The post Chronic Stress Can Affect Your Digestive System appeared first on Linda Clarke.
]]>Stress can affect our health in significant ways and especially our digestive system. Have you ever suffered symptoms such as stomach cramps, nausea or urgency in bowel motions before a stressful event such as exams or important presentation? This is a simple demonstration of the link between our emotions and our digestive system.
Stress may be defined as an acute threat to body’s stable internal environment, be it real (physical) or perceived (psychological), and whether posed by events in the outside world or from within ourselves.
Stress induces bodily responses which serve to defend the stability of our body’s internal environment and to help ensure our survival.
Physical responses to stress include rise in blood pressure, rapid breathing and increased heart rate, slowing down of the digestive system and increased muscle tension.
Additionally, our bodies release hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol during stress.
Prolonged stress results in higher levels of these hormones, particularly cortisol which can lead to weight gain, weakened immune function, depression and digestive problems.
Stressful life events have been associated with the onset or symptom worsening in some of the most common chronic disorders of the digestive system, including functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGD), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), and peptic ulcer disease (PUD).
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder and is often characterised by lower abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhoea and/or constipation, flatulence, passing mucus in stools and feeling of urgency to open bowels.
The relationship between stress and IBS is complex and multiple other factors including food intolerance or allergy, intestinal infection, injury (e.g., abdominal or pelvic surgery), intestinal inflammation, changes in the intestinal bacteria, abuse and early life learning have been found to contribute to the development of IBS syndrome.
However, numerous studies have also shown that stress is a key contributor to IBS and may, in fact, worsen symptoms.
Evidence from clinical and experimental studies showed that psychological stresses have marked impact on intestinal function such as sensitivity, motility, secretion and permeability.
The symptoms of IBS can be miserable for the individual who may feel powerless, embarrassed or fearful of being in public. Meditation and other relaxation techniques can help a person to manage their stressors and ultimately reduce the physical symptoms that arise from stress.
Visit my website to understand how stress impacts on physical health and how hypnosis and NLP may change how you think and feel, physically, mentally and emotionally. Learn more about Mindfulness Meditation.
Read more about Stress and the digestive system here and how stress impacts on IBS here
Contact me on 082 929 5142 or e-mail [email protected] to book an appointment to learn how to create mind/body balance to improve your health and emotions.
Source: Olivera Kegey (MSc, RD) & Laurene Boateng (MPhil, RD)
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]]>The post How To Boost Your Emotional Intelligence appeared first on Linda Clarke.
]]>Psychologists Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer first coined the term ’emotional intelligence’ in 1990, describing it as a combination of social intelligence (that involves the ability to understand the intentions, motivations, and desires of other people), and intrapersonal intelligence (the ability to be aware of one’s own feelings, fears, and motivations). According to Scott Trefny, a rehabilitation specialist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division in White Plains, “Since the 1990s, emotional intelligence has made the journey from a semi-obscure concept found in academic journals to a popularly recognized term.”
Emotional intelligence differs from a person’s cognitive intelligence, which is measured by an IQ test. A person’s IQ relates directly to intellectual pursuits, such as the ability to learn as well as understand and apply information to skill sets. It covers logical reasoning, word comprehension, and math skills. “On the other hand,” explains Trefny, “emotional intelligence involves learning social skills, being mindful of our own feelings, and the emotional state of others as well. It also addresses such traits as initiative, empathy, adaptability, persuasiveness — none of which are measured on a traditional IQ test.”
So how does one become emotionally intelligent? As is the case with most things, it’s a combination of nature and nurture. People can be born with certain levels of sensitivity, anxiety, or empathy. However, EI can be enhanced or managed through learning skills.
The ‘Four Pillars’
The science of EI is based upon four fundamental pillars that represent specific capacities or skills:
Initiative: Willingness to take a close look at one’s emotional responses, as well as taking responsibility for one’s behavioural responses/outcomes.
Adaptability: For every situation there are different variables. The person who tells himself that “We can find a way,” will almost always outperform the person who responds by saying “There is no other way to look at this situation.”
Empathy: The ability to see things from another person’s perspective and to take into account their individual thoughts and feelings about an experience.
Mindfulness: The ability to pay attention to one’s own thoughts and feelings in the present moment without judging them. Read more about mindfulness here
Having a high emotional intelligence level has its benefits. Says Trefny, “It helps individuals to foster positive relationships, communicate better, reduce anxiety and stress, defuse conflicts, empathize with others, and effectively overcome life’s challenges.” Having a high EI is usually linked to high performance in a variety of areas— such as work, school, exercise, activities and games — which makes it worth developing.
How to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence:-
When you feel adversely about someone’s behaviour, avoid jumping to a negative conclusion right away. Instead, come up with multiple ways of viewing the situation before reacting. It will help to reduce your stress level, and gain insight into the situation. Our perceptions can limit us; Read here to learn how our perceptions affects our emotions and/or actions.
The best way to combat life’s stressors is to energize yourself. Exercise will boost your confidence to deal with those stressors in a more productive way.
The key is learning how to be assertive and express difficult emotions when necessary. Avoid using sentences that begin with “you,” followed by accusation or judgment. “You” language followed by such directives puts the listener on the defensive, and makes him or her less likely to be open to what you have to say. Effective communication gives each person the safety to be seen and heard whilst voicing frustrations.
When you feel angry with someone, before you say something you might later regret, take a deep breath and count slowly to ten. Another way to reduce reactions is to try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes, to help gain perspective on what he or she is thinking. Learn about the benefits of controlled breathing here
With every challenging situation, ask questions such as “What is the lesson here?” “How can I learn from this experience?” “What is most important now?” Ask constructive questions and you’ll gain the proper perspective to help tackle the situation at hand. Employing the services of a Life Coach will assist a person to evaluate such questions.
Further Reading : Emotional Intelligence: Key Readings on the Mayer and Salovey Model
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]]>What a bother. But this is what it is all about. These distractions are actually the whole point. The key is to learn to deal with these things. Learning to notice them without being trapped in them. That’s what we are here for. This mental wandering is unpleasant, to be sure. But it is the normal mode of operation of your mind. Don’t think of it as the enemy. It is just the simple reality. And if you want to change something, the first thing you have to do is to see it the way it is.
When you first sit down to concentrate on the breath, you will be struck by how incredibly busy the mind actually is. It jumps and jibbers. It veers and bucks. It chases itself around in constant circles. It chatters. It thinks. It fantasizes and daydreams. Don’t be upset about that. It’s natural. When your mind wanders from the subject of meditation, just observe the distraction mindfully.
When we speak of a distraction in mindfulness meditation, we are speaking of any preoccupation that pulls the attention off the breath. This brings up a new, major rule for your meditation; When any mental states arises strongly enough to distract you from the object of meditation, switch your attention to the distraction briefly. Make the distraction a temporary object of meditation. Please note the word “temporary”. It’s quite important. We are not advising that you switch horses in midstream. We do not expect you to adopt a whole new object of meditation every three seconds. The breath will always remain your primary focus. You switch your attention to the distraction only long enough to notice certain specific things about it. What is it? How strong is it? And, how long does it last?
As soon as you have wordlessly answered these questions, you are through with your examination of that distraction, and you return your attention to the breath. Here again, please note the operant term, “wordlessly”. These questions are not an invitation to more mental chatter. That would be moving you in the wrong direction, toward more thinking. We want you to move away from thinking, back to a direct, wordless and non-conceptual experience of the breath. These questions are designed to free you from the distraction and give you insight into its nature, not to get you more thoroughly stuck in it. They will tune you in to what is distracting you and help you get rid of it all in one step.
When you first begin to practice this technique you will probably have to do it with word. You will ask your questions in words, and get answers in words. It won’t be long, however, before you can dispense “with the formality of words” altogether. Once the mental habits are in place, you simply note the distraction, note the qualities of the distraction, and return to the breath. It’s a totally non-conceptual process, and it’s very quick. The distraction itself can be anything; a sound, a sensation, an emotion, a fantasy, anything at all. Whatever it is, don’t try to repress it. Don’t try to force it out of your mind. There’s no need for that. Just observe it mindfully with bare attention. Examine the distraction wordlessly and it will pass away by itself.
Watch the sequence of events; breathing, breathing, distracting thought arises. Frustration arising over the distracting thought. You condemn yourself for being distracted. You notice the self-condemnation. You return to the breathing. Breathing. Breathing. It’s really a very natural smooth-flowing cycle, if you do it correctly. The trick, of course, is patience. If you can learn to observe these distractions without getting involved, it’s all very easy. You just glide through the distraction and your attention returns to the breath quite easily. Of course, the very same distraction may pop up a moment later. If it does, just observe that mindfully. If you are dealing with an old, established thought pattern, this can go on happening for quite a while, somethings years. Don’t get upset. This too is natural. Just observe the distraction and return to the breath. Don’t fight with these distracting thoughts Don’t strain or struggle. It’s a waste. Every bit of energy that you apply to that resistance goes into the thought complex and makes it all the stronger. So don’t try to force such thoughts out of your mind. It’s a battle you can never win. Just observe the distraction mindfully and it will eventually go away. It’s very strange, but the more bare attention you pay to such disturbances, the weaker they get. Observe them long enough and often enough with bare attention and they fade away forever. Fight with them and they gain strength. Watch them with detachment and they wither.
Mindfulness is a function that disarms distraction…..Weak distractions are disarmed by a single-glance. Shine the light of awareness on them and they evaporate instantly, never to return. Deep-seated, habitual thought patterns require constant mindfulness repeatedly applied over whatever time period it takes to break their hold. Distractions are really paper tigers. They have no power of their own. They need to be fed constantly or else they die. If you refuse to feed them by your own fear, anger and greed, they fade. The purpose of meditation is not to concentrate on the breath, without interruption forever. That by itself would be a useless goal. The purpose of meditation is not to achieve a perfectly still and serene mind. Although a lovely state, it doesn’t lead to liberation by itself. The purpose of meditation is to achieve uninterrupted mindfulness.
Source: “Mindfulness In Plain English” By Venerable Henepola Gunaratana
Read more about him here
Contact me today on 082 929 5142 to learn more about mindfulness meditation. Understand what is mindfulness here
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]]>Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy
There are many definitions of hypnosis. This is a compilation of the most useful definitions: Hypnosis is a focused state of attention, where the person is highly relaxed physically while the mind is alert, curious, and open to suggestions.
The therapy in hypnosis relates to the actual suggestions (as well as guided visualizations) offered to the patient. The skill of the hypnotherapist is the ability to guide the patient in a trance — the deeper the better — and then offer relevant suggestions related to the patient’s treatment. The success of the treatment is a combination of the relevance of the suggestions, the depth of the trance, and the rapport between the therapist and the patient.
Use of Hypnosis Before Medical Treatment
Patients with cancer will experience specific symptoms upon being told their diagnosis. These may include anxiety, stress, depression, fear, and feelings of vulnerability. Self-hypnosis (which can be taught by the therapist) can help to alleviate or reduce these symptoms. Patients about to begin chemotherapy or radiation therapy may find that hypnotherapy can drastically reduce or eliminate the side effects of these treatments such as nausea, tiredness, etc. Hypnotherapy can help patients relax, and better cope with treatment and pain.
Although no research studies have been conducted on using hypnosis to cure cancer, there are many anecdotal accounts of patients whose cancer went into remission after undergoing hypnotherapy or guided imagery (a form of relaxation that uses hypnotic techniques to allow the patient to actively engage their cancer with their mind).
Hypnotherapy and Cancer
Patients with cancer frequently experience pain, sickness, nausea, and for women with breast cancer, hot flashes, loss of self-esteem, and fear of surgery. These and other benefits have been researched and presented to the medical community:-
· Reduced pain and stress associated with the cancer itself.
· A decrease in the after-effects of chemotherapy and radiation treatments
· Improved mental state with less stress, less anxiety, and the feeling of a greater control and acceptance of the situation
· Better post-surgical response measured as decrease in pain requiring less medication, less tiredness, and a faster healing from the surgery itself
It would make sense that pain and anxiety are closely related, and anything that lessens one will also lessen the other. Patients who undergo hypnosis before surgery or before chemotherapy or radiation therapy generally heal faster, experience less pain and therefore need less pain medication, and are less anxious about their situation.
The book Getting Well Again by O. Carl Simonton details what may have been the first end-stage cancer treatment research that included hypnotherapy. A literature review of studies conducted on the use of hypnotic techniques on pain management found that 75% of the participants in the studies reported less pain compared with the control groups. Another study in that literature review also reported that participants experienced less anxiety, less pain, less blood loss, and less postoperative nausea and vomiting.
Patients with cancer can use hypnosis to activate and trigger their immune system and aid their body in fighting the disease. Patients are often given instructions on using guided imagery to visualize their immune system working with their treatment to defeat the disease and eliminate toxins from their body.
Positive Effects
Hypnosis has, over time and across many instances, been shown to improve both clinical and cost outcomes connected to cancer treatment. Unfortunately, there have been very few studies that examined and isolated hypnosis as a researched treatment for cancer overall. One highly quoted study measured the effects of hypnosis just on women patients who were undergoing biopsy. This study indicated that women who underwent hypnosis experienced lower levels of anxiety and pain during the procedure (with no increase in the cost). These patients also experienced less post biopsy pain and irritation than the control group.
Conclusions
Hypnotherapy is an often misunderstood and overlooked treatment option with no known side effects and no reported negative consequences. There are many benefits of hypnosis that are supported by research findings, as well as many anecdotal reports of benefits that are yet to be investigated. Generally, the hypnotist and the patient work together to determine what goals hypnosis will attempt to achieve.
References
1. Elkins G, Fisher W, Sliwinsky J. Clinical hypnosis for the palliative care of cancer patients. Oncology (Williston Park). 2012;26(8 suppl nurse ed):26-30. http://www.cancernetwork.com/oncology-nursing/clinical-hypnosis-palliative-care-cancer-patient..
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]]>The post UTILIZING IMAGERY TO ENHANCE INJURY REHABILITATION appeared first on Linda Clarke.
]]>Learn more about hypnosis and Read more about how learning self-hypnosis is better than downloading generic recordings.
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]]>Your brain loves efficiency and doesn’t like to work any harder than it has to. When you repeat behaviour, such as complaining, your neurons branch out to each other to ease the flow of information. This makes it much easier to repeat that behaviour in the future — so easy, in fact, that you might not even realize you’re doing it.
You can’t blame your brain. Who’d want to build a temporary bridge every time you need to cross a river? It makes a lot more sense to construct a permanent bridge. So, your neurons grow closer together, and the connections between them become more permanent. Scientists like to describe this process as, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.”
Repeated complaining rewires your brain to make future complaining more likely. Over time, you find it’s easier to be negative than to be positive, regardless of what’s happening around you. Complaining becomes your default behaviour, which changes how people perceive you.
And here’s the kicker: complaining damages other areas of your brain as well. Research from Stanford University has shown that complaining shrinks the hippocampus — an area of the brain that’s critical to problem solving and intelligent thought. Damage to the hippocampus is scary, especially when you consider that it’s one of the primary brain areas destroyed by Alzheimer’s.
Complaining is also bad for your health
While it’s not an exaggeration to say that complaining leads to brain damage, it doesn’t stop there. When you complain, your body releases the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol shifts you into fight-or-flight mode, directing oxygen, blood and energy away from everything but the systems that are essential to immediate survival. One effect of cortisol, for example, is to raise your blood pressure and blood sugar so that you’ll be prepared to either escape or defend yourself.
All the extra cortisol released by frequent complaining impairs your immune system and makes you more susceptible to high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. It even makes the brain more vulnerable to strokes.
It’s Not Just You…
Since human beings are inherently social, our brains naturally and unconsciously mimic the moods of those around us, particularly people we spend a great deal of time with. This process is called neuronal mirroring, and it’s the basis for our ability to feel empathy. The flip side, however, is that it takes complaining a lot like smoking — you don’t have to do it yourself to suffer the ill effects. You need to be cautious about spending time with people who complain about everything. Complainers want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. Think of it this way: If a person were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke? You’d distance yourself, and you should do the same with complainers.
The solution to complaining
There are two things you can do when you feel the need to complain. One is to cultivate an attitude of gratitude. That is, when you feel like complaining, shift your attention to something that you’re grateful for. Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the right thing to do; it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23%. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis, found that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood and energy and substantially less anxiety due to lower cortisol levels. Any time you experience negative or pessimistic thoughts, use this as a cue to shift gears and to think about something positive. In time, a positive attitude will become a way of life.
The second thing you can do — and only when you have something that is truly worth complaining about — is to engage in solution-oriented complaining.
Think of it as complaining with a purpose. Solution-oriented complaining should do the following:
1.Have a clear purpose. Before complaining, know what outcome you’re looking for. If you can’t identify a purpose, there’s a good chance you just want to complain for its own sake, and that’s the kind of complaining you should nip in the bud.
2.Start with something positive. It may seem counterintuitive to start a complaint with a compliment, but starting with a positive helps keep the other person from getting defensive. For example, before launching into a complaint about poor customer service, you could say something like, “I’ve been a customer for a very long time and have always been thrilled with your service…”
3.Be specific. When you’re complaining it’s not a good time to dredge up every minor annoyance from the past 20 years. Just address the current situation and be as specific as possible. Instead of saying, “Your employee was rude to me,” describe specifically what the employee did that seemed rude.
4.End on a positive. If you end your complaint with, “I’m never shopping here again,” the person who’s listening has no motivation to act on your complaint. In that case, you’re just venting, or complaining with no purpose other than to complain. Instead, restate your purpose, as well as your hope that the desired result can be achieved, for example, “I’d like to work this out so that we can keep our business relationship intact.”
The problem is that most of what we feel, think and do is mindless and we are simply not aware that we are complaining or being negative. The practice of mindfulness can enhance our awareness so that we can be more aware. Read more in my newsletter article about mindfulness.
Source: Travis Bradberry PH.D www.talentsmart.com
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]]>The post Integrative Medicine appeared first on Linda Clarke.
]]>We used to call it complementary medicine, which is something in addition or that ‘complements’ mainstream medicine. Alternative medicine suggests it is used instead of, or to replace traditional medicine, which is not what is recommended. The current term, ‘integrative medicine’, signifies the integration of non-traditional treatments and practices into a patient’s overall care.
It has become a major movement largely because of patients. They are looking for care for things that is not handled all that well in modern medicine. It is great at treating a broken leg or a heart attack. But for things like chronic pain, or disease-related stress, modern medicine doesn’t have all the answers.
There are increasing numbers of patients who would rather not have medicine if they can avoid it. They would rather try manipulation like acupuncture or practice hypnosis or mindfulness. Interest in integrative medicine is growing.
There are many practices that don’t work, but there are a number that do.
Integrative medicine works well for problems like pain control. It’s a good idea to give people alternatives besides often escalating amounts of analgesic medications. Teaching mindfulness or self-hypnosis to manage pain or anxiety or stress is much better than some of the medications that are often resorted to.
There’s increasing evidence that mindfulness, hypnosis and other therapies can help manage some symptoms of chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia as well. A good thing about integrative medicine is that it’s low-cost and low-risk.
For acupuncture, the clearest evidence of its efficacy is in pain control. Acupuncture works by triggering endogenous opiates. It is also being used for stress and in vitro fertilization and it may help with the stress of pregnancy. In addition, some find it helpful for stress reduction; they just feel better afterwards.
Mind-body techniques like hypnosis are now being used to better manage pain. Modern medicine is so used to using the brain in pieces, such as by replacing a particular neurotransmitter or by blocking a particular pathway. However, there’s a tremendous growing interest in using the brain as a whole with mindfulness and hypnosis to manage stress and pain.
Also, the idea that we’re not simply reacting to our environment but can play a role in managing our response to the environment is gaining currency. And it makes sense — there are better and worse ways to use our brains to deal with stress and pain.
We can take advantage of techniques like practicing self-hypnosis three to four times a day to control pain, stress or insomnia; or meditating once or twice a day; being aware of our thoughts; and practicing compassion for other people. These approaches are becoming much more widely accepted.
Learn more about hypnosis and healing and mindfulness by visiting my website.
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]]>The post The Benefits Of Controlled Breathing appeared first on Linda Clarke.
]]>Take a deep breath, expanding your belly. Pause. Exhale slowly to the count of five. Repeat four times.
Congratulations. You’ve just calmed your nervous system.
The Benefits of Controlled Breathing
Controlled breathing, like what you just practiced, has been shown to reduce stress, increase alertness and boost your immune system. For centuries yogis have used breath control, or pranayama, to promote concentration and improve vitality. Buddha advocated breath-meditation as a way to reach enlightenment.
Science is just beginning to provide evidence that the benefits of this ancient practice are real. Studies have found, for example, that breathing practices can help reduce symptoms associated with anxiety, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and attention deficit disorder.
How Controlled Breathing Helps
How controlled breathing may promote healing remains a source of scientific study. One theory is that controlled breathing can change the response of the body’s autonomic nervous system, which controls unconscious processes such as heart rate and digestion as well as the body’s stress response, says Dr. Richard Brown, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and co-author of “The Healing Power of the Breath.”
Consciously changing the way you breathe appears to send a signal to the brain to adjust the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system, which can slow heart rate and digestion and promote feelings of calm as well as the sympathetic system, which controls the release of stress hormones like cortisol.
Many maladies, such as anxiety and depression, are aggravated or triggered by stress. “I have seen patients transformed by adopting regular breathing practices,” says Dr. Brown, who has a private practice in Manhattan and teaches breathing workshops around the world.
When you take slow, steady breaths, your brain gets the message that all is well and activates the parasympathetic response, said Dr. Brown. When you take shallow rapid breaths or hold your breath, the sympathetic response is activated. “If you breathe correctly, your mind will calm down,” said Dr. Patricia Gerbarg, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York Medical College and Dr. Brown’s co-author
Dr. Chris Streeter, an associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at Boston University, recently completed a small study in which she measured the effect of daily yoga and breathing on people with diagnoses of major depressive disorder.
After 12 weeks of daily yoga and coherent breathing, the subjects’ depressive symptoms significantly decreased and their levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid, a brain chemical that has calming and anti-anxiety effects, had increased. The research was presented in May at the International Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health in Las Vegas. While the study was small and lacked a control group, Dr. Streeter and her colleagues are planning a randomized controlled trial to further test the intervention. “The findings were exciting,” she said. “They show that a behavioral intervention can have effects of similar magnitude as an antidepressant.”
Controlled breathing may also affect the immune system. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina divided a group of 20 healthy adults into two groups. One group was instructed to do two sets of 10-minute breathing exercises, while the other group was told to read a text of their choice for 20 minutes. The subjects’ saliva was tested at various intervals during the exercise. The researchers found that the breathing exercise group’s saliva had significantly lower levels of three cytokines that are associated with inflammation and stress. The findings were published in the journal BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine in August.
Learn more about how to alleviate stress by visiting my website.
Links:- The Healing Power of the Breath – Dr. Richard Brown
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]]>The post How Our Perceptions Affects Our Emotions and/Or Actions appeared first on Linda Clarke.
]]>Years ago, a person moved to into a small home a couple blocks way from the ocean. She was thrilled to move there ….She could see waves crashing from some of her windows and she could hear the soothing sound of the foghorn. But the first night she slept there, she awoke in the middle of the night to the sound of dogs barking. Lots of dogs, she thought it must be a kennel. All night long, dogs barking very loudly. It kept her awake for hours … that night and the next night and the next … She couldn’t understand why people were allowing that commotion to go on.
Finally, she’d had enough. One night, about 2 in the morning, she got out of bed, got dressed, got in her car and started to drive toward the sound of the barking dogs. She was going to find that kennel; Not sure what she was going to do when she found it, but she planned to somehow make them stop that racket.
She drove quite a ways, finally to a road than ran right in front of the beach … and found the source of the barking. On a big rock out from the shore were dozens of seals, having a grand time, barking at each other and doing whatever it is that seals do in the middle of the night. They were a long way from where we lived, but the noise carried over the water. She remembers standing there in the dark, looking across the waves and thinking there was nothing she could do. She would never sleep at night again.
But she was wrong … once she knew the noise was barking seals and not barking dogs, it no longer bothered her.
In fact, she found it to be as soothing as the foghorn or rain on the windows, and it would lull her to sleep every night. It was a delightful to know she could not only hear waves crashing but seals on a rock far away. The noise was the same … but her perception of the cause was different and it changed everything.
She kept coming back to that simple truth … the noise was the same, the barking was the same … and yet what had once kept her awake and left her frustrated and angry turned into something soothing, something delightful. But the noise was the same.
I think of this every now and again, especially when I’m faced with someone or something that is baffling to me, especially if it’s something that hurts me or angers me. There might be another way to see this situation. I have found that many people who I encounter in my practice become prisoners of their thoughts simply because they attribute one meaning rather than several possibilities to a situation.
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]]>The post Thoughts During Meditation appeared first on Linda Clarke.
]]>We are not trying to stop our thoughts as they cascade through the mind. We are simply making room for them, observing them as thoughts, and letting them be, using the breath as our anchor or “home base” for observing, for reminding us to stay focused and calm. It might help to keep in mind that the awareness of our thoughts and emotions is the same awareness as the awareness of our breathing.
During meditation, we intentionally treat all our thoughts as if they are of equal value. As best we can, and with the lightest of touches, we bring awareness to them when they arise, and then we intentionally return our attention to the breath as the primary focus of our attention, regardless of the content of the thought and its emotional charge. In other words we intentionally practice letting go of each thought that attracts our attention, whether it seems important and insightful or unimportant and trivial. We just observe them as thoughts, as transient events that appear in the field of our awareness. We are aware of them because they are here, but we intentionally decline to get caught up in the content of the thoughts during meditation, no matter how meaningful or enticing the content may be for us in any given moment. Instead, we remind ourselves to see them simply as thoughts, as seemingly independently occurring events in the field of our awareness.
We note the content of our thoughts and their “emotional charge” – in other words, whether they are weak or strong in their power to dominate the mind at that moment. Then, no matter how charged they may be for us in that moment, and regardless of whether they are primarily pleasant or primarily unpleasant, we intentionally let go of them and refocus on our breathing once again and on the experience of being “in our body” as we sit here. We repeat this hundreds of thousands of times, millions of times, as necessary. And it is necessary if we want to:-
We are not trying to stop our thoughts as they cascade through the mind. We are simply making room for them, observing them as thoughts, and letting them be, using the breath as our anchor or “home base” for observing, for reminding us to stay focused and calm. It might help to keep in mind that the awareness of our thoughts and emotions is the same awareness as the awareness of our breathing.
During meditation, we intentionally treat all our thoughts as if they are of equal value. As best we can, and with the lightest of touches, we bring awareness to them when they arise, and then we intentionally return our attention to the breath as the primary focus of our attention, regardless of the content of the thought and its emotional charge. In other words we intentionally practice letting go of each thought that attracts our attention, whether it seems important and insightful or unimportant and trivial. We just observe them as thoughts, as transient events that appear in the field of our awareness. We are aware of them because they are here, but we intentionally decline to get caught up in the content of the thoughts during meditation, no matter how meaningful or enticing the content may be for us in any given moment. Instead, we remind ourselves to see them simply as thoughts, as seemingly independently occurring events in the field of our awareness.
We note the content of our thoughts and their “emotional charge” – in other words, whether they are weak or strong in their power to dominate the mind at that moment. Then, no matter how charged they may be for us in that moment, and regardless of whether they are primarily pleasant or primarily unpleasant, we intentionally let go of them and refocus on our breathing once again and on the experience of being “in our body” as we sit here. We repeat this hundreds of thousands of times, millions of times, as necessary. And it is necessary if we want to:-
Contact me today on 082 929 5142 or e-mail [email protected] to learn more about mindfulness meditation
Resources: Read more about mindfulness by visiting this page
Institute for Mindfulness South Africa http://www.mindfulness.org.za
Read Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn
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