I recently took an eight week mindfulness-based stress reduction course at a local university. The program was developed in 1979 by Jon Kabat-Zinn to help patients manage chronic pain using meditation techniques.
I tend to clench my jaw when something really bugs me. And when I'm mega-stressed my jaw aches constantly. Before the eight weeks were up, my jaw pain had disappeared. I plan to keep on keeping on with the meditation...it's a good thing.
During the course our instructor Keith Urban (no not THAT Keith Urban), included many a helpful handout. One of my favorites was all about the benefits of hanging out with my girlfriends. As if I didn't already know that...but it's always fun to have my genius confirmed.
UCLA Study on Friendship Among Women
by Gale Berkowitz (10/29/06)
A landmark UCLA study suggests friendships between women are special. They shape who we are and who we are yet to be. They soothe our tumultuous inner world, fill the emotional gaps in our marriage, and help us remember who we really are. By the way, they may do even more.
Scientists now suspect that hanging out with our friends can actually counteract the kind of stomach-quivering stress most of us experience on a daily basis. A landmark UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress with a cascade of brain chemicals that cause us to make and maintain friendships with other women.
It's a stunning find that has tuned five decades of stress research -- most of it on men -- upside down. "Until this study was published, scientists generally believed that when people experience stress, they trigger a hormonal cascade that revs the body to either stand and fight or flee as fast as possible," explains Laura Cousino Klein, Ph.D., now an Assistant Professor of Biobehaviorial Health at Penn State University and one of the study's authors. "It's an ancient survival mechanism left over from the time we were chased across the planet by saber-toothed tigers."
Click here to view a PDF of the entire paper...(From a website called DAMESbond...ya gotta love that!)
Confirming what we already know to be true -
Ms. G.E. Witch
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