Creative Health Tip December 21 2009

Today's tip is about breathing mindfully

Almost everyone gets stressed out during this busy holiday season. However, stress suppresses the immune system, so the last thing you want to be during the holidays is stressed because it leaves you vulnerable to illness.

There is one very simple thing you do all the time, and when done mindfully, can reduce stress. You can do it anywhere, anytime, for a couple minutes or even a half-hour. It's simple, easy, effective……have you guessed what it is?

Yes, it's breathing.

Breathing mindfully is one of the best and fastest ways to reduce stress whether you are caught in traffic or a long line at the checkout counter of the department store or have just arrived home at the end of a hectic day.

Breathing mindfully means paying attention to your breath, to follow the breath as you inhale and exhale. You need not intentionally breathe deeply though you may find that you are breathing more deeply as you practice, and that's good because it can help relieve muscular tension. Breathing shallowly deprives your muscles of much-needed oxygen and they become tense as a result. Just breathing slowly and deeply can relieve a lot of tension in your legs and back and shoulders.

To practice: as you inhale (through the nose only, please) follow the path the air takes, and feel the coolness in your throat as the air travels to your lungs. You may pause to enjoy the sensation if you like, but pausing isn't required. As you exhale, you will pay attention to the breath as it leaves your lungs and warms the throat, and here you may exhale through the mouth if you like.

To add an extra mind-body dimension of stress relief and relaxation, as you exhale, set the intention to relax simply by repeating "I am relaxed" as you practice, and may even be a little playful by emphasizing different words as you say it, first emphasizing "I" then "am" then "relaxed." If you are a visual person, you may also visualize the release of all your tensions, just watch them leave your body as thought they were riding the crest of a wave of breath, and say good-bye to each as they leave: "Good-bye, work stress, good-bye traffic jam," and so on.

The more fun you have with this practice, the more stress it will relieve and the faster you will feel better!

Creative Health Tip December 7 2009

We all know how feeling happy is one creative way to wellness, and that feelings of gratitude are very powerful creators of wellness as well as happiness. It seems that some scientists have confirmed it: Gratitude increases happiness

This is an article that was run in Bottom Line Secrets Newsletter of November 19, 2009


Science Discovers the Secret to Happiness
By Robert A. Emmons, PhD
University of California, Davis

Surprise: Research suggests that becoming more grateful could make each of us 25% happier -- and that being happy is the key to a longer, more successful life.

Our lives do not just seem better when we are happy -- they actually become better, according to a 2005 analysis of hundreds of psychological studies. Happy people tend to have longer, more loving marriages... are healthier... live an average of seven to nine years longer than chronically unhappy people... and have more successful careers. According to one study, happy college graduates had annual salaries $25,000 higher than unhappy graduates 16 years after graduation.

While an endless procession of self-help gurus have claimed to know the path to happiness, psychological studies generally have failed to confirm that proposed happiness strategies actually work.

One notable exception: Research conducted in the past decade appears to indicate that we can become happier by feeling more gratitude.

Bottom Line/Retirement asked psychology professor Robert A. Emmons, PhD, of the University of California, Davis, for more information...

What is "gratitude" to a psychologist?

In simple terms, gratitude is our affirmation of a benefit that we have received and our recognition that this benefit has come to us from outside of ourselves.


You say that becoming more grateful will make us happier. How do we know that it isn’t the other way around -- happiness creates gratitude?

Our research suggests that increases in happiness do not lead to increases in gratitude, but that increases in gratitude do in fact increase happiness. We designed a study to test this. Participants were divided into two groups, each of which were initially equally happy. Members of one of these groups were asked to write in a journal the things that they were grateful for, which made them more conscious of and grateful for the good fortune that came their way. At the end of the study, the journal-keeping group was 25% happier than members of the group that did not keep gratitude journals.


Why does feeling gratitude make us happier?

Primarily, I believe, it is because gratitude increases our sense of connection to other people. Having strong relationships is the single best predictor of happiness, and our relationships become stronger when we acknowledge the support we receive from those around us. Acknowledging the support we receive from others provides us with confirmation that we have value in other people’s eyes. Gratitude also buffers us from envy, resentment and regret, emotions that inhibit happiness.


Why do people often have trouble being grateful for what they have?

Lots of reasons. Most of us are fortunate to have pretty good lives, so our default reaction might be to take the benefits that come our way for granted. Consumerism and other cultural pressures can foster a sense that we deserve even more than we have. Our desire to see ourselves as self-sufficient makes it difficult to admit that someone else has helped us. And admitting gratitude can create uncomfortable feelings of indebtedness.


Can we consciously choose to become more grateful and thus happier?
Yes, I do believe it is a choice. Chronically unhappy people do not greatly differ from happy people in terms of their life circumstances -- they just approach life with a different set of attitudes. Unhappy people tend to see themselves as victims of their past, and feel entitled or exaggeratedly deserving when good fortune comes their way. Happy people are thankful that good things happen to them -- even though their lives might be no better than those of the unhappy people next door. We cannot always alter the events of our lives, but we can alter our attitudes.


What, specifically, can we do to become more grateful?

Make an effort to speak about your life using words of gratitude even if you do not feel very grateful. Though it seems counterintuitive, we can become more grateful by forcing ourselves to feign gratefulness that we do not initially feel. Speak in terms of gifts and givers, not regrets and setbacks. Refer to yourself as blessed or fortunate, not deserving or lacking. Say that you live in abundance, not in need. For example, say "I feel so grateful when I can sleep through the night," rather than "Most nights I wake up every few hours."

Keeping a gratitude journal also seems to encourage gratefulness. Every day or every week, write down five or more things for which you are grateful. Be specific -- "I’m grateful for my spouse" is little more than a cliché, but "I’m grateful that my spouse picked up my dry cleaning this afternoon" reminds us that we are grateful to our partner today for a particular reason. Try not to repeat entries -- gratitude journals are most effective when we think of new items each day.

Incidentally, if you are struggling to get to sleep at night, don’t count sheep, count your blessings. Grateful people sleep better and longer than ungrateful people, and wake feeling more refreshed.


What is the secret to being grateful in the face of struggle or tragedy?

The secret is not to wait until tragedy strikes. Become more grateful while your life is running smoothly, so that gratitude becomes an ingrained part of your "psychological immune system." That will make it easier to view difficulties as temporary and surmountable setbacks, or even as opportunities in disguise.

A grateful person mourns the passing of a close friend, but he/she also feels lucky to have known the friend as long as he did, and is glad that he has so many other friends remaining.


Many prayers are expressions of gratitude. So, do religious people have an advantage when it comes to actually feeling gratitude and being happy?

Yes, to some degree. One of the foundations of virtually every religion is that people should give thanks to God and to each other. Religious texts and religious teachings typically provide models of how to be grateful, such as prayers of gratitude and rituals of giving thanks. Spirituality appears to be particularly helpful for maintaining a grateful outlook in the face of suffering and adversity.


Bottom Line/Retirement interviewed Robert A. Emmons, PhD, professor of psychology, University of California, Davis. A leading scholar of positive psychology, he is author of Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier (Houghton Mifflin).



That's the end of the article.

So, if you want to be happy which leads to wellness, one of the things you can do is start a gratitude journal and before you go to sleep at night, record two or three things for which you are grateful. You will sleep better, feel better, and feed that happiness that creates wellness!

Have a Great (and Grateful!) Week.

Michelle
Providing a source of inspiration and wellness through the unity of Mind, Body & Breath.

Creative Health Tip November 16 2009

Today's tip is about using Imagination and Inspiration

Do you realize that there isn't one thing we have today that was not first created in someone's imagination. Just think about that for a minute…..every single man-made thing we have, from spoons and forks to space shuttles, started as a gleam in someone's eye! Here is the best part: once the eye "saw" the creation, the mind opened to the inspiration of how to accomplish the idea or manifest the project.

I call this the "Ah-ha! Instruction Manual." It's the inspiration that delivers into your mind all the diagrams and instructions on how to manifest your idea into physical reality.

You can do this with wellness, too. Your body is the creation of your mind and emotions.

Use this creative connection to spend time every day imagining your increasing wellness. I do not advise trying to go from where you are, presuming you are unwell, to imagining perfect health. For one thing, there really isn't any such thing as "perfect health!" Every moment of the day, your body is regenerating, disposing of used cells, creating new ones, and your immune system is working to protect you from whatever bacteria or virus you've just been exposed. You never reach perfection; health and wellness is an ongoing process!

So, each day, spend time using your imagination to create wellness. You may even use a statement or affirmation that you repeat (and say it out loud, please!) that goes something like, "Every day, I feel happier and become more healthy and strong." Repeating your statement out loud gives it even more power and believability than just reading it.

Here is the Inspiration part: once you have made this statement and commitment to your wellness, it will "suddenly occur" to you to do things. This may include changing your diet to organic foods, or eliminating dairy, or eating more whole grains. You may also be inspired to start walking outdoors for 15 or 30 minutes a day, or to go swimming twice a week, or visit with friends more often, go to lectures at the library, or engage in some other activity you enjoy, some activity that makes you Happy!

I stress happy because feelings are a crucial aspect of how this Imagination/Inspiration program works and how you create wellness. You simply can't create wellness when you are feeling fear, depression, anger or other negative emotions. When you feel unhappy, your body reacts with stress which immediately undermines the immune system and produces a host of other unhealthy physical reactions. Happiness restores immune system strength and helps your body to engage in health-restoring activities, both inner activities like the increase of revitalizing hormones, and outer activities like choosing good nutrition and lifestyle habits.

For a little while every day, remember to use your imagination to create wellness, and let inspiration be your guide on how to there from here!

Creative Health Tip November 2 2009

This article about Tonglen was originally published on one of my blogs back in January 2007, but I have known of and have successfully used the practice since 2005.

Tonglen is an ancient healing practice that is getting some much-deserved publicity these days and deserves another “day in the sun” here. Though I wrote this over a three and a half years ago, and originally sent it to an email group I once belonged to, I do continue to use the practice when in need of self-healing. I hope you find it useful!

Tonglen (sometimes spelled "tonglin" for folks who would like to do some research of their own) is apparently a practice that comes to us from Tibet.

It is practiced entirely through breathing. As the fellow in the book (cited below) says, "If you can breathe in and out, you can practice tonglin."

As you inhale, you think of people you want to help who are suffering. You can visualize those people if you know them, or think of their names and locations if you do not. You may work on specific problems, or do general work.

As you think of them, you inhale and bring into yourself their pain and suffering. Do not worry that you will somehow be contaminated by their problems; you will transform and exhale the problems almost immediately.

You exhale, and send with the outgoing breath healing, relief, or compassion. (Compassion is one of the most powerful emotions in the universe.) When you exhale, imagine and see your breath as flowing expansively outward, reaching all the people whom you are trying to help.

It's not a forceful practice (you don't "suck in" as much air as you can and then force it across the room as you exhale), but it is deliberate; you should pay attention to each inhale and exhale, and breathe with the intention and purpose of accepting suffering of, and sending healing to, others.

And here is a very interesting point about this practice if you are doing it for yourself. If you can breathe in the suffering and pain of other people who are experiencing the same thing as you, you are sharing the burden of your suffering and thereby reducing it ("a burden shared is a burden lessened" as they say). As you breathe out healing, you heal not only others with the same affliction, but yourself.

I believe the key here is to set aside the "I" and merge with the "us." It is not recommended that you work on just yourself; you should include others who are experiencing the same thing you are. You need not do this on an individual or personal basis (you may not know the name or location of a person with the same problem), but there are 6 billion people in the world today: whatever you are experiencing, you are certainly not alone.

To work on yourself, when you inhale, say or think or intend something like "I breathe in the suffering of all of us who have a pain in their left arm" (or whatever your problem is.) Your problem need not be physical, this practice may be used to relieve anger, sadness, grief, or other emotions.). Exhale and say/think/intend "I offer (or send) healing to all of us."

If, at the end of your practice for the day or session, you should feel that you are still connected to someone else's suffering or problems, disconnect by saying "I am done now," or simply "Good-bye!" Repeat if necessary. (Sometimes, if we are working on an emotional problem that triggers us, it will bring up troubling things which we must dismiss for the time being. You could always work on it again during another healing session if needed.)

FYI, I learned about this in a book by Andrew Weiss titled Beginning Mindfulness, New World Library, Novato CA, 2004, ISBN 1577314417. The book presents a ten-week mindfulness course, and the practice for the tenth week is tonglen. There is a Buddhist slant to the material, but the author incorporates other practices as well.

A couple of anecdotal stories:

I used the tonglen method four days ago (Thur, Apr 14, 2005) on my arm; I have carpal tunnel, and have had pain of one kind or another in my hands every day for the past three years. (I am having massage therapy for the condition. That helps quite a bit, but sometimes I move the wrong way, or grasp something the wrong way, and it aggravates the condition.) The other day, my left arm, from the heel of the hand to the shoulder, was just about killing me. I did this tonglen practice for ten to fifteen minutes, and my left hand has been completely pain free ever since....and I do mean completely pain free which is nothing short of a miracle! It may start bothering me again, but the last four days have been heaven as far as my left hand is concerned! :-)

As an update (Sunday, May 22, 2005) I'd like to add here that I have been having some carpal tunnel problems lately (mostly because the keyboard is at the wrong height again...will have to fix that!), but a few minutes doing Tonglen relieves the pain admirably.

Further update (Monday, June 13, 2005): in the past couple of weeks I've also used this method to relieve an annoying tooth problem. I walk every evening for 10 to 15 minutes, and I practice this healing method while I walk, breathing in pain and breathing out healing. It's an incredibly wonderful practice.

Here is some of the feedback I received on this post:

Massage therapy helped my carpel tunnel without surgery too. Due to neck & back problems from a fall from a tree when I was a child, I had been going to the chiropractor 2-3 times a week, then got it down to once a week or less....then realized my Buddhist practice, which includes some tonglen, relieved me of having to go to the chiropractor. I had learned of tonglen practice from reading Pema Chodron. She also has a CD which explains tonglen.

I like your version/explanation of tonglen best..... :-)......much more simplified than Pema Chodron's. However, if someone wants to read/study Pema Chodron's, I recommend her CD which, for me, was easier to understand than her book. Her book is "Start Where You Are". The CD, book & daily inspiration cards are in a set titled "The Compassion Box.”

~SB~

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I just wanted to Thank You for this Tonglen Healing. This morning coming in from watering, I slipped on the tile and twisted a muscle in my shoulder blade. I thought, good excuse to go and do the Tonglen Technique. I did, I sat and did the breathing and letting it heal through. I like that you add others into the technique as well. It made me feel real good… The muscle now barley has any little twinge left in it at all. I am just taking it easy and continue to do the breathing. Thanks again and I will definitely add this easy technique to my list of uses!

~J~

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I tried Tonglen once, on my stomach ache, and it really did work!
Thanks for sharing with us that wonderful technique. :)

~ASP~



Have a great week!

Creative Health Tip 19 October 2009

I have a wonderful teaching for you today about Nature. The direction this came from is somewhat unusual, but that’s the thing about Wisdom; you just never know what direction it’s going to come from, so always keep your eyes and ears open!

I am doing some editing for a friend of mine who I’ll call Richard since that’s his name. Richard is a retired Doctor of Chiropractic who now devotes his time to his Golden Bridge Seminars where he shares the wisdom Abraham as channeled by Esther Hicks who writes books and travels with her husband Jerry.

One of the main teachings of Abraham is to “go with the flow,” or “go downstream.” To get what you want out of life, to be where you want to be and in the circumstances and relationships and prosperity and places that are right for you, you do not need to struggle. Struggling is considered to be going upstream. You paddle and paddle and struggle and struggle, and where does it really get you? Nowhere.

Now, the reason I mention Richard today is that I am editing a manuscript for him. There is a miracle described in there, and you are going to have to read the book to learn what that is, but meanwhile….

While working on his manuscript, I came across a simple sentence that leapt off the page and just sort of hit me right between the eyes. I don’t know if this philosophy came to Richard before or after his interest in the Abraham-Hicks teachings manifested, but if it were before, I certainly can understand his attraction to the Abraham teachings and the Law of Attraction.

Richard’s philosophy is simple, and – as these things often are – simply profound: “Nature needs no help, just no interference.”

Just think about that for a moment and how it could relate to your health. Your wellness is in the hands of your immune system. Think about the ways you may be interfering with Nature and compromising your immune system by being exposed to household chemicals, eating an unhealthy diet, and living a stressed-out lifestyle. Certainly, none of those are in alignment or harmony with Nature or her “go with the flow, go downstream” advice.

As a Doctor of Chiropractic, Richard’s main interest was wellness, and his philosophy is a perfect reflection of his belief, and certainly aligns with the Abraham teachings as well!

If you are floating downstream, you are not “helping” Nature by paddling, and likewise, if you are floating you are not interfering with or hampering your harmony with Nature. Floating means letting Nature take its course

In the area of wellness, what this means is that when your body’s immune system, which is Nature’s way of keeping you healthy, is operating at peak efficiency, it can handle any disease to which you are exposed, either externally such as the flu or strep throat, or internally such as cancer or even arthritis. It is only when Nature – meaning your immune system – is compromised that you fall prey to disease.

If you want real wellness, there are two things you should do. First: Expect miracles, for that is how you create them. Second: Don’t get in Mother Nature’s way when she’s working to restore your health! Support your immune system by getting enough sleep, eating healthy, organic foods, and minimizing the stress that suppresses proper immune system function.

Seriously, I am going to post this statement where I can see it and be reminded of its wisdom every day, and I hope you do, too!

Remember: “Nature needs no help, just no interference.”

Thank you, Richard, for that!


Have a great week!

Creative Health Tip 12 October 2009

Today’s tip is an excerpt about the healing power of love.

This is a quote from pages 285 – 287 of the book Spontaneous Evolution by Bruce Lipton, PhD. In this segment, he’s talking about a man who is a medical doctor turned energy healer after receiving the message "Your work is to heal with love" during meditation.

That doctor’s name is Leonard Laskow, and his website where you may learn more about him and his book Healing With Love, as well as read articles, interviews and research papers is http://www.laskow.net/index.shtml

Lipton’s book describes some scientific experiments that Dr Laskow did with cancer cells in Petri dishes and the healing power of love, and that is what I’ll share with you here today.

"Laskow held three culture dishes that contained tumor cells in his hand while maintaining a state of focused healing consciousness. As an experimental control, a non-healer in another room held in his hands three other Petri dishes, inoculated with the same tumor cells. The non-healer was assigned a reading task while holding the cultures so that he would be distracted from influencing the cultured cells with his own intentions.

"Laskow experimented with several different emotional intentions while holding the cells, all of which sought to activate the natural force of coherence in the Universe. The most effective intention, the one that caused the cancer cells to diminish their growth by 39 percent, was "Return to the natural order and harmony of the normal cell line." When Laskow added visual imagery to the intention, the healing effects doubled.

"So, what's love got to do with it? As Laskow reports in his book Healing With Love, his intention was not to destroy the cancer cells but to allow them to exist as part of universal creation. Love, he explained, is the "impulse toward unity, non-separation, wholeness. While love can take many forms, its essence is relatedness." Laskow believes that the opposite of love is not hate but separation. While there are many different modes for accessing and using healing energy, Laskow's protocol involves connecting with the condition instead of separating from it."

"When we experience an illness or a life condition that we would prefer not to have, our first impulse is to cast it out. We tend to think of illness as a foreign invader that attacks us rather than something we co-create. However, when we truly own our participation in the condition, even if we don't understand the reason, we become responsible participants in directing our fate.

"With the awareness that our mind shapes our biology, we can recognize that we have the opportunity to change our minds and, thus, create a healthier biology. Given what we now know about the intelligence and functionality of our cells, maybe we can begin by humbly apologizing to our inner citizens and thank them for putting up with us! When we take the step of consciously loving our cells, we affirm that we are co-creating participants, not victims of life.

"An illness or disharmonious condition occurs when something is misformed or deformed. Healing, therefore, involves transformation to change the dysfunctional form. Here is Laskow's simple four-step transformational healing process:

"Step One: Inform yourself about what has already materialized in form. Telling the truth is the first step toward responsibility.

"Step Two: Conform to the condition by loving it rather than creating separation. Resonating with the form allows us more influence over its organization.

"Step Three: Unform the condition by releasing it. "It is this observer's intent," said Laskow, "that converts particulate matter to its wave form and its wave form back into matter."

"Step Four: Reform the released energy to conform to our purpose and desire. This is the letting go part where we send our intention into he Universe without attachment.

"Even when releasing the diseased condition, there is connection and not separation. Laskow wrote: "When you accept and love the parts of yourself you want to reject or change, you create an opportunity to discover the positive live force behind them." That old Biblical word atonement can be reinterpreted as at-one-ment through which we make ourselves at one with whatever condition we would have otherwise rejected.

"In the quantum Universe where everything is connected, love is the glue that holds things together. Said Laskow, "Love is a universal pattern of resonant energy." In this sense, two or more tuning forks vibrating together are in love with each other, just as two or more humans can resonate in a palpable field of connectedness, joy, and even ecstasy. Love, he said, "is the universal harmonic.”

End quote.

We all have the capacity to do this. I hope that along with whatever healing modalities you use, you will include the healing power of love to bring you back into harmony, happiness, and health!


Have a great week!

Creative Health Tip 05 October 2009

Today’s tip is about a practice called Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT.

Although I have not used this myself, I was told about it by two psychologists who think very highly of the practice.

EFT was created by Gary Craig. In his manual, he explains it like this: “EFT is based on the discovery that imbalances in the body’s energy system have profound effects on one’s personal psychology. Correcting these imbalances, which is done by tapping on certain body locations, often leads to rapid remedies.”

There are many success stories not only concerning emotional wellness by people who have used the process to overcome anxiety and fear, but many cases where physical pain and illness have been cured as well.

Given what the practice is, I’m not surprised! It appears to be a combination between acupressure, where tapping instead of direct continual pressure is applied to various acupuncture points, and EMDR.

In Chinese medicine, every energy acupuncture channel not only corresponds to bodily organs and physical wellness but emotional wellness, too, so even though I haven’t tried EFT myself, I can see how it would be of great benefit on the principles of Chinese medicine alone.

Another facet of the EFT practice includes eye movements that resemble and possibly are related to a practice called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR. EMDR helps people overcome past experiences that trigger negative emotions and beliefs, and can relieve emotional distress. I have seen EMDR used in several cases involving young girls suffering from emotional traumas, and it did them a world of good. It’s a very effective healing modality.

So, if you are struggling with a physical or emotional issue, give EFT a try! You can download the basic manual for free from the website www.emofree.com

There are also additional materials including DVDs that may be purchased, but the free manual is all you need to get started with this wonderfully easy and holistic wellness technique!

Have a great week!

Creative Health Tip 28 September 2009

This is a Daoist story about how beliefs create reality, and about attachment, from the Book of Lieh-Tzü translated by Lionel Giles in 1912.

“There was once a man who, though born in Yen, was brought up in Ch'u, and it was only in his old age that he returned to his native country.

”Yen was the northernmost State of ancient China, while Ch'u was bounded by the left bank of the Yangtsze.

”On the way thither, as they were passing through the Chin State, a fellow-traveler played a practical joke on him.

“Pointing to the city he said: 'Here is the capital of the Yen State'; whereupon the old man flushed with excitement. Pointing out a certain shrine, he told him that it was his own village altar, and the old man heaved a deep sigh. Then he showed him a house, and said: 'This is where your ancestors lived'; and the tears welled up in his eyes. Finally, a mound was pointed out to him as the tomb where his ancestors lay buried, whereupon the old man could control himself no longer, and wept aloud.

“But his fellow-traveler burst into roars of laughter. 'I have been hoaxing you,' he cried; 'this is only the Chin State.'

“His victim was greatly mortified; and when he arrived at his journey's end, and really did see before him the city and altars of Yen, with the actual abode and tombs of his ancestors, his emotion was much less acute.”

As you can see, the traveler’s belief that he was in his ancestral town created his reality and generated a lot of strong emotions for him even though it wasn’t true. Before you react to any statements or thoughts that may generate an emotional charge for you, make sure they are a reflection of reality.

Attachment can also generate strong emotions, just as did the attachment of the man to his native land. After he had spent his strong emotions believing the wrong place to be his homeland, his attachment became less and when he did arrive at his destination, he was able to view it with the detachment and calmness that bring about health and wellness.

The tip for this week is two-fold; before you believe something, make sure it’s real, and detachment allows you to maintain your harmony, happiness, and health.


Have a great week!

Michelle

Creative Health Tip 21 September 2009

Since tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox, it seems appropriate to talk about balance.

What balance is not, is a state of frozen equilibrium. Balance is all about living in harmony with life’s up and down cycles.

Think back to playing on a see-saw or teeter-totter when you were a child. If you sat there in perfect balance, going neither up nor down, that was no fun. The fun was swooshing up when you pushed off with your feet, and then landing with a bump when you came back down.

Life is a dynamic process, and the fun is often found in the many activities that fuel your busy schedule like work, sports, family outings, and running those seemingly endless errands we all have on our To-Do lists.

However, in order to create or maintain excellent health, you don’t want to be landing with a bump at the end of the day or the end of the week. That’s what robs you of good health.

When you have a few busy days in a row, schedule some down time to relax and rejuvenate, finish reading that book you started, or call an old friend to catch up on the latest news, or go for a leisurely walk in the woods or a park to get some fresh air.

If you have to dine on fast foods while dashing between appointments most of the week, treat yourself to a home-made dinner of fresh foods on the weekend. Don’t look at cooking as a chore, see your meal as a gift to yourself of healthy nutrients!

Take some time out to meditate, even if it’s only a few minutes a day in which you focus on your breathing. The effects of meditation are cumulative; the more often you do it, the longer-lasting are the benefits of improved focus and attention, healthy blood pressure levels, and greatly reduced levels of stress hormones that deplete your immune system and leave you vulnerable.

So, have fun on that teeter-totter because that’s what life is all about; it should be fun, but make sure you are in control of how hard you land!

Have a great week!

You Control Your Genes, Your Genes Don't Control You

This is an article with two videos from the website of Dr. Joseph Mercola. He, as well as Roger Jahnke, a Master in Taiji and Chinese Medicine, have published several interviews and reports on scientific discoveries and studies that show you are not at the mercy of your genes, and that genetic expression of diseases for which you are "at risk" can be averted when you know that your emotions have far more control over your genetic expression than was ever dreamed possible.

In other words, living in joy and harmony instead of being stressed out and crazy can mean the difference between being healthy and getting cancer!


Here is the latest article from Dr Mercola's website and two videos that accompany it. Enjoy!


The New Biology- From Victim to Master of Your Health

(7 minute 36 second video)





The Four Myth Perceptions of the Apocalypse (www.Mercola.com)

(6 minute 30 second video)



Dr. Mercola's Comments (on the second video):

This is my second interview with cellular biologist Bruce Lipton, PhD., who is one of the leading authorities on how emotions can regulate genetic expression, as explained in his excellent book The Biology of Belief, which was published last year.

Dr. Lipton’s new book is Spontaneous Evolution, which was just published just a few days ago.

In this interview, he discusses “the four myth perceptions of the Apocalypse.” These are the myths that society has bought, up to now, as actual science.

However, over the last two decades or so, leading edge science has shown them to be not only flawed, but entirely false, providing such profoundly different answers that it will undoubtedly change the way we live in the future.


Myth # 1 : You Live in a Mechanical Universe

The first myth perception is that the world, especially biology and medicine, operates through Newtonian physics. It says you live in a mechanical universe.
According to this belief, your body is a physical machine, so by modifying the parts of the machine, you can modify your health.

As a physical machine, your body responds to physical “things” like chemicals and drugs, and by adjusting the drugs that modify your machinery, doctors can modify and control life.

Now, with the advent of quantum physics, scientists have realized that this theory is flawed because quantum physics show that the invisible, immaterial realm is far more important than the material realm.

In fact, your thoughts may shape your environment far more than physical matter.
Einstein himself is quoted as saying: “The field is the sole governing agency of the particle.” What that means is that invisible energy is the sole governing agency of matter (the physical world).

It’s interesting to note that the word ‘spirit’ by spiritualists, and the word ‘field’ by physicists, use the same definition for those two words.

So, the new science is actually taking us back, and shows that your thoughts, your attitudes, your beliefs, and the invisible environment, are more primary in shaping your life than anything in the physical world is.


Myth # 2: Your Genes Control Your Life

In his book, The Biology of Belief, Dr. Lipton explains the foundation of epigenetics, and how the true secret to life does not lie within your DNA, but rather within the mechanisms of the cell membrane. In this way – which is contrary to conventional medical science – it is actually the cell’s membrane -- operating in response to environmental signals picked up by the membrane’s receptors -- that control the “reading” of the genes inside.

What does this mean?

It means that you are not controlled by your genetic makeup. Instead, your genetic readout (which genes are turned “on” and which are turned “off”) is primarily determined by your thoughts, attitudes, and perceptions!

The major problem with believing the myth that your genes control your life is that you become a victim of your heredity. Since you can’t change your genes, it essentially means that your life is predetermined, and therefore you have very little control over your health. With any luck, modern medicine will find the gene responsible and be able to alter it, or devise some other form of drug to modify your body’s chemistry, but aside from that, you’re out of luck…

The new science, however, reveals that your perceptions control your biology, and this places you in the role of Master, because if you can change your perceptions, you can shape and direct your own genetic readout.

It places YOU in the power position, for better or worse.

As Dr. Lipton says,

“This is very relevant to the world that we are in because we have to take back a belief that we have power over our lives. Because our current perception is that we are victims, and since perceptions control life, if you believe you are a victim, you become a victim. When we change our perceptions, we can become masters. So we are moving out of “victimhood” into mastery.”


Myth # 3: Life is Based on Survival of the Fittest

The third misperception is the Darwinian belief that life and evolution is based on the survival of the fittest, which is an inherent competition and a struggle for existence that goes on forever.

The new science, however, shows that this is incorrect; that evolution was not based on competition, but rather on cooperation.

This is a profound difference, and it tells us that if we want to evolve as a species, we must stop competing, and begin to recognize our coherence – that we evolved to live as a harmonious community of people, living on this planet as one living “thing” called humanity.


Myth # 4: Life Evolved as a Random Process

This is another Darwinian theory. The significance of this myth is that, based upon it, you have no purpose here, and humans are somewhat disconnected from the environment altogether.

It says that you got here by accident, and since humanity was accidental, humans have no real purpose here on planet earth.

The new biology, on the other hand, reveals that you are in fact an extension of your environment.

In fact, every time an organism is introduced into an ecosystem, its function is to balance it and keep it stable. When viewed from this perspective, you realize that the function of your existence here on earth is to create harmony and stability within your environment.

Says Dr. Lipton,

“… humanity evolved as a compliment to an environment. The very scary situation is, if we destroy the environment that created us, then essentially, we are destroying the foundation of our existence.”


New Solutions for Old Problems

I have long maintained that your emotional state plays a role in nearly every physical disease -- from heart disease, to depression, to arthritis and cancer. Even the conservative Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that 85 percent of all diseases have an emotional element.

If your thoughts and emotions play such a significant role in modifying your biology and your health (and I believe they do), then treating your emotions becomes an essential part of optimal health.

Terms like “energy medicine” and “energy psychology” are terms that have sprung up in response to these shifts in perception of reality, and I’ve long been an advocate of energy psychology tools to address underlying emotional traumas that can trigger disease, or keep you locked in a disease pattern.

Meridian tapping techniques, for example, which works on several levels of your collective mind-body-spirit simultaneously, can help you get a better handle on your emotions and buried pain, including the stress from unexpected tragedies.

Optimal health might really hinge on dealing with, and resolving your emotional traumas as quickly as possible; not letting old emotional wounds linger and fester.

In severe cases you might not be able to perform the techniques satisfactorily on yourself, in which case I would highly recommend you seek out a trained professional. Dr. Patricia Carrington provides a list of certified practitioners across the world, plus helpful advice on how to choose a practitioner that is right for you.


*** end of article ***

I'd just like to add that Affirmation Movies are also a great way to get a handle on your emotions, and work through conflicts in beliefs that are a major cause of chronic illness. To learn more about that, please visit Affirmation Movies.

If you would like to know more about Affirmation Movies, write to me at affirmationmovies@gmail.com

Creative Health Tip 14 September 2009

Today's tip is about Acceptance.

Your tip this week is actually coming from Eckhart Tolle in his book A New Earth.

I was reading this the other night, and he's talking about the "modalities of awakened doing" which means how we live our lives and do all the things that we do in a conscious manner.

He talks about the three modalities of Enjoyment, Enthusiasm, and Acceptance. While Enjoyment and Enthusiasm probably don't need a whole lot of explanation, Acceptance is really interesting in the way he presents it, and that is what I want to talk about today.

I’m going to read from his book A New Earth, pages 296 to 297.

"Acceptance

"Whatever you cannot enjoy doing, you can at least accept that this is what you have to do. Acceptance means: For now, this is what this situation, this moment, requires me to do, and so I do it willingly.

"Performing an action in the state of acceptance means you are at peace while you do it. That peace is a subtle energy vibration which flows into what you do. On the surface, acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it is active and creative because it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, that subtle energy vibration, is consciousness, and one of the ways in which it enters this world is through surrendered action, one aspect of which is acceptance.

"If you can neither enjoy or bring acceptance to what you do – stop. Otherwise, you are not taking responsibility for the only thing you can really take responsibility for, which also happens to be the one thing that really matters: your state of consciousness. And if you are not taking responsibility for your state of consciousness, you are not taking responsibility for life."

That's the end of our quote.

Remember, every single thing you do, every attitude you bring to those things, is a vibration that you are putting out into the universe.

You are also taking it in to your body and creating your outer physical being as well as your inner physical being.

So, this week, think about Acceptance when you're doing something that is not your "cup of tea" as they say. Just accept that there it is, and that's how it is, and if you don't like it you know it's going to get better!


Have a great week!

Michelle

Creative Health Tip 21 August 2009

Today's tip is about reliving a joyful or sacred experience.

At least twice in the past week I've heard people talk about a really fantastic experience they had, and end with the lament that they wish they could experience that again. The reason they say they can't is because it was a special time, or those exact circumstances will never be repeated therefore they will never be able to enjoy that experience again.

The fact is, you can go there anytime you desire through your memory and imagination.

You do this a dozen times a day, but usually you tune into past experiences that create feelings of anger or sadness that create poor health, like an argument you had with your mate, or the guy who cut you off on the drive to work. When you think about it later, don't you feel the same intensity of emotions you felt at the time the event took place? Of course you do!

I think people tune into these experiences because they get an adrenaline rush: anger is nearly always rooted in fear, and fear evokes the fight-or-flight response and the rush of adrenaline to fight or flee. It also shuts-down the immune system so all your bodily resources are available for survival. When you experience that feeling of anger or fear, even in retrospect to an experience hours or days after the event itself, your immune system goes on vacation so your body can put all its attention on fighting or fleeing even though you don't have any reason At That Moment to fight or flee.

Your imagination is a very powerful tool, and your body can't tell if the experience in your mind is happening "now" or not. Every thought you have, you are having Now; every feeling evoked by those thoughts is happening Now. To your body, every experience is Now!

Use that as a tool toward health and wellness! Tune in to past experiences that make you feel happiness, joy, and love. You can relive those wonderful and fantastic moments just as easily as you can the moments of harsh feelings.

The only tools you need to re-experience a joyful or sacred moment in your life is your imagination and your willingness to revisit the experience. Not only will you bring those moments alive again and bask in those wonderful feelings, your body will be producing hormones to create excellent health as you do it!



Have a great weekend!

Creative Health Tip 14 August 2009

This week, I am sharing a video with you from the Abraham-Hicks selection on YouTube. The topic is weight loss, and in terms of Creative Health, the advice given by Abraham through Esther Hicks certainly offers the best in Mind-Body Creation of a healthy attitude toward food and the attainment of your perfect weight: it has to be in the mind before it can manifest in the body!

Here is the description of the video:

"Abraham, translated by Esther Hicks, responds to a question from a woman has tried every diet, done every exercise, and still cannot lose weight.

"Sidestepping the usual - and often frustrating - approaches to the problem, Abraham lays the foundation of a mental attitude that brings to bear the power of Law of Attraction to create the most effective technique ever presented for losing weight.

"Excerpted from the 2 hour and 20 minute program "Think And Get Slim: Natural Weight Loss" which is available on DVD and CD from Abraham-Hicks.

"Recorded September 8, 2006 in San Antonio, TX."

If you are in Bend, Oregon and would like to learn about local Abraham-Hicks gatherings and workshops, please visit the website of Golden Bridge Seminars at http://www.goldenbridgeseminars.com/


Have a great weekend!

Michelle

Creative Health Tip 7 August 2009

Today's Creative Health Tip is about Awareness

We all tend to gather in groups of like-minded people, so it wouldn't surprise me if many of you are fans of positive thinking, creative consciousness and other "your thoughts and emotions create your reality" techniques.

Maybe you've read books by Louise Hay, Gregg Braden, or Ester and Jerry Hicks. If so, you know they all offer similar advice: be aware of your thoughts for your thoughts are vibrations and whatever you think about with strong emotions is what you will create in your life!

Whether your creation is favorable or unfavorable depends largely on those strong emotions. Emotions like anger, guilt, and fear will create unfavorable life experiences and physical disease, while emotions like hopefulness, happiness, and appreciation will create wonderful experiences and physical vitality.

The important point I want to make this week is that you must be very alert and aware of your thoughts! Several times in the last few days, I've spoken with people who are very knowledgeable in these co-creative processes, say they understand the need for positive thoughts and emotions, and yet all they did was grumble about all the negative events in their lives.

While it sure is ok to vent once in a while, if you spend too much time venting the negative, it gains momentum and comes back to haunt you when you least expect it, and least desire it.

Throughout the day, check in with yourself, and examine your emotions: are you stressed, happy, or bored? Be aware of the path and pattern of your thoughts: do you like what you are doing, or do you wish you were somewhere else, or are you getting ready to take what you're doing and toss it on the trash heap?

When you have a string of negative thoughts or emotions, acknowledge them but don't dwell on them. Instead, try to turn them around into something positive. Doing this will raise your vibration and let you manifest things you like and want instead of attracting all those things you are trying to avoid!


Have a great weekend!

Creative Health Tip 01 August 2009

The video of today's Creative Health Tip is about 7 minutes long.

Today's Creative Health Tip is: Attitude of Gratitude

Researchers at the Institute of HeartMath explain the connection between heart disease and stressful feelings (published by MSNBC/Today Show on January 26, 2006 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11023208/)

Just consider: this information has been around for almost four years now, and most people haven't yet heard of it!

Begin quote:

An appreciative heart is good medicine
Psychologists once maintained that emotions were purely mental expressions generated by the brain alone. We now know that this is not true — emotions have as much to do with the heart and body as they do with the brain. Of the bodily organs, the heart plays a particularly important role in our emotional experience. The experience of an emotion results from the brain, heart and body acting in concert.

The Institute of HeartMath, a research center dedicated to the study of the heart and the physiology of emotions, has conducted numerous studies identifying the relationship between emotions and the heart. A number of their studies have provided new insight into understanding how the activity of the heart is indeed linked to our emotions and our health, vitality and well-being.

Emotions and the heart
Recent HeartMath studies define a critical link between the heart and brain. The heart is in a constant two-way dialogue with the brain — our emotions change the signals the brain sends to the heart and the heart responds in complex ways. However, we now know that the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. And the brain responds to the heart in many important ways. This research explains how the heart responds to emotional and mental reactions and why certain emotions stress the body and drain our energy. As we experience feelings like anger, frustration, anxiety and insecurity, our heart rhythm patterns become more erratic. These erratic patterns are sent to the emotional centers in the brain, which it recognizes as negative or stressful feelings. These signals create the actual feelings we experience in the heart area and the body. The erratic heart rhythms also block our ability to think clearly.

Many studies have found that the risk of developing heart disease is significantly increased for people who often experience stressful emotions such as irritation, anger or frustration. These emotions create a chain reaction in the body — stress hormone levels increase, blood vessels constrict, blood pressure rises, and the immune system is weakened. If we consistently experience these emotions, it can put a strain on the heart and other organs, and eventually lead to serious health problems.

Conversely, HeartMath’s research shows that when we experience heart-felt emotions like love, care, appreciation and compassion, the heart produces a very different rhythm. In this case it is a smooth pattern that looks like gently rolling hills. Harmonious heart rhythms, which reflect positive emotions, are considered to be indicators of cardiovascular efficiency and nervous system balance. This lets the brain know that the heart feels good and often creates a gentle warm feeling in the area of the heart. Learning to shift out of stressful emotional reactions to these heartfelt emotions can have profound positive effects on the cardiovascular system and on our overall health. It is easy to see how our heart and emotions are linked and how we can shift our heart into a more efficient state by monitoring its rhythms.

Benefits come from being appreciative
The feeling of appreciation is one of the most concrete and easiest positive emotions for individuals to self-generate and sustain for longer periods. Almost anyone can find something to genuinely appreciate. By simply recalling a time when you felt sincere appreciation and recreating that feeling, you can increase your heart rhythm coherence, reduce emotional stress and improve your health.

For people who may initially find it difficult to self-generate a feeling of appreciation in the present moment, experts suggest that they recall a past memory that elicits warm feelings. With practice, most people are able to self-generate feelings of appreciation in real time and no longer need the past time reference. Dr. Rollin McCraty, director of research for the Institute of HeartMath, says, “It’s important to emphasize that it is not a mental image of a memory that creates a shift in our heart rhythm, but rather the emotions associated with the memory. Mental images alone usually do not produce the same significant results that we’ve observed when someone focuses on a positive feeling.”

For more information on the Institute of HeartMath, check out www.heartmath.org/today. © 2006 MSNBC Interactive

End quote

We now know that this does not apply only to a healthy heart, but that all your organs and cells respond to positive feelings! In Chinese medicine, the liver is associated with anger, the kidneys to fear, the lungs to sorrow and grief. Experiencing anger day in and day out for long periods of time can eventually create chronic health conditions of the liver; chronic fear can create chronic kidney disease, and so on.

Your awareness and conscious creation can over-ride these automatic physical responses to emotional conditions.

Adopt the Attitude of Gratitude to create your excellent health!

Visit my blogs for more creative Health, Happiness, and Harmony articles and information:

Believing Is Seeing

Stress Relief for Savvy Women

Be Well with Qigong

Creative Health Tip 24 July 2009

Today's Creative Health Tip is Your Mind: The Natural Cure For What Ails you!

Why is it that most people have no difficulty believing the mind can cause illness through negative thoughts and emotions, but won’t believe the mind can cause wellness through positive thoughts and emotions? Have you ever heard the saying, “You can do anything you put your mind to”? The natural power of the mind, through the processes of conscious direction and sustained attention, can create anything, including perfect health!

Your mind is a very powerful creator that does not judge its creations as good or bad, it just creates. Illness and wellness are a matter of perception, a matter of how the creation that is the physical “you” is influenced and judged by your emotions. Your thoughts influence your emotions; your emotions influence your physical body. If you are not sure that is true, you can test it right now. Take a moment to think a neutral thought like “the sky is blue.” You have very little reaction to a statement of fact that is not part of your personal creation. Now, think of a sad or angry experience you had and notice how your body suddenly feels tense and uncomfortable. Now, think of a happy experience you had and notice how your body changes to feel relaxed and comfortable.

You have the natural ability to choose illness by thinking negative thoughts and having negative feelings that create disease, or choose wellness by thinking positive thoughts and having positive feelings that create a healthy body. The natural state of your body is health and wellness; it wants to work harmoniously with you to return to that state of good health.

The last four lines of verse 51 of the Daoist philosophical book the Dao De Jing (Peter Merel interpolation) offer some suggestions on how to use your mind to effect your own healing.

“Bearing without possessing,” Carry the illness, but don’t own it. Every time you think or say “my disease” you are holding on to it and confirming it is a part of you. If you have to refer to it at all, call it “the disease.” Do your best to not think of it at all. When you stop feeding the disease with the energy of your thoughts, you will deny it the energy it needs to exist.

“Nurturing without taming,” Take care of yourself without trying to change the nature of the illness. Don’t try to make the illness something you can “live with.” If, in your mind, you decide you can live with it, you won’t cure it. Always try to nurture yourself back to perfect health.

“Shaping without forcing,” Shaping in this sense means creating your healthy body without resistance. Self-doubt is resistance, disbelief is resistance. If you must work so hard to convince yourself of the healing power of your mind, all your energy goes toward the convincing and none toward the healing. Making statements like “I’m going to do this or else!” is resistance which can set up an internal power struggle or fear of failure that may do more harm than good. Create good health persistently but gently.

“This is harmony.” Give yourself permission to allow your body to follow its natural tendencies. Spend time influencing your body with intentional and sustained positive thoughts as if you have already created health by saying and believing: "I am perfectly healthy!" Say it with gusto: "I Am Perfectly Healthy!!!"

Fill yourself with health and there will be no room for disease.


Have a great weekend!

Michelle

Creative Health Tip 17 July 2009

Today's Creative Health Tip is about Affirmations

An affirmation is a positive statement that you repeat when you want to create a certain thing or a certain condition in you life. If your life has been chaotic lately you might say an affirmation like "I live in perfect balance and harmony."

I've discovered that people either love or hate affirmations depending on how well the method has worked for them. If you repeat "I live in perfect balance and harmony" fifty times a day, and your life has changed for the better, you no doubt will be enthusiastic about the technique. If you still feel trapped in the depths of chaos, you probably aren't going to be a real fan of affirmations.

I have discovered that there is a key to the use of affirmations that you must have before they will work for you: Belief. You must believe that the statement made in your affirmation is attainable.

The repetition process of using an affirmation is supposed to help change your belief. For example, if all your romantic relationships have ended badly and you feel unlovable, repeating "I am lovable and attract only the right people into relationships" is supposed to change your belief from unlovable to lovable.

It isn't always that easy, though. We all have beliefs about ourselves that may be hidden. Rooting out these conflicting beliefs is a process that may need to be done before affirmations, as the practice stands now, will work for you.

However, the method can be tweaked in such a way that it may work for you even if you have a hidden belief that conflicts with your statement. I learned this from Tiffanie, a young woman whom I consider to be a spiritual daughter of mine.

Instead of finding or creating an affirmation statement that says "I can . . . :" or "I Have . . ." or "I (followed by the verb of your choice)," change it around so that it starts with a positive feeling for the thing or condition you want to create.

Say, "I am grateful and thankful now that I . . ." and then add your affirmative statement. For example, for changing the way you feel about yourself and your relationships, you would say "I am grateful and thankful now that I am lovable and attract only the right people into relationships."

The reason this works is this: if you are feeling negative about yourself and believe that your relationships always end badly, when you say your simple affirmation of "I am lovable and attract only the right people into relationships," your core belief (that you are not lovable, which came from the feelings generated by your previous experiences of relationships ending badly) is going to respond with a sarcastic, "yeah, right."

It's all about feelings; and feelings create beliefs! At some time in your life, you have felt thankful and grateful for something, and you know how good that feels. Instead of repeating that simple affirmation of "I am lovable. . .," put your energy into recreating and re-experiencing feeling grateful and thankful, and aim those feelings at the change you invite into your life, "I am grateful and thankful now that I am lovable. . ." the good feelings will override the negative belief and replace it with a positive one, and manifest the condition you are trying to create with your affirmation!

Have a great weekend!

Michelle

Creative Health Tip 10 July 2009

The problem with uploading complete .avi format videos at YouTube has been fixed, so today's video is of a better quality than the last few which had to be converted before being uploaded! Yay!

Today's Creative Health Tip is about Mind Movies

Mind Movies are something that's become very popular recently. A Mind Movie is a motivational and creative tool. Usually, it's a three to five minute video that runs like a slide-show, displaying pictures and affirmations designed to evoke positive desires and enthusiastic emotions which are the key to creating your reality. They include upbeat music to enhance the experience and further boost your feelings of desire and intention to manifest and experience the things you want to create in your life.

To manifest prosperity, for example, they often include pictures of expansive mansions and fabulous cars and exotic vacation locations interspersed with affirmations such as "I have enough money for everything I want" and "I have my dream home" and so on.

Of course there are Mind Movies for health, too, with pictures of people enjoying various healthy and athletic activities like swimming, hiking, even skydiving! The affirmations are usually something like, "I feel rejuvenated" and "I always feel physically great" and "I eat only nutritious food" and so on. There are pictures of healthy foods, too!

There are fancy, professional versions, but you can easily make your own Mind Movie with your own pictures in just a few minutes. Create a new folder on your computer and copy or drag-and-drop into it pictures you want to manifest or recreate. For example, if you would like to lose weight, include pictures of happy, thin people and nutritious foods, and activities you would enjoy doing when you are thin.

If you would like to feel more energetic, put in pictures of people enjoying various physical activities. For an even better Mind Movie experience, put into the folder pictures of you when you were thin, or pictures of yourself enjoying an activity like playing golf or hiking, or any activity you would like to have the energy to do.

To manifest general health or to counteract a chronic health condition, include pictures of yourself as a healthy, vibrant, enthusiastic person, the person you want to be!

To enjoy your Mind Movie, you may play any music that is on your computer – in iTunes or another music folder, or even play a CD or iPod as you watch your Movie. Make sure the music is fun, upbeat, "feel-good" music! This will run in the background.

To start your slide-show, open the folder that contains your pictures and double click on the first one. This will open in a picture viewing program. If it does not start the slide-show automatically, look for an icon or command that will start the slide-show. Your pictures will be displayed in the order they are in the folder.

View your movie for a few minutes at least twice a day. I have heard of some people who watch their movie frequently throughout the day, and they report that they create and manifest their desire just that much faster, so view your movie as frequently as you desire! In this case, more is definitely better!

Have a great weekend!

Michelle

Creative Health Tip 03 July 2009

Apologies if the quality of the video is below par. In order to get the full-length video to upload to YouTube, I've had to convert my recording to a different format. Hopefully YouTube will fix the problem with uploading the original format and I will go back to it ASAP.

Today's Creative Health Tip is: Shoulda' Coulda' Woulda'

This is sort of fun language play, but I know that you are aware of the impact of language, and that the words you use in your self-talk can make a huge difference in your life!

I was reading Louse Hay's book You Can Heal Your Life, and on page 15 she points out an interesting way we perceive the word "should." She says, "…I believe that should is one of the most damaging words in our language. Every time we use should, we are, in effect, saying "wrong." Either we are wrong or we were wrong or we are going to be wrong. I don’t think we need more wrongs in our life. We need to have more freedom of choice. I would like to take the word should and remove it from the vocabulary forever. I'd replace it with the word could. Could gives us a choice, and we are never wrong."

Further, on page 16, talking about the way the word should influences our lives, Louise Hay says, "We often find [people] have been berating themselves for years for something they never wanted to do in the first place. Or they have been criticizing themselves for not doing something when it was never their idea to begin with. Often it was just something that some else said they "should" do. When they can see that, they can just drop it from the "should list." What a relief that is.

"Look at all the people who try to force themselves for years into a career they don't even like only because their parents said they "should" become a dentist or a teacher. How often have we felt inferior because we were told we "should" be smarter or richer or more creative like some relative."

Being a wordsmith and lover of etymology – the derivations of words – I had to check this one out. Here is what I found in the online etymology dictionary http://www.etymonline.com/ :

While it doesn’t have anything to do with being wrong in any way, "should" certainly carries the idea of making a commitment, and appears to heap on the guilt and debt!

The word should is from "Old English sceolde, past tense of sceal (see shall). Preserves the original notion of "obligation" that has all but dropped from shall." It wants you to make a commitment, probably to something you may not really want to do. As it is related to the word shall, here is the scoop on that one. Shall comes from "O.E. sceal "I owe/he owes, will have to, ought to, must." Related via past tense form to O.E. scyld "guilt," Ger. Schuld "guilt, debt" "

Louise says she would replace should with could. Let's see if that is going to work better for us:

Could is from the Old English "cuðe, pt. of cunnan "to be able" (see can (v.))." Can is derived from "O.E. 1st & 3rd pers. sing. pres. indic. of cunnan "know, have power to, be able."

So, with could, we are able and have the power, but do we want to do whatever it is that we could, or are we still being pushed into something we "should" but don't really want to do?

Our safest bet by far is would! Would comes from the Old English wolde, past tense of willan "to will" (see will (v.)). Will is derived from "O.E. *willan, wyllan "to wish, desire, want" (past tense wolde). The implication of intention or volition distinguishes it from shall, which expresses or implies obligation or necessity."

So, if you want to create a good feeling and good health around all those things that everyone – including yourself! – says you should do (obligation and guilt), and you think that you could do (just because you are able does not make it desirable), check in with your intuition – that gut feeling that tells you that you are on the right track – and see if it says, "I would!" because you wish, desire, and want to do that!

If your intuition doesn't say "I would," then the item you are asking about doesn't belong in your life!

Have a safe and fun 4th of July weekend!

Michelle

Creative Health Tip 26 June 2009

*** This video may be of somewhat poorer quality than previous videos. YouTube is having a problem with uploading my usual file format, so I've had to reformat this one to get it to upload. Hopefully, the format problem will be fixed soon and I will return to my previous format.

Meanwhile, here is the full text of the message:

Your mind creates your reality.

This is not a new concept. The Law of Attraction material has been around for a long time now, and most people understand that if/when they can "live in their dream" and really feel they are in their desire – be it a new house, car, or whatever – they will eventually manifest that item in the physical world.

I have been attending a series of workshops the last couple of months, and I have learned to take that a step further and say Your Beliefs Create Your Reality.

What is the difference, besides substituting the word Belief for Mind? Your mind is the tool that brings your beliefs into conscious awareness. Your Beliefs are what create the vibrations that make things happen.

Stress is a prime example of this. Any given situation will be stressful for some people, but not stressful for others. The difference is in the belief of the person having the experience. To go back to a popular children's book, The Little Engine That Could, the engine got stressed-out that he couldn't make it over the hill until he changed his belief to one that said "I Can." The way that worked is pretty obvious: his thought ("I think I can.") effected a change in his belief that he couldn't do it to a belief that enabled him to get over that hill!

However, there is another level, and this is the one I've been working with lately. You have all those conscious beliefs that create your response to experience: like the Little Engine's stress, he looked at that tall hill and his conscious belief said "I'm too small to make it over that hill" but he changed it through the "I think I can" process.

The deeper level is the one where core beliefs live, and these may conflict with your conscious beliefs. Core beliefs are the ones you have absorbed since birth; they are memories of and reactions to past experiences. Depending on whether these beliefs are productive or destructive, you can find yourself sailing along through life with everything going your way, or struggling because some core belief that no longer serves you is in conflict with your conscious belief and is holding you back, or even making you ill.

The series of workshops I've been attending to learn about this are with Jeb Barton here in Bend.

Jeb teaches that sustained conflict in your core beliefs is the cause of disease. Using our Little Engine again, here's how a core belief can cause disease (please keep in mind that this is a very simple example. The process itself is longer and more complicated):

Let's say that Little Engine has been told all his life that he's too little to go over any big hills – that is now his core belief. All his life, he's avoided big hills because he feels he's not strong enough to go over them. Now, Little Engine approaches the hill – there is no way to avoid it this time – and gets all sorts of encouragement from his friends, and even says, "I think I can, I think I can…." But now there is a conflict with the core belief that says "you can't" and the conscious belief that says "I can," and what to you think happens? He probably gets half way up the hill and an axel breaks, he bursts a gasket; he "gets sick" in some way due to the conflict in his you-can't/I-can beliefs.

If you are experiencing a chronic illness, it would definitely be to your benefit to examine some of your beliefs and see if you can figure out when and where you acquired a belief that no longer serves you or is holding you back, and use your Creative Mind ability to turn it around into a positive statement that will enable you to regain your health. If you can Believe yourself healthy, you will See health restored.

(There is a qigong meditation practice that works on that principle, and if you are interested let's arrange for a lesson in which I can guide you in that process. If you would like to do that, or have any comments or questions on today's Tip, write to me at bewellwithmichelle@gmail.com )

Creative Health Tip 12 June 2009

[At the 2 minute 16 second mark, the word I was trying to think of was trampoline!]

Here is your Heaven On Earth Creative Health Tip for this week:

Stand up and stretch!

At least once every hour or hour-and-a-half - this is critical, especially if you are working at a job where you do a lot of sitting without moving around – standup, stretch out a bit, walk around for five minutes, loosen up your muscles, breathe in more oxygen.

The reason this is important is two-fold.

First, if you are working at a desk, you often tend to sit a little hunched over which means you are not taking as much oxygen into your lungs because you are leaning forward and you lung capacity is compromised.

If you stand up, you elongate your body, you unfold yourself, and you can get more good oxygen into your lungs. The oxygen spreads throughout your body, of course, and helps to relax your muscles.

If you're not getting enough oxygen as you sit there at your desk, your muscles are going to start to become tense, and then when you do stand, you'll experience the uncomfortable "pins-and-needles" thing where you try to kick out your leg muscles and stretch a bit to relieve the discomfort.

You can save yourself that discomfort by just standing up and getting in some deep breathing every hour or hour and a half.

The second part of this is your lymph system.

Your lymph system works along with the movement of your muscles. Sitting still and quiet while working at your desk, your lymph system is very sluggish. It's not doing very much; it's not removing all those used and dead cells in your body nor any of the toxins that you've taken in. It's not getting them out because it's just not moving fast enough.

When you stand up and start moving around a bit with your muscles, that kicks your lymph system into a higher gear.

In fact, the best thing you can do for your lymph system is rebounding. Get one of those little trampolines and bounce on that for five minutes, or even three or four minutes….it doesn't need to be a long time. That will really rev up your lymph system and get a lot of that stuff out of your body.

A lot of that stuff (old cells and toxins) is what causes illness because it's just sort of sitting there and blah.

So….stand up! Stretch, Breathe Deeply, Move Around a little bit, and Feel Good!


Have a fabulous weekend!

Michelle

Hormone experts worried about plastics, chemicals

This is a reprint of an article I saw yesterday on Yahoo! Apparently, there is a growing mountain of evidence that the chemical BPA, which is found in some plastic products, is terribly damaging to your health, espcially heart health because of the way it interacts with estrogen.

I have added bold emphasis to the original in places where I believe it is especially important for you to take note of the damaging influence of this chemical which apparenlty has been found in the containers of these products:

Photo source: Milwaukee, Wisconsin "Journal Sentinel" http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/34532034.html

Hormone experts worried about plastics, chemicals

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090611/sc_nm/us_bisphenol

By Maggie Fox, Health And Science Editor – Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:00 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hormone experts said on Wednesday they are becoming worried by a chemical called bisphenol A, which some politicians say they want taken out of products and which consumers are increasingly shunning.

They said they have gathered a growing body evidence to show the compound, also known as BPA, might damage human health. The Endocrine Society issued a scientific statement on Wednesday calling for better studies into its effects.

Studies presented at the group's annual meeting show BPA can affect the hearts of women, can permanently damage the DNA of mice, and appear to be pouring into the human body from a variety of unknown sources.

BPA, used to stiffen plastic bottles, line cans and make smooth paper receipts, belongs to a broad class of compounds called endocrine disruptors.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is examining their safety but there has not been much evidence to show that they are any threat to human health.

"We present evidence that endocrine disruptors do have effects on male and female development, prostate cancer, thyroid disease, cardiovascular disease," Dr. Robert Carey of the University of Virginia, who is president of the Endocrine Society, told a news conference.

The society issued a lengthy scientific statement about the chemicals in general that admits the evidence is not yet overwhelming, but is worrying.

Dr. Hugh Taylor of Yale University in Connecticut found evidence in mice that the compounds could affect unborn pups.

"We exposed some mice to bisphenol A and then we looked at their offspring," Taylor told the news conference.

"We found that even when a they had a brief exposure during pregnancy ... mice exposed to these chemicals as a fetus carried these changes throughout their lives."

The BPA did not directly change DNA through mutations, but rather through a process called epigenetics -- when chemicals attach to the DNA and change its function.

WIDESPREAD EXPOSURE

Taylor noted studies have shown that most people have some BPA in their blood, although the effects of these levels are not clear.

Dr. Frederick Vom Saal of the University of Missouri, who has long studied endocrine disruptors, said tests on monkeys showed the body quickly clears BPA -- which may at first sound reassuring.

But he said when tests show most people have high levels, this suggests they are being repeatedly exposed to BPA.

"We are really concerned that there is a very large amount of bisphenol A that must be coming from other sources," Vom Saal said.

Dr. Scott Belcher of the University of Cincinnati in Ohio and colleagues will tell the meeting they found BPA could affect the heart cells of female mice, sending them into an uneven beating pattern called an arrhythmia.

"These effects are specific on the female heart. The male heart does not respond in this way and we understand why," Belcher said. He said BPA interacts with estrogen and said the findings may help explain why young women are more likely to die when they have a heart attack than men of the same age.

U.S. government toxicologists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences expressed concern last year that BPA may hurt development of the prostate and brain.

A 2008 study by British researchers linked high levels of BPA to heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)