Mark Waldman: NeuroWisdom 101: 58 Ways to Transform Your Brain

Posted on by Tammy

By Jennifer McCartney

Did you know it takes less than 60 seconds to improve your mood, lower stress, reduce anxiety and increase work productivity?

Mark Waldman, bestselling author of “How God Changes Your Brain,” and one of the world’s leading experts on spirituality, consciousness and the brain, shared some of the most powerful brain-changing strategies — those he teaches to MBA students at Loyola Marymount University and to organizations around the world, during the “Living an Elevated Existence Mind, Body & Soul Summit Season 2,” to help listeners reduce stress, and live a better, more relaxed life.

Mark shared:

The three fastest ways to relax
The most dangerous word in the world
A single word that will turn on 1200 stress-reducing genes
Why meditating LESS is better for your brain

“If you have too much stress, you are eight times more likely to come down with cardiovascular disease. Stress is the No. 1 enemy of the world health organization,” he told listeners. The key to reducing that stress — backed by enormous amounts of scientific research, is mindfulness. “This is the only strategy that is the most effective for dealing with virtually every kind of form of stress,” said Waldman, noting it can even act as a cancer preventive and help in the treatment of cancer. “That’s how powerful mindfulness is,” he said.

The problem is even though we know the benefits of mindfulness, “most of us in the business world will not spend even five minutes on meditation,” he said. Most of us just can’t find the time in our day to meditate regularly. But luckily, studies have shown that just 20 minutes of meditation are as effective as 40 minutes of meditation—and Waldman discovered that even just 12 minutes has the same positive results!

“We are talking about meditating for one minute every hour throughout the workday,” he said.

During that one minute, we can do simple mindfulness exercises to center and reconnect, including taking a full 60 seconds to slowly roll our neck in a circle. This alerts us to all the areas of tension we are carrying, and helps to dissolve them. Even yawning — starting with a forced yawn, and then yawning 10 times in a row — can bring us to a very relaxed state, Walman explained.

He also shared how to find one word that will turn on stress-reducing genes in our body — and this can be different for everyone. After getting into a more relaxed state, whether yawning, meditating or doing a mindfulness exercise — Waldman teaches many — we can ask ourselves: “What is your deepest value?” Write down the first word that comes to mind on a piece of paper. This one word that you discover after your minute of yawning, stretching, etc. can help you focus in your meditation, relax quickly and reduce stress.

“We now have evidence that the word you come up with…will turn on 1,200 stress reducing genes,” said Waldman

Additionally, 90 percent of Waldman’s students reported their stress levels went down and their work productivity went up after performing one of the mindfulness exercises Waldman shared on the call. These include:

1. Yawning: One of the quickest ways to relax is to yawn—so if you can “fake” 10 yawns you might feel awkward for the first few, but after that you’ll feel relaxed. With each yawn, notice how your awareness changes. “With each yawn that you take…you’ll notice that all of your worries and fears and concerns about yesterday or about tomorrow begin to fade away. As your brain and your mind relaxes, you end up coming into the present moment more and more. And it’s very pleasant. Yawning actually wakes you up,” said Waldman.

2. Stretch slowly: Take time to roll your neck, or your shoulders, and feel how your body reacts as you slowly bring the blood flow back to your body and release areas of tension. By engaging your muscles and focusing on how your body feels, you’ll be increasing awareness of your physical body and getting closer to that self-awareness.

3. Self-nurturing: Take a moment and be kind to yourself. “Touch your fingers and the palms of your hands, tickle and stroke them with your other fingers the way that gives you the most amount of pleasure,” advised Waldman. Your skin is part of the nervous system and all systems in your body are interconnected. So if you can do this one minute per day, or a few times per day, you can help make yourself feel better.

Waldman explained the science behind the yawn, stretch, self-nurture meditation: The more pleasure you feel, the more dopamine is released by your brain. It’s the feel good hormone—so if you want to raise your consciousness or increase your spiritual awareness, “take a few seconds to slowly stretch, take a few more seconds to yawn…and add self-touch. You will find you enter these blissful states.”

The application of this one-minute meditation isn’t just limited to a quick way to relax at your work desk. He advised it can be practiced before a big meeting, or before you have to give a speech or appear on stage, and it can also be used in interpersonal relationships—if you’re having relationship issues just take a moment to stretch and yawn and reground your awareness.

He also recommended downloading a mindfulness bell app, and setting it to ring every hour. The one-minute break you take is the perfect opportunity to do a mindfulness exercises.

“And once an hour, ask yourself this question: what is your deepest most innermost value,” he said.

For more from Mark and the other 25 experts in mind, body and spirit topics, sign up FREE to Season 2 of the Living an Elevated Existence Summit.

Jeddah Mali: Shifting the Paradigm

Posted on by Tammy

By Jennifer McCartney

What if there was a new way of looking at the world? So that instead of always trying to address the physical manifestation of our problems we could see where they originated—see the secret energy that caused these problems to manifest. Well, we can learn a new way of looking at the world. CEO and founder of Global Paradigm Ltd, Jeddah Mali joined Tammy Mastroberte, founder of Elevated Existence Magazine for the ““Living an Elevated Existence Mind, Body & Soul Summit Season 2,” to explain how we can transform our understanding of the world in order to lead better, happier lives.

Most of our experience is with physical, mental, and emotional health. But this is not enough to be a healthy and happy human being, according to Mali. We need to factor in our spiritual health, our existential health, and once we learn to see this underlying structure, we can begin to work with the life and the universe rather than against it.

Modalities, such as meditation and yoga can be helpful, they don’t necessarily give us access to bigger picture, she explained. Instead of trying to address the physical manifestations of our issues (whether it’s stress, relationship issues, or financial problems) we need to address the real root cause.

“There is a structural skeleton to life and this is how life is built,” Mali told listeners. “Everything works off this central principal, but we don’t see it because we’re focused on what is built on top of it. Never having known about it, you don’t know to look for it. We’re so geared towards our five physical senses, we neglect to develop our sixth sense.”

Without developing our sixth sense, it’s hared for us to realize and understand what we are missing, she said. “The structural mechanics [of life and existence] are being overlooked, when in fact, they are the only element that can unify us and bring us to a place of wholeness and unification,” Mali noted. “We get caught up in the diversity of form and forget that it all comes from a single source.”

Once we turn our attention away from the physical manifestation, we can quite readily discern the hidden layer underneath, including “emotional forms, mental forms, heart forms and beyond,” she said. “I refer to it as existence. I like the plain, mechanical name for things…in its purest form its energy.” This isn’t to be confused with consciousness, however, which is growing and developing. Existence “is the all of it.”

Changing the Paradigm
So how do we learn to see this hidden structure and begin to change our lives? The starting point is always to “see” the design, and connect with the energy beneath all the manifestations we see in our lives.

“For most people that’s something that is completely new to them,” said Mali. Once we see what lies at the heart of existence, we can begin to create with intention. “Once we realize we’re doing the creating, we can create something else,” she explained. And it all starts with our thoughts.

“Just think of a continuous sea of energy — all these billions of subatomic particles, and the only thing that can move that energy is the input of thought. So where we place our attention…will temporarily cluster energy, which becomes a thought, which becomes emotion, which becomes a physical sensation,” she said.

Every time we think a certain thought it gives us an emotional, physical experience. When we start to recognize our thoughts and put intention behind them, we can being to see our old patters of thinking and being melt away, Mail explained.

“Existence isn’t cruel or perverse in that design–that’s how it works. As we enter into these misunderstandings, this discomfort brings us awake and makes us question a better way and ultimately serves a better purpose,” she said.

Kelley Kosow: Defying Gravity: Discover the Power of Your Shadow

Posted on by Tammy

By Jennifer McCartney

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Our shadows, whether we realize it or not, dictate the quality of our lives, impacting our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, actions, inactions and choices. They determine the amount of success, love, joy, abundance and confidence we will or will not realize. When we deny our shadows and hide the parts of ourselves that we deem inappropriate or do not like or want to be, we whittle away at our full self-expression.

Kelley Kosow, life coach and chief creative officer and faculty member at The Ford Institute for Transformational Training, founded by New York Times bestselling author Debbie Ford, joined Tammy Mastroberte, founder of Elevated Existence Magazine for the “Living an Elevated Existence Mind, Body & Soul Summit Season 2,” to explain how we can bring the light of awareness and compassion to our shadow selves and improve all areas of our lives.

“The shadow is the parts of ourselves that we don’t want to be, that we try to hide, that we deem inappropriate,” Kosow told listeners. “Little by little, we begin to whittle away parts of ourselves. Our concept is based on wholeness—it’s about being able to live to the full expression and the full range of who you are.”

So how do we develop these shadows, and where do they come from? Kosow explained our shadows are often something we develop very young. When we’re upset, or we don’t know how to handle an event, we blame it on ourselves and become shameful. We unconsciously choose to hide those parts of ourselves away. For example, if a child stutters in school, they might come to believe they are stupid, and then they try and hide that they are stupid for everyone around them. Or, it could be as a child, if our parents are divorced and we never see our father. Our shadow self tells us we are unlovable. Then as we grow up we keep attracting events, people and situations to ourselves to prove this point right.

“It creates self-sabotage,” she said. “So it’s the seven-year-old that’s running your life, not the mature adult because you’re going back to that place when the shadow belief was created.” So even though our shadows are living in the outskirts of our conscious mind, they’re actually running the operating system of our conscious mind. “It’s there even though you don’t realize it, impacting every aspect of your daily life,” she explained.

These shadow selves we refuse to own can manifest themselves in many ways in our adult lives, sabotaging us and popping up at the worst time and in the worst way. Kosow shared an example of a public figure with a shadow — Elliott Spitzer, the governor of New York.

“My favorite all time example is Elliot Spitzer who went around trying to rid New York City of prostitution . . . and then was caught with a prostitute. So that’s a perfect example of a shadow quality.”

We often create an opposite persona of our shadow to cover it up, she explained. “We put so much energy in the denial of it,” she said. But we are not healing that wound until we learn to embrace the shadow and find the gift hidden within it. “Every quality has a gift to it,” she told listeners, even those we believe are negative or undesirable. And we possess all of them — all the qualities we don’t like in others exist within us, and we want to develop a loving relationship with them so they can’t sabotage or hinder us.

We might think we don’t want to be nasty, angry or a failure, but there is a gift in all of these qualities. If we let go and embrace these qualities, we can be more whole and authentic. If we let go and embrace failure, for example, we can see failure allows us to leave a bad marriage or allows us to leave a job we don’t want—both which offer positive outcomes.

“At the end of the day, we’re here to evolve,” Kosow explained. “The shadow is here to show you you so you can be who you are and live a fuller life and an authentic life.”

Kosow shared three steps to finding and embracing our shadow selves:

1. Unconceal — We have to know what our shadows are so the first step is to unconceal them. “I love when I find a shadow because I know on the other side of that shadow is freedom,” said Kosow.

We can look to the outside world to see what our triggers might be. What aggravates us about someone? The world is our mirror and is there to teach us, and because we can’t see ourselves we need other people to show us. If we are triggered by someone, we are reacting to a part of ourselves. “Anything you judge in others is is probably something you have yourself,” she said.

2. Own It — Say, “I am that.” So if we see someone that’s abusive—verbally or physically, we should examine our own actions. We may not be physically or emotionally abusive, but it may manifest itself differently. We may be self-abusive. “Every time I had a cookie when I was on a diet, or beat myself up for not being perfect, that’s abusive,” said Kosow. The quality may manifest itself very differently than the trait we see in another person. We may not be a “cheater” in the sense that we are unfaithful in your marriage, but we may cheat ourselves

3. Embrace It — Here is where we embrace and find the gift within the shadow. How does that quality actually serve you? For example, maybe not wanting to be a cheater may make you brutally honest. Or it may make you incredibly loyal. If you’re judgmental that shadow quality may make you a more discerning person and help you from being taken advantage of in life. If you feel unlovable, you may go to the other extreme and prove how lovable you are, and the gift in that is you’re helping other people, you have a lot of compassion for people, or you’ll have really good friends. “That’s what we call embracing the gift,” she said.

The outer world is a reflection of our own world, Kelley concluded. “If you only own 50 percent of yourself you’re only manifesting 50 percent of the real world. If you can own all of who you are, that’s when you’re open to manifesting everything,” she said. Once we have embraced 100 percent of our own potential, that’s what we will be able to create in the outer world. “

You can say to me, ‘Kelley you’re a bitch.’ And I say, ‘Yeah, I know,’” she said. “There’s a gift in everything and owning those shadows can only make us more whole.”

Paul Scheele: Align Your Mind & Body

Posted on by Tammy

By Jennifer McCartney

With the breakthrough technology of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and whole brain learning you can improve any aspect of your life – even while you are sleeping. Author, co-founder of Learning Strategies Corp., and founder of Scheele Learning Systems, Paul R. Scheele, Ph.D., joined Tammy Mastroberte, founder of Elevated Existence Magazine, for the “Living an Elevated Existence Mind, Body & Soul Summit Season 2,” to teach us how we can reprogram our brains to reach our highest potential.

Scheele explained we’ve all been preprogrammed—often in a negative way—by society, which dictates how we feel about ourselves, our work and our relationships. Most of us don’t question this programming, and we just accept it unquestioningly.

“We’re often stopped from exploring and developing our true genius as we become adults,” he said. “We get through school, and we are programmed into what’s called ‘the socialized mind.’”

Sheele compared the preprogrammed brain to a computer that’s been infected with a virus. “We were raised to be obedient to the society that raised us, and we have accepted many of our programs unquestioningly,” he said. Maybe we now believe we’re bad at math, or that we can’t lose weight, or that we’ll never find a job. These become our default settings, and our brains don’t even try to solve the problem.

“We try to use the stuff we were given and when it doesn’t work we think, ‘oh I’m broken,’ or we look at society, and we think that society’s broken,” he noted. What we need is to identify the virus in our mind or the pre-programming we have accepted, and get rid of it. We can reprogram the brain using a variety of tools, including NLP so that our brain functions differently—more productively, and more in line with our highest self.

We all need to start by asking: “What are the voices in your head telling you?” said Scheele.

Rather than get stuck in what he called “the socialized mind,” we can become the author of our own mind, which Scheele calls “the self-authoring mind,” and ultimately, we can progress to what developmental psychologists call “the self-transforming mind.”

“That’s what we’re really encouraging here … people not just authoring their minds, but learning to transform their lives,” he explained. “We can make profound changes in our lives almost instantaneously.”

Three Brain Tools
In order to reprogram out brain, we need to understand how it works. The brain runs on three things:

1.Concentration or focus. This is what we focus on during our daily lives. If we’re meditating and focusing on breaking old thought patterns, our brain will respond accordingly. If we’re spending all our time focusing on the same old thought patterns—that’s our brain running on default. We can choose what we focus on.

2. Imagination. Our brain will create what it is that we focus our attention on. We need to step into this full representation of what we imagine. If we can “see” it in our mind’s eye we can transform it into reality.

3. Suggestion. This is what we suggest to ourselves or the suggestions we receive from others. For example, if we are in an abusive marriage where we are told that we’re worthless, not good enough, not worthy of love over and over, then we learn to accept that as the truth. Even if we escape we still have these programs running in your brain—these suggestions need to be deprogrammed. “Anytime anyone says ‘I can’t,’ they’re right. They’re absolutely programming that,” said Scheele.

The brain responds to these three powerful tools, but most of us don’t actually access the full power and potential our brains possess. We cruise along, instead of using the built in “turbochargers” that can get us where we need to go. In order to rise to the next stage of consciousness, “we have to subject our ideas to inquiry,” Scheele said. “You get more of what you reinforce.”

Once we’ve begun to positively program your brain and use it at its full potential, and are able to move into the self-authoring and self-transforming mind, we’ll find ourselves interacting differently in our family systems, work systems, and even in our church or community. We will find ourselves naturally assuming a leadership role. We will feel more self-confidence because we believe in ourselves, because that is how we are programmed.

“The change is coming from within you,” he said. “It’s not an act of willpower. It feels natural.”

Arielle Ford: Attract Your Soulmate

Posted on by Tammy

By Jennifer McCartney

Have you ever wondered what it takes to find the love of your life? Is it your dream to find a life-partner who will love, cherish and adore you? Arielle Ford, author of the bestselling book “The Soulmate Secret” has been called, “The Cupid of Consciousness” and “The Fairy Godmother of Love,” and she shared her secrets to manifesting the love of your life — secrets she used to manifest her own soulmate at age 44, and has taught to countless people worldwide, as part of the “Living an Elevated Existence Mind, Body & Soul Summit Season 2,” including:

How to become a magnet for love
Techniques you can use to take control of your romantic destiny
Key steps to manifesting your soulmate
How to start preparing for your soulmate right now (it will help you attract him or her)

“I believe a soulmate is first and foremost somebody you can completely be yourself with,” Ford shared. “Somebody with who you share unconditional love, and someone who, when you look into their eyes, you feel like you’re home.”

Additionally, over the course of our lifetimes we have many soulmates — best friends, family members, coworkers and romantic partners — and there are a number of key steps we can take to attract a new romantic love soulmate. And we must be willing to put in a little time and effort.

She used the example of a single mother who was recently out of work. The mother would actively take steps to find another job. She would update her resume, go on interviews, and talk to others about finding a job. She wouldn’t be sitting at home saying “if it’s meant to be it will happen.” However, this is what most single women are doing when it comes to finding love. She encouraged people to get online, check out dating sites, ask friends for help, and put out into the universe the intention to find love.

Other barriers to finding love may be our own mental roadblocks or limited beliefs about it. “There are a lot of people locked into their story,” Ford shared, explaining sometimes women over 60 will get discouraged and quote statistics about how there are more women than men left in the dating pool. Or some women will tell themselves only once they lose weight will they find love. But Arielle’s mother-in-law found love online at age 80, and the average wedding dress size sold in the United States is a size 16, she said.

If you’re thinking you have to lose weight to find love, it isn’t true. You have to let go of that belief,” she said.

Step to Manifesting a Soulmate
Ford also shared the steps she used in order to find her own true love at the age of 44. They include:

Forgiveness — She decided to forgive herself for past relationships, and made a list of men who she’d judged as having done her wrong in some way, so she could forgive them as well. “Forgiving is not about forgetting what happened or condoning what happens, but it is about letting go,” she said.

Clarity — We need to be clear about what our heart and soul desires in a partner, which is not about making a shopping list, such as tall, blue eyes, athletic build, etc. It’s an honest assessment of what is important to us. To create her own list, Ford looked back at the men in her life and noted the qualities they had that she knew she wanted, and a list of things she didn’t want. The list can be as long or as short as you need it to be—it can be 10 or a 100 items, she said. Two important things that should be on everyone’s list are: “My soulmate is open, willing and available for a long-term committed, monogamous marriage or relationship.” And if we know we want children, that should be included as well. The second is to add “My soulmate already lives within 50 miles of my town or is willing to move,” unless we are looking to move as well.

She also recommends sitting down with a friend and reviewing the list so we get another perspective. For example, does he really need to be a CEO and concert-level pianist? Or can he be just an okay pianist? We want someone to question us as to whether the items on the list will contribute to our long-term happiness, and be sure we didn’t miss any deal breakers.

Release — Next, it’s time to release the list. This helps us become unattached to the outcome. Once Ford had her list, she wrote out another copy on nice stationary and burned it under the light of a new moon. To celebrate the release, she took herself out for lunch and ordered a glass of champagne—toasting her as yet unknown soulmate.

Vision Board — The final step is to create a vision board of your future. A collage of magazine clippings and images on a piece of poster board—a visual representation of the future you’re intending. We are not trying to manifest Brad Pitt or George Clooney, she explained, but rather a lifestyle. So include anything that evokes the feelings we are looking to manifest in a relationship, from a couple holding hands on a beach to a nice meal we would like to share together. This vision board helps focus our intentions and lets us manifest what our life together will look like.

Once we have all these steps completed, and we’ve created space for your future soulmate, the fun part begins. Now, Arielle said, “it’s a matter of waiting to see what the universe will bring you.”

For more from Ford and the other 25 experts in mind, body and spirit topics, sign up FREE to Season 2 of the Living an Elevated Existence Summit.

Susann Taylor Shier: Activate Your Soul Purpose to Heal Your Soul Challenges

Posted on by Tammy

If you are ready to unlock the resources needed to activate the power of authentic, soul level fulfillment, bestselling author, speaker, intuitive channel, spiritual counselor and founder of Soul Mastery™ Susan Taylor Shier joined Tammy Mastroberte, Founder of Elevated Existence Magazine as part of the “Living an Elevated Existence Mind, Body & Soul Summit Season 2,” to explain to how we can discover our own soul challenges and soul gifts to enhance our lives and increase our spiritual wealth. Shier explained how we can uncover our hidden soul challenges, connect with our intuitive guidance, and awaken the skill of soulful manifestation.

“I really wanted to find out why we as unique individuals have challenges that are special to us,” she said, describing the beginning of her journey. It started with her colicky newborn, who she discovered was reacting to some past trauma she brought into her current life. She calls these traumas “soul wounds,” and explained they create each person’s soul challenge. By discovering our challenged, we can grow and overcome situations in our life where we find ourselves stuck.

“Our soul wounds keep us bogged down in the physical world,” she said. “A soul wound manifests itself before we begin our earth incarnations. We bring our soul wounds with us into this lifetime. It can be a physical manifestation or it can be an area where you’re not moving forward in life,” she told listeners. “We have so many issues in our life and we always ask why? Why did I get breast cancer and no one else in my family did? Why am I in financial straights? Everything has a soul level wound root to it. When you recognize that then it’s much easier to take care of it.”

In addition to soul wounds, we also have soul gifts. “Our soul gift is a knowing deep inside us,” she noted. “When we operate from that gift, the whole universe can support us.” But these gifts, like our soul wounds, are also often ignored or go unrecognized, which can lead to a feeling of purposelessness or despair. We find a purposeful when we uncover our soul strengths and gifts, and release our soul challenges, she said, encouraging listeners to ask what truly brings them joy.

“If your soul is involved, you’ll feel alive and joyful and happy,” she said. It’s about getting in touch with our spirit and intuition and accessing the part of ourselves that knows anything is possible. “If we are making our choices based on our soul longing, we live from a soul-directed, choice-filled life.”

So how do we find our soul wounds and our soul gifts? “Start to look for our greatest longing and our greatest challenge.” Often our challenges and gifts are linked, she said, giving the example of someone whose soul gift was love, but struggled to find a loving relationship. The challenge is the finding love, so the soul gift is love. Once we start to honor our gifts, we can release the challenges.

To help release soul challenges she shared an exercise that can be done at home.

Focus on a part of your body. Ask that part of your body what’s going on. It may give you words or just a feeling. Ask it what it needs. It may need love, confidence. Then you go into your heart and get that resource for them—connect to that larger field of the universe. Expand into the universe to connect you with that sense of support, love, feeling better, hope is on the way, how that wants to show up for you right now. Expand into the light, into the universe, into the galaxy, feeling, sensing, seeing, that capacity of what this part of you that is in separation is longing for. Allow the restricted part of you to fill with light and love.

By getting in touch with our spirit and pouring it into our bodies, it means we’re flushing out anything we don’t need, and allowing ourselves to fill with joy rather than pain. “The old patterns just flush out,” she said. “Where my cells were holding the wound of separation…you start to pour aliveness into your body and your cells begin to change.” But if we don’t get to the soul wound of it, we’ll keep running into the same soul challenges.

“What it feels like we can’t get to in life will help us get to know that’s what we actually want more than anything,” she said. It starts by focusing on creating joy in our lives and in our bodies.