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2012年9月13日 星期四

Home Water Fountains and Waterfalls: A Multi-Sensory Approach to Reducing Stress


Here's an experiment. Take note of your stress and energy levels following one day spent doing what you normally do in a day, and then compare that to the stress and energy levels you experience at the end of a day spent in nature. The chances are favorable that you end your day in nature with less stress and more energy than you feel at the end of a typical day of work, school, errands, and other miscellaneous tasks. While the results of this experiment may seem obvious, you may be surprised to learn that much of our stress and lack of energy as a society comes from the very fact that we are constantly surrounded by noise.

From the moment we wake to the moment we fall asleep at night, our ears and brains are required to deal with a multitude of low frequency sounds that drain the brain of energy and cause stress. Low frequency noises include the ever-present hum of household appliances, the drone of the computer and fluorescent lights, and the din of traffic, large machinery, aircraft, and other everyday technologies. According to a January 2007 Consumer Reports: On Health article titled "Shhh! Everyday noise can be harmful," stress and lack of energy are only two of the negative effects that everyday noises can have on our bodies. In addition, everyday noises have been shown to contribute to sleep problems, lack of motivation, lower efficiency levels, decreased creativity, poor mood, and increased heart attack risk.

Counteracting the Negative Effects of Everyday Noises

Noise may not be the sole cause of the stress and other health issues we experience, but it is most certainly one source. The good news is that we can reduce, and even reverse, the negative effects that noise has on our brains and bodies through regular exposure to the higher frequency sounds found in nature.

Spending a day, or even part of a day, in nature provides our bodies and brains with a much needed relief from stress. Unfortunately, going out to nature on a daily basis is not always an option, so bringing nature sounds into your home is the practical solution. Listening to sound machines and audio recordings that feature babbling brooks, ocean waves, rain showers, bird songs, and other natural sounds is one option. These items are plentiful and easy to find at many retailers. However, home water fountains and waterfalls are often a preferred source for nature sounds because they offer a multi-sensory stress-relieving experience that sound machines and audio recordings are unable to provide.

The Benefits of Water Fountains and Waterfalls

Water fountains and waterfalls - which come in tabletop, wall mounted, and free standing varieties - bring the soothing sounds of flowing water into the home, but they also bring a visual element. Not only are water fountains and waterfalls beautifully designed and able to complement just about any existing home décor, the water itself lends another dimension of stress relief to the equation. Watching the dance and trickle of water as it flows across rocks, down textured surfaces, and into a basin at the bottom enhances our auditory experience. When we listen to sound machines or audio recordings of nature sounds, we may feel the need to close our eyes to block out visual distractions around us that take our minds away from the goal of relaxation. In contrast, the visual attributes of water fountains and waterfalls bring us closer to that goal by giving us something beautiful and elemental to focus on with our eyes as we listen with our ears.

In addition, the water that flows in a water fountain or waterfall never sounds exactly the same from one moment to the next. This dynamic quality keeps our listening experience from growing monotonous or predictable, which can easily happen if we listen to sound machines or audio recordings regularly. We can also choose to dramatically change the "song" of the water in our water fountain or waterfall simply by rearranging rocks or other features in the basin or by adding a new element - such as a seashell, leaf, or small piece of wood - along the water's path. We can even place our own fingers in the water's flow to change the sound of the water as it moves; feeling the water stream across our skin would bring yet another sensory element to our experience.

The Soothing Nature of Water

Because water is an integral part of our world and our bodies, it has an innate ability to soothe. We are instinctively drawn to the sound of water, and we are mesmerized by its gentle flow. Spending time near water - listening, watching, touching - allows us to breathe more slowly and to break the cycle of stress we experience each day. Bringing a water fountain or waterfall into our home environment, whether it is a small tabletop version or a larger wall mounted or free standing version, gives us the luxury of regular access to real water, as opposed to pre-recorded water sounds. Water fountains and waterfalls provide us with a multi-sensory relaxation experience that may not only lower our stress levels, but improve our sleep and our moods, increase our motivation and efficiency, and even lower our risk for heart attack.




Trey Collier is owner of BackyardCity.com - Where North America shops for Outdoor Living essentials, including beautiful home water fountains and waterfalls.





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2012年9月12日 星期三

Sensory Overload and Stress


As we move into the new millennium, we witness the effects of increasing environmental, economic, and psychological stress. Sensory overload is taxing the human system. The pressures upon all life on earth have reached unparalleled proportions.

Our bodies are subject to an onslaught of man-made stressors: crisscrossing fields of microwave, radio, television, and electronic transmissions, pollution, noise, and traffic, as well as the bombardments of information and advertising, and the requirements to produce more and more efficiently in the face of fierce economic competition. Add to that the threats of terrorism and war that have created a palpable level of world anxiety and we have a culture dominated by stress, tension, and fear. We are beings of energy vibrating at the edge of disintegration in a sea of over-stimulation.

How do we maintain our balance? What do we do when an intense stressor such as a lost job, divorce, or the death of a loved one lands on top of the load we bear? What if, to complicate matters, this load rests on a personal history of trauma?

One of the main reasons we have a hard time breaking out of this cycle is that we do not realize how deeply we are affected by stress. On the surface, we may speak of being in a time-crunch, feeling burned-out, or needing to get away. We joke about vibrating from all the pressure. When our stress is intensified, we feel that we are going to go ballistic. We blow off steam in more or less productive ways, from exercise to alcohol to road rage, but the underlying pattern of denial remains.

Psychologists describe our perpetual tension, or the fight/flight response, as a reaction to the relentless fronts of over-stimulation. This response pattern is characterized by high-frequency brain waves termed beta waves. We are functioning as if we are on high alert all of the time.

Moreover, medical scientists are discovering how this state of perpetual tension adversely affects our well-being. Stress creates chronic patterns of muscular tension. Muscular tension restricts the flow of blood, lymphatic fluid, and nerve impulses. Cells are deprived of oxygen and nutrients and unable to clear toxic substances. This leads to chronic pain, cellular toxicity, and decreased immune response.

On an emotional level, we experience chronic anxiety and reactive response patterns marked by inappropriate anger and projected blame and criticism. Mentally, we become locked in rigid thinking patterns marked by a defensive mindset governed by fear. Spiritually we resign ourselves to being victims of circumstances and isolate ourselves in a survival mode. While our problems are not new, the pace of modern life has multiplied their negative effects exponentially.

If that sounds overly grim, take heart. It can be motivation to shift our state of awareness. It can intensify the search for ways to live differently. In recent decades, a time-honored light has begun to shine through the dense, tangled lines of our modern networks. This light radiates through a variety of old and new refractions. We see the emergence of a multitude of holistic practices.

In support of these phenomena, research has shown that certain exercises for the mind and body reduce stress and produce deep relaxation via slower alpha-theta brain-wave frequencies. In the states affected by these exercises, such a slowdown simultaneously occurs in many of the body's systems. This slowdown produces integrating, synchronizing, and healing effects. The practice of these exercises can develop capacities within us that will enable us to handle the pressures of our lives.

Taking these exercises even further, we are able to develop senses and modes of perception that have been latent in human evolution, as we know it. We can develop the ability to perceive and cultivate ourselves as the energetic beings that we are on the most fundamental level.

As an entry point to the expansion of the conscious domain, biofeedback research shows that we can positively affect aspects of our lives that we thought were automatic and inaccessible, such as brain-wave frequencies, heart rate, respiration, and chronic muscle-tension, to name a few. Guided-imagery research has proven the power of imagination and visualization in overcoming disease and increasing wellness. Meditation research describes how, through the application of awareness and intention, we can positively affect the intricate pathways that serve as conductors for qi ("chee"), the universal vitalizing force that enlivens our bodies.

Dr. John Sarno, a physician who specializes in pain relief, has shown that emotion and consciousness play a large role in health and disease. He has coined the term Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) to describe a host of symptoms that are caused by stress, tension, and repressed rage. To show the direct relationship of consciousness to TMS he found that "Awareness, insight, knowledge, and information were the magic medicines that would cure this disorder" (The Mindbody Prescription, New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1998, p. xxi). This supports what physicists have been saying for many years, which is that consciousness and physical reality are interwoven; mind and matter are inseparable. In the context of the qigong meditation, we see how body, emotion, mind, and spirit form a feedback system that can be used to shift our state of being.

Tension-causing sensory overload is both our most predominant problem and our window of opportunity. It is through a thorough understanding of our stress that we will find a new way. When we uncover the source of stress and take action to release this tension, we open to new possibilities. We recover and develop our fuller sensitivities and feelings of vitality.

These are not the mists of fantasy or the mere ear tickle of sweet sounding words. This is a well-mapped path. The Chinese have used Qigong Meditation as a powerful tool for self-development for thousands of years. You can receive a free introduction to this method and discover a step-by-step program of qigong meditation in my "LEARN QIGONG MEDITATION" course available from http://www.learnqigongmeditation.com

Copyright 2006 by Kevin D. Schoeninger




Kevin Schoeninger: M.A. Philosophy, Certified Personal Trainer, Qigong Meditation Instructor, and Reiki Master. http://www.learnqigongmeditation.com





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2012年7月16日 星期一

Energy Healing & Panic Attacks - Anxiety & Stress Management


You awaken with a cold sweat, have trouble breathing and your heart is racing. In the grocery store or mall your body starts to feel funny, you get nauseated and you think you might pass out. In a crowded room, at an office function or a large party filled with friends you feel confused, unable to function, you're shaking and your heart feels like it's beating out of your chest. Sometimes alone, you starting crying uncontrollably, can hardly catch your breath, and start picking at your hair or yourself or exhibit other frantic physical fidgeting symptoms. You've been to a doctor, a psychologist or psychiatrist concerned you are a heart attack waiting to happen or to see if you're "losing it!" Your diagnosis: Panic attacks, those dehabilitating, non life threatening, indicators from your energy field that you are registering energy overload to your physical system through physical "stress and anxiety symptoms."

How do you handle your "fight or flight" response? Heightening your sense of awareness and activating adrenalized physical abilities to protect yourself is your body's natural defense mechanism. Many times people in automobile wrecks or traumatic scenarios manifest extraordinary courage or personal strength because their mind thought "I MUST do this in order to survive," and their physical body responded enabling them to accomplish the task. My mind goes to the man who had to cut off his arm in order to free himself or freeze while he was trapped under a rock on an ice and snow covered mountainside. You know he had to "get his mind around" the pain of sawing off his own arm, and then walk to find help. That is mind over matter! He was definitely choosing thoughts that ensured his survival.

How do you handle your energy overload reactions? Do you alter your anxiety or choose medication as an outside "fix?" In Power vs. Force, David Hawkins, M.D., illustrates how your consciousness creates thoughts that either weaken or strengthen you. Think about this, when you are afraid, your heart races. Your thoughts either empower or disable your energy to assist controlling your energetic reaction. Every thought that you make has more far reaching effects than you may have considered. By adjusting your mental response to your sensory energy overload, you can choose to be the victim or the victor of your anxiety.

A client had taken sedatives for 19 years and visited her psychologist and or psychiatrist on a weekly basis. I'm a believer in identifying the issues, then take the Nike approach "just do it" i.e. fix it, and move forward with your life. In my opinion, she wasted years experiencing the fullness of all of life's flavors while choosing to live on tranquilizers. She told everyone she had panic attacks and was a fragile soul in order to set her apart from others. Her attacks also created drama and begot short term attention whenever her life was functioning smoothly and she was bored.

After working with her for 6 weeks, she learned how to control her body's energy systems. She used her mind body connection (biofeedback techniques) to manage and override her physical anxiety responses through conscious vigilant awareness. For months she was fine, but tiring of constantly directing her life. Her friend called one day and stated that she had gone back to medications. I called to inquire why she stopped managing her energy. She stated "it was easier to take a pill than to be conscious all the time, plus I was bored." Which group does she represent?

In my medical intuitive diagnosis and energy healer practice, I have noticed several characteristic "types" of individuals who experience panic attacks:

1. Those who have medical conditions and malfunctions that create chemical insufficiencies

in their body which cause imbalances that produce anxiety like symptoms.

2. Folks who are insecure (poor self esteem) who physically react to intimidating situations

by allowing themselves to be overwhelmed which produces physically reactive

symptoms.

3. People who are needy for attention to center on them; individuals who choose to be a

victim in life as an identity so they overtly demonstrate dehabilitating symptoms to gain

recognition. They do not choose to be responsible or accountable for what occurs in

their life. Life happens "to" them.

4. Persons who actually enjoy and feed off of the sensational "drama" exhilarations and the attention of a panic attack. These people think that a smooth life is boring and unfilled.

They think experiencing momentary and unanticipated dramatic effects and palpable

physical reactions in their life proves they are having an "exciting" life.

Are you a member of any of these groups?

Panic attacks are manifested by sensory overload from outside your energy system. It's not YOUR energy that is creating the situation, it's the incoming overload.

Anxiety attack symptoms are mismanagement of your protective reactions to that sensory overload.

When you start feeling a panic or anxiety attack "coming on," do you go into victim mode or evaluate the situation and take control of your environment and direct your energy field?

The first thing you to do is recognize that you ARE starting to experience sensory overload. Do not respond to your body's "happenings." State "I am not the victim of my body."

Next, ask yourself "did I shield myself today?" Nine times out of 10 you have forgotten to shield that day! If you are that sensitive to everything, this is REAL! SO get real and learn to shield yourself.

If physical symptoms begin to register, in order to give yourself more time to assess your circumstances start saying "shield, shield, shield" then "I command my body to stabilize now, to stabilize now." Next, you need to say your affirmation of protection and shield your physical energy field (sometimes called an aura).

Soul is the concept of the essence of your energy field that exists forever. In addition to representing your essence it factually includes your energy field, which is the energy is what keeps you alive and protects you!

Think of your soul's energy (aura) as a lighthouse lamp that continuously encapsulates, rotates and sweeps around your body in a 360 degree fashion like a lighthouse beam protecting the shoreline. Your soul's energy beam is registering everything to protect you.

The glass windowed lighthouse room through which the light shines is the lighthouse keeper's control room, just like your mind is the control room of your "energy or soul's light." As the director of your soul's light, you must choose to allow anything access to affect your building (body) or not.

When you have placed a protective shield around soul's energy and body, you are standing in your director's room bubble, empowered to make your choices of what to do with your energy that beams out in your life. Like the lighthouse lamp has a room around to keep its beam from any harm, your shield safeguards you.

Your soul may be protected through whatever intentional mode you currently use, however your soul's energy lives in a physical body that resides on a physical earth. These are two separate issues. Your leased building (body) and the environment it resides and works in must be protected as is weaves in and out of environmental and people's energy all day long.

You must continuously and consciously be aware at all times to choose to direct your mind and to construct thoughts that control your body's energy in response to outside forces, be they human (screaming Aunt Sarah who makes you nervous, shopping mall crowds), environmental (microwave ovens, blaring noise, airports), or self directed (allowing yourself to get worked up over a matter). Use biofeedback.

Biofeedback was researched by Dr. Miller in the 50's and was a revolutionary approach using your mind to control your voluntary and involuntary muscle responses. Biofeedback works! In today's' world, we call it talking to your body (the current "term" is named the mind body connection) as in the Secret, or the movie What the Bleep do We Know *!?

Dr Emoto's scientific breakthrough demonstrating the fact that talking to water cells changes their molecular structure signifies that we can change our body's response by directing and talking to our cells which are made up of over 60% water. When you talk to and command your body's cells you are in fact orchestrating your energy's physical response rather than having a reaction to the sensory overload you and your body are experiencing. Use your mind to instruct your body's responses.

To take care of yourself I suggest each morning place a bubble of protection around your soul's energy field and your body. This is a prayer of intention that will shield you from any and all things.

I ask, and it is my intent to surround myself in a seamless mirrored--(cocoon, bubble) of the Christ White Light (insert your Higher power's name), to protect me now, forevermore, and always, and to only allow that Energy that is for my soul's highest and best good to come through. So be it, it is done. Thank you.

Use the term "seamless" so nothing can come into your sealed control room, and only you direct what goes out. State "mirrored", so that you automatically reflect any negative energy or overloaded energy beamed at you like sunlight off mirrored sunglasses.

When you are standing in this cocoon, you are standing in your full power and totally protected with all the energy that you have available to you in this lifetime. Once you create this bubble Nothing or no one or anything or energy or entity can ever get into your control room or disempower you for any reason whatsoever, unless you allow it! Usually in less than 20 seconds you can feel your body calm down. You have managed to divert incoming sensory overload. The more you practice this exercise the quicker it works!

If you get another bombing of sensory overload for extra or touch up shielding, you can also add the affirmation "Shield, shield, shield."

Just like the lighthouse keeper maintains his building, you need to keep your energy field and body cleaned from all that it bumps into, moves through, or is assaulted by while you are having a life. Fluorescent lights assault the energy field, as do computers or microwave energy fields. Everything that you come into contact with on a daily basis interfaces and interacts with your soul's and body's energy field.

Therefore I suggest (like you clean your teeth each night), that you clean your energy field so that it can operate with maximized efficiency and responsiveness to your directives. Here's a quick test: Put a glass of clean water between you and the computer screen. In a few moments the water will be filled with bubbles from the computer screen's energy that would have been assaulting you!

This is an intention statement to clean your energy field from energy bugs that you acquire each day. You're keeping your bubble clean!

I ask and it is my intent to remove release and detach any and all energies and entities form my energy field now and to send them to the Christ White Light

(or your Higher Power) , SO be it, it is done.

Ask yourself; are you sensitive to situations and people? Most individuals who register sensory energy overload have the "gift" of sensitivity. The downside of sensitivity can be panic attacks or stress and anxiety from your intangible sensitivity to what's around you. As director of your energy field, you do want to recognize excess energy for personal protection, however you want to choose to disallow sensitivity overload to register within your being. It may take a few days or events to get you body back under YOUR control. Do not feel dismay, just set your intent more firmly and be even more aware of what's happening around you to divert any "triggers" that might begin to start an overload response.

Conscious and vigilant awareness is the downside to maintaining your control center, however no more full blown anxiety overloads is the reward. You control what happens to, in and around you!

Take charge of your energy and empower your life. Be the CEO and not the victim of your body. Remember, the more you do this exercise the more rapidly your body complies. To me, it's a permanent fix and it takes care of the very gift of life that you are experiencing.

YOU are the ONLY energy/entity/ person who can allow any other energy or entity to affect you.

Feel free to reprint this article in its original format.

Disclaimer: Brent Atwater collaborates with and participates in ongoing energy medicine and intuitive diagnostic medical research, and independent case studies with the world's leading doctors, physicians, researchers, scientists, and medical facilities, helping to create evidence based research that documents the bridging of traditional and alternative healthcare into integrative medicine. Atwater is not a medical doctor or associated with any branch of medicine. Brent works in Alternative Healing, Healthcare and Medicine - Integrative Medicine. She offers her opinions based on her intuition, and her personal energy healing work, which is not a substitute for medical procedures or treatments. Always consult a physician or trained health care professional concerning any medical problem or condition before undertaking any diet, health related or lifestyle change programs. As in traditional medicine, there are no guarantees with medical intuition, intuitive anatomical medical diagnosis or energy medicine.




You are invited to visit Brent Atwater's Blogtalk Radio show featuring "Panic Attacks" in her radio archives at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/brentatwater

Contact Information: Brent Atwater, Alternative Energy Medicine Specialist
Medical Intuitive Diagnosis, Distance Energy Healing
ATL, GA Phone: 404.242.9022 USA
NC Phone: 910.692.5206 USA
Website: http://www.brentatwater.com/
Email: Brent@BrentAtwater.com





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2012年1月26日 星期四

Home Water Fountains and Waterfalls: A Multi-Sensory Approach to Reducing Stress


Here's an experiment. Take note of your stress and energy levels following one day spent doing what you normally do in a day, and then compare that to the stress and energy levels you experience at the end of a day spent in nature. The chances are favorable that you end your day in nature with less stress and more energy than you feel at the end of a typical day of work, school, errands, and other miscellaneous tasks. While the results of this experiment may seem obvious, you may be surprised to learn that much of our stress and lack of energy as a society comes from the very fact that we are constantly surrounded by noise.

From the moment we wake to the moment we fall asleep at night, our ears and brains are required to deal with a multitude of low frequency sounds that drain the brain of energy and cause stress. Low frequency noises include the ever-present hum of household appliances, the drone of the computer and fluorescent lights, and the din of traffic, large machinery, aircraft, and other everyday technologies. According to a January 2007 Consumer Reports: On Health article titled "Shhh! Everyday noise can be harmful," stress and lack of energy are only two of the negative effects that everyday noises can have on our bodies. In addition, everyday noises have been shown to contribute to sleep problems, lack of motivation, lower efficiency levels, decreased creativity, poor mood, and increased heart attack risk.

Counteracting the Negative Effects of Everyday Noises

Noise may not be the sole cause of the stress and other health issues we experience, but it is most certainly one source. The good news is that we can reduce, and even reverse, the negative effects that noise has on our brains and bodies through regular exposure to the higher frequency sounds found in nature.

Spending a day, or even part of a day, in nature provides our bodies and brains with a much needed relief from stress. Unfortunately, going out to nature on a daily basis is not always an option, so bringing nature sounds into your home is the practical solution. Listening to sound machines and audio recordings that feature babbling brooks, ocean waves, rain showers, bird songs, and other natural sounds is one option. These items are plentiful and easy to find at many retailers. However, home water fountains and waterfalls are often a preferred source for nature sounds because they offer a multi-sensory stress-relieving experience that sound machines and audio recordings are unable to provide.

The Benefits of Water Fountains and Waterfalls

Water fountains and waterfalls - which come in tabletop, wall mounted, and free standing varieties - bring the soothing sounds of flowing water into the home, but they also bring a visual element. Not only are water fountains and waterfalls beautifully designed and able to complement just about any existing home décor, the water itself lends another dimension of stress relief to the equation. Watching the dance and trickle of water as it flows across rocks, down textured surfaces, and into a basin at the bottom enhances our auditory experience. When we listen to sound machines or audio recordings of nature sounds, we may feel the need to close our eyes to block out visual distractions around us that take our minds away from the goal of relaxation. In contrast, the visual attributes of water fountains and waterfalls bring us closer to that goal by giving us something beautiful and elemental to focus on with our eyes as we listen with our ears.

In addition, the water that flows in a water fountain or waterfall never sounds exactly the same from one moment to the next. This dynamic quality keeps our listening experience from growing monotonous or predictable, which can easily happen if we listen to sound machines or audio recordings regularly. We can also choose to dramatically change the "song" of the water in our water fountain or waterfall simply by rearranging rocks or other features in the basin or by adding a new element - such as a seashell, leaf, or small piece of wood - along the water's path. We can even place our own fingers in the water's flow to change the sound of the water as it moves; feeling the water stream across our skin would bring yet another sensory element to our experience.

The Soothing Nature of Water

Because water is an integral part of our world and our bodies, it has an innate ability to soothe. We are instinctively drawn to the sound of water, and we are mesmerized by its gentle flow. Spending time near water - listening, watching, touching - allows us to breathe more slowly and to break the cycle of stress we experience each day. Bringing a water fountain or waterfall into our home environment, whether it is a small tabletop version or a larger wall mounted or free standing version, gives us the luxury of regular access to real water, as opposed to pre-recorded water sounds. Water fountains and waterfalls provide us with a multi-sensory relaxation experience that may not only lower our stress levels, but improve our sleep and our moods, increase our motivation and efficiency, and even lower our risk for heart attack.




Trey Collier is owner of BackyardCity.com - Where North America shops for Outdoor Living essentials, including beautiful home water fountains and waterfalls.





This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

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2012年1月17日 星期二

Sensory Overload and Stress


As we move into the new millennium, we witness the effects of increasing environmental, economic, and psychological stress. Sensory overload is taxing the human system. The pressures upon all life on earth have reached unparalleled proportions.

Our bodies are subject to an onslaught of man-made stressors: crisscrossing fields of microwave, radio, television, and electronic transmissions, pollution, noise, and traffic, as well as the bombardments of information and advertising, and the requirements to produce more and more efficiently in the face of fierce economic competition. Add to that the threats of terrorism and war that have created a palpable level of world anxiety and we have a culture dominated by stress, tension, and fear. We are beings of energy vibrating at the edge of disintegration in a sea of over-stimulation.

How do we maintain our balance? What do we do when an intense stressor such as a lost job, divorce, or the death of a loved one lands on top of the load we bear? What if, to complicate matters, this load rests on a personal history of trauma?

One of the main reasons we have a hard time breaking out of this cycle is that we do not realize how deeply we are affected by stress. On the surface, we may speak of being in a time-crunch, feeling burned-out, or needing to get away. We joke about vibrating from all the pressure. When our stress is intensified, we feel that we are going to go ballistic. We blow off steam in more or less productive ways, from exercise to alcohol to road rage, but the underlying pattern of denial remains.

Psychologists describe our perpetual tension, or the fight/flight response, as a reaction to the relentless fronts of over-stimulation. This response pattern is characterized by high-frequency brain waves termed beta waves. We are functioning as if we are on high alert all of the time.

Moreover, medical scientists are discovering how this state of perpetual tension adversely affects our well-being. Stress creates chronic patterns of muscular tension. Muscular tension restricts the flow of blood, lymphatic fluid, and nerve impulses. Cells are deprived of oxygen and nutrients and unable to clear toxic substances. This leads to chronic pain, cellular toxicity, and decreased immune response.

On an emotional level, we experience chronic anxiety and reactive response patterns marked by inappropriate anger and projected blame and criticism. Mentally, we become locked in rigid thinking patterns marked by a defensive mindset governed by fear. Spiritually we resign ourselves to being victims of circumstances and isolate ourselves in a survival mode. While our problems are not new, the pace of modern life has multiplied their negative effects exponentially.

If that sounds overly grim, take heart. It can be motivation to shift our state of awareness. It can intensify the search for ways to live differently. In recent decades, a time-honored light has begun to shine through the dense, tangled lines of our modern networks. This light radiates through a variety of old and new refractions. We see the emergence of a multitude of holistic practices.

In support of these phenomena, research has shown that certain exercises for the mind and body reduce stress and produce deep relaxation via slower alpha-theta brain-wave frequencies. In the states affected by these exercises, such a slowdown simultaneously occurs in many of the body's systems. This slowdown produces integrating, synchronizing, and healing effects. The practice of these exercises can develop capacities within us that will enable us to handle the pressures of our lives.

Taking these exercises even further, we are able to develop senses and modes of perception that have been latent in human evolution, as we know it. We can develop the ability to perceive and cultivate ourselves as the energetic beings that we are on the most fundamental level.

As an entry point to the expansion of the conscious domain, biofeedback research shows that we can positively affect aspects of our lives that we thought were automatic and inaccessible, such as brain-wave frequencies, heart rate, respiration, and chronic muscle-tension, to name a few. Guided-imagery research has proven the power of imagination and visualization in overcoming disease and increasing wellness. Meditation research describes how, through the application of awareness and intention, we can positively affect the intricate pathways that serve as conductors for qi ("chee"), the universal vitalizing force that enlivens our bodies.

Dr. John Sarno, a physician who specializes in pain relief, has shown that emotion and consciousness play a large role in health and disease. He has coined the term Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS) to describe a host of symptoms that are caused by stress, tension, and repressed rage. To show the direct relationship of consciousness to TMS he found that "Awareness, insight, knowledge, and information were the magic medicines that would cure this disorder" (The Mindbody Prescription, New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1998, p. xxi). This supports what physicists have been saying for many years, which is that consciousness and physical reality are interwoven; mind and matter are inseparable. In the context of the qigong meditation, we see how body, emotion, mind, and spirit form a feedback system that can be used to shift our state of being.

Tension-causing sensory overload is both our most predominant problem and our window of opportunity. It is through a thorough understanding of our stress that we will find a new way. When we uncover the source of stress and take action to release this tension, we open to new possibilities. We recover and develop our fuller sensitivities and feelings of vitality.

These are not the mists of fantasy or the mere ear tickle of sweet sounding words. This is a well-mapped path. The Chinese have used Qigong Meditation as a powerful tool for self-development for thousands of years. You can receive a free introduction to this method and discover a step-by-step program of qigong meditation in my "LEARN QIGONG MEDITATION" course available from http://www.learnqigongmeditation.com

Copyright 2006 by Kevin D. Schoeninger




Kevin Schoeninger: M.A. Philosophy, Certified Personal Trainer, Qigong Meditation Instructor, and Reiki Master. http://www.learnqigongmeditation.com





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