What is Mindfulness?

The concept of mindfulness has actually been around for thousands of years. Its origins can be found in the earliest Buddhist teachings (2500 years ago). It has been used over the centuries in traditional eastern contemplative practices like Hatha Yoga and other meditation practices. Zen masters taught mindfulness to enlightened monks in the ultimate acceptance of their own existence.

However, the way we use the term here, Mindfulness should not be confused with inward focused mysticism or spirituality. Today Mindfulness not only refers to the acceptance of one’s reality but what one does with that reality. As we use it, Mindfulness is the skill of living in the moment and relating to the world in a nonjudgmental and reflexive as oppose to reactive fashion.

In recent years, science and westernization have adapted Mindfulness so that it can be cultivated daily, used without years of practice, and be compatible and useful within almost any modern human activity. Mindfulness is simply an introspective method for grounding your thoughts, emotions and behaviors in the reality you are currently experiencing, so you can stand back, observe, understand yourself more fully and take care of your needs.

The act of Mindfulness is the ability to focus your attention on your inner thoughts while letting go of past or future worries. It will take some practice to witness your thoughts popping up and then going away without self-criticism, but it can be achieved by most people without extensive training, just daily practice. For instance, just watching your breathing can have a calming effect on your mind and slowly restore your sense of well-being. When you quiet your thoughts about what you have to do and your feelings dictating what you want to do, your intuitive mind takes over. Here you gently move from dwelling on the past or future to being focused on what you are doing right at this moment. Being in this state of Mindfulness allows you to listen to your gut and discover what you truly need. Mindfulness allows you to acknowledge your feelings, witness your thoughts and redirect yourself away from distraction.

We live in era of constant upheaval and change. Actually, most of us get through life on autopilot. Our brain gets filled with restless ideas and memories that are hard to keep track of especially when we become stressed. We tend to “tune out” and just “try to get through the day.”

Everyone’s mind naturally wanders, but when you practice Mindfulness you are aware of your mind wandering and can gradually redirect it back to the present. Mindfulness allows you to gently quiet all the noise in your head. Paying attention to your breathing, tracking your thoughts, or scanning your body for tension are just few of the many ways to reduce mental chatter. With Mindful practice, you can learn to remove the tendency to jump to conclusions, make assumptions and idle judgments, and recognize that your negative or positive feelings are coming from you and not the external world around you.

Dr Marsha Linehan, founder of Evidence Based Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) says we need to adopt a “Reflexive Mind” in order to cope with distress and change. Here, your mind is trained to act like Teflon, nothing sticks to it long enough to attach. Mindfulness has been shown to bring calmness and patience to those who embrace the practice. People who practice daily Mindfulness are processing life rather than analyzing its content. The ultimate state of Mindfulness is mental resiliency.

In fact Mindfulness can also help you stay focused and aware even when you are engaged in mundane activities such as driving, eating, and walking. Research has shown its positive effects on boosting the immune system, managing pain, reducing stress and cultivating personal awareness.

A beginning Mindful sequence may involve:

- Sitting in a quiet and comfortable location

October 6, 2012 By

- Thinking about where you are and what you are doing at this very moment

- Closing your eyes

- Allowing thoughts about what already or will happen move in an out of your consciousness with your non-judging mind and gentle persuasion

- Focusing on the sensations of breathing each breath and noticing what that does to your belly, nostrils and lungs

- Making note of every thought and feeling that comes up and then returning to your breathing to further anchor your attention

- Observing your mind but, not getting stuck on any one particular thought or feeling as your breathing becomes more natural, full and steady

- Opening your eyes and looking at something you have seen before with a fresh perspective.

What are Affirmations?

Affirmations are declarative statements about something you now know, did, or intend to do. When you use an Affirmation you are not only being aware of your thoughts, but you are taking conscious control of them. When you say, write, read or even think of an Affirmation, you are, in effect, taking steps to acknowledge what is worthwhile about you.

Studies have shown that most of our daily thoughts are negative. Working with Affirmations makes you aware of how self-defeating thoughts chip away at your creativity. Affirmations help you create a new reality and visualize what you essentially want out of life.

Negativity can threaten your health and happiness. In fact, when you are not paying attention to your thinking, you are more liable to pessimistic and not realistic or optimistic. The more you are aware of what you are actually telling yourself, the more upbeat you will sound. Using command based phraseology, keeping the Affirmation in the present tense and making it reality based offers you more reinforcement. Repeatedly telling yourself that you are, or will be, deserving, healthy, and successful, the more your positive determination will flow. You’re more likely to see a bounce in your step and a lift in your life by using daily Affirmations.

What are Mindful Affirmations?

” Mindful Affirmations ” are not just inspirational sayings. We use the term as thought provoking phrases that loosely derive from Mindfulness ideas of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, who founded the medical and meditative models of Mindfulness. He came up with Eight Stations of Mindful Meditation:

- Smile

- Breathe

- Arrive

- Attend

- Find the essence

- Slow down

- Listen

- See things with a new perspective

Mindful Affirmations incorporate one or more of these active stations into each passage in order to support the Mindful notion of keeping an “open mind,” where possibilities have no limits. They are not meditations as used by Dr Zinn and others. Mindful Affirmations take ordinary Affirmations like “Your self-confidence will carry you on,” and make them more reality based so the reader can gradually acknowledge and accept the truth about their life. An example of expanding the above Affirmation into a Mindful Affirmation would be “I barely thought of my own self-worth until I saw myself going backwards in life. Letting myself go and losing all I had gained made me feel stuck and dependent. I now see how harnessing my self-esteem can help me not only find my way but, carry me through life.”

This phraseology helps to evoke not only the reader’s subconscious mind, but keeps the reader focused on the key of Mindfulness, just being in the moment.

Pain is about growth and is inevitable. Unfortunately, too many of us have become addicted to suffering… but suffering is optional! Mindful Affirmations make our conscious and subconscious minds look at our pain and release our fears about the unknown. Our inner subconscious mind has the desire for change but doesn’t know just what to change or how to do it. Our outer conscious mind desires to be relaxed, in balance and accept our state of affairs. When working in concert our two minds remove expectations/accusations and allow us to gently examine our feelings, thoughts and behaviors about the past without dwelling or being judgmental.

When Mindful Affirmations are written in the first person they can help the reader not only empathize with the writer, but slowly begin to accept and validate their own pain, saying inside themselves, “I guess I am not alone.” Mindful Affirmations not only break down the reader’s self-imposed isolation but offer them options for change such as in the passage, “I now see that responding rather than reacting will build a healthy interpersonal world for myself.”

It has been my clinical experience that each time I ask a patient to read a Mindful Affirmation, they mention to me that they now see their old problem in a different way. One of the core values of Mindfulness is to be able to see yourself and the world around you with a “new set of eyes.”

The focus is on accepting, commitment and learning (refers to “ACT” therapy) a new way of living or looking at life. Mindful Affirmations help the reader’s mind stay engaged while supporting the surrender of old baggage and unfulfilled expectations.

Mindful Affirmations use positive assertions like “I feel happy,” but allow our present awareness to reinforce our declaration giving us clarity of thought to see our options. It is a coping strategy. For example, the statement “When I am stressed I make myself sit and take notice of my surroundings,” supports your inner desire to stay calm and centered rather than be overwhelmed and scattered.

The book takes Affirmations to the next level by first talking about how “I” (the reader) arrived at the state of not being able to take control, what resulted, and how “I” plan to take command of my life in the future.

Using these three components to the Affirmation not only supports the drive to do better, but plants the seed more firmly that “I” will make progress and “I” can learn from my past. Mindful Affirmations are cyclical in nature. Each time a negative feeling comes up the reader has a choice to make good or bad decisions. The truth is that we are more likely to accomplish what we set out to do, if we are keenly aware of how the past made us feel and what consequences may lie ahead.

Mindful Affirmations help you not only face reality, but look beyond it by challenging your old mental dialogue with a new perspective. Mindful Affirmations allow you to step back from life enough to examine regrets and embrace new options. Mindful Affirmations help you discover that who you really are is what keeps you alive, vital and present.

Dr Unger’s new book “Presence of Mind – Mindful Affirmations” is available at the website Store.

Real Psych Solutions ( http://www.realpsychsolutions.com ) provides Real Psychology Solutions: Practical Self-Help Materials for Mental Health and Living Well and is physically located at The Center for Empowerment in Dana Point, CA, but has a global online following. It was founded by Arlene Unger, PhD (PSY) and Stefan Unger, PhD in 2009.

Real Psych Solutions aims to provide useful and practical self-help materials based on the work of licensed mental health and medical professionals, certified lifestyle and wellness coaches and other recognized experts. We have lots of Free Materials and Resources from many Authors, as well as an online Store with valuable and insightful, but economically priced, items.

? 2010 Arlene Unger, PhD. All rights reserved. This article may be reproduced “as is”, i.e. without change or fees.

Filed Under: Affirmations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Memories Don’t Fade Like Hair Does: Memoir Writing Help for You, Our Elders, to Tell Your Story

August 17, 2012 By

Memories Don’t Fade Like Hair Does: Memoir Writing Help for You, Our Elders, to Tell Your Story

~~~Old age, to the unlearned, is winter; to the learned,

it’s harvest time. ~ Yiddish saying~~~

You can tell your life story by biography, which is a whole

book that starts from the start and ends at (or near) the

end. But if you don’t want to take on such a huge task, you

can tell your story in snippets and snatches, through memoir

writing.

Memoir writing consists of–as the word, from the Latin

memoria, indicates–individual memories.

The convenience this affords us is this: –we can start at

any place in our lives we want –we can write of an event,

moment, idea, person, place, or object…in isolation –we

don’t need any order or convention to inhibit our getting

words on paper…to start.

Let the Memoir Writing Come

Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, or any formatting or

structure. Just jot down the first thing that comes and go

with it, whether it takes you into another story, a

description of other things, or your opinion.

We will, over time, cover different ways to remember,

different ways to write, and then, later, ways to put the

pieces all together–if you wish.

For now, let’s start with a kind of memoir writing that we

can use in every piece we write:

Description

We need description. Our readers need description. And we

need to get that description out of our heads and into

details.

Details Our Readers Can Sense

Our goal (and power as writers) is to turn what we recall

into what readers can feel, see, taste, touch, and hear, so

we can get them as close to our memories as possible.

One Way to Describe

This is fun with a friend, but you can do it alone, too, and

e-mail me your results.

Get the following items from your pantry or ice box (or have

someone bring them to you):

lemon peanuts in shell plain chocolate bar/drops/chips

marshmallow kiwi Pop Rocks candy or Alka-Seltzer tablets.

one small knife a notebook and writing tool

Prompt

Work with one item at a time. 1. Look at the item. How

does it look? Write down the texture, color, size, shape,

and other words that you think of when you look at the

item. 2. Touch the item. How does it feel? What does

the temperature feel like, the texture, the weight? 3.

Smell the food item. How does it smell? 4. Listen to the

item. Does it have a sound? How about when you add it to

water, put the knife to it, bite into it, or put it in your

tongue? 5. How does it taste?

Here is the Challenge:

With every word you use to describe, try to push yourself

(or your partner) to go beyond the obvious descriptive

words. For example, if you find that the marshmallow is

soft, what kind of soft is it? Is it soft the way fresh

laundry is soft? The kind of soft in whipped cream? Is

the sweet a candy sweet or a sweet gherkin sweet?

Imagine that you are describing the item to someone who has

never seen/had one, someone from another planet, and you

need to get the person to retrieve the item for you to save

your life. (The same way you would need to describe a

medication, so the person doesn’t bring you a heart pill

instead of a blood pressure pill.)

Be as unique and original as you can with your words.

Refuse to be satisfied with just “crunchy,” “sour,” “cold.”

Then, when we go to the next assignment, you will be ready

to bring to life the details of your past, your life story.

Note: Did you notice that pushing yourself to describe what

you sensed inevitably evoked comparisons. Descriptions lend

themselves to metaphors. Writers use metaphors to convey

and express. You are now a writer!

Memories Don’t Fade Like Hair Does: Memoir Writing Help for You, Our Elders, to Tell Your Story

Memories Don't Fade Like Hair Does: Memoir Writing Help for You, Our Elders, to Tell Your Story

N.H.-born prize-winning poet, creative nonfiction writer, memoirist, and award-winning Assoc. Prof. of English, Roxanne is also web content and freelance writer/founder of [http://www.roxannewrites.com], a support site for academic, memoir, mental disability, and creative writers who need a nudge, a nod, or just ideas…of which Roxanne has 1,000s, so do stop in for a visit, as this sentence can’t possibly get any longer….

Content About : Memories Don’t Fade Like Hair Does: Memoir Writing Help for You, Our Elders, to Tell Your Story Article

Filed Under: Biographies Memoirs Tagged With: , , , ,

Childhood Memories of Reading on the Farm

April 19, 2012 By

Childhood Memories of Reading on the Farm

Reading has long been a major passion of mine, starting at about four to five years of age. It didn’t matter what I read, only that I read something. The Bible, labels on cans of food, Burma Shave signs, just anything.

About a mile down a lane from our home on a Texas farm lived a lady who subscribed to Ranch Romances. Mrs. Wallace would give me her read and re-read copies and I would pore over them during the day and in the evening by the light of the fireplace and coal oil lamps.

I had a little pedal car given me when we lived in Jacksboro, Texas. Riding it in town on pavement was very different than trying to ride in the country, but I kept struggling anyway.

What else did I have to play with? A very dull knife for mumble peg, top and string to spin on the baked Texas earth and my Ranch Romance magazines to read. Mother was too proud of her Bible to let me go outside with it to read.

We had an old paint mare that I rode over to Mrs. Wallace’s ranch house to get the reading material and an occasional letter which was sometimes delivered to a rural mail box on the road. We didn’t have a saddle, bareback was the only way to go and a stump was the way to climb on her back.

Part of my work was to pull and feed what Dad called ‘careless weeds’ for the hogs. When they grew too big to pull out of that hard ground, my dull pocket knife was used to saw them enough to break off most of the plant.

I WAS HAPPY!

Childhood Memories of Reading on the Farm

Childhood Memories of Reading on the Farm

Herman Adcox

[http://www.young-4-ever.com]

Content About : Childhood Memories of Reading on the Farm Article

Filed Under: Farm Ranch Tagged With: , ,

Mobile/Cell Phone Memories

February 22, 2012 By

Mobile/Cell Phone Memories

Depending on what part of the world you live in, it is either a Mobile Phone or a Cell phone. Where I live it is called a mobile phone, which to me makes more sense as you can use it on the move whilst mobile.

Todays phones are so small they easily fit into the palm of you hand, I remember the first time I saw one. It was about the end of the 1980′s and I was on the bus going to work. When all of a sudden a phone started ringing, every one was looking around to see what the noise was and where it was coming from. A guy, looking very sheepish and embarrassed reached into his bag and pulled out this large black object, and commenced to talk into it.

My next contact with a mobile phone was when my then husband brought one home from work. He was a journalist, and was going into the country on assignment, and the ABC had two at that time for journalists away from the suburbs. The boy friend of my teenage daughter was most impressed especially when my husband let him call his Father on it.

Now just about everyone has a Mobile/Cell Phone, be it young or old. Teenagers especially these days would be lost without their phone. The mobile phone has also brought new words and meanings into the dictionary. text now has another meaning, all though it still means words put together, it also means to send a message on a phone, another new term is thumb it - because we usually write the text with our thumb.

Mobile/Cell Phone Memories

Mobile/Cell Phone Memories

Please have a look at my Web Site:

http://www.jaycroft.org

Content About : Mobile/Cell Phone Memories Article

Filed Under: Mobile Cell Phone Tagged With: , ,

Memories Before and After the Sound of Music – Book Review

February 13, 2012 By

Memories Before and After the Sound of Music – Book Review

Agathe von Trapp, born in 1913, is the eldest daughter of Baron Georg von Trapp. Agathe, her siblings and parents formed the famous Trapp Family Singers, which inspired the popular film, The Sound Of Music.This famous movie was based on books written by Maria about their lives and experiences from her perspective, which – of course – the movie producers had creative license with. After reading Agathe’s memoir, Memories Before And After The Sound Of Music, interest for Maria’s books will likely increase once again.

When I took on this project I reminisced to my husband about the bonding moments I had with my mother because of the movie; he went out and promptly rented the DVD from our local store. I think it is wonderful that the movie has survived all these years and can still be found on movie rental shelves. Memories Before And After The Sound Of Music is likely to experience similar success, simply due to how dear the family’s story has been to the masses.

The book is written as a non-fiction account from Agathe’s memory – as such, readers will see the changing times through the eyes of the eldest daughter of the family. Perhaps due to the fact that Agathe was a young adult at the time, the story does not include the causes of the turmoil. Her bitterness seeps through here and there – and at times, I got the impression that she had once harbored unpleasant feelings towards Maria and the movie producers, which seem to have healed. Agathe’s child-like adoration of her biological parents is apparent in their heroic and greater-than-life portrayal – but then, perhaps they really were like that.

Readers will find that Agathe’s book will travel farther back in time, before Maria entered their lives. The biography follows through to what happened after their escape and clarifies common misconceptions. I found it surprising that Agathe was 25 when the family left for America – the only “children” during the escape were those recently born from Maria.

Though this family’s story is definitely and inspiring riches-to-rags story, one cannot deny that this well-connected family certainly did not suffer like their countrymen. Isolated castles and mansions, pristine lakes and mountains, private farms, fully staffed estates… no, this was certainly not suffering, by any account. However, the war left the family with nothing but the loyalty and love of their fans and friends. This was enough for them to survive Ellis Island, find a home in America, record albums, go on tours and establish a successful music camp – which is operating today in Vermont.

As a fantastic bonus, the center of the book contains over 30 pages of photos of the family starting in 1875 through to images of the family today, including one shot of the next Trapp family singing group.

Author: Agathe von Trapp

Publisher: Publish America

ISBN 10: 1-4137-6026-0

ISBN 13: 978-1-4137-6026-2

Memories Before and After the Sound of Music – Book Review

Memories Before and After the Sound of Music - Book Review

~ Lillian Brummet: co-author of the books Trash Talk and Purple Snowflake Marketing, author of Towards Understanding; host of the Conscious Discussions radio show (http://www.brummet.ca)

Content About : Memories Before and After the Sound of Music – Book Review Article

Filed Under: Biographies Memoirs Tagged With: , , , , ,

Five categories of affirmations support you in manifesting powerful change. These five categories or types of affirmations have emerged from my consulting work with clients and workshop participants. You may work with affirmations in every category concurrently, or you may focus on a different category each day or each week. It is important that affirmations you select resonate with you, that is, that they feel natural and appropriate. In order to experience this resonance, you may need to change words in the ones listed here as examples, or let these inspire you to create ones you prefer, or develop your own from scratch.

Popular Affirmations

Many popular affirmations are beautiful, indeed, they are quite extraordinary! However, if you do not believe them, they are useless or even counterproductive. If you say an affirmation you do not believe, saying it repeatedly will not make you believe it. Actually, the repetition can build up greater resistance to believing it. Consider this example: Sam feels powerless. He has had many experiences that he can point to that justify his feelings and his belief in his own powerlessness and unworthiness. Saying “I am powerful” is less likely to erase his feelings of powerlessness than to prompt an emphatic reaction, such as, “Oh, no, I’m not!” If Sam does not deal with the resistance, he carries it with him as he lives his life.

An empowering process emerges by using these five categories of affirmations in a systematic way to assist you in embracing an affirmation that you desire to believe but do not. If you have an intention and a desire to say and believe “I am powerful,” start by releasing powerlessness, open to the possibility of being powerful, affirm an intention and readiness to live in your power, claim your power, and let the idea of powerfulness integrate into your life.

Following are the five categories of affirmations described briefly with a few examples of each type.

Releasing/Cleansing Affirmations

The purpose of Releasing and/or Cleansing Affirmations is to let go of unwanted and unneeded stuff. Especially, they help you let go of resistance. They allow you to purify your system. These affirmations stimulate the release of toxins such as negative thought forms, repressed or suppressed emotions, old memories, negative bonds with others, karma, dark consensus reality, illusions of all types.

Examples:

I give myself permission to release toxicity from every level of my energy field.

February 12, 2012 By

I rescind outdated vows of poverty, celibacy, struggle, silence, and unworthiness.

I release resistance.

I let go of old programs that keep me stuck in old patterns.

I let go of everything I do not want or need for my highest good.


Receiving/Accepting Affirmations

The purpose of Receiving and/or Accepting Affirmations is to open to allow something to be. They allow us to receive goodness from the Universe. They neutralize the misqualification of energy; that is, they can reverse illness or other density. In addition, they help us shift the attention from disempowering actions such as, “getting” or “taking” to more freeing concepts such as, “receiving” and “allowing” and “accepting.”

Examples:

I open to the gifts of the Universe.

I allow abundance to flow through me.

I accept support when I need it.

Dear God, please let me know what to do in a way that I can understand.

I accept peace and joy in all aspects of my life.


Being/Intending Affirmations

The purpose of Being and/or Intending Affirmations is to ground your purpose, especially your higher purpose. These affirmations enhance conscious awareness of your intention about something or about your mission in life. In addition, these affirmations can deepen your understanding of your reason for being and/or acting generally or in a specific situation. They can be used to enhance any and all actions that follow.

Examples:

I know that this is for the highest good of all concerned.

I deepen my awareness of the consciousness from which actions spring.

I live my mission.

My intention is to live free from struggle, fear, and hopelessness.

I remember.


Acting/Claiming Affirmations

The purpose of Acting and/or Claiming Affirmations is to bring something into manifestation or to direct the energy of your intention to appropriate manifestation. These affirmations bring into the physical experience those ideas that you hold in your mind and/or heart. In addition, these affirmations help you to claim your power and establish boundaries in relationships.

Examples:

I act with high intention and purposeful awareness.

I step into the world to live my mission in every word and action.

I demand my good right now.

I make every act an act of love (or freedom or mastery or hope, etc.).

I am powerful. I am worthy. I am loveable. I am free.


Integrating/Embodying Affirmations

The purpose of Integrating and/or Embodying Affirmations is to allow the energy and meaning of the affirmations to merge with your consciousness. Affirmations and ideas that do not resonate, drop away. Integrating/Embodying Affirmations support us in knowing more deeply — integrating — what we have learned rather than introducing new information.

Examples:

I integrate trust into every aspect of my life.

I breathe love into my job, my body, my relationships.

Yes to Life!

Today is an opportunity for peace.

I breathe in abundance, letting my whole body feel its energy.


Affirmations as Lifestyle

As you work more and more with intentional affirmations — written, spoken, read, chanted, meditated upon — you will make them part of your lifestyle. Affirmations are already working for (or against!) you. It is your job to select the ones you want to live by. Remember, you are already using affirmations every time you think or speak! If your current affirmations are disempowering, you can intentionally change them to ones that you choose to live by.

? 1993-2006 Marshall House. Jeanie Marshall, Empowerment Consultant and Coach, produces Guided Meditations on CD albums and MP3 downloads and writes extensively on subjects related to personal development and empowerment. She is the author of the well-known DailyAffirm Process available free to the Internet, subscribe join-dailyaffirm@lyris.dundee.net
http://www.dailyaffirm.com

Filed Under: Affirmations Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,