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