Practical Tools for Reducing Stress and Cultivating Healing NEW
Class | Registration opens 12/6/2026 9:00 AM EDT
Practical Tools for Reducing Stress and Cultivating Healing is a concept of mindfulness and wellness. Stress starts in the brain; the brain is our control center. When the control center detects some form of harm, it signals the body’s stress response. We have tools to reduce and manage the stress; these are learned tools that enable us to shift and manage the reaction called anxiety. Short term emergencies are helpful, but when the brain constantly perceives stress, the activation lasts longer and starts to perceive every event in a fight or flight mode. This is not good. We need tools to enable a shift to calmness. Calmness is our superpower.
In the first six classes we will explore why stress causes worry, fear, overwhelming feelings and irritation. We will look at other brain centers, such as the amygdala.
In the next six classes will be Stress-Management using proven tools that result in calmness, such as the breath method.
Patricia Ann Blackmon
Retired Judge Patricia Ann Blackmon has taught in the Institute for Learning in Retirement (ILR) for fourteen years. For ten years she taught Understanding the System Court in ILR; then she taught the Science of Mindfulness at ILR. When she was a Judge, she taught Mindfulness for Judges. She retired from the 8th District Court of Appeals, Cuyahoga County in 2021 after thirty years on that court. She is on the ILR Board as Recording Secretary and sits on Curriculum Committee.