Extracting Negative Stressers

We are fairly well immersed in the BlogAlong Workshop. Hopefully most of you have found your mind screen & understand the importance of it, for without it, we tend to stay where we are, or are pushed by the winds of the moment. We are interested in achieving our chosen goals & as quickly as possible. There is no time to be blown here & there.

ABOUT STRESS

Questions always arise about stress. After all, we don't live in a vacuum, nor in a controlled environment. However, if we don't have a plan for managing stressors & especially for being aware of them, we are lost as far as goal achievement is concerned, because there will always be stress in our lives. We will always have too much to do. There will always be interruptions & the tendency towards chaos. It's simply the way things work. It is interesting to observe people who achieve at high levels, including multiple projects. There are some that fall apart & end up in some sort of rehab, but there are many who don't. How do they do this & still remain at such a high level of performance. Of course, many have professional help, but even that doesn't stop addiction issues.

In my experience working with professional athletes, performers & highly pressured people from all walks of life, I've found that education is the first step. The more one understands, the easier it becomes to self-manage.

Here's some things that my clients/patients have found important to know. Stress accelerates when thoughts & emotions are not well tended. The same holds true whether you are a professional, a parent, or a child. 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 the BlogAlong Workshop you are learning how to clean & clear the chemical storage. In addition, you are learning how to manage your thoughts, your 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. If you are working in my books, or with any of my CD/mp3 programs, you have 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. If you are not working with my book or programs, go to the Boot Camp on my websites & there you will find information about doing so.

The tools on your belt allow you to manage disorderly eating, addictions, emotions, thoughts & positive desires, right in the moment, as well as in every other nook & cranny of your life. As you become more skilled, so will others who surround you, including your employees, colleagues, friends & family. Remember, you are a life-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. You have already learned this by relaxing deeply, entering the egg shape & locating the mind screen. 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.

NEW TO THE WORKSHOP?

Welcome back to the BlogAlong Self-Development Workshop. This online workshop follows my books/programs including Sugar....the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It, Beyond Disorderly Eating, the Mind & Body Fitness Boot Camp, Stop Nail Biting Now: 4 Steps to Success, as well as many of my CD/mp3 programs. If you are new to the Workshop, please read the early entries because this is like any other workshop you might attend. If you are late, there are things you have missed that will interfere with your understanding of the process for the attainment of high level health & performance.

The BlogAlong workshop is both didactic & interactive. The latter