Manage Stress by Listening to Your Body

As Mark Bertin says in his excellent Mindful article, “Stress—it's not all in your head. The body acts as an early warning system, and people who pick up on its signals are more resilient.”[1]It’s true that people with better body awareness tend to feel less stressed. One way to have more body awareness is to practice mindfulness. The concept is simple, really: mindfulness practice develops our attention. For example, if we do a body scan, observing sensations from our toes and gradually moving up to our head, we take time and become focused on subtle physical shifts that occur in our bodies. We notice the beginning sensations of stress and can choose to step out of the cycle of anxious thoughts and emotions before they escalate.I encourage you to read Mr. Bertin’s article and to consider beginning a mindfulness practice. As the author notes, “catching the cycle of stress early, we can more easily adapt and redirect it.”[2]Peace,Dr. Pamm       [1] Mark Bertin, “Manage Stress by Listening to Your Body,” Mindful, Jan. 20, 2016[2] Ibid.