A question was posed out of Yale University: How long does it take to get a dose of nature high enough to make people say they feel healthy and have a strong sense of wellbeing? Stress and anxiety are common experiences for many of us. Minimizing the chronic stress of daily life as much as possible is important for overall health.

10 WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH NATURE AND REDUCE STRESS

1. Add plants and nature pictures to your space.

Whether you’re at the office or home, adding plants and/or pictures of nature may calm your stress. In one study, people who looked at real plants or posters of plants experienced less stress waiting for medical procedures.

2. Listen to nature sounds.

Listening to the sounds of nature may reduce your stress, whether that is live or a recording. One randomized controlled trial recognized stress-reducing effects from listening to water sounds.

3. Take a walk in the park.

Yes, believe it or not, a simple walk in the local park can take your stress levels...

Welcome to a new week of freshness and rejuvenation with our thoughts and mind. We thought it would be encouraging to check-in with one of our amazing RISE Expert Faculty… Dr. Amen! Today, we want to share with you a special acronym coined by Dr. Daniel Amen called ANTS (Automatic Negative Thoughts) which can create an ant infestation of the mind, ruin your day and make you feel bad. Become an Anteater and learn how to control the negative thinking and self-talk eliminating one ANT at a time.

“I have a terrible ant infestation in my house, and there’s a terrible ANT infestation in our country that’s driving anxiety, depression, trauma, and grief. ANTs are the automatic negative thoughts that ruin your day, steal your happiness, and prolong grief. These days, ANTs are everywhere.Do any of these thoughts sound familiar?

“Nothing will ever be the same.”

“Everyone’s going to get COVID and die.”

“The economy is ruined....

We’ve all heard the term, “take a breather” and we most likely have different thoughts about what it really means. What do you think of? Maybe a breathless athlete taking a much-needed water break from a hot, long grueling practice--or maybe an employee waiting for a long-awaited work break. Regardless of the context, we all know how important it is to take “time out” to recover and replenish the energy and oxygen our bodies need to be at our very best. 

Webster’s definition of “a breather” is “a pause for rest” and for today  we will be focusing on how to literally “take a breather” to bring balance back to your life. We look at it as trained tranquility!

Deep breathing is one of the best ways to lower stress in the body. This is because when you breathe deeply, it sends a message to your brain and body to calm down and relax. We look at it as trained...

How are you? How are you feeling? 

No question, it’s been a challenging few weeks for all of us and most likely under the weight of this situation you’ve felt its impact in some area of your life-body, mind, heart and spirit. We wanted to share with you some simple strategies over the coming weeks to help you gain strength to overcome obstacles you may be facing. We have discovered one of the best ways to help you do that is to boost your emotion through “motion”.  

According to fitness researcher, Michael Bracko of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the psychological aspect of exercise has been overlooked for some time now. Bracko states, “The psychological benefits of exercise are as important, if not more so, than the physical benefits. The physical needs and outcomes of exercise, whether it’s to lose weight, tone muscle, or address obesity dominates what we hear about, but lots of people who exercise...