with Valerie York-Zimmerman
The South Florida Behavioral Health Network (DBA Thriving Mind South Florida) held their groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery on May 31. The 208-bed center, located at 2200 NW 7th Avenue in Miami, is designed to offer high-quality treatment and a full continuum of care.
READ MORE IN SOUTH FLORIDA HOSPITAL NEWS
In loving memory and honor of my first MBSR teacher Ferris Buck Urbanowski who passed away on March 29, 2019. An early student of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, she was among the first practitioners of Mindfulness-Based Meditation in the U.S. For years she worked with her friend Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn as the Director of Training, Center for Mindfulness, UMass Medical Center. Ferris taught at many spiritual centers, universities, and professional institutions including Tufts, Harvard, Pepperdine, Omega Center, as well as in Canada, Wales and Denmark.
U.S. Representative Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, a 2020 candidate for president and advocate for mindfulness, said in his book, “A Mindful Nation”:
“For a very small investment, we can prevent tragic future costs and heartaches in our communities. How much will we save in preventing substance abuse? How much we will save in preventing suicides and mass shootings because children feel isolated and alone? My goal is to get us to focus more on mental health and well-being in the most important asset we have in America – well-functioning human beings.”
More: TimRyanForAmerica.com
Excerpted from … https://www.ecofarmingdaily.com/farmers-mindfulness-health/
Farming is tough on the body, and it can also take a toll on the mind. I’ve been a farmer for over six years now and not once has the job been less than physically and emotionally demanding. Before pursuing farming as my chosen career, I worked in a number of professions that exacted their own price from my body, including landscaping and cooking in professional kitchens. None of these jobs came close to matching the exhaustion I’ve felt after a hard day on the farm.
…
If you picture a whole farmer health regimen as a stone arch, mindfulness is the keystone that holds it all together. On one side, the arch is made up of our physical practices such as diet and exercise, and on the other side are mental practices such as education and bookkeeping. Mindfulness helps keep us in the moment, focused on what is needed in the present.
…
My friend and neighbor Tracy Hovde is a professional yoga instructor and part-time farmer with her partner, Mark Triebold. They run Lazy I Ranch, raising cattle on 80 acres just a few miles down the road from my farm. Mark bought the property 10 years ago and started raising Highland cattle six years ago. Tracy brings her yogic perspective to raising their cattle.
…
I spoke to Tracy in September 2016 about her thoughts on how farmers can keep their bodies and minds healthy and what it is like to raise cattle and practice yoga in the countryside:
Like most people, I started yoga for purely physical reasons. I started a regular yoga practice when I was a dancer. The physical demands of dancing were extreme, and I wasn’t taking good care of myself. I was burned out and was constantly injured.
I found that the Vinyasa classes offered at the gym I worked at as a massage therapist satisfied my need to move, and did so in a way that didn’t strain my body. Now yoga is less about the postures and more about the way I live, the way I view the world around me and my place in it.
My goal is always to bring balance. I never know what that means until my students walk into the room and I see how they are walking, their mood, what are they talking about, their energy level, etc. I also factor in things like season, weather and time of day. I use different breathing exercises (Pranayama), poses and specific sequencing of poses, as well as different styles of yoga to help shift their energy toward balance.
—
Read the full article at EcoFarmingDaily.com:
https://www.ecofarmingdaily.com/farmers-mindfulness-health/
By Andrew French. This article appeared in the April 2017 issue of Acres U.S.A. magazine. Andrew French is a livestock farmer and permaculture designer based in western Wisconsin working on developing a viable model of regenerative pig farming from farrow to finish using a whole systems design approach. He can be reached at fullboarfarm@gmail.com. Visit fullboarfarm.com for more information.
CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN, D-OHIO
Published May 1, 2018 Copyright (c) 2018 The Miami Herald
Congressman Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat, recently visited several inner city schools in Miami-Dade to raise awareness on the importance of using the Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Program as a tool to combat stress, aggression, bullying and school violence.
Ryan visited the Academy for International Education in Miami Springs, Mater Academy of International Studies in Miami, and Arcola Lakes Elementary School in Liberty City. His visit was organized by Valerie York-Zimmerman, founder of Miami Mindfulness, which provides professional training of the program to teachers and counselors, who then teach students in the classroom. The training aims to increase attention and academic achievement, reduce stress and increase performance, improve impulse control and increase teaching time in classrooms, develop emotional regulation and teach students to respond instead of reacting, and build empathy and compassion.
“For a very small investment, we can prevent tragic future costs and heartaches in our communities. How much will we save in preventing substance abuse? How much will we save in preventing suicides and mass shootings because children feel isolated and alone? My goal is to get us to focus more on mental health and well-being in the most important asset we have in America — well-functioning human beings,” Ryan said.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article210238134.html#
JOIN US NOW IN A CALL TO ACTION!
Support Mindfulness-Based Programs in Your School to Improve Mental Health and Reduce Stress, Bullying & Violence.
Berger Singerman Law Firm, 1450 Brickell Avenue #1900, Miami FL
Monday, April 23, 2018, 5:30 until 7:30 p.m.
In 2015, 16.1 million Americans reported experiencing major depression during the previous year, often struggling to function while grappling with crippling darkness and despair.
There’s an arsenal of treatments at hand, including talk therapy and antidepressant medications, but what’s depressing in itself is that they don’t work for every patient.
“Many people don’t respond to the frontline interventions,” said Benjamin Shapero, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Depression Clinical and Research Program. “Individual cognitive behavioral therapy is helpful for many people; antidepressant medications help many people. But it’s also the case that many people don’t benefit from them as well. There’s a great need for alternative approaches.”
Shapero is working with Gaëlle Desbordes, an instructor in radiology at HMS and a neuroscientist at MGH’s Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, to explore one alternative approach: mindfulness-based meditation.
In recent decades, public interest in mindfulness meditation has soared. Paralleling, and perhaps feeding, the growing popular acceptance has been rising scientific attention. The number of randomized controlled trials — the gold standard for clinical study — involving mindfulness has jumped from one in the period from 1995‒1997 to 11 from 2004‒2006, to a whopping 216 from 2013‒2015, according to a recent article summarizing scientific findings on the subject.
The full article is here:
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/
Monday, April 23, 2018, 5:30 until 7:30 p.m.
YOU ARE INVITED TO MEET CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN (D-OHIO) WHOSE PUBLIC SERVICE IS FOCUSED ON:
long-term economic recovery and growth across the U.S.;
getting people back to work through innovative and high-tech initiatives;
a transformational approach to mental health across America;
Safe Schools that foster learning and healthy students;
a just and mindful approach to criminal justice and immigration;
long-term public policy for our future and environment;
and other important issues impacting our families and our community.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HIS INSPIRED WORK IN EDUCATION – HEALTHCARE – MENTAL HEALTH – CRIMINAL JUSTICE and BUSINESS WITH LEADERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY.
Prior to Reception in his honor, Representative Ryan will visit South Florida inner-city public schools to talk about Safe Schools – Importance of Mental Health – Ending Bullying, Aggression and Violence – Improving Learning Environments – Fostering Happy, Healthy Students.
JOIN US FOR MEANINGFUL DIALOGUE TO CONSIDER WHAT WE CAN DO IN OUR OWN MIAMI and FT. LAUDERDALE COMMUNITIES!
RECEPTION IN HONOR OF CONGRESSMAN TIM RYAN
At the home of SHARON and MITCHELL BERGER
(Founder of South Florida Berger Singerman law offices)
MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2018, 5:30 until 7:30 p.m.
Continue reading “News Release: U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan to Visit Miami-Dade County Public Schools”
Labor organizations estimated that 30% of all work-related illness is due to stress accounting for $6.6 billion of losses in the U.S. alone!
Chronic stress has a serious impact on physical and mental health increasing risk for heart disease, some cancers, diabetes, depression, anxiety, and obesity. According to Mark Bertolini, Chairman and CEO of Aetna, where Mindfulness-Based Programs provided for thousands of Aetna employees nationwide have demonstrated
JOIN LEADING hospitals and health systems, U.S Marine Corps, U.S. Army, Seattle Seahawks, NBA , major corporations and businesses of all kinds in diverse settings like: Google… Aetna… General Mills… IBM… Apple… Ford… Proctor & Gamble… Eileen Fisher… and more
Research in healthcare shows that reducing stress through Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) has a positive impact resulting in:
| • Improved performance | • Better decisions |
| • Reduced costs | • Improved teamwork |
| • Reduced absenteeism | • Improved communication |
| • Better customer satisfaction | • Kinder, happier workplace |
| • Healthier, more fulfilled staff | • Fewer errors, wasted time |