A wonderful part of our community, Stephanie Weikert is offering her Make Peace With Stress workshop next weekend at Charm City Yoga Columbia. Stephanie answered a couple questions for us about the workshop! What is Make Peace with Stress? MPWS is a signature-system that guides you through the transformational process of shifting your relationship with stress. We know stress is a physical and mental reaction, that can be beneficial in life or death circumstances. Modern chronic stress is this physical and mental reaction, however it's mostly a reaction of resistance to what is happening, not to actual life or death. Many of us experience this stress a lot. Here's the good news:Studies show that the way you view this reaction in your body and in your mind directly influences it's effect on you. And here's the really good news:If we shift our view from thinking stress is bad, to being open to the insights of our body and mind's reaction, we can change stress' effect from unhealthy and depleting to helpful and supportive and joyful... Really! How does this system apply to the practice of physical postures? The challenge of postures becomes the equivalent of a stressor and when physical demands are met with mindfulness and steady breathing, the nervous system responds differently than the typical fight-or-flight response of chronic stress.It maintains activation while keeping an underlying sense of calm. As you learn to hold these postures with a calm mind, focusing on the breath, they become a training in how to remain calm in stressful situations. If you can practice both steadiness and ease in the midst of a challenging posture, you're not just training your mind, you're enabling your nervous system to imprint that response and therefore allow you to return to it during everyday stress. Have any other questions? Email Stephannie: stephannie@makepeacewithstress.com. To register for her workshop, click here
