Why is the US Younger Population in Crisis?

Well, this did not just happen overnight and for no apparent reason. There are many factors that are leading the US younger population to be experiencing major health issues, such as obesity, diabetes, anxiety, depression, suicide, and other issues, typically considered as adult issues in years past.

Obesity

Increased consumption of processed foods and sugary drinks: The rise of fast food, sugary drinks, and processed snacks has contributed to a significant increase in calorie intake and a decrease in nutrient intake among young people.
Decreased physical activity: The increased prevalence of sedentary lifestyles, due to factors such as television, video games, and computer use, has led to a decrease in physical activity among young people.
Marketing of unhealthy foods: Children and adolescents are bombarded with advertisements for unhealthy foods, which can influence their dietary choices.

Diabetes

Genetic predisposition: Type 2 diabetes has a strong genetic component, and a family history of the disease increases the risk of developing it.
Obesity: Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
Unhealthy diet: A diet that is high in processed foods, sugary drinks, and red meat can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Lack of physical activity: Physical activity helps to control blood sugar levels and can reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Anxiety and depression

Increased academic pressure: Young people today face a lot of pressure to succeed in school, which can lead to stress and anxiety.
Social media: Social media can be a source of both positive and negative social interactions. For some young people, social media can lead to feelings of isolation, inadequacy, and anxiety.
Cyber-bullying: Cyber-bullying is a growing problem that can have a serious impact on the mental health of young people.
Fear of violence: Young people today are more likely to be exposed to violence, both in their communities and in the media. This exposure can lead to feelings of fear, anxiety, and stress.

Suicide

Mental health disorders: Mental health disorders are a major risk factor for suicide.
Substance abuse: Substance abuse is another major risk factor for suicide.
Exposure to violence: Young people who are exposed to violence are more likely to attempt suicide.
Lack of access to mental health care: Many young people who need mental health care do not receive it, which can increase their risk of suicide.

Other issues

Sleep deprivation: Young people today are more likely to be sleep deprived, which can lead to a variety of health problems, including obesity, diabetes, anxiety, and depression.
Exposure to environmental toxins: Young people are more likely to be exposed to environmental toxins, such as lead and air pollution, which can have a negative impact on their health.
Lack of access to healthy food: Many young people do not have access to healthy food, which can lead to a variety of health problems, including obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.

These are just some of the factors that are leading the US younger population to be experiencing major health issues. It is important to address these issues in order to promote the health and well-being of young people.

Solutions

Put physical education (PE) back into schools as a priority: Young and old people today need physical activity, not just for the body but their brains. Physical activity is known to help reduce and manage obesity, diabetes, anxiety, and depression.
Keep the environmental poisons away from the kids: Get the young people off the couch and computer screens and outdoors to get some fresh air and appreciation for the nature that is all around us.
Remove the crap junk food from the diet: Young people eat what schools offer, whether healthy or not. Just as they will eat what their parents buy and put in their homes. If adult parents cannot be disciplined themselves to eat healthier, how can we expect the kids to do the same. Lead by example.
Be parents to your children, and stop being their friends: DO YOUR JOB! Give your kids love, guidance, direction, compassion and boundaries. Be better advocates for their health and well-being. Plant good seeds, not bad weeds!

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I teach and offer lectures about holistic health, qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, meditation, phytotherapy (herbs), music for healing, self-massage, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

What is the PERMA-V Model for Flourishing?

Dr. Martin Seligman, a psychologist and one of the founders of positive psychology, introduced the concept of PERMA as a framework for understanding and cultivating well-being and happiness. PERMA is an acronym that represents five essential elements of a fulfilling and meaningful life. Here’s a brief summary of each component:

Positive Emotions (P): This refers to experiencing and cultivating positive feelings such as joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, and love. Fostering positive emotions is seen as a crucial aspect of overall well-being.
Engagement (E): Also known as “flow,” engagement involves being fully absorbed and immersed in activities that challenge and utilize one’s skills. When individuals are engaged in what they’re doing, they often lose track of time and experience a sense of deep satisfaction.
Relationships (R): Positive social connections and meaningful relationships contribute significantly to well-being. Maintaining healthy and supportive relationships with friends, family, and community fosters a sense of belonging and social support.
Meaning (M): Finding meaning and purpose in life is essential for well-being. This involves understanding one’s strengths and values and using them to contribute to something larger than oneself, whether it be through work, relationships, or other pursuits.
Accomplishment (A): Achieving goals and accomplishments, both big and small, contributes to a sense of competence and mastery. Setting and reaching goals provides a sense of purpose and fulfillment.
Vitality (V): There has been an update to Seligman’s PERMA model, and the “V” for Vitality has been added. This addition expands the model to include physical well-being as a crucial component. Vitality encompasses the importance of a healthy and energized body. It involves paying attention to nutrition, exercise, sleep, and other factors that contribute to physical well-being.

The PERMA-V model suggests that these six elements work together to enhance overall well-being, and individuals can focus on cultivating each aspect in their lives to lead a more flourishing and satisfying existence.

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www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

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Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

Try to Avoid Being “Triggered” by the Overused Word “Trigger”

“Triggered” has become a more recent buzzword, relative to emotional interoception and self-regulation and use of coping mechanisms. Almost anything can be a perceived trigger to an individual depending upon genetics, upbringing, environment, experiences, etc. Burnt toast may be a trigger to a child or adult, where they express disgust, disappointment, anger and other negative emotions. Loud noises may be a trigger for a soldier experiencing PTSD from combat and relative life and death circumstances. Everyone interprets stimuli uniquely to their own circumstances. However, trigger is not too often being associated with positive scenarios. We don’t hear much of people being “triggered” into helping someone in need, triggered to complete a task, or offer a compliment. Triggered is becoming a bit overused and taking on a negative definition within our culture.

Doctor Erik Messamore speaks in some detail about how the word “trigger” itself can become overused and actually trigger its own negative emotional responses. The word often connects to definitions attached to weapons or a state of lack of control. Once the trigger is pulled or engaged, there is no way to un-pull the trigger (Ask A Psychiatrist, 2020). I have discussed this concept in other venues, where the topic came up about how it is possible to manipulate someone to remember any particular thought. For example, if we were to perform an online Google search asking for “cars other than blue ones” and then click images, all we will see our blue cars presented. So, regardless of us asking for no blue cars, artificial intelligence only picks up on the “blue” with no context of the surrounding words. If we ask a produce worker at the grocery store to find us some unbruised bananas, their attention goes towards finding the bruised ones and not choosing those. Regardless, their thoughts and ours gravitate towards not wanting bruised bananas. Similarly, if we are discussing something that is negative, stressful or triggering, but seemingly not personally affecting us, our words and attached thoughts will on some level affect our emotions and relative psychophysiological responses.

Alternative words instead of using triggering could be:

stressors
elicit
produce
bring about
manifest
cause
produce

Psychologist John Cacioppo states that “the processing of a word, like any other sensory stimulus is sensitive to experience,” (Cacioppo & Tassinary, 2016, p.515). I think that this brings us to the understanding that specific areas of the brain play roles in the processing of sensory stimuli which may be perceived as bringing us happiness, stress, or other emotional states in between. While all humans may have the same components within the brain, each person processes stimuli and relative happiness or stress somewhat unique to their own genetics, life circumstances, and behaviors and/or lifestyle choices (DocMikeEvans, 2016). When we choose to speak words, the Wernicke’s area of the brain is engaged to help formulate within our thoughts, what we will verbally say. Neuron signals are then transmitted to the Broca’s area of the brain in order to produce the strategy for the motor cortex to put together the sounds that will become words and sentences. From here we use our language to communicate our thoughts (Andrew Scott, 2013). I think that this process is the result of how each individual perceives stimuli and responds uniquely depending upon their own availability of coping mechanisms, resources, and life experiences. If someone is exposed to mostly negative experiences throughout their life, they may have a different “calibration” for what they perceive as happiness. Conversely, someone who has very little stress in their lives may see themselves as quite happy, until something they perceive as a major stressor forces them to re-calibrate their thinking.

So, I think that happiness and stress are both relative terms to the present moment. Perceptions of happiness and stress will continue to ebb and flow as we learn, grow, and then adapt to whatever we experience under whatever circumstances. Words have meaning, impact and influence. Choose words wisely.

References:

Ask A Psychiatrist. (2020, May 12). Emotion Regulation. What causes emotional reactions and how can we modify them? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUPIhzHa-68

Cacioppo, J. T., Tassinary, L. G., & Berntson, G. G. (2016). Handbook of Psychophysiology. P. 515. Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.

DocMikeEvans. (2016, August 18). The science of Subjective Well Being, a.k.a Happiness. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPbjK3MmjL0

Andrew Scott. (2013, March 24). Broca’s area vs. Wernicke’s area – VCE Psychology [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iHDF5twkcE

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I teach and offer lectures about holistic health, qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

Contact for times, locations and costs.

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

Self-regulation or “you are the boss of you”

So many people complain about national health issues that face our country today. Stress, PTSD, anxiety, depression, diabetes, suicide, obesity and many other ailments have skyrocketed over the last decades. The US spends the most of all nations on healthcare, in spite of ranking way below the top. These issues did not happen overnight and will not be fixed overnight either. If children (and adults too!) were being taught to manage themselves or self-regulate, their stress, their interactions with others – through exercise and breathing management, we would soon not have as many adults in such poor health. Plant good seeds if you want good crops, right? Healthcare is best started with self-care.

Become interested in self-regulating and managing your own health, your stress, your sense of balance. Or maybe just get out of the house and meet some new people. Do something that engages your mind and your body at the same time. Walk, run, swim, hike, garden, play a musical instrument, paint, draw, build or create something,

I prefer self-regulation through exercises from martial arts, yoga/qigong and other similar mind-body methods. Exercises can be practiced while standing, and then moving into yoga-like postures of Tai chi and qigong. By aligning the bones and relative joints, muscles become engaged making both the bones and muscles stronger and consequently more stable. Putting focus on one’s physical body is how one can occupy their mind with positive thoughts rather than the typical chaos, confusion and other negative issues that distract us from enjoying life to its fullest.

1. Self-observation- we look at our behavior and keep tabs on it.

2. Judgement- we compare what we see with a standard.

3. Self-response- if we did well with your standard, you give yourself rewarding self- responses.

___________________

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

Contact for times, locations and costs.

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan

We are the Architects of our own Health, Happiness, Well-being, Destiny or Fate

When we start to realize that we are indeed the architects of our own health, happiness, well-being, destiny or fate, we begin to see things from a quite different perspective.

Wim Hof, listen or don’t. There are many, many others that know that the secret to health and well-being is through modulation of our autonomic nervous system. This is accomplished through self-awareness,and mindfulness of our thoughts that affect emotions that affect blood chemistry that affects organ function and overall quality of health. Not really a secret anymore if everyone can learn of this. Ancient cultures knew of this thousands of years ago. Western medicine is slow to acknowledge this because there is no profit coming from a healthier lifestyle. Most of us know this but deny accepting it – cognitive dissonance; knowing better but just going along with things to acquiescence.

If it was not for me, myself being deeply involved in these practices for over 40 years, I would not believe much of what others say. However, when we delve into what we eat, what we put into and on our bodies, how we think and respond to life, we can see that there is much more to healthcare by way of “self-care.” Do your own due diligence and become aware of you.

Be well, become healthy, become wiser.

And we ALL have access to this knowledge and ability to incorporate it into our lives.

I teach and offer lecture about qigong, tai chi, baguazhang, and yoga. I also have hundreds of FREE education video classes, lectures and seminars available on my YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/c/MindandBodyExercises

Mind and Body Exercises on Google: https://posts.gle/aD47Qo

Jim Moltzan

407-234-0119

Contact for times, locations and costs.

www.MindAndBodyExercises.com

www.Amazon.com/author/jimmoltzan