Breaking The Stress Reaction Cycle - by Karim Rushdy

COURSE

Breaking The Stress Reaction Cycle

With Karim Rushdy

Stress shapes all our lives to one degree or another. For the most part, we aren’t even aware of being trapped in a cycle of reactivity around stress that weakens our health and worsens our well-being. Learning to manage our reactions or responses to what our minds and bodies perceive to be stressful has a tremendous bearing on our ability to face adversity and cultivate happiness in our lives. This course comprises three lessons on the realization I’ve had over the past decade that mindfulness can help us break the stress reaction cycle by taking back control of our hardwired reactions and living better in the face of life’s many challenges.

Mindful AwarenessBody ScanHabit Loop AwarenessFull Body AwarenessThought WatchingMindfulnessStressMeditationGroundingParasympathetic Nervous SystemEmbodimentFight Or FlightParasympathetic Nervous System ActivationGrounding PracticeHealthChronic Pain ManagementChronic Stress EffectsSympathetic Nervous SystemPtsdCoping MechanismsMind Body ConnectionThich Nhat HanhPost Traumatic StressMindfulness Exercise

Meet your Teacher

Karim Rushdy
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Karim doesn’t have it all figured out. He lives with chronic pain, navigates the same pressures, doubts and distractions as everyone else, and has found in mindfulness not a cure, but a steadier way of being with all of it. That firsthand experience is what drives his work. Karim is a director at Mindful Peak Performance, working across elite sport and corporate sectors to help people develop the inner qualities that underpin sustainable performance — attention, resilience and a clearer relationship with pressure. MPP also carries a community mission: making mindfulness accessible to marginalised and vulnerable communities who wouldn’t ordinarily encounter it. Beyond MPP, he works with individuals living with chronic pain and stress, and leads drop-in meditation classes for staff, volunteers and parents through CHAS, Scotland’s children’s hospice charity. Karim holds an MA from the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University, is registered with the British Association of Mindfulness-Based Approaches, and serves as a Trustee at Breathworks — the health charity founded by Vidyamala Burch OBE offering mindfulness and compassion-based approaches to people living with chronic pain and illness.

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3 Days

367 students

4.8 stars

9 min / day

Happiness

English

Lesson 1

Adapting To Change

In this lesson, you’ll learn what stress is, and how it plays a fundamental role in your life. Your awareness of how stress shapes your health and well-being is vital if you are to take back control of your hardwired reactions and live better in the face of internal and external stressors in your life.

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Lesson 2

The Automatic Stress Reaction

In this lesson, we explore the four stages of the stress reaction cycle: the automatic stress reaction aka hyperarousal; suppression of the initial reaction a.k.a internalization; self-destructive or maladaptive coping mechanisms and the final, most serious link in the chain - total breakdown.

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Lesson 3

The Mindful Stress Response

In this lesson on stress reactivity, you’ll learn how mindfulness stops the cycle dead in its tracks. The mindful stress response still works with many of the same brain regions and systems in the body as the automatic stress reaction but with profoundly different results. And it all hinges on bringing awareness to stress reactivity moment by moment. This lesson includes a short grounding meditation to practice initiating the mindful stress response.

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4.8 (55)

Recent Reviews

Ana

May 12, 2026

Great course!! Thank you so much for sharing 🙏☀️💖✨

happy

August 20, 2025

super quick lesson in mindfulness helped me day before brain surgery! thank you

Niek

July 24, 2025

Short and sweet little course. It feels satisfactory to finish it in one listening session. I find it to be very informative and usefull in deepening my mindfulness practice.

John

June 3, 2025

A new parts of these things, but have it all so coherently put together was amazing! Thank you!

Sandy

May 31, 2025

Thanks for this awesome course 💫🩵

Beth

May 12, 2025

Excellent course! Important tools to add to your coping skills toolkit.

Torie

May 6, 2025

Great course . Thanks for sharing

Adam

March 1, 2025

Appreciated everything about this short course, including but not limited to the Victor Frankl quotes.

Kat

October 7, 2024

Great short course on stress and being mindful of stress and how to change your response to it.

Rhona

September 14, 2024

Very helpful tips to short circuit the initial stress response.

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