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Founded 1975

Recalibrate Your Stress Response: Bounce Back with Ease

1/9/2024

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January 2024
By Lorraine Alexander

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A few months ago, I happened on the book The Stress Prescription by Elissa Epel, PhD, the co-author of The Telomere Effect, a New York Times best-seller that discovers how stress influences our clock-on-aging. With a generous 4.7 Amazon review, I found The Stress Prescription to be a worthwhile read. 

Here's a brief overview:
The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease, by Elissa Epel, PhD
Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, School of Medicine
Reading this book, I found it remarkably user-friendly, and learned new insights on stress. Open the book to almost any page and indulge in bits of wisdom. The point made most helpful, was learning that traumatic life experiences create a new stress threshold or baseline; this threshold dictates how well or how poorly we cope with stress. ​
Epel explains thoroughly how stress uniquely affects each of us. The goal is to work toward lowering our baseline to a healthy standard of relaxation. We facilitate this process through daily self-care and mind-body wellness. 

Additionally, she suggests that we retrain our brains to think differently about potentially stressful situations and outcomes by using acceptance and mindful techniques. Otherwise, our thoughts can turn to negative rumination. 
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Breathe Into Balance and Relax

2/1/2022

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Stress management: A guided video introduction to deep breathing.
A beautiful companion to meditation or a perfect start for a beginner, this proven user-friendly method can be used throughout the day in addition to meditation to relax, reduce stress, and regain your calm in two minutes or less. Learn more at DASAmeditation.com 
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Hope Rises

1/1/2022

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Image credit: Saffu
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"There is the mud, and there is the lotus that grows out of the mud. We need the mud in order to make the lotus." —Thich Nhat Hanh

By Lorraine Alexander
Read time 2 minutes 5 seconds
Read the full article 
Hope Rises

Many of us focus on the broken, undone, or what's missing in life. This message offers hope and the opportunity for a new beginning.

COVID is by far one of the darkest storms we have encountered in our lifetime. And as the crippling effects carry into the third year, it's natural to pause and ask: What will the future hold? 

During difficult times, we choose to look through one of two lenses. The first lens is fear, uncertainty, and judgment; the second is a lens of love, acceptance, and hope for the planet and humanity. 

Look for a global rise in awareness.
Looking past the chaos of the media, we continue to see an abundance of online courses, books, videos, and articles, directed toward a movement to awaken our consciousness. We see more people speaking out—and reaching out to help their fellow man. This offers us hope that out of this mud, together we will rise to a higher state of being. 

For the many of us who believe in a higher power, there is a simple yet profound quote by Thich Nhat Hanh, "No mud, no lotus."  In essence, the lotus must transform by rising, struggling upward through the mud to reach a new beginning, a higher level of development, expansion, and growth of awareness. 

Now is the time to comfort others by being fully present. Make them smile, say something special, gently reassure them. This is something known as being a "frequency holder," a term coined by Eckhart Tolle.

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Learn the Top 12 Stress Management Moves for 2020

9/1/2020

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​By Lorraine Alexander, September 1, 2020
​Read time: 3.5 minutes
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The year 2020 delivered countless hardships and disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic, shelter in place social isolation, civil unrest, economic hurdles, record-breaking climate change including pre-season wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and the most heated presidential election of our time. 
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During these tragedies, we witnessed the darkest influences of stress take a stronghold in the US. These tough times drew out the best and worst in humanity. Yet our challenges are not behind us. That's why this article offers 12 uncomplicated, manageable strategies that will help you to "keep your cool," and release toxic stress during volatile times. 
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How can we restore balance in an unpredictable world? ​
Start with one person at a time beginning with you. The one thing that I'm sure of is this, self-awareness is the passkey to a balanced, happy life. Pay attention to obvious signals of stress. Your body may be calling out for help. Are you listening?  

Stress can surface through emotions or manifest in a physical way. To determine if you are experiencing stress overwhelm, ask these following questions:
  • Do you have trouble sleeping? 
  • Do you lack energy or focus? 
  • Are you feeling unusually tense? 
  • Have you become forgetful?
  • ​Are you short-tempered with others?
  • Have you lost your optimism or the ability to enjoy life?
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You can successfully release toxic penned-up stress from the body by combining a variety of the following mind-body practices. The rewards of these 12 self-care practices will depend on the consistency of your routine. 
Self-care is like putting the oxygen mask on yourself first, so you can care for others.

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COVID-19 In Times of Stress: Seven Anti-Anxiety Strategies

4/2/2020

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From the March 10, 2020 DASA Newsletter
We live in uncertain times, especially in the last six months. Historic wildfires due to climate change, adversity in our elections, and with the new global health concern COVID-19, everyone is uneasy.

There is an abundance of "stay-safe" guidelines for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) offered by every news network and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), all vital information to stay healthy.

Medical professionals report that by maintaining a healthy immune system, we add another level of defense against this virus. They advise us to get plenty of sleep and to avoid stress. Yet, stress is the very thing that keeps us from a sound night's sleep.
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In my mind, they go hand in hand. Lower your stress and you'll get better sleep. Easy to say, yet difficult to achieve. That is unil now.
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Get beyond a time of stress to a place of resilience.
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Wisdom from Dogs

11/24/2016

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Story © 2016 DASA Mediation
By Lorraine Alexander

There's a little measure of life's wisdom in each furry canine.

If you've ever owned a dog, or spent any quality time with one, you'll agree with one point. Dogs for the most part enjoy life by living in the moment - and there is a lot to be said for that. Yes, there's a little measure of life's wisdom in each furry canine. So what's the deep secret that we can learn from dogs? It's actually quite simple, when we live in the moment, as dogs do, we live a fuller, more rewarding life.

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Meditation: The New Sustainable Practice

9/1/2016

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Image©MonkeyBusiness/Fotolia

Sustaining the Body, Mind, and Spirit Through Meditation


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NORTHBAY BIZ Magazine - September 2016
Meditation: The New Sustainable Practice
By Lorraine Alexander, DASA Meditation

Memory and learning naturally decrease as we age.
Meditation can help combat this trend.
During the past decade, I’ve heard the word “sustainable” used almost exclusively in the context of environmental issues. Yet the term simply means the ability to last or continue for a long time, without depleting resources. A personal resource is an available means that’s afforded by the mind, or by one's personal capabilities—a source of supply, support or aid, especially one that can be readily drawn upon when needed. Shouldn't health and brain function be considered a source of support?

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Meditation: Can it Curb Impulse Eating?

6/20/2016

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© Can Stock Photo Inc. / tony4urban
By Lorraine Alexander
In today’s busy world, we have too many demands and not enough quality time for family—and even less time to care for ourselves. We find ourselves in an unhealthy spiral, eating out of control. Often, we don't understand how we got there in the first place. 

What triggers bad choices—emotions, fatigue?

​If you're finding yourself reaching for an instant fix of comfort food, sugar, or anything quick, you're most likely making poor choices in your diet. This momentary lapse in good judgment could be caused by fatigue or stress. Meditation just may be the vehicle that breaks this unhealthy spiral.
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"When practiced with consistency, meditation has been shown to greatly improve willpower and concentration. This is a prime example of neuroplasticity, or the brain’s ability to change. Meditation has also been shown to alter the brain's gray matter. This may be a big part of the reason why practitioners often experience significant improvements in memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress, according to a new study led by Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital." -Meditation and the Power of the Brains Plasticity, November 2015 Mind Body Vortex 
Suppress impulse eating 

Speaking from firsthand experience, poor choices in eating will only offer a temporary spike in energy. In the end, it can deplete your energy and add unwanted pounds as you load up on empty calories. More importantly, a diet lacking essential nutrients, high in sugar or fat is highly addictive - and according to reports, a hazard to our health. How can we break this spiral? Could meditation be the answer?
  
There are many hot buttons that can trigger poor food choices including stress, fatigue, emotional challenges, or simply not having enough time or energy to prepare healthy meals. That’s when we reach for that easy instant boost. When we feel this urge, we want (and need) immediate satisfaction— that junk food or sugar high. 
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Compassion Fatigue - The Real Crisis in Healthcare

2/14/2016

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Can Meditation Help Avoid Burnout?

Meditation helps nurses focus and regain control of their careers and personal lives, and many nurses experience deep relaxation when meditating.  Meditation has a rich, vast history and is one way to engender a relaxation response, which can help nurses deal with their stress (Everly & Lating, 2013).
Compassion Fatigue, the Real Crisis in Healthcare
image © gpointstudio/shutterstock
Model used for illustration purposes only.
Written by Lorraine Alexander
Each day in ERs across the globe, nurses, doctors, and other staff interact with patients and families under extreme stress. Patients are often facing the largest health crisis of their life, possibly even the end of life.  Each patient is counting on the staff to perform at the highest level of competency, care, and compassion.

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