Stress Management Skills for Real Life

Stress is a normal, natural part of life and our meditation practices aren't meant to eradicate it. They can, however, help us befriend our emotions, understand our internal stories, and enjoy sweet moments more thoroughly. In this course, we work with mindfulness, an exploration of how the nervous system works (and its relationship with trauma), the core beliefs we may not realize we hold about ourselves and the world, how stress tends to manifest in our food practices, and ways to focus on (and increase) pleasure and joy in our lives.

Lección 1: Lesson One: Mindfulness

In this lesson, we talk about mindfulness not simply as a meditation technique, but as a way of working with our thoughts, feelings, and everyday experiences. Don't forget to add your questions and thoughts into the course Classroom where I can see and respond to them!

Lección 2: Mindfulness Meditation

In this meditation, we put the mindfulness practice into action. This simple meditation is all about noticing what's happening with compassion and without judgment. You can do it anytime. Don't forget to post questions, comments, and thoughts in the Classroom area of the course!

Lección 3: Lesson Two: The Nervous System

This lesson is all about the nervous system and how it relates to our experience of stress. Understanding how this works can help us get a handle on how our bodies are responding to stress and some of the options we have to regulate our system.

Lección 4: Meditation For Soothing The Nervous System

In this meditation, we'll explore some ways to calm the nervous system and allow the body to enter the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the "rest and digest" state where the immune system can activate and digestion can regulate, among many other benefits.

Lección 5: Lesson Three: Core Beliefs

In this lesson, we work with the concept of core beliefs: deeply held unconscious beliefs about ourselves. We explore some of the ideas of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in order to uncover and work with our core beliefs so we can switch to a more adaptive way of handling stress when it arises.

Lección 6: Meditation: Compassion Practice

In this meditation, we work with compassion as a major antidote to difficult unconscious core beliefs. When we can access compassion for others, we're likelier to be able to apply it to ourselves, even when our core beliefs about ourselves are far from compassionate to begin with. Don't forget to add your thoughts and questions to the Classroom area of the course!

Lección 7: Lesson Four: Befriending Darkness

In this lesson, we explore the concept that we could embrace, honor, and learn from the wisdom of darker emotions like anger and sadness. If we can become friends with those darker emotions and can know what to do with them, they no longer cause us so much stress. Don't forget to add your thoughts and questions to the Classroom area so I can see and respond to them!

Lección 8: Meditation On Befriending Darkness: Anger Practice

This meditation explores a Buddhist practice of inviting an emotion into your body and then separating from the story of the emotion so that you can feel it more purely in your body. From there, we may have the opportunity to learn something from the emotion rather than trying to suppress or reject it. We focus specifically on anger here, but you can do this with any emotion.

Lección 9: Lesson Five: Food And Relationship

In this lesson, we explore food, stress, and relationships. We talk about how food works in relationship to our nervous systems and guidance around eating in a way that supports your general health and wellness. This is a big topic, and there are references in this lesson to sexuality and disordered eating, so be gentle with yourself when you're listening and feel free to skip this lesson if it feels unsafe for you in any way.

Lección 10: Meditation On Loving The Belly

This meditation explores sitting with and loving our bellies exactly as they are, for everything they do for us and everything we've been through. We also work a little bit with the chakra energy centers that exist in the belly. Explore how it feels for you to be with your belly and think and feel about it.

Lección 11: Lesson Six: Pleasure Practices

In our final lesson, we talk about pleasure, which isn't as simple as it sounds. Opening to darkness and the present moment can be difficult, but it can also open the door to feeling joy and pleasure. Opening to pleasure sometimes also opens us to darker emotions sitting there just behind it. Enjoyment is a practice and it's very worth working on.

Lección 12: Meditation: Moments Of Sweetness

This is one of my favorite meditation practices and I wanted to end our course on this sweet note. Here, we practice sitting with the concept of something sweet, pleasurable, or enjoyable and explore what that's like. Getting better at experiencing sweetness means it's easier to find in our day-to-day lives, making our general experience of life happier, healthier, and more enjoyable. I'd love to hear more about how this course was for you and any remaining questions or thoughts. Don't forget to post your thoughts in the Classroom area of this course!

Reviews

Julie’s approach to stress feels kind, gentle, genuine, and relatable. She brings together a neuroscience understanding, a compassionate empathy, and an embodied practice to engage the mind, heart, and body.

I enjoyed the insights, experiences, and practices that Julie offered in a gentle voice and relaxed tone that felt easy and approachable.

I find it helpful that the course alternates between focused learning and guided meditations. I feel like I am able to come back to the more lengthy information sessions and/or the shorter guided meditations as I like.

Julie shares her own experiences with anxiety and stress in a way that feels honest and vulnerable—putting abstract concepts into the context of real life. Her perspective combines the genuine authenticity of having struggled with life’s challenges while having also learned how to transcend them through daily practices of self-compassion. This course feels like listening to the voice of wisdom and healing that invites my soul to experience an embodiment of loving-kindness.