eMindful

Chris Shaw Edited By: Leigha Baugham – myfoxatlanta.com

ATLANTA (MyFOX ATLANTA) – A new and potentially groundbreaking medical experiment is ongoing in Georgia which aims to bring peace to service members who come home from the war. Researchers at Emory Hospital are tracking the brain scans of service men and women to help them deal with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.

When Donnie Apted came home from the war, he dreamed he would come home to a happy life with his wife and two sons. For two years, that happy life was just a dream for Apted.

Apted served with the National Guard in Iraq during a violent period in 2004. Apted was stationed just north of Baghdad.

“We were getting hit just about everyday with mortar fire,” recalled Apted.

Like so many men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Apted unintentionally brought terror and anguish back home with him. Apted’s condition made the life he returned home to almost unrecognizable.

“I had rage, issues with rage, and you would ask anybody that knew me before I left they would say, ‘Donnie, he was laid back,’” said Apted.

“So I always felt like I was trying to make up for that or trying to cover for him or make excuses for him being the way he was,” said Apted’s wife, Kari.

Things took a turn for the worse more than a year after Apted returned home. During dinner one evening, the family dog snatched a piece of pizza from Apted’s son’s hands.

“And he screeched. And I lost control and I went in, and I pinned my dog to the ground and I was just wailing on her. And it was like I couldn’t control myself,” Apted.

Apted sought help from an experimental treatment at Atlanta’s Emory Hospital after therapy and medication both failed to treat his PTSD.

The experimental treatment is called mindfulness based stress reduction and it is being tested on other service men and women who suffer from PTSD. The treatment incorporates meditation and relaxation techniques. Instead of trying to forget memories of war, patients are taught to handle their emotions when those thoughts arise.

“What’s important is developing a new relationship to these symptoms, so they change, so they’re not as scary anymore,” said therapist Kaye Coker.

Coker, the lead investigator in the study, said brain scan images show the treatment can work. The treatment is a potential breakthrough. Some estimates claim as many as 20 percent of Iraq War vets have PTSD.

“We don’t have a treatment that is uniformly helping most of the people most of the time,” said Dr. J. Douglas Bremmer. “I think it’s possible we could be getting better results than we’ve had with previous treatments.”

Apted called the breathing techniques he learned in the treatment a life-saver.

“Sometimes I’ll still get startled by something, but I’m aware enough to catch it early on and say, ‘that’s what that was, it’s nothing else,’” Apted said.

Some of the peace dreamed of after the war has returned to Apted’s family.

“We’re sort of new and improved, I guess. We’ve been through hell together. And we’ve made it through the other side,” said Kari Apted.

Researchers said the number of troops returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD is about the same as it was during the Vietnam War. The disorder is better diagnosed these days.

Apted said his father served in Vietnam and his PTSD went untreated until just a couple of years ago.

For more information on PTSD and where you can find help, go to: FOX 5′s PTSD Information Page

Effective August 1, 2009, TriWest Healthcare Alliance will be implementing the new TriWest Online Care program, a program to increase behavioral health service for TRICARE active duty service members (ADSMs) and active duty family members (ADFMs) via telehealth services.

Providers can participate in this exciting opportunity as an Originating Site Facility or a Distant Site Facility. An Originating Site is the site where an eligible TRICARE beneficiary is located when the service is being furnished via a videoconferencing system. A Distant Site is the location where a TRICARE provider will render services being furnished via a videoconferencing system. TRICARE will reimburse for both types of services.

One of the areas in which we need to augment existing access to providers is in the area of behavioral health prescribers. Our TRICARE beneficiaries, particularly those located in rural areas, would benefit from additional access to those distant providers who can prescribe medications to behavioral health patients. Only network providers located in the West Region are currently eligible to participate in the demonstration project with TriWest.

By Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)

From The Yahoo! Newsroom Blog

Washington, DC — With the Senate health committee convening daily to craft a comprehensive health reform bill, the basic outline of this landmark legislation is now clear.

Yes, it will ensure access to affordable, quality care for every American.  But, just as important, it will hold down health care costs by creating a sharp new emphasis on disease prevention and public health.

As the lead Senator in drafting the Prevention and Public Health section of the bill, I view this legislation as our opportunity to recreate America as a genuine wellness society – a society that is focused on prevention, good nutrition, fitness, and public health.

The fact is, we currently do not have a health care system in the United States; we have a sick care system.  If you’re sick, you get care, whether through insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, community health centers, emergency rooms, or charity.  The problem is that this is all about patching things up after people develop serious illnesses and chronic conditions.

We spend a staggering $2.3 trillion annually on health care – 16.5 percent of our GDP and far more than any other country spends on health care – yet the World Health Organization ranks U.S. health care only 37th among nations, on par with Serbia.

We spend twice as much per capita on health care as European countries, but we are twice as sick with chronic disease.

How can this be so?  The problem is that we have systematically neglected wellness and disease prevention.  Currently in the United States, 95 percent of every health care dollar is spent on treating illnesses and conditions after they occur.  But we spend peanuts on prevention.

The good news in these dismal statistics is that, by reforming our system and focusing on fighting and preventing chronic disease, we have a huge opportunity.  We can not only save hundreds of billions of dollars; we can also dramatically improve the health of the American people.

Consider this:  Right now, some 75 percent of health care costs are accounted for by heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and obesity.  What these five diseases and conditions have in common is that they are largely preventable and even reversible by changes in nutrition, physical activity, and lifestyle.

Listen to what Dr. Dean Ornish told our Senate health committee: “Studies have shown that changing lifestyle could prevent at least 90 percent of all heart disease.  Thus, the disease that accounts for more premature deaths and costs Americans more than any other illness is almost completely preventable, and even reversible, simply by changing lifestyle.”

It’s not enough to talk about how to extend insurance coverage and how to pay for health care – as important as those things are.  It makes no sense just to figure out a better way to pay the bills for a system that is dysfunctional, ineffective, and broken.  We also have to change the health care system itself, beginning with a sharp new emphasis on prevention and public health.

We also have to realize that wellness and prevention must be truly comprehensive.  It is not only about what goes on in a doctor’s office.  It encompasses workplace wellness programs, community-wide wellness programs, building bike paths and walking trails, getting junk food out of our schools, making school breakfasts and lunches more nutritious, increasing the amount of physical activity our children get, and so much more.

I am heartened by the fact that the major players in this endeavor – Democrats and Republicans alike – all “get it” when it comes to prevention and public health.  We all agree that it must be at the heart of reform legislation.

As President Obama said in his speech to Congress earlier this year: “[It is time] to make the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that’s one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.”

No question, comprehensive health reform is an extraordinarily ambitious undertaking.  But what makes me optimistic is that all the major groups are playing a constructive role, including those that opposed the 1993-94 heath reform effort.  Everyone agrees that the current system is broken.

Winston Churchill famously said that “Americans always do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”  Well, we’ve tried everything else, and it has led us to bad health and the brink of bankruptcy.

Comprehensive health reform legislation is our opportunity to change the paradigm.  We are going to extend health insurance to every American.  And we are going to give our citizens access to a 21st century health care system – one that is focused on helping us to live healthy, active, happy lives.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and chairs the Senate panel that funds medical research and health care..

In a new white paper published online in the journal Telemedicine and e-Health, several U.S. medical experts argue that telemedicine should be a key component of health care reform efforts, United Press International reports.

According to the white paper, telemedicine would help curb cost inflation and provide other benefits that would significantly outweigh the costs.

In a statement, lead authors Rashid Bashshur of the University of Michigan and Gary Shannon of the University of Kentucky said, “While not a panacea, telemedicine offers significant opportunities to address the issues of inequities in access to care, cost containment and quality enhancement” (United Press International, 6/23).

The white paper is available online (.pdf).

On Thursday, Maine Gov. John Baldacci (D) signed into law a bill (LD 1073) that requires health insurance plans in the state to cover telemedicine services, the Maine Public Broadcasting Network reports.

The measure, sponsored by Maine Rep. Anne Perry (D), covers health care services provided through interactive audio, video and other electronic media (Maine Public Broadcasting Network, 6/11).

In a statement, Baldacci said, “Telemedicine offers opportunities to increase the accessibility of health care, ensure that appropriate medical information is available, reduces medical errors and reduces health care costs,” adding, “This bill makes sense and I am pleased to sign it.”

The new law goes into effect 90 days after the close of the legislative session (Office of the Governor release, 6/11).

Yoga for Chronic Pain

10 yoga poses to help heal your body and release your pain

By Liz Owen

Anyone who has lived with chronic pain knows how physically, mentally and emotionally debilitating it can be. We can become unable to understand how one part of our body could “do this to us.” We can feel frustrated, angry, and ultimately hopeless.

Yoga includes a range of practices that can help. Rather than seeing the body as a number of different parts, with some that are comfortable and strong while others are weak and painful, yoga considers the body to be an organic, connected entity whose parts are constantly in moving relationship to each other. Yoga teaches awareness of proper body alignment and posture, an important aspect of a well-functioning body. At the same time, the mindfulness training of yoga provides tools for engaging with our pain in a way in which we can listen to it, come to understand it, and abide it while healing is in process. Stress reduction, a well-known benefit of yoga, can further facilitate the release of negative and damaging emotions to help you move towards healing.

This sequence of yoga asanas (poses) is designed to both stretch and strengthen your body. While you practice the sequence, remember that you are not responsible for your pain, but you must be responsible to it. Decide which poses help you to feel better. Offer mental comfort to your painful areas and listen closely to them: You may be surprised by a sense of delight and accomplishment as you help your body become more vital, healthy, and happy.

Liz Owen is a certified Iyengar yoga instructor and has taught yoga for over 17 years. Liz teaches in the Boston area and throughout New England. LizOwenYoga.com.

Hints for Practice

Above all, it is important to listen to the wisdom within your body when dealing with chronic pain. The body can tell you what it needs and what should be avoided. Choose the poses from this sequence that speak to your body in a positive way, and avoid movements that cause stress or discomfort. Also:

· Have a yoga mat, one belt, a blanket, one block and an eye bag (optional) nearby. Props can provide support so that your body can move into a comfortable stretch rather than too much stretch or strain in a pose. You can always go with less support once you understand how much your body can comfortably do.

· Hold each pose from 20-30 seconds when you are first starting. Breathe deeply and fully, with even inhales and exhales. If the pose is comfortable, you may stay longer. If you experience pain in a pose, it is time to come out – your body won’t benefit from pushing through pain.

Lying Leg Stretch

Lie on your back with your legs on the floor. Draw your right knee into your chest and place a belt around your right foot. Stretch your right leg straight and upward towards the ceiling. Stretch your leg upwards as you inhale and draw your foot towards your head as you exhale. Then take your right leg to the right and down towards the floor while you keep your left hip grounded. To balance your hips, place a folded blanket against your outer right hip. Repeat with the left leg.

Reflection: Know Your Body
Yoga practice provides time and mental space for you to develop intuition and understanding about your body. While in this deep stretch to the legs, hips and lower spinal muscles, notice where your body holds pain as well as excess tension, which can amplify pain and discomfort. As you remain in the pose, see if your body can let go of tension and holding. Honor
these sensations as guides that bring you
into your potential for healing.

Eagle Shoulder/Back Stretch

Sit comfortably on a folded blanket or in a chair. Lift your arms forward and to shoulder height and cross your right arm over your left arm above the elbow. Lift your forearms up towards the ceiling and bring your palms together, or hold a belt with both hands. As you inhale, raise your elbows upward and feel a powerful stretch to the upper back and shoulders, places we typically hold tension. You can tuck your chin towards your chest to add a stretch to the back of your neck. Repeat with left arm over right.

Reflection: Calm The Mind To
Calm The Body
While in this pose, inhale deeply into an area of discomfort and hold the breath a few moments. Exhale very slowly and deeply, letting any anxiety or emotional stress that is accompanying the pain release along with the out breath. Ask each exhale to bring calmness and quiet to your mind and nervous system. As well as calming your emotional responses to pain, your brain will send messages of calming to your body, and you will find insights into dealing with physical pain.

Bridge Pose

Lie on your back with the soles of your feet on the floor, hips’ distance apart from each other, hands by your sides. With an inhale, lift your hips upward starting from your tailbone, then from your buttocks, and then lift your back ribs. Lift the tip of your tailbone strongly upward to elongate your lower back. Feel how this pose strengthens the back, hips, and legs. Release slowly with an exhalation keeping the tailbone tucked and coming down vertebra by vertebra.

Reflection: The Importance Of Movement
Gentle movements support the body’s healing process on many levels. The body’s structural system of bones and muscles is kept strong yet fluid, the lungs receive and distribute more healing oxygen throughout the body, the organic body is massaged, and the body produces chemicals that help you feel psychologically better and enhance the experience of movement.

Wide-Leg Seated Pose

Sit upright on a folded blanket with your legs wide apart from each other. Hold your feet with your hands or with belts. Elongate your spine upward as you inhale, and as you exhale bend from your hips to come into a forward bend with your spine long and soft. Feel how this pose gives a stretch to the legs and hips while it tones the abdominal muscles and back.

Reflection: Honor Limitations
Pain is often a message of physical limitation which must be honored for the body to heal. In daily life as well as in yoga, be mindful of movements that create or intensify pain. If there isn’t a way to modify painful activities for more comfort, let go of them for the present. Being responsive to present limitations is more important than what or how much you do. As your body heals, you will be able to enjoy a wider range of movement and activity.

Modified Boat Pose

Lie down on your back with hands under your head, and place your feet flat on the floor. Feel that your lower back is relaxed and elongating along the floor. Moving with an exhale, take your right leg straight out at a 45-degree angle to the floor and curl your shoulders up. Be mindful not to move from or strain your neck; rather, support your head fully in your hands and curl up using your abdominal muscles. Feel strength and warmth coming into your abdomen. Rest a few moments, then repeat with left leg lifting.

Reflection: Be In The Present
Visit an area of discomfort and ask how that area is feeling at that moment. Move on to the next moment, and then the next, each time with a fresh mind, asking again how the area feels. Release the pain of each past moment as if you are watching a cloud that moves through the sky and then dissolves. Feel your emotions around pain becoming less reactive and calmer in each moment, coming to understand how to abide and take care of pain.

Half Forward Bend

Stand facing a wall and place your fingertips on the wall at waist height. Slowly step your legs back until your spine is parallel to the wall and your hips are over your ankles. Release your shoulder blades down towards your waist, look down, and elongate through the crown of your head. Press your hips away from the wall. Feel your spine, waist, and ribcage lengthening. To come out, bend your knees, walk towards the wall and come back to standing. Feel your spine tall and open.

Reflection: Cultivate Kindness And Compassion
Sometimes it is unavoidable that the mind becomes anxious and fearful when pain is present. Observe your thoughts in a non-judgmental way and replace them with thoughts that your body/mind isn’t overwhelmed by. Instead of “My body just doesn’t cooperate with me anymore!” consider “My body is not ready to move right now as I would like to. I trust that as it heals, day-by-day, my body will show me what it is ready to do.”

Mountain Pose with Shoulder Stretch

Stand with your feet and legs together and lift up from the base of your hips through the crown of your head. Reach your left arm around to your back. Lift your right arm upward and take the right hand down to the nape of your neck. Now walk the hands towards one another and clasp. If you can’t clasp, hold a belt with both hands. Keeping your spine tall and your chest broad, lift the right elbow strongly upward and enjoy length and space at the right arm, ribs, and through the shoulder girdle. Repeat on the other side.

Reflection: Body/Mind Connection
The body and the mind each have their own natural wisdoms. Creating dialogue and understanding between the two integrates their wisdoms and creates a powerful union. Then you live in a state of “embodied presence,” where relationship to pain is focused on nurturance and becoming whole, rather than in a disembodied existence where pain is ignored and misunderstood.

Supported Triangle

Stand with your feet 4 feet apart, hands on your hips. Turn your right leg and foot outward and turn your left foot slightly inward (to your right). Stretch your arms up to shoulder height at your sides. Reach your spine upward with a deep inhale, and as you exhale reach to your right through your right arm, right ribs, and spine. Place your right hand on a chair. Lift your left arm up towards the ceiling, and, if it’s comfortable in your neck, look up at your left hand. Feel length through your legs and the left side of your spine while your hips become open and fluid. Repeat to the left.

Reflection: The Color Of Pain
Using color imagery at an area of pain is a mental tool for relieving emotions surrounding pain. The intensity of lumbar pain might be fuchsia, for example; a migraine might be brown or gray. Imagine the color of your pain lessening in intensity, changing from fuchsia to red, to golden orange, to soft pastel yellow, and finally to white. As the intensity of the color lessens observe how the intensity of your emotions about pain can also change.

Seated Twist and Forward Bend

Sit in a chair with the right side of your body adjacent to the chair’s back. Plant your feet squarely on the floor and inhaling, lift your spine upward. While exhaling, turn to your right, placing your hands on the back of the chair. Turn evenly from the sides of your waist, your ribs, and chest. Feel your spinal muscles receiving a gentle massage. Release any tension that might have appeared during this sequence with each exhale, moving more deeply into the twist. Repeat to the left. Then, sit squarely in the chair facing forward with your legs apart. Keeping your spinal muscles supple from the Seated Twist, bend forward letting your spine soften and dangle down towards the earth like a glowing string of pearls. Close your eyes.

Reflection: Discover The Causes
During your yoga practice, mindfully review situations that trigger your chronic pain. Consider keeping a journal of what kinds of stressors create mental or physical discomfort. Understanding the causes of pain will empower you to live mindfully off the yoga mat as well as on it and will help you to create protocols for pain-free living.

Deep Relaxation

Lie down with a folded blanket under your head and your calves on the seat of a chair. Your thighs should be perpendicular to the floor. Place a folded blanket across your abdomen (optional) to encourage softness in your belly and place an eyebag over your eyes to relax both your eyes and your mind. Let your breath become natural and even while you let your body deeply let go into the support of the earth. Rest is crucial for the health of the mental and emotional bodies while coping with chronic pain.

Reflection: The Power Of Spirit

Moving into the unknown territory of chronic pain can be daunting and sometimes frightening. Yet spiritual belief asks us to trust that beyond the known, to believe that the unknown is actually better: It is a place of clarity and wisdom. This can help us to visualize that beyond pain and discomfort may be a new way of being where the body is a flowing synergistic entity, larger than the sum of its parts, healthy and free.

By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY

Ryan, 35, sits on a floor cushion, closes his eyes, focuses on his breath and tries to detach from any thoughts, just observing them like clouds moving across the sky — a practice he learned at a retreat. “I find it makes me a better listener, and my concentration is sharper. I get less distracted when I’m reading,” he says. “It’s like you see through the clutter of life and can penetrate to what’s really going on.”

Once thought of as an esoteric, mystical pursuit, meditation is going mainstream. A government survey in 2007 found that about 1 out of 11 Americans, more than 20 million, meditated in the past year. And a growing number of medical centers are teaching meditation to patients for relief of pain and stress.

More than 240 programs in clinics and hospitals teach the same type of meditation that Ryan learned, says Jon Kabat-Zinn, who developed mindfulness-based stress reduction 30 years ago at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Other types, such as transcendental meditation, use a mantra or repeated phrase.

‘A colossal shift in acceptance’

Some kind of meditative practice is found in all the world’s religions, says Shauna Shapiro of Santa Clara (Calif.) University, co-author with Linda Carlson of the new book The Art and Science of Mindfulness. Most include focusing attention and letting thoughts and emotions go by without judgment or becoming involved.

Kabat-Zinn credits “a colossal shift in acceptance” to accelerating research on the benefits of meditation.

Studies suggest the practice can ease pain, improve concentration and immune function, lower blood pressure, curb anxiety and insomnia, and possibly even help prevent depression. Newer research tools, such as high-tech brain scans, show how meditation might have diverse effects.

In a brain-scan study of long-time meditators compared with a control group that never meditated, the meditators had increased thickness in parts of the brain associated with attention and with sensitivity to internal sensations of the body. “These are people who would notice their muscles tensing when they’re angry or butterflies in their stomach if they’re scared,” says study leader Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital.

And a UCLA study out in May found that, compared with a non-meditating control group, meditators’ brains have larger volume in areas important for attention, focus and regulating emotion. They also have more gray matter, which could sharpen mental function, says study leader Eileen Luders, a neuroscientist.

Of course, nobody knows whether these meditators’ brains were different to begin with. And that’s the problem with much of the meditation research so far. Although studies have improved, most still aren’t large and lack good control groups, says Richard Davidson, a pioneering meditation researcher and neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin.

His research shows that even novice meditators have greater activation in a part of the brain tied to well-being. The more activation, the greater their antibody response to a flu vaccine, which makes the vaccine more protective. By changing the brain, meditation could affect many biological processes, he says.

Settling down, not lashing out

A cutting-edge approach to meditation practice starts with children. In scattered pockets across the USA, students are learning meditation at school.

Steve Reidman, a fourth-grade teacher at Toluca Lake Elementary School in North Hollywood, Calif., says teaching meditation to children has curbed fighting while sharpening their focus. “You can just watch them breathe deeply and settle down rather than lashing out.”

Susan Kaiser Greenland, whose InnerKids Foundation teaches in Los Angeles-area schools, works with Reidman’s class.

Preliminary research shows that Los Angeles preschoolers who were taught meditation improved in their ability to pay attention and focus. For early elementary school kids, improvement came only in those who had attention problems at the start, says Susan Smalley, a UCLA behavioral geneticist who did the research with psychologist Lisa Flook. Very young brains may be more malleable, she speculates.

As research expands, scientists expect to unlock more of the mysteries around meditation. Meanwhile, for those such as Ryan, proof of benefit is already evident. “I’m much more aware now than I used to be,” he says. “I enjoy my life more because you notice, and you really appreciate.”

Story Highlights:

Yoga poses, breathing methods help workers cope with e-mails, work stresses

Mindfulness is to pay attention to present and recognize sources of stress

Body is always being rushed; mindfulness training emphasizes need to slow down

(CNN) — “Just the facts” has always been Lillian Waugh’s motto. A historian and former professor of women’s studies at West Virginia University, Waugh is a stickler for facts and details. And because she was always the “go to” person at WVU, she was constantly in demand — and busy.

“I was a multitasker at work,” she said.

Waugh’s job was so stressful it started to affect her health. So when the university began a study on how to handle stress at work, she jumped at the chance to participate.

The study included 103 participants. Half were given written instructions on how to handle stress at work; the others, including Waugh, were taught techniques to cultivate mindfulness, such as yoga poses, breathing methods, stretches and meditation — all designed to help workers cope with too many e-mails, ringing phones and the occasional nasty co-worker.

Lead investigator Kimberly Williams said the goal was to relieve stress. “Mindfulness means to pay full attention to what you are doing, moment by moment,” she said. “We taught them how to recognize sources of stress, how stress impacts them, and then what they could do to come out of the vicious cycle of stress reactivity.”

The program lasted eight weeks and participants were followed for an additional three months. Williams said they found those who received the mindfulness training “had significantly less daily hassles, psychological distress and significantly fewer medical symptoms” — like lower blood pressure and fewer aches and pains — than those who were handed a pamphlet.

Waugh says she was thrilled to find that after practicing mindfulness techniques, the back pain that had plagued her for almost a decade went away. She also said she “communicated better with fellow employees and actually had a better attitude towards my job.”

“The one thing I came away with was the ability to put myself in a place where I could gain perspective on everything I was doing at the moment,” she said.

Mindfulness is not new. It goes back to the time of Buddha, who believed that the mind should always be fully in the present — not looking back at the past or anticipating the future. Being mindful of the here-and-now, Buddha said, reduces stress and brings inner peace.

Today, mindfulness training involves learning to become aware of mind, body and emotions. Yoga, tai chi, and meditation all teach mindfulness.

Williams said the popularity of mindfulness techniques is a positive development, because when done correctly, the methods have been shown to “actually lift stress from your body.”

Numerous studies have shown that stress can take its toll on the human body. “[Stress] increases your heart rate, your blood pressure and your respiration; you go into a state of hyper-arousal,” said Williams. “And over the long-term, we internalize the response, which can lead to neck pain, back pain, digestive disorders, sleeplessness. … And many people deal with those problems by overeating, drinking or smoking.”

The mindfulness exercises in the WVU study included “deep tasting,” where participants spent time eating a raisin: They looked at it, smelled it, and took small bites to savor the taste. “It brings an awareness to the body that normally is always being rushed,” said Williams, who emphasized the need to slow down.

“If you give all of your attention to something, you get deeply touched by that experience,” she said. “We all know what it’s like to eat our favorite food: We slow down, we savor it, we take our time. And that is what makes it so enjoyable.”

Study participants were also taught to breathe by taking deep breaths through the nose, feeling the air fill their lungs and exhaling fully. Williams said that with a couple of those breaths, not only does “your blood pressure go down, and you stay calm,” but you can better handle annoying colleagues or situations. “You often can bring out the best in people if you stay calm and loving.”

Along with the breathing techniques, participants were also taught how to meditate — even at their desks. They were told to find a comfortable time, free of distractions, and quiet their mind.

According to the study, even 10 minutes of meditation can help. “[Meditation] can take the anxiety out of a stressful workday,” said Williams.

West Virginia University is not the first — or only — institution in the country that has tested the effects of mindfulness techniques on stress. UCLA completed a study a few years ago that found the same thing the WVU study found: Mindfulness exercises are excellent stress-busters.

Other researchers are looking at ways to mitigate the dangerous side effects of stress by using mindfulness exercises. Yale University is recruiting patients for a smoking cessation study that includes a mindfulness training component. The six-week program will focus on learning mindfulness techniques to deal with stressors and triggers that cause people to light up.

For Waugh, mindfulness training was a life-saver. Although she is no longer a full-time professor, she still practices mindfulness and attends yoga classes every week. She also has gone back to playing the cello, another mindfulness exercise that soothes her soul. She said these methods have helped her stay healthy and improve her outlook on life — and those are “just the facts.”

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