Superhero Traits: Part 3 – Mindfulness & Stress

Originally posted on  http://blog.ambronite.com/post/168219856115.

The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.

? Jon Kabat-Zinn

Even superheroes need to slow down sometimes?

We’re back again with another article in the Ambronite Superhero Series series, where we take a deep dive into the traits and characteristics that make up a modern day superhero.

Last time around we covered human movement. We looked at how the way we move (and how often we choose to do so) can impact our quality of life and the path we are able to take.

This time, we’re shifting away from the physical body and more into the mental space (although the two are very much interchangeable and interconnected).

We’ll examine the relationships we harbour with our minds and the surrounding environment. We’ll explore the built-in human stress response and all its weird and wonderful pros and cons.

And perhaps most importantly, we’ll look at actionable tips and ideas that we can all use to find peace, reduce stress, and thrive in the crazy modern world we live in.

Let’s get started, superhero.

The Human Stress Response: Caveman Bodies in a Futuristic World

These days when we talk about stress, we typically frame it in a negative way. To have stress in your life or to be ‘stressed out? is usually thought of as a bad thing.

And for good reasons?

A few facts about stress and stress related illnesses from The Global Organization for Stress include:

• 75% of adults reported experiencing moderate to high levels of stress in the past month and nearly half reported that their stress has increased in the past year American Psychological Association.
• An estimated 442,000 individuals in Britain, who worked in 2007/08 believed that they were experiencing work-related stress at a level that was making them ill Labour Force Survey.
• Approximately 13.7 million working days are lost each year in the UK as a result of work-related illness at a cost of 28.3 billion per year National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

All fairly scary statistics.

But here’s the strange thing…

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