Just like breathing can be both an object of mindfulness and a powerful tool for stress reduction, our smile can too.

In this episode I discuss the stress reducing power of just taking a few intentional diaphragmatic breaths.

Today, for the first (but probably not the last) time, I guide you through a meditation in a live setting. This is a form of traditional Loving Kindness Meditation, known as Metta in the Pali language. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you can do this mediation daily. If you do, you will gain incredible benefits.

Today I cover the physiological impact of compassion exercises in our bodies.

In this first part of stress and compassion, I talk about the emotional, or psychological impact that compassion has on our stress levels.

In this episode I talk about the occupational risk factors for stress so that you have an idea of your risk factor and can observe and investigate for the benefit of your health.

A few points about why we sometimes tend to ignore the signs of stress in our bodies and how mindfulness practices help us identify them.

Today’s practice is an instruction and not a recorded meditation. The instruction is about a gratitude journal and if you do this practice every night the way I describe here, I promise you will feel an enormous difference in your life. If you’d like a written copy of this practice, email me: [email protected]. If you don’t want to write a whole message, simply put ‘gratitude journal’ in the subject line and I’ll shoot the pdf right over to you.

In this episode I talk about the kind of stress that can benefit us vs the kind of stress that damages us.

Morning routines are so important and helpful in stress reduction I would love to hear about yours!