Teresa Palmer, Founder -- Wellness Without Boundaries
Over the past few months I've been going through a great deal of personal changes -- professional highs and personal lows, creative triumphs and spiritual defeats -- and as we all can imagine, changes like these can generate a great deal of stress. Therefore, in order to assure I was being proactive in my life's journey, I went out in search of a recipe to reduce stress as well as a prescription for well-being.
After talking to many wellness experts and gurus, I enlisted the services of Teresa Palmer, founder of Wellness Without Boundaries in the hopes that with her 20 years in the healing profession she could prescribe me a lifestyle cocktail for a stress-free life.
According to Ms. Palmer, "Acts of grace nurture the heart and releases us from stress. Gratitude, compassion, forgiveness/letting go, and resilience create a state of grace, often referred to as living from the heart." She goes on to to explain, "Living from the heart blocks the stress response, thus reducing the chances of developing illness and disease. Creating this state of grace, therefore, is an integral part of health and well being and an important aspect of self care. In order to live from the heart, we need to cultivate certain attributes."
Under normal circumstances I would never share my prescriptions (or cocktails for that matter) but hopefully Ms. Palmer's recommended lifestyle shifts can assist you as well in reducing stress from your day-to-day journey and begin living your best life:
Gratitude/Thankfulness: Make a conscious effort to find meaning and purpose in life. There is always something to be grateful for, even when our perception is that things are not going well. Adverse events are springboards to understanding and lessons learned from adversity enrich our lives. There are two ways to cultivate gratitude and thankfulness. First, write down three things you are grateful for each morning. Review this list throughout the day. Second, celebrate things that occurred throughout the day that were disappointing. The job you wanted went to someone else -- celebrate -- now you are free to pursue other opportunities.
Compassion/Empathy: Make an effort so see others as we see ourselves. Often when we find it difficult to show compassion, it is because we see something in another individual that we dislike about ourselves. Accepting our imperfections and flaws allows us to accept others. The Hindu greeting Namaste, I honor the light in you which is the same light in me, reminds us that we are all the same.
Forgiveness/Letting Go: Cultivating forgiveness begins by letting go of what no longer serves you. This is the most important, yet most difficult act of grace to learn, as it is associated with an injustice or harm. It is difficult to get past hurt and resentment, but it is necessary in order to resume life and live it to the highest potential. Forgiving is not forgetting what occurred, but letting go of negative emotions associated that keep us stuck in the past and unable to move forward. A way to practice forgiveness/letting go is to fill a tote bag with items that you no longer need or serve a purpose. Carry this bag throughout the day, discarding item by item until the bag is empty at the end of the day. Continue this on a daily basis until there are no longer items to discard.
Resilience/Bouncing Back: As human beings, resiliency is returning to a state of peace, balance, to achieve the inner wisdom that tells us everything is as it should be. When we are resilient we hold our personal power (empowered) and learn invaluable life lessons from what we have experienced.
Teresa Palmer is a frequent guest on WBAI radio where she offers advice on alternative approaches to health management. She hosted and produced WBAI`s Your Spirit, Your Health and The Power to Heal and she has been a guest on WBAI's The Positive Mind with Armand DiMele. She also created a CD titled Meditations for Well Being to help others discover how meditation can positively impact a person's life and overall health.
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