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We’re excited to announce our Stress Reduction Through Mindfulness event starting Tuesday, Nov 1!
Many people think that as a meditation teacher, I must be stress-free. However, life throws challenges at everyone! Over the past four or five years, I’ve faced numerous stressful situations. My tax accountant didn’t submit my business tax returns for two years, leading to the IRS chasing me for tens of thousands of dollars in penalties (which I luckily didn’t have to pay in the end). I went through a painful divorce, moved houses several times, had cancer surgery (I’m okay now!), and dealt with financial issues because my health insurance didn’t cover all my medical bills.
I once told a friend it felt like trying to walk up a downward escalator while someone was throwing bowling balls at me!
While my meditation practice helped, these experiences showed me that it wasn’t enough. I needed to go deeper and develop new strategies for managing my difficulties. Over the next 28 days of this course, I’ll share these approaches with you.
My stress reduction method is based on understanding two types of stress.
First, there’s primary stress which comes from events your mind sees as threats—like tax issues, divorce, moving, illness, or loss. These situations lead to feelings like anxiety, confusion, and grief.
Second, we have secondary stress, which comes from how we react to primary stress. Sometimes, we judge ourselves for feeling stressed and create more distress. This can lead to overindulging in food or alcohol, or taking our frustrations out on others, creating even more stress. In many cases, our chronic attempts to solve or avoid unpleasant feelings end up causing more unpleasant feelings.
To handle primary stress, it’s crucial to be empathetic, kind, compassionate, and comforting to ourselves. We need to treat ourselves gently, like we would a dear friend, a child, or a comforting pet in times of stress and anxiety.
Mindfulness is invaluable for dealing with secondary stress. It helps us let go of unhelpful mental habits like avoiding or rejecting unpleasant experiences. We’ll explore several mindfulness practices to identify and release stress-inducing habits.
During the next four weeks, we’ll focus on these skills. Every day, you’ll receive short readings that I’ll try to keep brief to avoid adding to your stress. There will also be about a dozen guided meditations. Some will be very short, and others a bit longer.
Here’s the first of these meditations, a 5-minute session to help you set the intention of being kind and patient with yourself as you practice mindfulness and self-compassion.
Register here to learn more about reducing stress in your life!