05 Dec

In The Spirit Of Giving, Offer A Peaceful Respite To Those Who Need It Most This Holiday

Guest post by Kim Weiss

inkspirations-recovery The trend this holiday season is all about ‘giving’ – not another ugly Christmas sweater, but something meaningful like a donation in the name of a family member or friend. Here’s a novel idea; give adult coloring books to a worthwhile group and put smiles on many faces! The beautiful Inkspirations series of adult coloring books from HCI has something for everyone – from Gardening and Pets, to Recovery and Christmas Joy – even postcards and greeting cards! To help make this a truly “giving” holiday, donate coloring books to your favorite charity, hospital, homeless or women’s shelter, where some extra moments of peace and encouraged wellness would be welcomed.

Bringing a little peace and joy to someone is what the holidays are all about; something to help quiet the mind and

ease the soul. From HCI, the original publishers of Chicken Soup for the Soul, now comes a line of adult coloring books ready to encourage, inspire, and help worries fade. Art therapy has long proven its effects as an aid in emotional and mental restoration, and it is not news that coloring as active meditation reduces stress and quiets

Example of coloring page.

thoughts. Inkspirations coloring books for adults offer a way to turn off negativity while healing the spirit.

With moving quotes alongside unique and graceful images, Inkspirations include a wide array of themes to help express creativity and enjoy therapy through coloring. To start overcoming heartache, releasing tensions, and building positive energy, readers can visit the new Inkspirations website.

The website is a reader’s portal to a more colorful world, giving a peek at the wide spread of unique pages Inkspirations has to offer.

On coloring lists now:

Inkspirations Create While You Wait

Create beautiful art wherever you are with this portable coloring book. Next time you’re waiting—at the doctor’s office, in the airport, or on the bus—stop stressing and start creating! In today’s busy world, finding peace can be a challenge. Now, with this unique, compact coloring book, you can use those idle moments to foster your creativity and enjoy a sense of calm. Perfectly sized to fit into a purse, pack, or pocket, Create While You Wait will help you color your day brighter wherever you go. A special binding lets you lay the book flat, and the unique horizontal layout is perfect whether you’re left- or right-handed. So grab your colored pencils, crayons, markers or pen—and find your inner Zen. Created in conjunction with AARP, see more at www.aarp.org/coloringbooks.

Inkspirations Christmas Joy

Christmas is a time of magic, and now you can color your season even brighter with more than thirty original, festive designs, plus 12 pages of DIY projects including color-your-own gift tags, postcards, wine tags and more! From highly detailed to fun and free-flowing, each design will deck your heart and home with the holiday spirit. Designs include: trees to make your own; winter wonderlands, polar bears and penguins; charming gingerbread houses, wreaths, and stockings; whimsical scenes of snowmen and ugly holiday sweaters; a Santa sighting or two, plus heartwarming expressions of holiday cheer written in exquisite typography.

Inkspirations for Dog Lovers

Dogs are our loyal, playful, energetic, goofy, and brave companions who color our lives with so much joy―now you can bring them to life on every page with this captivating compendium that celebrates the glory of canines throughout the seasons. From Boxers, Bulldogs, and Beagles, to Pomeranians, Poodles, and Pugs, to Shepherds, Shih Tzus, and Siberian Huskies, this eclectic mix of original artwork showcases the many ways in which dogs warm our hearts no matter the season. Whether it’s a spirited puppy romping through the first spring tulips, two Golden Retrievers sprinting against fiery autumn leaves, or a curious Lab leaving fresh paw prints in the winter snow, our furry friends color our world brighter every day. Inkspirations for Dog Lovers is a fitting tribute to the canine kingdom.

Inkspirations Fruit of the Spirit

In a world that’s not always black and white, it’s often challenging to put the fruit of the Spirit into practice, but this captivating coloring book offers an enjoyable way to quiet the chatter, tap into your creativity, and spend some reflective time with God. Stunning original art is paired with powerful Scriptures that eloquently embody the fruit of the Spirit, inviting you to immerse yourself in the meaning of the messages and cultivate them in everyday life. This is a perfect way to relax and unwind as you create beautiful works of art while rejoicing in the blessings of the Holy Spirit. Celebrate your faith in full color!

There’s even Inkspirations Greeting and Post Cards to personalize and send to someone or give as a gift.

Also see www.Inkspirations.com/shop for:

Inkspirations in the Garden
Inkspirations Animal Kingdom
Inkspirations for a Happy Heart
Inkspirations for Cat Lovers
Inkspirations for Women
Inkspirations for Recovery

For more information, please contact Kim Weiss at (800) 851-9100 ex. 9212, or kimw@hcibooks.com

03 Dec

Excerpt from The Autoimmune Fix by Dr. Tom O’Bryan

Guest Post by Dr. Tom O’Bryan

taf-cover I was recently asked: “What’s the one thing you would do, more than anything else, if you were going to focus on being healthy?” My recommendation is to focus on creating a healthier microbiome. All the little steps that are easy to implement will add up to having a robustly healthy microbiome. Nothing is more important to the function of your body. Nothing has more control. Nothing impacts more of your tissues and organs than the microbiota. It’s the big kahuna.

Luckily, the microbiome can easily be rebalanced. In just a day or two of changing your diet, you can begin to change and reduce dysbiosis. First, avoid the foods you may be sensitive to. When you have food sensitivities, the immune system responds with an inflammatory cascade in the gut. Every forkful can have a detrimental effect on your microbiome, even if you don’t feel bad as you eat it. The inflammatory cascade kills off the good bacteria, and pathogenic bacteria begin to prosper, creating an imbalanced environment in the gut. When you remove the foods that you are reacting to—beginning with gluten, dairy, and sugar—you can positively affect your microbiome.

My Transition Protocol includes better food selection, probiotics, and prebiotics to help restore a healthy microbiome. The foods that support the microbiome are grouped into four categories.

Choose foods high in polyphenols—colorful, high-fiber fruits and vegetables. Polyphenols are micronutrients found in the bright colors in fruits and vegetables and have are incredibly beneficial to the microbiome. You may have heard of resveratrol, found in red wine, and the benefits of dark chocolate or green tea. It’s the polyphenols that provide much of these foods’ health benefits. Polyphenols occur within a diverse class of plants and are associated with strong-colored fruits (like berries) and vegetables (like red tomatoes). Fruits and veget-

bles that are high in polyphenols have the same dark color throughout. While eggplants have a nice, dark skin, the flesh is white, so it isn’t a high polyphenol choice. A better choice would be dark, leafy greens like spinach or kale.

You can add polyphenols into your diet every day in several ways including salads filled with greens and crunchy, colorful cruciferous vegetables. It is the insoluble fiber in these vegetables that the bacteria thrive on that promote being lean and healthy. Other foods high in polyphenols can be eaten every day, but in moderation, including fresh garlic, fresh raw almonds, and 70 percent or higher dark chocolate. Cocoa has been shown to influence the microbiome toward a more health-promoting profile by increasing the relative abundance of good bacteria. What’s more, chocolate is thought to modify intestinal immune status, lowering the expression of IgA antibodies.

Choose the right carbohydrates. Avoid processed carbohydrates that feed bad bacteria—chips, French fries, breads, white rice, cookies, crackers, desserts, and sugars. These foods put your body in a chronically hungry, metabolically damaged, fat-storing mode. Eating them can increase your risk of intestinal permeability and may alter the makeup of your microbiome, upsetting the balance between “friendly” and unfriendly bacteria.

However, eating good carbohydrates can actually reduce obesity by increasing beneficial bacteria. In 2006, microbiologist Liping Zhao, PhD, conducted an experiment on himself to replicate findings that showed a link between obesity and the microbiome in mice. At the time, Dr. Zhao was overweight and in poor health. He adopted a diet that included whole grains (brown rice) along with two traditional Chinese medicine foods: Chinese yams and bitter melon, both of which contain a particular type of indigestible carbohydrate (a prebiotic that encourages the development of one form of good bacteria, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii). He monitored his weight loss as well as his microbiome. Two years later, he had lost a total of 44 pounds by restoring his good bacteria. In a 2016 study from the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College, London, it was found that the bacteria produced by eating these same foods (Faecalibacterium) is significantly associated with reduced frailty. This is important, because frailty is a useful indicator of overall health deficit, describing a physiological loss of reserve capacity and reduced resistance to stress.

Carbohydrates containing artificial sweeteners promote unhealthy gut bacteria that cause obesity. In one study, the sugar substitute saccharin was shown to alter the function of 115 different pathways in the gut because of the microbiome controlling glucose tolerance, leading to obesity. The bacteria that aid in the digestion of saccharin turn the switch on to store energy as body fat and alter the gut microbiome.

Eat grass-fed red meat and healthy fats. When you eat healthy fats, including the fats found in avocados, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, fish, free-range poultry, and grass-fed beef, there is no evidence of lipid raft transcytosis, which is responsible for moving LPS into the bloodstream.

Eat one forkful of fermented foods every day. A hundred years ago, people thought yogurt was healthy for you but were not exactly sure why. We now know that it is because of the fermentation of the bacteria in milk: Every time you eat yogurt, you get a dose of good bacteria.

However, because so many people have a dairy sensitivity and because the quality of most pasteurized yogurts found at the grocer is so poor and low in beneficial bacteria by the time it reaches your table, we are going to focus on eating fermented vegetables and drinks like kefir (a cultured/fermented milk), KeVita (a cultured/fermented coconut water), and kombucha (a fermented tea) to encourage the growth of good bacteria in your gut.

Fermented foods are those that grow bacteria in them or on them. They are some of the best detoxifying agents available. The beneficial bacteria in these foods are capable of drawing out a wide range of toxins and heavy metals. They can contain 100 times more probiotics than a supplement. Every day, you need to eat just a little bit, such as one forkful of fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, both made from cabbage. You can purchase fermented vegetables or follow the recipes in Chapter 10 to make your own. If you find that you have a little gas or bloating after eating fermented vegetables, it is a biomarker of dysbiosis (abnormal gut bacteria in high concentration). It doesn’t mean the fermented foods are bad for you; it means your threshold for digesting them is very low. So reduce your dosage: Try a tablespoon of sauerkraut juice on your salad with your normal salad dressing so that the taste isn’t so strong. Next week, try 2 tablespoons per day. This is an example of transitioning—you are taking an accurate evaluation of where you body is currently functioning and moving it in the direction of better functioning.

For a healthy microbiome, probiotics need to be the majority of all your gut bacteria. There are thousands of different types of probiotics, and each is defined by its genus (for example, Lactobacillus), by its species (such as rhamnosus), and by its strain designation (often a combination of letters or numbers). The concept of a bacterial “strain” is similar to the breed of a dog—all dogs are the same genus and species, but different breeds of dogs have different attributes, and different breeds are good for different tasks.

The use of probiotic supplements is still in its infancy. We really don’t know exactly how to use them to create a healthier microbiome. We do know that they work to balance immune function and decreasing inflammation by helping you maintain a healthy environment in the gut. They are available as nutritional supplements that increase beneficial bacteria in the gut and crowd out bad bacteria. They can also heal intestinal permeability. Different strains of even the same species of probiotics can vary in their specific bacteria.

Probiotics are most effective when they are combined with a high-fiber diet that features lots of vegetables every day. Vegetable fiber is critical for creating butyrate, which, is the fuel for the fastest-growing cells in the body: the inside lining of the intestines. This is a critical concept and the reason why I don’t encourage fiber supplements, because I have never found a study where fiber supplements increase butyrate levels. The right fiber acts as a fertilizer that helps the probiotic grow and proliferate good bacteria in your microbiome. And because probiotics interact with the digestive system, each strain performs differently depending on your gut’s unique environment. This means that one type of probiotic doesn’t work the same for everybody. To find the supplement that will work best for you, choose a broad- spectrum, high-potency probiotic. “Broad spectrum” means that it contains more than one strain of probiotics.

Prebiotics: Even the best of dietary intentions can cause problems. A gluten-free diet may actually contribute to dysbiosis. When you follow a gluten-free diet, you remove many of the carbohydrates necessary to feed good bacteria. Gluten-free foods are not known to contain healthy prebiotics. You are in effect starving your own bacteria unless you replace the gluten with prebiotics.

Prebiotics are food components that cannot be digested by the body but are consumed by the beneficial bacteria to help them function. Chocolate or cocoa is considered a prebiotic that is also rich in polyphenols.

GO AHEAD, EAT CHOCOLATE EVERY DAY

Eat a little dark chocolate every day to increase your intake of polyphenols and prebiotics. Take a square of the very best dark chocolate (at least 70 percent cacao) that you can get and put it on or under your tongue. Don’t let it touch your teeth. Let it sit there without chewing, so that it slowly dissolves in your mouth. In this way, you saturate your taste buds to send the message “chocolate is here” to your brain via the oral thalamic tract that leads from the mouth right up to the brain. Chocolate stimulates the production of endorphins and enkephalins, which are 200 times more powerful than morphine in how they stimulate the feel-good sensors in your brain. If you eat that one square of chocolate every day and let it melt in your mouth for about 2 minutes, you’ll most likely feel very satisfied. If you want more, go ahead and have another piece. I’ve never ever, ever had a patient want more than two squares if they follow this method. This way, you can have dark chocolate every day and not gain weight or throw your blood sugar out of balance.

tom-casual-sitting-56-1 About Dr. Tom O’Bryan:

Tom O’Bryan, DC, CCN, DACBN, is a world-renown expert in the field of Gluten-Related Disorders, chronic disease and metabolic disorders. Author of The Autoimmune Fix, he lectures to healthcare professionals and the public about celiac disease and Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity worldwide. Dr. O’Bryan has more than 30 years of experience as a functional medicine practitioner and he serves on the faculty of the Institute of Functional Medicine. His site seeks to inform and empower those with Gluten-Related Disorders and their families. He offers a Certified Gluten Practitioner course and certification to healthcare professionals looking for a revolutionary way to diagnose, treat, and educate patients about Gluten-Related Disorders. He recently put together and hosted Betrayal, a 7-part documentary series about Autoimmune disease featuring 85 leading experts around the world. In 2013, Dr. O’Bryan hosted the world’s first Gluten Summit, where he interviewed 29 experts and opinion leaders on the topic of gluten-related health issues. It serves as the premier educational forum for the public and healthcare professionals on the topic of immune reaction to gluten and health.

02 Dec

The Power of Transcendence Through Surprise

Guest post by Deirdre Hade

The (Not So) Little Book of Surprises was twenty years in the making. My husband, Will Arntz, who created the film What the Bleep Do We Know!? got the idea to take my poetic writing and the mystical transcendental experiences I draw upon when I teach, and combine with the photos of the award‑winning photographer, Endre Balogh, in a book – creating a journey of thought, a journey of the divine, a journey of wisdom. And when he came to me with this idea I said, “Great, let’s do it.” And then he said to me, “No, no, it’s not LET’s do it, it’s I’M doing it,” and he actually would not let me see what he was doing in the beginning.

Because he made the successful film What the Bleep, I trusted his insight and intuition and I loved what he put together. He came up with the title The (Not So) Little Book of Surprise because he said this book is a Surprise! There’s not a book like this book anywhere in the world. You can look at just one page, read a few sentences and receive wisdom. You can experience the breathtaking nature photography. Or you can read the entire book in about an hour and a half, experiencing a journey as the wisdom story unfolds.

Transformation and consciousness always comes in a Surprise! We can study, go to our place of worship, we can have a practice. But when those moments of awakening of awareness, the “aha”, when the world looks different…when That happens, it is always a surprise. Awakening comes in surprise moments.

Since a very young age I have been visited by angels, saints and different illuminated beings. They speak to me, and I’ve seen them with my own eyes. At an early age I began to write down what they would tell me.

These light beings feel strongly that they want their voices heard, because they want to bring hope. They want to share a map that will help us to get through our changing times with as much grace as is available. This map is inside of us. The (not so) Little Book of Surprises is a guide to one’s inner map of wisdom and awakening.

I say to people, “I’m not really here, I’m a simulation. I’m from the grand projector, I’m beaming in.” My messages come from a state of Irradiance, which is defined as the ability to radiate outward an energy that is felt and/or experienced into the environment. (You can find this term in the dictionary.) I use this definition because when the Angels, the Light Beings, when God speaks to me, I feel a palpable presence, like a heaviness of light – my body changes. I go into a state of bliss and ecstasy, and then I hear their voices. I’ve worked very hard to be very clear to hear them and to make sure that the voices I hear are who they say they are. I then speak what they tell me, or I write it down. Surprises is a combination of my own wisdom, with what I’ve learned from God and the Beings of Light. It is my poetic understanding, and it is a combination of the Light Beings and of God sharing a greater reality perspective of our human experience.

Will picked out quotes for the book that resonate as true for the times we live in. Surprises is a book of my life experience with the divine realms. This is what I’ve seen and experienced with my eyes, this is what I know. If it rings true for you, great. If you can’t go there, that’s okay too. The Book of Surprises is like a rock‑and‑roll song. You get what you can just enjoy the ride. Enjoy the magic, the insight, inspiration – Surprises is a melody of sprit and beauty in the mystical. I highly recommend that the reader

Surprises is a “children’s book” for adults. But it’s also very much a children’s book. I find children today are very aware, awake, and they’re looking to be validated for the wise souls that they are. More souls are being born right now have this high level of sensitivity. What I mean by that is, that they have an ability to feel and sense the natural world outside of the intellectual two-dimensional processing. These kids Know – and they’re being born by the millions. They want validation. They have come to help us heal our world. They come wrapped in a vibration of love. All children, are aware and sensitive, we must prepare a world for them to thrive. They learn differently, they need different kinds of schools, they need to be honored for what they see and what they know. The book Surprises is supportive for young people – it’s a family book to sit around and read together.

I’m ecstatic with how The (not so) Little Book of Surprises turned out. I love reading it myself. Because of the through line that Will so artistically created. Each time I read it I experience something new – a spiritual experience of a different flavor. I actually learn, even though it comes from “my work.” I see something deeper every time. I’ve been asked, “Why read this book?” and I answer, because we are here as consciousness to experience the third dimension. We are here to create the magic, the miracle and the beauty – the justice, the truth – of what it really means to be human. And that’s our journey, and it’s bumpy ride. And we meet obstacles, but that’s really the journey of our human soul. And The (Not So) Little Book of Surprises was created for you to have an awesome experience in a book.

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25 Nov

The Thanksgiving Play Microphone Grab Viewed Around The World

Guest post by Dreama Denver

As the mother of a severely autistic son, I know how badly a mother’s heart yearns to see her child treated with respect and some semblance of normalcy even when he’s different. I also understand autistic behaviors and how disruptive they can be.
My husband, television actor Bob Denver (“Gilligan” in Gilligan’s Island, “Maynard G. Krebs” in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis) understood the challenges that special needs families face so well that he literally walked away from a very successful Hollywood career in order to be by my side to care for our son Colin. For over two decades until Bob passed in 2005, my husband was Colin’s biggest champion. His role as a father was far more important to him than any other role television, movies or theatre could hope to offer.

So, when I, like millions of others saw the video on social media of the teacher at an elementary school in West Virginia pulling the microphone away from a little autistic boy at the end of the school’s Thanksgiving play, I felt an immediate combination of sadness and anger. My “mother/protector” instinct kicked in immediately, much as it did for the countless others who commented on the video. But, viewing only the 15 or 20 seconds that most people saw doesn’t give a clear picture of the incident. After tracking down the entire 15 minute video, it’s apparent that the little boy was indeed allowed to fully participate with the other children, and I applaud his teacher and the school for that. It was also clear that he wandered the stage a bit, unable to totally focus on the task at hand, which is not unusual for an autistic child, or any young elementary school-age child for that matter. As parents, we want our children to ‘fit in’, we want them to have friends and experiences that give them a sense of self and their worth in the world. Parents of autistic children are no different, and I’m grateful that this precious little guy had the chance to be “one of the kids”.

Bob and I spent over twenty years caring for our son Colin, and I know first hand that providing care for a special needs child 24/7/365 is a daunting task, but one that makes you a better person for the experience. Our son’s worth was always apparent to us and our family, even though he was nonverbal and “different”. To an outsider looking in, that worth may have been a mystery, but here’s what I can tell you about differences; they should be celebrated!
Had our son been what society deems normal, I’m not sure I would know unconditional love in its purest form. We loved with no expectation of having it returned in any kind of normal way, and that only made us love harder. Colin taught us patience and gratitude for the smallest victories, gave us strength we never knew we had, not to mention a profound understanding of the miracle of the human body and the blessing of having a child whose parts work the way they were designed to work.

We, as a society, are defined by the way we treat the weakest among us. So how can we sit in judgement of a child who, through no fault of his own, is different? I can tell you from personal experience these children know when they’re being made to feel less than normal. Why would we ever want to diminish another human being? It takes so little effort to show kindness and understanding, so little effort to give someone hope that they too can be included.
I don’t personally know anyone involved in this incident or the behavioral history of this adorable little boy. Maybe the teacher had good reason to be wary of what he might say his last time at the microphone. The previous time he said, ‘ouch, ouch’, maybe that was part of the script, maybe not. Maybe the teacher made a split second decision that she wishes she could take back. How many of us have made a bad decision on the fly that we’ve regretted later? Maybe every elementary school Thanksgiving pageant in America goes off the rails to a certain extent, and that’s what makes them so adorable and memorable. Teachers of special needs kids are by and large incredibly warm, caring individuals who have chosen a career path that’s often much tougher than that of their colleagues in education. I support and thank them for stepping up; special adults who help special children deserve a special place in heaven as far as I’m concerned.
What am I thankful for? I’m thankful for the fact that this special little soul was included in the school’s Thanksgiving pageant at all. There was a time not too long ago that he would have been kept from participating. I HOPE there was a valid reason for not letting him say his last line; that’s my Thanksgiving wish.

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Dreama Denver is a former television and stage actress who was selected by Roy Disney to be in the original cast of 40 at Disney World. She met Bob Denver when they were cast aopposite one another in a play, and spent nearly 30 years together until Bob’s untimely passing in 2005. The Denver Foundation was formed by Bob and Dreama to help the families of special needs children. Dreama’s book “Gilligan’s Dreams” chronicles their life together in Hollywood and then as parents to their special needs child. It’s available at https://www.amazon.com/Gilligans-Dreams-Dreama-Denver/dp/1479320005 and wherever great books are sold. Find out more at www.bobdenver.com.

22 Nov

You are Not Alone: The Epidemic of Self-Judgment

An Excerpt from Make Peace with Your Mind

by Mark Coleman

Many of us are well acquainted with our “Inner Critic.” It is the voice that makes us second-guess our every step by saying “not enough,” “not good enough,” or sometimes “too much.” At times the Inner Critic can be so strong that it feels invincible, but bestselling author and renowned meditation teacher Mark Coleman promises that it is not in his new book Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Free You from Your Inner Critic. We hope you’ll enjoy this short excerpt.

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Have you noticed how many people give themselves a hard time? How friends and colleagues routinely put themselves down and happily confess all their faults and problems? It is culturally acceptable to talk about your faults and challenges, and of course to complain ad nauseam about the faults of others. As Lucy so eloquently put it in a Peanuts cartoon (speaking to Charlie Brown): “The problem with you, Charlie, is that you are you.”

At the same time it is quite the norm not to talk about one’s successes, strengths, and accomplishments. In some cultures, that is considered gauche and egotistical. Being raised in England, I was taught it was a faux pas to speak of your talents and gifts or celebrate your victories. It is as if you are rubbing other people’s nose in the dirt by doing so. Yet it is fine to lead with one’s inadequacies and problems.

In the United States the mental health statistics are alarming. One in ten Americans is on some form of antidepressant. One in five took some kind of behavioral medication in 2010. The number of suicides is equally staggering: forty thousand per year. And that’s just the numbers that are reported. Though the numbers may be higher in the United States than elsewhere, many industrialized countries report similarly alarming statistics.

Based on the work I have done with people over the past fifteen years on six continents, I believe the inner critic is a significant cause of much of the depression, anxiety, and suicide prevalent today. When the critic’s voices are loud, sharp, and rampant, it is hard to keep a sense of self-worth or feel there is a meaning or purpose in life.

Though the statistics are startling, there is one sad but reassuring fact among them: you are not alone. One of the biggest burdens we can carry when we are depressed, or just lost in a swamp of self-reproach, is the troubling thought that we are unusual to have such problems. We mistakenly believe that we are the only ones afflicted by nagging, negative stories about ourselves. It is bad enough to have such troubling thoughts, but the idea that you may be the only “loser” in the room who has them is doubly shaming, and harder to work with.

In workshops that I lead about the inner critic, one of the most healing outcomes is people’s realization that they are not the only ones with a judging mind. Isolation and the belief that you’re the odd one out, that everyone but you is having a merry old time, just compounds these mental challenges.

When I have people pair up at an inner-critic workshop and share their list of self-judgments, there is at first a sense of great apprehension and embarrassment, and a fear of the shame that may ensue. But when they actually do share their lists, a collective relief sweeps the room. The realization that we share similar self-judgments and negative mental habits brings this sense of relief. The thought that we can help each other if we share a similar burden also nurtures an important sense of camaraderie and social support.

Practice: Noticing the Critic Everywhere

As you go about your life — whether at home, at work, with friends, running errands, watching television — start paying attention to how you see the critic operating in other people. We can certainly observe it when hearing politicians and pundits barking on the radio or when movie critics are demolishing the latest film.

Also notice the inner critic in conversations, in the way people jokingly put themselves down: “Oh, you know me. I’m hopeless at math. Why don’t you do the numbers?” “My hair looks terrible today.” “I look awful in those photos.” “I made a real mess of that meeting at work yesterday.” These are all common parts of social conversation.

Observe what happens when you notice this behavior. Can you relate to others when they are putting themselves or others down? Does it feel familiar or even comfortable? Do you feel a sense of camaraderie? Can you see how ubiquitous this pattern is? Does it leave you feeling less alone, now that you can see you are not the only person with a sadistic inner voice? Similarly, do you feel compassion for others when they talk about themselves so negatively?

The more you can observe in this way, the more you will relieve yourself of the burdensome feeling that you are the only one with a problem, that you alone have a voice you should be ashamed of. Instead you may begin to feel a sense of connection with others, a feeling that you too are part of the shared human struggle, trying to find a way to be at peace amid all our conditioning and mental gyrations.

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Mark Coleman is the author of Make Peace with Your Mind and Awake in the Wild. He is the founder of the Mindfulness Institute and has an MA in Clinical Psychology. Mark has guided students on five continents as a corporate consultant, counselor, meditation teacher, and wilderness guide. He lives in Northern California. Visit him online at www.markcoleman.org.

22 Nov

Minimum Daily Requirement

An excerpt from Start Right Where You Are

by Sam Bennett

As the creator of The Organized Artist Company, bestselling author Sam Bennett’s mission in life is clear: to assist people in getting unstuck by helping them focus and move forward on their goals.

That is also the intention of her new book Start Right Where You Are: How Little Changes Can Make a Big Difference for Overwhelmed Procrastinators, Frustrated Overachievers, and Recovering Perfectionists, which is based on the premise that small shifts in the right direction can yield big results in the realization of our creative dreams. We hope you’ll enjoy this short excerpt from the book.

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You think that once you get that big expanse of time, you’re going to be in clover. You’re going to get all those projects done around the house, you’re going to finally have time to write, do yoga, and practice the flute, and it’s going to be great. Retirement. Getting laid off. Summer vacation.

And then that big expanse of time comes, and somehow, day after day, the time slips by, and you just don’t get anywhere.

Having too much time can make a project feel just as overwhelming as not having enough time. When you can start anytime, how do you know when to start?

The other problem with this problem is that no one believes it’s a problem. You feel ungrateful at best and like a fool at worst complaining that you have too much time. Who’s going to sympathize with that? So you keep it to yourself. And you feel ashamed. And nothing feeds shame like secrecy. Can you see how a person could end up in a downward spiral that leads straight to long afternoons spent watching home-remodeling shows?

Now, I love home-remodeling shows, but I also believe that we are naturally inclined toward productivity. We love to be learning, doing, and playing. We love to stretch and grow and solve problems, and we love to feel like we’re making a contribution to the world. Too much unstructured time can be stressful and depressing. When we don’t know what to do with ourselves, we give up.

The trick is to inject some creative tension into your life. The word tension gets a bad rap, but remember that it is structural tension that holds the keystone in every arch — and sexual tension is often the beginning of all kinds of wonderful things.

Think of a goal that frightens you a little bit, something that stirs you up, maybe even something that you’re pretty sure is impossible. Let it loom large in your mind. Connect with it. Feel the energetic relationship — the tension — between where you are now and where the goal is. Feel that energetic spoke of the Net between you and that goal, and let that tension pull you forward into taking one first step.

When you’ve taken one step, celebrate. It’s easy to brush aside first steps, especially when you believe that you really should be farther along already, but don’t. You did something, which is more than you did yesterday. Which is excellent. Be proud.

Now create a “minimum daily requirement” (MDR) for yourself. Make it something super-easy to do but still meaningful. If you want to write a book, perhaps your MDR is to write one sentence on an index card. If you’re trying to declutter the garage, maybe you will commit to spending five minutes a day in there, whether you do any work or not. And of course there’s my favorite “fifteen minutes a day” strategy. I firmly believe that spending just fifteen minutes a day on the project that is dearest to your heart has the power to change your entire life. Try it and let me know.

If your project is a bit epic, you can do yourself a favor by setting a series of six-week minigoals that will lead you to that bigger result. Six weeks is enough time to see significant progress, and two six-week periods will take you through a season. To create a plan in which, say, you research your historical novel in the fall, begin writing at the winter solstice, and have a rough first draft by spring might have a nice, natural rhythm to it.

By allowing yourself to engage with a big, juicy project, create incremental six- and twelve-week goals, and maintain your minimum daily requirement, you can shake yourself out of the shadowy morass of too much time and right into the sunny fields of creative productivity.

Little Changes Action Step: Write down a goal that sends a genuine thrill through your body. Now write down what you think a good minimum daily requirement for achieving that goal might be. Your MDR should be so small that there’s no way you can’t do it. Now reduce that MDR by half. That’s right — lower the bar. So if you want to get in shape and your initial MDR is to do fifty sit-ups a day, reduce that number to twenty-five. If you want to redo the backyard, then commit to spending just fifteen minutes a day out there. Of course, you may end up doing fifty sit-ups or spending all afternoon weeding, but that’s a bonus. You still do your MDR the next day.

Steady, consistent movement is how the Colorado River carved out the Grand Canyon, and that same persistence will give you equally awe-inspiring results.

# # #

Sam Bennett is the author of Start Right Where You Are and Get It Done. She created The Organized Artist Company to help creative people get unstuck and achieve their goals. She is a writer, actor, teacher, and creativity/productivity specialist who has counseled thousands of artists and entrepreneurs on their way to success. Visit her online www.startrightwhereyouare.com.

22 Nov

5 Tangible Ways to Ease Political Tensions During the Holidays

thanksgiving Guest Post by Emily J. Hooks

Do you have a little extra apprehension about the holidays this year? Wonder how you will handle the uncle or second cousin who voted for “the other guy?” What about the sibling who can’t help but gloat?

We’ve all heard the expression, “Never talk about religion, politics, or money at the dinner table.” That is going to be harder this year than ever, and it may also be a missed opportunity because it is empathy and understanding within families that plant the seeds of tolerance in communities and the world. Tolerance is cultivated by getting to know and respecting the views of those different than us. This isn’t only true for “them.” It is also true for “us.”

So, how do we, on a practical level, embrace our differences to build bridges when many of us are experiencing shock, even grief after the election this year? As we move into a time of thanksgiving, we need to prepare for the inevitable conversations that will unfold. How can we handle our heartache and indignation while living by the values of inclusion, diversity, and acceptance?

As a forgiveness expert and the author of, The Power of Forgiveness: A Guide to Healing and Wholeness, I began by reminding myself of the values that inform the way I live my life. I have had to investigate the ideas of tolerance, human rights, diversity, compassion, and empathy and ask myself, “Am I living all of these values today, as I am challenged to understand views so different than my own?” With honest reflection, what I found was that some of my core beliefs had been tested. I have been deeply challenged to stay present to my truth and to live it. Yet, I know these principles to be more important now than ever.

When someone has a worldview we cannot with any amount of reflection and willingness comprehend, we become fearful. Why? Because the unknown and unknowable scare us. We cannot predict the outcome, and therefore, the impact in our lives. We feel helpless in our inability to grasp something so different from ourselves. We feel powerless to do the one thing we know we must do: protect ourselves, those we love, and the values upon which we base our lives, which for many include protecting the civil liberties and the well-being of our fellow human beings. So, we react to defend. It makes sense. If you think you might be in danger, you react.

The problem with taking action from this place is that fear manifests fear. Another issue with this type of response is that we always find what we look for. When we position ourselves to defend, we are less likely to see other possibilities. And, when someone senses us defending even if they did not intend to cause harm they put up their defenses. We become locked in a battle that may have been avoided. We become locked in a battle we, in part, created.

So, what is the alternative? Here are five practical steps each of us can take to prepare ourselves to maintain our values, allow others to express themselves, and take steps to narrow the political divide.

Honor how you feel. Before the big get together, allow the fear to move through you and cultivate an experience of love. Spend time getting back in touch with love. It is the only source energy that will create an outcome that reflects the values of equality, freedom, and true justice.

Prepare by getting centered and cultivating compassion. When we move into crisis-thinking, we tend to stop doing the very things that nurture our capacity to have a deeper understanding of the human experience. Purposefully make time to continue these activities, which include self-care, having fun, and spending time with (likeminded) loved ones.

Remember not to take it personally. Your father’s perspective is not about you. It is about him. His point-of-view is informed by his experiences and the way he knows to react to them. Even if you don’t get it, you can remember that he, like us all, is doing the best he can. And, you won’t sway anyone’s perspective by telling them they are wrong or ignorant. You will, however, make an impact by demonstrating values that create happiness, because wanting contentment is the one thing most of us have in common.

Take a break when you need to. If you’re anything like me, you might need to get centered more than once. Use a simple short meditation or breathing exercise to keep your physiological responses in check.

Exercise empathy, above all else. Empathy is a feeling. When we allow ourselves to feel what another might feel, we connect with them on the most fundamental level. It is not a judgment, as in, “Oh, they just don’t get it. That is so sad.” If you inquire within, you might find that any judgment you have about “them” actually causes suffering. Judgment blocks the source energy of love by creating separation.

This Thanksgiving and Holiday Season we have a great opportunity. We have the chance to demonstrate the values that lead to healing in us and the world. We have the chance to show others we might not otherwise be able to touch. Jesus said, “Love heals all wounds.” The Buddha said, “Love transforms suffering.” That is the source of our power to change the course of history, starting at home.

Emily J. Hooks is an author and founder of the Forgiveness Academy. Visit The Power of Forgiveness Kickstarter page to pre-order the book, meet the author, and learn more about the book that’s empowering the world with the personal healing practice of forgiveness.

19 Nov

CONQUER CHANGE & WIN IN A NUTSHELL

Guest post by Ralph Masengill

Want to be very successful? Here is a simple secret few take advantage of in their personal or business life. You will be a true winner only if you are:

1. Willing to take a calculated risk and endorse positive change on a regular basis.
2. Learning how change affects our emotions and our feelings.

Let’s take a short journey together.
What we are talking about is understanding the risk of change. Why is it so important that we know about and understand change? We humans, and there are no exceptions, are constantly involved in change. Change never stops. It is always constantly going on in us and around us. The truly successful men and women of the world have a good understanding of change and how you can manipulate change to your advantage. You cannot stop it, but you can control most change. You can always control the emotions that change causes in all of us.

Are you in a personal or business rut? In a rut, you have no control where that rut will take you. You have lost your freedom to act. To not change is to lose control of your future. To be in a rut is losing your freedom to control your life, business or both. Laurence J. Peter states that “A rut is a grave with the ends knocked out.” He is talking about life without understanding the importance of the affects that change has on all humans.

Mark Twain put it his way “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So, throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.” Many good people refuse to accept the risk and uncertainty that change always brings with it. They stay in a self-imposed rut. They force themselves to live in a stagnant prison of their own making. They have part of it right. There can be some security in a prison. I would name that prison Opportunity Lost. When it comes to change we really only have two choices. One is to embrace change with gusto. The second is to stay in a rut by refusing to admit that all change is constant, live in denial and because they made a bad choice end up losing their freedom to act. The solution is to simply agree to devote time and effort to understanding change and how it makes us feel.

Someone said, “Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain”. I believe the happiest and most successful people do not necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have. Choose Change. It is the path to true happiness and business success.

You and I are always undergoing continuous change intended or not. The exciting truth is the more we know about change, both positive and negative change, the more we can profit from change. If you want a more enjoyable and profitable personal and business life, you must have a solid understanding of what change is and how it makes us and the people we deal with feel. In other words, understanding change and how it makes all people feel will put you in a winning position in your life and your business.

If that is true and it is, what is change and how does it affect all of us on a continuous basis? After 40 years of study and research here is my definition of change:

All men and women regard all change both good and bad change with a feeling of loss (examples would be remorse or that pit of the stomach feeling) and that feeling of loss always creates some form of anger, anxiety or fear.

Understanding how change works can change your life for the better and give you a solid advantage. That is a guarantee. Here are some amazing facts about continuous change.

1. Most of us will not change until the pain of not changing is greater than the pain of changing.
2. You and I often prefer the security of known misery, to the supposed misery of unfamiliar insecurity.
3. Change is consistent, intended or not.

Number one on the list above was true for me in a big way. Until I learned how to handle continuous change and the feelings change had on my personality nothing seemed to get better. I seemed to be stuck in a continuous rut. Understanding continuous change turned my humdrum life around. Understanding change is not hard but you must work at it on a regular basis. Understanding change can be the one thing that can put you in the winner’s circle often. It did just that for me.

What do others say about change?
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” Andy Warhol

“Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.” Carol Burnett

“Change your thoughts and you change your world”, Norman Vincent Peale

“Nothing endures but change.” Heraclitus (540BC – 480BC)

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending if you are willing to change.” Maria Robinson

On the Oprah Winfrey Show I heard an interview where Oprah was sharing with a guest about a dream she had where the children in her dream were asking her, “What can you teach me?” She said what she learned from that was, to look at every event in her life from that perspective. Then I realized as she was sharing, that is exactly what has made the difference in my own life in dealing with change. Now I welcome it knowing it leads to a greater understanding of my purpose on this planet. Dealing with both positive and negative change is a learning process that allows you and I to know what kind of emotions (feelings) continuous change will cause.

No one really likes dealing with change, no one. However we all like the results of positive change. We are never in pain because of change, only our resistance to change can cause us pain. Once you stop resisting what happens in your life and accept it the sooner you have the opportunity to feel less stress and set your business and your life up for even more success. For me it was one of those amazing “ah ha” moments where you are never the same after that. To truly be successful in any undertaking you must embrace positive change and the pain the resistance brings willingly and often.

We all take risk every day when we embrace positive change. Do we take a calculated risk or do we sometimes just roll the dice and just hope for the best? The former is not acting on opportunity; it is acting out of ignorance. I admit that in my younger days, I did more rolling of the dice than I want to talk about and I had to pay the price. I paid the price by losing time, money and happiness many times out of my own ignorance about change. One time I almost lost my business. All of us can and should learn from our mistakes. Mistakes can be a teacher. However, it is a very expensive and painful way to learn.

Charles Tremper puts it this way: “The first step in the calculated risk process is to acknowledge the reality of the risk. Denial is a common tactic that substitutes deliberate ignorance for thoughtful planning.” Executing a plan will involve change. Being willing to change is always a calculated risk that should be encouraged. For one thing it is where most business and personal success comes from in today’s world.

Many successful people have something to say about risk taking. Winston Churchill said, “There is nothing wrong with change, if it is the right direction.” Author and lecturer Earl Nightingale stated, “You can measure opportunity with the same yardstick that measures the risk involved. They go together.” I believe it is clear that all positive change requires calculated risk taking. Do your homework and success can be yours.

Is the opposite of risk, security? Some say it is. I believe those people are in error. Here is what Helen Keller had to say about security. “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Former President Eisenhower said, “One can find outright security only in a prison. In order to be absolutely secure you must give up your individual freedoms.” Dennis Waitley in one of this lectures said, “Life is inherently risky. To become the success you want to be there is only one big risk you should avoid at all cost. That is the risk of doing nothing.” I personally believe total security is a myth. Understanding how change makes all of us feel makes the task less stressful and more fulfilling.

Without calculated risk and positive change there would be no United States of America and no free enterprise system. Our free enterprise system is based on planned change that requires risk that then creates an opportunity that can lead to a solid reward. Risk and change are things we should get up with gladly every morning. In order to succeed beyond even our most daring dreams we must be willing to accept calculated risk and change as a way of life.
We have all seen or read about a business that does well in a certain market while their competitor offering the same product or service flounders. Ms. Wilcox with her short poem tells us why. She nails it in two sentences. Please take a moment right now and re-read her poem.

First make sure you know how the market “winds” are blowing and then and only then set your business “sails” accordingly using positive change and taking the calculated risk that is always part of the package. Do that correctly and you can, with assurance reach your destination of enhanced sales and profit and/or a better life. You can then taste sweet success.

The first step is to know the direction of the market “winds”. Get this wrong and all your other efforts do not matter. Over the years I have been amazed how little time and money many spend on effective market research. Hunches do have their place in the business “sea”, but this first step is not one of them. Solid accurate market research is the capstone of any good business arch. You must react to the market. You must change in order to win. Get the market “winds” right and make the correct changes and you will take home the profit trophy.

Change is something you must do on a regular basis if you want to be successful in life or business. Resistance to change has always been a part of the human psyche. We must work hard not to resist positive change even though it is not our nature. The solution is simple but not easy. Learn all you can about change and how it makes us all feel and be willing to take a calculated risk. Knowing what to expect when you need to change will help you be all that you want be in this world. Work hard to see positive change as a friend and do not resist this widely misunderstood process. Positive change is just that, a positive. Embrace it and you have a great opportunity to succeed in your personal and business life above your present goals and dreams. Understanding change is well worth the effort required.

About the Author

Ralph is an advisor, coach, marketing expert, business consultant and public relations strategist. Many words could be used to describe Ralph Masengill, but he prefers to be called “friend,” a title he fully expects to earn daily.
He and his wife Dianne live near the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. They have four grown children two dogs, Charlie and Beau along with one cat, Bandit. He enjoys wood working (He has a complete shop in his home), sailing, oil painting and working with his favorite charities.
Ralph@masengill.com
http://masengill.com or http://conquerchangeandwin.com
(423)585-0106

10 Nov

17 Ways to Use Meditation for Anxiety Relief Right Now!

Guest post by Ram Dass

In the 21 century, meditation is making a resurgence as a practical tool for coping with life and nurturing personal growth. In fact, it has become very common to use meditation techniques for stress and anxiety relief-ever for banishing panic attacks.

The benefits of meditation for anxiety and stress include reducing physical discomfort, putting things into perspective to make better decision and coping with difficult situations.

Every individual has different reasons for meditating, from relieving job stress and reducing anxiety of all kind and minimizing physical pain to improving relationships and determining life’s direction. No matter what the stress or anxiety, meditation can provide immediate relief. Later, meditation can be used to get to the heart of anxious feelings and make deeper changes.

How to Meditate to Relieve Anxiety

If you already know the nature of you anxiety and stress, simply find it (or something similar) in this list of meditation tips for anxiety and focus your meditation practice in the recommended areas.
If you are new to meditation, begin by reading this article by Ram Dass to learn about different meditation techniques, such as insight meditation with breathing, meditating on gurus and mantras. You’ll find techniques and ideas throughout the Ram Dass website and elsewhere that can help you improve the effectiveness of your meditation for anxiety or any other reason, including using mala beads or meditation beads, meditating on a flame and other ways to focus as you practice. It’s easy to gain meditation skills you can use right away!
On the other hand, don’t worry if your experience doesn’t live up to your expectations of meditation. There are likely to be many good things going on that you can’t see immediately. Later, you can search for guided meditations and other advanced techniques that deepen your relief from anxiety as well as deeper knowing of yourself as you continue to practice.

01 Meditation To Calm Chaos

I’ve been living closer to the truth for a few months now. Over time, my daily meditations helped me regard what was happening in any moment with curiosity and kindness, without the mindless chatter and instant evaluation that used to whip me into a frenzy.

http://www.prevention.com/mind-body/emotional-health/meditation-find-calm-chaos

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Chaos demands our attention. It’s like a bratty child, jealous of our peace. Chaos will do everything in its power to suck you in and keep your stress level high. With meditation, you can use the quietness of your mind to surround and subdue chaos. Let it go easily somewhere else, while you apply your energy to reaching out into the universe for answers. Let the answers come to you as easily as you let chaos go.

Meditation advice for calming chaos:

Chaos often causes physical stress, a common side effect of anxiety. As you meditate, breathe in to invite space into your entire body, then breathe out to release tension.
Meditation techniques can be used to adopt an attitude of acceptance. No matter what happens, you can give yourself permission to be peaceful.
Use meditation to visualize yourself floating above the conflict, where you have a match wider perspective.

02 MEDITATE TO MANAGE ANGER

By naming and recognizing the many faces of anger, we can stay present with it as it arises, keeping the heart open, breathing, watching emotions come up and pass through. Meditation is the best way to do this, as it creates the space to step back from the passion, breathe, and objectively see what is at the root of the feeling.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ed-and-deb-shapiro/meditation-and-anger_b_3170506.html

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Anger is a difficult form of anxiety. We often become consumed with the accompanying stress and anguish because meditation stems from quietness, it allows you to take yourself away from anger’s usual stressful breeding ground, where you can examine the emotion honestly and safely apart from your day-to-day world. When you meditate for anxiety relief, your awareness is stronger than your anger.

Meditation advice for managing anger:

During meditation, first try not to think too logically about the reasons you feel angry. You can figure that out later. For now, just breathe and observe your anger.
Meditation relieves the anxiety of anger and puts it in perspective, but meditation won’t take away the causes of anger. Once meditation ends, you may need to take action to resolve the issues.
Think of meditation as a safe place to be angry, where you can step away from the emotion and observe it to see what you can learn.

03 MEDITATE TO LET GO OF DRAMA

Don’t treat yourself so gingerly; you can let go of stuff. Sometimes it takes three breaths instead of two to do it, but you can do it. Be a little tougher and don’t cling to stuff. People go around carrying everybody’s stuff all of the time. I just pick it up and put it down. Pick it up and put it down.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

We have a bad habit of gathering up dramatic feelings and situations, clutching them to us as if they were prized possessions. We feel we are entitled to our ownership of this anxiety, and we believe we must hold onto it in order to keep ourselves emotionally safe. It takes a little courage, but meditation can help us see and nurture our internal strength, so we can separate ourselves from drama and achieve anxiety relief.

Meditation advice for letting go of drama:

Visualization during meditation is a useful tool to define drama, understand it and let it go. Choose a tangible object to represent your anxiety. Imagine picking it up, then putting it down.
Before you can let drama go, you may need to first understand why you so desperately want to cling onto it. If you can’t understand it, let it go anyway.
Drama tends to be a bad habit. To break habits, You need to address the habitual patterns that created the habit in the first place.

04 MEDITATE TO SEE YOUR PATH

In order to see the path, you have to be very quiet and stop thinking.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

In case you haven’t figured it out by now, using meditation for anxiety and stress often hinges on finding quietness. If your anxiety is caused by not knowing which direction you should go, quietness can help you accept the answers, rather than forcing them to come. This also requires that you allow yourself to accept the path that appears to you naturally, rather than forcing your way onto a path out of fear and panic.

Meditation advice for seeing your path:

As you meditate, visualize a path through a forest, down a mountain, along the beach, into a city – wherever you are comfortable – and allow your mind to lead you to the answers.
Quietness is hard to achieve for many people. Don’t give up – you will do better with practice.
Simply practice letting go of thoughts as they come to you, then returning to the focus of your meditation, whether it’s your breath, a flame, or a mantra.

05 MEDITATE TO IMPROVE HEALTH

Through Mindfulness-Based Stress Relief (MBSR), patients learn how to mobilize their inner resources for coping and healing – especially for dealing with symptoms of chronic illness, and symptoms that no longer respond to standard medical treatment. Mindfulness practice helps people promote their own health by reducing the effects of stress in mind and body.

http://meditationforhealth.com

The meditation/anxiety connection:

We’re learning more every day about the connection between the mind and body. Meditation harnesses the power of the mind to make healthy changes in the body. One of the first benefits of meditation is relaxation and comfort. This can be measured by traditional medical means, including blood pressure, heart rate, and a decrease in anxiety-related symptoms, such as headaches and muscle tension.

Meditation advice for improving health:

Focus on specific physical ailments to realize the greatest effect of meditation for health.
Visualize the parts of your body involved in your physical stress; imagine muscles relaxing, joints loosening and organs working better.
Breathe healing energy into those areas of pain and discomfort.

06 MEDITATE TO FEEL THE NATURAL PACING OF LIFE

Let it be something that naturally falls away, rather than something you rip away.</div

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Anxiety can be caused by forcing life to happen against the natural flow. The harder we push, the more difficult life seems and the higher our anxiety and panic rise. It’s better to let go and let things happen naturally. Meditation brings anxiety relief by simply focusing on goals and allowing them to unfold.

Meditation advice for feeling the natural pacing of life:

1 Stop focusing on your effort to achieve something and instead simply create a vision of what you desire, then focus on that as you meditate.
2 When you think of your goal, imagine watching it and waiting to see what happens, instead of thinking about what you must do to force it to happen.
3 Give yourself permission to let problems and anxious feelings fall away naturally; look at them with indifference and spend your time mentally reinforcing the positive instead.

07 MEDITATE TO SEEK SIMPLICITY

There is as much joy in doing with less as there is in doing with more; it’s bizarre, and much cheaper! It also means you have to spend less time being worried about your economic situation, because you are spending less.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

The less you have in life, the less you have to worry about. However, achieving a simple life can be easier said than done. Meditation helps internalize the benefits of simplicity in life, and therefore makes it possible to not only desire simplicity but make it real. An immediate result of making a decision to focus on simplicity is anxiety relief, because you instantly have fewer problems you must address.

Meditation advice for seeking simplicity:

1. As you meditate, visualize life without the extras. What can you do without? Would you really miss those things, or would there be more room for joy as your possessions decrease?
2. Increase your meditation focus on intangibles, such as love, beauty and peace, instead of giving mental and spiritual power to possessions.
3. Give yourself permission to trade the joy of having for the joy of not having.

08 MEDITATE TO SEE YOUR PATH

The quiet appreciation of the total situation and its inherent possibilities steadily moves things toward resolution.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Focusing too narrowly on stressful problems can bog down the mind and heart and keep us from moving forward. The harder we try, the more muddled everything becomes and the more anxious we feel. The key to clarity is to slow down and think positively about the big picture. As you meditate on the big picture, you begin to see how things fit together – how you fit into the world. This brings peace and anxiety relief.

Meditation advice for seeking clarity:

1 Choose a mental picture that represents the complete situation you are facing; this image helps your mind retain its focus on the big picture, instead of getting lost in details.
2 Allow your subconscious to work on the situation without your participation; you will be surprised how much can be solved when you let fears work themselves out.
3 At the end of your meditation, focus your mind more concretely on any solutions or ideas that rise up and write them down to think about later.

09 MEDITATE TO LET THOUGHTS GO BY EASILY

Well, if I can’t stop thinking, maybe I can just let my thoughts go by without getting all caught up in them. Feel the breeze on your face or your neck? See how it’s going by? You’re not all hung up with it. You don’t have to see where each breeze goes. Make your thoughts like those breezes, those little breezes…just going by.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Anxiety rises as we wrestle with thoughts. The harder we think, the higher the anxiety. Especially if thoughts are negative or fearful, it can be difficult to let them go. They carry a compelling presence. The trick is to choose something else as the focus of your attention and imagine your anxious thoughts are light and airy. Acknowledge them as you would a light evening breeze, then let the breeze blow on by.

Meditation advice for letting thoughts go by easily:

1 Imagine you are simply a passerby, noticing your anxious thoughts as a part of the landscape, then moving your attention to another object that makes you feel better.
2 If you are unsure which thoughts are causing anxiety, begin your meditation, then take a mental inventory of all the people, places and things in your life – notice when the feeling of anxiety appears and let it go on the spot.
3 Some people add symbolic actions to meditation to help them identify thoughts and let them go. Try writing your fears onto pieces of paper, then burning them in the fireplace.

10 MEDITATE TO RELAX YOUR BODY

Scientific studies of Indian yoga masters demonstrate that meditation can, in fact, slow the heart rate, lower the blood pressure, reduce the breathing rate, diminish the body’s oxygen consumption, reduce blood adrenaline levels, and change skin temperature.
http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Anxiety and stress cause the body to tighten up, breath to quicken, and arteries to narrow. Nothing in our bodies works as well when we’re feeling anxious. Then, when we are not feeling well physically, we just keep feeling more anxiety. Meditation for anxiety breaks this vicious cycle by creating a state of mind in which the body naturally and easily lets go of all the tensions and anxieties blocking your ability to relax.

Meditation advice for relaxing your body:

1 Read about yoga and the ways it delivers us from contact with pain. One good resource is B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga.

2 Meditation can be used to relax the body and promote healing after major surgeries or traumatic physical events. Meditation is often an official part of recovery protocols.

3 If you have trouble relaxing muscles, try first clenching them tightly as you breathe in, then releasing all the tension as you breathe out.

11 MEDITATE TO STRENGTHEN YOUR FAITH

I have the sense that as your faith gets stronger, you keep needing less and less, and when your faith is flickering, you keep wanting more security. But as your faith gets stronger, you just keep letting it go and letting it go.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

What do you need to have faith in? Yourself? A power greater than yourself? Your circumstances? A future path? As faith grows, it fills voids and blasts away depression. As you experience fulfillment, as Ram Dass did when he spent a day with the his guru Neem Karoli Baba, your anxiety will wither away. Meditation techniques strengthen faith by making time and space to connect and open your heart.

Meditation advice for strengthening faith:

1 Familiarity strengthens faith, and time breeds familiarity. To grow your faith, dedicate regular amounts of time meditating specifically to nurture your faith.
2 Don’t push too hard to feel faith. Pushing only creates more anxiety and stress. Doubts and questions are a part of the process – simply open yourself to faith and let it grow.
3 If your desire to strengthen faith relates to a specific person, source or situation, maximize your results by meditating on a mental or physical symbol that represents the object of your faith.

12 MEDITATE TO CULTIVATE MINDFULNESS

The interesting thing about cultivating mindfulness in golf [as an example] is that what you are cultivating is a part of your mind that is noticing the rest of the game, the rest of life … is noticing everything else that’s going on … is noticing, ‘Now I’m speaking’. The ‘noticer’ is not the same as the ‘speaker’; they’re two different things. This has no judgment; it’s just noticing how it is.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Mindfulness means becoming aware of everything around you – the sights, sounds, smells and feel of where you are and people you’re with. Make no judgments. Simply allow yourself to see, hear, smell and feel. Mindfulness meditation provides perspective and breaks the cycle of worry and anxiety that happens when your focus is clamped down on narrow thoughts with no connection to the rest of the world.

Meditation advice for cultivating mindfulness:

1 Mindfulness is one of the best ways to use meditation for stress and anxiety relief. Think of it as giving yourself permission to slow down, connect and take a break from worry.

2 If you find it difficult to sustain attention as you meditate, try visualizing yourself from above. Watch yourself meditate and notice everything around you in the room.

3 Mindfulness inevitably expands your awareness of other people and enhances your relationships, which tends to relieve anxiety and stress.

13 MEDITATE TO RELEASE JUDGMENT

When you go out into the woods and you look at trees … some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. So I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

It’s hard not to judge. As humans, we almost can’t help ourselves. We instinctively know it’s not right to judge, so we end up judging ourselves! All of this judgment causes anxiety and unhappiness. You can use meditation to release the judgment and anxiety you feel, allow others to be who they are and let go of responsibility for them. Not having to judge is a big relief, and it frees us to focus on more peaceful things.

Meditation advice for releasing judgment:

1 As you meditate, briefly acknowledge every judgmental thought that comes into your mind, then simply release it and refocus on your meditation.
2 In your meditation, practice witnessing without judgement. The more you practice, the easier it will become to replace judgment with compassion.
3 Consider exploring karma yoga, which focuses your meditation on serving others rather than judging them, then offering your service as a devotion to achieve greater peacefulness.

14 MEDITATE TO ALLOW EMOTION

Getting lost in your emotional reactivity just digs a deeper karmic hole. So you cultivate a quietness in yourself that just watches these things coming and going and arising and passing away. And you learn not to act out your emotions, but just to appreciate and allow them.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Stress and anxiety are made of emotion. We feel this pain both physically and mentally. Sometimes we pull pain to us because it’s familiar. Other times, we strain as we push stress and anxiety away from us, but the harder we push, the more they grow. The secret is to embrace these emotions and others, such as depression, by focusing on those feelings, then learning from them and moving forward peacefully.

Meditation advice for allowing emotion:

1 Stress and anxiety often result in panic. If you are overwhelmed with panic, begin your meditation by simply observing your emotions without trying to figure anything out.
2 Sometimes it’s hard to figure out exactly what your emotions are. To better understand your emotion, first concentrate during meditation on the feeling without giving it a name.
3 When a strong emotion arises, take three breaths into the center of your chest (your spiritual heart) and allow the emotion to dissipate like a wave when it hits the shoreline.

15 MEDITATE TO REMOVE DEFENSE MECHANISMS

The nature of a defense mechanism is that most of it is underground and you’re not even conscious of it. It’s just acting on you, from a deep fear. To me, it’s a little bit like skimming soup when you meditate and get really quiet, and then, in the quietness, stuff starts to come up. If you’re quiet enough, you sort of skim it off the top as it comes up.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Everyone gets defensive. Our defense mechanisms sometimes keep us from being able to honestly face our fears and anxieties, which creates additional anxiety. Through meditation, we can more clearly see our defenses and skim them off, which immediately reduces our anxiety because we are then able to see our fears clearly, be more honest with ourselves and realize we are moving toward improvement.

Meditation advice for removing defense mechanisms:

1 After reaching a state of quiet through techniques of meditation for anxiety, mentally state your intention to identify and remove your personal defense mechanisms.
2 Once you have identified your defense mechanisms, practice letting them go and then returning to an awareness of your breath.
3 The next step is to work on the fears your defenses were masking.

16 MEDITATE TO HEAR THE SILENCE

My universe involves using silence and not waiting for something to happen, because the silence is what’s happening, because you and I come here seeking truth and the best I can understand it is that truth is not conceptual, that what you can think about isn’t the ultimate truth.

Ram Dass

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Anxiety and stress can be caused by a feeling that you should understand the truth about things in your life, along with the conflicting belief that you are not capable enough to really know the truth. Use the quietness of meditation to open yourself to a truth that doesn’t need to be put into words. You can reduce your anxiety right now by being okay with whatever part of truth you see in this moment of silence.

Meditation advice for hearing the silence:

1 It stands to reason that many truths about the universe go beyond the inadequate words of human beings. As you meditate, notice thoughts and feelings you can’t describe.
2 Rather than looking for answers, allow yourself to observe the ideas that come to you during your meditation for anxiety and wonder about them.
3 To further reduce your anxiety and stress, consciously let go of any expectations you have of yourself to understand the truth and explain it to others.

17 MEDITATE TO ACHIEVE A HIGHER STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already.

Pema Chödrön

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Anxiety and stress are tiring. After a while, we just want anxiety – life in general – to loosen its grip and let us rest. When destructive feelings become extremely intense, many people just give up. But you don’t have to give up. Meditation is easy. You can find peace and transform your energy the very first day you try it. Then, as you continue to practice, you’ll learn to sink even more deeply into an anxiety-free state.

Meditation advice for achieving higher states of consciousness:

1 If you are interested in achieving higher states of consciousness, such as insight into your own true nature, you may want to seek a teacher who can help train you in deeper meditative practices.
2 Don’t try to do too much at once. Trying too hard will only cause more anxiety. Remember, the silence and quietness of meditation is where things really happen.
3 To deepen your ability to use meditation for anxiety relief, continue reading and learning. Practice meditation regularly and open yourself to possibilities!

How to Use These Meditation for Anxiety Tips

There is no right or wrong way to practice anxiety meditation. To get the most from these meditation-for-anxiety tips, first select one of your favorite meditation techniques. Then, read through the list of tips. Note which tips speak to you-the ones that seem to connect with the anxiety and stress you are feeling. Next, choose one tip to focus on. Read the quote, summary and meditation advice. Take a few moments to internalize the information, then follow the advice as you begin your session. You will feel immediate relief from anxiety, even if you simply feel better because you are taking action. Finally, follow the same process for each tip that connects with your anxiety and stress. If you like, research online to find a specific guided meditation for anxiety relief, and focus on the same topics. You will no doubt have further work to do to achieve full anxiety relief, but meditation for anxiety can provide a great beginning!

www.ramdass.org

06 Nov

Be Here Meow From Book Call of the Cats

By Andrew Bloomfield, author of Call of the Cats

Woody Allen once said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” That certainly was my experience. Thinking I was destined for greatness in Hollywood I found my life purpose instead in caring for a colony of wild cats.

My life as a down-on-my-luck aspiring screenwriter in Hollywood seemed uncomfortably close to that of Joe Gillis, the failed screenwriter in the classic film Sunset Boulevard. I ended up homeless as did he, but instead of escaping into the arms of faded movie star Norma Desmond, I was welcomed by an old love and her sister who lived ten miles from downtown Los Angeles. In the security of their small bungalow I could finally catch my breath, and spent my precious time (unsure of when I might get kicked out!) pecking away on my laptop, trying to manufacture the visions and dreams and high-concept twenty-word pitches I prayed would interest mercurial studio executives, mercenary independent producers, and beautiful, narcissistic rising stars.

Though the setting stimulating creativity, I became distracted by the horrific sounds of predators decimating kittens from a large colony of feral cats that made their home out back. Our backyard was a mini-jungle, burgeoned from what perhaps began as a lush backyard into a micro Amazon forest, replete with nonindigenous fronds, old-growth trees and thick veils of ivy oozing white sap. Normal neighborhood sounds dissolved here, replaced with chirps, caws, screeches, and the constant rustling of critters that called it home, including the feral colony. Had monkeys one day appeared and begun swinging from branch to branch, or the occasional rhino passed by, I would have taken it in stride.

These cats were not strays—abandoned domesticated cats; these were wild animals—untamed and, for the most part, untamable. They displayed a myriad of colors, shapes, and sizes. They were stealthy and skittish, shadows at night, ghostlike flashes in the trees, peering under the high wooden fence that separated our yards. Occasionally I would spot a startled eye, a black nose, a wispy tail through the broken slats in the fence. The felines were as wary of human contact as any wild animal. Though most looked like domesticated house cats, they were unequivocally feral.

I came to learn that their predators, coyotes and raccoons, lived in the latticework of dried arroyos that ran down out of the San Gabriel Mountains. And they knew where to come for fresh meat. Newborn litters and young kittens were particularly vulnerable. Their numbers would grow and then diminish. We reasoned — albeit uneasily — that this was nature at work and none of our business. The cats had been there before the sisters moved in and would probably outlast them.

However, one day the colony sat in semi-circle around a dead kitten, holding my gaze, seemingly asking for my help. Feral cats do not approach humans, and they do not make eye contact. So I knew this was an important moment. It had all the familiar earmarks of the universe stepping in to supplant my personal plans. And I do believe in intervention when called.

So began the tumultuous saga of my relationship with this group of skittish, wild, and sometimes fierce felines. I began to name, nurse, feed, house, rescue, and neuter them. Sleep was a rare commodity; I rose from my bed countless times to fend off their attackers. I maxed out credit cards on vet bills, and emergency-room visits for myself when mauled by the very cats I was trying to help.

I made mistakes along the way certainly, and I’m sure feral cat caregivers will cringe when they read about certain choices and decisions I made in trying to keep the colony safe. But sometimes that’s how one learns. But trusting one’s intuition, jumping in and doing.

I had found my purpose. And it looked strangely different from how I imagined it might when I was younger —or for that matter even a week before moving into the house! While obviously not many will be called to care for feral cats, I do believe one key in discerning one’s true purpose is by simply doing the thing right in front of one’s face. The thing closest at hand.

Our civilization is skewed toward unease. An unease born of not looking like, having, or accomplishing whatever an advertiser deems indispensable at the time—or what the idol-of-the-day embodies. Thus many strive to look like, or be like, or have the things we’re told will bring us satisfaction. But what is lost in that search is authenticity. Authenticity is being true to oneself—being comfortable in our bodies and content with our skill sets. I’ve met parking garage attendants who take great pride in their work and are more fulfilled in their lives as a result, than some Fortune 50 CEOs.

By committing oneself to the task at hand one finds freedom. Even is that task may seem mundane or trivial. This is exemplified by a group of spiritual aspirants from ancient India called the 84 Mahasiddhas who lived over a thousand years ago. They became accomplished masters in a single lifetime, and attained high levels of mastery through their vocational pursuits. That was the medium through which they became perfected. And surprisingly many of them worked at very mundane jobs. Some were beggars, gamblers, prostitutes, rice thrashers, washer men, cow herders and even thieves. The deeper meaning of their life stories still has relevance today: that one’s job or calling in life contains the potentiality for perfect contentment and satisfaction. No matter what the outer appearance.

Andrew Bloomfield is the author of Call of the Cats: What I Learned about Life and Love from a Feral Colony. After running his own bookstore in Seattle, Washington, where he hosted spiritual teachers from all over the world, he caught the film bug and moved to Hollywood. It was there he found his true calling — caring for a colony of feral cats. He lives in Southern California.

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How to Meditate to Relieve Anxiety

01 Meditation To Calm Chaos

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for calming chaos:

02 MEDITATE TO MANAGE ANGER

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for managing anger:

03 MEDITATE TO LET GO OF DRAMA

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for letting go of drama:

04 MEDITATE TO SEE YOUR PATH

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for seeing your path:

05 MEDITATE TO IMPROVE HEALTH

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for improving health:

06 MEDITATE TO FEEL THE NATURAL PACING OF LIFE

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for feeling the natural pacing of life:

07 MEDITATE TO SEEK SIMPLICITY

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for seeking simplicity:

08 MEDITATE TO SEE YOUR PATH

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for seeking clarity:

09 MEDITATE TO LET THOUGHTS GO BY EASILY

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for letting thoughts go by easily:

10 MEDITATE TO RELAX YOUR BODY

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for relaxing your body:

11 MEDITATE TO STRENGTHEN YOUR FAITH

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for strengthening faith:

12 MEDITATE TO CULTIVATE MINDFULNESS

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for cultivating mindfulness:

13 MEDITATE TO RELEASE JUDGMENT

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for releasing judgment:

14 MEDITATE TO ALLOW EMOTION

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for allowing emotion:

15 MEDITATE TO REMOVE DEFENSE MECHANISMS

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for removing defense mechanisms:

16 MEDITATE TO HEAR THE SILENCE

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for hearing the silence:

17 MEDITATE TO ACHIEVE A HIGHER STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

The meditation/anxiety connection:

Meditation advice for achieving higher states of consciousness:

How to Use These Meditation for Anxiety Tips

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