Tender Loving Care or Therapeutic Lifestyle Choices
There are a wide range of life style choices that have been scientifically proven to increase individual and societal well-being. One particularly well regarded doctor and author named Roger Walsh surveyed the literature and identified eight therapeutic lifestyle choices—TLCs. Check out the list and see if you could apply a little extra tender lovin’ care to any of these critical areas.
Exercise
Nutrition and Diet (One supplemental standout: Fish Oils)
Time Spent in Nature
Relationships (enhancing the number and quality)
Recreation and Enjoyable Activities
Relaxation and Stress Management (Especially meditation)
Religious and Spiritual Involvement
Contribution and Service
Many of these are obvious, but it’s nice to know some specifics—that exercise has been clinically proven as preventative to depression, and people who volunteer are “psychologically happier and healthier, physically healthier, and may even live longer.” Plus, we often overlook the obvious. Sometimes we’re trying so hard to be happy that we forget to relax and enjoy ourselves, like the times when we frantically search for the car keys that were waiting in our pocket the whole time.
It’s important to note that when we discuss physical and mental health—personally, in education, in the news, etc.—we often overlook these TLCs. Individuals find the task of changing their lifestyle daunting, and health care providers are slow to adopt them and proscribe them even though they “can ameliorate prostate cancer, reverse coronary arteriosclerosis, and be as effective as psychotherapy or medication for treating some depressive disorders.”
Yet as we become more aware of the causative nature of our lifestyles, we can change ourselves, and invite others to change along with us.
Walsh, R. (2011, January 17). Lifestyle and Mental Health. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0021769