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 - Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Concordia University Wisconsin — talk to us about threats to our well-being and self-care practices.

Key Lessons:

• We are surrounded by stressors that adversely impact our sense of well-being.
• The ubiquitous use of technology has increased the demands on our attention.
• The 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.
• Much of our dissatisfaction and psychological suffering stems from our desire to push away or change the unpleasantness in our lives.
• Mindfulness is a state of being where we are attentive in the present moment with receptivity, non-judgment, and compassion with what arises.
• Meditation and yoga are practices that cultivate our ability to be mindful - our ability to be more attentive, receptive, less judgmental, and compassionate.
• Gratitude 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.
• Health professionals feel acutely stressed today because the environmental demands are beyond their ability to successfully cope due to unpredictability, uncontrollability, and overload.
• Organizations have a responsibility to implement strategies to address the environmental demands and the underlying causes of stress.

Resources and Books:

Center for Healthy Minds, the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Brown B.  Atlas of the Heart.  Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience.  New York: Random House, 2021.

Moss J.  The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How to Fix It.  Boston: Harvard Business Press, 2021