Category Archives: Emotional Wellbeing

Reversing Stress, Being Resourceful

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Reversing Stress, Being Resourceful
By Anna McRobert

Even when our outer world resources seem far from abundant and we are stressing out, we still have inner resources that are amazingly effective.

We live in a body that is self-healing. How totally remarkable! But at times our body becomes overwhelmed, when life events take up more energy to deal with than the energy we can generate under the circumstances. That’s when the body struggles and symptoms become obvious, health deteriorates, causing even more stress, and we go downhill.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You have an inner resource that is constantly available.

Your mind, and how you use it becomes super crucial now, and you can harness the power of your mind to turn things around, if you know how to do that. If life events are generating distressing thoughts that are dragging you down, then give your mind some productive, positive work to do. What you think about, matters. How you think about events, matters. You can help your body and mind to heal, or you can add to their burdens. Because where your attention is focused, where your thoughts take you, that is where your energy is engaged and utilized, for good or for bad.

Stressful thinking, going round in circles, worrying, feeling stuck, all chew up your energy, lower your immune system capacity, and put you into an ever decreasing spiral of poor health, and progressively to tissue breakdown, and to energy exhaustion.

Life is not always easy, so energy lowering stressful thinking is familiar to us all.
What can you do instead of getting caught in the downward spiral?

First is breathe. Under ongoing stress we breathe shallowly. We deprive the brain and every cell in the body of essential oxygen for generating energy. Shallow breathing keeps the brain in stress mode. So breathe in and out, out, out, empty your lungs. Now you can take a full breathe in naturally. Repeat till you are emptying and filling your lungs easily.

Next, bring blood into front brain, the only area with cells designed for new thinking. This is your problem solver, the planner, the organizer, the creator of solutions. Stress increases blood in brain areas for survival, locking you into repeating how you survived in the past, no matter how unproductive that might be for you right now.

How do you put your problem solver to work? Put you hand on your forehead, breathe in and breathe out, and acknowledge to yourself your problem, your worry, your distress. Thinking those things with more blood in back brain keeps you going round in circles. But thinking those things while holding your forehead, draws blood into the front brain cells that are solution creators. This cancels the stress signal. It turns off the alarm.

The forehead will become warm very quickly, indicating there is more blood there now. Review your current problems again and breathe in, and out. Keep doing the review and breathing and soon you’ll find that the stress feeling begins to subside, that you begin to accept the problems not just fret about them. You will start to focus on producing new thoughts and new ideas. In Kinesiology this technique is called Emotional Stress Release.

With blood now in front brain, and more oxygen available for in-the-now energy production, your brain is ready to do something to help you with those problems or issues. You are reversing the stress and on the way to creating a solution.

Help your mind to help you. Instead of locking energy into unproductive worrying and depriving the body of healing capacity, direct your powerful mind to do productive work. You can specifically direct your energy to where your body needs it for healing, for regulating, for normalizing internal functions. What you think about and how you think about your health and life really matters, it matters heaps.

Slow down the adrenals. They have been in alarm, in fight-flight-frozen mode, while you were stressed. Under stress their job is to raise your blood pressure and body temperature so you heat up when stressed, also raise blood sugar for muscles to take action, block digestion and immune system, and block thinking so you can react with survival tactics, definitely not with creating a new future. This is not a healthy, productive state for daily living.

Talk kindly to your adrenals. “Thank you for keeping me going. You can take a break now.” Engage your mind to turn your adrenal thermostat down to normal, just as you would turn down the heat to your hotplate on the stove and see the fire-y red coils reducing to a lower heat level. What colour to you relate to as healing, normalizing? Is it white, blue, green? Different colours may work at different times. Direct your healing colour as a ray of light to your adrenals. Breathe in and breathe out. Allow your adrenals to respond and find their balance again as they absorb your healing rays.

Thyroid, when underactive can make you feel depressed and anxious, and when overactive can cause anxiety and insomnia. Send healing, normalizing light and colour to your thyroid. Breathe in and out.

Digestion, reset it to normal now that you are focused on reducing your stress and allowing your body and nervous system to recover, rebuild, regenerate. Send the healing rays to your digestive system too. Breathe in and out.

Liver has to detox the backlog of stress hormones and other toxic wastes. Give your liver a hand with your mind’s focus on sending healing energy to your busy liver as it does its work willingly. Breathe in and out.

Weight, imagine your stored energy in fat cells, being converted, melting, being mobilized to provide extra energy for your body and brain to recover, rebuild, regenerate. Focus the healing, normalizing rays to your fat cells so they readily help the body to restore balance. Breathe in and out.

Water is essential for hydrating every cell so it can do its job efficiently and effectively. Write the word “Love” or “healing” or “gratitude” on a folded paper, making a coaster. Put your water container or glass on that coaster. The water molecules become your healers too when you infuse them with the positive energy of positive words. Direct your healing, normalizing, balancing energy rays to the water in your body too, especially to flush your kidneys.

By harnessing your mind to do your bidding in supporting healing and balancing in your body you can achieve miracles. You can recover, rebuild, regenerate. Take charge or your thoughts. Acknowledge what issues need to be addressed, and put yourself into healing and creative thinking mode to achieve the positive results that will make for a more satisfying and fulfilling life.

If you want more tools for creating health contact me: anna@annamcrobert.com.au
If you want to know and learn more about how to work productively with our body
Register for Touch For Health Workshop on 25 & 26 March by sending an email to: anna@annamcrobert.com.au

Facial Expressions Convey Feelings

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We know facial expressions convey feelings. Key facial expressions are universally recognized as expressing specific feelings or emotions, whether you are young or old, from the city or country, from developed nations or the untamed jungle.

We form impressions of the people we encounter. We take in their posture, their gait, their gestures, and we see their facial expressions. All contribute to conveying their energy levels and their feelings.

Every waking minute that we are in the presence of someone, we come up with a constant stream of inferences and insights about what that person is thinking or feeling.

When we meet someone new, we often pick up on subtle signals, so that afterwards, even though they may have spoken in a normal and friendly manner, we may say, “Something’s not right there,” or “I don’t think she’s very happy.”

What is it that we instinctively recognize? What are we reading on an unconscious level that gives us a sense of other emotions underlying the seemingly polite and socially acceptable facial expression? Is it real or is it put on?

When we get it right and read the facial expression accurately it helps us understand where the person is at, be appropriate to build rapport and interact effectively. When we get it wrong and misread the facial expressions, this can easily lead to misunderstandings, hurt feelings, accusations, arguments and disagreements.

Silvan Tomkins worked as a handicapper for a horse racing syndicate during the Depression. He spent hours staring at horses through binoculars. Tomkins believed that faces, even the faces of horses, held valuable clues to inner emotions and motivations, and he learned how to predict behaviour and outcomes from his observations.

He had a system for predicting how a horse would do in a race, based on what horse was on either side of him, and on their emotional relationship. His prediction rates were impressive and lucrative. If a male horse, for instance, had lost to a mare in his first or second year, he would do poorly if he went to the gate with a mare next to him in the line up.

Tomkins was honing his ability to read facial expressions and graduated in Psychology at University of Pennsylvania.

Charles Darwin noted in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals: ” ...the young and old people of widely different races, both with man and animals, express the same state of mind by the same movements.”

Silvan Tomkins later did his postdoctoral studies in Philosophy at Harvard and joined the Psychological Clinic staff in 1937. He went on to teach psychology at Princeton University’s Department of Psychology and Rutgers and became a much quoted author.

Over the years his ability to read faces and the emotions that created the facial expressions became renowned. He could say what crimes various fugitives had committed from looking at their police photos, could pick people who were lying on TV shows, watched interviews of political candidates, including Bill Clinton, and could give predictions of the outcomes.

So what was it that Silvan Tomkins could see and read accurately in faces? What does our facial expression relay to others? Why would a past win or lose experience, or which horse is in the next box, make a difference to the performance of a horse at a race? How does all this relate to humans?

These are some of the questions we explore in Dynamic Communications Program to uncover the secrets how facial expressions communicate emotions and how you can benefit by reading faces accurately.

Join the Program now and get access to more insights to increase your awareness . When you join the Program you’ll be excited with the results you’ll achieve because it will benefit you, your business, and your family in ways you can’t imagine – till you attend.

If you missed the start date on 29th April find out how to catch up. Contact me straight away by email: anna@annamcrobert.com.au
Cheers
Anna

Facial Muscles Express Feelings AND Create Feelings

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If facial muscles express feelings AND create feelings, then can we choose how we want to feel and arrange our face muscles so we feel joy instead of sadness, peace instead of anger, confidence instead of fear? Is that possible?

Paul Ekman is a psychologist, researcher and author, and is a pioneer in the study of emotions and their relationship to facial expressions. He showed that facial expressions of emotion are not culturally determined, but universal across human cultures and thus biological in origin. This was contrary to the widely held view in the anthropology world prior to his work.

How did he decide that these facial expressions communicate the same emotion no matter where you were raised?

In early 1960s Paul Ekman was a young psychologist just out of graduate school. He was Silvan Tomkins’ pupil in studying faces and had completed his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the Adelphi University, New York in 1958. Ekman traveled to Japan, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, to remote tribes in jungles in Papua New Guinea, carrying photographs of men and women making a variety of distinctive facial expressions. To his amazement everywhere he went, people agreed on what those expressions meant.

The universal expressions Ekman tested over many cultures are:
fear, anger, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise.

Ekman proved that Tomkins was right and facial expressions of emotion are not culturally determined, but universal across human cultures and so are biological in origin.

Babies as young as two weeks old smile at the sound of their mother’s voice. Within a few months a baby will pull faces and show disgust in reaction to bitter or sour tastes. Even blind or disabled children smile with happiness, show disgust, cry, glare with anger.

Facial Muscles Express Feelings and Create Feelings
When Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen were working on expressions of anger and disgust they had an unexpected experience leading to new insights. They were cataloging which muscles were involved in various facial expressions. This meant making those expressions themselves, over and over, while watching in the mirror and watching each other.

“What we discovered is that expression alone is sufficient to create marked changes in the autonomic nervous system. When this first occurred, we were stunned. We weren’t expecting this at all. And it happened to both of us. We felt terrible,” reports Ekman.

They were actually experiencing the emotions as they repeatedly made the facial expressions as they learned to activate one muscle at a time and then groups of muscles for more complex emotions. When generating the facial expression of anger the heartbeat went up by ten to twelve beats, circulation increased in the hands, which become really hot. This was stunning to the scientists.

Pulling Faces Increases Heart Rate
To check their findings, Paul Ekman, Wallace Friesen and Robert Levenson set up an experiment with volunteers hooked up to monitors for measuring their heart rate and body temperature. Half the volunteers were asked to remember and relive a particularly stressful experience. The other half of the volunteers were told which muscles to activate, to pull faces, to create the facial expressions that corresponded to emotions, such as anger, sadness and fear.

The results showed the second group of people, who were pulling faces, arranging their muscles without specific emotional input, registered the same physiological responses, the same heightened heart rate and body temperature, as the first group who were recalling a particularly stressful experience. Voluntarily “putting on” an expression can actually create the associated emotional reaction in the body, and of course, change the biochemistry too.

The findings clearly point to the two-way nature of emotions. We can be chatting easily and with pleasure over a coffee, till someone mentions a specific topic or person or event that is stressful to us, and immediately the emotional reaction kicks in, changes the facial expression and activates the physiology of the body.

We have all experienced that at some time in our life. “Why did you have to bring that up? I was having a pleasant time till then.” The reaction comes unbidden, and totally displaces the pleasure of the chat. No doubt the face muscles say it all, even without the words. But we can also start with a particular facial expression and the physiology of our body will change to match. That’s worth checking out for yourself. It’s actually a powerful self help strategy in times of need.

Which Comes First
You could expect that the experience, feeling let down, rejected or disappointed, tired or exhausted, all associated with a drop of energy, would came first, then the hang-dog facial look to express the emotional feeling follows almost instantaneously. But if you feel fine and spend time with a depressed friend or family member and show your concern and rapport by mirroring their expression you could end up feeling as low as they do. Uugg!

Whichever comes first, if we keep holding the hang-dog look we keep feeling low. The face is communicating the emotional state and it’s also creating and maintaining that low feeling. It becomes self-perpetuating. If we can create the feeling, can we un-create it? Can we put on a smile and change our biochemistry? Is this a case of fake it till you make it?

The Solution
One thing is for sure. In terms of Chinese meridian system, activating and using different muscles in the face and body will help to promote meridian energy flow needed for change. And of course, if you don’t move your face muscles, you are not pumping the circulation to bring oxygen and nutrients to face cells, nor clearing the lymphatic wastes products, so tissues progressively more stagnant.

A Touch For Health Goal Balance can support making the shift from low energy to higher energy and better lymphatic flow. Facial Harmony also is a gentle way to release emotions held in the face muscles. Make an appointment to experience the shift for yourself.
Cheers
Anna

Communication in Challenging Situations

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We are indeed remarkable beings. But that doesn’t mean its plain sailing or easy at times. Each of us is here to learn, earn, grow, achieve, contribute, within our local community, and beyond on a broader basis. And through all life experiences communication in challenging situations can easily create rifts and emotional pain.

No doubt you have discovered that often it is within our family situation that we have our greatest challenges. But as we master relationships and communications at home we often have the template to contribute at school, at work, and with people of varied cultures from round the world.

One of our biggest challenges is to create harmony and mutual growth among family members. Each person will have their own values and priorities at various stages of life. And also, we start with genetically built in preferences and behaviours, which further complicates matters to the n-th degree at times.

We are familiar with opposites:
– introvert versus extravert
– talks constantly versus rarely speaks
– lots of detail versus bottom line
– never gets to the point verses only sees a point in the point.

When there is no one else to consider, we suit ourselves of course. There is no need for conflict and negotiations. However at work we need to consider the team and harness everyone’s effort to pull in the same direction at the same time, at least some of the time.
It’s the same at home. Some tasks or projects will be a group effort and require group co-operation, working as a family team with a reward the whole family appreciates. Some projects will be for self, for self-expression, for self-exploring, for self-development, to then bring what you learn into the team to the benefit of all.

So what do you do when you feel answering questions or including others needs feels like an imposition, a waste of your time, an intrusion, or unproductive?

I guess it depends on the purpose and who is being fulfilled:
– you yourself by getting on with what suits you
– or the person you want to encourage to increase their confidence
– or the person with whom you want to cement your bond.

It takes a conscious choice in the specific situation. You choose whose fulfillment is the priority to you at the time, in that circumstance, the spouse or partner, the child, the friend, or colleague, the boss or yourself. You get to choose, once you are aware there is a choice.
And also, you will be responsible for the consequences of your choice, that is the outcome that follows from the choice you made on which behaviour to adopt. One of the simplest ways to handle this kind of situation is to include the other party in your truth.

“I’m in a conflict here. I can see what you want to have happen and I have a different preference from you. So I’m not sure how to proceed so we can both be OK. Can you see a way to make it work for both of us?”
Or
“As much as I can relate to what you would like to have happen, right now I have a different priority and can’t accommodate your need this time. Can you cope with that for now? We can have another look at options a little down the track.”
Or
“I see what you are wanting. I have a different preference for myself, but to achieve our common goal, I am prepared to go your way. If the circumstances change I may come back to this point again and reconsider options. Is that OK?”

The Dynamic Communication Program specifically tackles those tricky occasions when having a deeper insight and effective strategies engaged from a balanced state can turn potential disaster into a win/win outcome.

Learn the magic of having the right tool for the right moment. Be at The Dynamic Communications Program and discover how communication in challenging situations can flow smoothly and productively.

If you missed the start date on 29th April find out how to catch up. Contact me straight away by email: anna@annamcrobert.com.au
Cheers
Anna

Emotional Stress Release for Stress and Muscle Tension

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It is natural for muscles to tense up when there is stress on line. It is also natural for muscles to release and relax when you are not in stress. So tension can come and go with different ups and downs of life. Muscle tension is how your body tells you that you need to do something to change what is going on so you are not wearing yourself out or making yourself sick.

Trouble is we often don’t recognize that we are carrying stress as muscle tension. Because it can be such an every day part of life it feels “normal”. We are often hurrying to get things done, get kids off to school, be on time, arrange events, keep appointments, complete work tasks, plan projects, or whatever. We may be dreading some coming meeting. We may have stirred up old fears. Our thinking and self-talk can easily reinforce stress and make it all worse.

Some people are habitual worriers and always stressed to some degree, and it shows in their muscle tension. Our muscles can be 75% contracted and that tension can still be out of our conscious awareness, till someone touches a tight muscle and we become aware it is hard as a rock. Or we are snappy or irritable and realize we are “holding our self together” with muscle tension.

So once you are aware of muscle tension, or stress, or worry, you can consciously choose to do something about it. Sometimes it is when there are headaches, or shallow breathing, or tight chest, or some other symptoms that finally you have to take the time to deal with the cumulative effects of daily stress.

When you realize muscles are tight you can take the tension out of the tight muscles with Emotional Stress Release, a technique from Touch For Health Kinesiology, as a first step to reduce muscle tension.

For Example, you may have been rushing to get things done before closing time. Following is what you can do to ease muscle tension gently.

Emotional Stress Release technique for Stress & Muscle Tension

First is always to acknowledge what is, the truth of your current experience.

Place one hand across your forehead and say to yourself:
1. “My muscles are tense, and my breathing is shallow and tight. (breathe in & out).
2. “I can feel the tension as I focus on it and realize my breathing is tense too. (breathe in & out).
3. “I recognize the tension has been building for a while.” (breathe in & out).
4. “The tension is adding to my tiredness / irritability / muddle-head feeling / etc.” (breathe in & out).

Acknowledge till the tension in your thoughts and your body starts to reduce and your breathing becomes a bit easier. You may need to repeat steps 1 to 4 a couple of times. Be sure to pay attention to your breathing between each statement. You may notice the warmth increasing under your hand on your forehead. That’s a good sign.

Next accept what is.

5. “Its not surprising there is tension in my muscles, its been a busy time, I’ve been rushing.” (breathe in & out).
6. “I’ve got some things done and there’s more to go.” (breathe in & out).
7. “I’ll be glad when its done.” (Breathe in & out)

Notice as more of the tension leaves, your voice becomes less harried, your body eases and your breath slows down.

Next look forward to when you will be more at ease.

8. “The more efficiently I get it done the sooner I can wind down.” (breathe in & out).
9. “Then I’ll have a cup of tea / glass of wine / ring a friend / smell the roses / or whatever.

The stress goes down as you acknowledge the problem, accept it, and look forward to when its over and dealt with. You have diverted your brain blood flow away from stress survival program area to problem solving front brain.

I may not have covered your particular cause of muscle tension so I hope you can get the idea of the process that you can apply to your situation. There are more techniques in Touch For Health Kinesiology you can use to help yourself.

Let me know how you go with this.
Cheers
Anna

PS. Emotional Stress Release was covered in a recent Touch For Health 1 workshop presenting several ways to rebalance stress and tension. Contact me for more on theses workshops.

Patti wrote: “Thanks so much for the wonderful learning experience, I thoroughly enjoyed it and am so looking forward to our next course.”

Walking Benefits Body and Brain, Heart and Soul

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Walking benefits the body and brain, the heart and soul. Walking is often quoted as a health giving and life affirming activity that is available to us all every day of the year. And yes, it does our heart and lungs a heap of good, it strengthens our leg muscles and lifts our mood. Walking helps to keep blood sugars in balance and gets us out of enclosed environments where the air pollution and electronic pollution is high. Depending where you live in the world today you can often find that inside homes and work places the air can be more polluted than outside with the traffic. That’s scary.

But there is more to learn about walking. Research is continuing to provide statistics and specific answers to questions like how does walking effect weight loss, energy use, fitness level and health outcomes?

Two Scientists from University College London performed a meta-analysis of research published in peer-reviewed English-language journals from 1970 to 2007 . All 459,833 participants covered by the meta-analysis were free of cardiovascular disease when they enrolled in the 18 studies. Collating all the data the bottom line is that the meta-analysis makes a strong case for walking.

Tracking Walkers Over Years
In a group of 44,452 American male health professionals, who walked 30 minutes a day, the result was 18% lower risk for coronary artery disease. Among 72,488 female nurses, walking at least three hours a week was linked to a 35% lower risk of heart attack and cardiac death, and a 34% lower risk of stroke. These people were free of cardiovascular disease when they enrolled in the studies, and were tracked for 11 years to arrive at the results published.

A 10 year study of 229 postmenopausal women randomly assigned the volunteers to walk at least one mile a day or to continue normal activities. At the end of the trial, the walkers enjoyed an 82% lower risk of heart disease.

The benefits of walking went beyond just for the heart and arteries and implicates lack of exercise contributes to four of the leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes.

A study followed the lifestyle habits and health of 30,000 women over a 12 year period. It found women who walked one hour per day at least, and added one hour a week of gym or swimming, were 55% less likely to develop breast cancer. The research was conducted by Nagoya City University in Japan.

Walking each day can help Type 2 diabetes. Contracting muscles use up blood sugars helping to keep blood glucose at normal levels. A study by Dr Frank Booth showed 30 to 50% of all cases of Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and many cancers were prevented by 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise each day. He received Honor Awards for his work on why sedentary lifestyle increases the risk of 20 of the world’s most deadly chronic diseases.

Tracking People Needing Cardiac Rehabilitation
But what about people who already have heart issues, will they gain any benefits from walking? Randomized clinical trials of cardiac rehabilitation provided answers. 48 trials in 8,946 patients showed moderate exercise for 30 minutes three times a week produced 26% reduction in risk of death from heart disease and a 20% reduction in overall death rate.

As a guide:
– 80 steps a minute indicates a leisurely pace
– 100 steps a minute indicates a moderate to brisk pace
– 120 steps a minute indicates a fast pace.

How Fast Should You Walk?
According to Professor Brewer, University of Bedfordshire, “At slower speeds you’ll walk less efficiently which requires more energy to travel the same distance. But the health benefits of walking or running extend far beyond burning calories, to lowering cholesterol, blood pressure and much more.”

“Maximum benefits are felt when you’re walking at between 50 and 70 per cent of your maximum effort, meaning you can just maintain a staggered conversation.”
Apparently the speed you walk at is as good an indicator of how long you’ll live as your health history, smoking habits and blood pressure combined, USA researchers have found.

University of Pittsburg physiologists analyzed data of over 34,00 adults aged 65 and over. They found speeds of 2.6 feet per second were associated with average life expectancy. Those who walked 3.3 feet per second or faster had the highest survival rates and the greatest gains were seen in walkers aged over 75.

Walking Up Stairs
Even at a slow pace climbing stairs burns calories two to three times faster than walking briskly on the level. The Harvard Alumni Study found that men who average at least eight flights a day enjoy a 33% lower mortality rate than men who are sedentary. That’s better that walking 1.3 miles a day that lowers the death rate by 22%.

Stair climbing is twice as energy demanding as brisk walking on the level, and 50% harder than walking up a steep incline or even lifting weights in the gym.

Best Time To Walk
Walking is a great start to the day. It’s the least polluted time of day so you gain the most benefits and the cleanest air. Of course walking on the beach or along a bush track or through a park is better than walking the streets. Even so, avoiding main roads and winding through suburbs with their trees and gardens will do more good than walking on a treadmill in the gym.

Walking in the morning also increases your metabolism along with oxygen intake and sets up your body and brain for a productive day.
Gradually extend the distance you cover and as you become fitter pick up the pace. You will come home with a clear head, feeling refreshed and re-energized and ready to start your work day with enthusiasm.

Walking Benefits Heart and Soul
Not only does the physical heart benefit from walking, but so does the emotional heart. When heart broken, heavy hearted, wounded, shattered or torn apart, your metaphysical heart too, your psyche and your essence respond to walking. Our Australian native people, like many native people, knew to go walk-about to connect with the Earth and sacred places, to hear and feel the heart beat of our planet. They knew the places of healing to strengthen their physical, emotional, and spiritual being.

Our churches and places of worship are often built on energy lines, the energy meridians of the planet. When we walk into an area of special significance our soul responds. We absorb the tranquility and harmony nature provides to restore our own inner state. Walking, like a metronome, can be mesmeric, a moving meditation that calms the mind and allows the body to synchronize, and feel the Earth draw us into its rhythm and vibration. Walking is very healing.

Old and New Under Review
More than 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates said, “Walking is a man’s best medicine.”
And Charles Dickens said, “Walk to be healthy, walk to be happy.”
And today our modern day researchers and scientists are saying the same thing.

Walking is an excellent way to protect your health and slow down the aging process. And you can walk alone with your mind in meditation mode, with friends who share your interest in health and wellbeing, or with the family to set the example, bond through regular activity together, and build healthy habits.

Don’t underestimate the power of walking regularly. Walking is not high tech, or funky, or cool, or glamorous, or expensive, so may not always get the respect or limelight it deserves. But for its health benefits, its value as personal transportation, its role in recreation and its ready availability and adaptability to all ages and all fitness levels, it is an intrinsic and practical way to be at our best.

Walking benefits body and brain, heart and soul.
Cheers
Anna

How To Stay Calm – anytime – not just at Christmas

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Not everyone looks forward to Christmas festivities. Do you wish you could stay cool, calm, and relaxed, at anytime, not just at Christmas? Then this special calming technique can be your perfect gift to your self that keeps giving all year long, especially right now, and during the school holidays.

Christmas can be a joy and can also be a nightmare. Old family animosities flare up, especially with alcohol blocking the front brain’s ability to control impulsive behaviour. Normally polite or considerate behaviour can give way to outbursts and thoughtless comments as the day progresses and alcohol consumption increases.

It can also be time of missing a family member who has passed during the year or a reminder of other traumatic events.

So it pays to have a few coping skills under your belt.

Your expectations of disaster or disappointment or grief can prime you to be in that emotional state long before the celebrations begin. Your thoughts beforehand can add energy to, and so create, the very outcome you dread and are trying to avoid.

If you think it will be stressful, then it will be so. If you think it will be peaceful and fun, then it will be so. Because whatever you decide beforehand that it will be, for you, it will, and you can more easily stay in that state, no matter what others are saying or doing. You are in charge of your feelings by being in charge of your thoughts and the energy pattern those thoughts create.

One of the surest ways to set your self up for a good day is to take 5 minutes out for a special personal activity. Now I know you are super busy right now, but let me assure you, I’ll tell you exactly how to use that 5 minutes so your day works better for you. Spending 5 minutes will save you hours of stress and tension.

Take 5 minutes to do a special mini meditation. Doing this mini meditation for even 5 minutes a day will create a network in your brain that goes with a relaxed and peaceful state, one that you can access during the day with just a breath and a thought. It’s easy.

How can you do this?
I can’t keep my mind still for even a minute, you say.
There’s too much to do right now.
It’s just too hard for me. Or not.

Many Westerns are not used to being still and quiet without thoughts demanding attention and a drive to action. TV is a distraction that often dulls the mind into a non-thinking state, which is not the same as being relaxed and calm. It’s often an avoidance tactic.

Let me show you how to create a habit of calm and relaxation. You can program your brain to create a new and healthy habit. Doing this on a daily basis for 5 minutes creates a brain program, which you can readily access when you need it, when stress begins to rise or when the pressure is on.

Do this mini meditation:
– sit in a quiet room or space, or push your chair away from your work desk
– lengthen your spine and sit slightly forward on to your sitting bones
– relax your hands in your lap, feet on the floor
– take a deep breath in … and breathe out as you gently close your eyes
– breathe in again … and out … as you allow your body to gently relax

– imaging your favourite flower, with multiple petals, a rose, a lotus, a daisy
– now imagine this flower as a bud, the petals curled tightly
– breathe in, and as you breathe out, imagine one petal gently loosen and unfurl
– breathe in, and as you breathe out, imagine the next petal gently unfurl
– continue to breathe in and out … unfurling your flower bud … petal… by… petal
– when your flower is fully open and all the petals beautifully arranged according to natures design, enjoy its beauty
– enjoy its perfection … its form … its shape … its colour … its texture … its perfume perhaps … its health and vitality

– imagine or see the aura extending out from the living fully opened flower
– imagine the flower aura expand with every out breath as you watch
– and progressively the aura extends to include you in its energy field
– breathe within that bubble like energy field created by your flower
– become aware of just how serene, and peaceful it is within the energy bubble
– enjoy the calm as you breathe in … and out

– if there is a particular situation in which you want to feel this calm, imagine the energy bubble enveloping and permeating the situation, the place, the people, the conversations, the activities, so they too induce calm in you as you watch, calm and peace
– do this for at least three full breaths

When you are ready to go back into your every day world, begin to move your body, become aware of the surface you are sitting on, of the surface your feet are in contact with, the feel of your hands, and wriggle them a little, move your head, and shoulders, and arms, and feet, and gently open your eyes.

Be aware of the calm state of your mind and body. This is the state you take into your activities and that you projected forward into your particular situation. A breath and a vision of your flower fully open will refresh your calm state at any time, so you can stay calm, anytime, not just at Christmas.
Let me know how that goes for you.
Cheers
Anna
PS Merry Christmas

Shift Your Focus

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An article I was reading in Prevention Magazine recently highlighted that all too often we easily focus on the bits of our appearance we don’t like – till that is all we see. Then we lose confidence and want to hide. Well, let me tell you how you can shift your focus and gain a new resourceful perspective?

View Of Self
The article suggested “step back” from looking in the mirror close up. Do it. When you step back you get a different perspective, you see the whole.

A close up view, of course, only lets you see bits, various parts, of your face for instance. So you see lines, sags, and skin tone. When you step back you see face proportions, sparkling eyes, nicely shaped brows, great cheeks, strong jaw, shapely lips etc.

Close up you use left brain’s speciality for detail. Step back and right brain’s bigger picture specialty comes into play more. Now you get some perspective on your self-criticism.

This is much kinder to your psyche and is much closer to the reality that others see. You are not bits or parts. You are a whole being and no one part is the only part that matters. A confident, animated, and interested face and expression is always a winner, especially when you focus on discovering something special about the person you are looking at – and in the mirror that person is you.

APPLY THIS USEFUL & EFFECTIVE STRATEGY

See the Stressor
This strategy works well when you have a “picture” of a stressful situation, issue or person.

Evaluate the Effect
Note where you represent the problem to yourself when thinking about it. Does your mind’s eye see the picture close up? to your left? to your right?

Note how you feel when looking at the upsetting picture or scene. Where is the discomfort or stress registered in your body? Do you breathe shallowly? Is your chest or throat tight? Does your tummy churn? Do you get pain in the body or tension in your neck? Check your jaw for tension, and also your arms, hands, throat, chest, tummy, legs, toes.

Now mentally push your mind’s stress provoking image further away from you, out into the distance, an arms length, bit further. How do you feel now?

Bring the image close in again. Check the impact on body sensations and tension level. Note the differences.
Again push the image further away, check impact. Is it less stressful out there? If your breathing is more relaxed and body tension less, that’s good feedback from your body.

Push the picture further back still, till the image is very small and there is no tension or very little in your body. Leave the image there for now.

Connect With Your Resources
Now is the time to consider how you really want to feel in the situation or with that person.

Do you want to feel calm, clear headed, resourceful, focused, confident, present, relaxed, prepared, whatever?

Recall a time when you were experiencing all of that.
If you can’t recall a time create a picture of you with those attributes. Use someone you know with those attributes as a role model, put yourself in their shoes to feel what it is like to have those attributes.

Colour the picture with a positive colour, for you, bright yellow, soft pink, beautiful purple or vibrant red, whatever makes you feel the attributes more vividly and connects with the resources within.

Bring this resourceful picture close in until you, the colour, and the resourceful picture are one. Breathe in the colour and scene. Feel the impact on yourself. Enjoy the feel. It’s inside you and right through you now. The colour glows all round you.

Now look out and bring in the previously stressful scene and check the impact. Bring it in closer slowly and monitor its impact. At any time you can stop the picture where it is and draw breath, and breathe out the resourceful colour all round you again. Continue to bring in the picture till you feel your resourceful self, calm, relaxed, confident, totally present, prepared for whatever.

Holding your resourceful state is the secret. It has more energy than the issue or problem and allows you to apply your creative problem solving ability to handle the issue productively.

When your resources are bigger and stronger than the problem there is no problem. It’s just something to sort out and move on.

Keep It Happening
Remind yourself of the resourceful colour whenever you need as you breathe in and shift your focus.

Cheers
Anna

How To Reduce Stress, Improve Self-Esteem and Lift Your Mood, Easily

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How can you easily reduce stress, improve your self esteem and lift your mood? Well the answer is: with green exercise. Uh huh! What’s that?

Before I tell you what green exercise is I can tell you it has benefits. Evidence shows it leads to positive short and long-term health outcomes, reduces stress, bolsters your self-esteem and elevates your mood. So if it’s easy to get health benefits with green exercise, I want to know more.

Research from ten UK studies involving 1252 participants shows it pays to do things, some form of exercise, outside in the garden or in the park, any place that has green living plants. And, this multi-study analysis assessed the best dose of acute exposure to “green exercise” required to improve self-esteem and mood.

Dr Jo Barton and Professor Jules Pretty said, “Dose responses for both intensity and duration showed large benefits from short engagements in green exercise, and then diminishing but still positive returns.
– Every green environment improved both self-esteem and mood; the presence of water generated greater effects.
– Both men and women had similar improvements in self-esteem after green exercise, though men showed a difference for mood.
– Age groups: for self-esteem, the greatest change was in the youngest, with diminishing effects with age;
– for mood, the least change was in the young and old.
– The mentally ill had one of the greatest self-esteem improvements.
This study confirms that the environment provides an important health service.”

So we can thank the Department of Biological Sciences at University of Essex, Colchester in the UK for that research project.

Being a keen gardener I would have thought the benefits of being outside in fresh air, among the plants that deliver oxygen to us, would be obvious to all. But it seems not every likes to have their nose in the bushes.

The psychologists at Essex University have shown that just a small dose of nature, just five minutes, every day creates health benefits in measurable quantity.

There are days every one of us needs a pick me up. Lunch in the park and five minutes of walking can make all the difference for having a productive afternoon at home or at work. The greatest improvements in self-esteem were found in young children and people with mental illness and every age group did benefit across the board.

So a walk in the park is just what the doctor could prescribe in the future to reduce stress, improve self-esteem and lift your mood when you are feeling low. And pushing a pram, kicking a ball, skipping, riding a bike, fishing, boating, horse riding, gardening, doing farm work or any out door activity give endless scope to suit everyone. This is one form of self-medication that may be condoned and even encouraged in the future.

Sounds like common sense to me. What do you reckon?
Cheers
Anna

Is Happiness Genetic?

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Happiness is now a focus for researchers, including psychologists, scientists, and even economists. And what are they researching? Is Happiness Genetic? Lets see what they make of us human beings and our happiness sustainability.

A young man, with nothing better to do, was dragged to a poker championship by his friends – and won. He beat almost 750 players and won $2 million in prize money. Now I know nothing about poker competitions so I asked my son, who plays a bit. He told me, yes, poker competitions do exist, and yes, through a series of elimination games there will be one winner. And no, he hasn’t won such a competition but hasn’t ruled it out for the future.

The bit I found interesting about this story was, when questioned down the track whether our poker winner was happier since his win he said, “In the very short-term it definitely makes you happier, but in the long-term, I suspect you quickly become your normal self again.”

This young man was far less impressed by his win than most who win millions, and far more level headed. He invested his $2 million so he is set up for life, and now has a new life where he is sponsored to attend competitions round the world. He gets to play the game he is good at and gets paid to do it. He has landed on his feet as the saying goes.

But, is he happier? Can he be happier? Can you?

Lets delve into this a bit. Apparently there is agreement among some researchers that happiness is at least partly genetic. So, how much of our capacity for happiness is genetically inherited and how much is self-made by our choices?

One theory suggests a “set point” for happiness, that, like our poker winner, you can go up in happiness but come back to your “set point” eventually. And when life takes a turn for the worst, you go down in happiness and eventually also are likely to come back to your “set point” as well.

So if you are naturally bubbly, positive already this may be your “set point” and if your are an opposite type person, always contained, cautious, protective and skeptical and not see much to be happy about, that could be your “set point”.
Australia’s Professor Cummins supports this theory. He says this is not a bleak prospect and though we can’t improve our long-term degree of happiness, according to him, we can build resilience to life’s knocks. One way to have resilience is to marry a supportive partner. Another way is to have enough savings to weather a storm. Being gainfully employed and helping others are two more ways.

Well I don’t disagree with the resilience creators offered, but I do disagree with a “set point” for happiness. I guess it depends on what you call happiness. Is peace of mind happiness? Is fulfillment happiness? What about meaningful contribution, is that happiness? Liking yourself no matter what happens, is that happiness?

Associate Professor Bruce Headey of Melbourne University says that people with goals in life tend to be happier. “People are at their happiest with friends and involved in doing something active. If you look at people through one-way mirrors, they’re happiest with their friends, less so with their kids, less so with their spouses and less so commuting.”

Well I’m glad I don’t have to commute, especially in peak hour traffic, so I can agree with that part. But looking for common denominators of what goes with happiness, he said its not education, age, IQ, having children (apparently a short term benefit that dies out over a few years), working more hours or even working less hours. Hmm.

Dr Timothy Sharp, Australia’s positive psychologist known as Dr Happy, is in my camp, or maybe I’m in his. “What the research doesn’t take into account is if someone actively tries to make a change, what happens then? There’s good research that people can learn to be optimistic.”

I believe, and have witnessed over 30 years using Kinesiology in clinic, that people can change, and do change, when they make the choice, to make the most of their life and who they are. Mostly it’s not who they believe they are or what they believe of life to date, it’s a whole lot more. And the belief, and all that goes with it, is the limitation on their happiness.

Once the choice is made then comes the “what” to change and the “how” to change, and Kinesiology identifies the specific ways that have an impact, are effective, for each of us individually.

So, what do you believe? Is happiness genetic? Do you have a “set point” for happiness? Do you want to raise your level of happiness? Do you want to explore the “what” and the “how” to raise your happiness level? Make an appointment and get started.
Cheers
Anna
07-3378 2050

PS: History records that most people who win heaps of money very quickly lose it again, and often lose some more to boot, as well as mess up existing relationships along the down hill run. If you win money you need to be money savvy to make it grow and not diminish. So money alone doesn’t make you what you are not, in terms of knowledge and wisdom.

I have been researching ways to create a healthy body and mind (important to me for my happiness) for over 30 years. Am also exploring healthy finances (important as well). Have found an excellent source, really excited, can share with you too. Ask me for more and I’ll send a separate email. In the meantime, just for fun have a look at this:
http://www.TGRProperty.com.au/5774
Would love to have even more fun exploring this together.