week outdoors performing activities or exercises like walking, jogging, biking, hiking, canoeing etc. Midday sun exposure is best for natural Vitamin D production. Choose different green spaces like parks, hiking trails, lakes and rivers to keep exercising fun. Plus, outdoor exercising can help you socially distance and reduce your exposure to the Covid-19 virus.

In our current situation, it is important to keep our mental health in check as it is essential for our health and wellness. If you do not have access to bigger green spaces or have movement limitations, Find A Kinesiologist, to assist you with appropriate exercises and activities.

Image Source: https://www.irishlifehealth.ie/blog/the-benefits-of-green-blue-exercise

Emotions play a huge role in our lives, our actions and our relationships. Yet, most of us know surprisingly little about what they are, how we experience them and why we have them in the first place. Some psychologists might say we’re low on “emotional literacy.”

This lack of emotional literacy leaves us ill-equipped to manage the variety of emotions we experience on a normal day, let alone during a pandemic. Focusing on naming, expressing and dealing with our emotions — the ones we like and the ones we don’t — is important for our mental health. By learning more about your emotions and how to name them, express them, and deal with them, you can use them to better navigate your daily life, make better decisions and feel more at ease.

What are emotions?

Emotions are sort of like our internal road signs or stoplights, but with the lights flashing in different parts of our bodies in different ways. There’s a subjective part, which is how you feel in the moment — what we might call happiness, sadness or fear. There’s a physiological component, which is how your body reacts to what you’re experiencing (clenched teeth? squeals of delight?). And then there’s often a behavioural component, which is the action you take in response to how you feel.

How are emotions felt in the body?

Emotions physically manifest themselves in a variety of ways. Your breathing or heart rate might speed up or slow down. Your body temperature might rise or fall, leading you to feel warm or cool. Your facial expressions and body language might change — furrowing your brow and slumping your shoulders when you’re feeling frustrated, for instance. And finally, emotions might trigger movements, like tapping your foot or twirling your hair when you’re feeling nervous or impatient.

Why do we have emotions?

First and foremost, emotions are thought to serve an evolutionary purpose. Our ancestors who felt fear and ran away (red light!) when they saw tigers survived, while those who felt nothing did not.

Another way to put it would be to think of emotions as motivators. We are motivated to do things that lead to comfortable emotions (green light!) and avoid doing things that lead to uncomfortable emotions. Once again, this plays a key role in our survival, leading us to seek out food, avoid danger and reproduce.

Emotions also help us communicate and collaborate with others, and therefore play a key role in helping our society run smoothly.

How does naming our emotions help?

Putting our feelings into words can reduce the intensity of negative emotions and make them more manageable.

For example, in a study of people with a spider phobia, researchers found that when participants described the anxiety they were feeling in the presence of a giant tarantula, they were better able to manage their anxiety when they were exposed to the tarantula one week later. In fact, the participants who described their anxiety in greater detail actually experienced the least amount of anxiety, including dulled physical responses like less sweaty palms.

Putting feelings into words is thoughti to decrease activity in the amygdala, the part of the brain that drives our responses to fear and stress, and increase activity in the prefrontal control regions, parts of the brain associated with regulating and making sense of emotions.

How emotions connect us with others

According to emotion scientist Marc Brackett, the Founder and Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, labeling our emotions also helps us describe what we’re going through, which helps us get help from others. We can’t empathize without being in touch with how we’re feeling ourselves, so this language of emotions helps us provide support that matches what someone is feeling, foster connections, commiserate and solve problems together.

By better understanding our emotions, becoming more aware of their effects and labelling them more accurately, we’re better able to make sense of how we’re feeling and act in ways that contribute to greater emotional wellbeing. That’s the power of getting real about how you feel.

If your emotions are overwhelming, persistent and/or are interfering with your daily functioning, it’s important to seek mental health support.

Sources

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emotion

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/anger-in-the-age-entitlement/201701/emotions-in-the-social-world

https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/that-giant-tarantula-is-terrifying-but-ill-touch-it-expressing-your-emotions-can-reduce-fear.html

Affect Labelling Lieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., Crockett, M. J., Tom, S. M., Pfeifer,J. H., & Way, B. M. (2007). Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x

https://www.scn.ucla.edu/pdf/Torre(2018)ER.pdf

https://www.marcbrackett.com/a-word-is-a-world

Scientists call it “affect labelling” but more simply it means “putting feelings into words.” Understanding how this works might just change the way you respond to your emotions.

When we’re experiencing negative emotions—whether it’s anxiety or anger, stress or sadness, frustration or fear—it can be really tempting to ignore what we’re feeling or push it down. Unpleasant emotions, well, they’re just that: unpleasant. And they’re just plain uncomfortable. We might think that acknowledging our emotions, saying them out loud or writing them down, might make them more intense or last longer. Maybe we’re afraid to get real about how we feel precisely because we believe that verbalizing our feelings will make them more real and give them more power over us, but that’s not true!

The pandemic has been incredibly hard in so many ways. If you’ve lost loved ones, the pain may be unbearable. If you’ve lost your job or your business, you may be feeling hopeless. If you were already vulnerable before the pandemic, chances are you’re suffering more now. Recent research from CMHA and UBC showed that people who already had mental health issues going into the pandemic were some of the worst off. This was also true for Indigenous peoples, as well as people who are young, are LGBTQ2S+ or have a disability. The flood of negative emotions might be overwhelming at times, and it can easily feel that our only option is to push down what we’re really feeling and put on a brave face.

In fact, studies have shown that putting words to feelings is far more helpful than we might have thought. Putting feelings into words can reduce the force of negative emotions. So what feels like hurt can actually help.

It might not seem like saying something as simple as, “I feel bad,” (or anxious or sad or angry) should do much to help you feel better. But neuroscience tells us it will. A neuroimaging study from Lieberman and a team of researchers found that the act of turning your negative emotions into language disrupts and reduces activity in the amygdala, the part of your brain that drives your responses to stress and fear. When you see a yellow light, you hit the brakes. When you put feelings into words, it’s like you are hitting the brakes on your emotional responses.

Another group of scientists found that labelling emotions increases activity in the prefrontal and temporal regions of the brain—regions that are responsible for processing words and encoding their meaning. In other words, having a specific label for what we’re feeling seems to change the activity in our brains. It helps us feel calmer and helps us understand what we’re going through.

A more recent real-world study examined the effects of affect labelling on 74,478 people who use Twitter. They found that tweets about negative emotions were followed by an immediate and rapid reduction in negative feelings.

It is remarkable, really, that just by saying the words ‘I feel bad,’ emotions immediately return to their baseline.

The takeaway from all this science is clear. Naming our feelings can help reduce the intensity of our negative emotions. Looking away, numbing ourselves and suffering in silence only makes things worse.

Want to see the science in action? Check out our “7 ways to calm your inner world” and put the science to work for you. Name it, don’t numb it. You’ll be surprised how much it helps.

If your emotions are overwhelming, persistent and/or are interfering with your daily functioning, it’s important to seek mental health support.

Sources:

Torre, J. B.,Lieberman, M. D., Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling as Implicit Emotion Regulation. Emotion Review, Vol. 10 No. 2 116–124 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1177/1754073917742706

Lieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., et al. Putting feelings into words: Affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x

Brooks, J. A., 1, Shablack, H., et al. The role of language in the experience and perception of emotion: a neuroimaging meta-analysis. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 169–183 (2017). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27539864/

Fan, R., Varol, O., Varamesh, A. et al. The minute-scale dynamics of online emotions reveal the effects of affect labeling. Nat Hum Behav 3, 92–100 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-018-0490-5

https://cnets.indiana.edu/blog/2018/12/17/bollen-social-media-study-shows-how-affect-labeling-can-help-moderate-emotions

Spring has sprung and hope is in the air, but not everyone is feeling peachy. It’s been a tough winter and your inner world might still be thawing out. That’s ok! Before you let the sunshine in, it can actually help you to sit with the stormy stuff you’re going through. According to scientists, putting negative feelings into words can help us understand and regulate negative emotional experiences. In short, the best thing you can do with unpleasant emotions is not to numb them, but to name them.

Here’s how:

Check in with yourself

Take a second and do a quick, silent check-in with yourself. Ask yourself: “what I am feeling right now?” What is the word that best describes it? If you’re feeling anxious, name it, internally. Say to yourself “I feel anxious.” If you’re feeling angry, say that too. Even if you’re simply feeling calm. Say that.

Hint: Start with the basics. With emotions, going basic is a good place to start. Think “emoji” basic. There are hundreds of feeling words, but don’t get caught up on getting it exactly right. Focus for now on your most common emotions: mad, sad, happy, disgusted, scared. You might even try looking at yourself in the mirror. What does your own facial expression tell you?

Now get precise

When you get specific and find the precise word or words to describe the emotion, you will get closer to what you’re actually feeling. Find multiple words – synonyms or nuances – to describe the emotion. This is called “emotional granularity” or “emotional differentiation” and getting “granular” will improve your well-being and reduce unhealthy responses. It will actually make it less likely you’ll resort to using substances to numb out.

Make a note of it

Write yourself a message about what you’re feeling. It could be a quick note on your phone, on the back of a napkin or on a little yellow sticky. Or you could post it on your social media. (In fact, a recent student demonstrated that even tweeting out your feelings reduces their intensity.) Plus, writing down what you feel can help you clarify what’s going on.

Take it to the next level

Try writing out a more detailed expression of how you feel. Whether it’s a special, hardbound journal or a ratty old notebook, take it out. Go ahead and dive in with what you’re feeling. Take 15 minutes to really delve in. For decades, researcher and psychologist Dr. James W. Pennebaker has been demonstrating how writing – and, in particular, expressive writing– can help people understand and process what’s going on in their own minds and bodies.

Say it out loud

Express your emotions by simply naming them out loud. Verbalize the feelings.

Talk it through.

Talk therapy, also called psychotherapy, has long revealed that speaking about our feelings is therapeutic. So, once you’ve verbalized your feelings, don’t stop there. Go ahead and dive in. Expressing and describing your feelings to a friend, a loved one or a therapist might give you greater clarity even while it makes you feel good.

Now go full circle.

Check back in with yourself. How are you feeling now? Or better yet, what are you feeling? To calm your inner world, you need to get familiar with it. As the emotion scientists say: you’ve got to feel it to heal it. If your emotions are overwhelming, persistent and/or are interfering with your daily functioning, it’s important to seek mental health support.

Sources

Kashdan TB, Barrett LF, McKnight PE. Unpacking Emotion Differentiation: Transforming Unpleasant Experience by Perceiving Distinctions in Negativity. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2015;24(1):10-16. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963721414550708

Lieberman MD, Eisenberger NI, Crockett MJ, Tom SM, Pfeifer JH, Way BM. Putting Feelings Into Words. Psychological Science. 2007;18(5):421-428. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x

Pennebaker JW. Expressive Writing in Psychological Science. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2018;13(2):226-229. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1745691617707315

http://expressivewriting.org/

https://hbr.org/2016/11/3-ways-to-better-understand-your-emotions

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/sweet-emotion/201408/why-labeling-emotions-matters

https://tammylenski.com/control-your-emotions-better-affect-labeling/#:~:text=Affect%20labeling.%20Affect%20labeling%20is%20the%20simple%20act,can%20have%20a%20powerful%20effect%20on%20quelling%20it

With the more widespread wearing of masks, it is topical to question the issue of wearing a mask during of physical activity.

In recent months, our attention has been drawn especially to 2 studies which have attempted to determine whether wearing the surgical mask or the N95 mask has any particular effect on performance when performing intense cardiovascular physical activities.

Participants had to pedal a stationary bike against a resistance that increased every 2 minutes. We asked them to surrender to exhaustion and we compared the duration of the effort in different situations (with or without a mask). In addition to the time limit for exhaustion, other elements were also measured to determine the impact of wearing the mask, such as:

• Oxygen saturation (SaO2) is the amount of oxygen in the blood.
• The tissue oxygenation index; which demonstrates the inspired oxygen fraction (FiO2) and its use at through the body.
• Heart rate during each stage of the stress test
• The effort perception charter (CPE) which allows participants to subjectively rate their state of fatigue on a scale from 0 to 10.

A summary of various studies findings is shown below in Table 1:

• Wearing a face mask during cardiovascular effort until exhaustion has no noticeable harmful effect on blood oxygenation or muscle and on physical performance in participants of these 2 studies.
• The exhaustion time differences are therefore not statistically significant.

Regarding the respiratory process, we also wanted to check whether oxygen consumption would be compromised given the trapping of air in the mask and the rebreathing of CO2.

Another hypothesis was also tested, namely that of knowing whether wearing the mask increased resistance during inspiration, which would have the effect of increasing the work of the inspiratory muscles. In either case, none of these potentially negative effects of mask wear had no effect on cardiovascular performance.

As illustrated in the following graphs (Epstein2), the heart rate and as well as the perception of exertion (RPE) are similar in the situations studied.

The studies conducted come to roughly the same conclusions: wearing a mask has virtually no effect on the performance of healthy individuals. However, people with lung disease should still exercise caution before engaging in physical activity with a mask. The biggest drawback raised was the discomfort the mask can provide when worn for several hours. We therefore recommend that you change your mask after each of your workouts

Conclusion:

In healthy subjects, aerobic exercise with a surgical mask or an N95 mask is safe and achievable.

While it may be associated with some discomfort, masking has only minor effects on physiological parameters during exercise. Subjects with obstructive pulmonary diseases such as asthma or COPD and heart disease should undergo careful evaluation before attempting physical activity with a mask. Adapt your training as needed. Remember, it’s still best to adapt your workouts and listen to yourself. Practicing a mask workout is new to many people, so give yourself a period of adaptation: reduce speed, decrease intensity if necessary, and drink water if the exercise is prolonged. Find A Kinesiologist, to assist you with appropriate exercises and activities.

Refererences

Shaw, K. et al. (2020). Wearing of cloth or disposable surgical face masks has no effect on vigorous exercise performance in healthy individuals. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Epstein, D. et al. (2021). Return to training in the COVID ‐ 19 era: The physiological effects of face masks during exercise. Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports.

Image source

https://ataraxia-entraineur.com/conseils/le-port-du-masque-a-t-il-un-impact-sur-vos-performances-sportives/

Exercising during the COVID-19 lockdown has been a challenge for many Canadians as accessibility to workout spaces is limited. One way to keep active while gyms are closed is to exercise outside with a friend. A study reports the perceived benefits of working out with a friend are safety, similar goal-setting habits, and reduced feelings of self-consciousness.

In addition, exercising outdoors can help with decreasing stress, social isolation, and mental illness. People of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and social classes respond positively to exercising outdoors. Physical activity does not discriminate!

Exercising with a companion is always more motivating may that be a friend, a relative, or a Kinesiologist. As trained professionals, they apply the science of exercise and movement to promote physical activity and to motivate you to maintain and to progress in your exercise program. Reach out to a Kinesiologist near you.

Find a park, field, or a backyard and try the following workout with a friend!

Body Weight Squat

Start with both participants standing and facing each other at arm’s length. Have your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, grasping each other’s forearms. Maintaining a secure grip, lower into a squat by sending hips back, bending both knees equally, and keeping your core tight. Hold for a moment, then slowly return to starting position. Do 3 sets of 10–12 reps.

Two-person Assisted Lunge

Lunges also work as a complex exercise but introduce stability and balance. Start by facing your friend, holding onto each other’s wrists (hold for support only). One person lunges forward while the other lunges backward using opposite legs. When lunging forward, bend your knees lowering your back knee to the floor and keep your body weight in your heel. When lunging backward, plant the ball of your foot to the ground, keep a straight posture, and lower your back knee to the floor. Continue lunging forward and backward, initiate the lunge with the same leg while your opposite foot remains stationary. Perform 3 sets of 10-12 repetitions for each leg.

Reach-and-Touch Plank

Let us get that core activated! Start face down with your hands and toes firmly on the ground. Keep your elbows underneath your shoulders and pull in your belly button to make a straight line with your back. Make sure to you are facing each other, about 1 foot apart. At the same time, lift your right hand and reach toward the other partner’s opposite shoulder. Replace right hand and, as quickly as possible, repeat on left side. Try for 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions or 30 seconds.

As the long warm days of summer come to an end, and we round the corner to Fall, many of us may find ourselves returning to familiar routines or starting new ones. This Fall, take advantage of new beginnings by establishing new and fresh physical activity goals or by refreshing old ones. Whether returning to an existing fitness routine, or looking to establish a new one, the first step is to develop a SMART plan. This begins by setting a reasonable goal for your physical activity which is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound.

It is believed that it was Benjamin Franklin who said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”? The wisdom of this saying rings true when it comes to being routinely active. Planning will increase the odds of achieving your fitness goals and can help you achieve a consistent routine, which can favour lifelong habit formation. Whether it is setting an alarm to go for a walk at the same time each day, or signing up for a weekly fitness class, organizing your physical activity is key to creating a regular routine. Here are some ideas of habits to incorporate into your daily fall routine.

While having a schedule is an important contributor to success, allowing flexibility in your plan can also be important, especially if/when life throws you a curve ball, For example, if you’ve planned to exercise with a friend who’s cancelled last-minute, have a back-up activity in mind, like going for a walk/run on your own or participating in a virtual fitness class. Preparing in advance will help you in times when there is an unexpected change in your plan.

While it is important to be physically active every day, all Canadians should follow their respective public health authority recommendations. The above is considered, to the best of ParticipACTION’s knowledge at the time of publication, to align with Canadian public-health recommendations. Changes in circumstances after the time of publication may impact the accuracy of the information.

Mindfulness is the act of taking time to recognize and experience the life circumstances and associated feelings (good and bad) one is facing in the present moment: positive thinking, wellbeing, and physical activity. Being mindful allows you to reflect on what you can and cannot control, which can then allow you to move forward with your day in a more cognizant and realistic manner.

Practicing mindfulness in one’s daily life can be an invaluable tool. It can enable a person to manage their health and wellness and succeed in accomplishing their goals related to lifestyle behaviours such as physical activity. It is a practice of self-care, and in caring for oneself by taking the time to connect with one’s current circumstances and feelings. A person may find themself in a head space where they are better equipped to find balance in their life, prioritize tasks, and have the presence of mind to be motivated to participate in other self-care, health promotive activities. Physical activity and movement are an integral part of self-care, and should be prioritized should you wish to be more present for others, continue to do the things you enjoy, reach your goals, or overcome current events and personal challenges.

Mindfulness can be useful to help identify whether one should refocus or try something new and enables a person to set better “SMART” goals – in other words, goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. The changing environment surrounding the pandemic along with the end of summer bring transitions that can make being active more difficult; being mindful can help a person adapt to these changes and accept the reality of the current moment.

Use this time to recognize how much you have been through and know that any movement can work wonders for your overall wellbeing. Mindfulness and movement belong together. Consult a Kinesiologist near you to learn more about goal setting and motivation.