Have you noticed it?

Have you taken a moment to reflect on it?

Can you feel it?

 

STRESS

“Stress is everywhere around us.  It gets inside us: sapping our energy, undermining our health, and making us more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and disease.” 

 

We are bombarded with negative news and information at an ever-increasing rate, from ever-increasing sources.  We are each, in our own way, absorbing this information and media overload both physically and psychologically.

 

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., has worked in this field for decades.  He and his colleagues established the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  They have pioneered mindfulness-based stress reduction.  The clinic has served more than 17,000 people since 1979. 

 

During these difficult economic times, it is particularly important to study stress and its impact on the families and our young people.  We are seeing it, as educators, all the time.  Dr. Kabat-Zinn is a wonderful resource.

 

What we know is that our youngsters and families are absorbing negative news at an escalating rate, most frequently news about which they are powerless.  Children are exposed through TV and computers to staggering amounts of cruel and violent acts.  The personal bombardment of these kinds of images, sounds, and information is particularly stressful if it never lets up.  The speed of these stressors alone exacerbates the agitation of our minds and our desire to “run away” …the very impetus of addictions.

 

I would pose for your consideration a recommendation from Dr. Kabat-Zinn:

 

“The more complicated the world gets and the more intrusive it becomes on our own personal psychological space and privacy, the more important it will be to practice non doing.” 

 

For our optimum health and psychological wellness, we need to pause and take some quiet time.  If we don’t, we will not be the best we can be for the many demands of our very busy lives.

 

May this understanding of wellness encourage your pause and “non doing.” 

 

I wish you well.

 

Donna