“Given the epidemic levels of stress, anxiety and depression, corporations can help by setting aside a training room in-house and scheduling daily health and wellness programs” with Alexia Parks and Fotis Georgiadis
Society should create a steady stream of positive messages and offer an on-going series of learning experiences and training programs that focus on the positive benefits of mental wellness. Given the epidemic levels of stress, anxiety and depression, corporations can help by setting aside a training room in-house and scheduling daily health and wellness programs offered by local providers.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Alexia Parks. Alexia Parks is President of 10TRAITS.com and inventor of the 1-Minute GET Smarter Faster Tool. It offers instant insights and actionable advice to help strengthen relationships, reduce conflicts, and improve decision-making. Alexia is the author of 14 books including a new health and fitness book which shows how a simple diet of 23 ingredients, eaten twice daily, can improve mental health. She has produced a 10 part video series on whole body health and wellness. Alexia was called “One of 50 Who Matter Most on the Internet” by Newsweek magazine for her launch of Votelink, one of the first online democracy voting systems. She formerly wrote for the national desk of The Washington Post. As a United Nations Mentor, Alexia mentored the young woman leader who became the Fortune Magazine #1 Award Winner for social impact at their 2014 “Most Powerful Women in the World” Summit.
Thank you for joining us! According to Mental Health America’s report, over 44 million Americans have a mental health condition. Yet there’s still a stigma about mental illness. Can you share a few reasons you think this is so?
Stress is now the number one mental affliction around the world. Depression is #2. More than 75 percent of all physician office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints, and chronic stress is now linked to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide.
Today, epidemic levels of stress have created a national mental health crisis. Here’s why. Chronic stress suppresses the immune system. Stress can lead to anxiety and depression. Depression can lead to isolation and prevent the very people who want to help them from reaching out to them.
So, it might surprise you to learn that there was a time — not that long ago — when the word “stress” was not associated with any mental health condition. In 1976, the public wasn’t interested in books about how to manage stress. No books linked chronic stress to cancer.
In addition, during the second half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century, psychology focused on disease states, pathology and negativity. Psychology at that time was concerned with curing mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and other mental illness.
The Human Potential Movement and modern wellness initiatives have moved away from this focus on disease states.
Can you tell our readers about how you are helping to de-stigmatize the focus on mental wellness?
Each year more than $359 Billion dollars is lost by companies around the world due to conflict in the workplace. A similar amount is spent on training programs that don’t lead to better organizational performance. Why? Because most people soon return to their old ways of doing things.
In my public talks and consulting, I show how the same uplifting feeling that you get when you take a walk in Nature is now available, on-demand, in a 1-minute tool. It’s like having a “mentor in your pocket” that offers you an instant transfer of knowledge to help you manage conflict in the moment, the moment it happens.
It lets you stop for a minute to reflect on yourself and others — free of emotions — to gain new clarity.
I engage audiences in a group demonstration process to show how organizations can use this emerging field of 1-minute on-demand tools to create a conflict free workplace.
Good working relationships give us several benefits: our work is more enjoyable when we have good relationships with those around us and people are more likely to go along with changes that we want to implement, creating increased innovation and creativity.
What’s more, good relationships give us freedom: instead of spending time and energy overcoming the problems associated with negative relationships, we can instead, focus on opportunities.
When my talks include a focus on health and fitness, I show the link between mental wellness and a healthy microbiome by using nutrient dense foods and intermittent fasting.
The human body thrives on consistency, so I show how a modified ketogenic diet that includes 23 ingredients: 75% fiber, 15% protein, and 10% fat, will boost the body’s “feel good” serotonin levels, reduce stress and anxiety through a release of the neurotransmitter GABA, and protect against colorectal cancer.
The ingredients that make up this “five star” twice daily diet, can be found locally, anywhere in the world.
Was there a story behind why you decided to launch this initiative?
I’ve spent a lifetime searching for solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges. In this quest, I’ve run five businesses and launched two non-profits. Recently I made a ground-breaking discovery based on 40-years worth of research across a dozen fields of science. I turned this discovery into a series of 1-minute on-demand training tools that help strengthen relationships, reduce conflicts, and improve decision-making.
These 1-minute tools, the twice daily 23 ingredient diet, and my own focus on helping people unlock and maximize their full potential are brought together in this initiative.
The modified ketogenic diet I recommend is based on a 10 year partnership with Dr. Joel Rauch (Rauchwerger M.D.). Dr. Joel is a preventive medicine doctor who formerly was on the faculty at Baylor Medical College in Houston, Texas. He hasn’t been sick, not even a common cold, in more than 40 years.
I can now say the same thing about myself. Following his protocol, I have been super fit for the past 10 years. I personally know the discipline that it takes to break free of the cultural and social conditioning people have around food. So, the goal of my initiative is to bring this program to healthcare professionals, lifestyle coaches, and those in the corporate world who are focused on prevention, early identification, and intervention for those at risk of six deadly diseases linked to stress.
In your experience, what should a) individuals b) society, and c) the government do to better support people suffering from mental illness?
Individuals who want to help support people suffering from mental illness should focus on ways to help them reduce stress at every level. This includes nutritional support by helping them make and sustain healthy food choices. It also includes massage, movement, flexibility, and 5–15+ minutes of aerobic exercise, daily.
Helping people change lifelong habits and belief systems sustainably, requires that this change take place incrementally, over time. A daily health and fitness routine will bring them into contact with like-minded people, in community.
Society should create a steady stream of positive messages and offer an on-going series of learning experiences and training programs that focus on the positive benefits of mental wellness. Given the epidemic levels of stress, anxiety and depression, corporations can help by setting aside a training room in-house and scheduling daily health and wellness programs offered by local providers.
Government should fund pilot programs, gather data and identify best practices for improved mental health based on the emerging field of 1-Minute training tools that reduce stress and boost mental wellness in society and the workplace. The Department of Education can fund the development of curriculum that incorporates this 1-Minute learning series to boost appreciation and respect in the classroom. The National Institute of Health (NIH) should fund, review and recommend a modified ketogenic diet, such as the one based on 23 ingredients, for hospitals, health care providers, emergency preparedness, the military, and for those who are incarcerated.
What are your 6 strategies you use to promote your own wellbeing and mental wellness? Can you please give a story or example for each?
1. Learn to manage conflict in the moment, the moment it happens.
2. Become trait aware and trait-balanced. Focus on your own trait strengths and the trait strengths of others to improve relationships and decision-making.
3. Avoid negativity in any shape or form. Focus on positive thinking.
4. Create daily habits that include nutrient dense foods and aerobic activity.
5. Practice mindfulness. Say to yourself “Be Mindful” a 100 times a day.
6. Engage in life enhancing activities with collaborative, positive-minded people.
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources that inspire you to be a mental health champion?
GET Smarter Faster in 1-Minute
23 Ingredients Eat and Repeat Twice Daily for Life, Health and Happiness
10TRAITS.com 1- Minute Tools and Training Programs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlexiaandJoel/
YouTube: Alexia and Joel Longevity V-log
Thank you so much for these insights! This was so inspiring!
“Given the epidemic levels of stress, anxiety and depression, corporations can help by setting… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
