Hello to all! I have been absent in my blogging as of late, but sometimes what is germinating is more important than a lot of idle chatter :) The health moderation series will be continuing this week, but there are some interesting things I felt you all must read in the meantime.
The Chopra Center is conducting another 21-day meditation challenge, and as some of you read that I enjoyed my previous experience so much I have signed up again. This one is entitled Abundance, or how to attract more abundance into our lives in whatever way we see fit. My experience this time is equally as valuable as the last time, but I’ll share that when I’m finished.
Handling stress through meditation
Part of the journey involves daily reflection and some links to articles for personal growth. I stumbled upon the 3 most important questions to ask yourself when things go wrong, and I have to say, it was an “A-ha!” moment for me. Why?
Stress management, exhaustion, depression, anxiety and pain management are a huge part of my practice even when a person does not immediately come to my office to resolve these issues. Whenever I speak to people about “thinking outside of the box”, or having a different way of operating to solve a problem, most people understand these concepts, or the idea that that different ways of thinking are the ways to navigate out of pain or suffering and into new ways of being and feeling. Many times it is how they come through my door, for exploration of different techniques to support the physical body.
Making the link between meditation practice and stress
No one really understands why they are supposed to reduce stress or start meditation or going to yoga in relation to those plans. If I’m always anxious/in pain/tired at work then how is a new yoga class/breathing for 10 minutes/getting a massage going to make an impact? Well, quite simply, our minds can be in the way. We spend so much time obsessing about our problem, and how we got there and how we feel about it that we end up getting stuck further into the issue. Rather than thinking about newer ways to leap out of the old and into the new, we stay mired in the old.
Without pause there is no change
Deepak summarizes it very well in his article, but the essence is: if you don’t quiet the chatter of pain and insecurity in the mind so that your wisest, calmest self can help you find solutions, then you will stay stuck where you are. The connection to our better selves is not so much about being spiritually connected (because for some, this idea is difficult to get the mind around) but calming activities like meditation, yoga, or tai chi are known to encourage flashes of intelligence, intuition, or whatever you choose to call it to seep into our conscious lives. Then, the life that you are living begins to transform because you begin to operate differently. Finding your activities that brings out this calmer, wiser you is your path to health and happiness.
So, rather than discussing the latest herbs to help with stress management (of which there are many), consider that you might need to add a mind-body technique to help shake up your life and find your new you. Read Deepak Chopra’s article (see above), and let’s make something different in how we approach health and dis-ease.