The sky is falling! (or is it?)

It has been quite a winter here.  We had "Snow-mageddon," "Snow-mageddon II" and a huge ice storm.  Our days were filled with dire weather alerts, scary traffic updates, school closings and eye-witness reports.  Piled on top of the terrible economic conditions, horrific stories of wars and natural disasters, is it any wonder that many of us have been feeling burdened by the heavy weight of it all?  Some days it just feels like the sky is falling.

What is interesting is that, if you pay close attention, what passes for news these days are actually either predictions of what might happen (especially where weather is concerned) or very selected aspects of what has already happened (usually the most negative and sensational ones, of course).  The intent of news these days is not to inform us, but rather to encourage us to come back for more "news."  We become "addicts" who are hungry for the latest awful development, which in turn, makes us feel even more anxious, more depressed, scared, angry, marginalized, ____________(add your negative mind state here).

If this is hitting home, I'll propose a little experiment for you.  First, really notice how you feel - physically, mentally and emotionally.  You might even write it down in a journal.  Then, turn off your TV, radio, and Internet news sources for one week.   Stop reading the newspaper and magazines, too.  (Some of you have already panicked at just the thought of this - notice how that feels, too, and write it down)  For one week, go on a news "diet."  Each day, notice how you are feeling - again, you might want to write it down.

If you think about it, people got along just fine 100 years ago without weather and news reports.  They paid attention to their little part of the world, and if they wanted to know what was going on, they chatted with their neighbors.  There was time for conversation at meal times, for enjoying the sunset and the sound of the birds, among other things.  The level of stress they experienced was lower and vastly different than ours.

If you are brave enough to try this experiment, I'd love to hear from you - how it went and what you learned.  E-mail me at linda@awakeninghealth.net and let me know.  I'll tell you what I learned, too.

Don't just do something, sit there!

I've been thinking a lot about attachment.  I get so used to how things are that I find myself fighting change, even though I know everything is temporary.

Last year, I was doing work that I was good at and paid well.  It wasn't anything I wanted to do permanently, but it was helping to pay the bills.  Then suddenly, the work was over.  I was angry and concerned how I would make ends meet.  I was filled with questions and no answers. I felt like I needed to do something.

What I needed to do was nothing.  Eventually, I relaxed into what was already here.  I found acceptance and started to believe I was where I was for a reason.  I spent time just paying attention - to how I felt and to what was going on around me in each moment.

What I found was that I had been given a wonderful gift.  Enough space had been created in my life for me to consider what I really wanted to do, who I really wanted to be.  There were no more excuses that there was no time or energy to pursue my dream.

And that is just what I am doing now.  I am grateful for the path that has brought me to this moment.  I remember what one of my teachers says, "Don't just do something, sit there!"

"Just breathe, Mom"

The winter holidays can be a pretty stressful time.  We see family and friends in greater numbers and frequency.  Our normal routines are disrupted as we try to fit in as many holiday activities as we can.  Many of us feel a sense of time urgency as we struggle to get it all "done" before some important date or event.

Often, the result is that we become overextended, under-rested and emotionally frazzled.  Yet each of us has a built in stress reduction technology that is available 24/7/365.  It requires no batteries, plugs or special adapters. Best of all, it is free and easy to use.  It is our breath.

When I pay attention, I see that reminders about the importance of breathing abound.  One of my professors in the counseling program at Oakland University told our class that one of the best things we could ever do is to teach our clients how to breathe.  My yoga and meditation teachers are always offering new ways to make direct contact with the breath, and I pass these reminders along to my students.  A while back I was sharing a frustration with my adult daughter and she looked at me and said, "Just breathe, Mom."  She is so wise.

The way we breathe can alter our physiology and improve our mood.  A few moments of slow and deep breathing can stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system and calm us down.  It can short circuit a "fight or flight" stress reaction and halt the release of stress hormones into our bodies. It can decrease our serum cholesterol and lower our blood pressure, among other things.  And, as this article from NPR describes, your calming breath can even change the expression of genes, altering the activity of the cells in your brain.

Contact me if you'd like to know more about how to use your breath to improve your health.  The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction classes that I offer are a great place to learn to harness the power of your own breath.

In the meanwhile, if the stress of the holidays starts to diminish the quality of your life, just take my daughter's advice and "Just breathe."

The Woods and Wellness

Do you have a special spot where you feel more connected to yourself and the world around you, present in a timeless sort of way? For me, it is in the forest.

There are woods near both my house and the family summer cottage. I go there to commune with nature and recharge my inner resources. Whether it is walking with my dog and taking it in step by step or standing still to listen to the wind move through the branches and leaves, the forest has a profound and beneficial effect on how I experience life. Even a short stroll helps me to relax, listen deeply to my inner wisdom and rejoin the day with a different perspective.

In The Healing Power of Forests (ScienceDaily, July 26, 2010), we learn that forests, as well as other green spaces, can improve our immune system, reduce stress, mitigate anger and aggressiveness and increase our level of happiness.

When you consider the considerable personal and societal costs of illness, getting out in nature on a regular basis seems a deceptively simple alternative.

Want to feel good? Practice Yoga!

     I remember when I first started to do yoga - I didn't really know what I was doing and I felt clumsy doing it.  I was in a period of my life where I was desperately unhappy and I didn't know why. 

    Yet when I was done with the yoga class, I felt really good.  My body felt like it had done something beneficial.  But there was something else - I felt emotionally uplifted, lighter in mood, more open to life.  I felt happy for quite a while afterwards.  My yoga students have reported similar experiences to me over the years.

    I have always wondered what it is about yoga that makes us feel this way.  Now, an article from Science Daily, New Study Finds New Connection Between Yoga and Mood , explains how yoga works its magic upon us.  A study done at the Boston University School of Medicine indicates that yoga increases the levels of GABA, a brain compound that when found in low levels is associated  with depression and anxiety.  With higher levels of GABA, we feel less depression and anxiety so we feel happier.

   So if you are feeling out of sorts, you might want to give yoga a try.  There are no pills to take, and it might be habit forming.   Yoga might just be the right medicine for you.

Who's Driving the Bus?

I don't know about you, but from time to time I realize that my life is driving me, that I am not in the driver's seat. When I start feeling overwhelmed with too many things to do and I don't feel like doing any of them, when I can't get "enough" done each day and feel tired most of the time, I know it is time to pay attention.

We were talking about this in the MBSR class the other night. One of the students said she was having a hard time practicing meditation because she didn't have any time. Her "To Do" list had her running all day long and when she got home from work, there was more to do. She looked and sounded exhausted. Practicing was just another thing she "had to do."

As we talked, I suggested she bring mindful awareness to the things on her list each day. Asking questions like: Did each of the tasks need to be done that day? Did it need to be done at all? According to who? What would happen if it wasn't done?

I then suggested that she consider the model used by Franklin Covey Co. as a basis for their planner systems:
Discover what is most important in your life, plan to do the things that support those values, and then let those values drive your actions.

I know from my own experience that if I'm not paying attention, my planner can get filled up with all the things that others want me to do, from work to friends and family. If I am not aware, I overschedule myself and underestimate how long things take to do. The result is that there is no time left for what I want to do, let alone time to relax and rejuvenate.

My advice to her was the advice I give myself. If you take the time to meditate each day, you will bring greater awareness to what is truly important to you and how you spend your time each day. You will make more conscious choices that can lead to greater balance between doing and non-doing, working and playing, between the obligations you accept and taking the time to follow your heart's desire.

So if you ask yourself each day, "Who's driving the bus?" and the answer isn't you, it's time to put yourself back in the driver's seat of your life.

This month, I am featuring a letter written by one of my prior students. Written to a dear friend, she shares her impressions of the 8-week MBSR class and describes her experiences in a way that I never could. I hope you will enjoy her letter, and that it inspires you take the class. The next session begins Thursday, January 21 in Rochester.

Dear Sue-
How's everything with you? I am looking forward to seeing you again soon and want to tell you about something I have been doing that you may be interested in.

I have one week to go in my "Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction" class I'm taking in Rochester, and I keep thinking you would enjoy it as much and find it as beneficial as I have. It will be offered again in the New Year, and I thought maybe we could take it together. I would find it helpful to go through it again.

Here is the scoop. It's an 8-week class from 6:30 to about 8:30 pm one night a week. Our class has been on Mondays, but I don't know about the next one. We do mindfulness based practices including body scan meditation, seated meditation, walking meditation and yoga. One Saturday during those 8 weeks there is a "retreat" from 9 am to 3 pm that is silent (except for the instructors directions) and includes all of the forms of meditation. The retreat was amazing - I don't remember when I've felt so relaxed and at peace. The cost is $300 for those 8 weeks and the retreat, and it's well worth it.

I've found the classes and retreat relaxing, but it takes time to quiet the mind enough to meditate. The instructor is Linda Bowers, a former GM manager who decided to leave the hectic corporate life after she became acquainted with mindfulness. She was on the fast track at GM and left to raise her kids and change her life. She's studied at the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness, founded by Jon Kabat-Zinn who has written many books and is the guru of mindfulness based stress reduction and pain relief. I was attracted to this class because I watched a television special many years ago called "Healing and the Mind" with Bill Moyers that featured Jon Kabat-Zinn. When I saw that Linda trained with him, I figured it would be pretty cool.

There's some interpersonal communication training, assertiveness training, and mind-body connection info related to health and diet, too. All in all, I've found it to be so good for me, expecially after the difficult summer I've had. It's kind of amazing that I was drawn to the class at just the right time.

Anyway, here's Linda's website : http://www.awakeninghealth.net/

Let me know if you are interested in attending the next 8-week session with me. We are alike in many ways, and I think you would "get" what's going on in these sessions. I would love to share it with you.

Love,
Sarah

Is stress making you sick?

Have you ever wondered what it is about being stressed that makes you feel sick? In the classes I teach, we talk about how the events of our lives and the way we think about them can unleash a torrent of stress hormones and throw our bodies into disequilibrium. When this imbalance becomes chronic, we can feel sick and even develop illness.

In The Balance Within - The Science Connecting Health and Emotion (2001), Esther Sternberg, MD, a respected rheumatologist and neuroscientist, explains recent insights into the mind-body connection and how chronic psycholgical and physical stresses (sleep deprivation, divorce, and social isolation, for instance) make people ill by negatively affecting their immune and hormonal responses. She then describes the research that shows how belief can heal.

I just listened to her 2007 interview on "Speaking of Faith" on NPR, where she presents these ideas in language we can all understand. Through anecdotes about her own experiences with stress and inflammatory arthritis, she explains how stress makes us sick and belief can make us well. She suggests that much like the computer that has locked up from too many emails and too many programs running, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to "go offline and reboot."

If you are curious about the connections between health and emotion, or you want to learn more about going "offline," I invite you to listen to this facinating broadcast by clicking here.

What is your ratio?

I just finished reading "The Science of Happiness-Barbara Fredrickson On Cultivating Positive Emotions" by Angela Winter. This interview was published in one of my favorite magazines, The Sun, back in May (ok, I'm a bit behind in my reading) and it really hit home for me.

Ms. Fredrickson's thesis is that if we can cultivate positive emotions, our lives will be happier and healthier. Positive emotions come and go and most of us want them because they give us pleasure and help us to move forward. Yet most of us do little to cultivate them, we just let them come and go, and frequently don't even notice them with a great deal of consciousness.

Her research has found that when we pay attention to the positive events in our lives, we experience more positive emotions. When we experience more positive emotions, we have fewer physical symptoms, we sleep better, we are more open to all that life brings us and more able to deal with it in a healthy way. The tipping point between negativity in life and a positive outlook, according to the data she and others collected is a ratio of about 3:1. When one brings awareness to three positive events for every one negative event, the attitude begins to shift towards the positive. She suggests a healthy ratio would be 5 or 6:1 to put yourself on solidly positive ground.

We don't control many of the events that happen in our lives, or how others treat us. What we can do is choose how to relate to it, and where to focus our attention and energies. It is easy to get stuck on all the difficulties of life - they are constantly pointed to on radio and TV, in print, and in our daily conversations with each other. For many of us, it is our default state.

Instead, allow yourself to see the entirety of your world and your experiences and you will find that there are a lot of positive ones in the mix. You can notice the car that cuts you off in traffic, and you can also notice that your favorite song is on the radio, that the sun is shining and that you are healthy and prosperous enough to be riding around in a car in the first place.

If you pay attention, you will find that there is truly a lot more that is right with you and the world than is wrong. You only need to take the time and energy to notice it, and to be healthier and happier as a result.

Here are a couple of videos of people who took my last class, "Calming the Anxious Mind."

Check out their comments!

Plan "B"

In the summer, I normally spend long weekends and an occasional week at our family cottage in northern Michigan. As my parents age, I have increased the amount of time I am there, because I want to be with them as much as possible before they return south for the winter. This year, I arranged to spend several two week periods with them. I got the cottage opened up and cleaned the cobwebs away. I cut the grass and weeded the garden, and even planted some coreopsis and zinnias for my mom.

They still have not arrived, thanks to a cascade of health issues that my mom is experiencing. After not arriving in mid-May, they planned for July 1. Then the end of July, then mid August.

With each delay, I found myself sad and disappointed, and a little scared that "this might be it" for my mom. As I sat with these thoughts and feelings, I realized this was all out of my control, and that I could choose to be miserable and upset all summer, or I could choose to go on with my life just like I do when they are south for the winter.

I have grieved the changes this summer and missed them a great deal. And I have also begun to create a life for myself at the cottage. I have had dear friends come to vacation here, gotten to know some of my neighbors better, reconnected with old friends, and even gotten a library card in town. I have shared some "quality time" with my kids, gone on some field trips, and picked way too many raspberries!

It can be this way for all the difficult changes in our lives, if we choose. We can feel the pain of change and also open into the space the change creates. We can choose how much we want to suffer, or not. We may not be able to control the things that happen in our lives - we can decide how we want to act in the midst of those events.

I am choosing to experience my feelings as they arise and to let them pass, as they will. I am practicing gratitude for all the love and times that I have shared with my parents here at the cottage. And I am planning a visit to their southern home...

Building strong roots

I have a cottage on a lake in northern Michigan, surrounded by old and mighty trees. They persevere through the most ferocious blizzards and thunderstorms that come up out of the west.

Yet each spring, I find trees that have fallen towards the west, by winds that have come from the east. After some contemplation, I realized that the roots on the west side of the trees are deep and strong, because they are continually being tested by the weather. I also noticed that those on the east side of the tree are shallower and weaker, because they haven't been continually toughened by the prevailing winds.

We are all pretty adept at surviving the routine stresses of our lives (albeit with some less than healthy coping methods!). It is hard for us to see where our "roots" are shallow, opening us up to being suprised and knocked off balance by something unexpected storm.

Taking as little as 5 minutes a day, every day, to just stop and pay attention, to our breath, our bodies, our thoughts and our feelings, can help us deepen our "roots." We may bend and be tested by the weather of our lives, but with deep, strong roots all around us, we can keep standing through even the most trying storms.

Don't believe everything you think!

"We are what we think. All that we are arises from our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world." Buddha

How often do you examine your thoughts? Are you even aware that you are thinking most of the time? Most of us are not. And this opens the door for your thoughts to run your life, rather than you.

You might want to take a few minutes each day, to just sit and watch your thoughts. Noticing how they arrive, stay a while and then move away, making room for the next one, you can begin to separate the thought "event" from the thought "content." Sometimes thoughts may arise slowly or not at all, and other times may come in torrents. Just let yourself observe, and learn from these discrete events.

When you start to look at the content of your thoughts, you may learn that a lot of what you think is just not true, and may even be ridiculous. It may be rooted in past experience and personal interpretation, and does, in fact, alter the way you experience your life. If you are unhappy with your life, examining the content of your thoughts may provide not only clues to the source of your suffering, but the antidote as well.

Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn

This YouTube video of Jon's mindfulness talk at Google is a great introduction as well as a refresher of mindfulness practice. Take the time to watch and practice with him and I think you will see why he has been so successful in bringing this practice not only into the mainstream medical world but also to "regular" folks like you and me.
Just click on the link below and enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc

Comments from MBSR students

"This class has helped me to, each day, live mindfully. I am more comfortable in "letting life unfold" and being aware of what is going on around me...and inside me."
Connie

"This course helped me discover the space within myself to better emotionally navigate my life."
Paul

"This course has provided me with the tools I was looking for to make the positive changes I wanted to make in my life."
Sharleen

"I began the MBSR class series during a difficult period in my life. I now use the mindfulness practices which I learned in the class to help me stay grounded and focused."
Patrick

"This program has helped me be more relaxed and mindful of the things around me. I highly recommend this class to anyone who has stress in their lives and wants to be more aware of themselves and of life altogether."
Tia

"This program has taught me that it is not being selfish to take time for myself. It has also taught me how to relax and to focus on my emotions. I am grateful for these insights."
Margaret

"Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction taught me many things, and one in particular was how to meditate...while being kind to what my body and mind were feeling."
Carol

Gratitude

What do you have to be grateful for? It might seem like a funny question with all that is going on in the world these days, and it is an important question. So important that I believe we should be asking ourselves every day.

When we choose to focus our attention on what is going right, instead of what is going wrong, our bodies respond in a beneficial and healthy way. Our heart and respiration slow, our blood pressure lowers, our muscles relax, and the levels of stress hormones coursing through the body decrease. The simple act of practicing gratitude encourages the body to move into greater balance and promotes wellbeing.

Cultivating thankfulness also allows us to soften our hearts and our attitudes, as we open up to this moment and appreciate its fullness. Rather than just counting your blessings, you might want to take the time to savor each one - bringing each one fully into your awareness for a moment - and take note of the sensations you experience in the body as you do so.

Just a few minutes of this practice each day can have a profound effect on the quality of your life. Try it and see.

Getting Started

Many of us are feeling overwhelmed and depleted. Family issues, politics and war, the economy, our jobs, our health, all occupy our thoughts. We worry about the future and may be obsessed with things in our past. All of these concerns weigh us down and we may not know how to start caring for ourselves in such challenging times.

It can be as simple as taking one or two minutes, a couple of times per day, and just stopping. Stopping doing whatever you are doing. Closing your eyes if you can, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out. As you sit (or stand or lie down), noticing that you are breathing, that there is an in-breath and an out-breath. Noticing the sounds that are present in this moment. Bringing awareness to the sensations in your body. And then, just letting yourself be for a minute or two...

When you are done, pay attention to how you are feeling now. Do you notice a difference from just a couple of minutes ago? This is how it feels to be present. Being present is one of the best ways to start caring for yourself-more on this later. For now, just practice "being" a couple of times a day and see what happens...

DISCOVER

Discover the powerful interplay of your mind and body:

• Cope more effectively with short and long-term stresses
• Increase your ability to relax
• Achieve lasting decreases in physical and psychological symptoms
• Reduce pain levels and enhance ability to cope with pain that may not go away
• Improve your ability to enjoy life.
• Commit Now to improving your life.

Participate in the Stress Reduction Program and access through daily practice and regular class attendance a new way of being. A new way of being You in the world.

MINDFULNESS BASED STRESS REDUCTION (MBSR)

Learn Mindfulness, a way of relating directly to the events in your life, of consciously and systematically working through experiences. Develop healthy and positive approaches to handling stressful challenges, whether they are physical or emotional. By enrolling, you will discover:

• Practical tools and skills for handling stress
• Adaptable Relaxation Methods
• Gentle exercises to strengthen and condition your body as well as release tension
• The interplay of mind and body in health and illness
• How to take responsibility for your own health
• Ways to face change and difficult times with greater ease
• Greater balance, control and peace of mind

BECOME

Become the change agent of your life. Receive support and instruction as you participate in this deeply engaging course. This life-affirming class is offered in 8 weekly sessions. New sessions begin every Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer term.
Orientation Sessions are offered free of charge and are a prerequisite to program participants. Some employers provide reimbursement for wellness programs.

In addition to regularly scheduled classes, we offer:
• Customized and private classes
• Personal and professional consulting.