Author: fkutchins

     Research has shown that the same neuropathways  in the brain are activated when you vividly imagine, or visualize, something as when you actually do it.   It’s a form of self-hypnosis you can apply anytime you’re feeling stressed. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you begin to feel more relaxed and at peace.  It’s better than a ‘chill pill’ and has no side effects!

1.  Shut your eyes and take three slow, deep breaths.  (Obviously, first pull off the road to a safe place if driving.) Picture your emotions of anger, frustration, fear, anxiety, etc. as dark colored shapes with jagged edges that are residing within you.  If you have difficulty creating these images,  just imagine them as physical sensations or sounds.

2.  Now,  experience these emotions as being drawn outside and away from your body.

3.  Gather them them all together and put them in a box. Again, you may do this as a physical or auditory sensation.  Push the box away, and turn your gaze inward, noticing how these negative emotions  are no longer a part of you, and that you have regained control of yourself.

4.  Pick up the box, and hurl it far, far away, perhaps even into the sun, where it burns up and disappears instantly.

5.  Slowly open your eyes when ready and notice how much better you feel!

In her book SUPERNORMAL STIMULI (W. W. Norton and Co., 2003),  Harvard psychologist Deirdra Barrett says:

“Scientific studies show that people experience similar levels of happiness over the long-term regardless of external events.  Winning millions in a lottery, or getting paralyzed in an accident makes a significant difference for six months or less.  People living in poverty register only a few percentage points less happy than the most affluent, and there is no difference between the middle class and the rich.  In fact, the only thing that makes a difference is chronic pain or consistent health crises . . . . ”

These findings point to the fact that being happy is more a function of your attitude than it is about your actual circumstances; in other words, happiness is a choice.    A famous quote (often attributed to Abraham Lincoln) puts it this way:  ‘Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be’.   An interesting observation, don’t you think?

 

 

 

Problems with overweight are complex, and it is wise to develop a solution approach that matches an individual’s background, habits, goals and personality.  But, in every case, stress management is a key factor in reaching a successful outcome.

When you feel stressed, your midbrain reacts as if a physical threat were present, exactly like when our remote ancestors were confronted with a saber-toothed tiger.  A neural shortcut instantly mobilizes your body for survival, initiating the stress response and telling you it’s time to fight for your life or run to safety.   A cascade of hormones begins to pour into your system, and your body chemistry is altered in ways that can cause you to gain weight.

Chronic stress overstimulates the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, which creates a wide range of negative effects, including suppression of the immune system. Most disturbing for weight watchers, cortisol promotes the breakdown of muscle, bone and connective tissue, resulting in a reduction in muscle mass and a corresponding increase in the amount of fat deposits, especially on the stomach and face.

Various scientific studies have shown that chronic stress increases the risk of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and elevated lipid levels.  But chronic stress can also make you hungry.  Why is this? Because until recent times, famine has been an ongoing issue in human experience, and the midbrain may sometimes  interpret chronic stress as being the result of a famine, prompting you to seek out sources of food, especially foods high in caloric value, the so-called “comfort foods”.

If you want to lose extra pounds and maintain a healthy weight, hypnosis can help you to manage stress and avoid its most negative consequences.

 

 By Alfonso Ortiz

A wise elder among my people, the Tewa, frequently used the phrase pin pe obi, “look to the mountaintop”, when he was alive. I first heard it twenty-five years ago when I was seven years old, practicing for the first time to participate in the relay races we run in the Pueblo country to give strength to the sun father as he journeys across the sky. I was at one end of the earth track which ran from east to west like the path of the sun. The old man, who was blind, called me to him, and said, “Young man, as you run look to the mountaintop’, and he pointed to Tsikomo, the western sacred mountain of the Tewa world, which loomed off in the distance.  “Keep your eyes fixed on that mountain and you will feel the miles melt beneath your feet.  Do this and in time you will feel as if you can leap over trees, bushes, and even the river.”  I tried to understand what this last statement meant, but I was too young.

On another occasion, a few days later, I asked him if I could really learn to leap over the treetops. He smiled and said, “Whatever life’s challenges you may face, remember always to look to the mountaintop, for in doing so you look to greatness.  Remember this, and let no problem, no matter how great it may seem, discourage you, nor let anything less than the mountaintop distract you.  This is the one thought I want to leave you with.  And in that dim coming time when we shall meet again, it shall be on the mountaintop.”

I did not have long to wonder why, for in the following month, when the cornstalks were sturdy on the land, he died quietly in his sleep, having seen eighty-seven summers.

— As quoted in Native Wisdom by Joseph Buchac (1995), originally published in Essays on Reflection, edited by E. Graham Ward (1973).

 

A Native American myth recounts that Creator gathered all of creation one day and said, “I want to hide something from humans until they are ready for it:  It is the realization that they can create their own life and their own reality.”

Eagle said, “Give it to me; I’ll take it to the moon and hide it there.”

But Creator said, “No, one day they will go to the moon and will find it.”

Then Salmon said, “Give it to me; I’ll hide it in the bottom of the sea.”

“No,” said the Creator, ” They’ll get there, too.”

Well, then Buffalo came and said, “Give it to me; I’ll bury it in the Plains.”

Creator said, “No, they will get there. They will cut into the skin of the earth, and they will find it even there.”

But then Grandmother Mole came, the one that has no physical eyes to see on the outside but has spiritual eyes and the capacity to see within, and she said, “Put it inside them; they’ll never find it there.”

And Creator said, “It is done.”

Nathaniel Branden continuously challenged his readers to re-think, re-claim and re-author their lives.  In an afterword to The Art of Living Consciously (1997), Branden defined what he felt was the central message of his work:

“Your life is important.  Whether you achieve what you want in life matters. Honor and fight for your highest potential. Self-realization-the best that is within you – is the noblest goal of your existence.”

Need more be said?  I think not!

“Quite without any inductions, you have ‘hypnotized’ yourself into all the beliefs that you have – this simply means that you have consciously accepted them, excluded data to the contrary, narrowed your interests to those specific points and accordingly activated the unconscious mechanisms that then materialize those convictions through physical experience.  Formal hypnosis merely brings about an accelerated version of what goes on all the time.”     – Jane Roberts in Seth Speaks