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Using Your Senses to Calm an Agitated Mind
“When you start using senses you’ve neglected, your reward is to see the world with completely fresh eyes.”
— Barbara Sher
We have a handful of senses built into our human experience that provide us with information about our environment. A common aspect of each of our senses is that they are occurring right now; they are part of our direct experience, not an abstract concept directed to the past or future. Thus, they have the power, when we are aware of them, to redirect our attention to our direct experience when we become preoccupied or agitated by thoughts. And, they are always available to us.
One of my students, Maryanne, shared a method she uses to bring herself back to the present moment using her senses when she finds herself preoccupied in thoughts; it is a way she extends mindfulness into her everyday life to free herself from the impact of an agitated mind. Whenever she notices that her mind has wandered in the midst of an activity or when lying in bed, she uses her senses to bring her awareness back into the here and now. More specifically, she asks herself, “what are five things that I hear, what are five things that I see, and what are five things that I feel?” (The number five is arbitrary, of course.) Maryanne finds that she can use this practice at any time: when she is on a walk, when she first wakes up in the morning, or when she is trying to fall asleep and worrisome thoughts make sleep seem impossible. It has been extremely helpful for Maryanne, and she hopes that by sharing it, it will be helpful for others, too.
As an example, Maryanne describes how she uses this mindfulness practice when she notices that her mind has wandered while she is walking her dog:
- “First, what are five things that I can hear? When I am walking my dog, I almost always hear her feet clicking on the pavement, the sound of traffic, and birds singing. One thing I can always hear is my breath!”
- “Second, what are five things I can feel on my body? The leash in my hand, the breeze on my cheeks, my feet in my shoes, and always, again, my breath going in and out.”
- “Third, what five things can I see? Sometimes I make it ‘what five things can I see that are yellow,’ maybe ‘five types of leaf shapes,’ ‘five different flowers’, ‘how many colors blue or gray in the sky?’ And if it’s really cold, there it is again, my breath!
Maryanne notices that the breath is one of the common experiences in her awareness, no matter which of the senses she is attending to.
“What I found,” Maryanne explains, was that I was often walking my dog and paying no attention to my surroundings. Meanwhile, my head was spinning with worry and anxiety.” She continues, “Now, I take a deep breath, listen, look and feel. Sometimes my mind wanders, but when it does, I bring it back to what is happening right now, right here. I have found it very helpful in reducing worry and to be more mindful in anything I do.”
I’m sharing this practice with you in the hopes that it will be useful as you attempt to bring mindfulness into your everyday life. Try it out. And, if you have a practice that helps you be mindful and reduce stress during your daily life, please pass it on to me so that I share it with others.
“ Each day I live in a glass room unless I break it with the thrusting of my senses and pass through the splintered walls to the great landscape.”
— Mervyn Peake
Recognizing & Reducing Stress “Creep”
“For many men that stumble at the threshod are well foretold that the danger lurks within.”
— William Shakespeare
In engineering, creep is the tendency of a solid material to slowly move or deform permanently under the influence of stresses. It occurs as a result of long term exposure to levels of stress that are below the yield strength of the material.1 The yield strength of a material is defined as the stress at which a material begins to deform non-reversibly. It generally represents an upper limit to the load that can be applied. Prior to the yield point the material will deform elastically and will return to its original shape when the applied stress is removed.2
As human beings, we experience a similar phenomenon. Often stress in our lives is not acute; rather, it is a slow accumulation of stress without release. When we don’t recognizing this accumulation of stress, eventually it may build up to a breaking point where the consequences of the stress are more severe for us. It is possible, however, to dissipate the stress that has accumulated, if you recognize its presence, and, in this way, minimize the emotional and physical wear and tear that you ultimately experience. Awareness is the key to this process. Recognizing that stress has been accumulating requires that you periodically check in with your body and mind to notice your state. If you can identify tension in your body, or an uneasy mind, then you have the opportunity to address it before it reaches a threshold.
Bryan’s story reflects this process. He first started becoming aware of residual tension in his body when he would lie down to being his yoga practice or sit down to start mediating. Even though he believed he was relaxing in a comfortable position, Bryan noticed that his shoulders, in particular, were tense. When he paid close attention, he could feel that his shoulders were creeping up approximately two inches toward his ears. Once he noticed this tension, he could let it go.
After this experience, Bryan started to consciously check in with his body periodically throughout the day. When he checked in, he, again, discovered tension in his shoulders that he was not aware of. Bringing his attention to his shoulders, Bryan found that he could drop them down about two inches as he released the tension in that region of his body.
Moreover, Bryan discovered that his body was reflecting the state of his mind. He noticed that when his shoulders were holding tension, his thoughts were also agitated. Accordingly, Bryan found he could use his body as a measure of his actual stress level, like a thermometer. When he found tension in his body, he recognized that he was stressed. And by releasing the physical tension in his body, he realized that he could positively impact his mental and emotional state.
You, too, can reduce the accumulation of stress in your body and mind. Here are a few ways you can release some stress when you take the time to check in with yourself:
- Take several deep breaths (see The Power of the Breath in my blog postings)
- Do some mindful shoulder rolls and/or neck rolls to release the stress in your shoulders and neck.
- Remove yourself from the stressor, or environment, and go for a walk.
- Engage in some postures to stretch out your body or do a balance posture.
The key is to find triggers or methods of checking in with your experience even when you don’t know that you are stressed, rather than waiting until you hit a point of breakdown!
“Men who know themselves are no longer fools. They stand on the threshold of the door of Wisdom.”
— Henry Ellis
References:
1 Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creep_(deformation)
2 Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yield_strength
What are you willing to let go of?
“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.”
— Joseph Campbell
2010 has arrived. We have entered into a New Year. This milestone, although an arbitrary marker, is a customary time of year when people reflect on their lives and make or renew resolutions to improve their quality of life; it is an opportunity for new beginnings, for initiating changes. According to a Marist poll taken in December 2009, 48% of Americans stated that they are somewhat likely to make resolutions for 2010. However, the same poll found that of those who made resolutions in 2008, 65% kept their commitment for at least part of the year, while 35% never made progress. In general, the goals that are commonly set as part of New Year’s resolutions are only temporarily met, if at all. No matter what goals people set for themselves at the beginning of the year, even though well intentioned, eventually their ingrained habits most often persevere. So perhaps setting New Year’s resolutions is not the most effective way to make positive changes in your life.
Instead of making resolutions, the best way to attain your goals may be to minimize the obstacles that are in your way, the obstacles that you are, in fact, holding onto, intentionally or unintentionally. To do this, I recommend becoming aware of what you are willing to let go of. You can start this process by asking yourself what is in the way of you being the person you want to be or you having the quality of life that you seek?
Take, for example, one of the most common resolutions that are made at the New Year: losing weight. Without taking a look at attachments that drive you to eat when you aren’t hungry or eat foods that aren’t healthy for you, such as an emotional pain that you are soothing with food, those attachments are likely, sooner or later, to sabotage your attempts to maintain new eating habits. Whereas by acknowledging and releasing the emotional attachments that drive your undesirable eating behaviors, you can be more successful adopting new eating behaviors for the long term.
Likewise, if you want to change the toxic nature of a relationship you with have someone, it is best to begin by letting go of any lingering anger or resentments that you are holding against them. As Ann Landers pointed out, “Hanging onto resentment is letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head.” Only after releasing animosity that you are holding towards someone can you freely choose the manner in which you would prefer to relate to this person, whether that is to engage with them differently or minimize their presence in your life.
Letting go can be a difficult process, one that we most often resist. After all, it is human nature to hold onto and repeat patterns that we know well, even those that aren’t serving us well. “People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.” (Thich Nhat Hanh) However, to make effective changes in our lives and to improve the quality of our lives, letting go is necessary. Lao Tzu said it best: “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” This year, instead of making resolutions that are likely to fall through, endeavor to cultivate the skill of letting go of those things that are in the way of having the quality of life that you seek and deserve.
“As I started to picture the trees in the storm, the answer began to dawn on me. The trees in the storm don’t try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break.”
— Julia Butterfly Hill
Thriving in an age of attention deficit
“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.”
—Gertrude Stein
Living in the 21st century is an exciting time. One of the advantages of our technology is the breakdown in barriers we have to information. The increased access we have to information is amazing, but also comes along with its challenges; the same information that adds value to our lives can also, at times, be overwhelming. Each of you knows what it feels like to be on “information overload,” saturated with more information than you can absorb or respond to effectively: too many channels on the TV to find something that you are interested in watching, emails arriving in your inbox faster than you can read and respond to them, social media that keeps you connected to your network of friends and colleagues but provides more than you need to know.
One of the downsides of our information age is the development of a chronic attention deficit disorder in the general population – not a clinical diagnosis, rather, more of a societal plague we are suffering. You can see the signs of this around you: trying to have a conversation or meal with someone when they are in the middle of emailing or texting, people talking on the phone or texting while they are driving, being in a meeting in which other participants are online reading/responding to their email or texting, or even feeling the persistent need to check email or FaceBook. I experience people all around me who live as if they are on an electronic leash, constantly wired to incoming information, persistently reactive to their electronic devices. More than once, I have taught a mindfulness program in which a participant insisted on engaging with their Blackberry throughout a class that is intended to teach them to pay attention to the present moment; the irony of this needs no explanation. It points to the challenge that many of us have dealing with the onslaught of information at our finger tips and the expectations that we will respond immediately to requests placed upon us 24/7. Whereas Jon Kabat-Zinn’s second book on mindfulness is entitled, “Wherever You Go, There You Are,” I suggest the title, “Wherever You Go, There You Aren’t” more accurately describes the reality of our day-to-day existence.
This symptom of chronic attention deficit disorder in our society is beyond overwhelming; in addition, it takes a physical, emotional, and cognitive toll on us. The attempt to consume and respond to an excess of information contributes to your body being in a heightened state of stress arousal, which ultimately creates wear and tear on you, challenging your well-being. At a minimum, you may have trouble focusing, may become exhausted or start feeling burned out; worse, you may begin to have health problems that force you to slow down, or even come, involuntarily, to a screeching halt.
Before you reach these physical, emotional or cognitive limits, you can learn to relate differently the information that surrounds you. Unplug! Take the example of some companies that have initiated the “topless” meeting, in which not only laptops but iPhones and other tools are banned, to combat a new problem they are calling “continuous partial attention.” You can set similar boundaries for yourself. Although the plethora of information accessible to you can be very seductive, try to notice when your attempts to consume it leave you depleted rather than feeling better off. Be more deliberate about how and when you give your energy away. For instance, try driving without doing anything else, including listening to the radio. Choose some specific times to turn off your cell phone and be away from your computer so that you aren’t accessible to incoming requests or interruptions at all hours. Limit the time you spend absorbed in social media. Pay attention and reclaim your energy for yourself so that you can make conscious choices about how you expended it. By doing so, you can thrive in an age of attention deficit.
“…in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it”
–Herbert Simon
Living in the Gray Areas
“Life isn’t black and white. It’s a million gray areas, don’t you find?”
– Ridley Scott
So often, when working with people to help them develop a new lifestyle practice, I notice that setting up rigid expectations can get in the way of their success. You know what it is like when you are trying to change your exercise or eating habits? In your attempts to make these changes, you tell yourself that you will get to the gym four times every week, or that you will eliminate the sugars from your diet. These intentions may be taken on with your best interest in mind; however, it can be difficult to live up to the agenda that you set for yourself. You may only get to the gym once or twice during the week and you feel as if you have failed, so next week you aren’t motivated to go at all. Or you may have dessert while eating out with friends, so you abandon your attempts to change the way you are eating.
Similarly, after asking students to practice a new stress-reduction exercise each day for 30 minutes, I find a common obstacle when I check in with them the following week: all or nothing thinking. More specifically, the common response is, “I didn’t practice every day because I couldn’t find the 30 minutes I needed to do so.” The barrier to their practice becomes the timeframe I suggested: If they aren’t able to practice for 30 minutes, they don’t practice at all. By getting stuck in all or nothing thinking, the students sabotage their intention to practice each day and, ultimately, lose the benefits of the changes they want to make.
To overcome this obstacle, when you get caught here, the key is to allow yourself to live in the gray area, or middle ground: Consider what subset you can do rather than how you can’t meet your entire expectation all at once. For example, Insight Meditation Society co-founder Joseph Goldstein makes the following suggestion to meditation students to encourage their practice:
“Try making a commitment to getting into the meditation posture at least once a day. You don’t have to sit for any particular length of time, just get on the cushion. A lot of times, the hardest part is getting there. Once you’re sitting down, you think, ‘I might as well sit for a few minutes,’ and more often than not, you’re getting full sessions in.”1
This same suggestion can be applied to other intentions we have for ourselves. Taking small steps toward the direction of change you are seeking can be less overwhelming and, ultimately, more effective than trying to do it all at once.
The imperative: Identify a lifestyle change you want to make and break it up into manageable steps. Commit to taking one step at a time and build up to the goal you are intending to meet. Let go of the black and white limitations; instead, allow yourself to explore the gray areas.
If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‘Why the hell not?’
— John Wayne
References:
1. Tricycle, Fall 2007: http://www.tricycle.com/feature/meditators-toolbox
Becoming an Naturalist
“You can observe a lot just by watching”
— Yogi Berra
Columnist and author, Marilyn vos Savant, once said, “To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.” This skill of observation is the primary tool used by naturalistic researchers for the study of subjects or phenomenon:
“Naturalistic observation occurs when a scientist conducts observations in a naturally occurring situation, without becoming actively involved. In conducting naturalistic observations, a scientist makes no attempt to control or change what happens. The research task is to make a detailed record of the events that occur and of apparent relationships between events, without having any effect on their occurrence.”1
Each of us has this capability to become a naturalistic researcher. And, in order to develop wisdom, you are actually your best laboratory for observation. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, “Observe all men, thyself most.”
You might ask, what does this ability for observation have to do with reducing my stress? The answer is that without observing our moment-to-moment experience, we can become its victim. Unaware of our inner experience, we are often at its mercy as we unconsciously are pulled into a reaction to it: pushing away what we don’t like or grasping onto what we don’t want to change – wanting things to be different. These reactions cause us significant suffering and even result in physical and emotional wear and tear over time. This where the power of observation arises: once we can see and acknowledge our own experience, we are more able to respond out of choice rather than becoming engaged in these unconscious reactions. By developing the ability to respond more effectively to our experience, out of wisdom, we can find ways to stay more balanced in our day-to-day life or return to balance when find we have been pulled away from it. Equanimity is possible with growing awareness of your own inner experience and the wisdom that is derived from that. The imperative: simply observe.
“Use your five senses. Learn to see, learn to hear, learn to feel, learn to smell, and know that by practice alone you can become expert.”
– William Olser
References:
1. The City College of New York: http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/bbpsy/modules/naturalistic_obs.htm
Breaking the Stress Habit
“Harmful habits can be broken. You can break a bad habit of thought, just as you can break a bad habit of action. And you can develop new habits that are more helpful and healthful for you. ”
— Dr. Aruthur Freeman and Rose Dewolf
Without awareness, it is all too easy to fall into habits that heighten your stress arousal and ultimately exhaust your physical, emotional and mental resources. Do not despair, there is an alternative, and it is never too late to start; however, there is no time like the present! By recognizing the signs that you are over extended or stuck on the proverbial gerbil wheel – mindlessly running without an end in sight – you can apply these six suggestions to reclaim your well-being:
- Turn off your electronic devices when they are not required. Being available 24×7 is an unrealistic expectation and is sure to drain your internal resources. Just because you have the technology doesn’t mean that you need to be using it indiscriminately; otherwise, you may find yourself at the end of an electronic leash. Consciously choose times when you are available to others and times when you are not.
- Carve out 10-30 minutes each day to do nothing but sit in the present moment. Bring your awareness to your breath or another aspect of your moment-to-moment experience (sound, sensation, etc.) provides you with the opportunity to let your mind settle. Doing so allows you to see your moment-to-moment life more clearly so that you can make better choices for yourself rather than getting caught in reactive patterns.
- Say “No” to engagements or commitments you do not really choose to participate in or when you just don’t have the energy to do so. Make sure to reserve energy to take care of yourself. Selectively saying “No” is not selfish; instead, by preventing yourself from becoming depleted you may have the resources to be useful when you do engage.
- Connect with nature on occasion. Being in natural settings can provide a sense of renewal that enables you to reset yourself back into a balanced state.
- Pet an animal or play with a young child. Petting an animal has been shown to decrease blood pressure. In addition, domesticated animals provide unconditional acceptance that is rare to experience from other people. Similarly, engaging with young children can be very freeing since they live in the present moment and may help to bring you there, too.
- When you find yourself in states of heightened stress, anxiety, or anger, stop for a moment to take several deep breaths. The easiest way to do this is to exhale completely. Once all of the breath has exited your body, allow the next inhalation to enter naturally, from your abdomen. Repeat this three times in a row. Taking a few deep breaths will bring your mind and body out of stress arousal, back towards a balanced state.
“Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you”
— Elbert Hubbard
Going Home
“The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.”
— Maya Angelou
A common saying states that “you can never go home again.” The truth of this statement depends, however, on your perspective of where home resides.
In this journey that we call life, early stages of development tend to be outwardly focused: finding one’s place in society, cultivating a career, creating a family, and perhaps acquiring material belongings. The trials and tribulations of this outward path provide for experience that is essential to one’s growth. From this viewpoint, home is considered to be an external place and one tends to seek outside oneself for comfort and answers. And as a person grows and changes, one can never go home again as the same person one used to be; therefore, one can never go home again.
It is not uncommon at some point in life for one’s path to take a turn inward, often when one’s suffering becomes great enough to motivate this reversal: one is finally willing to stop looking outward and to take the courage to look inward. “No longer does ‘being at home’ have to depend on an external requirement. You can live from the inside out – rather than the outside in.”1 This is the recognition that we can tap into the wisdom that is part of us and no longer need to seek outside ourselves for comfort or answers; instead, to be always at home. As Sharon Salzberg suggests:
“Sometimes we take quite a journey – physically or mentally or emotionally – when the very love and happiness we want so much can be found by just sitting down. We spend our lives searching for something we think we don’t have, something that will make us happy. But the key to our deepest happiness lies in changing our vision of where to seek it. As the great Japanese poet and Zen master Hakuin said, ‘Not knowing how near the Truth is, people seek it far away. What a pity! They are like one who, in the midst of water, cries out in thirst so imploringly.’ “2
Just as in the game of baseball, perhaps coming home is one’s true objective throughout life’s journey.
Here is breathing exercise offered by Thich Nhat Hanh to assist you in coming home:
“When you notice your mind wandering, often the judging mind becomes activated – subtly, or not so subtly, reprimanding you for not being in the present. Instead, when you notice your mind has wandered, you can welcome it home to your breath. Welcome home, I missed you! Your breath can serve as your home base. It is always there, no mater where you go. If you are at home with your own breath, you can be at home wherever you go.
Breathing in, arriving (right here, in the present moment)
Breathing out, being at home (wherever you are)
Your breath can provide you with the familiarity, the security that represents home.”1
“Go where he will, the wise man is at home.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1979
2. LovingKindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness by Sharon Salzberg
Vacation
1: a respite or a time of respite from something : intermission
2: a scheduled period during which activity (as of a court or school) is suspended
3: a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation <had a restful vacation at the beach>
— Merriam-Webster Dictionary
The kids are out of school. The weather is warm. It is summertime and a common season of the year during which to take a vacation. All too often, however, the vacation that ensues has the same quality of busyness and demands that people are intending to escape. People often joke that upon their return, they really need a vacation to recover from their “vacation.”
Instead of choosing travel or highly active recreation for your vacation, in a manner that continues the busyness reflected in your day-to-day life, consider truly taking some time off. If your life is filled with a demanding schedule, the most effective vacation may be one in which activity is suspended for a period of time. Taking time for reflection, rest, and relaxation may be called for. Rather than adding stimulation to an overextended lifestyle, this kind of “down-time” can be rejuvenating and nourishing for your body and mind. In addition, you don’t have to wait until you’ve accrued a week or more of vacation to take this kind of “down-time” for yourself – even a quiet three day weekend from time-to-time spent in the presence of nature can be a breath of fresh air as a break from the non-stop activity of everyday life.
Henry David Thoreau (from Walden, Chapter 4) can serve as a role model for recharging your batteries with a vacation of suspended activity:
“I did not read books the first summer; I hoed beans. Nay, I often did better than this. There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hands. I love a broad margin to my life. Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a reverie, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveller’s wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance. I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works. For the most part, I minded not how the hours went. The day advanced as if to light some work of mine; it was morning, and lo, now it is evening, and nothing memorable is accomplished. Instead of singing like the birds, I silently smiled at my incessant good fortune. As the sparrow had its trill, sitting on the hickory before my door, so had I my chuckle or suppressed warble which he might hear out of my nest. My days were not days of the week, bearing the stamp of any heathen deity, nor were they minced into hours and fretted by the ticking of a clock; for I lived like the Puri Indians, of whom it is said that “for yesterday, today, and tomorrow they have only one word, and they express the variety of meaning by pointing backward for yesterday forward for tomorrow, and overhead for the passing day.” This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.”
Seeing More Clearly
“If you let cloudy water settle, it will become clear. If you let your upset mind settle, your course will also become clear.”
— From Buddha’s Little Instruction Book
(Kornfield: Bantum Books, 1994)
The word “Mindfulness” comes from the Pali word “Vipassana,” which, if translated directly into English, means “to see clearly.” Accordingly, the practice of Mindfulness consists of cultivating the ability to see our experience more clearly. As we develop Mindfulness, we become aware of our patterns of reaction, which are otherwise unconscious or automatic. Instead of getting caught in these automatic patterns of reacting, from this place of clear seeing, we can make choices that are more effective – that serve us better. By reducing our tendency to get caught in the automatic reactions of pushing away what we don’t want or holding onto what we do want (in other words: wanting things to be different), and instead seeing what is true and responding to that, we can minimize the stress and maximize the well-being in our lives. This is the possibility that developing greater awareness provides us.
Applying an analogy may help to understand this dynamic better. Imagine that your mind is like a pond full of water. If you stir up the water in a pond, it becomes muddy, cloudy and opaque; likewise, your constantly agitated mind becomes busy and murky. However, if you stop stirring up the water in the pond and let it sit idle, the sediment will sink to the bottom, leaving the water clear. Through this clear water, you can begin to see what is actually in the pond: rocks, fish, plants, etc. In the same way, if you sit for a period without agitating your mind, your thoughts will settle down, allowing you to see more clearly what your experience truly is. You will have the opportunity to notice what is underneath all of the busyness of your life so that you can respond to it more effectively.
In order to make positive changes in your life towards improved well-being, you first need to recognize what is keeping you stuck where you are; then you can make new, constructive choices. Taking time each day to practice Mindfulness, cultivating awareness of the present moment, is a process that can take you in this direction. At risk of quoting Dr. Phil, “You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.”
Minding Your Stress 