1. Make a list of what opens you, strengthens you, makes you feel good— commit to include more of those things in your daily life.
2. Twirl…Really! Spinning in a clockwise direction adjusts and strengthens your aura.
3. Lovingly detach from the energy drains in your life.
Image by aivas14 via Flickr
As the pace of the holiday busyness picks up, remember to take steps to replenish your energy so you can enjoy all there is to experience… fully in the present moment… building new memories to store in your heart.
Image by notsogoodphotography via Flickr
We experience a variety of feelings every day. They run vast and deep. Chances are you have different feelings for different events and different people. For instance, you might be bored at work, tired of doing the same thing day in and day out. Once you’re home you might feel discouraged that you can’t do anything about your situation, that things will never change. Since discouragement is lower on the emotional scale, the time you are working and feeling bored, is actually a better state for you! Similarly you may feel one way with your family and a completely different way with close friends.
This brings us to another point that can be trouble. Sometimes we want to make huge leaps and move from one end of the spectrum to the other, E.G. from sad and despondent to joyous and ecstatic. We don’t really work that way and expecting it to only adds frustration, inadequacy and feelings of powerlessness to the equation. Accepting where you are without resistance and finding your way to a simple step up is the way that true inner change occurs and your basic emotional tone can transform more permanently.
One way to move out of a slump is to acknowledge your feelings, really feel them without holding on to them. Sometimes just letting feelings be, taking the label off, relaxing, breathing, letting go of resistance can be all that is needed. After all it is resistance that causes pain. This process of acknowledging your feelings can help release the intensity of emotions that seem to hold you powerless in their grip.
The next step is to see what is possible in terms of moving up the ladder of feeling. Don’t try to leap to joy or bliss but ask what feeling could I now realistically conjure up through memories, images, or fantasies? A slightly better feeling is all that is needed to help you shift into a better frame of mind. In fact, if you can get yourself into a better feeling state and stay there for as little as 17 seconds several times a day, you’ll be making progress.
The Institute of HeartMath has discovered that consciousness is enhanced, stress is reduced and health is improved with a simple technique that uses a heart focus to dispel troublesome emotions. The technique is called Attitude Breathing. This method helps to synchronize body, mind and spirit and provides inner ease when we are out of synch.
The method is performed by bringing your attention to the center of your chest, the heart chakra, and feel as though you are breathing in through that space; the out breath is focused through the solar plexus and you may want to feel as though you are releasing an unpleasant feeling with the exhale. Then, when you feel at ease and comfortable with that, you can switch to using your breath to increase feelings of gratitude or appreciation in the heart area. This may sound simple but there is some very complex energetic and neurohormonal activity that is triggered which has profound ramifications throughout the bodymind. All very interesting but more important…YOU WILL FEEL BETTER!
Give yourself a special gift this year that doesn’t cost any money. Give yourself the gift of feeling better. Practice Attitude Breathing. Feeling slightly better is all it takes to begin the move UP the spiral!
»
Image via Wikipedia
Tis the season…children caroling in the snow, families gathered round the hearth, visions of sugarplums dance in your head….or do they?
What if your images are less Currier and Ives and more Dali-esque? What if your experience of this season falls far short of what is “supposed to be”? That can leave you even more bereft than the original Scrooge dialogue running rampant in your interior!
We often experience our feelings as missiles from a malevolent universe and totally out of our control in spite of pop psychology’s assurance that we choose our feelings (We do but it is a complex process and a story for another day).
When you are feeling down, discouraged or sad, that little piece of knowledge falls just a bit short of helpful. And if you are a normal functioning human being you just may have some intense reactions to the messenger who tries to “help” you with this kind of reminder! BUT, if you were down and now you are angry, that actually can be a good thing! Why? Because when you are down, sad, despondent etc. your energy is frozen, depleted or inaccessible and the anger is a sign that something has shifted, opened up, or thawed out. Anger can be a very positive and motivating emotion at times.
Your emotions influence and impact your health and well-being in a big way. This has been well documented in the “mind-body” literature. A user friendly version of emotions, their impact and how to work with them is presented by David Hawkins, M.D., PhD in his book Power vs. Force (Hay House, 1995, 1998, 2002). Dr. Hawkins has drawn a Map of Consciousness that represents feelings on an energetic scale. Feelings such as fear, grief, depression and despair are low on the emotional scale. Anger calibrates higher than blame on Hawkins’ map. Thus if you are blaming people for your situation and you can shift into feelings of anger, you’re improving!
During the holidays you may simply feel overwhelmed with all that you have to do. Try to be conscious when you are having difficult emotions and look for ways to process and shift them. In many cases you may be able to simply breathe and let go of feelings of frustration, irritation or impatience. Other times it will be apparent that you need a more targeted approach to sort out and release what is troubling you. The time it takes is well spent considering that the alternative is to haul the feelings around with you which uses valuable energy. This is one of the ways you can actually choose to feel better and you’ll will have contributed to your climb up the ladder of the emotional scale.
If you are feeling pessimistic or even bored, thinking of a time when you were content, hopeful or even optimistic can lift your spirits. Remember the situation and try to get into that feeling state. What was happening and how did you really feel?
If you’re already feeling optimistic, great! You can move into an even stronger emotional state by being more present to your enthusiasm… about what you’re doing, feeling eager and happy. Passion is stronger than happiness. As you discover your passion and engage it, allow it to flow through you, then feelings of joy, empowerment, love and appreciation can emerge more easily.
Next time: Simple Seasonal Attitude Adjustment!
1. Let go of struggle, just for today.
2. Practice feeling: What if it/this were easy? How would I feel?
3. Replace a negative with a positive and FEEL it.
Nature gives us many examples of energetic states that we can embody if we stop, breathe, notice, choose!
Image via Wikipedia
Chakras in Real Life
How do our chakras operate in real life? Many in the west tend to think of the energy centers as mere metaphors; however they are very real electromagnetic spaces that exist within our bodies and affect our minds and feelings. The chakras are like mini brains that sit at strategic places along our spine. They occupy the same space as major nerve plexus and endocrine glands. In fact they are in intimate conversation with these structures and together they orchestrate our mind body communication and expression in the world. Each chakra has an area of influence in out physical, psychological and spiritual expression. Through understanding our energy via the chakra system we gain mor self awareness as well as more options for real “bottom line” assistance in clearing our stresses and opening to our incredible human potential.
ROOT CHAKRA
The root chakra is located at the base of your spine and is the first to develop after birth. This energy center is the foundation of your energy system, your physical vitality, and a cornerstone of psychological and spiritual well being.
Physically the root correlates with the adrenal glands and all bony structures….It provides support and a framework for both the physical and psychological body. We learn to crawl, walk and stand as the root chakra expands and comes online. Physically the root chakra governs the immune, skeletal and lower digestive systems. When root energies are out of balance the physical issues that present are: poor balance, sciatica, chronic fatigue, bowel disorders knee, and leg or foot problems.
Psychologically first chakra energy is about putting down roots in the world, being grounded, feeling autonomous enough to be healthily interdependent , as well as with being able to release stress, feel safe, at ease and like you belong .
Trauma, family stress and a lack of appropriate nurturing during the first few years of life create an imbalance in root chakra energies. The consequence of these early experiences and the resulting imbalance amplify fearful or negative coping and reactions to change. Fear does not always show up as an outright anxiety disorder or phobia. Weak root energies also may appear as shyness, an inner sensation of dread or fear of criticism. Many people feel fear as an absence of security or as difficulty experiencing inner stability, safety and comfort. I think it is safe to say needing to resolve issues on this level is part of the human condiiton!
The state of your root chakra energy affects how you respond to upsets such as loss of a job, living situation or person in your life. Directly addressing the energy of this layer of your field can heal and shift your energy to manage life and events from a place of centeredness, groundedness and inner strength.
Earth Mother Energy
The positive archetype for the root chakra is the Earth Mother. A person with strong, positive root energy honors and cares for the
body as a sacred vessel that carries them in the material world. Physical needs are well cared for which results in healthy vitality, as well as abundant energy to flow upward to open and expand the chakras above. The health of the lower three chakras determine how you experience and behave in the material world and the higher chakras help to expand your inner world. They open up the
capacity for greater creative manifestation and expanded spiritual experience.
Emotionally a lack of first chakra energy manifests as being too rigid and not being open to options for change…change can also be difficult if you are overly grounded —-this is evidenced through being stubborn, overly controlling, lacking in imagination or initiative.
If root energy is steady and balanced you can transcend fear—thoughts of loss do not unduly disturb your inner peace, sap your strength or drain your vitality. With strong balanced energy serving as the foundation of your system you are more able to allow yourself to see life clearly, to let life unfold as it will, and accept what is while, knowing where your power, responsibility and boundaries lie. A strong root chakra helps to maintain a calm steady inner experience in spite of what is happening outside or around you.
If you are interested in working with your root chakra energies, our program Relaxation 101 and Energy Aerobics are designed to help you begin your journey. Both are available as a CD or as a download—the downloadable versions are on sale now for 30% off! Read more here: https://www.livingenergyworks.com/store/cd-programs/relaxation-101-cd-/prod_7.html
Image by aselundblad via Flickr
Have you ever noticed that when you are in a funk and have no energy, feel down, depressed, exhausted that something great can happen and all of a sudden you are filled with energy and ready to go when just a moment before you were barely able to move? We’ve all had those times but perhaps have not thought about exactly what was going on that caused the shift.
We experience our lives through our energy systems. When things feel good we tend to allow our energy to flow, to be connected to the infinite energy available to us…we think and feel in positive ways and experience vitality. When something negative or unpleasant occurs we tend to shut down…in our minds and our hearts… perhaps throughout our whole being. We close ourselves off from the supply of energy around us as well as closing the flow within us. We do not realize it, but this also traps not only our energy but also the memory and pain of the event. This sets up a situation where the pain can be triggered again through a similar event in the future. In addition, since we do not want to feel the pain we use considerable energy to keep it at bay inside us which further depletes the flow of our vitality and along with it our capacity to feel good. The result is that we tend to limp along with compromised energy supplies.
We instinctual close off ourselves out of a need to protect. This is natural. However, if we do not then open up again and release what is trapped inside then we compromise our energy, vitality and ultimately our health and well being.
Being in touch with your energy system, noticing where and how you are closing off and learning to release difficult feelings can help restore your flow of vitality so you can feel good more often than you feel bad. It takes self awareness and practice as well as effective methods to learn how to manage your energy. It is well worth the effort given the return of vitality and well being to you and your life.
All of our programs help you from a slightly different vantage point to be aware of your energy, effectively release discomfort, old wounds and pain and “install” healthier patterns. Our Chakra Aerobics program is particularly helpful if you like to work with color, sound and frequency. Don’t let the title fool you! It is not about heavy exercise! This program is a relaxing, pleasant journey through your energy system that helps to release old tired stuck energies and strengthen your chakras so you can maintain a healthier flow and vitality.
A simple step toward beginning to reverse the habit of shutting down your “inner guidance system” is to notice when you feel tightness or constriction in your body in response to events or interchanges. Once you notice, pause, take several deep breaths and feel yourself opening the places where you feel shut down. This small step can begin you on the journey of reclaiming your energy and vitality so you have more of it to bring to life!
To read more about our programs that help with reversing
negative patterns and creating healthy new ones, click here:
https://www.livingenergyworks.com/store/?ccUser=
Humor, music and spirituality may offer physical benefits
Monday, February 14, 2011; 8:17 PM
Humor, music and spirituality can boost your mood, but growing evidence suggests that they also offer physical benefits.
Image by Vinod Kumar M. via Flickr
Humor for your health
Laughter appears to have such physiological effects as:
l Increased blood flow. Watching 30 minutes of a comedy film (“There’s Something About Mary“) caused the arteries of volunteers to expand, according to a 2006 study from the University of Maryland Medical Center, while scenes from a stressful film (“Saving Private Ryan“) caused them to constrict.
l Strengthened immunity. Laughter might stimulate production of disease-fighting T cells and natural killer cells and might reduce levels of inflammation-triggering cytokines in people with rheumatoid arthritis. Watching funny movies might also help ease allergy symptoms and help people with asthma resist flare-ups.
l Reduced muscle pain. Laughter causes muscles in the abdomen, face and shoulders to relax, which might ease muscle tension.
l Lower blood sugar. People with Type 2 diabetes had smaller increases in blood glucose when they watched a comedy show after a meal than when they sat through a boring lecture.
l Lost calories. Laughing boosted people’s energy expenditure by 10 to 20 percent in a 2007 study.
What to do: If funny movies aren’t your thing, or if life of late hasn’t given you much to laugh about, consider “laughter yoga,” a variation designed to induce joyful, prolonged laughter.
Music for your brain
Image by Mario Inoportuno via Flickr
Reading music and singing might boost your brain’s auditory and language-processing functions, while playing an instrument strengthens reaction speed and manual dexterity. Other research has linked choral singing with physical and emotional health. Music might also improve symptoms of several health problems:
l Alzheimer’s disease. In people with this condition, music might curb aggression, irritability, restlessness and wandering.
l Insomnia. Listening to 45 minutes of soft music before bed improved self-reported sleep time and daytime drowsiness in a study of 30 older adults.
l Pain. People recovering from hernia or varicose-vein surgery who listened to music reported less pain than a control group did in a trial of 182 patients. Music might also ease the pain and distress of arthritis, childbirth, colonoscopy, fibromyalgia and herniated disks.
l Parkinson’s disease. Listening to rhythmic music can help patients move more easily.
l Stress. Listening to music can reduce stress, blood pressure and heart rate during and after eye surgery. And people who had music therapy after knee-replacement surgery had less depression.
l Stroke. Singing might help patients regain the ability to speak more clearly after a stroke.
What to do: Choose relaxing music. If someone you care about is in a health-care facility, consider asking about music therapy.
Image by BenSpark via Flickr
A spiritual life
Regularly attending religious services or practicing meditation appears to offer health benefits.
l Traditional religion. Regularly attending church was linked to a lower incidence of death from cardiovascular disease in a review of 69 studies. And a 2009 study found that men who attended church in their 40s had better physical health at 70 than men who hadn’t attended church, possibly because they tended to drink and smoke less.
l Meditation. The evidence is especially strong for an easy-to-learn form of meditation called mindfulness, in which people focus on the present while practicing measured breathing. Meditation induces rapid physiological changes, including reduced blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tension. It might also reduce cardiovascular risk, ease depression and help people with chronic pain, fibromyalgia, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and Type 1 diabetes.
What to do: If you already participate in an organized religion, these findings provide more reason to continue. To try meditating, look for a class or teach yourself with the help of a book or recorded program. Try for at least 10 to 15 minutes a day, the minimum amount linked with the benefits above.
Image via Wikipedia
The holiday season brings so many positive, happy and wonderful things, but as we all know there are also many opportunities for stress and the accompanying difficult emotions that can catch us off guard in spite of our best intentions. As with so many things in life we need to have an action plan!!
Emotions are very real energies that move through us. If we do not manage them, they will manage us. They do not disappear if we ignore them…they merely go underground to erode our systems and wreak havoc with our health at a later time. Time only heals if we engage in a process that helps heal within that time.
You are human and so hardwired to feel. The secret to emotional mastery is to have methods that allow you to be in charge and able to transform your emotions so you do not become helpless victims of them.
A very helpful process is to notice when you are focused on a negative feeling. Stop the action in whatever way you can…imagine a huge red stop sign in your head, imagine hitting the pause button on your remote control, say ‘stop’ to yourself. Then use a memory or your imagination to get in touch with feelings of appreciation, gratitude or unconditional love. Feel as though you can breathe those feelings in and out through your heart. Keep doing this until you have shifted your emotional focus. Then see if you can adopt a feeling of ease in maintaining it. Remember this is a skill, so practice is the key.
Conscious ‘control’ of your breath can help no matter what tools you are using to transform emotional states. Awareness of your breath and consciously breathing win a slow deep rhythm is a great help in slowing unconscious reactivity create, reducing stress, seeing new options, and setting new patterns and healthier ways of thinking and feeling. Breathing deeply and fully helps put you in touch with your core, your “self,” your inner being. It strengthens your center of personal power. It helps to slow you down and make you aware of what is occurring around you. It tunes you in to your environment and puts you in a position to make choices … choices that support and nurture you and your life.
Our CD or MP3 download Relaxation 101 has been a favorite of clients to prevent burn out, combat fatigue and stress, as well as to learn ho to shift breathing patterns and release muscle tension bringing more ease and peace to the mind and body as both are refreshed, recharged and revitalized.
Click here for more info on CD Version:
https://www.livingenergyworks.com/store/cd-programs/relaxation-101-cd-/prod_7.html
Click here for more info on MP3 Version:
https://www.livingenergyworks.com/store/program-downloads/relaxation-101-download-/prod_26.html
Image via Wikipedia
1. As you gather with family and friends over Thanksgiving, reflect on how each person contributes to your life. Think of at least one positive
attribute of everyone present and also of those who aren’t able be there. Think about how each person enriches your life.
2. Blessings come in many forms and many disguises. They can even come dressed in negativity and we can find the gift if we drop our habitual responses and open our awareness. Look for these within your family, with your friends and at your gatherings. The positive ones are easy to identify. They make you feel good. The hidden ones are more challenging. When you consciously look for blessings, you need to maintain a state of openness and neutrality. It may be helpful to remember that everyone has a story behind why they do what they do and we cannot know other’s inner reality.
3. If in spite of your best efforts, hurtful words or actions emerge at a family gathering, remember you have the right to choose where to plant your feet. It’s well worth the effort to try to shift your perspective and feelings, people can surprise you! I have often seen that if I change how I feel and relate, the situation has a way of smoothing out and working well and others are free to shift their way of relating….or not…but it is much less stressful if you have opened your heart and embraced neutrality.
4. Instead of continuing disagreements or holding grudges, experiment with a different view. Consider alternate perspectives. Listen
to the conversation and play with the idea that a different viewpoint has merit. Let others be right. Forgive from your heart. Pay a compliment. Say something nice and bring a smile to someone’s face. Freely give a smile. Visit or call someone you haven’t talked to for a while.
5. Take time this week to reflect (if only for a few moments) on what is happening in your life. Appreciate yourself for who you truly
are.
6. Appreciate those who enrich your life and experiences. Feel the shift in your heart and in your body rhythms as ose who you focus on appreciation and gratitude. Truly give thanks and freely send these thoughts and feelings to others. Be a catalyst for giving thanks
from the inside out.
7. Above all, relax, take some time for you and enjoy!
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Jan | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | ||||
Practice Heart-Centered Gratitude guides you to the gateway of your heart chakra, opening you to an inner space where you can connect with wholeness, self love and acceptance. It is in the heart that we have the ability to move beyond judgment, criticism and blame to acceptance, compassion and wisdom. Ancient traditions point to the heart chakra as the center where human consciousness shifts and the capacity for balance between the inner and outer worlds can be developed. It is in the heart where we develop the ability to be attuned to self and others. It is through the heart that we access deeper awareness and capacity for spirituality. Learn More »
Chakras and Feng Shui: Balancing Inner and Outer Space helps you to understand the interplay of your personal energy system with your living space and how that contributes to your well-being, prosperity, health and happiness. Living from an energetic perspective is a process and a goal. At best it is a feeling of seamless flow, a sense of being centered in your heart, deeply in touch with soul qualities of beauty, peace and wholeness. Learn More »
Relax your body, quiet your mind and enter into deep states of inner peace, tranquility and harmony with this audio program. The dialogue and music were designed to facilitate movement into alpha and theta brainwave states. These states are those associated with relaxed but alert awareness, deep peace and heightened creativity. Learn More »
Get an energy workout with this voice and music program that guides you through your energy system. The dialogue and music were designed to help you to build and strengthen your energy as well as to eliminate negative patterning. Technique, intention, and musical entrainment result in balancing, stabilizing and harmonizing your energies. Learn More »
Tranquil Sleep skillfully combines gentle spoken dialogue with music to help you unwind from your day and enter into healthy rejuvenating sleep. Imagine deeply relaxing your body...clearing your mind...letting go of all worries and cares...entering into a deep, peaceful, refreshing sleep...to awaken feeling energetic and revitalized! Learn More »