Mind/Body
A New Book is out
If you are interested in Brain Gym or anything with children check out this book. I will be writing a review about it later. The author is one of my Brain gym teachers.
Enjoy!
Michelle
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Our Humanity can feel anxious, too.
One of my virtual mentors, David Wood, wrote the following in a recent newsletter:
The Personal Touch
In the last ‘Create’ issue I shared about my ‘bump’ in India. After having ‘turned the corner’ I had a resurgence of energy in the form of anxiety/fear. Boy – talk about an invitation from the universe to take a look at yourself and your way of being!
With this ‘super sensitivity’ over the past month, I’ve learned I can’t get away with many things that used to work before such as – multi-tasking, thinking about all the things to do later today, and rushing. I’m learning to listen to my body, and to take care of myself and be really nice to myself. Come up against a belief “I should be able to heal myself on my own”, resistance to using medication, an image I’ve been holding onto of a “strong, secure, fun, smart, independent, solid man”, and my judgments about people who use medication or experience depression or anxiety. OK – I’m experiencing more of humanity! 😉
I’ve gone deeper into meditation and yoga, hired a nutritional counselor (no sugar, including fruit, sweetish vegetables, and most things you buy in a supermarket!), a homeopath, a therapist – all good stuff to explore what’s coming up, being present, watching the mind, and caring for this body.
Oh, and – I’m usually having an awesome time. I’m doing great. This week things are much more than ever coming into balance and feeling smooth. Much love, authenticty, and learning.
The journey continues…
Love David
David Wood is a personal and business coach, past chair of the ICF Publicity Committee, and founder of a global coach training school.
Copyright 2001-2007 Life Coaching Resource.com
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It’s interesting how many of us feel the need to be able to do it “all” ourselves—basically
it comes down to expectations of perfection. (Whatever that means to each of us)
I resonate with the idea that I should be able to “heal myself” by doing all the right things,
and too, have found that I am not the all in all! I need help and support to have all
areas in life integrated. That’s why I have a coach, a mastermind group, a physical
trainer, a holistic AK chiropractor, etc.
I’m wondering if any of you feel the need to be super-human? Do you have great
compassion and lack of a judgmental attitude for everyone but yourself?
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Winning the Inner Game teleseminar
Today we had our “Winning the Inner Game” teleseminar, presented by the Mediation Marketing Institute. I neglected to tell you all about this event and I apologize. Good news is that you can still sign up and receive the mp3 of the calls. And yes, it will be calls–plural–because we had some technical difficulties and will have two recordings. Also, we will be having the second part of our interactive teleseminar in January. More on that later. So click the above link to get signed up for this FREE resource and we will keep you posted.
One thing I really like about partnering with Kristina Haymes is that good mediators are very holistic and self aware. What she values as a mediator fits in with our quest here at Interplay to explore the mind/bocy/spirit connections. There is a lot of congruence with values and purpose. It has been delightful for me to interact with these fabulous people going out to mediate the world’s problems. Quite important work, imo. Thanks to all you mediators!
I haven’t posted much lately due to traveling and not wanting to be on the computer. I was jogging on the beach quite a bit though and this past week went hiking in the beautiful mountains while our dog, Rocco, romped around in the snow. So the computer just wasn’t calling me!
How is everyone else doing? Are the holidays a good time for your spirit or a difficult time?
Peace to you,
Michelle
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Road Rage and Peace-Making
Note: Recently I had the honor to be involved with a group of mediators going through their Jump Start Action coaching group through the Mediation Marketing Institute. The following article was sparked by one of our coaching sessions.
Thoughts on being a mediator in all areas of life;
AKA “Walking your Talk”
As we know, it takes certain gifts to be a mediator and peace-maker. Pursuing a peace ethic in all areas of life can be challenging. Yet, if you’re going to be operating out of integrity, then you must be diligent in pursing personal growth. Ah, this can be a bit “touchy-feely” for many high powered left-brain dominant professionals, but I think it is a valuable pursuit. After all, the ideal state of functioning includes whole brain integration, where you have easy access to your analytical skills and your creative emotional insights.
It’s all about having choices. When we are in reaction mode, we aren’t choosing. If you find yourself succumbing to “road rage” for example, as was mentioned in our call, then you really aren’t in a position to choose a different response. You are reacting in relation to your primitive reflexes, and possibly some emotional contagion (See Daniel Goleman’s new book Social Intelligence, for more on this topic). Unfortunately, all that cortisol—stress hormone—coursing through your system is not beneficial to your health.
So what do we need? We need to have inner resources at our disposal. When we are stocked up on our resources (like having a full gas tank), we have the ability to choose a response instead of merely reacting. Our inner resources relate to our BASIC physical and psychological/emotional NEEDS. Sometimes our primitive reflexes become ingrained as conditioned responses as adults and we wonder why in the world we “over-reacted” in a particular situation. It can be true that your resources are fully available to you, yet your “knee-jerk” reaction is more powerful. There are ways to re-set the baseline, so-to-speak, if this is what you discover in your own life. The work of Dr. David Mumm deals with this element quite effectively.
At this point, you might be wondering which resources are low in your life. Check the basics out: Food, sleep, health, etc. Oftentimes you simply need to pull back on the adrenaline lifestyle to re-stock. Many of us are addicted to adrenaline.. Once you’ve checked that your personal physical resources aren’t depleted then check your environmental resources.
- Are you surrounded by people that believe in what you are doing?
- Do you have enough support in your life?
- Do you have personal relationship tension with a significant person in your life?
- Are your time and energy drained by tasks better done by a support person?
- Are you energized and focused in your work space?
- Are you feeling strong emotions such as overwhelm or anxiety?
We see that there are many areas in our lives to explore in regards to having abundant resources. Pay attention to the signs. Notice your re-actions. After all, road-rage or any other such response shows we are running on empty somewhere in our lives.
Our resources or lack there of definitely signal to who we are being in that moment. We all desire consistency and integrity in who we are as professionals, but people like counselors, pastors, inspirational writers and mediators can especially become derailed in this area.
Here are some questions to consider as you continue to evolve into who you are becoming (Reminder: this process continues until we die—nobody “arrives” and that’s it!)
As Keith J. Cunningham states, “The question is not what to do, it is who do I want to be?”
- Who do I want to create?
- What do I want to create?
- Who do I need to be to accomplish this?
- What skills do I need?
- Who can hold me accountable to reach my goals?
- What commitment am I willing to make to myself to be this person?
- What impact will my actions have on other’s lives?
- What action can I take right now that will be for my highest good?
To Peace!
Michelle
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Coaching Corner: Waking Up
“Sara” doesn’t think she has anything to offer the world. She’s unable to identify her strengths and gifts. She’s asleep to her 17 year old self in so many ways. Waking up to who you are—who God made you to be—at your core it isn’t easy. We can’t just snap our fingers after saying “1, 2, 3 awake!” This isn’t a fairy tale we live in. But I wonder if we make it harder than we need to? Maybe sometimes, we could be like children in a fairy tale—open to wonder. Could this make it easier for us to wake up if we pretended we are children again to lock into that freshness of vision? Could we shed our skins of apathy, of nihilism, or despair? Can we even wake up without hope? Do we wake up to hope?
To wake up 1st we need to NOTICE we are asleep!
We walk around like zombies most of the time. Even if we are intellectually awake, we are not noticing what is going on in our bodies. We have blocked out the intelligence of our bodies. In the end, all this does is hurts us. Body centered movement such as yoga, tai-chi, pilates, and brain gym can help us wake up, but only if we want them to. As my sister summarized it, “using the body is like accessing the sub-conscious mind.” This powerful intervention, using the body to access subconscious and physiological dimensions in tandem with the conscious mind, is much faster than processes that only access part of the system. I have personally experienced this.
Of course, we can even be mindless and asleep during body-centered activities, not noticing what is happening. Since, we are thinking creatures it is important to connect the body intuition with the mind (an interesting site on physical/emotional intelligence, although I haven’t experienced their work first hand.) That’s one of the beauties of working with a program like Educational Kinesiology; it is an integrating process that wakes up the brain and body. I didn’t notice how much I wasn’t noticing until I took a Brain Gym 101 class (you can go to braingym.org for info on classes in your area). And waking up is really about learning—learning to notice and be aware.
We know how powerful movement is for learning. How do kids learn the first five years of their lives? Through movement, play and exploration. Obviously, this should not suddenly change with the entrance into kindergarten, but unfortunately with the recent push for “academic” kindergartens, children’s natural and most effective learning routine is stalled. Developmental psychologists and most educators understand the importance of movement to learning. It is developmentally appropriate as the saying goes. But movement shouldn’t stop with our childhood. Adults need to move to learn also.
Think back to college and all those essays you had to write. What worked when you had writer’s block for a big paper? What woke up your creativity? Movement! Professors recommended going for walk, jog or something to get the ideas flowing. And guess what? It actually worked. Now we know why! How dare we expect kids to sit through 6 hours of lecture a day with no time for movement and integration of the ideas being thrown at them? But, I digress…waking up is also a process of unfolding.
I think that after I started working with yoga and educational kinesiology, it awoke me to other areas of my life that were asleep. A friend, who is a spiritual director, turned me on to the enneagram as a tool for spiritual growth. I have always been into personality “types” and theories—not in the boxing you in way, but to understand people better and thus, relate to people more completely. These theories have something to teach all of us—even if it is just a tidbit. But, none of them were transforming for me—until the enneagram. Dealing with my unconscious motivators and what my “number” type is usually blind to has been most helpful. In fact, it has been a very hopeful waking up experience. At times, it was depressing looking at my blind spots, waking up to my weaknesses. But, for an optimistic “7” dealing with the nitty gritty is important to do. I would rather avoid the ugly parts. Waking up works though. Now that I am awake to certain things, I notice them and can work on changing. I have woken up to hope by way of the despair.
If you have ways that work for waking you up into the fullness and truth of life, email me (my first name AT TheLearningGround.com—this is for the autobots scrolling for emails…) or comment in this blog. I would love to hear and share your wisdom with others. MH
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )Useful News: It’s all in your head afterall
We know that visualization works, because the same changes happen in your brain as if you were actually physically doing the activity. Now we learn that thinking something is going to happen can make it happen. This has been called the “self-fulfilling prophecy” in psychology and now science has shown the validity of the concept with Placebos. Click on the link to read the article.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )emotional integration methods
Reframing your thinking in a positive light is not just for the affirmation spouting “feel good” types. Research is finally catching up with what many have suspected all along: positive emotions can change your life. Specifically, they can “broaden people’s habitual modes of thinking and build their physical, intellectual and social resources” according to BL Fredrickson. When you engage positive thoughts and emotions, not only are you leaving no room for negative emotions, you are also creating new neural pathways in your brain. This means your brain changes, and thus, you change! You can become a healthier person on all levels, especially in relation to your emotional consistency and resilience—something all entrepreneurs need to be successful in their businesses.
Doc Childre reminds us in his work (heartmath.com) that “attitude directs how you manage your energy.” How we manage our energy really is how we run our lives and businesses, don’t you think? If your energy is scattered or fragmented, you may feel like you are working an awful lot while not achieving the results you want. IF your energy is being directed by fear or anxiety—emotions often felt when taking huge leaps of faith—your intuition could become stifled along with your creativity resulting in stagnant performance. Learning how to focus one’s emotions, neutralizing the negative ones, can directly affect productivity, profit and performance. We know from current research on the brain and heart that these changes are not only psychological in nature; your physiology changes along with your emotions. It’s not all in your head! We’ve all experienced clammy hands when we are nervous, for example. Obviously, we can’t control primitive reflex reactions—like when we are startled—but we can learn to minimize the body reactions by neutralizing our negative thoughts and emotions.
In addition to neutralizing in real time the charge of the emotion, we can then release it for greater freedom and peace. The method is as simple as the previous techniques and equally profound in effect. Many people have come up with variations on releasing these emotional “stores” in our bodies. You can use techniques from Brain Gym, The Sedona Method, Heartmath or others. It is helpful to be led through the process with a coach or practitioner the first time, but not necessary. The main component in all these methods is in noticing what is going on in your body, being with it and STAYING with it until it dissipates. Usually, when we get uncomfortable with these negative feelings we want to escape them as soon as possible. But, instead we need to remain in the presence of these emotions. This is counter-intuitive to how we live, but it works.
I’ve used The Sedona Method while on the pre-core machine at the gym with great success. I had a client that was really stressing me out with her habit of negativity and over-reaction. I liked this client but was feeling avoidance at the thought of her name. I had just picked up a book on The Sedona Method and was eager to try this cerebral approach. I visualized this person in my mind, felt the aversion, pedaled harder and began the internal questioning process:
1. Name it. What are you feeling now? (aversion)
2. Could you welcome this feeling? (No!)
3. Could your release this feeling? (Yes!)
4. Will you release it? (Yes, please!)
5. When? (Now?)
I went through the cycle about three or four times, naming each different feeling as it arose. And finally, when I felt complete I could picture this client and I actually smiled. The Sedona Method doesn’t instruct that you need to be moving physically, but with my training with educational kinesiology I knew it could only be beneficial; and it was. You’ll notice by my answers in the parentheses that it doesn’t matter if you answer “no” to any question. Just keep breathing and going through the questions until you feel the emotion has released. There is much great work that can be done with this simple method. (For more info go to www.sedonapress.com).
These methods can be combined with body centered tools that engage the heart/mind and body simultaneously. This is probably why doing repetitive cardio helped my Sedona process. All these techniques are useful for use on your own, although some take a bit of instruction or facilitation. Brain Gym is one brain/body integration method that listens to your body to unblock whatever is internally holding you back. Again, this is a simple method involving 26 physical movements to achieve profound change in learning ability and overall emotional health. This system of integrating activities is taught in person either one on one or in a group by a licensed professional.
Many schools are using the techniques with their students to enhance learning ability and readiness. Once you have worked in person with an instructor you can use all you have learned on your own at home. Some changes are instantaneous and others unfold over time. (For more info go to www.braingym.org). A benefit of this program is that it is appropriate for even the smallest child (you don’t need to be able to talk, unlike other methods that are more cerebral), whereas other methods profiled in this article are more fitted to school-aged children that have passed a certain developmental stage.
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Thought Catchers
Thought Catchers
You’ve probably seen people hanging “dream catchers” from their rear view mirrors. Lately, I’ve been using my own twist on this Native American concept and using a “though catcher.”
Picture yourself, tired, overwhelmed, fighting the latest cold bug. Feeling great?
Your body is telling you that changes are needed, but if you mind decided to focus more on the current lack of the situation your body is probably going to cave. It will succumb to the cold and you inability will most likely increase. Have you had enough of this pep talk?
To stop the decline, get out your thought catcher. What does it look like to you? A big butterfly net? A trash can? Your mother-in-law? A spider web? Mine is a giant hand, lightening fast, that can hold a thought, crush it like a fly and send it away in the wind. No, I’m not generally a violent person, but I’m learning to be miracles with what does not nurture and encourage me!
Recently, feeling under the weather concerned noticing about finances and noticing all of the undone projects around my home, my thoughts were getting hasty. “You’ll never make it. What if he doesn’t get a job? You’re always fighting some health issue or another…” on and on. Except it didn’t go on and on. This time it was different. ONE thought came trying to create a pity party and I snuffed it out. Then I countered with an encouraging thought, talking to myself aloud. Things like you are surrounded by beauty.
God will take care of you!
You are gifted and talented!
You will make it!
Look at the progress you have made already!
You get the idea? Change your thoughts and you change your life. So create a thought catcher and get relentless.
You deserve it!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Lower Your Stress with a Simple Tool
Lower Your Stress with a Simple Tool
You can transform your stress into productive energy
Live a more relaxed and happier life by effectively dealing with stress & anxiety
–Heartmath, LLC
Our lives can get really crazy with our jobs, carpooling, money concerns, children with difficulties, and a multitude of other issues. Yet, all this stress is not good for us! Do you ever feel so stressed that you worry about your heart? In a Newsweek article called “The Good Heart” I was reminded not only of the physical components \to our health (cortisol = stress hormone = body on alert = PROBLEMS), but also there is finally research on how our thinking, our mentality or perspective, can be more harmful (or helpful) than the physical factors!
I had a chance to experience this first hand recently:
After major surgery, I was recovering in a room with other people around me. I had a curtain encircling my bed, but I could hear anything that happened in the room. When the anesthesia was finally wearing off I noticed behind my head. Looking over my shoulder I saw the heart monitor blipping away. The flashing number gave me an idea and I decided to experiment—it’s not like I could do anything else! First, I noticed that every time another patient starting crying out or moaning my heart rate would spike up. I started focusing on relaxed deep breathing (important after surgery also) and put my mind on positive thoughts. Within seconds, I saw those numbers plummet from 76 to 53! Of course, when a particular lady raised her cries of discomfort up the numbers would fly. Again, I lowered the rising numbers with the same technique. It was an amazing experience to see this in action, lying on a gurney, not so helpless after all*
Would you like to:
- Tap into your creative and intuitive resources for better problem solving?
- Help yourself maintain optimal health and physical resiliency?
- Do you want to lower your stress with a breath and a thought?
- How about training your body to react differently in the first place?
I’m always doing research and looking for tools that will benefit the cli I work with. It’s exciting to see what people are coming up with these days. I truly want you to experience the joy of less stress in your life.
*The Heartmath® technology is much more sophisticated than my hospital experiment. For more info go to
ps. since posting this article, heartmath has come out with a new portable version of this technology–cool
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Interplay 