Meditation is a Stress Reduction Tool. A key stress reduction tool that we recommend at Stress to Strength is meditation. In meditation, you access the parasympathetic nervous system state that is the ‘slow me down’ part for ‘inner quiet’ that reverses the sympathetic nervous system state, of the ‘fight-or-flight’ response. Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years in many different cultures. It has been shown to decrease the production of stress hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline which in turn can reduce blood pressure, hypertension, and insomnia. Meditation also triggers ..read more

Emotional Resilience is a person’s ability to adapt to stressful situations or crises. More resilient people are agile and can “roll with the punches”, bounce back and adapt to adversity, without lasting difficulties. Forbes Magazine created a short video that highlighted that it’s not the smartest in school who is the most resilient. The one who has ‘grit’ always wins over IQ and a combination of persistence, hard work and passion creates resilient people. What others have said about Emotional Resilience. Diane Coutu in May 2002 in the Harvard Review in an article, How Resilience Works  says ..read more

We know that your communities may be feeling anxious, stressed or frightened. Here are some important things to consider … It’s normal to feel sad, stressed, confused, scared or angry during a crisis. Talking to people you trust can help, like friends, family or your fellow community members. Don’t use smoking, alcohol or other drugs to deal with your emotions. If, you feel overwhelmed, talk to a health worker or counsellor. Have a plan on where to go to and how to seek help for physical and mental health needs if required. A very special friend and colleague of mine Dr Gilles Lamarche who has ..read more

A member of our Stress Management Institute® Advisory Board, Associate Professor Sinan Ali, sent me his comments below about our 28 February blog, Does Music Reduce Stress. Professor Ali is a leading world expert in the field of cortisol, and I felt his story below is a very powerful and practical example of how past-times that create joy for people can also be very life-enhancing and support our wellbeing physically, mentally and emotionally. Cortisol is a very critical hormone for us as it can be life-enhancing if guided to support us or it can be life depleting if over secreted. In November ..read more

Last Thursday tension over toilet rolls hit an extreme situation in Melbourne when police were called to a supermarket to taser a man involved in a violent confrontation over a pack of toilet rolls. On the evening TV news last night there was video of an all-in brawl where three women in Sydney were fighting as if their lives depended on the outcome. It was all over a pack of toilet rolls. A mother in her 60s and daughter in her 20s were shopping together and were purchasing what appeared to be the last 4 packs of toilet paper the supermarket had left in the store. A third women approached the ..read more

A member of our Stress Management Institute® Advisory Board, Associate Professor Sinan Ali, sent me his comments below about last week’s blog, Does Music Reduce Stress. Professor Ali is a leading world expert in the field of cortisol, and I felt his story below is a very powerful and practical example of how past-times that create joy for people can also be very life enhancing and support our wellbeing physically, mentally and emotionally. Cortisol is a very critical hormone for us as it can be life enhancing if guided to support us or it can be life depleting if over secreted. In November 201 ..read more

Yesterday morning I had a meeting at an Outpatient Department in a very large city public hospital. I followed the signs on my arrival at the main hospital entrance and after walking along several very long corridors on the ground floor arrived at the New Patient Oncology Outpatient Department. The room I was about to enter had a glass wall floor to ceiling along the corridor I was walking along, and the entry was at the end of this glass wall. All I saw looking through the glass were people sitting and the backs of their heads. It looked very uninviting and depressing. Like entering the rear ..read more

Having a demanding job and little control over it is associated with an increased risk of premature death in men with cardiometabolic disease, according to a 14-year observational study of more than 100,000 people published in June 2018. However, the same cannot be said for women who are stressed at work, with no evidence to suggest it could shorten their lives — whether they have cardiometabolic disease or not. So, what is cardiometabolic disease? In simple terms it is combination of insulin resistance and impaired glucose usage and is closely linked to overweight or obesity and inactivity. T ..read more

Recent research has found that about 33 percent of people report feeling extreme stress, 77 percent of people experience stress that affects their physical health.73 percent of people have stress that impacts their mental health. Can people be addicted to stress?  Unfortunately, it’s not just drugs that can cause our brain to feel scrambled. Research has now found that stress may even be as addictive as drugs. In addition to the hormones,cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline, stress also releases dopamine, a feel good or motivation hormone that especially young teenage girls thrive on and the ..read more

With half of Australia being ravaged by bushfires, dust storms and record high temperatures over the past few months, WATER has been a much needed comodity. The community as a whole has been so focused on the external needs for an endless supply of water to quell the raging bushfires, provide support the regrowth of our decimated landscape and water for livestock. The other need for water as a brilliant and simple de-stressor for our human population and the lives of our vast wildlife population has received little attention. Lesley Una Pierce, Director of The Nutritional Healing Foundation an ..read more