What Is A Mental Health Retreat?

A mental health retreat typically uses complementary and alternative therapies within a holistic residential setting. The principal purpose is to improve a person’s well-being through the stay. “Wellness retreats” and “wellness tourism” are basically the same thing with just a different name to call it.

The concept of it is so diverse that it can be for any amount of time in any way that allows you to focus on your well-being. A quick retreat in the city might be an evening at a spa that allows deep rest through a hot tub or massage. A more extensive retreat might be for a few days or more at a remote location in nature where they offer extensive programs that help enhance the wellness experience.

Besides, getting away for a while is proven to relieve stress in itself.

How Effective Is a Mental Health Retreat?

A study in 2017 looked at participants who went on a one-week retreat to measure the effectiveness of a retreat. The retreat included aromatherapy, health measures, mental health-related questionnaires, and various tests to measure a person’s well-being.

Results showed significant improvement in a person’s wellbeing after a one-week retreat and the positive effects sustained for 6 weeks. As for physical benefits, it reduced weight, abdominal circumference, improved blood pressure, and sleep quality. There were significantly improved results in the depression anxiety stress scale and mood state tests as well.

This means that a mental health retreat can refresh a person enough to get them through for a while after they return.

3 Elements to Enhance A Mental Health Retreat

Here are 3 elements to look out for when you consider planning for a mental health retreat. If it’s difficult to afford (time and money-wise) a full getaway right now, you can still incorporate these elements in your life in small ways to mimic a mini-retreat within your everyday life.

Connect With Nature

Nature heals, soothes, and restores our wellbeing. Being in nature or just even viewing an image of nature reduces anger, fear, and stress while increasing pleasant feelings.

Just a 40-minute walk in the forest improves mood and feelings of health and robustness. Exposure to nature contributes to better physical wellbeing, boosts immune function, improves creativity, reduces blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and production of stress hormones. 

Pick a mental health retreat that allows you to indulge in nature or go for a short walk in nature. Go barefoot and feel the ground or dip your feet in the ocean. Even if it’s for a short period, simple direct engagements with nature can help recharge your mind and body.

Greening your office space can also help make you feel relaxed. Perhaps you can create a little mental health retreat in the corner of your room with plants for a relaxing effect.

A Healthy Diet

Our health is affected by what we eat. It’s not only physical, it can affect us mentally too. Science suggests that a plant-based diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, healthy fats, and healthy proteins lowers the risk of weight gain and chronic disease. 

There are retreat programs that provide healthy meals that help with dietary choices and eating habits. Eating healthy meals for a certain duration will give us a push in a healthier direction.

If a mental health retreat is difficult, you can go on a healthy diet for a few days to self-activate a reset.

You can find more on how healthy diets affects our wellbeing in our past blog post.

Hydrotherapy – Soak Yourself in Water

Did you know that soaking in water is beneficial for your health and wellbeing? Using water as therapeutic treatment is called hydrotherapy, water therapy, aquatic therapy, pool therapy, or balneotherapy.

According to scientific evidence, hydrotherapy improves immunity, management of pain, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, asthma, anorectal disorders, mood, fatigue, anxiety, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, hyperthermia, labor, etc.

The different effects on various systems of the body depend on the temperature of water and water quality.

Find a spa nearby for a mental health retreat experience or simply fill up your tub at home. If you like nature, perhaps an environment where you can swim in the ocean or lake would be nice. Hot-spring water can enhance health benefits with its mineral components in the water.

A Mental Health Retreat for a Relaxing Time-Off

Stress can build up no matter what kind of environment we’re in. It’s important to notice the signs and take time off when you feel strained. Sometimes a little getaway through a retreat is all we need to come back more energized. Plan ahead and make sure to schedule time off for your mental health!

References:

Association of Nature and Forest. (n.d.). Forest Bathing is an Evidence-based wellness practice. Https://Www.Natureandforesttherapy.Org/about/Science. Retrieved July 26, 2021, from https://www.natureandforesttherapy.org/about/science


Cohen, M. M., Elliott, F., Oates, L., Schembri, A., & Mantri, N. (2017). Do Wellness Tourists Get Well? An Observational Study of Multiple Dimensions of Health and Well-Being After a Week-Long Retreat. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 23(2), 140–148. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2016.0268


Harvard Health. (2017, June 5). Harvard researchers continue to support their healthy eating plate. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/harvard-researchers-launch-healthy-eating-plate


Mooventhan, A., & Nivethitha, L. (2014). Scientific evidence-based effects of hydrotherapy on various systems of the body. North American Journal of Medical Sciences, 6(5), 199. https://doi.org/10.4103/1947-2714.132935



University of Minnesota. (n.d.). How Does Nature Impact Our Wellbeing? Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing. Retrieved July 26, 2021, from https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/how-does-nature-impact-our-wellbeing

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The Effects of Overthinking

Not everyone is decisive at crucial moments of decision-making. The time it takes someone to think through for a conclusive decision varies depending on the situation and personality. However, overthinking can have the following negative impact on our mental wellbeing:

Starts or Worsens Depression

People prone to overthinking tend to worry a lot as they deal with life. Thoughts about negative scenarios will eventually bring our mood down too. An increase in stressful thoughts decreases the production of serotonin (chemicals produced to maintain mental stability) in our brains, contributing to depressive states. A lack of serotonin is also known to cause various symptoms such as constant fatigue, insomnia, and irritation.

Prevents Us From Being Proactive

When we act before we think, we are faster in taking action. When we think before we act, it prevents us from being proactive. It may not make a big difference in your personal life, but overthinking in business settings can lead to lost opportunities and networks.

Increases Difficulty in Tackling New Challenges

New challenges feel difficult when we overthink them. The more time we spend thinking, the more worrisome aspects of the challenge seem apparent. Of course, thinking through could keep us safe from possible risks, but it also prohibits us from taking the risks necessary to create change.

For example, the mental exhaustion from over-focusing on the problems will hold us back from taking courageous actions or risks necessary to create change. Avoidance of actions and risks may keep us in a perpetually hostile environment that potentially breaks us. There’s always a risk for depression and PTSD for people who feel like they have no escape.

5 Activities to Try When Overthinking

People who overthink tend to be perfectionists that want to seek answers until they can convince their own logic. The following activities are helpful when thinking becomes painful.

1. Try a Physically Active Hobby

Find a hobby that you enjoy. Indulgence in hobbies can change our focus and avoid perpetual negativity.

Any hobby is sufficient, but something physically active is ideal. This is because we want to balance out the activities in our left brain (logic, thinking, and mathematics) by activating the right brain (feelings, intuition, and creativity). Exercise helps activate our right brain as we focus on physical activity, and this helps us stay away from looping thoughts.

2. Write Out Your Thoughts

We overthink because we haven’t found a conclusion. Thus, writing out all of your thoughts on a piece of paper may be helpful in viewing ideas objectively. Verbalization of internal thoughts helps organize thoughts, calms the mind, and inspires solutions.
This is a great method for people who want to improve their mental health by finding solutions.

3. Sleep

Sleep is one way to help our brain recover from mental fatigue. If thinking through a matter isn’t helping, we can shut our thoughts down for a while by falling asleep.
For some, the mind can still continue to run wild even while trying to rest. In that case, we recommend the following activities:

• Soak in a hot tub
• Keep away from electronics (smartphones and tablets) before bed
• Surround yourself with pleasing scents using aroma oils or candles
• Read a familiar book that comforts you
• Don’t eat 2 hours before bed

4. Talk to Someone

Sometimes, we can move forward by talking to close friends and gaining new perspectives. It helps to proactively confide our feelings to someone close. Not just because of the solutions, we might gain, but the “comfort” we feel from it is as significant. The act to share our thoughts prevents isolation and makes us feel connected with society again.

5. Set a Routine Time Dedicated to Thinking

One of the reasons we keep overthinking is because we don’t know when to stop. Sometimes, stopping all thoughts can lead to better solutions.

Still, for people who overthink, letting go of their thoughts can sound like a challenge. If so, try to set dedicated routine times for thinking. It could be 30 mins before bed or the first 15 mins when you wake up. Set times dedicated to thinking each day will help prevent our minds from overrunning forever.

Find What Works for You

There’s nothing wrong with working through a thought. However, if you recognize that you’re overthinking, it’s healthy to take breaks. In this post, we introduced 5 specific activities that could combat depression and overthinking, but frankly, it can be any activity that calms your mind. The scale and depths of our issues are all different. We hope you find what works for you in facing your inner thoughts.

Looking to improve your mental health? Need someone to talk to? Try the SELF MIND app for a FREE trial!
If you’re looking for more tips on how to care for your mental health, check out some of our past blog posts!

Reference：

Matsumoto, M. (2005). How Overthinking Contributes to Continual Depression. Japan Society of Personality Psychology.

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The Challenges After a Stress Leave

A common pitfall is to treat all career breaks equally. Paternity or maternity leave is very different from leaves due to mental health issues and should be treated accordingly. Research claims that long durations of stress leaves taken more than 3 times increase difficulties for a healthy return.

Let’s look at some of the challenges that come after a stress leave.

Mental Recovery Is Difficult to Measure

Mental recovery is usually assessed by a doctor, but that doctor’s assessment still relies on their personal subjective opinion in the end. Unlike physical wellness, mental well-being is difficult to measure recovery by definitive numbers.

One might seem healthy and well, yet have a high tendency to suppress depression whether conscious or unconscious. This makes assessments of a person more complicated, even for mental health professionals.

Returning to work before full recovery should be avoided. If a person ends up acting okay when they’re not, it risks more harm.

Mental Health Is a Constant Journey

Full recovery from depression and other serious mental illnesses is known to be difficult. While things could seem all better, oftentimes it can just be a state of temporary remission. It’s not rare for an incident or flashback to trigger symptoms to re-emerge.

For example, if constant harassment from a boss leads to enough mental health issues for a person to take a break from work, this person can struggle or be triggered easily through their relationships with future bosses when they return to work again.

We should understand that mental health recovery can be a long journey that requires patience and coping skills.

Rushing Back to Work After Stress Leave

People who are vulnerable to mental health pitfalls can be a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) or have the tendency to prioritize others before themselves. This tendency makes them worry about their job or co-workers before themselves and pushes them back to work earlier to prioritize others. This results in an unsuccessful return as the person never took the time to adequately recover.

Any plans of returning to work should be given generous time. Most times, it’s more time than we ‘think’ we need.

Career Blanks Can Affect Our Self-Esteem

A career blank can affect our self-esteem and create worries about our future job prospects. For many, it can be a challenge to see their break in a positive light when they are ready to return to work. People who already struggle with mental health issues tend to fall into the belief that they had to “downgrade” or that they are “unwanted.”

Tips for Smooth Work Transitions

As mentioned above, there are many challenges in returning to work after extended mental health leave. It’s more unlikely we have everything perfectly figured out before going back to work, so the focus should be on mitigating these challenges.

Here are some tips on how to make a smooth transition back to work:

Create Relationships Outside of Work

If the work environment is a big factor for mental stress, create relationships outside of work. Joining communities outside of work can be a great outlet when you’re feeling down. The more we have family, friends, and romantic partners that support us, the more we can share our feelings and focus on other fun activities. An escape community from ‘work thoughts’ is always great to have and will help mental recovery.

Don’t Rush to Get Back to Work

As mentioned above, rushing back to work is not a good idea, as it can lead to needing a break again soon. It’s normal to want to go back to work due to financial concerns, societal pressure to work, or from worries of leaving work for long durations.

It’s hard to expect a full recovery of our mental health right away. Even if when you feel ready, stop for a minute and ask for a second opinion. Take slow steps to assure a healthy return to work.

Create Distance From Triggers

Every person has a different reason why they might have needed a stress leave. It can be anything from work relationships, unfit job positions, to harsh working environments, etc. If you understand the initial cause, try to create a distance from your possible triggers. Psychological triggers can be avoided if we set proper boundaries from the potential cause.

Take Slow Gradual Steps Back to Work

In our stressful modern society, it’s not uncommon to need a break from work due to mental health issues. If you’ve already taken a career break and feel ready to go back to work, try to keep these challenges and tips in mind as you make decisions moving forward.

After a long career break, the best way to get back into the groove of work is through slow and gradual steps.

Looking to improve your mental health? Try the SELF MIND app for a FREE trial!!
If you’re looking for more tips on how to care for your mental health, check out some of our past blog posts!

References：

Kashiwagi, Y., Taguchi, F., Monou, H., Ebana, S., & Ashihara, M. (2006). INVESTIGATIVE RESEARCH ON SUPPORT FOR RETURNING TO THE WORKPLACE FOR PERSONS WITH IMPAIRED MENTAL HEALTH—QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY OF RELATED PERSONS WITHIN AND OUTSIDE THE WORKPLACE. Japanese Journal of Occupational Medicine and Traumatology, 54(3), 113–118. http://www.jsomt.jp/journal/pdf/054030113.pdf

Kashiwagi, Y. (2006). THE ISSUES OF RETURNING TO THE WORKPLACE FOR PERSONS WITH IMPAIRED MENTAL HEALTH. Japanese Journal of Occupational Medicine and Traumatology, 54(2), 49–53. http://www.jsomt.jp/journal/pdf/054020049.pdf

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What is the relationship between mindfulness and music, and how does it help our overall mental wellbeing?

Music Therapy and Its Benefits

Music therapy effectively heals our mental state through music. Within this therapy, there are “active” and “passive” techniques.

• Active Music Therapy
  Balances the mental state through participation in singing, music composition, and instrument playing
• Passive Music Therapy
  Calms the mind through listening to music without any participation.

The active techniques seem to be the most popular among music therapists right now, as worldwide studies and research trends more towards the active method.

However, actively singing and playing an instrument requires a commitment to self-expression. Some people may feel stressed to do so in front of others. Therefore, active music therapy can be a tall order for people who don’t feel comfortable expressing themselves.

On the other hand, the passive method is much easier since all you have to do is listen. Good news if you’re shy. It’s actually the passive music technique that pairs well with mindfulness meditation.

Music Makes Mindfulness Meditation Easier

Mindfulness meditation is about concentrating on the subtle sensories of the body to distance ourselves from negative thinking and stabilize the mind. The 3 most common ideas in the practice are to, “recognize,” “accept as is,” and “not get caught up.”

The same ideas can be applied to music therapy when the participant acknowledges their inner self, accepts their state as is, and frees themselves from conforming thoughts. When we listen to music, we immerse ourselves into the world of it unless someone presses the stop button. We recognize that we have the power to decide how we experience the music, and accept the sounds as they flow in.

Music, in fact, enhances the experience of mindfulness meditation. It helps focus on the breath while blocking out unwanted thoughts. This makes it easier to concentrate on the meditation, relax and off-shoulder some of the stress so that we can.

Among the many kinds of music, the best music for meditation is slow in tempo, lyricless, and contains nature sounds in the background. Fast-paced music and lyrics overstimulate brain activity which can be distracting. Try and find a calm piece of music that works for you.

Recommended Sounds for Mindfulness

What kind of specific music is useful for mindfulness meditation? With what we’ve mentioned in mind, here are 4 elements we recommend it has:

• Calm sounds with no lyrics
• Music that makes you feel relaxed
• Contains refreshing nature sounds
• Sounds and melodies that represent hope

Music with these elements induces the alpha brain wave state, letting the body relax.

We especially recommend “healing” music that contains “pink noise,” as they contain the 4 elements listed above.

1. Healing Music

Calm and beautiful sounds of classical music and jazz are considered part of healing music.

Healing music is said to have a sedative effect. Some medical institutions use this music to decrease the amount of anesthesia and burden for their patients. Schools also report that their student’s concentration increases when they play healing music.

Sounds that are healing work directly towards the brain and reduces stress hormones. Besides medical institutions, yoga studios, spas, and salons all play this music to create a relaxing space for clients.

Any type of music that is healing will surely help calm the mind towards mindfulness.

2. Music That Contains Pink Noise

Pink noise (also known as the ¹⁄_f noise) is a signal with a frequency spectrum similar to the rhythm of our heart, beath, and body temperature. Nature sounds such as raindrops and sizzling fire pits hold the same characteristic. Essentially, our body feels pink noise as most comfortable because it syncs with our biological rhythm.

Research by Japanese physicists also shows natural pink noise to be effective for relaxation. Music containing pink noise can assist mindfulness because it syncs with the biological rhythm of the body, properly adjusts the autonomic nerves, stabilizes the mind, and increases vitality.

The ¹⁄_f fluctuation is also associated with the frequency of therapeutic touch.

Keep Your Mind Healthy With Music!

Music is with us wherever we go.

Whether you’re the type that listens to a lot of music or not, you can still benefit from it. It releases us from fear and anxiety while it helps us relax and feel happier.

Kick back, relax, and listen to some music for your own mental wellbeing.

Looking to improve your mental wellbeing? Try the SELF MIND app FREE for 1 week!
If you’re looking for more tips on how to care for your mental health, check out some of our past blog posts!

Reference：
Kuniyoshi, T., & Togawa, H. (2014). Passive Music Therapy and Its Significance: From A Mindfulness Perspective. Kobe College Graduate School Psychological Counseling Research, 15, 3–10. https://doi.org/10.18878/00005330

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