Equip yourself with tools to reduce stress

Two weeks into the Coping with Stress workshops, and people are already feeling better equipped with tools to reduce stress levels. "This course was started as a direct result of receiving a culmination of requests from the communities we serve and seek to support people dealing with stress in their lives," comments Wellness and Education Services Director, Danielle Owen, "Managing stress with alcohol, smoking, gambling, or anger is ineffective in the long-term.”

Realizing that we have a choice and that we can use other tools which are healthier and more effective is the key message from this series of workshops. This was illustrated in the first workshop by Sister Elish McPartland, who shared the power of Reiki by showing attendees how we can simply gain control over certain strong and painful emotions in stressful situations. The next week, an attendee happily reported the success of the technique when they were caught up in heavy traffic and ran late for an appointment.

The past two workshops included introductions to yoga (Mary O’Toole), reiki (Sr. Elish), sleep improvement (Christine Farrell Riley MD) and dealing with stressful situations (Danielle Owen). These presentations can help you remain calm despite the "storms" that life throws at us.

The series of workshops runs for two more weeks: June 7th with Jannette Elliffe and Andy Kelley and June 12th with Kevin Merry. Subjects include meditation, eating well and self hypnosis techniques, and are all designed to make our experience of life so much better.

If you have not yet joined us, please do! We are so grateful to our wonderful instructors for giving their time so generously. The feedback on previous workshops is good and we know that everyone is gaining a great deal. Thanks to all our attendees for joining us and sharing their own helpful tools. See you next week!