Fall Equinox by Sue Schmidt

Happy Fall Equinox Everyone!

The Equinox occurs 9:52 AM MT.

At the Equinox, the sun rises due East and sets due West. You can determine where due East and West is where you live by going outside at sunrise or sunset and notice where the sun is in respect to familiar landmarks.
Then, as the sun continues on its journey, you will still know where due East  or due West is. It feels good to know where you are!

For more info. on the equinox go to www.earthsky.org

From a 5 Element, perspective the time of the Equinox is the Earth Element. Since about the first the week of August the Yang energy of Summer has been moving toward the more Yin energy of Fall and Winter. At the Equinox, there is a energetic pause, much like the pause of a pendulum when it reaches its full arc before falling back the other way. In this pause, we can more easily access the energy of completion, stillness, fullness, and equilibrium. We feel more grounded, balanced and calm.

Earth Element by Sue Schmidt

In general, Fall is the time of Metal Element: 

Color: White

Emotion: Letting Go, Sadness and Grief, Boundaries between inner and outer

Organs: Lung and Large Intestine

This is a time of year when the leaves let go of their leaves to nourish the Earth with their decay. The upward rising of fire begins to settle downward and inward. The plants let go and die back into the earth. 

With each breath we take, we Receive  and LET GO. We have to let go so we can receive. We could never just inhale. We take in nourishment and  let of the waste (large intestine). This principal of letting go is inherent in every aspect of nature. 

Sadness and grief are an inevitable part of being alive, but with the continual letting go we allow our sadness to transform and become nourishment. 

A really good very simple Metal Element  Meditation is to sit quietly and begin to relax. Feel your body letting go downward into the earth. Let the earth support you.

 Let go down your bones, muscles, heart and mind. 

As you inhale, say in inside your mind and heart "I Receive" 

As you exhale say, "I let go." 

Keep repeating this mantra in time with  your breath  for 5, 10, 15 min.

 Then release the mantra, release the breath. Let the mind roam wherever it wants and let the breath flow into its natural rhythm. 

Notice the natural rhythm of receiving and letting go. 

Be Well Everyone and Enjoy Fall !

Sue Schmidt CMT, C.Ht

mindpowersue@gmail.com

www.healingmeditations.net

www.transformativetouch.massagetherapy.com

Spring Equinox: The Energy of Balance

Spring Dream by Sue Schmidt

Happy Spring Everyone!

There is alot happening in the next 24 hrs! The Spring Equinox arrives on March 20 at 4:45 central mountain time. And in Europe, Scandinavia and Russia, the moon is passing in front of the sun to create a solar eclipse.

Many people feel that Spring begins on the Equinox. Five Element theory says that the Equinox is the  middle of spring.  It is the time shen spring energy is at its strongest,  before it  begins to fade into the energy of summer. But.... everyone can feel the warmer breezes, see bulbs coming up, sense a faint shade of  green in the trees, and just a general quickening of life.

We know that the Equinox is created by the relationship  of the earth's axis and orbit to the sun. At the Equinox the earth's axis and its orbit around the sun interact in such way that the earth is not tilted away or toward the sun. This why at the Equinox day and night are roughly the same length.

From a Chi Kung perspective,  we are energetically connected to the  earth and celestial environs. At the Equinox, the earth is in balance on its axis, day and night are in balance, and so the energy of balance  is more apparent and available to us now.

Try this meditation, if you like, tomorrow evening to enliven, integrate and feel the Energy of Balance. 

Energy of Balance Meditation by Sue Schmidt C.ht.

1. Begin by sitting or lying down somewhere comfortable and safe.

2. Close your eyes and resting your hands on your belly, feel yourself breathing. Begin to gently relax into your breath, letting it become softer, deeper and slower.

3. Let your body relax into the surface beneath you. If you are in a chair or bed, allow yourself to relax downward, through the furniture,  into the earth. If you are laying or sitting on the floor or ground let yourself sink into the earth.

4. Letting your eyes remain closed, become aware of the center of your forehead. Breathing in through your nose gently feel and relax center of the forehead with your breath. Do this for 3 breath cycles.

5. Then move your awareness into the center of your chest. Breathing in through your nose gently feel and relax the center of  your chest with your breath. Do this for 3 breath cycles.

6.  Then move your awareness into the center of your belly.  Breathing in through your nose,  gently feel and relax  the center of your belly  with your breath. Do this for 3 breath cycles.

Then move your awareness into the center of your perineum (pelvic floor).   Breathing in through your nose,  gently feel and relax  the center of your perineum with your breath. Do this for 3 breath cycles.

7. Now, feel the earth beneath you. Let your awareness move downward through the earth's layers into its molten core. You may see this in your minds eye and feel it.

8. Now, become aware of the sun, moon, planet and stars above. There is infinite space above you.

9. Now, feel yourself in the center or earth and the sky above. Try to feel all your centers: forehead, center of chest, center of belly, center of perineum all at once,breathing into all equally.

10 Finally, let your awareness drop into the your belly and relax your whole body and breath. Just feel yourself here, balanced and aware.

References:

 www.earthsky.org
http://www.usatoday.com/

Sue Schmidt Certified Hypnotherapist
www.healingmeditations.net
mindpowersue@gmail.com

Summer Solstice June 2014

The Summer Solstice occurs on Saturday June 21st at 4:51am MST.  At the Solstice, the sun is at its zenith.  The hours of sunlight are at their longest and shadows are at their shortest.





Summer Solstice is time to celebrate the strength and energy of the sun, light, fire and creativity. It is time of Spirit rising within!

 Some ways to celebrate are:

• Arise before the sun rises and facing east, wait, meditate and as the sun rises draw that light into your body by breathing it in. Appreciate the abundance of your life.Once you feel the fullness of your life at is begin to dream, visualizing your dreams, hopes and desires. Any dreams visualized now will be driven by light and fire.

• Fire Ceremony: Build a small fire in a safe  place. The fire is mirroring and helping the energy, light and fire of the Sun!  Dance and drum. Celebrate life at its fullest!

• Burn and use essential Oils: Sun oils are Orange, Basil, Ginger, Frankincense, Rosemary

From a 5 Element point of view the Solstice is the middle of Summer. It is the time of utmost Yang energy. Yang energy embodies the attributes of daylight, Spirit, male, heat,outside of the body, and the Sun. Yin is cool, nighttime.  feminine, Earth,Soul., inside the body, and empty- ready to receive/  Yang is always becoming yin and yin is always becoming yin. We see this in the cycles of day and night. Daytime is always moving toward nighttime and nighttime is always moving toward daytime.

So when the Sun is at its utmost Yang it has the feeling of completion, fullness and stillness.  It is a  time to pause and feel the abundance of the earth and all that you have received. The word Solstice is the combination of 2 Latin words Sol and Stice which means Sun Stopping. From a 5 Elelment theory the sun never stops. But it does reach a sort of resting point where it begins to move toward Yin and darkness or Winter.

So take some time to celebrate this time of completion and power!

In Spirit,
Sue Schmidt CMT, C.Ht
www.healingmeditations.net

Full Moon March 16 2014

Photo by Carl Galloway www.earthsky.org

The Moon was precisely full at 10:10am MST. When we see the full moon tonight it will already be waning, altho it will look full. 
According to the Western calendar, this is the final full Moon of winter. 

From a 5 Element Perspective, Spring actually  began on Feb. 7 so this is the 2nd spring moon. In the 5 Element system the height or middle of Spring is at the Equinox March 20. Its coming up!

This moon falls under the astrological sign of  Virgo. The Virgo moon encourages us toward self reflection and self awareness. Virgo is the virgin and in ancient thought, the virgin was one who stood alone, self aware and complete. The Virgo moon emphasizes moving toward our goals in small steps, in a methodical, careful way. It is time to feel our individuality. We are a drop in the ocean of the universe. We are the ocean and the drop and Virgo moon invites to think, reflect and ponder what our individual purpose may be. Virgo's magic understands how everything fits together to work and helps us master a talent, skills and how we can be of service to others. 

Some American Indian names for March Full Moon are;
Moon of the Whispering Wind--Hopi
Strawberry Moon--Cherokee
Eagle Moon-- Cree

Tonight go out and look on the moon. Consider that the moon shines on everyone equally, but it also shines just for YOU! What is your unique gift, talent, skill? Let the moon show you your gifts tonight in a dream or in meditation. 

In Peace, 
Sue Schmidt C.Ht, CMT
healingmeditations1@gmail.com
www.healingmeditations.net

Intuitions and Levels of Reality

We are multi dimensional beings living in a multi dimensional universe. Intuition as information comes to us in different forms, depending on what level of reality we are paying attention to and listening to. The different levels of reality that we can receive intuitive information from are:
1. Personal Subconscious  The sum of all our individual  experiences/knowledge from present and past lives
2. Collective subconscious The sum of all sentient personal subconsciousness.
3. The Field - The field of information that holds past, present, future that is brought into manifestation by our thoughts and attention, individual and collective.
4. . Inter-dimensional Consciousness knowledge, information and experiences that flows into our personal and collective  subconscious from angels, spirit guides, ancestors and other energetic beings.

First, lets talk about the Personal Subconscious......
Anything that we know how to do really well, and have done many, many times, is to some degree, automated and unconscious. Malcom Gladwell in his book "Blink" describes the personal subconscious as Rapid Cognition.
When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. These conclusions are drawn from the great storehouse of all our knowledge and experience from our present life and past lives. This is Rapid Cognition!

Our subconscious minds process information much faster than our conscious minds and take in much more detail. The subconscious  processes this information all at once in global fashion. That is how you suddenly just "know" the answer to a problem, or feel something about your environment. This type often flows to us through the kinesthetic channel, i.e.,We just feel the answer in our bodies.

I have been yoga instructor for many years. I can watch someone move in class, and feel the way their body is put together as I adjust them in a yoga posture, and intuitively know what sport they have engaged in the present or the past. I make it a game and will say in a lighthearted way, "You feel like a swimmer." Or.. "I bet you used to wrestle in high school."I am very often right! This may appear as if I am psychic, but I don't think so. I think my personal subconscious is processing many discrete bits of sensory information simultaneously so I just "know" the sport the person has engaged in. I am also a massage therapist and very often my hands will "just go"  to the place that hurts. I think my personal subconscious senses from many details and impressions where the person is hurting and I feel a resonance in my body when I encounter someone else's pain.

We live in a society dedicated to the idea that we're always better off gathering as much information and spending as much time as possible in deliberation. This is Not always true when:
Fast decision making is required
Facts are not available
Assessing people, places
Emotional Situations or Issues
Gladwell talks about the efficiency and accuracy of "thin slicing".

Thin slicing is the ability of the personal subconscious to make decisions and come to conclusions on a very small bit of information. He talks about a Roman Artifact that was purchased by a well known museum in Europe that was scientifically tested as being authentic, but ultimately was found to be forged. All the scientific tests showed the artifact to be real. But when a group of Art historians and archaeologists looked at the artifact, without doing any testing at all, they came to the conclusion that the artifact was fake. The said things like, "It just doesn't look right. " and "Something is just wrong about it. It was the huge array of details and information their minds were processing below the verbal level that led them to the correct conclusion. Later, after more testing, the artifact was indeed, proved to be fake.

Our personal subconscious can often be a warning system for us. One of the main jobs of our personal subconscious is to keep us safe from harm. We may walk into a room, or meet a new person, and just "know" something isn't right. We often feel this warning in our solar plexus which is the center of our survival intuition. Our subconscious minds may have noticed some disturbing detail our conscious minds haven't picked up on. If I get a strong feeling of unease in a situation or place I will immediately leave if possible!
 
There is a down side to using the personal subconscious as your guidance system. It can be easily swayed by the stereotypes you hold. We all are familiar with the term "profiling." Profiling is a misuse of  "thin slicing." We reach an erroneous conclusion based on a very small amount of information that may have personal importance to us. Because we knew a long haired man that smoked pot, we assume all long haired men indulge. Projection is another faulty use of the subconscious. If we have aspects of ourselves we are unaware of we will project those qualities onto others. For instance, if were are unaware of our anger we may see and experience others as angry.

Beware of any quick perceptions of others that involve alot of judgement or negative emotions! This is a sign you are not using your subconscious in an accurate manner.
It is very important to understand the stereotypes and projections you are operating under!

Here are some tips to developing and using your personal subconscious
-Our personal subconscious can be relied upon! It should be trusted. When you have a hunch about something, especially something you know alot about, listen to it and try to verify if you can like I do with my yoga students.
-Listen and feel your body. All intuition is a sudden knowing that is usually accompanied by a physical sensation:
A constriction in the gut or solar plexus-This is most common in personal subconscious when a warning is being communicated.
•An explicable feeling of relaxation and warmth in the body
•A feeling of tingling excitement
•A feeling of strength in the belly
It can be any physical feeling! Get to know what your particular intuitive  sign may be.
-When you meet someone new, notice your immediate perceptions. As you talk to the person and get to know them, see what perceptions were accurate and which were not. Notice if any of your inaccurate perceptions were based on stereotypes or projections.
Next week we'll explore the Collective Unconscious! I hope you will join me. Would love to hear any stories you may have about using your Intuition.
Warmly,
Sue Schmidt C.Ht., CMT
www.healingmeditations.net
healingmeditations1@gmail.com

Develop Your Intuition as Your Guidance System

All of us have intuition! I think it is less common that people actually use their intuition as guidance system. I am going to be posting a series on intuition, what it is and how to use it as your guidance system.. But first .....what is intuition ?

Intuition is a sixth sense we all posses. It is an inner knowing that is arrived at without evident rational thought. This knowing is beyond time and space and comes to us in various forms:

• Clairaudience-Hearing
• Clairvoyance-Seeing
• Clairsentience-Knowing, feeling

Clairaudience is that soft, quiet voice that inspires, give us helpful information and sometimes warns us.

Clarivoyance is the information we receive in dreams and inner/outer vision. It can be just a flash of a mental image.

Clair sententience is a "gut feeling" and physical knowing about a person or situation or place.

What form does you intuition come to you as? It may be all three forms or you might have a special channel. All the clairs can be developed and refined. 

Intuition

It is very important to know that all intuition is helpful, positive, loving and life enhancing. If you are getting information that would harm yourself or others this is NOT intuition and should not be acted upon.

There are many benefits to developing your intuition. Here are just a few:

Reduce stress and stop unecessary energy gains
-Increase your effectiveness at work
-Boost your creativity
-Enhance your communication with others
-Develop intuitive self guidance
-Facilitate the  decision making process
-Improve your health
-Improve your connection to Self and other and helping energies such as angels and spirit guides

I am hoping you will join me on this journey to explore intuition!

Next post we will delve further into intuition and begin to learn how we can use it daily.

One of the most important first steps is to really listen to your impressions, inner voice and feelings. You can keep a journal if you like.

Remember Spirit is always talking to each and everyone of you!!

Peace,

Sue Schmidt C.hT, CMT

mindpowersue@gmail.com
www.healingmeditations.net

Floating on The River

Hi All,
Sorry for the silence. I've been busy creating a new mp3 White Light Meditation

White Light Meditation
Followers click on link above for a free copy
Follow my blog for a free copy

and also was out of town on a river trip on a portion of the Colorado River.

My husband and I were married on the Colorado River in 2009 and now every year do the same float trip to celebrate. It is time of renewed connection, love and deep appreciation of nature.

Rattle Snake Camp

The world of nature is imbued with energy. When we are living closing to nature,  we feel  this energy more clearly. Our emotional bodies are soothed by the rhythms of sun, moon, wind, water and earth. Our minds are quieted by the empty expanses of luminous skies.

Paddling on the river there are times where the current takes me effortlessly exactly in the direction I want to go. At times, I have to make a few strokes to catch just the right stream. And sometime I have to really hustle and work to paddle against the wind or avoid that rock that suddenly appeared. It is a metaphor for life. This is a time to float, to work with the flow and sometimes work like hell when we have to.

More coming soon. I am teaching  a course the Art and Science of Happiness and will be blogging about related topics.

Be well and enjoy your life. It is yours and the only one you have.

Row row row your boat 
merrily down the stream
Merrily merrily merrily
Life is but a dream

Sue Schmidt C.Ht, CMT
healingmeditations1@gmail.com
www.healingmeditations.net

Using Technology to Help You Meditate

We live in a fast paced, information rich world. Our brains are plastic meaning that they change on a structural level according to what we think about, the activities we engage in and how we use our minds every day. We are expected to process vast amounts of information quickly, and to multi task efficiently. This has its positive aspects to be sure. We are evolving collectively in terms of what we know, can think about and the amount information we can process and access.
I do think that the diverse and multi layered attentional style most of us have adopted changes our brains to actually crave and need alot of stimuli. This can make meditation challenging!

When we are in our in our conscious minds focusing on objective reality, processing information, planning and problem solving we are in a brain wave state known as Beta. Many people find it difficult to shift out of Beta as this is state so valued and practiced in our society. A healthy brain is one in which all the brain wave states can be experienced, allowing us to move into meditative relaxed states at will.

The brain waves we are producing in Beta are oscillating at a frequency of  13-40 Hz . Of course, our brains produce all the brain waves all the time. But the predominate brain wave frequency we are experiencing determines our state of consciousness.

The state of consciousness that you are experiencing right now is a result of your brain wave activity! That means when you change your brain wave frequency, your change your state of consciousness, which results in a specific feeling and state of mind! This is Meditation.

Every thought we think is a bio chemical and electro magnetic event that causes neurons to fire. The speed at which these neurons fire creates a frequency that can be seen on an EEG machine as waves. Our brains constantly produce five brain wave frequencies: Gamma, Beta, Alpha,Theta and Delta. . Brain wave therapy helps you to have a flexible brain!
The chart below gives you a graphic representation of brain waves and their corresponding states of consciousness.

Brainwave	Consciousness
Gamma +40Hz	Manifestation Consciousness Binding Perception
Beta 13-40Hz	Concentration Attention Waking Consciousness Analytical Thinking ADD/ADHD Therapy Focus
Alpha 8-12Hz	Relaxation Right brain thinking Creativity Light Meditation Creative Visualization Creative Problem Solving
Theta 4-8Hz	Super Learning Changing Behaviors Healing Addictions Healing Trauma Deep Meditation Resolving Fears, Phobias Lucid Dreaming
Delta 0.2-4Hz	Sleep Physical Healing Recovery From Surgery Treatment for Insomnia Deep Relaxation

 So how do we change our brain waves to a state conducive for Meditation?  

We can change our brain waves through a process known as Entrainment. When we listen to any repetitive, rhythmic sound such as computer generated beats  our brain waves automatically become synchronized with the sounds we are hearing.

Pulse of Sound

Brain Wave Response

   
There are frequencies embedded in the audio programs  in Healing Meditations known as binaural beats. A beat oscillating at one frequency is played into the right ear (when wearing headphones) and a different frequency is played into the left ear. The brain automatically averages these frequencies. So if you play 12 Hz in one ear and 4 Hz in the other ear, the brain "hears" 8Hz which is at the  Alpha range. As you listen to these pulses of sounds, your own brain waves began to oscillate at the same at the same frequency. As you move into a Alpha brain wave state, you begin to feel more relaxed. Vivid, rich images begin flowing through your mind. You are connecting to the Creative Unconscious where new solutions to old problems effortlessly arise.

You can use binaural beats to create a meditation experience! Once you  know how it feels to go deep into a meditative state with the help of technology, it becomes easier and easier to get there on your own. You can use brain wave therapy as your "North Star" to guide you to the state you want to be in.

I use a program called Gnaural to produce binaural beats. Its fun and easy to use. Give it a try!

All the guided meditations from Healing Meditations  include binaural beats. I've recently created two new programs which are ambient music with binaural beats without any spoken word. Very relaxing. The Tropical Dream can be used as a sleep aid.
Tropical Dream-Theta
Forest Relaxation-Alpha

I know that the binaural beats, and beautiful ambient music  will easily guide you to a state of deep meditation, happiness and peace. Please feel free to comment and ask questions!

Wishing you Good Meditations,
Sue Schmidt C.Ht
www.healingmeditations.net
www.facebook.com/healingmeditations1
healingmeditations1@gmail.com

Sue Schmidt Certified Hypnotherapist

Full Moon August 2013 www.earthsky.org

Tonight is the full Moon! Go outside and gaze at the moon. Let your  eyes soften and let the moonlight enter your pupils and flow into  your brain. See your mind filled with a gentle, soothing, white moonlight.

According to Chi Kung, the light of the moon,especially the full moon, is good for your pituitary gland. Especially for women!

American Indian names for the full moon: Red Moon, Sturgeon Moon, Green Corn Moon, Grain Moon

Sue Schmidt CMT,C.Ht

www.healingmeditations.net
healingmeditations1@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/healingmeditations1
www.https://plus.google.com

The Energy of Love: Part 2

In the Energy of Love Part 1 we learned how to develop  an awareness of  of love feels in our physical bodies by remembering and imaging moments where we gave and received love intensely. Since all emotions are energy, they resonate in our bodies in different ways.

Love resonates as an expansive, warm, melting feeling usually in the heart area, solar plexus or abdomen. It feels expansive and big. Of course, there are individual variations. I am hoping that the meditation in the last blog helped you discover how loves feels in your body!

Now we are going to learn how to generate this expansive warm loving energy without needing an external object, condition or image. This is very helpful.

Normally, our emotional state is one of reactivity. When someone is angry at us, we get angry. When someone is loving toward us, we feel  loved and are more likely to offer love back. When someone directs negative energy toward us we take it in, feel negative and offer negativity to the world. True freedom is the ability to generate whatever emotion we choose to feel no matter what is happening externally. Of course, this is only possible to a certain degree. We are all human beings living on this planet and there is an external, objective reality. We truly are and will be effected by others and our environment. If there is an earthquake we are going to feel fear. When a loved one dies, we will feel sadness. When someone we care about is angry at us we will notice that.
But within external reality there is much more freedom than most of us are aware of or practice. Its like paddling a kayak down the river. The current of life is very strong, but we can learn to steer our boat more and more the direction we want to go. We can't go upstream very long, or ignore rapids and rocks, but we can use the energy of life to take us where we want to go. We can learn to strengthen our energy field through meditation, chi kung, yoga or many other valid spiritual paths and thereby become a generator of positive love. The more we can generate the energy of love the more we create the circumstances of our emotional reality rather than simply reacting to what is coming toward us on a particular day. This is FREEDOM!

You can learn to be a generator of  love right now as you read this blog. We will begin with the meditation offered last time and move on from there....

-Find a comfortable place to sit where you can feel your feet on the ground. You should be in a quiet, safe environment where you can relax.

-Allow your breathing to become a little deeper and slower. You can count the inhale and the exhale, making the exhale 1 count longer e.g., Inhale 1....2.....3.... Exhale.....1....2......3......4.....Use whatever count feels good to you that slows your breath

-Now, shift your awareness to your physical heart on the left side of your chest

-Breathe into your heart as if your heart had a nose, slowly and gently. Notice any physical sensations that may arise

-Now, remember a time when you felt loved unconditionally and completely, or if you can't remember this,  imagine a situation. Or...remember a time when you felt love for a person, pet or community, or activity. Or imagine this.....

-Try to visualize this experience with all your senses; see it happening, remember the time and place, what  you were doing and who were with, what time of day was it, the weather, your age. Just stay with it. If the mind wanders (which it most likely will,)bring it back.  Do this for about 5 min.

-Now, scan your body. What do you feel? What does your breath feel like? Do you feel an expansion in your chest? A warmth? A tingling? Did you sigh? Do tears come? Just notice....there is no right way to feel and no wrong way. 

 -Now, let the images in your mind fade away. Let the memory good. Just focus on the feeling of love breathe into this physical feeling. See it as a light glowing in your body. Any color light that appeals to you. Or just focus on the feeling. The feeling and/or light gets stronger as inhale and you relax into it as you exhale. 

-Now, let this feeling light expand beyond your physical body. This is effortless. It just fills your body until it spills over and surrounds you. This energy light is protecting you. 

-Now imagine or feel, the crown of your head opening. All the energy from the sun, moon, all the planets, the stars and the immense energy from the spaces between the stars flows down into you. And when it enters you, this energy is transformed into love. 

 -Now feel your feet on the earth. Imagine and feel the whole earth beneath you. Draw up the energy from all the plants, animals, rocks, river and oceans  into your body. And when it enters your body it becomes love. 

 -Now the energy is way too big to be contained in your personal space. You stand up and hold your palms outward sending energy and love out into the world. You can slowly turn in a circle as you do this. See the whole world surrounded by light. This feels easy and good. If it feels hard or tiring, then stop, just breathe and rest. You will build capacity to do this. 

-Now...let your breathing slow. Sit back down. Draw the energy in. Spiraling inward becoming softer, more mellow, more relaxed. Bring your thumb and forefinger together and press firmly. And say to yourself, "This is how love feels in me." Relax even more and let the energy of love spiral into a bright point of light in the center of your heart.

 -You can finish by letting returning to your body and breath. Breathing slowly and easily. Give thanks for  your life. Slowly open your eyes. 

 Throughout your day you can bring thumb and forefinger together and you will remember how love feels and you will generate love out into the world. The more you generate love, or any positive feeling, the more you will create your reality than reacting to it. 

 Let me know how it works for you!

Love and Peace, 

Sue

www.healingmeditations.net
healingmeditaitons1@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/healingmeditations1

The Energy of Love: Part 1

Sue and Osage sending Love

All emotions are Energy in Motion. Every emotion has an energetic and vibrational frequency.  The vibrational frequency of an emotion affects the physiology of our  bodies positively or negatively and this allows us to FEEL an emotion as a physical sensation.

Most of us are aware of how negative emotions affect our physiology: stress headaches, knot in the stomach, angry clenched jaw, fear in the solar plexus......the list is long and varied.

It is just as true that any positive emotion, love, happiness, pride, appreciation also affect our physiology.  Many of us are not aware of how love feels  in  our bodies. So the first step is recognizing how love feels physically.

You can learn to do this RIGHT NOW as you are reading this blog...

-Allow your face to relax and your eyes to half way close (so you can continue) reading

-Allow your breathing to become a little deeper and slower. You can count the inhale and the exhale, making the exhale 1 count longer e.g., Inhale 1....2.....3.... Exhale.....1....2......3......4.....Use whatever count feels good to you that slows your breath

-Now, shift your awareness to your physical heart on the left side of your chest

-Breathe into your heart as if your heart had a nose, slowly and gently. Notice any physical sensations that may arise

-Now, remember a time when you felt loved unconditionally and completely, or if you can't remember this,  imagine a situation. Or...remember a time when you felt love for a person, pet or community, or activity. Or imagine this.....

-Try to visualize this experience with all your senses; see it happening, remember the time and place, what  you were doing and who were with, what time of day was it, the weather, your age. Just stay with it. If the mind wanders (which it most likely will,)bring it back.  Do this for about 5 min.

-Now, scan your body. What do you feel? What does your breath feel like? Do you feel an expansion in your chest? A warmth? A tingling? Did you sigh? Do tears come? Just notice....there is no right way to feel and no wrong way. And if you don't feel anything at all, that is just a signal to practice this more and you will!

-Slowly open your eyes all the way. Look around the room. How do you feel physically? Notice how your body feels. Come all the way back!

Love has a signature feeling of warmth, tingling, an aliveness, an expansion. It feels good!  How does Love express itself in your body? Let me know!

You can practice this every day for 5-10 min. and once you know how love feels in your body, we can practice, just loving, without object or condition.  Coming next week!

This is FREEDOM!

Photo by: Rajni Ouroboros

Creating Authentic Self Esteem Step 4: Right Action

Hi All,
I hope you have been enjoying the series on self esteem. I have enjoyed writing it!
So far I have been discussing how to build self esteem internally. Internal self esteem, or self love, is absolutely essential. A person can be endlessly successful in an outer sense, but without inner self love and appreciation, any outer success feels hollow and incomplete.
That being said, internal self esteem is only part of the picture. We all need to develop and grow in tangible ways that we can measure and see. We all need to find a way to contribute and express our inner values and gifts.
So in this post we are going to discuss on how to build to self esteem through Right Action.

Here's How:

1. Help Someone Else:
Human beings are social animals. We get a powerful hit of dopamine (a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and reward) when we help another person. Lending a helping hand can be as simple as letting a driver into the flow of traffic in rush hour. Volunteer possibilities are endless and varied.  You can help a co worker without any though of gain and recognition. There are always opportunities to help the young or elderly in every community. In any conversation or relationship, notice and be mindful of  the myriad ways you can be kind. This is helping! Often not doing is helping. Just listening to a friend or loved one without  judgement is helping.

Of course, there is a shadow side to helping. Some of us can help too much in order to feel good about ourselves.  If you have taken the time to develop an inner structure of self love this is less likely to happen. Some signals that you may be helping too much are:
-you feel anxious or uneasy when you are thinking about or actually helping someone
-you don't feel happy after helping, but rather may feel angry, resentful or depressed
-you begin to expect something in return
- the person you are trying to help doesn't begins to express resentment or concern or may find that your "help" is intrusive
So remember that your peace of mind and well being comes first. And then help as much as you can!

2. Work Toward Meaningful Goals: 
We all need tangible goals to work toward and achieve. I recommend that everyone have personal goals. Examples of personal goals are losing weight, exercising, learning something new, developing a skill or talent that feels natural and easy for you. 
 It is very important to really want to achieve any goal you choose to pursue. This may seem obvious, but in my hypnotherapy practice, I often see people who want to pursue a goal that they feel like they should want to accomplish,  but really don't want very much in a deeply personal way.
 A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself, "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not at all, and 10 being the most important thing in my life, what number is my goal. " Close your eyes and relax. Allow a number to appear or a number will just come to you. I would say that a personal goal should at least get a 6 in order to be worth pursuing.
Start out with a general goal and then break it into small steps. Make the first steps very easy. For instance, if your goal is to lose weight. Ask yourself if there is on thing that you could change, that would help you achieve your goal, that is easy for you to do. For instance, I found it very easy not to eat after 8pm and this has helped me  lose a few pounds. I also switched from whole milk to 2% and that also has made a difference. Start small, but hold your big goal in minds eye. Draw your goal. Talk about it with others. Write about it . Put sticky notes on your frig, on your computer, in your car to keep your goal in the front of your consciousness.
Most importantly align your goals with your inner most nature and subconscious mind. It is very possible for the conscious mind and sub conscious mind to have very different agendas! The subconscious usually wins. For example, the conscious mind wants to lose weight but the sub conscious wants to eat cake! Hypnotherapy can help the subconscious mind get on board with your conscious mind and this is a huge advantage. Will power rarely works forever and takes alot of energy. Or through the process of hypnosis, you may discover that your goal doesn't reflect your true nature. and it can be discarded or modified.

Most importantly, know that altho you are learning and growing, improving and working toward goals, you are perfect  just as you are, every step of the way

3. Find Your Life Purpose: 
This has always sounded like a very daunting phrase to me. But really, your life purpose is to do what you love to do. Everyone has something that they do that makes them feel good, optimistic, fulfilled and proud. Recognize that thing and do it as much as you can.
If you have a natural gift or talent then develop it  by taking classes, studying and practicing.It sometimes take a long time to be able to express and know our life purpose, but know that it is there and that you will find it.  In my younger years I flitted from job to job making enough money  just to survive, knowing that what I was doing wasn't using my gifts and talents fully.
 But...during that time I began a meditation practice, healed old wounds, explored the world, and read books on a spirituality, meditation and healing.I noticed that I was always interested in any subject having to do with spirituality, healing and self development. This are of pursuit never bored me and always made me feel good. I kept nourishing this aspect of my life as much as I could.
Now, in my late fifties, I have come home, and have the wonderful opportunity to help others heal every day.
Your life purpose may never become your work and that is fine. Or you life purpose may be your work. It  is different for everyone.
Its really very simple. Whatever you consistently love is what you were meant to do whether that makes you money or not.

Every day is an opportunity for Right Action.
Right Action is living consciously in a way that feels good to you. By feeling good I don't mean indulgence. If you like ice cream sundaes or even love them, you certainly won't feel good if you eat them all day.

 I am talking about the pursuit that  creates a warm feeling in your stomach,  an  expansion in your chest, that lifts your shoulders and straightens your spine with strength and confidence. This is  what Right Action feels like! As you become happier, stronger, and  more able to  contribute your unique gifts, it helps the world and everyone in it. And as you express your true nature in whatever form(s) arise, your self esteem will grow and become deep and abiding.

Be Well and Practice Right Action,
Sue
www.healingmeditations.net
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We will finish the series on Self Esteem with the next post: Use your Own Yardstick

Creating Authentic Self Esteem: Step 3 Past Worthiness

 Past Worthiness is the practice of reflecting upon and directly experiencing all of our past accomplishments, obstacles overcome and moments of deep  appreciation.

In the last post, June 10 2013, I talked about the fact that focusing and remembering the negative is how our  brains are hard wired and how this gave primitive man an evolutionary advantage. The same negative bias

 is true for  remembering past accomplishments. It did not matter to primitive man that he managed to find food for himself and his family yesterday, he needed to find it today! The food from yesterday had already been consumed. It was more important for primitive man to remember his past mistakes, because mistakes often meant death, than it was to remember the good times. 

 As present day human beings,  we tend to always be chasing the next carrot-the next award, promotion, the next feel good experience instead of appreciating on a regular basis our past accomplishments. I once was counseling a depressed client, who was feeling very unworthy and  pointed out to her that she could possibly feel good about herself as a mother. She had raised two beautiful, accomplished children who were now young adults out in the world and doing well. She looked at me with such sadness in her eyes and said, "But that doesn't count. Its over now. " What a loss of an opportunity to feel good! 

To feed ourselves a steady diet of feel good dopamine, the neurotransmitter related to award and pleasure,  it is necessary to consciously make a practice of remembering our past moments of worthiness. But remembering for most is just kind of a vague, mental exercise. How do we viscerally experience our feel good memories?

Here's how: 

*Find a place where you feel comfortable, and safe. A place that is quiet and where won't be disturbed for 5-10 minutes.

* Sit in a comfortable chair or lay down. Rest your hands on your belly and  feel your belly rise on the inhale and fall on the exhale. If you are not a natural belly breather, that is fine. You can just begin practice this kind of breathing. You want to actually feel your hands rise a little on the inhale and fall a little on the exhaled. You are just breathing a little deeper than usual

*You can begin to count the breath making the exhale one count longer than the exhale e.g., Inhale counting 1....2....3....4....exhale counting 1....2.....3....4....5. You can use any count you are comfortable with. The slower the better. 

*Once you began to feel a little more relaxed, begin to breathe into your physical heart on the left side of your chest as if your heart had a nose. Put your mind in your heart. Do this for a minute or two. 

*Then, Consciously remember an event in your past that your are proud of-an award, a promotion, a project completed, a relationship mended, a beautiful day in which you felt present and alive (probably the best accomplishment of all!)

*As you remember this time of worthiness,  continue consciously breathing into your heat. See the event unfolding in your minds eye. See the time of day, the season, who you were with, the weather, make it as real as possible. Remember how old you were, how your body felt, what you were wearing. 

* As you practice this, your body will begin to respond. You may feel a warmth in your heart, a tingling, a relaxation, an expansion in your chest. Any pleasant physical  feeling is a signal that you are really taking the experience in. 

* Let these pleasant bodily sensations expand throughout your whole body.

*If your mind wanders, thats fine, just keep coming back to your memory. 

*You may stay with one memory or many memories of past worthiness may arise.  You may experience memories from long ago. You may remember learning to tie your shoes, or getting your drivers license, or passing a test. Or remembering just taking  a deep breath taken on a beautiful day. 

*Finally, just breathe and let mental activity go. Just perceive  your body and breathing and just be with yourself. 

*Come back to the present by opening your eyes. and wiggling your fingers and toes. Get up and notice your environment. Colors may seem brighter, your mood  lighter, and you may feel more calm and relaxed. 

This is a good practice to do every week or so. Or more often if you are feeling down. In this way, we can begin to train ourselves to appreciate our past worthiness. And as we do this we will build a foundation of positive feelings that carry over into our present lives so that we can create more and more positive, self affirming  memories. So at the end of our lives, we can look back with a sense of satisfaction, fulfillment and joy!

Note: It is important to note that if you have experienced serious abuse or trauma it can be difficult  or uncomfortable to remember the past and guide your mind to positive events. If that is the case, learn to do this with the help of a Certified Hypnotherapist. 

Be Well and Remember Good Things About You, 

Sue Schmidt, Certified Hypnotherapist
Lousiville, CO

www.healingmeditations.net

healingmeditations1@gmail.com