STRESS treatment

Are you familiar with the board game Risk?

​It's essentially about conquering the world.

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Fundamentally, your body has a red system, a green system, and a blue system:

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The Threat System:

The red system revs up and prepares your body for fight or flight. When you're stressed, the red system pumps adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol throughout your body.

These hormones keep you on your toes, ready to run or fight, and your thinking narrows down, automatically scanning for anything potentially dangerous.

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The Soothing System:

The green system is responsible for helping you relax. It brings your body back down to earth by releasing oxytocin and endorphins.

When you predominantly activate the Soothing System, you're able to feel the things that make you happy and recognize what is right and important for you. Your thinking expands, and you can see options for action while experiencing balance and energy.

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Drive:

You also have a system that motivates you. It's essentially neutral, but many of us don't take the time to assess what is truly important for us to pursue. As a result, we often chase after the wrong "medals."

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Ideally, the systems are balanced. 

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However, many of us spend a significant amount of time in either the Threat System or Drive, and we don't always transition into the Soothing System for a long enough period to restore balance.

Cortisol is the red enemy. Oxytocin is our green commander. The red soldiers have too much control over your world map – let's create some more green ones!

We react to stress based on our genetics, environment, and "rules for living." 

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Therefore, the symptoms and causes can vary greatly from person to person.

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Your body's mechanisms are the same, whether the stress is due to poor workplace conditions, a divorce, the death of a loved one, illness, a traumatic experience, or simply prolonged overload, regardless of whether there was a specific triggering cause that you are aware of.

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Because stress leaves such physical imprints, you have to consider both the body and mind.

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Mindfulness is essentially about being present in the here and now, without judging or evaluating your experiences.

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It may sound simple, but it's one of the most challenging things you can be asked to do. Researchers at Harvard found that 47% of our lives, we are mentally somewhere else than where we physically are.

It's quite unfortunate to have spent 14 days in Barbados and only been fully present for half of that time...

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The purpose of Mindfulness is essentially to savor life more fully. Besides getting more out of the things you already do, Mindfulness can enable you to handle unpleasant situations and change your relationship with your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations.

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​How did mindfulness start

Mindfulness entered the West in the 1970s through Jon Kabat-Zinn, who adapted Buddhist mindfulness practices into a secular, evidence-based program called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). This approach, which emphasizes present-moment awareness to reduce stress and enhance well-being, quickly gained traction in medical, psychological, and educational fields, spreading mindfulness practices widely in Western society.

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Saki Santorelli, EdD, MA, joined the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program under Jon Kabat-Zinn in the late 1970s. As Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Santorelli played a significant role in advancing MBSR, contributing to its integration into various medical and educational contexts. His leadership and collaboration with Kabat-Zinn helped Mindfulness practices gain global recognition and influence.

Mindfulness can be used to address various issues, including:

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• Stress - both positive and negative stress
• Sleep problems
• Memory issues
• Acceptance of challenging life circumstances
• Low self-esteem
• Social anxiety
• Racing or intrusive thoughts
• Pain management

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Mindfulness is a tool to move your focus from your thoughts to something you can see, hear, count, sense ect.

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This calms your nervous system and gives you a time-out in your head.​

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I have had the pleasure of attending more than 100 hours of teaching/training with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli in 2014 when they were in Denmark and with Saki again 5 days in a row in 2018, 2022 and 2023.

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I have since 2022 received weekly training from Saki Santorelli by Zoom from the US and practice Mindfulness as a way of living every day.

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Mindfulness helps you to:

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• Increase presence and awareness in daily life.
• Enhance judgment and decision-making.
• Cultivate self-awareness and self-compassion.
• Cope with difficult emotions, thoughts, anxiety, depression, and insecurity.
• Foster self-care, healing, and personal development.
• Gain better control over your thoughts, reactions, and actions.
• Prevent and address stress-related disorders, both physical and mental.
• Create clarity and organization in your life.
• Embrace reality as it is.
• Develop inner peace, joy, and resilience.

how do i get started?