healingways
A holistic approach to personal and spiritual healing
Casandra Akins, M.S., LMHC
Casandra Akins, M.S., LMHC Licensed Mental Health Counselor
Individuals • Couples • Groups
Integrative Breathwork Deep Memory Process® SoulCollage®
407-740-0940 407-740-0940
2180 Park Avenue North #230 Winter Park, FL 32789
casandraakins@bellsouth.net www.akinscounselingcenter.com
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Deep Memory Process® SoulCollage®
Individuals • Couples • Groups Integrative Breathwork
Simple Stress Busters Natural Ways to Slide into a State of Calmness
by Kathleen Barnes
e all encounter everyday stressors and usually fi nd our own ways of defusing them.
However, when chronic stress remains unresolved, it extracts a toll on health that may range from heart disease and stroke to obesity, gastrointestinal problems and depression. Thankfully, Natural Awakenings has uncovered inviting ways to regularly de-stress that naturally make us feel good. Here are some refreshing ideas for immediate rest and relaxation. Eat Mindfully. Chocolate can be an excellent antidote to stress-related binge eating, advises Dr. Susan Lord, an integrative physician in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, who leads mind-body medicine programs at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, in Stockbridge. “We rarely eat mindfully,” comments Lord. “We’re usually gulping down our food while watching TV, arguing with the kids or reading a book.”
She often leads a meditation in which participants are allotted one small piece of chocolate that they must eat slowly and consciously. “Most people discover they have never really tasted their food,” she says. “They are pleasantly surprised to discover that they feel satiated and satisfi ed on every level.”
26 Central Florida natural awakenings
Lord’s teaching is supported by
a study from an Oregon Research Institute affi liate in Albuquerque, New Mexico, showing that people lost signifi cant amounts of weight by eating slowly and mindfully. Accordingly,
Kripalu has encouraged eating in silence for nearly 40 years, a practice Lord heartily recommends to her patients for one meal a day. Walk a labyrinth. A meditative walk on a labyrinth may be just what the doctor ordered, says physician Esther Sternberg, professor of medicine and research director at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, in Tucson. “A labyrinth differs from a maze, which has high walls and many dead ends,” notes Sternberg. “Walking a maze is inevitably stressful; a labyrinth has the exact opposite effect. There is only one path in and one path out. You go to the middle, meditate and walk back out. It’s a perfectly calming walking meditation.” In physiological terms, Sternberg explains, the deep breathing induced by labyrinth walking activates the vagus nerve, which prompts relaxation. It does this by interrupting the brain’s stress response and halting
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