Three Questions to Tap Into The Spirit of the Season

With such a call for cheer and celebration, many of us struggle to be fully present through all the festivities. The intensity of this time of year pushes us into overdrive when our natural cycle is asking to slow down, rest and go inward.  But when you’re feeling stressed or just blah, how do you connect to the joy and dare we say, peace? Ask yourself the three questions below, allowing time to drop into your truth and see what answers begin to arrive.

1) What do I want to feel this season?

Since we tend to focus most on what we don’t want to feel–dread, exhaustion, anger, obligation, our energy goes into how to avoid the pain. This can squeeze out being able to entertain the positives.  Just becoming aware of what would spark happiness and peace lights up different parts of the brain.  It also gives the brain, mind and heart a path to follow, creating greater space and likelihood that the positive will manifest.  As its been said through the centuries and now proven through neuroscience, “what we think, becomes our reality.”

2) What is your favorite part of this time of year?

Whatever it is, from placing the elf on the shelf for the 1^st time to gathering non-perishables for the holiday food drive, if it opens your heart or speaks to your soul, give yourself permission to become fully absorbed into that moment.  The more present you are for when the joy happens organically, the more likely it will either stay with you or show up again more easily.

3) What will best support you in how you want to feel?

Piggy-backing on question #2, bring to mind any other activities (and non-activities) that create contentment for you. Let those ideas breathe inside your awareness and your planning.   Next, think about what is depleting and how those aspects of the holidays can eliminated or minimized. Knowing that letting go of a long-standing ritual can create a new wave of anxiety, remember that anything you do differently (i.e. non-traditionally) you can just try out for one season. Maybe this year you ‘d like to let go of installing lights across the entire perimeter of your roof. Next season, you might feel differently. Whatever you do, just let it be because the spirit moved you.

Tips To Get Back To Clearer Thinking

With all the schedule shifting that comes with summer knocking on the door, it’s a challenge to stay focused. “If only I could think,” is a comment I hear from clients and colleagues often. Here are a few tried and true things you can start to do to shift yourself back into thinking with clarity:

1) Take your brain for a walk: Our brains thrive on having defined breaks, changing up the scenery and getting the heart pumping. A walk gives you all of those things, especially if you can go outdoors and fill your awareness up with the sounds, sights and smells of nature.

2) Stress is often a culprit of feeling distracted. When we are stressed, unconsciously we may only breathe with the tops of our lungs or even hold our breath at times. This cuts us off from our most primary fuel, which is oxygen. Give yourself frequent breathing breaks where you mindfully breathe in to fill your lungs. For a minute, notice the sensations in your lungs from either top to bottom or from front to back and then focus on how it feels to exhale fully. Think of the exhalation as a chance to get rid of everything you don’t need.

3) A yoga posture called Legs up the Wall is highly effective to help the nervous system to ground and reset. So maybe you won’t try it in a skirt in the office but in a private space you can follow these steps. Make sure to scroll down to read the beginner tips and contraindications. http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/690

4) Use your nose. Aromatherapeutic scents wake up the brain and help it to function more optimally. The key here is those scents should be pure and preferably organic essential oils that can be used through diffusers or rubbing the oil on your skin. Citrus, rosemary and peppermint wake us up and lift the mood while lavender and bergamot help reduce stress. Quality essential oils can be found at most health food stores. Even higher quality oils can be found through a company such as doTERRA. or Young Living.

http://www.fullspectrumwellness.com

Alternatives To The New Year’s Resolution

By Debra LeClair Psy.D.

Setting goals and working towards them is very ingrained in our culture—however if you find that the thought of setting a new years resolution just isn’t inspiring much less motivating you, it may be a good time to consider an alternative or two.

Alternative One

Sometimes its not so much about bringing about a change, which tends to be an inherent part of  new years’ resolutions, but to simply place focus on what is already feeling right and working well in your life.  In a word, the focus is on gratitude.  When we spend time on being appreciative of what we have, there is a natural shift to feel less in need of what isn’t there because we are filled up by what is already present.

To take this route in 2011,  simply create a time in your day to think about and/or write down a list of the situations, people and things for which you have gratitude in that moment.  Some people think about it during a commute to or from work, others may journal on it before going to sleep.

Alternative Two

Instead of having specific goals ( e.g. lose 50 pounds, no more yelling at the kids, etc.) try the idea of a theme.  One theme could be healthy living or another could be compassion.  The idea is to allow the theme to strengthen as time passes.  For instance, if you have tried to lose weight for years and by Jan 10^th have given up, a healthy living theme may feel easier to implement.  Instead of going on “a diet’ where you have to avoid a list of foods, a themed approach would be more about having fun with your choices, where the goal is about keeping with the theme.

To build a healthy living theme, you may opt to eat more fruits and vegetables and move your body more than you have in the past.  The key here is to  remember the theme throughout the day.  For example, when you could take the elevator or the stairs, you connect to your theme and choose to take the stairs.  Maybe you still enjoy your chocolate latte but in the theme of healthy living you choose to have a soup and salad instead of the burger and fries for lunch.  It’s a subtle but powerful shift that some personalities find more appealing and thus easier to integrate into daily life, especially for  the long run.

Letting Go of Busy

By Debra LeClair Psy.D.

Transitioning to a lifestyle that is less busy and less stressful can be a bit disorienting, and frankly stressful in and of itself.  However, for those of you that have truly committed to having more peace and quiet in your life, you may have found that it is a struggle to give up the “busy-ness”. Having less to do can feel like you have less importance– and  that maybe life has less meaning.  These feelings  are often part of the process, where we have to undo our current ideas and conditioning to then let another way of being come into our awareness. 

During this time, just let yourself observe these feelings.  Thoughts and feelings have a tendency to come and go, especially when we no longer feed them.  If we remember that they are transient, they lose their power over our perception of ourselves.  This includes our thoughts about “not doing enough” as well as “doing too much”.  To give an example, if I think about how much I dread my daily routine, then my mind gets stuck thinking that this feeling of dread  is not only permanent, but that it may overcome me at some point.  From that, my mind springs into thinking of ways to get out of this distressing situation, which may include making it better by getting some sympathy for being in it.  Then I dwell on it ( i.e. feed it) becoming upset that maybe I won’t solve this dilemma after all and it will be unbearable.  I believe what I am telling myself in this more anxious state.  Things feel so much worse than they have to…and the cycle repeats.

Stay committed to greater peace and quiet by being mindful of these thought and emotion patterns.  You can be aware of this tendency in yourself but you don’t have to get directly involved.  Just keep watching, listening and acknowledging where your mind and emotions go.  Developing this internal observer is a powerful way to literally take your life back–and to make it safe for the quiet and accepting of the inner peace.

Taking A Mindful Minute: Cloud Checks

By Heidi Page, LCSW                 

One of my favorite ways to center myself during the day is to go outside and do a “cloud check.” I simply walk outside, or look out a window if that isn’t plausible, and look up at the sky. Then, one by one, I access each of my senses to tune into the vastness of sky through inquiry. An inquiry may go like this:

*What do I see? Clouds. What type are they? Is the moon visible in the day sky?

*What do I hear? A plane. Dogs barking. Birds. Where are they?

*What do I smell? Fragrant flowers. Smog.

*What do I feel on my skin? A breeze. Sun of my face.

*What do I taste? Cinnamon gum. Saltwater.

As with all mindful exercises, there is no judgment about my inquiry. Even typically “annoying” sounds or smells, I notice without judgment. This can take all of a minute, to five minutes, but it rejuvenates for a long time. Try it!

Mindful Eating Goes A Long Way

Peace of mind seems particularly elusive these last few weeks.  This is especially true as we stay plugged into all that is going on outside of ourselves and the noise we experience internally.  For instance, a lot of what’s happening in the news is more likely to impact us or someone we know (e.g. unemployment, the BP oil spill….).  This can create a more palatable sense of unease.

Throw this onto feeling  overly busy and its hard not to feel revved up all the time.  When getting caught up in this, we just want to keep moving onto the next item on the “To do list” and eating can become just one more thing to care of over the course of a day.  Maybe when the day is over, dinner (and desert) are the rewards.  Whether we want to admit it or not, many of us just want those rewards to keep coming….So you can see where this is going.

Eating under these circumstances can contribute to digestive issues, weight gain and even trouble sleeping (especially if eating late at night).  Some ways to turn this around lie in the integration of mindful eating practices.  Mindful eating helps us reconnect to the sensory experience of the food and how that food affects the body.   One aspect of mindful eating is how it re-educates us to really taste our food, because  often we just “inhale” the meal in front of us.  “Scarfing things down” leads to taking larger or multiple portions because we are seeking more of the taste of something.  The sensation of eating is so strongly associated with pleasure that we don’t want it to end.

If we are able to fully taste our food and have the experience last longer— the sensory centers of the brain become satisfied to the point where the desire for a 2nd or 3rd helping diminishes and thus, loses its power over us.

Mindful eating is actually a very old concept that is coming back into the public consciousness.  Several books have been written on the topic including attention given to it by Thich Nhat Hanh in the Miracle of Mindfulness.  Overall, mindful eating is clearly a piece to living a more healthier and balanced lifestyle.  On Thursday July 22nd, Full Spectrum Wellness will be holding a workshop as part of the Healthy Living Series aptly entitled, Mindful Eating.  For more info and to register, please go to:

http://www.fullspectrumwellness/classes.html

Power of Attraction: Vision Boarding…is back

People seem to be shifting from just focusing on  surviving to looking at what it would mean to  move towards thriving (forgive my rhyming).  With that, we are bringing back a popular  workshop:  The Power of Attraction:  Vision Boarding on Saturday, June 26th from 9 am-12:45 pm.

http://bit.ly/9d8BWO

Here you will learn the principles around the power of attraction and intention along with  how to apply them in everyday situations.  You’ll also learn how to  shift out of automatic negative thinking, which help lays the foundation to create your own vision board:

“Creating the vision board was so much more fun! To dream, to set goals, to be open to the possibilities of my imagination really did make them come alive. After completing the board, I felt uplifted, inspired and motivated, with a real sense of direction of where I wanted to go and what I wanted in my life.”
-Susan Chepelsky

The Power of Om

Om….a symbol of connection to the sacred and a resonant sound that seems to attune our inner self to deep peace and infinite possibility, especially when it is chanted.  Frequently, utterances of om will accompany the closing of a yoga class or the opening of a meditation session.  When a group of people “om” together, the vibration is  profoundly beautiful and cleansing.  Its also amazing as a solitary practice.

A recent article in Spirit of Change included how Swami Kripalu (of the now well-known Kripalu Center in the Berkshires) instructed around chanting om as a mantra.  Here is a summary:

Relax and take in energy as you inhale fully.

As you exhale, allow the “Au” sound to flow out, allowing it to hang in the air until you naturally move into the “mm”  sound.  Experience the vibration throughout your body.

Repeating the mantra, let the experience evoke peace, joy and  a deep calm.