Lesson 1 provides a framework for this course and begins with a very short meditation and then an invitation to observe how stress shows up in your life. We begin to explore the difference between short term versus chronic stress, I offer a teaser into the three tools that you will be learning to use in your daily life, and I share why this topic of stress is near and dear to my heart. We end with another very short meditation that you can use any time to help interrupt the stress response. (13:35 minutes)

Lesson 2 begins by distinguishing between stressors in your life and your stress response. We explore the physiology of the stress response and learn about why stress can be like a “false alarm.” By understanding what is happening in one’s body, this empowers you to have more choices available to you. We discuss the four components of the stress response, the importance of re-setting, and the concept of learning how to listen to the “false alarm” in a helpful way. (11:20 minutes)

In lesson 3 we learn how we are wired to operate on “automatic pilot,” and how to use the tool of the flashlight to bring mindful awareness to our automatic, habitual patterns of stress. This awareness, so simple and yet not so easy, creates choice for us to respond in new ways. We end with a discussion about how this simple tool can help to rewire our brains to react to stress differently. (11:56 minutes)

In lesson 4 we delve more deeply into how we can use the flashlight in our ordinary day to interrupt our stress response and to pay attention to what is most needed in the moment. We learn about how a mindful pause can have important, positive, physiological consequences, and why it can be an effective antidote to chronic stress. (11:29 minutes)

In this lesson, we explore how you can bring informal moments of mindfulness practice into your day and why this can be so beneficial. We also explore how to hit the reset button through the use of the Three Minute Mindful Pause. I invite you to come up with a plan for how you might begin to use both of these practices in your daily life. (12:33 minutes)

This lesson offers an introduction to using the tool of “the diet”. We discuss the power of our thoughts and how they play a key role in our experience of stress. We learn how we can co-create our stress, and how mental rehearsals and mental reruns contribute to stress. We end with a short thought experiment. (10:46 minutes)

We begin this lesson with another short thought experiment which many people find enlightening. We explore unhelpful thought patterns and common thought traps that contribute to stress. You will learn about strategies to begin to feed yourself a healthier diet of thoughts that can have a positive impact on your experience of stress. (10:03 minutes)

In lesson 8 we learn about how the “magnifying glass” is an essential tool for cultivating positive experiences, and why our primitive brains make this difficult to do. We learn some simple ways to turn on the positivity circuitry in our brain, and I share some stories that will illustrate the Velcro problem and the Magnifying Glass in action. (11:48 minutes)