Quite often, one of my top recommendations for how to get a handle on stress and anxiety is by starting a mindfulness meditation practice. Mindfulness, as defined by Jon Kabat-Zinn. “…means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” Sounds easy enough, but it can take a lifetime of practice and feel frustratingly just out of reach.
Mindfulness and meditation, while often combined, are actually two separate but related things. I’ve been practicing meditation since 1975, when I was trained in Transcendental Meditation (TM). TM has since been researched and found to be an evidence-based practice for managing emotional health. I also practice many other forms of meditation, which I have written about in my book, The PCOS Mood Cure: Your Guide to Ending the Emotional Roller Coaster. I like to focus on the simplest, easiest ones to learn.
Learning mindfulness is so important as a general life skill that I actually just got certified in MBCT – Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy so that I can teach it more effectively. I’ll soon be offering a course that will help you:
- Feel invigorated and more energized about meeting your goals
- Decrease frustration
- Get unstuck
- Decrease acute stress
- Reduce anxiety
- Improve chronic pain
MBCT works by increasing body awareness through breath patterns, while also increasing awareness of the thought patterns that got you stuck and keep you stuck. Actually, it’s a little more complicated – thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. These same stuck thought patterns often result in anxiety and depression, two of the biggest mental health problems affecting women with PCOS. When you get the thoughts and feelings going in the right direction, the behavioral changes become so much easier!
If you haven’t already joined my mailing list, now is the time! I promise not to spam you or drown you in e-mails. This is the only way to get first dibs on my upcoming course. This stuff is good – seriously life-changing in the best of ways. You will definitely want to check it out!