REDUCE STRESS AND INCREASE JOY BY BRINGING YOUR MIND INTO THE MOMENT BY JESSICA NATALE WOOLLARD
Lynne Mustard, a Saanich-based MBSR facilitator, demonstrates mindfulness by the fountains on Humboldt Street. 18
PHOTO BY DON DENTON
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T’S 10,000 BC AND A SABRE-TOOTHED cat is chasing you. Your heart’s thumping, your adrenaline’s flowing, your muscles are responding. The alarm reaction, the physiological fight or flight response that prepares us to battle or bolt in times of stress, is switched on, giving you the surge of strength needed to flee those ferocious fangs or grab your spear and scrap. Without our internal alarm system, you would not be reading this today — no human would be. In 2014, feral felines don’t threaten human survival, but try telling your brain that. Our brains identify modern stressers — work pressure, relationship issues, past events and money worries — as the sabre-toothed cats of modernity, and the brain launches the stress response readily and automatically. But prolonged arousal in the fight or flight state — known as chronic stress — leads to physical and psychological unease that takes its toll on body and mind.