Here is a simple technique to begin experiencing your own internal power. As you breathe allow yourself to begin to experience a deep state of relaxation and healing.
1. Inhale slowly and deeply to a count of 4.
Inhale, filling your lower belly on the count of one (1),
then your diaphragm for the count of two (2),
next, fill your lungs on the count of three (3),
and finally your collar bone lifts with the last part of your inhale on the count of four (4).
2. Hold the breath for 4 counts.
3. Exhale slowly and gently, through your mouth, reversing the order of the inhale.
Release your collar bone and shoulders first with the beginning of the exhale (1),
then lungs (2),
diaphragm (3),
and belly (4).
Make a gentle “ha-a-a-a” sound, releasing all your muscles in a big sigh.
4. Hold the exhaled breath for 4 counts, as you experience how the energy in your body seemingly slows down while you exhale.
5. Repeat 1-4 at least three times.
6. Now, bring your attention to the area of your heart, pretend your breathing is flowing in and out through your heart in a relaxed way….now, breathing just a little deeper than usual…
Begin breathing in love and appreciation, …step into the feelings as they arise …. really feel how you would feel…. breathing them in and filling your whole body with every breath you take …allowing you to feel better in every way….
7. Inhale slowly, and send your awareness high above your head… as if you have sprouted wings and now can fly far out into the universe … until you discover a great bright light … symbolizing your own Renewable Source of Creation…
Now … imagine you follow a ray of light back and allow yourself to be filled with this beautiful light through the top of your head … and let the light fill your whole body completely … filling every cell of your body with warm, healing light …right to the center of your own DNA.
8. Exhale slowly, through the mouth with a “ha-a-a-a” sound releasing all your muscles in a big sigh and hold again for the count of four.
9. Now, as you inhale slowly, send your awareness deep down into the Earth below you, as if you have grown roots, down to the center of the Earth. Allow the power and resources you find there to travel up your roots. Allow this energy to enter through the bottom of your feet, easily moving up through your legs; up through your tailbone, filling your belly, moving through your heart, up through your throat, filling your whole head.
Take a moment to imagine every cell of your body completely filled with this energy, opening and receiving.
10. Again, exhaling through the mouth with a “ha-a-a-a” and hold again for the count of four.
11. Repeat steps 7 – 10 as many times as you like.
Center in your heart, breath in love and appreciation, send your awareness up to Source, back down through the top of your head, through your body, then down into the center of the Earth, back up through the bottom of your feet, filling your whole body completely, back to centering in your heart and then send your appreciation out into your entire life.
You will learn that very quickly, this simple exercise can help you relax, help you focus, and slow you down.
Are you ready to create positive lasting change in your life, starting right now?
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The Cycle Tool
More Emotional Brain Training
The Cycle Tool for Brain State 4
"State the facts about your upset.
No feelings. Just the facts.
Keep it short, however, long enough to arouse strong emotions in your body.
Then launch into the Natural Flow of Feelings
I feel angry that . . .
I feel sad that . . .
I feel afraid that . . .
I feel guilty that . . .
Express short choppy sentences to express your feelings.
Your stress will begin to quiet down, and you will be in the portal of your emotional brain.
At that point, you can use deductive reasoning to identify your Unreasonable Expectation.
Then find a Reasonable Expectation — the opposite of the unreasonable one — which squashes the wiring of that old unreasonable expectation.
In a flash you will go into a stress response, which is why we use Encouraging Words, a short statement of support to keep you thinking about the reasonable expectation.
The most powerful part of The Cycle is to identify the Essential Pain, the change, loss, upset, reality to face, and grow from, in order to switch your brain to joy, and feel the joy response.
The Essential Pain is the truth about the human condition or my life that I must face in order to follow through with this new reasonable expectation, in a state of balance and joy.
The Earned Reward is your reason for following through with that reasonable expectation, and if that reward is not more pleasurable than the Essential Pain then the expectation needs some tweaking. It’s not reasonable.
Last, as you return to Brain State 1, ask What do I need? (including need for support from others).
If you like, check to see if there is a circuit you want to break that was revealed by the Cycle. That’s your positive affirmation or Grind In. Repeat it 10 times, 1 to 3 times per day to help break that old neural circuit and build a new one that leads to joy.
Here’s a demonstration of The Cycle Tool by the founder of Emotional Brain Training, Laurel Mellin, MA, RD, Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF.
Our unconscious emotional expectations hold us in a stress response.
Use the Cycle Tool to nab that unconscious unreasonable expectation, bring it to a conscious level and rewire it.
Just the Facts:
My shoulder hurts from playing golf, my brother is in the hospital after open heart surgery, I am going to visit a friend tomorrow morning in LA, and see her daughter’s wedding reception, and I am missing my mother, who passed away a little more than two years ago.
Natural Flow of Feelings
I feel angry that my shoulder hurts. I hate it that my mother is gone . . .
I feel sad that my brother is sick. I feel sad that my shoulder hurts.
I feel afraid that I will keep having losses, my mother . . . more . . .
I feel guilty that I feel bad.
My Unreasonable Expectation is that I shouldn’t feel bad when I am in the midst of loss.
My Reasonable Expectation? I expect myself to feel as bad as I need to feel for as long as I need to feel it.
Encouraging Words? I can do that!
The Essential Pain is that: Life can be difficult. I will have pain.
The Earned Reward (of accepting that): I can see myself. I can honor myself.
Now, I can feel a sense of sanctuary within. I am at Brain State 1.
Now that I have switched my brain from stress to joy, what do I need (including what do I need from others)?
What do I need? To enjoy my life. To appreciate how much love I feel for my mother, my brother, my family. I need to call the hospital and find out how my brother is doing (it’s still a “no visitor” day as he is in intensive care and in discomfort).
Grind In: I feel full of love and gratitude right now, just as I am.
Repeat your affirmation 10 times, 1 to 3 times per day, to help break that old neural circuit and build a new one that leads to joy.
The Cycle Tool gives us the power to rewire our unconscious memory systems, and using it simply as in the example or in ways that target healing of our early trauma and most challenging situation, such as with addictions, rejections, and survival needs. It guides us through the natural processing of stress through the brain, sending that electrical and chemical energy through stress and back to joy."
The Cycle Tool for Brain State 4
"State the facts about your upset.
No feelings. Just the facts.
Keep it short, however, long enough to arouse strong emotions in your body.
Then launch into the Natural Flow of Feelings
I feel angry that . . .
I feel sad that . . .
I feel afraid that . . .
I feel guilty that . . .
Express short choppy sentences to express your feelings.
Your stress will begin to quiet down, and you will be in the portal of your emotional brain.
At that point, you can use deductive reasoning to identify your Unreasonable Expectation.
Then find a Reasonable Expectation — the opposite of the unreasonable one — which squashes the wiring of that old unreasonable expectation.
In a flash you will go into a stress response, which is why we use Encouraging Words, a short statement of support to keep you thinking about the reasonable expectation.
The most powerful part of The Cycle is to identify the Essential Pain, the change, loss, upset, reality to face, and grow from, in order to switch your brain to joy, and feel the joy response.
The Essential Pain is the truth about the human condition or my life that I must face in order to follow through with this new reasonable expectation, in a state of balance and joy.
The Earned Reward is your reason for following through with that reasonable expectation, and if that reward is not more pleasurable than the Essential Pain then the expectation needs some tweaking. It’s not reasonable.
Last, as you return to Brain State 1, ask What do I need? (including need for support from others).
If you like, check to see if there is a circuit you want to break that was revealed by the Cycle. That’s your positive affirmation or Grind In. Repeat it 10 times, 1 to 3 times per day to help break that old neural circuit and build a new one that leads to joy.
Here’s a demonstration of The Cycle Tool by the founder of Emotional Brain Training, Laurel Mellin, MA, RD, Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF.
Our unconscious emotional expectations hold us in a stress response.
Use the Cycle Tool to nab that unconscious unreasonable expectation, bring it to a conscious level and rewire it.
Just the Facts:
My shoulder hurts from playing golf, my brother is in the hospital after open heart surgery, I am going to visit a friend tomorrow morning in LA, and see her daughter’s wedding reception, and I am missing my mother, who passed away a little more than two years ago.
Natural Flow of Feelings
I feel angry that my shoulder hurts. I hate it that my mother is gone . . .
I feel sad that my brother is sick. I feel sad that my shoulder hurts.
I feel afraid that I will keep having losses, my mother . . . more . . .
I feel guilty that I feel bad.
My Unreasonable Expectation is that I shouldn’t feel bad when I am in the midst of loss.
My Reasonable Expectation? I expect myself to feel as bad as I need to feel for as long as I need to feel it.
Encouraging Words? I can do that!
The Essential Pain is that: Life can be difficult. I will have pain.
The Earned Reward (of accepting that): I can see myself. I can honor myself.
Now, I can feel a sense of sanctuary within. I am at Brain State 1.
Now that I have switched my brain from stress to joy, what do I need (including what do I need from others)?
What do I need? To enjoy my life. To appreciate how much love I feel for my mother, my brother, my family. I need to call the hospital and find out how my brother is doing (it’s still a “no visitor” day as he is in intensive care and in discomfort).
Grind In: I feel full of love and gratitude right now, just as I am.
Repeat your affirmation 10 times, 1 to 3 times per day, to help break that old neural circuit and build a new one that leads to joy.
The Cycle Tool gives us the power to rewire our unconscious memory systems, and using it simply as in the example or in ways that target healing of our early trauma and most challenging situation, such as with addictions, rejections, and survival needs. It guides us through the natural processing of stress through the brain, sending that electrical and chemical energy through stress and back to joy."
Emotional Housecleaning
More from the Emotional Brain Training website and blog.
Emotional Housecleaning for Brain State 3
Express four negative feelings (anger, sadness, fear and guilt) and four positive ones (their opposites — grateful, happy, secure and proud), in that order.
I feel angry about.......
I feel sad about.......
I feel afraid of.......
I feel guilty about.......
I feel grateful for .......
I feel happy that .......
I feel secure about .......
I feel proud about .......
Expressing feelings decreases stress. You start with the negative feelings, because the brain has to clear away the negative ones to reduce stress to the point that we can feel the positive ones.
Emotional Housecleaning for Brain State 3
Express four negative feelings (anger, sadness, fear and guilt) and four positive ones (their opposites — grateful, happy, secure and proud), in that order.
I feel angry about.......
I feel sad about.......
I feel afraid of.......
I feel guilty about.......
I feel grateful for .......
I feel happy that .......
I feel secure about .......
I feel proud about .......
Expressing feelings decreases stress. You start with the negative feelings, because the brain has to clear away the negative ones to reduce stress to the point that we can feel the positive ones.
STIMULATE YOUR LIFE ENERGY & VITALITY
1) Thump K-27 Points
These are the end points of the kidney meridians, the pathways of energy that begin under the ball of each foot, travel up the inside of the leg, up the front of the body, and end at the collarbone. The K-27 points are just under the clavicle, or collarbone. To find them, place your fingertips on the U-shaped notch at the top of the breastbone, right about where a man knots his tie. Then move your fingers out to each side and down about an inch. Most people have small depressions there. Stimulating these points clears reversals, which is important before beginning any energy intervention. It gets the energy flowing in a forward direction and jump-starts the energy system so we feel more alert and energetic.
Crossing your hands while thumping on the K-27 points has the added benefit of emulating the body's energies crossing at the neck. Keep thumping the K-27 points while taking three deep breaths (in through the nose and out through the mouth).
2) Thump the Thymus Gland
According to Dr. John Diamond, author of Life Energy, the thymus gland controls the life energy of the body. The Greek word thymos actually means "life energy!" This gland lies just beneath the upper part of the breastbone in the middle of the chest, and it plays a vital role in the body's immune system. Think of all the energy Tarzan had after he thumped his chest!
Repeat the affirmation "My life energy is high. I am full of love," while thumping the thymus gland and taking three deep breaths.
3) Thump the Spleen Neurolymphatic Points
These points are part of the lymph system, which aids the immune system by removing toxins from the body.
The spleen neurolymphatic points are the depression between the 7th and 8th rib, just below the level of the breastbone (sternum). Find the points by moving your hand beneath your breasts, straight under the nipples, then move them down over the next rib. (These points are not under the ribcage, that's going down too far).
Thumping the Spleen Neurolymphatic Reflex Points removes toxins, fights infection, modulates blood chemistry and hormones, counters dizziness and stress, and helps metabolize food.
If these points are really sore, stimulate them by rubbing and the soreness should disappear in a few days. These points can be stimulates while taking three deep breaths, and even longer --- for two or three minutes at a time.
This is from Gwenn Bonnell's website Tap Into Heaven.
What is Emotional Brain Training?
The following information of edited from the Emotional Brain Training website.
Emotional Brain Training is a method of rewiring the brain to promote optimal processing of stress. The method is based on six tools, one to identify the level of stress or “brain state” on a 5-point scale. For each level there is a different pathway in the brain that most effectively eases stress and promotes positive emotions.
One way of thinking about the brain is in different layers of function. The most primitive is the lower part of the brain and its core. The limbic system is the next layer of the human brain and is the seat of emotions, relationships, spirituality and reward. The newest layer is the neocortical brain, the seat of consciousness, planning and decision-making.
Each of these brain areas has different strengths and it is how the whole brain works together — neural integration — that supports our survival. The neocortex enables us to think magnificent thoughts, the limbic system to love and feel loved, and the primitive brain responds to stressors with amazing speed, adjusting bodily processes to offer the best chances of survival.
When the brain perceives a survival level threat, it shifts the flow of energy toward the more primitive areas, creating the quickest response and fulfilling our first purpose which is to survive. When our minds think that our survival is in danger and decides to shut off our ability to be creative or sense others emotions and instead just focus on making very quick instinctive decisions.
When this happens, both the limbic system and the neocortex stop working and our ability to process emotions and our ability to rationally think stops because we are not using that part of our brains.
The initial stress activates memories formed during other periods of stress. Memories or wires are “state specific”, that is, we are more likely to arouse other memories that were stored in that state, even though they don’t “match” the current situation.
The secondary stress, the arousal of wires or connections that amplify the stress experienced, is not experienced as a memory. There is no “source attribution” or feeling of remembering something.
For example when you experience rejection, the wiring from being rejected by other loves, or being bullied as school, or being criticized by a teacher, or negative experiences with mom, dad and siblings is aroused. Again, we don’t sense that we are remembering, but nonetheless, the wires cause us to overreact. Even if we didn’t like that old lover that much anyway, but you’d never know it. We plummet to Brain State 5, and it feels as if our life is on the line.
In Brain State 5, it is perfectly normal and universal either to be hyper-aroused or blank out. Thinking is irrational. We are confused. Emotions are extreme or strangely absent. Intimacy is impossible to find. We tend to merge or distance. Our behaviors are extreme, and tend to be addictive.
When the brain is working as it should, the limbic brain flows input from all the senses, from the body, emotional memories, unconscious expectations and thoughts. In an ongoing flow of functionality it sizes up all the potential threats and rewards, prioritizes them, then settles on an emotion. That emotion is the message to the neocortical brain and directs us to meet our most important need. The strongest emotion points to the most important need.
The brain is in one of five states at all times, ranging from stress to joy. For each brain state there is a specific pathway that most effectively processes stress back to well-being. Learn how to switch your brain from stress to joy. Rewire the brain for lasting results and change the brain’s set point toward well-being.
Laurel Mellin, MA, RD is an Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF. She is the founder of Emotional Brain Training (EBT), a method of treating obesity and stress symptoms that equips individuals with tools based on an integration of neuroscience and attachment theory to decrease the frequency and duration of the stress response and to favor high-level well-being.
Emotional Brain Training is a method of rewiring the brain to promote optimal processing of stress. The method is based on six tools, one to identify the level of stress or “brain state” on a 5-point scale. For each level there is a different pathway in the brain that most effectively eases stress and promotes positive emotions.
One way of thinking about the brain is in different layers of function. The most primitive is the lower part of the brain and its core. The limbic system is the next layer of the human brain and is the seat of emotions, relationships, spirituality and reward. The newest layer is the neocortical brain, the seat of consciousness, planning and decision-making.
Each of these brain areas has different strengths and it is how the whole brain works together — neural integration — that supports our survival. The neocortex enables us to think magnificent thoughts, the limbic system to love and feel loved, and the primitive brain responds to stressors with amazing speed, adjusting bodily processes to offer the best chances of survival.
When the brain perceives a survival level threat, it shifts the flow of energy toward the more primitive areas, creating the quickest response and fulfilling our first purpose which is to survive. When our minds think that our survival is in danger and decides to shut off our ability to be creative or sense others emotions and instead just focus on making very quick instinctive decisions.
When this happens, both the limbic system and the neocortex stop working and our ability to process emotions and our ability to rationally think stops because we are not using that part of our brains.
The initial stress activates memories formed during other periods of stress. Memories or wires are “state specific”, that is, we are more likely to arouse other memories that were stored in that state, even though they don’t “match” the current situation.
The secondary stress, the arousal of wires or connections that amplify the stress experienced, is not experienced as a memory. There is no “source attribution” or feeling of remembering something.
For example when you experience rejection, the wiring from being rejected by other loves, or being bullied as school, or being criticized by a teacher, or negative experiences with mom, dad and siblings is aroused. Again, we don’t sense that we are remembering, but nonetheless, the wires cause us to overreact. Even if we didn’t like that old lover that much anyway, but you’d never know it. We plummet to Brain State 5, and it feels as if our life is on the line.
In Brain State 5, it is perfectly normal and universal either to be hyper-aroused or blank out. Thinking is irrational. We are confused. Emotions are extreme or strangely absent. Intimacy is impossible to find. We tend to merge or distance. Our behaviors are extreme, and tend to be addictive.
When the brain is working as it should, the limbic brain flows input from all the senses, from the body, emotional memories, unconscious expectations and thoughts. In an ongoing flow of functionality it sizes up all the potential threats and rewards, prioritizes them, then settles on an emotion. That emotion is the message to the neocortical brain and directs us to meet our most important need. The strongest emotion points to the most important need.
The brain is in one of five states at all times, ranging from stress to joy. For each brain state there is a specific pathway that most effectively processes stress back to well-being. Learn how to switch your brain from stress to joy. Rewire the brain for lasting results and change the brain’s set point toward well-being.
Laurel Mellin, MA, RD is an Associate Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF. She is the founder of Emotional Brain Training (EBT), a method of treating obesity and stress symptoms that equips individuals with tools based on an integration of neuroscience and attachment theory to decrease the frequency and duration of the stress response and to favor high-level well-being.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Depression, stress, and Emotional Brain Training
Research is beginning to show that the a major cause of depression is not genetics, but stress. It was thought that a particular serotonin transporter gene was responsible for most cases of depression, as some previous studies have implied.
Emotional Brain Training (EBT) uses the Natural Flow of Feelings technique when at Brain State 4 to unravel depression, and identify what is triggering the cortisol cascade.
These feelings are: angry, sad, afraid and guilty.
Often in people who slip into depression, the “I feel angry . . ” skill needs strengthening.
A simple, “I feel angry that . . . ” and really feel it. come up with at least 20 "I feel angry..." and not allowing words to pass your lips until you feel FIRE in the belly.
Notice how depression cools, as you begin to feel better.
Emotional Brain Training (EBT) uses the Natural Flow of Feelings technique when at Brain State 4 to unravel depression, and identify what is triggering the cortisol cascade.
These feelings are: angry, sad, afraid and guilty.
Often in people who slip into depression, the “I feel angry . . ” skill needs strengthening.
A simple, “I feel angry that . . . ” and really feel it. come up with at least 20 "I feel angry..." and not allowing words to pass your lips until you feel FIRE in the belly.
Notice how depression cools, as you begin to feel better.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
What is Intuitive Eating?
Here is a summary of the 10 principles of Intuitive Eating, from the book, Intuitive Eating, 2nd ed, 2003.
"Intuitive eating is an approach that teaches you how to create a healthy relationship with your food, mind, and body--where you ultimately become the expert of your own body. You learn how to distinguish between physical and emotional feelings, and gain a sense of body wisdom. It's also a process of making peace with food, so that you no longer have constant "food worry" thoughts. It's knowing that your health and your worth as a person does not change because you ate a so-called "bad" or "fattening" food.
On the surface this may sound simplistic, but it is rather complex. For example one of the basic principles of Intuitive Eating is the ability to respond to inner body cues, “Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full”, which may sound like a no-brainer. But when you have history of chronic dieting or rigid “healthy” rules about eating it's quite difficult because a number of things need to be in place, including the ability to trust yourself! Intuitive Eating Principles
1. Reject the Diet Mentality
Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.
2. Honor Your Hunger
Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for re-building trust with yourself and food.
3. Make Peace with Food
Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can't or shouldn't have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing When you finally “give-in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt.
4. Challenge the Food Police
Scream a loud "NO" to thoughts in your head that declare you're "good" for eating under 1000 calories or "bad" because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The Food Police monitor the unreasonable rules that dieting has created . The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loud speaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.
5. Respect Your Fullness
Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you're comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what is your current fullness level?
6. Discover the Satisfaction
Factor The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence--the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes much less food to decide you've had "enough".
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food
Find ways to comfort , nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won't fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won't solve the problem. If anything, eating for an emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You'll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion, as well as the discomfort of overeating.
8. Respect Your Body
Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally as futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, respect your body, so you can feel better about who you are. It's hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical about your body shape.
9. Exercise--Feel the Difference
Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm. If when you wake up, your only goal is to lose weight, it's usually not a motivating factor in that moment of time.
10 Honor Your Health--Gentle Nutrition
Make food choices that honor your health and tastebuds while making you feel well. Remember that you don't have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It's what you eat consistently over time that matters, progress not perfection is what counts.
Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD and Elyse Resch, MS, RD, FADA.
"Intuitive eating is an approach that teaches you how to create a healthy relationship with your food, mind, and body--where you ultimately become the expert of your own body. You learn how to distinguish between physical and emotional feelings, and gain a sense of body wisdom. It's also a process of making peace with food, so that you no longer have constant "food worry" thoughts. It's knowing that your health and your worth as a person does not change because you ate a so-called "bad" or "fattening" food.
On the surface this may sound simplistic, but it is rather complex. For example one of the basic principles of Intuitive Eating is the ability to respond to inner body cues, “Eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full”, which may sound like a no-brainer. But when you have history of chronic dieting or rigid “healthy” rules about eating it's quite difficult because a number of things need to be in place, including the ability to trust yourself! Intuitive Eating Principles
1. Reject the Diet Mentality
Throw out the diet books and magazine articles that offer you false hope of losing weight quickly, easily, and permanently. Get angry at the lies that have led you to feel as if you were a failure every time a new diet stopped working and you gained back all of the weight. If you allow even one small hope to linger that a new and better diet might be lurking around the corner, it will prevent you from being free to rediscover Intuitive Eating.
2. Honor Your Hunger
Keep your body biologically fed with adequate energy and carbohydrates. Otherwise you can trigger a primal drive to overeat. Once you reach the moment of excessive hunger, all intentions of moderate, conscious eating are fleeting and irrelevant. Learning to honor this first biological signal sets the stage for re-building trust with yourself and food.
3. Make Peace with Food
Call a truce, stop the food fight! Give yourself unconditional permission to eat. If you tell yourself that you can't or shouldn't have a particular food, it can lead to intense feelings of deprivation that build into uncontrollable cravings and, often, bingeing When you finally “give-in” to your forbidden food, eating will be experienced with such intensity, it usually results in Last Supper overeating, and overwhelming guilt.
4. Challenge the Food Police
Scream a loud "NO" to thoughts in your head that declare you're "good" for eating under 1000 calories or "bad" because you ate a piece of chocolate cake. The Food Police monitor the unreasonable rules that dieting has created . The police station is housed deep in your psyche, and its loud speaker shouts negative barbs, hopeless phrases, and guilt-provoking indictments. Chasing the Food Police away is a critical step in returning to Intuitive Eating.
5. Respect Your Fullness
Listen for the body signals that tell you that you are no longer hungry. Observe the signs that show that you're comfortably full. Pause in the middle of a meal or food and ask yourself how the food tastes, and what is your current fullness level?
6. Discover the Satisfaction
Factor The Japanese have the wisdom to promote pleasure as one of their goals of healthy living In our fury to be thin and healthy, we often overlook one of the most basic gifts of existence--the pleasure and satisfaction that can be found in the eating experience. When you eat what you really want, in an environment that is inviting and conducive, the pleasure you derive will be a powerful force in helping you feel satisfied and content. By providing this experience for yourself, you will find that it takes much less food to decide you've had "enough".
7. Honor Your Feelings Without Using Food
Find ways to comfort , nurture, distract, and resolve your issues without using food. Anxiety, loneliness, boredom, anger are emotions we all experience throughout life. Each has its own trigger, and each has its own appeasement. Food won't fix any of these feelings. It may comfort for the short term, distract from the pain, or even numb you into a food hangover. But food won't solve the problem. If anything, eating for an emotional hunger will only make you feel worse in the long run. You'll ultimately have to deal with the source of the emotion, as well as the discomfort of overeating.
8. Respect Your Body
Accept your genetic blueprint. Just as a person with a shoe size of eight would not expect to realistically squeeze into a size six, it is equally as futile (and uncomfortable) to have the same expectation with body size. But mostly, respect your body, so you can feel better about who you are. It's hard to reject the diet mentality if you are unrealistic and overly critical about your body shape.
9. Exercise--Feel the Difference
Forget militant exercise. Just get active and feel the difference. Shift your focus to how it feels to move your body, rather than the calorie burning effect of exercise. If you focus on how you feel from working out, such as energized, it can make the difference between rolling out of bed for a brisk morning walk or hitting the snooze alarm. If when you wake up, your only goal is to lose weight, it's usually not a motivating factor in that moment of time.
10 Honor Your Health--Gentle Nutrition
Make food choices that honor your health and tastebuds while making you feel well. Remember that you don't have to eat a perfect diet to be healthy. You will not suddenly get a nutrient deficiency or gain weight from one snack, one meal, or one day of eating. It's what you eat consistently over time that matters, progress not perfection is what counts.
Intuitive Eating, by Evelyn Tribole, MS, RD and Elyse Resch, MS, RD, FADA.
Weight loss is more than just physical.
Exerpts from Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via LEF:
"Losing weight and keeping it off might be as much about the psychological as the physical changes.
"Some people say losing weight is in the mind," said Judith Horvath, director of the psychotherapy training program at Texas Tech's Health Sciences Center.
"The HSC psychiatrist said giving yourself a mental workout can complement healthful eating and exercise regimens.
"I think they need to go hand-in-hand," she said.
"Food can be used as emotional nourishment and to calm anxieties," she said.
"If you look at the laundry list of failed diets that can't have a positive impact on someone's psyche."
"We are empowering people to take back their lives."
"It's about exchanging the reward of food for the reward of achieving their goals."
Please CLICK HERE to find more articles about weight loss and supplements at the Life Extension Foundation web site.
"Losing weight and keeping it off might be as much about the psychological as the physical changes.
"Some people say losing weight is in the mind," said Judith Horvath, director of the psychotherapy training program at Texas Tech's Health Sciences Center.
"The HSC psychiatrist said giving yourself a mental workout can complement healthful eating and exercise regimens.
"I think they need to go hand-in-hand," she said.
"Food can be used as emotional nourishment and to calm anxieties," she said.
"If you look at the laundry list of failed diets that can't have a positive impact on someone's psyche."
"We are empowering people to take back their lives."
"It's about exchanging the reward of food for the reward of achieving their goals."
Please CLICK HERE to find more articles about weight loss and supplements at the Life Extension Foundation web site.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
I love FRACTALS
FRACTALS are beautiful, complex mathematical functions with hidden order
created from quantum physics chaos theory.
These intricate geometric patterns
are the result of positive feedback loops within the equation.
The basic shape repeats itself on every level to infinity.
Fractal equations are extremely sensitive
and any tiny change will produce greatly different results.
The closer you look the more detail you see.
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