Crushed by Stressors: Cultivating Healthy Responses
Cynthia Knapp Dlugosz, BSPharm, NBC-HWC - Solopreneur and Owner of Being in Balance Coaching and Artemis Health Care Communications - and Elizabeth Buckley, PharmD, CDCES\xa0- Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Concordia University Wisconsin \u2014 talk to us about threats to our well-being and self-care practices.\nKey Lessons:\nWe are surrounded by stressors that adversely impact our sense of well-being.\nThe ubiquitous use of technology has increased the demands on our attention.\nThe pillars of well-being based on research from the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are: Awareness, Connection, Insight, and Purpose.\nMuch of our dissatisfaction and psychological suffering stems from our desire to push away or change the unpleasantness in our lives.\nMindfulness is a state of being where we are attentive in the present moment with receptivity, non-judgment, and compassion with what arises.\nMeditation and yoga are practices that cultivate our ability to be mindful - our ability to be more attentive, receptive, less judgmental, and compassionate.\nGratitude increases our happiness. Those with the least material wealth are often able to recognize and express gratitude for the blessings in their lives but anyone can learn to be more grateful.\nHealth professionals feel acutely stressed today because the environmental demands are beyond their ability to successfully cope due to unpredictability, uncontrollability, and overload.\nOrganizations have a responsibility to implement strategies to address the environmental demands and the underlying causes of stress.\nResources and Books:\nCenter for Healthy Minds, the University of Wisconsin-Madison\nBrown B.\xa0 Atlas of the Heart.\xa0 Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience.\xa0 New York: Random House, 2021.\nMoss J.\xa0 The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How to Fix It.\xa0 Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2021