Blog - DASA MEDITATION - Stress Reduction Made Easy

Founded 1975

Heart Health Awareness

2/12/2024

February 2024
By Lorraine Alexander

NONDIRECTIVE MEDITATION IMPROVES HEART HEALTH ❤️

Here's a great point of interest for this month's topic. Did you know that nondirective meditation benefits heart health in multiple ways? We share five fascinating medical studies that you won't want to miss!

Improve heart rate variability (HRV). Medical studies show nondirective meditation improves vagal nerve activity with increased Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Good HRV means a longer span between steady heartbeats and recovery with greater ease.

Improve vagal tone. The vagus nerve is the 10th cranial nerve, the longest nerve of the human body. It is responsible for our heart, lungs, and digestion. This system has two branches: the sympathetic response responsible for "fight or flight," and the parasympathetic response responsible for "rest and digestion." Nondirective meditation engages the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic relaxation response, at the same time, the sympathetic stress response lessens.

Recalibrate Your Stress Response: Bounce Back with Ease

1/9/2024

January 2024
By Lorraine Alexander

A few months ago, I happened on the book The Stress Prescription by Elissa Epel, PhD, the co-author of The Telomere Effect, a New York Times best-seller that discovers how stress influences our clock-on-aging. With a generous 4.7 Amazon review, I found The Stress Prescription to be a worthwhile read.

Here's a brief overview:
The Stress Prescription: Seven Days to More Joy and Ease, by Elissa Epel, PhD
Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, School of Medicine
Reading this book, I found it remarkably user-friendly, and learned new insights on stress. Open the book to almost any page and indulge in bits of wisdom. The point made most helpful, was learning that traumatic life experiences create a new stress threshold or baseline; this threshold dictates how well or how poorly we cope with stress.

Epel explains thoroughly how stress uniquely affects each of us. The goal is to work toward lowering our baseline to a healthy standard of relaxation. We facilitate this process through daily self-care and mind-body wellness.

Additionally, she suggests that we retrain our brains to think differently about potentially stressful situations and outcomes by using acceptance and mindful techniques. Otherwise, our thoughts can turn to negative rumination.

Breathe Into Balance and Relax

2/1/2022

Stress management: A guided video introduction to deep breathing.

A beautiful companion to meditation or a perfect start for a beginner, this proven user-friendly method can be used throughout the day in addition to meditation to relax, reduce stress, and regain your calm in two minutes or less. Learn more at DASAmeditation.com

Hope Rises

1/1/2022

Image credit: Saffu

"There is the mud, and there is the lotus that grows out of the mud. We need the mud in order to make the lotus." —Thich Nhat Hanh

By Lorraine Alexander
Read time 2 minutes 5 seconds
Read the full article Hope Rises

Many of us focus on the broken, undone, or what's missing in life. This message offers hope and the opportunity for a new beginning.

COVID is by far one of the darkest storms we have encountered in our lifetime. And as the crippling effects carry into the third year, it's natural to pause and ask: What will the future hold?

During difficult times, we choose to look through one of two lenses. The first lens is fear, uncertainty, and judgment; the second is a lens of love, acceptance, and hope for the planet and humanity.

Look for a global rise in awareness.
Looking past the chaos of the media, we continue to see an abundance of online courses, books, videos, and articles, directed toward a movement to awaken our consciousness. We see more people speaking out—and reaching out to help their fellow man. This offers us hope that out of this mud, together we will rise to a higher state of being.

For the many of us who believe in a higher power, there is a simple yet profound quote by Thich Nhat Hanh, "No mud, no lotus." In essence, the lotus must transform by rising, struggling upward through the mud to reach a new beginning, a higher level of development, expansion, and growth of awareness.

Now is the time to comfort others by being fully present. Make them smile, say something special, gently reassure them. This is something known as being a "frequency holder," a term coined by Eckhart Tolle.

Learn the Top 12 Stress Management Moves for 2020

9/1/2020

By Lorraine Alexander, September 1, 2020
Read time: 3.5 minutes

The year 2020 delivered countless hardships and disasters, including the COVID-19 pandemic, shelter in place social isolation, civil unrest, economic hurdles, record-breaking climate change including pre-season wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and the most heated presidential election of our time.

During these tragedies, we witnessed the darkest influences of stress take a stronghold in the US. These tough times drew out the best and worst in humanity. Yet our challenges are not behind us. That's why this article offers 12 uncomplicated, manageable strategies that will help you to "keep your cool," and release toxic stress during volatile times.

How can we restore balance in an unpredictable world?
Start with one person at a time beginning with you. The one thing that I'm sure of is this, self-awareness is the passkey to a balanced, happy life. Pay attention to obvious signals of stress. Your body may be calling out for help. Are you listening?

Stress can surface through emotions or manifest in a physical way. To determine if you are experiencing stress overwhelm, ask these following questions:

Do you have trouble sleeping?
Do you lack energy or focus?
Are you feeling unusually tense?
Have you become forgetful?
Are you short-tempered with others?
Have you lost your optimism or the ability to enjoy life?

You can successfully release toxic penned-up stress from the body by combining a variety of the following mind-body practices. The rewards of these 12 self-care practices will depend on the consistency of your routine.

Self-care is like putting the oxygen mask on yourself first, so you can care for others.

COVID-19 In Times of Stress: Seven Anti-Anxiety Strategies

4/2/2020

From the March 10, 2020 DASA Newsletter

We live in uncertain times, especially in the last six months. Historic wildfires due to climate change, adversity in our elections, and with the new global health concern COVID-19, everyone is uneasy.

There is an abundance of "stay-safe" guidelines for the Coronavirus (COVID-19) offered by every news network and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), all vital information to stay healthy.

Medical professionals report that by maintaining a healthy immune system, we add another level of defense against this virus. They advise us to get plenty of sleep and to avoid stress. Yet, stress is the very thing that keeps us from a sound night's sleep.

In my mind, they go hand in hand. Lower your stress and you'll get better sleep. Easy to say, yet difficult to achieve. That is unil now.

Get beyond a time of stress to a place of resilience.

The Wellness of Meditation

7/4/2017

Finding Wellness and Inner Peace

by Lorraine Alexander

Silent mantra meditation has been practiced around the world for over five thousand years, taught from "teachers to student" as a time-honored oral tradition. One might conclude there must be something to be prized in a tradition that has that kind of rich history—and they would be right.

"Over 18 million adults in the U.S. practice meditation."
—National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

In 1975, silent mantra meditation landed the cover of Time Magazine. A full forty-two years later, many forms of meditation have risen up to join the flow of this mainstream movement. It's been a long time coming, and now meditation is here to stay. This shift into acceptance is primarily due to a long list of medical studies proving profound mind-body benefits.

Comparing Meditation Methods? Consider DASA Meditation

8/6/2016

Submitted by guest blogger "Grasshopper"

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Flipping a coin or using "eeny, meeny, miny, moe," or another random selection method is not the way you should choose your new method of meditation. You should be looking for a method that works for you, a method that fits you like a glove. There are many fine, effective methods to choose from. Take the time to understand the variables, and how the methods differ.

Boost Your Golden Years With Meditation

1/18/2016

Boost Your Golden Years with Meditation

image © buso23/bigstock
Model used for illustration purposes only.

By Lorraine Alexander

50+ - It's Your Time to Shine.

If you're over 50, according to AARP you’ve arrived. You’re officially in the beginning of your golden years. If you fit into this age group, you might view meditation as a somewhat abstract practice. You might even say, "I’m too old to try something new like that." You could be afraid, assuming it is difficult to learn, or you might worry that you could never contort your body into that pretzel-like lotus position.

Catching the Zen Zone - Why Top Companies Embrace Meditation

12/16/2015

Catching the Zen Zone, just say

image © mtsaride/fotolia

Written by Lorraine Alexander

"If you build it, he will come." ~ Field of Dreams 1989

Watching old movies on a rainy day is one of my favorite things to do. One recent Saturday, I watched a rerun of the classic 1989 flick "Field of Dreams." We all remember the famous line “If you build it, he will come.” That's when Iowa corn farmer Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) starts hearing voices. The movie was not only about following your dreams - but also about realizing your potential. It reminded me about meditation, and how the practice directly links each of us to realize our potential. From there, we naturally become our best in our business environment as well.

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Celebrating 50 Years

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