A free class for adults struggling with anxiety, depression, and chronic health issues. Learn a variety of calming techniques to experience a deep relaxation that relieves stress and anxiety.

Experience your innate ability to lower your anxiety levels and reduce the intensity and duration of anxiety symptoms. Learn to recognize how your body reacts to stressful situations, and how to redirect your thoughts so you can allow your body to relax and understand the mind-body connection. By learning relaxation techniques, the physical benefits will also include a slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, calmer breathing, increased blood flow to major muscles, and reduced muscle tension.

In our Mindfulness Relaxation class, you will learn the following relaxation techniques.

GUIDED MEDITATION

Meditation is one of the best tools we have to balance our emotions, deal with physical and psychological stress, and promote a peaceful state of mind in the present moment. By learning how to meditate, you will learn to remove stress and replace it with a dose of inner peace. While meditating on your own requires some effort, especially for beginners, guided meditations walk you through a meditation and help you find a calm and peaceful state—one step at a time.

DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING (BELLY BREATHING)

There are many techniques for relaxing (and no one method is better than the other) but the most basic is deep breathing. One of the body’s automatic reactions to stress is rapid, shallow breathing. By learning to breathe slowly and deeply, you will learn to turn off your stress reaction and turn on your relaxation response.

MINDFULNESS

The psychological process of bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment can be developed through the practice of meditation and other methods. It is the basic human ability to be present and aware of where you are and what you are doing, and to not overly react or become overwhelmed by what is going on around you. Yet no matter how far our minds drift away, mindfulness is always right there to bring our thoughts back to where we are and what we are doing and feeling.

GUIDED IMAGERY

Imagery is slightly different from other stress management techniques as it relies on using all of your five senses. Sometimes known as visualization, guided imagery is a technique in which a person imagines pictures, sounds, smells, and other sensations that make you feel relaxed, peaceful, and happy.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE CLASS

This once-a-month class is held on Monday evening from 6:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.

For further questions or scheduling, please contact our office at (208) 782-3393.