Diabetes is a terrible disease. On the one hand, you can just do the things a healthy person can do. On the other hand, you have to pay attention to your diet, exercise and are at greater risk for high cholesterol, premature blindness, reduced blood flow in the feet. This creates a lot of stress and people around you don't always understand that you really should say no to that cake at that birthday.
Because it can be difficult to live a happy life with diabetes, in this article I will go into how mindfulness can improve your life if you suffer from diabetes.
Accepting Type II Diabetes
Especially if you were not born with diabetes, it can be difficult to accept that you have been diagnosed with diabetes. Emotional problems occur in 20 to 40 percent of diabetics. Type II diabetes is often caused by a less healthy diet and obesity, and it is very difficult to break this pattern.
Because less healthy diets often involve eating too much (processed) sugar, lifestyle adjustments must be made to get blood sugar levels to the right level.
Research shows that 1 day of giving diabetes patients information about what this means for their lives and learning mindfulness strategies can already make a difference in achieving good blood sugar levels after three months.
One of the strategies involved is to accept the situation as it is.
One feeling you can get from type II diabetes is that it's just stupid that suddenly you better not eat macaroni. That it's better to eat whole wheat bread than white bread, and that you have to adjust your life at all. That you think that's stupid is actually a judgment on your thinking that you need to adjust something.
Part of mindfulness is to allow thoughts, but leave judgment behind. This makes it easier to accept the situation as it is. Mindfulness has to be practiced, so don't be balking if non-judgment doesn't work all at once. Keep practicing to apply mindfulness.
A long-term study shows that mindfulness can reduce depression in diabetes patients. This study looked at the results mindfulness had for diabetes patients for five years.
Mindfulness eating with diabetes
Most of the foods you always enjoy eating away are full of sugars and fats. These are the very foods that are better left out if you suffer from diabetes.
Therefore, it is all the more important to enjoy food that does not automatically taste good within 1 chew. By applying mindfulness eating, you become much more aware of the taste of your food, allowing you to enjoy it better.
Green beans, for example, are deliciously sweet and juicy. I can really enjoy a bite of green beans. By applying mindfulness eating, you find out which foods that are not bad for your diabetes are also delicious to enjoy, making it easier to leave out the less healthy foods.
Supporting diabetes treatment with mindfulness
If you suffer from type II diabetes, you may find yourself blaming yourself for it. Every time you have to leave out something sweet full of sugar you may think "If only I had ..., I could eat that now." Of course, these kinds of thoughts don't really help you live a happy life .
By leaving the guilt behind and accepting the situation as it is now, it is easier to undergo diabetes treatment properly. Among other things, mindfulness gives you more self-confidence. This also makes you more confident that you can actually perform the actions for your treatment.
For example, having to prick yourself several times a day every day to measure how high (or low) your blood sugar is is not fun at first. Applying mindfulness at times like these makes it easier to monitor your blood sugar levels. This also makes it easier to control your blood sugar.
There are multiple treatments for diabetes. In some cases, you can get a pill to control your blood sugar in conjunction with a healthy diet.
In other cases, you actually have to inject insulin into your body to control diabetes. This is not always fun either, but by applying mindfulness it is possible to be less bothered by the lancing moments.
Mindfulness meditation against diabetes
Stress is a factor that can cause and worsen diabetes. In fact, a physical response to stress is that your body releases more sugar that was stored in your body's reserves. This can cause your blood sugar to get too high which is unhealthy for your organs and can cause more symptoms.
In addition, stress builds up your cells' resistance to insulin, making it harder for your body to remove sugar from your blood. This double way stress can raise your blood sugar makes it extra dangerous.
This is precisely why it is important to apply mindfulness meditation. Ten minutes of meditation a day can already reduce your stress level and thus can have a positive impact on reducing diabetes symptoms.
In addition, stress can also cause you to have higher blood pressure. This in turn can worsen diabetes symptoms. If you have normal blood pressure as a diabetic, it lowers the risk of diabetes complications by as much as 30 percent.
Also, normalizing blood pressure in someone with diabetes can cause that person to live longer and in the process have a better quality of life than a diabetic who also has hypertension.
Also, you can apply other techniques of mindfulness to reduce daily stress.
Mindfulness for exercise with diabetes
Diabetes patients also benefit from regular exercise. This helps combat insulin resistance in the cells, making it easier for them to absorb sugar.
A daily walk and weight lifting can already do a lot for people with diabetes. In addition, you can also use such a walk to incorporate a mindfulness moment.
Minfulness walking means you start walking without a clear goal. During mindful walking, you are aware of your breathing and every step you take. You can walk mindfully anywhere; you can do this in a quiet natural area, or on a busy shopping street. Even when walking from work to the train or your car you can apply mindfulness walking.
If possible wear comfortable clothes and especially comfortable shoes. At the beginning, stand still and shift your attention to your body. You feel how your body stands, what posture you have, and you feel your weight resting on your feet.
You become aware of all the subtle movements needed to keep your balance and to keep you upright.
You bend your knees slightly and feel that your hips are your center of gravity. You take a few deep breaths through your belly and shift your attention to the moment. Now you take your first steps and walk a little slower than normal. You feel how you use your whole foot to take a step. You feel how walking is a kind of rhythm.
You breathe calmly and don't try to force anything. Look in front of you and take in as much as you are comfortable with. Try to stay aware of your body and breathing while walking.
If you find that you begin to think about something else name for a moment the subject you are thinking about and the emotion you are feeling about it, without judgment, and then continue the mindfulness walk.
Mindfulness walking works best when done for between 5 and 20 minutes and in addition to any other mindfulness you apply in your daily routine.
When you finish mindfulness walking stand still for a moment. Feel your body for the second time and feel how you are stable on the ground. Take a few deep breaths again and go on with your day.
By regularly applying meditation and mindfulness , you as a diabetic have much less negative thoughts and stress. This makes it easier to give diabetes a place in your life and deal with it in a healthy way.
Want to learn more about how mindfulness can improve your life? Then come to a seminar or check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training programs.
Sources:
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/ccp/75/2/336/
http://search.proquest.com/openview/b2b6f74fe61b1b1dcad3449ef743422a/1?pq-origsite=gscholar
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/35/5/945.short
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/emotions/mindfulness-blood-pressure-and-blood-glucose-levels.html
http://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-11-131
http://www.chopra.com/ccl/mindful-walking-practice-how-to-get-started
