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February 2009
hearts
Greetings!
 
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. And try to love the questions themselves.   Rainer Maria Rilke

February is a month associated with ways of the heart.  Both our metaphorical heart...one of compassion, kindness, friendship, love and grief; as well as our physical heart...the pumping muscle in the middle of our chest that keeps us alive.  I invite you to spend some time this month exploring both the physical and metaphorical heart. Check out the American Heart Association's online tools for helping to bring more awareness to your physical heart and for increasing heart healthy acitivities.  Perhaps you might like to begin to explore meditation and its many components with a class or individual training to benefit both your physical and metaphorical heart; or you are an experienced meditator and would like to strenghten your practice. Maybe you would like to spend some time looking at ways to change your work environment to make it feel less stressful and increase your perception of satisfaction and quality of life.  Whatever you may choose this month, do so with the knowledge that you are strenghtening the many manisfestations of HEART. 
 
Peace, 
Pam
In This Issue
Meditation Maintenance
Heart Month
Think Green
NEW Classes
Meditation in the News
Join Our List
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Meditation Maintenance

 

meditation candles

 
If you are starting to get cabin fever...bundle up, get out of the house, and come join fellow meditators for our upcoming Meditation Maintenance Sessions. These sessions are a great way to give yourself a self-care "tune-up" once a month.  Because we are in the winter weather season, I will put a recording on the office voice mail (programs and classes option) 978-369-5243 by 3 PM for evening sessions and 9 AM for morning sessions if the session has been canceled due to weather.

Evening sessions meet from 7-9 PM on the second Monday of each month:

  • February 9, 2009
  • March 9, 2009
  • April 13, 2009

Daytime sessions meet from 12:30-2:30 PM on the second Friday of each month:

  • February 13, 2009
  • March 13, 2009
  • April 10, 2009

Both evening and daytime sessions will be held at Stress Resources' office (97 Lowell Rd, Concord, MA) this year. It will be necessary to pre-register for sessions this year, as space is limited. I will contact you only if a session is filled.  If you do not hear from me, there is space available in the session. Meditation Maintenance sessions are $15 per session. Register by e-mail or by phone (978-369-5243). 

 
February...Heart Month
heart
How much do you know about your risks for heart disease?  If you are like most Americans surveyed, you are much more concerned about your cancer risks than heart disease risks.  In fact, for both men and women, the #1 cause of death is heart disease.  There are both genetic and lifestyle components that make up our risk factors for heart disease. The good news is that it is not too late to start to modify and reduce many of the factors contributing to heart disease.
 
During the month of February, Heart Month, there are many oportunities to learn more about prevention, risk reduction and advocacy for heart disease.  The American Heart Association has a cool interactive web site, Go Red for Women, with information and tools for assessing risk factors, making changes in diet, exercise and stress levels, as well as sharing your story. We have known for some time that chronic stress can play a role in heart disease and it is a risk factor that we can learn to manage more effectively. In a pilot study funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a significant positive benefit was found with the use of meditation techniques for people with heart failure. 
 
Join me and begin to make a difference in our risk factors for heart disease this month! 
Think Green to Increase Job Satisfaction
 
Sometimes what we intuitively know needs to be validated by research. Environment plays a large role in our perception of stress, quality of life and also job satisfaction.  In a recent study, published in HortScience, investigators found a significant difference in employee job satisfaction and overall perception of quality of life between those employees who worked in office space with living green plants or with windows overlooking green space versus those workers whose work environments lacked plants or windows.  Perhaps surprisingly, men seemed to respond more positively to interior green plants or window vistas than did women.  An interesting, effective, low-cost approach for increasing employee job satisfaction during these tough economic times.  Click here to read the article abstract.
NEW CLASSES: Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Beginning in April 

Here in frosty New England it may not seem that spring is around the corner, but it is time to sign up for the Spring Session of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction! If you have been putting off making this proactive, positive change in your life, NOW is the time to take the first step, by registering today. The group classes of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program (MBSR) will begin on April 2 and April 3. Blue Cross Blue Shield discounts and Continuing Education credit for nurses and other healthcare providers are offered. You may also arrange individual MBSR training with me at my Concord office at times that meet your schedule.
 
To learn more about the group classes or our newly expanded individual options, click here

Meditation in the News

 I am always on the lookout for articles on meditation and stress resiliency that may be of interest to you.  Here are a couple that caught my eye this month... 
 
A study recently published in Psychosomatic Medicine looked at mindfulness meditation in relation to one's perception of painful stimuli.  Results of the study suggested that meditators may be able to regulate how their bodies perceive pain differently, creating a pain relieving effect, than non-meditators. A low-cost, no side-effect way of decreasing pain in an overall pain management protocol and deserving of further large scale research.
 
One of the pioneers in mind-body medicine, Dr. Herbert Benson, was recently interviewed in the Boston Globe about his work and passion over the past 35 years...bringing understanding to the phenomenon of the Relaxation Response.  Click here to read the interview