Stressed-out or Centered? Choose the one that Feels Right

     We've all been stressed-out – feeling like a fearful little kid, alone, lost in a big dangerous world. We’ve also seen young children crying like their world has collapsed because they broke a favorite toy. This brings out the wise loving grandparent in us, as we smile at the child’s minor temporary upset and console them lovingly, knowing that everything will be fine. In this mode we feel centered: peaceful, relaxed, loving - radically different from stressed.
     As adults, we can be in either mode. Most stressful situations today only threaten our ego, not our survival, so we can usually allow ourselves to become lost children for a while - or even for life. But in life-or-death emergencies, we become instantly, automatically centered because we simply can’t afford to be anything less than calm, clear, focused, effective, and efficient.
     Many of us mistakenly believe that being stressed-out, multitasking, sleep-deprived, running on caffeine, etc is unavoidable, even normal throughout life for responsible health-care professionals. While being stressed-out is indeed common, it’s mostly unnecessary, inefficient, ineffective, and compromises everyone’s quality of life - ours, our loved ones’, colleagues’, and even your patients’. 
     Developmental psychology models of healthy adult maturation involve: leaving behind stressed-out (egocentric) states, and progressively maturing toward a centered (hypo-egoic, allocentric & ecocentric) way of being.
     Is there a way I can ensure that this healthy adult maturation process or evolution in consciousness actually takes place for me, in my lifetime? How can I learn to intentionally, when needed, switch to a centered way of being? Is there a way of letting go of being stressed-out and all the negative things that go with it, and learn to establish an increasingly stable home base in this centered state?
     Mindfulness practices eg mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), started at UMass Medical Center by Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD in 1979, are secular, evidence-based mind-body exercises, specifically designed to facilitate this journey for healthy providers of care as well as for patients.

     See also: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/04/311-fearful-child-wise-grandparent-were.html