Beginning Emotional & Thought Management

Stress accelerates when thoughts & emotions are not well tended. The same holds true for parents & kids. In addition, when nutrition is out of balance, food-stress accelerates. We need to embrace the knowledge that stress chemical production is not simple, nor is it temporary. When stress occurs, be it from emotions, thoughts, real happenings, or food, chemical remnants are dispensed to all the organs of the body, leading to many chronic & serious diseases.

Throughout this book & workshop you are learning how to clean & clear the chemical storage. In addition, you are learning how to manage your thoughts & emotions at higher levels, while placing new mind programs into your subconscious mind.

TOOL BELT

Interactive Awareness is the overarching umbrella for the many wake-up tools you are learning. In the last chapter you worked with mental biofeedback, also known as body scanning. Now that you have experience with cell manager communication, you are ready for your next tool, that of emotional & thought management. You will also meet up with the emotional crayons that color your experiences.

The tools on your belt allow you to manage disorderly eating & addictions, right in the moment, as well as in every other nook & cranny of your life. As you become more skilled, so will your kids. Remember, you are a parent-mentor & they are observing & learning from everything you present, whether it be directed to them or simply applied to your own life.

Remind yourself that your problems are not singular entities. They have many facets, all needing management. Learning to work interactive awareness will move right you out of automatic pilot, into the moment where new choices are always available in your subconscious filing system.

There are many benefits to working with mind tools. For example, the skill of interactive awareness allows you to practice the art of detachment from the presenting moment & emotions. In detachment you are no longer participating in the moment, but you are coming to it as an observer. As an observer, you are able to look very closely at what is unfolding, just as if you were the producer/director of this very moment in time. You are no longer the actor who is participating in the momentary event.

It is key to understand that your subconscious mind responds very differently to this mental/physiological shift. For a start, stress chemicals are turned down as the physiology waits for emotional direction. From the position of producer/director, it is much easier to take off your self-judging eyeglasses. You can choose to see this moment in time through clearer, more beneficial lenses. The producer/director’s job is to see all the details, so changes can be made and the production will be successful.

And just like the producer/director, you cannot change things you cannot see. As you observe closely without judging, your own subconscious mind will send up the necessary details. Once you learn to work with interactive self-hypnosis, you will find that these very details hold powerful creative ideas for taking you towards your goals. Learning to live in the moment is very beneficial, and just like anything else the more your practice, the higher your level of mind and body functioning.

MIND EXERCISE

Adults tend to learn mind management tools best with small spoonfuls. Begin by choosing a chair for your interactive awareness work. You might like to try out a few chairs. Be certain that it is comfortable & located in a place where you can have quiet and privacy. As you sit in each chair, close your eyes gently, taking in a big yawn breath, allowing your body to sink into the surface of the chair. How does it feel to you? Your subconscious mind will let you know if it’s a good choice.

You might think about having one chair at home & another at work. You may even choose somewhere outside of your home & workplace. Some people have a particular park bench, or even their car. I know one man who parks his car in a beautiful spot, then gets in the back seat. So open your mind & look around for what suits you best.

The actual physical practice of interactive awareness is very simple, but the inner happenings are very complex. You are actually changing your internal body chemistry, thereby altering your heart function, blood pressure, hormonal & neurological system balance, immune system function, not to mention the memory storage of your own subconscious mind.

In the actual moments of practicing, you are etching new mind programs, teaching your mind and body how to work together in new ways. Some of these new ways will be placed in an automatic pilot program, keeping your body in balance or homeostasis. There is no right or wrong way to do the practice. Each time you practice, the experience will be different because you are involved in a living process.

I’m going to ask you to read through this material in small chunks, then close your eyes, doing the small exercise right now. Later on you can re-read this as you work to build your skills. Just as you did when practicing mental biofeedback, make yourself comfortable in your chair, sitting up straight, head nicely positioned on your neck, feet flat on the floor. You might like to take in a big yawn breath, letting it out slowly as you learned earlier. This is always a good beginning for interactive awareness practice. You are centering, or settling in.

Now it’s time to slow the brain waves a bit more. Remember that the faster the brain waves, the faster the thoughts, the more stress chemicals produced. There are many great ways to slow the brain waves. I call these deepening tools. I’ll give you some here, and as you continue through the book you will obtain more of them. You already learned a few in the earlier chapter.

Calling in the numbers is one of these. In fact, practice that again now. With your eyes closed, tilt them up about twenty-degrees, just as if you were sitting in the second row of a movie theater, focusing your attention on your mind screen. Start with the number four, having it come in slowly towards you, remembering that imaging is different than seeing with your eyes opened. Follow the arrival of the four with the three coming in gently, working with the numbers that follow.

I like to use other senses as well for deepening. Take a moment, locating the sound of silence. It has a particular resonance. Even if there is noise all around you, silence is there in-between the noises. This is a particularly powerful tool for mothers with young children, as well as for those working in a noisy environment. Once you have located the silence, stay with it for a few minutes. Your mind will wander, so gently bring it back to the silence. Think of silence as an object. Each time you bring your wandering attention back, allow your body to go deeper into the chair where you are sitting.

You can also deepen by doing a body scan. Start at the top of your head, working your way down, noticing what body parts have something to say. As you go downwards, invite your body to go deeper into the chair, as if magnets were pulling you down.

Remember you are not looking to become unconscious. Your goal is to quiet your mind and body. Then you will move to position of observer of thoughts, emotions and connected body sensations.

Leading the Parade & Mind Etching

It's not easy to talk to already stressed-out parents about planning, especially if the planning is for themselves. In regards to family, parents tend to place themselves last. Women are especially prone to this bad habit & so this is the first area that needs to change. From now on forward, parents come to the front of the parade.....the leadership position! ...
Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht

ON BECOMING SELF-LEADERS

Without good leadership, it's impossible to win. If you want your children to have healthy lifestyle behaviors, you must be willing to lead them in all aspects. One becomes a great leader by paying close attention to all details, including the minute ones. In the realm of high level nutrition & optimum performance, planning is vital. Nothing good & lasting can happen when there is disorder or when one lives with their head in the sand.

Some of the things I'm going to tell you are simple, but they need to be mind-etched in most of us, myself included. First, you do need to know what your body needs & you must have it available. If not, how can you provide it? If you are self-honest, you will certainly recognize this pattern, for I find it many times over with patients in my practice. It has nothing to do with one's intelligence or success at work. It is just a matter of fact. Most people do not take care of themselves properly & for some reason do not think that it matters very much. This is a huge mistake. The statistics in the early chapter prove this out.

MIND EXERCISE

Mentally visit your refrigerator and cupboards right now.
How prepared are you to provide what you need for today or until you plan to shop again?

Do you know what your body needs?

Are your meals going to enjoyable or just thrown together, as if YOU didn't matter?

How much stress is coming your way today? Have you taken this into consideration?

If your answers are "no" to these questions, go back to the earlier chapters & read carefully. This is the moment to underscore & to learn. Also visit your family & personal medical history & think about the diseases or addictions you are responsible for managing due to your genetics.

Once you fully understand & etch this into your mind, it will become second nature for you to take care of yourself at the highest levels. Your subconscious mind is now understanding that these things are important & that you want to go towards health. Once a goal is understood subconsciously, the mind will help to put a plan in place, as well as motivate you towards it.

BECOMING SELF-OBSERVING

Success is found in your quantity & quality of self-observation. Only then can you know what needs to change & can begin to work the changes in small, but important increments. It’s usually a matter of many small changes that are just like pennies. They add up!

MEET JENNIE

I'm always in a hurry, running from one activity to another, paying little attention to what I'm doing in the moment. This has become habitual & I've found that it can be very dangerous, especially when caring for my children or driving. But now I'm finding the danger in relation to my self-care. I've come to learn that if I don't pay attention now, I'm going to be in trouble down the path, as I'm already sensing problems with both my mind & body. Here are some things I haven't paid attention to in the past & that I'm in process of changing with the help of the program steps and tools.

My meals are scheduled events in my daily life.

My food choices are designed to manage my blood sugar levels.

My refrigerator and cupboards have everything I need to meet my needs and those of my family.

Absent from the above are all the binge foods that bring trouble, now & in the future, to myself & my family.

Jennie has moved from the back of the parade to the position of parade leader. The above statements are actually subconscious mind commitments that will lead to further commitments, therefore a higher level of health & performance. When a commitment is placed subconsciously, it takes on a life of it's own, rather like a plant with an underground root system. The roots become motivators that connect with other areas in life. We'll learn more about this inner-gardening a bit later in this work.