Neutralizing Stress

We live in a very high stress environment, and most people feel the affects of that.  There is so much going on in the world to divide attention and to distract.  A divided attention adds mental and emotional stress.

Add to that the physical stress caused to the body either from trauma or environmental factors as your immune system is taxed and your digestion is asked to compensate for processed foods and toxins.

And to top it off, there is the stress caused by trying to figure it all out.

This is the prescription I try always to remember to use.  When I feel overwhelmed, I have learned to remind myself  to stay in my heart field.  To stay present with my heart.

But how to do this?  I admit it takes practice and focus, but like any discipline it becomes automatic the more this practice is engaged in.

This is the exercise I use:

1.  Take a deep breath and bring full awareness into your body.  Just notice for a moment being present with your body.  What are you feeling within? What are you noticing? Notice the contact with the surface you're sitting or standing on.  Notice your clothes against  your skin.  Notice the air temperature, etc. But also notice your inner sensations, like any aches or subtle sensations, and how you're feeling emotionally.

2.  You can take as long as you like with this.  And when you're ready, shift your focus to your heart field, which is the electromagnetic field generated by your heart. 

Just spend a little time focusing your awareness on your heart field.  Don't think about it, but feel it, if you can.  Just noticing it, is enough. 

I picture it as warm soft golden light radiating out from my heart.  I  allow my focus to be as soft and diffused as the golden light I am seeing.  Just a soft awareness mingling with my heart field.  Just allowing myself to be present with that energy.

I invite you to practice doing this at least twice a day.  It only takes a few minutes.  You can do it as often as you think of it.

The reason this is important is because when you have trained your awareness to go automatically and easily into your heart field, you have amazing medicine at your disposal.   You have an amazing tool for changing your experience.  You have powerful protection from negative influences which you may feel are threatening your well being.  Because this excericise changes your perception of your experience.

Here are some variations on this exercise which may benefit and serve you.

1.     The next time you are reading an article, or you are watching or listening to a program which causes you to become agitated or angry or sad or overwhelmed or any emotion which does not feel good to you, take a moment to notice how it is making you feel.  Then allow your awareness to shift to your heart field.  Keep your attention there.  Now how are you feeling?  Which would you rather experience?  Which do you think is doing more harm to you?  And which is healing you?

For people who want to stay informed, without experiencing the negative effects of doing so…(remember the information we get is not coming to us first hand, but being reported through the perspective of the person writing or speaking the information)…being present in your heart field will keep you from dwelling in the perspective which would have a negative impact on your body, mind and spirit.

2.     The next time you are having an angry interaction with another person, rather than letting it escalate into a barrage of hostility with toxic words and feelings, go immediately to your heart field.  Stay there and watch the encounter change miraculously before your eyes.

This exercise takes a lot of practice and the ability to remain calm and focused when faced with hostile emotions. It also requires a willingness to surrender your investment in needing to be "right" or "win" an argument.

Anger is a natural emotion, and expressed in a healthy, non toxic way, can move you forward.  Interacting with people while being present in your heart field allows you to maintain your emotional equilibrium, keeping emotions non toxic.

3.     Being fearful, can also keep us in a state of overwhelm and keep us frozen and stuck.  In that state we are not fully living.  We are not realizing our potential.  We are instead, using up our precious internal energy resources dealing with distractions not worthy of us.

So what are some of the things that cause you fear or cause you worry?  Sit with one of your worst fears for a moment and tune into what that does to your body.  How does it feel --in your body?

Now put your awareness on your heart field.  How does that change your perception of that thing you fear?  Are you getting any insights about it?  Is that fear maybe softening it's hold on you a little bit?

Try using these exercises to engage your heart field awareness with your daily life.  Allow yourself to find ways to stay present in your heart field as much as you can.

When ever you are noticing anything which doesn’t make you feel good, go to your heart field.  See if it makes a difference for you.

Are You Listening To Your Body Or Are You Telling It?

Recently I worked with a client with chronic pain who was telling me that she was OK as long as she was "careful and didn't over-do."  I could see the energy around that belief had crystallized into a very hard rigid rock like energy and was keeping her frozen and restricted.

By restricting her activities to avoid pain like how she walked and for how long; how she sat, and the kind of work she would do-- had added a restriction which was interrupting the fluid flow of information, and of energy, and had the potential to affect  motion on many levels within her physiology, for instance, lymph, blood, cellular function…

Her focus had been for a long time, on how Fragile her body potentially was.  Her focus was on if I do such and such I will suffer for it.

But what happens if we remove the belief, (remember this was very solid, rigid, crystallized energy which was running like a program within her body)?  So what happens if we remove the belief?  Or what happens if we just soften it a bit, and allow it to relax?

For this particular client, removing the energy behind the belief, i.e. the belief itself, resulted in a different experience.  She told me that she moved in a more natural and relaxed way.  She wasn't so focused on being careful.  She did what she could and when she felt like she was ready to rest, she stopped.

OK now, this is important.  Pay attention to this next part and really let it sink in for a moment.

She Listened to her body, rather than making it listen to her belief about what would affect it.

This is a real paradigm shift.

This is where you choose between Potentials.

She allowed her body to relax, by not being so much on guard.  And for her, a relaxed body is a body which doesn't hold on so tightly to it's pain. 

Have you ever noticed how you move when you're restricting yourself?  Do you notice that you're in a state of tension when you're trying to be really careful? 

Maybe your muscles are clenched, and maybe your ankles are kind of locked and your legs are stiff when you walk because maybe you're just trying to maintain your balance so you won't fall down.

Or maybe because everything hurts you've decided that if you make little tiny movements maybe it won't hurt so badly.  Or you don't bend, or don't stoop, or don't walk, or don't reach.  And pretty soon you're sitting a whole lot more than you'd like to be.  And that isn't really making you feel any better.

I've had mystery pain.  Excruciating mystery pain.  Saw doctors, had tests, it remained a mystery, and I still had pain.  I had my own shift in perspective.  I let some things go, and I let the pain go.  That was about 25 years ago.

There is just so much more to see than just anatomy, you know? 

Just think about seeing yourself as more than a body.  And think about seeing your body as more than a material vehicle which conveys your spirit around Planet Earth.  There is so much more to BEing than most of us know, and I'm sure you already sense the truth in that.

Peering Inside

I wrote this a year ago, and thought I'd share it here.  Some of you may be able to relate to this post.  Especially if you have unresolved issues--and who doesn't have those?

I'm takin' a squint right now at my innards. Peering inside at the inner workings of the Rita. It's amazing in there. Oh yeah. Really messy. It looks like Chaos, but it's so very synchronized. Quite a thing of beauty.

Over there is the place where I harbor my fugitive emotions. The ones that never got expressed because I was too Busy, or too Bad Ass, or too Frozen. They're all over actually, just waiting to wreak havoc in tissues throughout my body. A sore muscle here, a tight tendon there. Scars and so on.

All the experiences, the good and the bad are jumbled in together, building my inner landscape. 

Peering deeper I see the faceless ones that want to remain hidden. They burrow down, not wanting to be seen. They keep me hidden, and invisible. They keep me from seeing myself. They keep me from feeding myself, from expressing myself, from contributing anything of value, lest it draw attention to me. They keep me anonymous and "safe". They would be happiest if I would just stay asleep.

Now that I know they're there, I wonder what they fear. In spite of their best efforts I have outgrown them. I look at them and they cringe away into the dark shadows, trying to blend into the back ground. I turn away from them and look out into the infinite within my borders. I see galaxies forming and stars being born. I see a landscape of amazing light and color. This is what I am now. I begin to move into that landscape, and the small ones clutch at me. I turn back to face them, and hold out my hand. "Come on", I say. "We'll go together".

This is what I am building now. This creation of me. As I tell this story, it becomes what I am. All the darkness and chaos is every bit as beautiful as the light and color of new forming suns. Even the small faceless ones are evolving. They know they must come along. They must transform to survive. It is inevitable. We cannot help it.

I often use this inner landscape to work something out. It's a natural process for me, and happens spontaneously. In it my emotions become characters in the story with personalities of their own.

I had a small scream one time. It belonged to a foolish memory that I allowed to torment me. It would lay hidden and then it would creep up on me when I least expected, and jump out and scream at me. I tried to ignore it for years upon years. One day when it snuck up on me and screamed it's scream, I realized it was like a small child trying to get my attention, by misbehaving. So I turned around in my inner landscape, and looked it in the face and said in a rather exasperated voice, "What?! What do you want, for heaven's sake?!" It looked at me with big eyes and said in a voice I could barely hear, "Nothing". And then it turned and ran away, and I haven't seen or heard from it since. 

In fact after that, a lot of my more tiresome memories stopped gnawing at me, grew up and moved out. And high time, too. How long can you be expected to support a house full of emotions and memories all feeding on your energy and draining your resources--raising a rumpus and generally just messin' up the place? I ask you.

Their contribution is that I learn from them. I find creative solutions to grow beyond them. And when my perception changes, so do they. They grow up and move on. The result is that I am no longer afraid to look into the shadowy landscape of my inner world.

So now I want to ask you to consider this option the next time one of your unresolved issues won't stay tucked away in it's carefully packed box.  The next time you are wasting your energy trying not to see what is tormenting you, I'd like to invite you to look your tormentor in the face.  See it for what it is.  Maybe the only way to end your struggle with this thing and to heal the wound is just to acknowledge it.  See if it has anything to say to you.  And if not, then allow it to go.

Sometimes when you stop struggling against something, it softens.  Sometimes the only reason you hang onto something is because you haven't heard the message you were meant to learn.  If you can sit with this thing and truly put your attention on it and acknowledge it--letting it have its say, then maybe you can be done with it.

I wish you well on your journey.

Equilibrium

The Summer holiday is over and we're at that in between season where the weather is still mostly fine.  In the Pacific North West we have misty mornings and mellow sunshine afternoons, with spectacular sunsets.

Let's take a moment to reflect.  I invite you to take a breath with me and  bring your awareness into your body. 

What is the very first thing you notice? 

Is it a sensation, or a pain, or an emotion?  Or are you deeply relaxed?

Acknowledge what you're feeling and then take a deep, full, relaxed breath.

So how was your Summer?  Was it restful?  Was it busy?  Did you have some fun?  Take a few moments to breath in the scents and memories of what Summer means to you.

And now come fully into the present moment.  How does that feel?  What sensations are you feeling in your body, when your awareness is fully in this present moment?  Is it different than when you were reflecting upon your memory of Summer?  And if so, in what way?

That short exercise was meant to bring you into an awareness of your Experience of Yourself.  How did you do?  Did you get any insights?  Were you made aware of anything you may not have been noticing?  If nothing else, you just meditated for a few minutes…and that in itself is very rejuvenating.

During this Season consider taking the opportunity to realign yourself.  To come into balance and find center.  Equilibrium.  Stability.

In Chinese Medicine, the Summer season is affiliated with the Fire Element and the Earth Element is aligned with this in-between season.  The season known as Late Summer.  This season of harvest, and abundance.  Still productive. Not quite Autumn.  This allows the opportunity to Earth the energy of the Fire Element, storing it to see you through the colder seasons.

This is a great time to align yourself seasonally with the Earth, and follow Her example as She comes into balance.  To Ground the Creative Fire Energy and bring it to Earth within yourself.  So you may be productive and create a state of balance and stability within yourself.

In that state of Balance you have clarity.  You have breathing space.  You have deep reserves from which to draw upon.  There you will find wisdom and peace.

Enjoy Your Quest. 

You're On the Brink of a Discovery

You came into the world with special gifts and talents. You came all lit up inside like a white hot star. You came to do something important. But now, you feel like you've lost track of that dream. You feel like you've gotten off course. 

Sometimes, when you take a course of action, you think it will be just temporary. You take a job you don't really like, because it's convenient and you need the money. You put off pursuing the career you know you're right for, because you don't see how you could possibly make it happen at the time.  

You keep pushing your dream into the future because you think that the timing isn't quite right.  

You keep pushing that dream into the "Some day". Some day I'll … and then I'll be happy. Some day I'll… and then I will really shine, and make a difference. 

And then one day you begin to wonder, "How did so much time pass?" And suddenly you're in despair. Suddenly you're overwhelmed with the thought of your unfulfilled potential. And you can feel your dissatisfaction grow with every day that passes, while you are not living your purpose. 

You're not alone. And it's not too late. It's never too late. Did you know that? 

This is your amazing life, and everything you've experienced up to now, has been part of your education. You haven't been wasting your time. You've been living your life, and doing just fine. You've been evolving and growing, and now maybe you're thinking that you're ready to pick up the threads of that dream again to weave it into the fabric of your reality, making it solid and real. 

You're not stuck. You're on the brink of a discovery. Think about that for a moment. How does it feel? Does it make you feel excited? Does it make you feel anxious? Does it seem down right frightening? Or are you so ready for this?  

Or is it all of the above? 

The door is opening for you. The opportunities to step through are lining up. What will it take for you to feel that you're ready to step into that other life?  

Think about it.  

What would you need - to feel that you're ready to reclaim your dream and live your purpose?

Here's an exercise for you to try…

• Take a breath.
• Draw your attention into your body and just notice what that feels like.
• Now ask yourself "What would it take for me to feel ready to take that step into my true purpose and live my dream?"
• Your Gut will tell you.  Get out of your head.  You're not looking for an answer from your logical thinking process.  Pay attention to what your Body is telling you.  You only need to do this for a minute or two before you know the answer. 

If you weren't able to understand what your Body was telling you the first time, try the exercise again later.  Maybe you're just not used to this type of communication, but you Can do this.  It just takes a little practice.  Try it a few times in the next day or so.  

As you begin to tune in, you will find it easier to interpret the wisdom you know instinctively, and which your body is trying to communicate. 

I have helped others just like you who were ready to step into that new life, but felt like they were stuck in old patterns.  Some times it helps to have someone on your side who sees from a different perspective to help you break through those old cycles.  The perspective I bring is the ability to work with energies.   

Using a combination of energy techniques and practical exercises to set a new course of action in your life, you will begin to shift out of the pattern you feel trapped in and into your new life which you've been wanting to live all along.

Have Fun with the exercise. 

Using a combination of energy techniques and practical exercises to set a new course of action in your life. 

Holding Patterns

Have you ever felt like you were in a rut?  Does it seem like you keep making the same mistakes?  Does it seem like you’re spinning your wheels but you don’t seem to be moving?  And does it feel like you’re stuck?

Sometimes it seems like we get into an energy holding pattern.  I think of habits as stuck energy patterns.

If you’ve ever seen an LP on a turn table, you know that the needle follows a physical groove cut into the record, until it reaches the end.  The songs which were cut or pressed into the groove of the record, are the ones which will play back over and over again no matter how many times you play the record.  There is no “shuffle” on an LP, the same song or songs play in the same order as many times as you play that record.

Events can have a similar influence on your own energy field.  As you live your life, your energy field receives input from the world around you, just like a microphone or a recording device.  So your experiences literally leave an impression on you, first in your energy field, and then colored by your perception of the experience (much like special affects) they can become “recorded” or “programmed” into your tissues.  We’ve all heard the expression “It left an impression on me.”  That is exactly what happens.  An impression or record of your experience becomes a part of your energy signature and energy is what shapes the physical world.

A habit is a recurring pattern running through your life.  Take smoking for instance.  Sometimes people begin a habit by turning an activity into a ritual which they repeat.  I had a friend who began smoking because she was going through a very stressful period in her life.  She would only smoke when she was at home alone, and it became a ritual.  When she came home from work, she’d start in doing dishes and stand at the sink with the window open and the fan going and smoke one cigarette after another.  It was pretty much the only time she smoked.  But as long as she lived in that house, she engaged in that habit, because it had become a ritual.  When she moved, she decided she would not start up in the new house, and so she successfully quit.

But it isn’t that easy for some people.  Who knows why we take on addictive behavior.  Or why we may feel perpetually unlucky, or why we might always have relationship problems, or have a hard time finding a lasting job.  Who knows why those behavioral holding patterns run through our energy field, and why we dutifully play them out over and over.

Consider this:  Could it just be a holding pattern in your energy?  Something that seems to play out for you over and over?

And if that’s true, how do you change that?

This is a problem that I help people solve by identifying the underlying story to remove these energy holding patterns.

Restoring balance in this way, allows you to create a new experience for yourself.

If you're interested in finding out if I can help you dissolve an energy holding pattern, please contact me using the contact form in the sidebar of this page.