Mindfulness Relieves Stress

In my doctoral dissertati on stress (1980), I employed a variation of Buddhist mindfulness for one of the control groups. I called it the self-relaxation group. Simply noticing you are feeling tense and stressed and focusing on your breathing was effective in helping members of the mindfulness group be more effective in coping with stress by enabling them to relax the large skeletal muscles. The treatment group used self-talk and imagery as well as focusing on breathing enabled them to be even more effective in coping with stress. Those in the treatment group were able to relax the smaller smooth muscles around the blood vessels which led to deeper relaxation associated with increased blood flow. The steps used by the treatment group steps eventually became the 8 Steps to Love: the core of what I call Stress Effectiveness Training.

• Today, reflect on God’s words, “Be still and know that I AM God” (Psalm 46:10). Consider how the original Hebrew word raphah translated as “still” literally means cease. The word added by translators is “striving.” Hence its literal meaning is more the command, “Cease striving!” When you find yourself feeling “urgent” about something, take a moment to do the following. Silently shout stop! Picture a big red stop sign. Then take a slow deep breath and silently say, “Breathing in, I stop and still my mind.” Then, pause, and as you exhale slowly, silently say, “Breathing out, I stop and still my body.” Focus on the sensations of the air moving over your nasal membranes with each in-breath and out-breath. Bring your attention to the stillness in the barely noticeable pause after exhaling and before inhaling. Then resume what you were doing.