Managing Stress

     There are many ways we can reduce the affects of stress.  The antidote to stress is the relaxation response.  This is your body's message that it is time to slow down and take it easy.  During the relaxation response, your endocrine and nervous system activate changes to slow your heart rate, improve your circulation and digestion, and relax your muscles - in direct counteraction to the stress response.  Whenever stress starts to become chronic, it is beneficial for individuals to find ways to produce the relaxation response.  There are various ways in which the relaxation response can be elicited.

     Meditation uniquely formulates our ability to pay attention so that we are less likely to be swept away by stresses, tensions and the pains of our daily lives.  When I use Guided Visualization with patients to facilitate relaxation, I also help them understand how to manage their pain.  As participants are guided in peaceful and creative visualizations, and in mindfulness practice, they begin to relax so their emotions and bodies begin to heal.  Meditation is a very effective way to produce the relaxation response and to diminish the damage done to us by stress.  How we pay attention fundamentally affects our health and our happiness.

     In my Stress Management Workshop, I help individuals to learn about the benefits of deep breathing, quieting the mind, mindful meditation and guided visualization to renew and restore inner peace.  Individuals also learn about the healing power of both humor and certain types of music.  Individuals learn how stress adversely affects their health: mentally, physically and emotionally.  They begin to recognize dangerous thoughts and emotions.  My Stress Management Workshops provide a basis for individuals to learn to identify the sources of their stress.  Additionally, individuals acquire the ability to assess their stress levels and to subsequently master the techniques for reducing stress.

     On a day to day basis we typically get absorbed in thinking about the past, or we worry about the future, and we are unaware of the present moment.  It is only in the "here and now" that we have the opportunity for growth, change and satisfaction.  My personal goal in teaching Stress Management Classes is both establishing an understanding of stress and empowering individuals in the healing process.  Taking control of one’s life is paramount toward creating excellent health.   

     I have participated in the "Mindfulness in Meditation" Clinical Training Program with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn.  Dr. Kabat-Zinn is internationally known as a meditation teacher, author, researcher, and clinician in the fields of mind/body medicine, integrative medicine, lifestyle change, and self-healing.  He is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was founding executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, and founder (in 1979) and former director of its world-renowned Stress Reduction Clinic.  He is an expert in stress reduction, relaxation, and the applications of mindfulness meditation in everyday living to optimize one's capacity to face stress, pain, and illness across the lifespan. This work is now referred to by health professionals as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and is offered in medical centers, hospitals, and clinics around the world.

     Through teaching Mindfulness Meditation, counselors and therapists have become facilitators of healing.  This is not something that is done to you, but rather, it is a life skill that can be cultivated.  This insight and practice can actually help individuals to be in more control of their lives.  My intention is to provide the safe space for the patient to fully experience this process.

     My CD, "Emotional Healing and Empowerment" will facilitate relaxation, encourage health and well being.