Question:
I've been taking this stress management workshop. I cannot begin to tell you
what a positive effect it has had on my life.
I took the workshop because, as I posted, I am having a difficult time with my
menopause.
I'm learning how to be mindful of my body, and not react to it. I'm posting
this because I know many women suffer symptoms from peri and menopause, and are
reacting to what they are feeling. I am guilty of this myself. I feel
something, ie, dizzy, anxious, fatigued, etc. and I react. I start thinking,
"what is this? how can I fix it? What can I do or take to make it go away?"
This is what we do when we feel uncomfortable feelings. I''m learning in this
class to just stay with the feeling. Not to push it away, or anaylize it to
death, or look for cures but to just be with the feeling and know, like all
things in life, it will pass.
We are not comfortable being with our bodies when we feel *bad* feelings.
Bad feelings are part of life. We cannot have good feelings with out the bad.
True, bad feelings may come during this time more frequently, but they *will*
pass.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that. I've been practicing this every time I
get a symptom, and it works. I don't obessess about it, I just allow myself to
feel *bad*, I breath or lie down, and keep the thought in my head that it will
pass. And make that the only thought. I don't wonder what it is, or how long
will this last, or what am I doing wrong, should I take more vitiams, less,
maybe HRT?....
I'm just being aware of whats happening and accepting it as part of life. Who
was it that said life is 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows. Love them all.
Of course, I work out of my house, and it is easier for me to do this, but I do
think everyone, if possible, should take a stress managment course.
Learning to just be aware uncomfortable feelings with in and not fighting them
is only one of the things I'm learning.
Here's a scientific fact. Women under stress excrete more calcium into their
bloodstream. A study was done where women where hooked up to an IV and then
put under stress. When under stress the calcium and cortisol levelsin their
blood elevated.
Women under stress for long periods in their lifes will have the osteoporosis
in their 50's the same as an 80 year old.
Answer:
This is a very important skill to cultivate and you are so ight about the
stress/bone loss connection. Thanks for bringing this important fact up
again. The body is so exquisitely inter-related. Or rather the mind and the
body (and the spirit) are so wholly integrated. There is so much to learn
about how we get "sick".
This article discusses men and admits that the correlation for women
is less distinct but it's an interesting addition to this topic I
think.
This sounds like an excellent workshop, and I'm glad it's
helping so much.
I was curious when I read your description of what you do
when you get an uncomfortable feeling. This sounds a lot
like the approach that was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn and
Saki Santorelli at U. of Mass. Medical Center. It's based
on Buddhist mindfulness meditation. I took a workshop from
them five years ago and still regard it as one of the
turning points in my life. So I was curious, is your
workshop based on their work, or was the instructor trained
by them?
One of the exercises we did was a wonderful living example
of this. Everyone was given the instruction to walk no more
than 6 steps in one direction, then change direction. And
not step off the mats (which kept us about 2 feet apart
under best circumstances). And to try not to bump into
anyone else. After we did this for a minute or two, the
pace picked up, then it because 4 steps, the pace picked up,
then 2 steps, the pace picked up ... Well, people were
crashing into each other right and left. Most of us were
getting just a little irritated and tight jawed. After all,
wasn't everyone else supposed to be trying not to bump into
me?
Before we came to blows, they stopped the exercise and gave
us new instructions. This time, we were to try to walk into
the gaps between people. It was the strangest thing. Now
it became fun, almost like a dance ... dancing into the
holes. People were laughing at the end, even though the
pace and the instructions otherwise the same.
It became a matter of reframing... Instead of fighting the
situation that you can't change, learn to dance with it.
For me, this has immediate and direct application every time
I go into a crowded mall - something I no longer dread - and
it's a good metaphor for handling many problems of life.
