New Brainwave Entrainment DVD: The Fractal Meditation System

Posted on by Tammy

Brainwave-Sync produces and sells music for consciousness exploration and therapy, such as meditation, relaxation and anxiety relief in a variety of forms, including CDs, DVDs, MP3s and video downloads. One of their products available on DVD is “The Fractal Meditation System,” which utilizes an innovative form of technology called brainwave entertainment.

The best part is you can get the DVD for free when you purchase two or more CDs on the website!

“The aim of brainwave entrainment is to induce the brain into a specific targeted brainwave frequency. EEG recordings show that there are different types of brainwaves each working on a different ‘frequency’,” according to the Brainwave-Sync website. “It is interesting to realize that the brain produces different brainwave frequencies depending upon its current activity. Brainwave entertainment is the process of using sound to synchronize brainwaves with a desired frequency.”

As a result, individuals can listen to alpha frequencies to reduce stress, beta frequencies to increase concentration, delta frequencies to induce sleep and theta frequencies to enter altered states of consciousness.

For more information, visit: http://www.brainwave-sync.com/.

Five Tips for Empowered Living

Posted on by Tammy

Keri Nola, MA, LMHC
NOTE: Picture of Keri Nola by Monica Alfonso

Did you know that many of us walk around giving our power away without even realizing it? I spent more than 20 years of my life wondering why I could never seem to get a grip on my sanity, and why I often felt anxious, depressed and dissatisfied, even though the exterior trimmings of my life indicated that I “should” be happy.

After much inner work and exploration, I discovered the absence of joy in my life stemmed from my unconscious choice to hand the power of my happiness over to others…family, friends, partners, bosses, you name it, everyone, except ME was responsible for why my life wasn’t where I wanted it in any given moment. Uh oh! No wonder I was often miserable!

What I know for sure is that until we know better, we walk around abandoning our power on a daily basis. This happens in our language when we say things like, “I HAVE to go to this ridiculous meeting,” or, “SHE/HE MADE me feel bad!” as opposed to “I’m choosing” to go to this meeting and “I” felt bad when I heard him/her say that to me. It shows up in our behaviors when we agree to do things we don’t really want to do, or on the contrary, when we keep ourselves from doing things we want to do. It also shows up in our thoughts when we believe our misery is anyone’s fault but our own.

These patterns are supported by many cultures and keep us stuck feeling victimized and out of control. When we are ready to feel empowered, we have to pull up our adult pants, take ownership in our lives by releasing our victim mentalities, and choose accountability for the ways we have gotten ourselves wherever we are (this does not, however, mean taking ownership for other people’s choices, behaviors, or actions toward you) and where we will go next.

Have you decided that you’ve let others run your life long enough? Are you ready to get out of everyone else’s business and back into your own? If so, here are five tips you may find helpful to support you in moving forward and living the life you deserve. They can be used in a general sense or in specific situations. Try one, practice it and see how it resonates with you. Remember that change is a process, and it’s helpful when we honor our efforts and compassionately meet ourselves where we are each step of the way.

1 — Breathe. The breath is our most powerful antidote to stressful feelings. Close your eyes and intentionally inhale and exhale, allowing yourself to return home to your highest self within.

2 — Identify feelings. Ask yourself, what am I feeling? Then name the feelings that come up. We have a lot of feeling words and yet there are only four core feelings and then varying degrees of their experience…happy, sad, mad, scared. Which resonates with you?

3 — Start with “I.” Empowerment means staying at home inside ourselves. We cannot be present with our power when we are outside of ourselves talking about “you” and “them” and “her” and “him.” Watch your language. Mindfully begin your sentences with “I” (this includes internal and external dialogue) and ensure that you own each feeling, need, thought and behavior that you may be having in reaction to others.

4 — Identify needs. Now that you have identified your feelings and claimed them, what do you need? If you are sad, do you need comfort? If you are mad, do you need understanding? If you are scared, do you need reassurance? Once you identify your need, decide how YOU can meet it. Too often, we wait for others to give us what we need. But when we can comfort, understand and reassure ourselves, we take our power back and connect with others out of want versus need—that, my friends is true love!

5 — Take ownership of your part. Blaming others, is the single most disempowered position we put ourselves in. Simply put, STOP BLAMING. Others are responsible for THEIR thoughts, feelings and behaviors, and WE are solely responsible for how we react to what we witness and experience with others. When we breathe, identify our feelings and needs, and speak from “I,” we take ownership of ourselves and we walk through the doorway of freedom…welcome to your empowered life!

If this was easy, we would have done it a long time ago, right? Spiritual and emotional growth and development require our intention and a deep knowing that we deserve peace, love, joy and abundance. Here’s to our mindful transition back home to our Divine power!

Keri Nola is author of “A Year on Your Path to Growth: Daily Inspirations to Reconnect with Your Soul,” and founder of Path to Growth LLC, a Central Florida-based integrative healing center that blends traditional and holistic techniques for journeys to peace. As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Nola provides psychotherapy and facilitates therapeutic retreats for those seeking to reconnect with their inner wisdom, particularly after trauma or loss. She also offers heart-inspired business consultations for healthcare professionals. For more information visit www.pathtogrowth.com, on Facebook and Twitter @pathtogrowth.

Demi Lovato on Meditation and Giving Up Her Cell Phone

Posted on by Tammy

Interviewed for Self Magazine, singer and X-Factor judge Demi Lovato, who has battled anxiety, an eating disorder and self-harming, explained she has learned how to take care of herself and live a healthier lifestyle.

“I make time for myself and meditate. I’ve spent the past two years getting over an eating disorder and issues like self-harming and bipolar disorder. I have to work on this stuff every day. I’m reminded of that whenever I eat or feel down,” she told the magazine.

Additionally, she admits she hasn’t used her cell phone in three months. “Subconsciously, it was a crutch. When a room gets quiet, what do you do? Grab your phone! Now I can sit and have conversations with people,” she said.

“The Mindful Child” by Susan Kaiser Greenland

Posted on by Tammy

Susan Kaiser Greenland left a successful law practice behind to create a program called InnerKids, which is affiliated with the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA, teaching children mindfulness practices. Based on this program, she wrote the book “The Mindful Child: How to Help Your Kid Manage Stress and Become Happier, Kinder and More Compassionate.”

The Mindful Child offers skills for children four to 18 years old, and includes age-appropriate exercises, songs, games and fables that the author developed to help build kids’ inner and outer awareness and attention. This can positively affect their academic performance, and social and emotional skills, such as making friends, being compassionate and kind to others and playing sports.

The book also provides tools to manage stress and overcome challenges such as insomnia, overeating, ADHD, hyper-perfectionism, anxiety and chronic pain.

For more information, visit http://www.susankaisergreenland.com.

Best-selling Author Stephen R. Covey Dies at 79

Posted on by Tammy

His family reported his death as the result of “residual effects” of an April bicycling accident, Deseretnews.com reported.

“He had a bike accident in April and he’s been weakening since,” his son Sean Covey said in the report. “We didn’t think he would go so soon, but he, all of the sudden, woke up and wasn’t feeling well.”

In his book “Spiritual Roots,” published in the 1970s, Covey stated:

“The roots of the problems we face in the world, in our national life and in our family and personal lives, are spiritual. The symptomatic manifestations (branches) of these problems are social, economic and political, but the roots are moral and spiritual. And they lie first within each individual and then within the family. Since the problems are rooted spiritually, the solutions are also. To not accept and act on this face is comparable to giving aspirin for headaches and covering sores with bandages. We must work on the causes, the roots.”

In the past, Time magazine named Covey one of the 25 Most Influential Americans. His book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” sold more than 20 million copies in 38 languages, according to the report. He also founded the Cover Leadership Center, which merged with Franklin Quest in 1997 to form FranklinCovey Co., a company focused on leadership, strategy and individual effectiveness.

Regular Exercise & Meditation Can Reduce Cold/Flu Infections

Posted on by Tammy

New research shows regular exercise or meditation may be among the best ways to reduce acute respiratory infections, such as the common cold or flu, according to a study published in the July/August issue of Annals of Family Medicine, HealthDay reported.

Researchers studied 149 active and sedentary adults aged 50 and older, to compare the preventative effects of moderate exercise and mindful meditation on the severity of respiratory infections. They found those participants who started a daily exercise routine had fewer bouts of respiratory infections and missed fewer days of work, and those doing mindfulness meditation were more protected against illness.

“The results are remarkable; we saw a 40 to 50 percent reduction in respiratory infections,” said Dr. Bruce Barrett, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the lead author of the study.

While the study uncovered an association between the mind and body activities and less instances of illness, it did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

“My thinking is that mindfulness meditation would reduce perceived stress and that exercise would work through more physiological pathways [to improve] the immune system,” Barrett said in the report.

The study involved mostly white women who were not already meditating or doing moderate exercise more than once a week, and they were broken into three groups – no change to habits; an eight-week program of moderate exercise, such as running or biking; and only mindfulness meditation, which included yoga, stretching, walking and other activities.

During the cold and flu season, the results showed those who meditated had 27 episodes of acute respiratory illness and a combined total of 257 days of illness; those who exercised had 241 sick days and 26 episodes; and those who did not change their habits had 40 episodes and 453 sick days.

The meditation group lost 16 days of work to illness, the exercise group lost 32, and the group that did not change their habits missed 67 days.

The numbers all suggested that exercise and meditation reduce respiratory illness, Barrett said. “This trial convinced me that they worked,” he explained.

The study also suggested that when individuals in the meditation group did fall ill, they seemed to suffer less and feel sick for less amount of time.