Stress can have a detrimental effect on the body.  It is increasingly becoming illuminated as being the silent killer.  Stress is a factor that is common to the human condition, and how we manage stress is crucial to health, wellness and our very survival.  However, not all stress is harmful, as certain stressors may actually spur helpful reactions such as personal growth and achievement through challenge.  Though, most stressors have been correlated to negative impacts on health and general well-being.  Prominent conditions linked to stress are hypertension, strokes, heart attacks, diabetes, neck aches, low-back pains, and skin problems.  These have been classified as the “diseases of civilization”.  In addition to physical declines, stress influences mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of a person.  With stress having a multifaceted effect on the individual as a whole, the impacts of stress become far-reaching in areas of society, community, workplace, and relationships.

Mindfulness meditation is a vital component of wellness that decreases the harms of stress.  Mindfulness may change your life…

Mindfulness is a type of meditation that involves formal and informal practices.  In formal practice, you take some amount of time everyday to stop and meditate.  With informal practice, you allow the mindfulness practice to flow into all aspects of your everyday life. 

Through research and studies of the effects of MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction), a multitude of benefits have been found.  Mindfulness has been shown to transform emotions and lift the spirit; help decrease and alleviate several physical health symptoms and cope with pain in the body; increase brain functioning and cognitive attention abilities; and cultivate inner resources and resiliency that bring peace, joy, life balance and vitality.

Mindfulness is simply awareness, which in actuality is not so simple.  Mindfulness requires that you intentionally pay attention to the present moment with an attitude of non-judgment.  Mindfulness meditation is an embodied practice that cultivates a healthy relationship with the self.  This personal and friendly relationship with yourself extends to create healthier relationships with others.  Therefore, your personal practice of mindfulness may also change the communities in which you engage as well as expand and reach to affect the entire world. 

Knowing yourself is powerful!  And it is also a major challenge – quite possibly the most difficult work that you can implement.  But what work is more important?  Mindfulness cultivates the deep listening that is required to truly come to know your own self in body, mind, heart and spirit and how these are displayed in the world. 

--

Women of the World – March Event:

“Mindfulness as Self Exploration and Investigation: Realizing the Body, Mind, Heart and Spirit Connection to How You Show Up in the World”

Saturday, March 10th from 6pm-9pm in San Francisco
Organizer: Lucy Keoni 
Speaker: Melissa Green, MS, MA 

SEE DETAILS AND RSVP HERE