How Stressed Are You?

Try this quick and simple test to see how stressed you are.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-24756311

I scored 5 - what did you score?  Meditation can help you to bring your scores right down, so why not give it a go?

We have new courses starting in the New Year at our Como Centre.  Check out the details here.

Anxiety & Stress

The Telegraph on-line health section reports today that, according to a Government survey, one in three absences at work are due to anxiety and stress.  The cost to industry is staggering, as is the cost to the NHS in treating those who are finding life a little too tough to cope with.

Isn't it now time to start advocating taking a little more control of our lives and learn how to help ourselves without the need of medication?

Meditation can help us do just that.  By learning to quieten the mind we give ourselves periods of peace and calm from our otherwise hectic lifestyles.  The body responds - blood pressure lowers, heart rate falls and we start to regain some balance in our lives.  We start to feel much better, much more in control and more able to cope with stressful situations.

Surely it is much better to be given a prescription for meditation rather than medication. 

Mindfulness helps lower anxiety and stress

Mindfulness a Strategy Used to Help Lower Anxiety and Stress

By Robin Williams Adams
THE LEDGER

Published: Monday, March 25, 2013 at 12:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 4:08 a.m.

LAKE WALES | Mindfulness, a form of meditation therapy, is accumulating a growing amount of support from professionals working to improve people's sense of well being.

Psychologists at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham use it, along with other alternative therapies, to help people lower anxiety and stress, increase their daily relaxation and to treat depression and other mood disorders.

Closer to home, mindfulness of breathing will be part of a one-day meditation course the Central Florida Meditation Society is hosting April 6 at Bok Tower Gardens. (See Health Events listing above for more information.)

After reviewing "mindfulness-based practices," which include meditation as a key component, a University of Utah psychiatrist found "convincing evidence" that they are effective in treating psychiatric symptoms and pain when used along with more conventional therapy.

Dr. William R. Marchand's review focused on Zen meditation, a Buddhist spiritual practice of developing mindfulness by meditation; mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a secular method of using Buddhist mindfulness; and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, MBSR combined with principles of cognitive therapy (such as recognizing and disengaging from negative thoughts).