Stress Reduction For Mindfulness-Based Health

The horror was in the waiting. The ulcers and insomnia only added to the unknown. Her entire family was on edge wondering, “What was wrong with Mary?”

The gossip around town was brutal. Rumors of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases flourished. The atmosphere was so toxic that Mary Simms wanted to not just leave town, but to leave the country. Thoughts of suicide crept in.

It all hinged on the results of the blood tests and brain MRI. The dizziness came and went, but not the other problems. Why, exactly, was this happening to her? The more she pondered the question, the more upset she became. She wanted to cry, and she wanted to lash out, but what she really wanted was to call her mother.

Mary Simms was raised and lived in rural Virginia, working as a 3rd grade school teacher, where the spring flowers make the fields look like a fairy tale. She had few reasons to struggle with stress, unlike people living and working in higher stress urban areas. 

Mary was struggling with not only low energy, insomnia, and ulcers, but headaches, chest pain and rapid heartbeat, upset stomach, tense muscles, constipation, diarrhea and nausea, loss of sexual desire and ability, and frequent colds and infections.

To make things worse, Mary knew these physical problems of stress could also have a big impact on her emotions and overall mood, creating psychological distress and making her neurotic. Her doctor made her aware of the fact that chronic pain in any part of your body caused by her deep stress could bring on chronic illnesses.

Dr. Myers had been in practice for over three decades. His office was neat and behind his desk was a shelf that held a replica of a human skeleton of one-tenth scale, and another scaled replica of an upper human torso showing the lungs and heart in full color. 

“Come right in,” Dr. Myers said, as he opened his office door. He sat firmly behind his desk in an expensive swivel chair, and Mary gently sat in one of the three chairs that were purposely and neatly aligned at a slight angle in front of and to the left of Dr. Myers. It was the spring of 2022. He picked up a document lying on his desk. 

“These are results of clinical studies of mental distress and how it can affect a person’s physical and mental health,” said Dr. Myers, as he handed it to Mary.

“And here is a separate list of the effects of chronic mental stress, like you have been experiencing Mary,” Dr. Myers said as he handed her a second document. “None of them are good.” 

They included feelings of being overloaded or overwhelmed, difficulty in making decisions, forgetfulness, disorganization, confusion, frequent crying spells or thoughts of suicidal ideation, feelings of loneliness, depressed feelings of worthlessness, little interest in appearance, not wanting to keep punctuality, nervous habits, fidgeting, irritability, edginess, increased frustration, overreaction to petty annoyances, feet tapping, difficulty concentrating, racing thoughts, and trouble learning new information. 

Mary quivered in her chair and said, “I’m scared, Dr. Myers.” 

“You should be Mary, and your fear is going to be an asset for you once you apply what I’m about to show you to get well.”

“There is more than what you see on the exhibit I handed you that dramatically affect daily lives of people with your condition and ultimately erodes our quality of life, but this list presents the most common,” Dr. Myers told her.

“The first step to overcoming these is acceptance,” Dr. Myers said. “By that I mean allowing yourself to admit they exist, instead of renunciation, and I’m glad to see you’ve accepted your condition,” he added. “What’s been happening to most people up to this time is that they feel these emotions or anxiety disorders within their body and just get through them in the present moment. They gloss over them and do nothing to prevent them from coming back into their lives.”

Dr. Myers reached behind him and picked up a dark piece of flat plastic. He stood up and flipped the illumination switch that lit his x-ray and MRI viewer hanging on the wall beside the shelf with the model skeleton and upper human torso.

Mary shifted her feet and grabbed a handful of hair with her right hand when she realized it was an image of her brain.

“So here is your brain MRI Mary. This is the scan result you’ve been waiting for. You’re lucky,” he said. 

“We’ve caught this before it took a toll on your brain and nervous system. Many people wait until later in life to confront this type of chronic stress. The damage can be immense,” he remarked as he finished leveling the image.

Next, he pointed to a computer screen on a small shelf below the MRI image and said, “Here are the results of your blood work too.” 

“It looks like your cholesterol is high and your thyroid is low. We can fix that too,” said Dr. Myers as he sat behind his desk. 

“I knew there was a reason I’ve been gaining weight and my blood pressure is consistently high,” Mary said.

Now it’s your turn!

By being introduced to the information you are now reading like Mary did that spring day, means that learning and applying this valuable information you no longer need to worry very much about the aforementioned chronic symptoms of critical overstress and are in for an exciting positive change in your life. 

How is this going to happen to you?

By putting into effect some elements of mindfulness and beginning your daily mindfulness methods routine. It’s really simple, and anybody can do it.

The mindfulness gurus want to make you think you need an 8-week course, or that they need to be taught by someone who has graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. That’s simply not true, as you will learn. Although there are different ways to approach mindfulness-based interventions, there is plenty of proof that most people get more results and can get on with their lives by applying the type of intensive mindfulness training I’m about to show you. Checkout this post about mindful movement activities for stress.

Stress is good to a certain level

Stress is inevitable and good to a certain level as we live in our world, but it doesn’t need to negatively affect our life or worse, result in a much lower quality of life or even premature death. We should remind ourselves that succumbing to the negative symptoms of overstress is a trap that’s easy for every human being to fall into.

What we are going to do is treat stress as an opportunity, instead of a threat like Dr. Myers dis for Mary. We can change our mindset and meet the challenge of negative stress head-on. By taking the mindfulness-based stress reduction method approach, we will contribute to our own growth and development, instead of throwing up our hands and waiting to be devoured by the stress villain.

What Is MBSR?

MBSR stands for mindfulness based stress reduction. In the beginning of the mindfulness-based stress reduction movement was (and still is) a group program that was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s. He is one of the most popular MBSR teachers. They designed it as group discussions to treat patients struggling with stress difficulties and physical and/or mental illness.

MBSR was initially created to help only hospital patients. It has since been used effectively by a wide range of people from a variety of cultures and societies.

In fact, according to the Center for Mindfulness around the University of Massachusetts medical center, over 26,000 people have taken advantage of the MBSR program. The center debuted in 1979.

The guru course is still available to those that have the time and money.

It’s great, although I think you can get equal results consuming the content on the Mindfulness Methods blog.

MBSR conducted under Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn is a flexible and customisable approach to stress reduction. It’s designed as an overall systematic review of a person’s situation. It’s composed of two main components: mindfulness meditation and yoga. Instead of following a script or acting out meticulously described steps, mindfulness is practiced in the manner that best suits the individual.

Here is the website and all its information if you want to take their eight-week course available online in the virtual group setting. I’ve got great news. You don’t need to do that eight-week program, and you can get excellent results with the practice of mindfulness and mindful awareness the way I’m going to show you here on Mindfulness Methods, all for free! It is still a formal practice and a full teacher training that can supplement your other health care.

You can be part of a control group reaching full body awareness. There are daily and weekly classes. It’s a very good cognitive therapy that adds to standard medical treatment. The weekly sessions are great for beginners who are extremely busy.

They help with chronic stress, high blood pressure, help to curb future symptoms of heart disease, panic disorder, and insert into the consciousness the ability to implement mindful eating. These are some of the very best educational programs that have been developed and updated to our modern smartphone lifestyle in recent years.