“Many forms of spirituality try to get rid of thoughts, feelings, and memories - to make the mind blank, as if that were a desirable or spiritual state. But to have the mind blank is not necessarily wise. Instead, it is more helpful to see through thoughts and to recognize that a thought is just a thought, a belief, a memory. Then we can stop binding consciousness of spirit to our thoughts and mental states.”
From: Emptiness Dancing
By Adyashanti
Showing posts with label meditation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meditation. Show all posts
Friday, February 11, 2011
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Quiet, Please...
**********************
When was the last time you were quiet enough
to really feel your pulse, to notice the rhythm of your body,
and hear your heart's messages?
For most of us, it's been a long time, much longer in fact than is good for us. And as a result of not being quiet enough to pay attention to our inner world, we lose touch with the inner messages, both simple and profound, about what decisions are really good for our lives.
Unfortunately, the excuses for not taking the time to be quiet are many. Personally, my primary excuse is that I have too much to do... I'm too busy, there's too much on my plate. But I have recently made a new commitment (I had to re-commit to this one!) to take the time every day to stop, be quiet, and listen to my inner voice.
Which excuses do you use? Below are some typical "yes, buts that I and my workshop participants use to avoid or "forget" to be quiet during the day:
(1) I'm too busy to take time to be quiet, I can't afford the extra time.
Actually, you can't afford *not* to take the extra time. It will save you so much time later if you are still and quiet for a few minutes a day and if you listen to what is right for you.
(2) I don't know how to really be quiet and make it useful.
This is a common complaint - we weren't taught how to make "being quiet" useful for us, so we don't know "how" to be quiet and improve our lives. Sometimes we just need to practice being quiet, and notice the benefits later. In other words, be quiet every day, and don't focus on "usefulness" yet.
(3) It doesn't feel safe to be quiet, I don't like what I hear.
This is a wonderful "tappable" issue of course, because it means that at least one time in your life, when you were quiet, you were very uncomfortable with the "messages" you received. Tapping on this fear of not being safe will move you forward dramatically.
(4) I get bored being quiet. I need to be doing something more "productive."
Yes, this represents our societal value system to be "productive." If we could only realize how "productive" we could be by being quiet and still in our lives. Getting bored? No worries, that's a "tappable" issue as well.
(5) What's the point of being quiet -- I don't see the value.
There are so many "points" of being quiet, the main one being that it's good for your body and soul. Isn't that valuable enough?
(6) It seems like a waste of time, I don't expect it to help me be more successful in my business.
Again, this reflects the hurrying mode we are all in... so we feel compelled not to "waste" any time, and need every minute to be "productive" for our businesses. Nothing could be further from the truth - slowing down and being still and quiet couldn't be a better use of your time, regardless of the business you own.
What if we could actually feel inspired to take time to be quiet and listen to our heart every day?
What if we could start to look forward to these "quiet times" in our day, to cherish and protect these times of stillness and self-reflection.
What if we committed to ourselves that we would take a few minutes every day to listen to our heart... I wonder how much would improve in our lives...
Why aren't you already taking time
to be still and quiet every day to listen
and respect what your heart is telling you?
In spite of my sporadic commitment to "being quiet" -- I have found so many benefits of being quiet and listening to my heart's wisdom. Here is my "top ten" list of benefits of being quiet and listening to what's going on inside...
(1) Being quiet allows you to access your heart's wisdom.
We all have incredible wisdom available to us, but we can't access what we don't take time to hear.
(2) Being quiet slows down your racing energy from the tasks of the day.
We all need a rest, a break from the high intensity pace we move at during the day.
(3) Being quiet actually helps you solve the problems that are taking up so much of your energy.
If we don't listen to our inner wisdom, we can't solve the problems of our lives.
(4) Allowing yourself time to be quiet slows down your reactivity... helps you be more measured when there are crisis situations.
Wouldn't it be nice to be less reactive in your life? Wouldn't it be a relief to be more useful in a crisis situation?
(5) Taking time to be still and quiet gets your body's rhythms back in sync... you'll feel more calm, centered and strong.
Stress from all parts of our lives creates tension and we tend to override the messages we should be paying attention to. Taking the time to be still and quiet slows this process down so you can feel more centered physically and emotionally.
(6) Taking time to be quiet and listen to your internal wisdom raises your vibration immediately.
Remember, that's the name of the game -- we want to find new ways to raise our vibration so the Universe "notices" that we are joyful and can interpret what we want.
(7) Being quiet allows you to be able to access your creative voice which is good for your business and personal life.
I love being creative (see my newsletter from a few weeks ago, "More Creativity, Please...") because it helps me personally and professionally. I seem to "hear" better ideas, execute them more elegantly, and overall, feel more peaceful about my life.
(8) Being quiet helps you focus on what you do want, not what you don't want.
Sometimes in the busy day, we are more focused on what we are trying to fix rather than on what we want to manifest. Being quiet helps us remember what we do want.
(9) Allowing yourself time to be quiet gives you emotional relief from the daily static and stress of your life.
Any time we are adding "relief" to our day, we are raising our vibration and allowing ourselves to manifest more abundance.
(10) Being quiet... is, well, quiet and restful, and being quiet and restful is good for all the systems in your body and your mind.
When you take care of your immune system, your body/mind connection and the balance in your life, you will be more successful in every part of your life.
The important question is:
Are you worth it?
This "habit" of taking time to be quiet should be right up there with sleeping, brushing your teeth and tapping... so why isn't it on your daily schedule?
It's your choice...
Choose to put aside time to be still and quiet,
to listen to and respect your inner wisdom
Friday, January 1, 2010
Prayer/Meditation, Dalai Lama
May the poor find wealth,
Those weak with sorrow find joy.
May the forlorn find new hope,
Constant happiness and prosperity.
May the frightened cease to be afraid,
And those bound be free.
May the weak find power,
And may their hearts join in friendship.
Those weak with sorrow find joy.
May the forlorn find new hope,
Constant happiness and prosperity.
May the frightened cease to be afraid,
And those bound be free.
May the weak find power,
And may their hearts join in friendship.
Taken from, 'An Open Heart' (2001)
Happy New Year, Welcome 2010!!!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Meditation and Cardiac Benefits
November 20, 2009, 12:47 pm
Can Meditation Curb Heart Attacks?
By RONI CARYN RABINRichard Patterson for The New York Times Recent research suggests transcendental meditation may be good for the heart.
When Julia Banks was almost 70, she took up transcendental meditation. She had clogged arteries, high blood pressure and too much weight around the middle, and she enrolled in a clinical trial testing the benefits of meditation.
Now Mrs. Banks, 79, of Milwaukee, meditates twice a day, every day, for 20 minutes each time, setting aside what she calls “a little time for myself.”
“You never think you’ve got that time to spare, but you take that time for yourself and you get the relaxation you need,” said Mrs. Banks, who survived a major heart attack and a lengthy hospitalization after coronary artery bypass surgery six years ago.
“You have things on your mind, but you just blot it out and do the meditation, and you find yourself being more graceful in your own life,” she said. “You find out problems you thought you had don’t exist — they were just things you focused on.”
Could the mental relaxation have real physiological benefits? For Mrs. Banks, the study suggests, it may have. She has gotten her blood pressure under control, though she still takes medication for it, and has lost about 75 pounds.
Findings from the study were presented this week at an American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Fla. They suggest that transcendental meditation may have real therapeutic value for high-risk people, like Mrs. Banks, with established coronary artery disease.
After following about 200 patients for an average of five years, researchers said, the high-risk patients who meditated cut their risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from all causes roughly in half compared with a group of similar patients who were given more conventional education about healthy diet and lifestyle.
Among the roughly 100 patients who meditated, there were 20 heart attacks, strokes and deaths; in the comparison group, there were 32. The meditators tended to remain disease-free longer and also reduced their systolic blood pressure by five millimeters of mercury, on average.
“We found reduced blood pressure that was significant – that was probably one important mediator,” said Dr. Robert Schneider, director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention, a research institute based at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, who presented the findings. The study was conducted at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, in collaboration with the institute.
An earlier study of high-risk Milwaukee residents, many of them overweight or obese, also found transcendental meditation, along with conventional medications, could help reduce blood pressure. Most of those in the study had only high-school educations or less, about 40 percent smoked and roughly half had incomes of less than $10,000 a year.
The participants found transcendental meditation easy to learn and practice, Dr. Schneider said.
“Fortunately, it does not require any particular education and doesn’t conflict with lifestyle philosophy or beliefs; it’s a straightforward technique for getting deep rest to the mind and body,” he said, adding that he believes the technique “helps to reset the body’s own self-repair and homeostatic mechanism.”
Dr. Schneider said other benefits of meditation might follow from stress reduction, which could cause changes in the brain that cut stress hormones like cortisol and dampen the inflammatory processes associated with atherosclerosis.
“What is it about stress that causes cardiovascular disease?” said Dr. Theodore Kotchen, associate dean for clinical research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. “Hormones, neural hormones, cortisol, catecholamines — all tend to be elevated in stress. Could they in some way be contributing to cardiovascular disease? Could a reduction in these hormones with meditation be contributing to reduction in disease? We can only speculate.”
Another recent study focusing on transcendental meditation, published in The American Journal of Hypertension, focused on a young healthy population. It found that stressed-out college students improved their mood through T.M., and those at risk for hypertension were able to reduce their blood pressure. Dr. Schneider was also involved in that study, which was carried out at American University in Washington and included 298 students randomly assigned to either a meditation group or a waiting list.
Students who were at risk of hypertension and practiced meditation reduced systolic blood pressure by 6.3 millimeters of mercury and their diastolic pressure by 4 millimeters of mercury on average.
Friday, September 18, 2009
A Year of Guided Meditations, Daily Om Offering
Daily Om's A Year of Guided Meditations: the collection is a series of 52 guided meditations featuring profoundly positive principles and ways of becoming your highest self. Every week for a year, you will receive a new guided meditation spoken in a soothing voice along with a beautiful musical background and stunning video images of a nature. These high-powered Be-Attitudes are ideals and values to strive for. Each meditation is about a minute long and is spoken in the I AM tense with the understanding that as you repeat it or internally absorb it along with the spoken word, you are coming that much closer to actualizing the idea within you, in the present tense, at this moment. By speaking as if you are already embodying the principle, you are not waiting for it to manifest at a future time and it can truly manifest within you – in the Now.
This is offered with a sliding fee as low as $10! And there are numerous *free* offerings when you enroll in the course.
Link:
A Year of Guided Meditations
This is offered with a sliding fee as low as $10! And there are numerous *free* offerings when you enroll in the course.
Link:
A Year of Guided Meditations
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Workplace Yoga And Meditation Lowers Stress
Yoga and Meditation at Work reduces stress and improves sleep, what a concept. This study uses a modified-version of Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Twenty minutes per day of guided workplace meditation and yoga combined with six weekly group sessions can lower feelings of stress by more than 10 percent and improve sleep quality in sedentary office employees, a pilot study suggests.
The study offered participants a modified version of what is known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a program established in 1979 to help hospital patients in Massachusetts assist in their own healing that is now in wide use around the world..
In this context, mindfulness refers in part to one's heightened awareness of an external stressor as the first step toward relaxing in a way that can minimize the effects of that stress on the body... [cont.] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/159817.php
This work was supported by the National Institute of Health-funded General Clinical Research Center at Ohio State..
Co-authors of the study are Janet Buckworth of the College of Education and Human Ecology and William Malarkey of the College of Medicine, both at Ohio State..
Source: Ohio State University
Workplace Yoga And Meditation Can Lower Feelings Of Stress
05 Aug 2009Twenty minutes per day of guided workplace meditation and yoga combined with six weekly group sessions can lower feelings of stress by more than 10 percent and improve sleep quality in sedentary office employees, a pilot study suggests.
The study offered participants a modified version of what is known as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), a program established in 1979 to help hospital patients in Massachusetts assist in their own healing that is now in wide use around the world..
In this context, mindfulness refers in part to one's heightened awareness of an external stressor as the first step toward relaxing in a way that can minimize the effects of that stress on the body... [cont.] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/159817.php
This work was supported by the National Institute of Health-funded General Clinical Research Center at Ohio State..
Co-authors of the study are Janet Buckworth of the College of Education and Human Ecology and William Malarkey of the College of Medicine, both at Ohio State..
Source: Ohio State University
Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/159817.php
© 2009 MediLexicon International LtdWednesday, June 10, 2009
Daily OM: Ocean Meditation
June 5, 2009
Waves of Healing
Like us, the sea is ever-changing. And, like us, the earth’s vast oceans appear at a distance to be stable and homogeneous. But beneath the mask of solidity that both we and the sea wear, there lies unpredictability, sensitivity, and power. There is much we can learn from the ocean, representative as it is of our inner landscapes. The rough sounds of the sea’s waves are spiritually soothing, and its salt can purify our physical selves. Yet not everyone has the luxury of living by the shore or even visiting the coastlines where water and land meet. The ocean, however, exists in our conscious minds, put there by images we have seen and descriptions we have read. Wherever we are, we can access that mental image and use it as the starting point from which we can help to heal our emotions by meditating on the sea.
To begin, gather together any ocean artifacts you may have on hand. Seashells, a vial of sand, beach glass, stones rubbed smooth by the pounding surf, or a recording of ocean sounds can help you slip more deeply into this meditation, but they are not necessary. Sit quietly and visualize the ocean in your mind’s eye. Allow all of your senses to participate in your mental journey. Feel the tiny grains of sand beneath your feet and the cool spray of mist; hear the sea’s rhythmic roar as the waves meet the beach and retreat; smell the tang of salt in the air. Watch the sun’s rays play over the ocean’s surface, creating shifting spots of teal, cerulean, cobalt, and green. Don’t be surprised if you see dolphins or whales frolicking in the waves—they are there to assist you. Spend a few minutes drinking in the ocean’s beauty and appreciating its vast splendor.
Once you are fully engaged with the setting before you, visualize yourself sitting on the beach, facing the ocean, and watching the waves advance and retreat. As each new wave of seawater approaches, imagine it carrying healing energy toward you. The magnificent ocean in your thoughts is sending you light and love while the sun supports your healing efforts and Mother Earth grounds you in the moment so healing can occur. When you feel you are finished, grant the ocean your earnest gratitude for the aid it has given you. Thank the sun, the sand, and any other elements of your visualization that offered you guidance. Perform this meditation daily or monthly in order to rid yourself of negativity and reestablish emotional equilibrium. Just as the ocean’s tides sweep the shores free of detritus, restoring balance, so can the waves in our mind’s eye cleanse our souls of what no longer serves us.
Marcia Kearl Johnson Daily Om, June 5, 2009 Facebook Delivery
Waves of Healing
Like us, the sea is ever-changing. And, like us, the earth’s vast oceans appear at a distance to be stable and homogeneous. But beneath the mask of solidity that both we and the sea wear, there lies unpredictability, sensitivity, and power. There is much we can learn from the ocean, representative as it is of our inner landscapes. The rough sounds of the sea’s waves are spiritually soothing, and its salt can purify our physical selves. Yet not everyone has the luxury of living by the shore or even visiting the coastlines where water and land meet. The ocean, however, exists in our conscious minds, put there by images we have seen and descriptions we have read. Wherever we are, we can access that mental image and use it as the starting point from which we can help to heal our emotions by meditating on the sea.
To begin, gather together any ocean artifacts you may have on hand. Seashells, a vial of sand, beach glass, stones rubbed smooth by the pounding surf, or a recording of ocean sounds can help you slip more deeply into this meditation, but they are not necessary. Sit quietly and visualize the ocean in your mind’s eye. Allow all of your senses to participate in your mental journey. Feel the tiny grains of sand beneath your feet and the cool spray of mist; hear the sea’s rhythmic roar as the waves meet the beach and retreat; smell the tang of salt in the air. Watch the sun’s rays play over the ocean’s surface, creating shifting spots of teal, cerulean, cobalt, and green. Don’t be surprised if you see dolphins or whales frolicking in the waves—they are there to assist you. Spend a few minutes drinking in the ocean’s beauty and appreciating its vast splendor.
Once you are fully engaged with the setting before you, visualize yourself sitting on the beach, facing the ocean, and watching the waves advance and retreat. As each new wave of seawater approaches, imagine it carrying healing energy toward you. The magnificent ocean in your thoughts is sending you light and love while the sun supports your healing efforts and Mother Earth grounds you in the moment so healing can occur. When you feel you are finished, grant the ocean your earnest gratitude for the aid it has given you. Thank the sun, the sand, and any other elements of your visualization that offered you guidance. Perform this meditation daily or monthly in order to rid yourself of negativity and reestablish emotional equilibrium. Just as the ocean’s tides sweep the shores free of detritus, restoring balance, so can the waves in our mind’s eye cleanse our souls of what no longer serves us.
Marcia Kearl Johnson Daily Om, June 5, 2009 Facebook Delivery
Monday, April 27, 2009
Mind-Body...Oprah style
Mindfulness Meditation
Take your spiritual journey to the next level. By practicing meditation techniques, you'll be able to clear your mind and start living in complete awareness.
Take your spiritual journey to the next level. By practicing meditation techniques, you'll be able to clear your mind and start living in complete awareness.
- Dr. Oz's 5 ways to strengthen the mind-body connection
- How meditation can bring joy
- 11 exercises to find inner peace
- 6 audio meditations to rejuvenate your body
TM & © 2009 Harpo Productions. All rights reserved.
Friday, January 16, 2009
How to THINK your way to less STRESS
by Janis Davies, Certified Whole Health Educator
As published January 7, 2009 in:
Health, Mind & Body, special supplement to the newspapers of Feather Publishing Co.: Feather River Bulletin, Chester Progressive, Indian Valley Record, Portola Reporter
13,000. The average number of thoughts we are plagued with each and every day. Think about it… oops! There goes another thought... and another… and another…
Doesn’t it seem like each and every one of those thoughts has substance, reality, validity? We “thought” it, so it must be true, right? We assume every thought is an expression of fact. Even our bodies believe every thought we think.
Take this lemon I am getting ready to cut up. I’ve placed it on the cutting board, removed my sharpest knife, and now I am slicing it, bright yellow and juicy, with spray coming easily off the thick waxy peel. I can smell the tart citrus-y odors, immediately thinking of lemonade, and lemon meringue pie. I take half a lemon in my hands, squeeze gently, and the juices flow into my mouth.
What’s happening in your body right now? Is your mouth filled with saliva anticipating the sour lemon juices? I just tricked your brain into recalling a caseload of memories, and your body responded as if it were real.
What if I ask you to recall the last argument you had? The last time you were ashamed or humiliated? The last time you were mad as a hornet? Give these thoughts the time of day and, voila! Your body is back at that precise moment in time, reliving not just the thoughts and emotions, but also the stress hormones and health compromising effects that come along with it.
Give it more attention and, before you know it a whole lifetime of similar events come swarming at you, filling you with more anger, fear, or sadness; or, conversely, joy and appreciation.
Instant thinking
We can “think” ourselves into most any emotion, but did you know that often the reverse is true? An emotion can be instantly triggered by an event or sensory input (sight, smell, touch, taste, sound), leading the brain to reply with “instant” explanations. The assumption that gets us into trouble is believing that what we think is reality.
However, the brain is trafficking in habitual responses. Like a search on Google, our brain reacts to input by spewing out the most likely combinations of information and memories from the “files” until a plausible reason is reached. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck, right? Not always.
Our brains evolved to learn. And learning requires instant memorization of complex environmental stimuli, so that the next similar event can be dealt with as quickly as possible. It is the difference between life and death, in other words, survival. What the brain learns and believes is instantly communicated to every cell in the body, via hormones (neuro-peptides), electrical impulses, and molecular vibration.
Our bodies are listening
This brings us to the relationship between thinking and chronic stress. When we communicate “within,” our cells, organs and tissues are listening. If I am angry, my cells are soaking in anger. If I am happy my cells are soaking in happiness. Directing these feelings at others does not leave me out of the equation. Road rage, feelings of overwhelm and frustration, directed at drivers who do not follow our rules of the road ultimately hurts us.
Transient feelings of hurt, anger, frustration, or shame are not dangerous, and do not cause harm. What causes damage is the habitual indulgence of dwelling in the past hurts and regrets, or future worries and fears, and the endless abuse we silently spew at ourselves, most often at the subconscious level where we are unaware.
If our Inner Voice was a person sitting next to us on a bench, how long would we put up with their insults? Their abuse? The crazy, disconnected verbiage that is our constant companion heard inside our heads? We’d run quickly in the opposite direction!
“Thinking,” is the major source of chronic stress in our modern world, where prior generations have suffered (presumably) under more physical, or primitive, forms of stress, such as untreatable illness and injuries, hunger, providing shelter, and protecting oneself, family and community from predation, competition or invasion.
Thanks to the amazing learning abilities of the brain, thought connections perform like well-traveled roads. The more a road is traveled, the deeper the ruts. At some point the ruts are so deep, a traveler cannot change the path, even when they try to. Our minds work similarly. The more we think a thought, the more instantaneous and transparent the thought/action becomes.
This is fantastic if we are learning to drive a car, or to speak a new language. The less we have to think about our actions, the quicker we can respond with automated action. No longer wasting energy by concentrating on clutch, brake, accelerator, turn signal, traffic, we are able to eat, drink, talk on the phone, apply makeup, balance the checkbook, text your kids and check the stock market, while cruising 62 mph down the highway!
Take a breath!
Stop! Take a deep breath… Step back slowly from the situations of your crazy life. Think (briefly) about how habitually overwhelming yourself with demands and tasks is shortening your life. The resultant chronic stress is hardening your arteries, raising your blood pressure, elevating blood sugar, and picking away at the very fabric of your DNA. Precious DNA, the blueprint for repairs in every cell of your body.
The instinctive way we often deal with “bad thinking,” is negation. We tell ourselves, “don’t think that thought.” We try to push away from the feelings: “don’t be depressed,” “don’t be sad.” Because the focus is still on the unwanted, we tend to remain focused on what we wish to avoid.
The next level of repairing our thinking is zero balance. That’s when people try to meditate by thinking about “nothing.” Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think… Oops! Darn, there goes another thought! Don’t think, I really mean it, DON’T THINK! Before you know it the 13,000 thoughts have you in a strangle-hold. At that point most people give up and decide meditation is clearly not for them. They (think they) have failed miserably at changing their thinking and relieving stress.
We begin to see some results when we practice replacement thinking. Instead of trying to change old thoughts, habits, feelings and the resultant behaviors, we begin to come up with replacement ideas that are healthier. Sometimes these are referred to as affirmations. These are new statements of positive experience we consciously choose over the old.
The old thoughts still come bouncing in, but the more we practice, the better it gets, the more relief we enjoy. This employs re-routing the thought patterns of the brain. Just like building muscles, practicing powerful healthier statements on a regular basis strengthens the neuronal connections giving them more clout.
One of the most practiced examples of affirmation is the Serenity Prayer: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” (Commonly attributed to theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr)
Positive emotion connection
Expanding on replacement thinking, and backed by scientific research, are the practices that might be referred to as positive emotion connection. The glue in memory is emotion. By utilizing techniques that employ heart-feeling with mind and body connections, healthier stress-free living becomes more quickly accessible. There are many new, and not-so-new, versions of positive emotion practices. These include a variety of practices with exotic names like Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Thought-Field Therapy (TFT), Energy Freedom Technique (EFT), Energy Psychology, the broad field of Guided Imagery, mindfulness or breath meditations, and HeartMath.
Developed by Doc Childre and Howard Martin, HeartMath is focused on teaching “heart-based living – people relying on the intelligence of their heart in concert with their minds to improve health, performance, relationships and well-being at home and in the workplace” (www.heartmath.com). The basic premise is a three-step process called Quick Coherence® Technique: “Heart focus. Heart breathing. Heart feeling.”
By tapping into our bodies innate drive for health, and linking that to the process of feeling and thinking, we can learn to manage stress more easily, building more effective coping, and restoring the ability to thrive in our lives, regardless of our external circumstances.
"All that we are is a result of what we have thought." -Buddha
As published January 7, 2009 in:
Health, Mind & Body, special supplement to the newspapers of Feather Publishing Co.: Feather River Bulletin, Chester Progressive, Indian Valley Record, Portola Reporter
13,000. The average number of thoughts we are plagued with each and every day. Think about it… oops! There goes another thought... and another… and another…
Doesn’t it seem like each and every one of those thoughts has substance, reality, validity? We “thought” it, so it must be true, right? We assume every thought is an expression of fact. Even our bodies believe every thought we think.
Take this lemon I am getting ready to cut up. I’ve placed it on the cutting board, removed my sharpest knife, and now I am slicing it, bright yellow and juicy, with spray coming easily off the thick waxy peel. I can smell the tart citrus-y odors, immediately thinking of lemonade, and lemon meringue pie. I take half a lemon in my hands, squeeze gently, and the juices flow into my mouth.
What’s happening in your body right now? Is your mouth filled with saliva anticipating the sour lemon juices? I just tricked your brain into recalling a caseload of memories, and your body responded as if it were real.
What if I ask you to recall the last argument you had? The last time you were ashamed or humiliated? The last time you were mad as a hornet? Give these thoughts the time of day and, voila! Your body is back at that precise moment in time, reliving not just the thoughts and emotions, but also the stress hormones and health compromising effects that come along with it.
Give it more attention and, before you know it a whole lifetime of similar events come swarming at you, filling you with more anger, fear, or sadness; or, conversely, joy and appreciation.
Instant thinking
We can “think” ourselves into most any emotion, but did you know that often the reverse is true? An emotion can be instantly triggered by an event or sensory input (sight, smell, touch, taste, sound), leading the brain to reply with “instant” explanations. The assumption that gets us into trouble is believing that what we think is reality.
However, the brain is trafficking in habitual responses. Like a search on Google, our brain reacts to input by spewing out the most likely combinations of information and memories from the “files” until a plausible reason is reached. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck, right? Not always.
Our brains evolved to learn. And learning requires instant memorization of complex environmental stimuli, so that the next similar event can be dealt with as quickly as possible. It is the difference between life and death, in other words, survival. What the brain learns and believes is instantly communicated to every cell in the body, via hormones (neuro-peptides), electrical impulses, and molecular vibration.
Our bodies are listening
This brings us to the relationship between thinking and chronic stress. When we communicate “within,” our cells, organs and tissues are listening. If I am angry, my cells are soaking in anger. If I am happy my cells are soaking in happiness. Directing these feelings at others does not leave me out of the equation. Road rage, feelings of overwhelm and frustration, directed at drivers who do not follow our rules of the road ultimately hurts us.
Transient feelings of hurt, anger, frustration, or shame are not dangerous, and do not cause harm. What causes damage is the habitual indulgence of dwelling in the past hurts and regrets, or future worries and fears, and the endless abuse we silently spew at ourselves, most often at the subconscious level where we are unaware.
If our Inner Voice was a person sitting next to us on a bench, how long would we put up with their insults? Their abuse? The crazy, disconnected verbiage that is our constant companion heard inside our heads? We’d run quickly in the opposite direction!
“Thinking,” is the major source of chronic stress in our modern world, where prior generations have suffered (presumably) under more physical, or primitive, forms of stress, such as untreatable illness and injuries, hunger, providing shelter, and protecting oneself, family and community from predation, competition or invasion.
Thanks to the amazing learning abilities of the brain, thought connections perform like well-traveled roads. The more a road is traveled, the deeper the ruts. At some point the ruts are so deep, a traveler cannot change the path, even when they try to. Our minds work similarly. The more we think a thought, the more instantaneous and transparent the thought/action becomes.
This is fantastic if we are learning to drive a car, or to speak a new language. The less we have to think about our actions, the quicker we can respond with automated action. No longer wasting energy by concentrating on clutch, brake, accelerator, turn signal, traffic, we are able to eat, drink, talk on the phone, apply makeup, balance the checkbook, text your kids and check the stock market, while cruising 62 mph down the highway!
Take a breath!
Stop! Take a deep breath… Step back slowly from the situations of your crazy life. Think (briefly) about how habitually overwhelming yourself with demands and tasks is shortening your life. The resultant chronic stress is hardening your arteries, raising your blood pressure, elevating blood sugar, and picking away at the very fabric of your DNA. Precious DNA, the blueprint for repairs in every cell of your body.
The instinctive way we often deal with “bad thinking,” is negation. We tell ourselves, “don’t think that thought.” We try to push away from the feelings: “don’t be depressed,” “don’t be sad.” Because the focus is still on the unwanted, we tend to remain focused on what we wish to avoid.
The next level of repairing our thinking is zero balance. That’s when people try to meditate by thinking about “nothing.” Don’t think, don’t think, don’t think… Oops! Darn, there goes another thought! Don’t think, I really mean it, DON’T THINK! Before you know it the 13,000 thoughts have you in a strangle-hold. At that point most people give up and decide meditation is clearly not for them. They (think they) have failed miserably at changing their thinking and relieving stress.
We begin to see some results when we practice replacement thinking. Instead of trying to change old thoughts, habits, feelings and the resultant behaviors, we begin to come up with replacement ideas that are healthier. Sometimes these are referred to as affirmations. These are new statements of positive experience we consciously choose over the old.
The old thoughts still come bouncing in, but the more we practice, the better it gets, the more relief we enjoy. This employs re-routing the thought patterns of the brain. Just like building muscles, practicing powerful healthier statements on a regular basis strengthens the neuronal connections giving them more clout.
One of the most practiced examples of affirmation is the Serenity Prayer: “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.” (Commonly attributed to theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr)
Positive emotion connection
Expanding on replacement thinking, and backed by scientific research, are the practices that might be referred to as positive emotion connection. The glue in memory is emotion. By utilizing techniques that employ heart-feeling with mind and body connections, healthier stress-free living becomes more quickly accessible. There are many new, and not-so-new, versions of positive emotion practices. These include a variety of practices with exotic names like Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), Thought-Field Therapy (TFT), Energy Freedom Technique (EFT), Energy Psychology, the broad field of Guided Imagery, mindfulness or breath meditations, and HeartMath.
Developed by Doc Childre and Howard Martin, HeartMath is focused on teaching “heart-based living – people relying on the intelligence of their heart in concert with their minds to improve health, performance, relationships and well-being at home and in the workplace” (www.heartmath.com). The basic premise is a three-step process called Quick Coherence® Technique: “Heart focus. Heart breathing. Heart feeling.”
By tapping into our bodies innate drive for health, and linking that to the process of feeling and thinking, we can learn to manage stress more easily, building more effective coping, and restoring the ability to thrive in our lives, regardless of our external circumstances.
"All that we are is a result of what we have thought." -Buddha
Friday, December 12, 2008
Study: Analgesic Effects of Meditation
Pain Sensitivity and Analgesic Effects of Mindful States in Zen Meditators: A Cross-Sectional Study
Joshua A. Grant , BSc Pierre Rainville , PhD
Objective: To investigate pain perception and the potential analgesic effects of mindful states in experienced Zen meditators.
While attending "mindfully," meditators reported decreases in pain intensity whereas control subjects showed no change from baseline. The concentration condition resulted in increased pain intensity for controls but not for meditators. Changes in pain unpleasantness generally paralleled those found in pain intensity. In meditators, pain modulation correlated with slowing of the respiratory rate and with greater meditation experience. Covariance analyses indicated that mindfulness-related changes could be partially explained by changes in respiratory rates.
Finally, the meditators reported higher tendencies to observe and be nonreactive of their own experience as measured on the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire; these factors correlated with individual differences in respiration.
Conclusions: These results indicated that Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity and experience analgesic effects during mindful states. Results may reflect cognitive/self-regulatory skills related to the concept of mindfulness and/or altered respiratory patterns. Prospective studies investigating the effects of meditative training and respiration on pain regulation are warranted.
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/PSY.0b013e31818f52eev1?ct
Joshua A. Grant , BSc Pierre Rainville , PhD
Objective: To investigate pain perception and the potential analgesic effects of mindful states in experienced Zen meditators.
While attending "mindfully," meditators reported decreases in pain intensity whereas control subjects showed no change from baseline. The concentration condition resulted in increased pain intensity for controls but not for meditators. Changes in pain unpleasantness generally paralleled those found in pain intensity. In meditators, pain modulation correlated with slowing of the respiratory rate and with greater meditation experience. Covariance analyses indicated that mindfulness-related changes could be partially explained by changes in respiratory rates.
Finally, the meditators reported higher tendencies to observe and be nonreactive of their own experience as measured on the Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire; these factors correlated with individual differences in respiration.
Conclusions: These results indicated that Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity and experience analgesic effects during mindful states. Results may reflect cognitive/self-regulatory skills related to the concept of mindfulness and/or altered respiratory patterns. Prospective studies investigating the effects of meditative training and respiration on pain regulation are warranted.
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/PSY.0b013e31818f52eev1?ct
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Five Steps Closer to Calm
- Breathe—Focusing on your breathing is an essential practice that draws your awareness inward and helps you experience the presence and flow of energy.
- Relax—The more you relax, the more you deepen awareness of sensation.
- Feel—Let your sense of feeling move beyond physical sensation. Acknowledge who you are as a being of energy.
- Watch—Sense who you are as a witness; be a scientist observing phenomena arising in and around you.
- Allow—Sense who you are with no preferences. Be present to the process of your life unfolding moment by moment.
Copyright © 2008 Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc,
Friday, May 9, 2008
Searching for Nothing
May 9 2008 |
 |
|
If sitting still means eliminating the thought of moving, you may find meditation difficult—because the way to remove thoughts is to tighten muscles, and this makes sitting quite painful. Holding on to a thought, such as, "I am not going to move," also tightens muscles. This is what you are busy doing a good deal of the time, so if you are serious about releasing and calming the body and the mind, thoughts are going to be popping up one after the other. The trick is not to mind. Yogajournal.com |
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Grass Grows...
Sitting Quietly, Doing Nothing,
Spring Comes,
and the Grass Grows by Itself. © 2008 Patrick McDonnell
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Thoughts on Meditation, Pema Chodron
When we sit down to meditate we leave behind the idea of the perfect meditator, the ideal meditation, and preconceived results. We train in simply being present. We open ourselves completely to the pain and the pleasure of our life. We train in precision, gentleness, and letting go. Because we see our thoughts and emotions with compassion, we stop struggling against ourselves. We learn to recognize when we're all caught up and to trust that we can let go. Thus the blockages created by our habits and prejudices start falling apart. In this way, the wisdom we were blocking, becomes available.
Comfortable with Uncertainty, Pema Chodron. Shambhala Publ. 2002
Monday, April 14, 2008
Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
This 18+ minute talk is worth sitting and watching, if you do nothing else, watch it now or soon, before it slips into the black hole of your busy life. It is profoundly moving, and informative. Jan
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
About the speaker:
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. (Click on her name link above for more info about her.) The reason she became a brain scientist is because her brother is schizophrenic.
TED is this amazing gathering of speakers that takes place every year in Monterey. The talks are now online. Here's one about literally blowing your mind that totally blew my mind. Please take the time; it really is an amazing 18:44 minutes.
"One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...
Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist.""
"How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career." Jill Bolte Taylor
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229
About the speaker:
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. (Click on her name link above for more info about her.) The reason she became a brain scientist is because her brother is schizophrenic.
TED is this amazing gathering of speakers that takes place every year in Monterey. The talks are now online. Here's one about literally blowing your mind that totally blew my mind. Please take the time; it really is an amazing 18:44 minutes.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).
Notable speakers on the TED website include Stephen Hawking, Daniel Goleman, Sherwin Nuland, Steven Pinker, Michael Pollan, Jane Goodall, Isabel Allende, BONO, Steven Johnson, Dr. Dean Ornish... 198 speakers on their website to date.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Brain Can Learn Compassion via Meditation
Study Shows Meditation May Activate the Brain to Learn Empathy
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
March 26, 2008 -- Practice may make perfect when it comes to kindness and compassion. A new study shows practicing kindness and compassion through regular meditation actually activates the brain and makes people more empathetic to others.
It's the first study to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze the effects of compassion meditation on brain activity. The results suggest that people can train themselves to be more compassionate just as they'd train themselves to play a musical instrument. Researchers say the study also suggests that practicing compassion meditation may also be a useful tool in preventing bullying, violence, aggression, and depression by altering brain activity to make people more empathetic to other peoples' emotions.
"We can take advantage of our brain's plasticity and train it to enhance these qualities," says researcher Antione Lutz, associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in a news release. "Thinking about other people's suffering and not just your own helps to put everything in perspective."
Teaching the Brain Empathy
Participating in the study were 16 Tibetan monks experienced in meditation and a comparison group of 16 people with no prior experience in meditation. People in the comparison group were taught the fundamentals of compassion meditation two weeks prior to the study.
During the study, researchers used fMRI to measure the response of the participants' brains to a variety of neutral or negative sounds, such as a distressed woman, a baby laughing, or background restaurant noise. During the session, researchers took separate scans of the brain when the participants heard the sounds during a meditative and neutral state.
The scans showed significant increases in activity in the portion of the brain known as the insula, which plays a key role in emotion, in experienced meditators when they were exposed to negative emotional sounds. There was less increase in activity during exposure to neutral or positive sounds. The strength of brain activity was also related to the intensity of the meditation reported by the participants.
"The insula is extremely important in detecting emotions in general and specifically in mapping bodily responses to emotion -- such as heart rate and blood pressure -- and making that information available to other parts of the brain," says researcher Richard Davidson, professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the news release.
Brain activity also increased in other brain areas believed to be important in processing empathy, such as perceiving the mental and emotional state of others.
"Both of these areas have been linked to emotion sharing and empathy," Davidson says. "The combination of these two effects, which was much more noticeable in the expert meditators as opposed to the novices, was very powerful."
View Article Sources Sources
SOURCES:
Lutz, A. Public Library of Science One, March 26, 2007; vol 3: p e1897.
By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
March 26, 2008 -- Practice may make perfect when it comes to kindness and compassion. A new study shows practicing kindness and compassion through regular meditation actually activates the brain and makes people more empathetic to others.
It's the first study to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze the effects of compassion meditation on brain activity. The results suggest that people can train themselves to be more compassionate just as they'd train themselves to play a musical instrument. Researchers say the study also suggests that practicing compassion meditation may also be a useful tool in preventing bullying, violence, aggression, and depression by altering brain activity to make people more empathetic to other peoples' emotions.
"We can take advantage of our brain's plasticity and train it to enhance these qualities," says researcher Antione Lutz, associate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in a news release. "Thinking about other people's suffering and not just your own helps to put everything in perspective."
Teaching the Brain Empathy
Participating in the study were 16 Tibetan monks experienced in meditation and a comparison group of 16 people with no prior experience in meditation. People in the comparison group were taught the fundamentals of compassion meditation two weeks prior to the study.
During the study, researchers used fMRI to measure the response of the participants' brains to a variety of neutral or negative sounds, such as a distressed woman, a baby laughing, or background restaurant noise. During the session, researchers took separate scans of the brain when the participants heard the sounds during a meditative and neutral state.
The scans showed significant increases in activity in the portion of the brain known as the insula, which plays a key role in emotion, in experienced meditators when they were exposed to negative emotional sounds. There was less increase in activity during exposure to neutral or positive sounds. The strength of brain activity was also related to the intensity of the meditation reported by the participants.
"The insula is extremely important in detecting emotions in general and specifically in mapping bodily responses to emotion -- such as heart rate and blood pressure -- and making that information available to other parts of the brain," says researcher Richard Davidson, professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the news release.
Brain activity also increased in other brain areas believed to be important in processing empathy, such as perceiving the mental and emotional state of others.
"Both of these areas have been linked to emotion sharing and empathy," Davidson says. "The combination of these two effects, which was much more noticeable in the expert meditators as opposed to the novices, was very powerful."
View Article Sources Sources
SOURCES:
Lutz, A. Public Library of Science One, March 26, 2007; vol 3: p e1897.
News release, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
© 2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
© 2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Deepen Your Focus - Meditation
A good deal of mystique has grown around meditation, yet it is one of the most natural of our human capacities. You've no doubt had moments in your life when you were not thinking or analyzing your experience, but simply "going with the flow." In these moments, there was no past or future, no separation between you and what was happening. That is the essence of meditation.
Contrary to a common misunderstanding, meditation is not a limiting or narrowing of our attention so much as it is a focusing on what is relevant. Our attention can be narrow, as in observing our breath, or broad, as in cooking a five-course dinner. When the mind is able to focus on what is relevant to what is happening now, we experience ourselves as being at one with what we perceive. This experience is deeply joyful, as we become freed from the illusion that we are separate from everything else in the universe. In fact, meditation isn't a withdrawal from life but a deeper, fuller presence in life.
Meditation for Everybody
http://yogajournal.com/practice
Return to Stillness
http://yogajournal.com/wisdom
http://www.yogajournal.com
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Stress Reduction Clinic – 8 Week Program
Weds, Sept. 12 – Nov. 14, 2007
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Weds, Sept. 12 – Nov. 14, 2007
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Jan will show you the connections between stress in your life and physical or medical symptoms; help you manage the stress in your life; teach you relaxation techniques, self-care skills and other coping methods in this mindfulness-based course which compares to University & Hospital programs.
· connections between stress in your life and physical or medical symptoms An ideal program for anyone seeking affordable, science-based, complementary stress relief for:
job-related stress, general anxiety, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, caregiver burnout, smoking cessation,
parenting, weight loss, technology burnout, bereavement, chronic or auto-immune disease, chronic pain,
PMS/menopause, preparing for surgery and similar.
During eight 90-minute classes you will learn:
· easy, effective meditation techniques… a simple practice of coming back to the present moment via the breath, the body, the senses. Meditation practice will serve as the foundation for this program and will comprise 50% of the class time.
· tools for on-the-spot stress management, including Thought Field Therapy® and HeartMath® skills
· simple exercises extracted from Tai Chi, Chi Gung, and Donna Eden’s Energy Medicine · harness the power of the mind through guided imagery & breath-work
· interrupt anxiety-prone thinking and behavior habits
· know when it is time to seek professional counseling or medical intervention
Classes include training in meditation, self-care and relaxation techniques. There will be periods of experiential practice, lecture and discussion in a confidential, compassionate setting.
- Improvements in blood pressure, and other cardiac health factors
- Improvements in blood sugar readings
- Improved digestion
- Reduced pain and/or better pain management
- Renewed pleasure in life
- Reduced mental fog, more clarity, better memory
- Improved relationships at home and work
- Improved sleep habits
CALL SOON to reserve a spot and set up
a simple pre-class interview to be sure this
program is right for you. 258-0377, ext. 2
a simple pre-class interview to be sure this
program is right for you. 258-0377, ext. 2
Cost: $200 [pre-paid]
Discounts Available
►20% Off with written Doctor’s Referral
►10% Off Help-A-Friend (bring a friend, you both get 10% off)
Hospice: Partial Scholarship Available
Classes held in the Upstairs Natural Health and Day Spa, 131 ½ Main Street, Chester, CADiscounts Available
►20% Off with written Doctor’s Referral
►10% Off Help-A-Friend (bring a friend, you both get 10% off)
Hospice: Partial Scholarship Available
Janis Davies, CWHE
Monday, July 30, 2007
Conflict Resolution with Scott Wyman
I attended an all-day workshop this weekend in Chico
Be Well, Janis
Wyman’s point-of-view is decidedly Buddhist in nature, with meditation and self-exploration, self-awareness the cornerstone of his approach. Well versed in world religion (certified Spiritual Mentor with graduate degrees in Theology and Psychology), he is just as fluent in Christian themes as he is in Eastern philosophies.
The class opened with meditation, and a presentation on the concept of differentiation, which is explained in detail on his website http://web.mac.com/scottwyman/iWeb/Open-Hearted%20Living/Differentiation.html . Briefly, this addresses the conflict in human nature to be both attached, or connected closely in relationship, versus our drive for uniqueness and individuation. In general women are more inclined to the “belonging” side of the spectrum, while men often (but not always) are wanting to maintain separation. The struggle in relationships arises in the ongoing tension between these two extremes. At the far ends are belonging, complete co-dependency with lacking boundaries; and, complete autonomy, a state of detachment and feeling disengaged. In order to have healthy “selves” and relationships, we must work towards a balance point amid these two realms, where there is “celebration of the unique self,” as well as the ability to be that self, “without anxiety, in relationship with another.”
Wyman next reviewed the conflict cycle, a process of moving from “normalcy” (homeostasis - not necessarily healthy), a trigger event, escalation, to climax, distancing, repressing and eventually repeating the cycle. Noticing what triggers us and our over-blown emotional responses through self-awareness is key. Otherwise we are doomed to repeat the process over and over, not only with the same person (our spouse or child for instance), but often with successive partners, bosses, friends, etc.
Wyman recommends gaining clarity in our conflicts, by breaking down the conflict-cycle into the facts (known truth), the “story (our truth),” identify and own our feeling state (emotions), and recognize the resulting behavior. The root of all of our stories is our unresolved issues, the unhealed parts of our history that run silently in the background of our lives, filtering every experience. It can be much harder than we realize to separate the facts from the story and the story from our emotions. It is human nature to point the finger and blame the other person, religion, or country for our troubles. Extracting and taking responsibility for our role in our suffering is the only answer. There is nothing we can do to influence, motivate, manipulate or change the other.
Wyman teaches Four Stages of Relationship, a road-map of our path of growth in relationships, whether to self, others, churches, or countries. The stages are preconscious , conscious, intentional and enlightened. We are primarily in one of these stages, and we are testing the waters of the next stage as a natural part of the growth process. We may find our selves moving in and out of different stages depending on the healing of unresolved issues which inform our emotional reactions to triggers. Wyman stresses the fact that no stage is better or worse, these are just landmarks along the way to “growing up.” He likens it to a Freshman being no better nor worse than a Senior, they are just different points on the path.
To the break the cycle of repeating our unhealthy conflicts and suffering, Wyman suggests calling a time-out when we notice a triggered event escalating out of control. Take the time to pause, breathe (3 conscious breaths), and experience the emotion without the story. Devoting meditative time to experiencing the raw emotion, we have the opportunity to discover what other times, triggers or relationships in our lives have resulted in the same feeling(s). We begin to understand the underlying story we are bringing to the conflict, and can share this with our partner, diffusing blame, facilitating understanding, thus engendering compassion.
There is much more to this training, and anyone interested can explore Scott’s website. He also provided a reading list which includes books and audios by Pema Chodron, Tara Brach, John Welwood, David Schnarch, and Gay & Kathlyn Hendricks.
I am available to review these concepts in depth in a Whole Health Education counseling session with anyone who would like to study and apply these concepts to reduce stress and improve the quality of their relationships. Feel free to call or write for more information.Be Well, Janis
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Fire the Grid - Earth Healing Meditation July 17
Please excuse me if you are not interested in this, but I have had a number of people send me information about a healing session for our planet earth. The story at this link: www.firethegrid.com , tells us how we can help our planet and ourselves through a unified gathering of our Consciousnesses.
This planned sitting of the people of earth will demonstrate the love and faith we feel for the goodness of our world and her inhabitants. We are the catalyst to the healing of earth. A true believer has the power of ten fold, so if you only think you may believe, know that the faith of the others will boost your own faith and the power will be intensified. That is why we must all sit at the same time. We will feed each others power, strengthening the force of delivery and compounding the energy we send into the core of our home. Each and every one of us is important alone, but together we are a very powerful source of creative energy. Remember we are all a piece of God, and that energy of creation lives in all of us.
On July 17 at 11:11 GMT — 04:11 (4:11 AM) in your time zone (Pacific) — we will assemble from all corners of our world as a collective body of energy to meditate simultaneously for 1 hour (60 minutes).
On July 17 at 11:11 GMT — 04:11 (4:11 AM) in your time zone (Pacific) — we will assemble from all corners of our world as a collective body of energy to meditate simultaneously for 1 hour (60 minutes).
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