Mindfulness

How Mindfulness Can Help Us Cope with Parkinson’s Disease

Get more information on the 8-Week Mindfulness for People with Parkinson’s and Care Partners Program, February 6-March 27, 2023, supported by the Michigan Parkinson’s Foundation While the cause of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is largely unknown, increasing evidence points to stress as a possible risk factor in the development of the disease. It’s been postulated that prolonged emotional stress can trigger PD with increased loss of brain cells (neurons) in some brain regions. Although this idea has been contested, many authors of recent scientific publications have pointed to extreme psychological stress, emotional shock, and prolonged anxiety as risk factors in PD. […]

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Make Every Day Thanksgiving Day

Ahh, Thanksgiving! The day we set aside to give thanks for the abundance in our lives, for all those beautiful moments, and for all the people we cherish. A time to bring everyone together and count our blessings. So why is it that this is often a time when we feel overextended, under-resourced, and off balance? Like Sisyphus, the king in Greek Mythology who was sentenced by the Gods to push a boulder uphill, over and over again for eternity.  Balancing the many demands in our lives can truly feel more like drudgery than joy. Our natural tendency is to turn

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Change Your Brain with Mindfulness

It wasn’t all that long ago that scientists believed that our brains stopped growing and changing in our mid-20s. Then, new technologies were born. EEGs, PET scans, and fMRIs gave us the ability to observe the inner workings of living, functioning human brains, and everything changed! These amazing machines created a window into a brain that is constantly molding and re-molding itself from birth to death. When we learn something new or train in a new skill, our brains get bigger in areas that relate to that new knowledge. When we quit using certain areas of the brain, they shrink.

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I’m Not a Mess, Life is Messy!

“Life is hard!” It was such a relief when I first heard that phrase. Until then, I had believed that life was hard because of some internal flaw and that I was to blame. When I hit a bump in the road, my internal message was, “I am such a mess.” I had entirely missed the message that life is just messy. From my vantage point, all those other people were perfectly happy, enjoying wonderful vacations, and doing meaningful work because they had it together, not because they had found ways to triumph over the messiness of life. Struggling is

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What is Mindfulness and Should You Give it a Try? 

“To meditate is to discover new possibilities, to awaken the capacity that each of us has to live more wisely, more lovingly, more compassionately, and more fully.”  – Jack Kornfield, Meditation for Beginners Mindfulness and meditation have gotten a lot of press lately. They are teaching it in healthcare settings and therapists’ offices. Athletes swear by it, soldiers are finding it improves their resilience, and it helps school kids focus and learn. You may have heard that meditation is a great way to create more balance or maybe that you know someone who is convinced that it has helped them

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Bad Habits Thrive on Autopilot – Mindfulness is the Antidote

The brain is a habit-making machine! Every time I do something that brings pleasure, the brain lays down some tracks to help me remember that good feeling. For example, a coworker gives me a couple of Dove Chocolates, and I take them back to my desk. I get back to work, and things are humming along nicely until I get a distressing email. I start to feel the anger rising, and then I notice the chocolate and pop one into my mouth. Yum! A burst of pleasure rushes, the anger relaxes a little bit, and I go back to work

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The Gifts of Mindfulness

These days, the word “mindfulness” is everywhere. And apparently, practicing it is really helpful!  But what exactly is mindfulness and what does it do for us?  Mindfulness is the moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness of our inner and outer experience.  Mindfulness practices are the things we do to strengthen our brains and to make mindfulness accessible.  When we want our bodies to become stronger and healthier, we lift weights, do aerobic exercise, or practice yoga; when we want to strengthen our awareness, cognitive abilities, and internal sense of resilience, we do mindfulness practices. When I first started practicing mindfulness, I felt anxious

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4 Ways Mindfulness Helps My Anxiety

By Rachel E. Watson When my husband and I took the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction class at Grand Rapids Center for Mindfulness in 2013, we weren’t sure what to expect. I approached the class with trepidation. What if it’s too much work? What if there’s an Eastern religious angle that conflicts with my Christian faith? What if it doesn’t help reduce my stress? Won’t it be stressful to attend a class every week and do homework every day? Turns out, my fears were groundless. Yes, the class was a bit of work—maybe an hour a day, or up to two hours

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Learn to Love Yourself

Most of us have a flaw in our self-perception. When we look at ourselves we have a blind spot for our good qualities and a magnifying glass for our faults. This can do a lot of damage to our confidence and happiness.  Did you ever hear the phrase “When mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy?” That’s right if we let our self-loathing go unchallenged it can make us miserable and, along the way, all the people we hold dear.  The more we live in this skewed perception of who we are, the more miserable we become. This distorted picture isn’t

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5 Ways to Create More Ease and Less Stress for the Holidays

It Doesn’t Have to Take Much Time. We all want the season to be a beautiful time of sharing and happy memories, but perhaps it’s not feeling so beautiful right now. Maybe, in fact, it’s feeling downright stressful as your TO-DO list gets longer and the time gets shorter. This is the situation many of us find ourselves in, and yet, there is an alternative: Mindfulness. You think to yourself, “If there’s one time I don’t have time for one more thing, it’s now!” But think again! Mindfulness is portable. It doesn’t take a lot of time, and it just

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