April is National Stress Awareness Month

Americans are stressed. We stress about our jobs, the economy, our health, global warming, and pretty much everything. According to the American Psychological Association, "more than 75% of adult Americans report experiencing stress at levels that exceed what they define as healthy."

What's more, our stress is worrying our kids, too. More than 80% of children of stressed parents know that their parents are stressed and are bothered by it. And though we know we need to be doing a better job at managing our stress, most of us say that we don't have the time or don't know how. (APA's "Stress in America Study")

Welcome to April, National Stress Awareness Month! Here at Mindful Hands, we are devoted to helping you live a gentler life, including providing resources to help you manage your stress. Gary Goodwin, of The Inner Arts Center, is our in-house stress management expert. In addition to running the monthly "Stress Reduction for Busy People," Gary offers these techniques for "on the fly" relaxation:

On-the-fly relaxation techniques are numerous, and in most ways, more effective than one or two meditation sessions per day. These regular world techniques are totally portable, invisible to others, and simple to work in.

• Deep Breathing - Four or five cycles of breathing in, down to the belly and out really takes the edge off.


• Sensory Mindfulness - Tune gently away from your thoughts and feelings and listenn to the sounds around you for a few seconds. Repeat for 30 seconds or up to a few minutes.


• Calming Imagery - Bring to your mind’s eye any image that strikes you as calming (your last vacation, a favorite pet, etc.). Hold onto the image or make it more vivid for a minute or two. Feel the greater calm.

No cross-legged position required for any of these. No seclusion necessary. Invisible to everyone else but you know what really is going on. You are de-stressing, when you need it, within your regular life, all on the fly.

To learn more relaxation techniques, attend Gary's free monthly workgroup: Stress Reduction for Busy People and read more about relaxation techniques at his blog: Stress Reduction for Busy People.

The Ten Virtues of Incense

Lighting a stick or two of incense in the evenings is an easy way to relax and refresh yourself after a hard day's work. Some of you incense afficianados may already be familiar with these "virtues of incense." However for those of you who aren't, I thought our version - updated for a contemporary audience - might be of interest. Enjoy!

The Ten Virtues Of Incense

• heightens your awareness
• refreshes mind and body
• purifies the environment
• increases alertness
• is a companion in solitude
• used everyday, it harms no one
• does not change with age
• when it is plentiful, one never tires of it
• when there is little, it is still enough
• brings a moment of peace amidst a weary world

These virtues were originally compiled in the 16th century. We've slightly updated them for contemporary times but they remain as true today as they were then.

Choose Joy!

In the midst of our stress-filled, busy days we often find ourselves focusing on all the ways we failed to live up to our own expectations – the tasks that didn’t get completed or that were completed imperfectly, the people we failed to persuade or influence, the situations that didn’t turn out quite the way we had planned.

We spend precious minutes of every day focusing on the negative things in our lives – what we want and don’t have, what we don’t want yet have, the people who dislike us or are discourteous to us, the situations that we can’t control yet would somehow change . . . all of life’s little, and big, frustrations.

How much of what we spend our days worrying about really matters?

Choose joy, instead.

Choosing joy means:

• Mindful Living – living with conscious, and constant, awareness of our thoughts, emotions, behaviors - and the choices we make throughout the day;
• Focusing on the positive rather than the negative;
• Recognizing those things that are within our control and giving up trying to control those that are not;
• Doing something nice for someone else. It’s quite amazing to learn that when you bring a little joy into someone else’s life, it spills over into your own.

Choosing joy means not only accepting your own limitations and those of others but also recognizing that, in these troubling times we live, every moment counts. So make every moment count positively – choose joy.

Five Good Minutes

Five Good Minutes: 100 Morning Practices to Help You Stay Calm and Focused All Day Long (Jeffrey Brantley, M.D.)

I'm a big believer in the value of meditation. Even if you can only squeeze in five minutes a day for meditating, the benefits you will receive in stress-reduction and re-energizing yourself are enormous. This compact little book contains 100 simple exercises, all of which can be practiced in five minutes or less. Starting with “breathing mindfully,” Dr. Brantley recommends new ways of looking at and doing everyday things – like taking a shower or drinking coffee -- that transforms simple activities into peace-inducing meditative moments.

Why Wait? Meditate!

Why Wait? Meditate! Meditation techniques have been practiced for thousands of years in all countries and cultures. And the number of people engaging in meditation is steadily increasing. According to TIME Magazine, in a cover story published in 2003 on the health benefits of meditation, “ten million American adults now say they practice some form of meditation regularly, twice as many as a decade ago.” Meditation has been credited with many health and wellness benefits, including relieving stress, anxiety, and depression. A recent study has found that meditation can even increase brain size.

There are many different meditation techniques that are used for a variety of purposes. Some of the most popular techniques are: guided meditation, walking meditation, breath-awareness, and concentration (or calm-abiding) meditation. Whichever method you choose, meditation as a daily or weekly practice can help “calm your mind, relax your body, and soothe your spirit.” So, why wait? Meditate!

(sources: Harvard University Gazette, CNN.com, TIME Magazine) -->