HeartMath Responds to Global Stress with Free De-Stress Kit for Changing Times
The Institute of HeartMath (IHM), a recognized leader in stress research and education, has long been committed to helping people around the world and now is responding to the extraordinary challenges so many face: The institute and sister company HeartMath LLC initiated a mass distribution of its new and by all accounts widely popular booklet, De-Stress Kit for the Changing Times - at no cost.
Ferndale, WA (PRWEB) January 8, 2009
The unprecedented global stress momentum has given rise to a crisis of emotions that is gripping people around the world as they struggle to cope with their frustrations, anxieties and fears in the wake of financial chaos, crippling hunger, widespread poverty, extreme violence and declared and undeclared wars on multiple continents.
The Institute of HeartMath (IHM), a recognized leader in stress research and education, has long been committed to helping people around the world and now is responding to the extraordinary challenges so many face: The institute and sister company HeartMath LLC initiated a mass distribution of its new and by all accounts widely popular booklet, De-Stress Kit for the Changing Times (http://www. heartmath. org/destresskit) - at no cost.
"When a significant crisis happens, such as the current economic upheaval that is affecting so many, our stress tolerance level depletes from initial shock and emotional pain," IHM founder Doc Childre explains in the pro bono De-Stress Kit, which he has offered to the global community. "Thousands are in similar situations during these changing times. Together we can all move through this and help create a world that is more fair and balanced for 'we the people.'"
Childre and others associated with HeartMath note that the financial shock felt on Wall Street and around the world in late 2008 precipitated a tremendous spike in the stress wave that already was threatening the emotional stability of families and even entire nations. Well before the financial collapse and other calamitous events at the end of the year, the pervasiveness of stress around the planet was widely studied and discussed.
A Beijing survey reported that 60% of China's white-collar workers suffer from stress at work and home - 44% saying they were "quite stressed" and 16% "highly stressed." In Great Britain, 13.6% of workers said their jobs were "very or extremely stressful," according to the 2007 Psychosocial Working Conditions survey. Studies in Russia cite stress as a major cause of poor public health. In the United States, where stress is studied more perhaps than anywhere in the world, a survey released in 2007 by the American Psychological Association reported that 77% of people polled experienced physical symptoms because of stress during the month prior to the survey: Among the symptoms cited in the Stress in America survey, 51% reported fatigue, 44% headache, 34% upset stomach, 30% muscle tension, 23% change in appetite and 17% teeth grinding. Seventy-three percent of the survey respondents reported some type of psychological, emotional or physical symptom: irritability or anger, 50%; feeling nervous, 45%; lack of energy, 45%; and feeling like crying, 36%. Almost half of adults said stress caused them to lie awake at times in the previous month and that they regularly lost an average of 21 hours sleep per month because of it.
For nearly 17 years, central to the Institute of HeartMath's mission of promoting heart-based living has been its research and educational programs for helping people control stress and manage their emotions. Now the urgency of the world's current challenges has IHM on a more immediate mission, says IHM Director of Research Rollin McCraty, Ph. D.
"Our goal is to put the De-Stress Kit in the hands of at least 1 million people around the world by the end of this year," he said. "Tens of thousands of people have already downloaded the e-booklet or received it from their employer and many of them, along with a number of organizations, have donated time and resources aimed at getting it to countless others.
Bruce Cryer, President and CEO of HeartMath LLC, commented, "We are especially inspired about the potential this booklet has to positively impact the lives of those who receive it. We've already heard many heartfelt stories of people who are hurting and have been touched and helped in practical ways by its suggestions and specific practices."
In the space of the month that De-Stress Kit for the Changing Times has been circulating in the United States and many other countries, the number of people receiving and embracing it appears to have grown rapidly, HeartMath officials say. They admit, however, that they haven't been able to track actual numbers because of the voluminous number of copies that have been sent over the Internet by family members, friends, co-workers and public and private organizations, among many others.
Printed originally in English, The Kit also is available in Spanish and soon will be translated into Japanese and Chinese, according to HeartMath officials, with additional translations planned as people in other countries request it in their own languages.
Among the flurry of activity surrounding The Kit thus far - it's been all over the Internet, personal and organizational Web site, blogs, Facebook and MySpace pages; the American Institute of Stress' home page; and the personal Web site of a businesswoman who sent it in her e-mail database of 2,000 contacts. Hospitals have sent it out to their entire staffs. An employee benefits firm provided it to hundreds of client organizations with hundreds of thousands of employees, a Missouri cardiac center gave it to all patients and their families, and because of the time of year, a great number of people included it as a gift to friends, family and others on their holiday greeting-card lists.
"Reduce comparing now with the way it was." This preface to the last of 14 practices The Kit recommends seems an apropos mantra for the tens of millions whose lives were so dramatically altered in the fall of 2008.
A download is available for free from the IHM Web site, www. heartmath. org]], for anyone in the world who desires a copy of De-Stress Kit for the Changing Times.
About the Institute of HeartMath®:
The Institute of HeartMath, www. heartmath. org]], is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to teaching the principles of heart-based living around the world and promoting global coherence by inspiring people to connect with the intelligence and guidance of their hearts. IHM, founded in 1991 by Doc Childre, is a world leader in stress reduction and emotion management research. Through its research and education divisions, the institute has developed practical tools, educational programs and services - collectively known as the HeartMath System - for the mental, emotional and physical benefit of children through seniors without regard to their social, economic or cultural status. IHM research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals such as American Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, Preventive Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.
About HeartMath LLC®:
HeartMath LLC, www. heartmath. com]], a wholly owned subsidiary of Quantum Intech (http://www. quantumintech. com/)], is a cutting-edge performance company providing a range of unique services, products, and technology to improve health and well-being, while dramatically reducing stress and boosting performance and productivity. They are known worldwide for their award-winning programs and technologies for stress reduction. HeartMath's organizational and healthcare clients include NASA, BP, Duke University Health System, Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Business School, Unilever, and Cisco Systems, as well as dozens of school systems and thousands of health professionals in the US, Australia, and Europe.
Media contact:
Gabriella "Gaby" Boehmer
(831) 338-8710
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