Stress Management: Mindfulness

Mindfulness is not only a very powerful way to manage your stress, but it will also open the door to the deeper possibilities in your life, the door that chronic stress keeps shut tight.

Typically your mind will distract you and pull you into anxious concerns about the past or future or into some random train of worrisome thought. Stress often follows as a result.

Mindfulness involves bringing your attention into the present moment, so you can be aware and notice what’s going on here and now. By learning to be in the present moment more of the time, you’ll not only reduce your stress but you will also connect to deeper levels of who you are.

When you’re mindful of what you are thinking you can stand free of your thoughts, instead of becoming possessed and defined by them. If you train to be mindful, you’ll pull the plug on stress and its consequences, including anxiety, depression, panic, self-doubt, and serious a variety of serious health problems.

It’s your thoughts that drive your stress. Your mind is always thinking automatically and discursively. It wanders without any clear purpose from one subject to another, often times darting back and forth toward concerns that leave you worried and anxious. If you learn how to be mindful you’ll learn how to control your thinking and your emotional reactions to what you’re thinking.

Most of the time, you don’t intentionally think your thoughts-they just happen. And most of the time, you just follow them. And if you are not attentive or mindful to where your mind is and to where it’s taking you-you’ll wind up in a negative flow of thought that leaves you starring in one or another stressful movie.

Mindfulness is Paying Attention and Noticing
Imagine a person in a train station, a person who can’t resist getting on every train that pulls into the station. Day in and day out she gets on trains all day long, trains that take her to places she didn’t plan on going to, places that she then has to make her way back from.

If she was mindful, she could pay attention and not get on the wrong trains. Or she could notice that she was on a train heading off to a place she didn’t want to go, and then get off as soon as possible. Mindfulness is paying attention and noticing.

Stay Off That Train
Every day, endless “trains of thought” pull into your mind. And like the person in our illustration, you get on them and ride them to wherever they take you. And they usually take you for rides and to destinations that are stressful.

Did you know that left on its own, your mind will worry and dwell on the negative? That’s just the way it is. And the more emotional baggage you’re carrying and the more tough times you’re facing-the more negative your thought flow will be and the more stress will drop in your lap as a result.

You Do Not Have a Mind and a Body
Mindbody Science made a breathtaking discovery, a discovery that is still not commonly known or understood by most people, including medical physicians. The discovery is this: Your mind and body are not two separate things, they are an interdependent unit-your “mindbody”.

This discovery renders obsolete the view that our health is a “Body-Only” affair, a view still held by most health care providers. What you think and feel manifests in every cell in your body. And what’s going on in your body affects what you think and feel. That’s the mindbody connection.

The mindbody connection accounts for why stress is the #1 health and quality of life problem in the entire developed world. Here’s the problem: Stress is not just about feeling tired and frazzled and burnt out. It’s about toxic stress hormones that get released into your body in error.

Your body is hard wired for a survival response known as the Fight or Flight Response. When it’s triggered it releases hormones that prepare you to fight or flee life threatening danger. The problem is that your mind triggers this response in error. A part of your brain can’t tell the difference between your fears and worries and actual life threatening danger.

As stress hormones seep into your blood and tissues and linger there over long periods, you become at risk for anxiety, panic, depression and heart disease, cancer and diabetes, among other health problems.

You Can Train for Mindfulness to Manage Stress
Recall that your mind is always moving, you’re always thinking. The problem is that you get distracted by and identified with what you’re thinking and your thoughts and feelings get out of control and begin to define your reality. That triggers your Fight or Flight Response, which unfortunately triggers more worry and so a vicious cycle of stress and stress hormones.

When you develop mindfulness, you’ll notice that you’re following your thoughts and stop, thereby shortcutting the Fight or Flight Response before it releases stress hormones into your system.

Sitting cross-legged in meditation is not the only way or the most effective way to develop mindfulness. MESICS Training is a great way for westerners to develop strong and stable mindfulness. M-E-S-I-C-S is an acronym for the Latin phrase “Mens Sana In Corpore Sano” It means: A Sound Mind in a Healthy Body”.

MESICS TrainingTM translates western medical science discoveries and eastern meditative and healing wisdom into actionable knowledge and combines that knowledge with powerful tools and expert support-so people can cultivate mindfulness, gain control of their lives and live long and well.

Dr. Jim Manganiello is an award winning clinical health psychologist, teacher and author. He’s a longtime innovator in the areas of stress, well-being, personal growth and “inner fitness”.

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