MHA Presents: Yoga & Yogurt, A Mindfulness Training in Support of April is National Stress Awareness Month
Please join us, ages 12-100, on April 5 from 10AM-11:30AM for a Saturday morning of cleansing your mind and your palate. We will be enjoying coffee, conversation and a make your own yogurt parfait before we begin our one- hour chair yoga/mindfulness training session led by Barbara McAnany of Barbara’s Healing Touch. This program, held at Newark Senior Center, 200 Whitechapel Dr, is being sponsored by Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP.
The fee to register for this event is only $20 and includes refreshments, the one-hour training session and a free raffle ticket. We can accept walk ins on the day of with check or cash payment only at $25. The online registration link is:
https://www.signup82north.com/beventLive.aspx?EventID=NBI22574580
According to the NIH, “April is recognized as National Stress Awareness Month to bring attention to the negative impact of stress. Managing stress is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle. Knowing how to manage stress can improve mental and physical well-being as well as minimize exacerbation of health-related issues.” National Stress Awareness Month has been observed since April 1992 to raise awareness of the causes and cures for our modern-day stress epidemic. Having a dedicated month for stress awareness allows opportunities for open conversation on the impact of stress in our daily lives. It is also a dedicated time to remove the guilt, shame, and stigma around mental health. Stress is a reaction to a situation where one feels anxious or threatened. We all experience stress, yet every person can experience and process stressful situations in very different ways.
According to the World Health Organization, “Stress can be defined as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. Stress is a natural human response that prompts us to address challenges and threats in our lives. Everyone experiences stress to some degree. The way we respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to our overall well-being.”
Stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Knowing common stress symptoms can help you manage them. Stress that's not dealt with can lead to many health problems such as immune challenges, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, anxiety, and depression. Physical and mental health are not two separate entities, but actually two sides of the same coin.
How can we manage our stress? A few ways are connecting with others, eating healthy, exercising, and practicing mindfulness, being in the present moment. Essentially, it means being intentionally more aware and awake to each moment and being fully engaged in what is happening in one's surroundings – with acceptance and without judgment. Several of these stress-reduction modalities will be incorporated in our Yoga & Yogurt event where we connect with others over coffee, eat a healthy snack, practice mindfulness and do some light chair yoga exercise, which will bring harmony between mind and body.
Dr Gabor Maté, retired physician, author and speaker, has written a book entitled “When the Body Says No- the Hidden Cost of Stress”, where he draws on scientific research to document the mind-body link and the role that stress and our emotions play in numerous, common diseases. He teaches the 7 A’s to healing:
1. Acceptance- The willingness to recognize and accept how things are and not how we want them to be
2. Awareness- Learning signs of stress in our bodies and how our bodies telegraph us when our minds have missed the cue
3. Anger- Both the repression of and unregulated acting out cause stress
4. Autonomy- Self- regulating psyche, setting boundaries
5. Attachment-Connections to the world, relationships
6. Assertion- Declaration to ourselves and the world that we are who we are
7. Affirmation- Our creative self, moving toward something of value
I hope you will join MHA on April 5 for our first Yoga & Yogurt event and enjoy a fun filled morning of learning/practicing some of these stress reduction tools!
Staff Blogger: Roberta Fishgold
Roberta has a long work history with MHA after a career in the corporate world of Human Resources Management in NYC. She is enjoying the time with her MHA family, being able to have an impact on mental health awareness in addition to watching the agency evolve through the years. Her hobbies are cooking, baking and collecting inspirational quotes (which are hung all over her office)!
References:
https://hr.nih.gov/working-nih/civil/national-stress-awareness-month-job-stress-and-incivility