Heart-Brain Balance
Springtime in Arizona means much needed rain, wildflower blooms and…. Rattlesnakes coming out of hibernation to warm up in the sun. One of my favorite activities is biking in the desert at all times of year. Each season has its challenges in the desert but the biggest one for me is encountering rattlesnakes on the path. This happened to me yesterday and I realized I now have 3 choices about snakes on the path or any barrier for that matter.
I had carefully chosen my route because we have had a very high amount of rainfall this spring and that means we have a massive amount of wildflowers and other plants encroaching on the trials. Knowing that my usual bike route would be too overgrown with plants to see rattlesnakes, I chose to ride in a different part of the nature preserve where I knew the paths were wider and I would have a clear line of sight to the path ahead.
I had almost reached the farthest point out on the trail where it would curve around and head back, when up ahead, I saw something looking like a long stick across the path. This meant slow down, approach slowly and be cautious! As I approached I could see it was about a 4 foot rattler stretched across the path with its rattle up!
This is the rattler I met on the path yesterday!
If you’ve followed my ramblings for a few years, you may recall that rattlesnakes have been a big, huge phobia of mine since I was 13 years old. I developed this phobia because we spent that summer in Wyoming farming with my grandfather. It was a very dry summer which meant that all the rattlesnakes were coming down to the irrigation wells to get water.
At the time, there were no cell phones for emergencies. My 15 year old sister I would get dropped off in the beet fields in the early morning to hoe weeds and then we’d get picked up by noon before it got too hot to work. This meant that if we had a rattlesnake encounter, there was nothing we could do other than wait or have one of us walk the 5 miles to the farmhouse to get help. Obviously, this scared the bejesus out of us! After 4 different rattlesnake sightings, our parents realized that it wasn’t safe for us anymore to go out alone into the field. So for the next few days, our dad went with us. On both of those days, he ended up killing rattlesnakes with his hoe in the field.
The final straw was when I sat down on the irrigation ditch to get a drink of water and when I stood up, I realized that right under me was a baby rattler. Apparently, the babies have more concentrated venom than the adults. At that point, we were relieved from hoeing duty and got the rest of the summer off.
You can imagine that as a result of these real, dangerous encounters, I developed a nervous system panic response anytime I see a snake. In 2013, I had the privilege of interviewing Nick Ortner producer of the film The Tapping Solution for a telesummit I hosted. In preparation for the summit, I watched Nick’s film and there was a big segment on helping a woman overcome her fear of snakes. I went into a panic just seeing the snake on the screen so I realized that it was time to deal with my fear of snakes. I did a lot of tapping on my fear about snakes for a few days… and wouldn’t you know, the morning that I was scheduled to interview Nick, I went running in the desert and encountered a rattlesnake! I had the same panic reaction initially but I started tapping and cleared it out of my nervous system right away. If you’d like to hear my interview with Nick where he explains all about tapping, please contact me: ronna@sacredjourneyoftheheart.com
Fast forward to yesterday, I didn’t even panic when I saw the rattlesnake! I was alert but not hyper-vigilant. I think it’s because I’ve continued tapping over the years and continued to shift out old fears and stuck emotions.
So basically, as I stood beside my bike about 20 yards away from the sun-basking snake, I realized I had three options: 1) throw a rock at the snake to get it to slither off the bike path, 2) go around the snake by going off the path (into the brush and hoping there were no other snakes I couldn’t see) or 3) turn around and go back the way I came instead of doing the loop. I kind of wanted to take a selfie with the snake but I realized that this could end up on the news under the category of “stupid-human selfies” – just like the woman who got attacked at the Phoenix zoo on March 10th for crossing a zoo barrier to get a selfie with a black panther. So that option was out.
The choice I made yesterday was to just turn around and go back the way I came. Of the three options, this seemed the best. After all, I was in the rattlesnake’s habitat, not the other way around. So I decided I didn’t need to disturb its sunning activity. (And I had a tiny fear that it might chase me down! Yes, a bit of left over amygdala response!) And it didn’t seem prudent to go around the snake just in case its snake family was nearby. So I turned around and headed home.
(FYI: The amygdala is part of the limbic system of the brain, which is involved with emotions and other reactions to stimuli. The amygdala is a processing center that is hooked up to receive incoming messages from our senses and our internal organs. Usually when our amygdala is stimulated, we make decisions we regret later OR we stay in a state of alert or shock for a long time.)
I realize today that we always have these three basic choices whenever we are confronted with a barrier in our path. If we can take the panic and frustration out of the equation, and any other amygdala-type reactions, we have the best chance of making a good decision.
Today, I use quite a few tools to manage my response to challenges: tapping or EFT to shift the emotional response so it doesn’t get carried around or stuffed inside as chronic stress. I use HeartMath tools such as the Freeze Frame to calm down and make true- heart centered (vs reactive) choices. I use Radical Forgiveness if I discover that I’m holding on to some deep-seated or long-standing issues. And finally, I use my newest modality, hypnotherapy to rewire my conscious-subconscious interface to feel more at ease and empowered when I have a choice to make.
My point is, that when we encounter something uncomfortable on our path, we always have a choice. One of my specialties is being able to help my clients navigate challenges and barriers in life to come up with the best possible solutions that lead to a life of great ease and sense of empowerment.
I invite you to explore my client offerings and call me for a free consultation to determine which approach will be the best to help you move forward through any obstacle or barrier you encounter!
One of the most important questions we can ask is: Do I contribute or detract from situations in my life?” In other words, do I make this world a better place?
In the exploration of this question and of consciousness itself, at some point, we will begin to consider the level and quality of our “energetic vibration”. Our vibration is the signal that emanates from us, originating inside our bodies. This energetic signal is broadcast to the world around us. This vibration comes from many levels and the most powerful and easily measurable signal comes from our hearts.
Image used by permission of HeartMath, LLC as part of Sacred Journey of the Heart.
In this article, I will touch on the primary components that make up our vibration and I will share ways that you can literally master your most important resource – your own energy, your entire “biofield”. The world “biofield” has become a new buzzword in many professions. The online Medical Dictionary defines is as:
“the subtle energy fields that permeate the living body.”
When you start to learn about your personal energy of biofield, you will be more equipped to become a “person of increase”. This is a term I learned from Mary Morrissey, the narrator of my film, Sacred Journey of the Heart. As Mary describes it, she gets up every day and asks, “How can I make this a great day? How can I be a person of increase?”
For example, my beloved life partner and chiropractic physician, Dr. Donald Backstrom, is one of the most amazing persons of increase I have ever been around. I’ve seen him change the entire demeanor of people he doesn’t even know. People at the cash register, people at the service station when his car needs a tune up, people he says hi to on the street. And always, every day, he is a person of increase for his patients that come to him for help when the traditional medical industry can’t find answers to their physical issues. It’s a privilege to be around people like this and I am truly blessed to be with him.
Whether you know it or not, you are always contributing positive or negative energy into the field around you.
So what’s the difference between persons of increase and persons of decrease?
Persons of Increase: You know that you are in the presence of a person of increase when you feel better around them. You laugh because they tend to laugh a lot. You smile because they are smiling. You are inspired to think of ways you can improve your life or contribute to your own well-being and the well-being of others. When you talk, they listen. You can tell and feel that they care. And these are authentic people who have full emotional lives, meaning that they are not fakey “it’s all good people”. They feel and are aware of all of their emotions and don’t avoid any feeling or label feelings as good or bad. Here are the energetic questions that drive a person of increase: “What can I give or contribute? How can I help? What can I do to make things better?”
Persons of Decrease: When you are around a person of decrease (or a net detractor in the field), you can feel their stress. Usually this type of person is either rushing or distracted. They may be texting while you are talking or on their computer when you are on the phone with them. When you leave their presence you think, “Whew, I’m glad to get outta here!” And the most challenging aspect of this type of person is that they are frequently judging and labeling. Judging you, themselves and the events in their immediate environment. Here are the energetic questions that drive a person of decrease: “What can I get, what’s in it for me? What’s next on my to do list? How do I get my needs met?”
It’s all about energy, and we are in charge of the energy we contribute to the field. As an energy practitioner, coach and guide, I help my clients learn to master their own energy field, and in doing so, lead more purposeful and heart-centered lives.
Here are the primary components that contribute to our overall vibration, ultimately determining whether we “increase or decrease” in the field around us.
Our Heart: Our heart emits the most powerful, measurable signal from our bodies to the field around us. Our hearts are broadcasting, beat-to-beat, our emotional state and the physiological balance (or for most people, imbalance) of our central nervous system. As Dr. Rollin McCraty of HeartMath shared in my film, our hearts are responsible for generating over 80-90% of the signals being sent from the two vagus nerves that connect our heart and brain to regulate the balance between these two important organs. The signals sent from our heart also largely determine the balance in two parts of our central nervous system. As he says, “it’s not even a close call – we have far more information being sent from heart-to-brain than the other way around.” (view the film for more information)
You can very easily learn how to regulate your heart’s signal and how to balance your central nervous system (meaning- to live in a condition of ease vs stress. As you most likely know, stress is the primary cause of most illnesses.) This has been the three decade long work of the Institute of HeartMath. I offer many heart math learning opportunities as a certified coach and instructor. If you are interested in personal HeartMath coaching, you can find out more about the 4 week Voyage to Heart Intelligence here (scroll down).
All of our physical organs. In fact, all of our physical organs send out frequencies measured in hertz.
In 1992, Bruce Tainio of Tainio Technology, an independent division of Eastern State University in Cheny, Washington, built the first frequency monitor in the world. Tainio has determined that the average frequency of the human body during the daytime is 62-68 [M]Hz. A healthy body frequency is 62-72 [M]Hz. When the frequency drops, the immune system is compromised. Check out these very interesting findings:
Human Body:
Genius Brain Frequency 80-82 MHz
Brain Frequency Range 72-90 MHz
Normal Brain Frequency 72 MHz
Human Body 62-78 MHz
Human Body: from Neck up 72-78 MHz
Human Body: from Neck down 60-68 MHz
Thyroid and Parathyroid glands are 62-68 MHz
Thymus Gland is 65-68 MHz
Heart is 67-70 MHz
Lungs are 58-65 MHz
Liver is 55-60 MHz
Pancreas is 60-80 MHz
From: www.energyfanatics.com
Staying healthy is the best way of taking care of our physical body frequencies!
Our chakras: Our chakras, or subtle body energy centers are both generating signals as well as responding to our inner and outer environment. Learning how to balance our chakras is a very empowering way of mastering our personal biofield. You can get a Biofield Viewer scan to get a picture of your chakras, aura, organs and much more. This amazing technology is available in the Chicago area through my colleague, Astera Manis at http://www.holistichealingchicago.com/.
There are many websites dedicated to education on the 7 traditional chakras. However, in my research and work, the 7 traditional chakras represent an incomplete and outdated system! I teach about the 12 major chakra centers, which include the 5 Aquarian chakras that are located in between the traditional 7. Learning how to consciously activate and balance the 5 Aquarian chakras can literally “fill in the missing pieces” of your life.
The 5 Aquarian chakras govern the following: “higher mind functions” such as clairvoyance and clair-audience, the ability to express clearly from your heart, heart-based leadership, worthiness, personal purpose and the ability to determine truth. And they also govern our sense of inter-connectedness (vs. co-dependence or disconnect).
My webinar, The Triple Heart Healing program delves deep into an understanding of the 12 chromatic chakras and instructs you on how to use your “hidden hearts” to heal from emotional distress. For more details scroll down to the Triple Heart Healing Webinar information here.
Our aura: Our aura is the subtle energy that surrounds our physical body and is a result of the sum of all of our other systems, chakras, organs, meridians, etc. We can learn how to manage our aura and how to use it to provide energetic support and protection in our daily lives. When I see an aura imbalance in my clients, I know that it originates in some other part of the energy anatomy. I can “see” auras remotely, meaning you don’t have to be in the same room as me for me to get a read on your auric field. If you are interested in a personal session that includes advice and suggestions to master your aura, please email me at ronna@sacredjourneyoftheheart.com
Our acupuncture meridians: Just as there are 12 major chakra centers in the body, there are 12 major acupuncture meridians! The classical Chinese explanation is that energy or Chi, (life force) flows throughout the body and over its surfaces. These channels are rivers of energy which are referred to as meridians. There are about 400 acupuncture points along the meridians. Just like the chakras, the meridians transmit and reflect the overall state of our being.
I highly recommend acupuncture, acupressure and other related eastern modalities. My partner, Dr. Donald Backstrom incorporates acupuncture in his chiropractic practice. He uses an Acugraph device which quickly scans your 12 meridians and then he balances them with cold lasers and acupressure. It’s really an amazing technology. If you are in the Chicago area, click here to learn about this holistic practice: http://backstromwellness.com/
Our emotions and level of emotional mastery. Lack of emotional mastery is the major cause for almost all disputes, relationship conflicts and misunderstandings. What this leads to ultimately, is living a big chunk of life through the subconscious and unconscious mechanisms of projection, blame, suppression, repression and denial. You can change this but you have to really put effort into it, like anything else!
The fact is, we are not taught about emotions, why we have them in the first place, and what we can do to become more adept at managing our emotional energy. The best book that has ever been written about emotions in my opinion, is The Language of Emotion, by Karla McClaren. And the best catch-phrase about emotions was coined by John Bradshaw in his breakthrough book, Family Secrets: What you Don’t Know Can Hurt You. He said: “You can’t heal, what you don’t feel.” This is absolutely 100% true!
This is why I demonstrated exactly how to productively express challenging emotions in my film. I recently had a comment on GaiaTV (where my film is streaming online) that is a perfect example of how challenging it is for people to understand the purpose of expressing challenging emotions. If you haven’t seen it, you might want to watch my film on Gaia and see if you can discern why the viewer was so upset by my emotional scene in Chapter Two of the film called: The Emotional Heart- How We Heal. Click here for the link to the film’s page on GaiaTV.
Our mindset and thoughts: This category is one that most people are aware of and are comfortable with discussing and debating. It is still the prevailing paradigm that “our thoughts create our reality”.
Most of us know that if we spend the day thinking negative and gloomy thoughts, our day doesn’t go very well. And if we choose to think positive and uplifting thoughts, we generally feel better and respond to our world in a more optimistic frame of mind.
But I always caution my clients about the trap that exists within what some have called the “Cult of Positivity.” This mindset exists with teachers and people who claim that you should only think positive things and if you do, your life will go along swimmingly. In other words, all the lights will be green, you will have your dream job, house and life partner and you will not have problems.
The “problem” with this is that when challenges happen as they do for everyone, with this mindset, we tend to blame ourselves for failing to be positive and thus creating the bad thing in our lives. I have worked with quite a few clients who have been deeply wounded by this mentality. Our work together has been to get back to a realistic perspective on life and to accept that sometimes, bad things happen to good and positive people. And it’s not because they had bad thoughts in the first place! Just look around the world and you can see the deep soul-damage created by this pitfall. Would it be fair, compassionate or even reasonable to tell the parent of someone whose loved one lost their life in a terrorist attack to say that their bad thoughts created the experience?!! Not at all – and this is where the damage happens.
We all have a responsibility to live the best life we can, accepting the good and the challenging parts without ego aggrandizement or blame. That being said, if you notice you are predominately dwelling in negative thoughts (usually based on past circumstances) you can absolutely make the choice to shift this. My blog article on how to change this pattern can be a good starting place: http://sacredjourneyoftheheart.com/blog/?p=333
In addition to all of the above, our personal practices of meditation, self-care and other daily activities are very important and contribute to keeping us vital, balanced, healthy and alive! It takes practice, effort and commitment to live the best life can live. It IS possible to live consistently as a person of increase. The key part is learning to manage and master our personal energy field. And when we do this, we truly enjoy being a human being and all that life has to offer!
Stay tuned for my upcoming webinar on HeartMath’s Journey of Heart Intelligence!
This is a question posed near the end of my documentary film, Sacred Journey of the Heart:
Gregg Braden: “A question that comes to us again and again is how much power do we really have to influence the world? How strong is this power in the human heart?” Click here to watch film on GaiaTV
This question that Gregg asks is a fundamental one as we chose, day in and day out, how to act in the world. If we believe that our individual choices do not really matter in the larger scheme, we miss many opportunities to be agents of change. If we begin to explore and act from the amazing, verifiable power in our hearts, we not only change our own lives, but we experience the power we have to change the world around us.
I had a heart-empowered experience the last time I was at the airport. I am sharing this with you to demonstrate how each one of us has the capacity to change a situation of chaos into calm, callousness into caring and self-centeredness into service. This is needed now more than ever before.
If you fly the “friendly” skies a lot or even once in a while, you’ll notice how chaotic it’s become in airports. The stress level has increased tremendously with all the threats, the computer system breakdowns, with security procedures and even with the boarding process to get onto the planes.
Airports are way-stations for people in transit and they are wonderful places to observe human behavior. Being a certified hearth math instructor, the main reason I enjoy travelling as much as I do (about 75,000 miles a year), is that I know how to stay stress-free and choose to enjoy travel vs. dread it.
Not only that, but I know that using the present-moment awareness techniques of HeartMath, I can and regularly DO, successfully shift chaotic situations into calm ones.
Here’s what happened. I arrived 3 hours early to airport last week which is unusual for me but my transportation options made it necessary. I went into the airport with the intention to stay in heart-coherence, a measurable state that you consciously activate through a simple technique (taught in the film by Dr. Rolin McCraty of HeartMath). This state allows you to be in the flow, and to send a signal into the field around you that is calming. I also have a little prayer that I say which begins, “Make me an instrument of thy peace…” also known as the St. Francis of Assisi prayer.
Because I was so early, there was a flight that was leaving before the one I was booked on. So I thought I’d go to that gate and see if I could get a seat on the earlier flight. The gate agents had just started to board first class. There was a crowd of people, all bunched up around the boarding area and a lot of tension in the air. You can feel the anxiety and frustration many people are steeped in during the boarding process. This feeling is a result of the actual signal that is being broadcast from many people’s hearts rhythms. The question you may ask is: Is it really possible for one person to shift this? I know that the answer is “yes”.
Image used by permission of HeartMath, LLC as part of Sacred Journey of the Heart.
So on that day, I stood at the back of the crowd and kept radiating gratitude and calm. Then I felt a slight tap on my shoulder. I turned and saw a beautiful young woman, about 18 years old standing next to me. She made it known very quickly that she was deaf. Then she showed me her boarding pass that had a “Zone 4” on it. She asked me with her fingers, are they boarding Zone 1, 2, 3 or 4?
Knowing the ins and outs of airline travel, I motioned to her, “follow me”. I then asked people to please step aside as I was making way for this young women to get on the plane. I knew that the gate agent would have no objection to her boarding early and getting settled into her seat. However, there was quite an outcry as we moved through the crowd of waiting people – for example: “Are you in first class?”, “Hey lady, there’s a line here” etc.
I stopped for a moment and still, sending out appreciation, said, “I’m not even on this flight, I am helping this young woman who can’t hear get onto this plane. Can you imagine being in an airport and not being able to hear the announcements?”
Everything shifted. People backed up, made a little aisle for us and even started to smile. A few people said thank you to me. And the whole energy shifted out of selfishness and the “me-first” callous attitude that can be prevalent in crowds. It changed in a few seconds to to people feeling genuinely grateful for a couple of things: that someone was helping another person, and maybe even feeling grateful for being able to hear, a sense faculty we usually take for granted.
When the young woman got to the jet bridge, she turned and gave me the heart-thanks symbol with her hands. I said thank you back to her, then ducked under the boarding-area rope, and went on my way, my heart expanding even more with gratitude that my prayer was answered and I was able to be an instrument of peace in that moment.
I encourage you to explore the power you have inside your own heart, to learn to use it to be an instrument of positive change and to live life in ever expanding gratitude.
I will be sharing the heart-math coherence technique in my upcoming webinar
Title: Creating Synchronicities
Time: Thursday, August 25th at 5:00 PM Pacific
Listening method: Phone + Web Simulcast
To attend, visit:
http://iTeleseminar.com/88196124
PLEASE EMAIL ME FOR THE EVENT PASSWORD: ronna@sacredjourneyoftheheart.com
Phone Number: (425) 440-5100
Secondary Number: (619) 471-1669
Local Numbers:http://InstantTeleseminar.com/Local/
Pin Code: 339751#
Heart-felt blessings,
Ronna Prince
A lot of people talk about synchronicity as something that just happens. Something surprising occurs out of the blue and we attribute it to a “coincidence of time”. The dictionary.com definition of synchronous is:
occurring at the same time; coinciding in time; contemporaneous; simultaneous.
Hence, our tendency is to accept events that surprise us in positive ways as coincidental. Over the years of exploring consciousness, I have come to conclude that there is very little coincidence, chance or luck involved in synchronous events. And even more so, I have the experience of being able to create synchronicities by thinking, feeling, sensing and acting in a specific way so as to consciously create them!
This activity is what people call “the secret art of manifestation”. For me, there’s nothing secret about it. It is simply a process of knowing a few keys and the incorporating every day by practicing!
This goes way, way beyond the Law of Attraction that was brought to most of us by “The Secret”, a groundbreaking film that came out in 2006. It’s been 10 years since the film’s DVD release and my question is this: Why are people still having so many issues with creating the life that they want if the “secret” is out?
In my view, the difficulty exists because we are still trying to think the “right thoughts” with our head. And we are still trying to solve our problems within the same construct that created them in the first place.
The true path to creating synchronicities consists of two simple steps. I’ll share step one with you here and invite you to join me in my free online webinar on Thursday August 11 at 5 pm Pacific time to learn how to incorporate both parts of synchronistic manifesting. (webinar info below)
Step one is all about learning how to incorporate your heart’s intuition into your thinking process so that your heart is broadcasting a specific, measurable vibration. (More about this in the webinar.) When you do this, you will start to know what it feels like to live in an open hearted way.
The secret then, is learning the difference between a closed heart and an open heart, and choosing to create from the latter. As we do this, we align with more empowering thoughts. We have a heightened ability to sense the world around us, even on a non-local scale, and to then tap into opportunities that we would not have noticed if our hearts were shut down.
So what does an open heart feel like?
Simple. When your heart is open:
- You feel a sense of connection to yourself and everything around you.
- You are happy to be alive
- You trust the process
- You feel free to explore new things
- You find yourself saying, “I can do it!”
- You stay aware of the possibilities around you
- You listen to your intuition and follow it.
As opposed to this, when your heart is closed, you feel the need to be on guard, you mistrust things and people, you find yourself saying “I can’t because”. In this state, possibilities that are right there can’t make it through because you won’t see them.
In the open-hearted state, you will find yourself being amazed over and over again at things that appear to “just happen”. But they didn’t! Because your heart is open, you created the groundwork, the pathway and the possibility for synchronicity!
Here’s one of my recent examples;
I decided to say no to a distribution deal on my film, Sacred Journey of the Heart, because the contract conditions were just too onerous for me to fulfill. I found myself feeling down for a few days and wondering if I had just rejected the only offer I would ever get to stream my film on a worldwide platform. I caught myself shutting down my heart in self-doubt, criticism and “I can’t do it…”
And that’s the key, I caught myself. In the space of one breath, I opened my heart (step 1) and moved the energy of “I can’t” and all associated feelings (step 2) out of my heart…. And then, effortlessly, I aligned myself with a new possibility rather than seeing this as the end of the road.
The very next day, I received an email to submit my film to GaiaTV, now “Gaia”, and literally sailed through the process of getting the film onto their platform. I’m happy to say that the film debuted on 7-7-2016 and can now be streamed anywhere in the world with an internet connection! Click here to go to Gaia and sign up to see the film. And it’s captioned for ease of understanding.
In one way I was amazed and surprised, and yet, in another, I saw this as a confirmation that I did my part in creating this synchronicity by choosing to follow my simple process.
If you are a seeker of simpler, more effective and enjoyable ways of living in the world, I invite you to join me in exploring this process in depth. You must obtain the password for the event to attend – email me at ronna@sacredjourneyoftheheart.com
Title: Creating Synchronicities
Date & Time: Thursday, August 11th at 5:00 PM Pacific
Attend by Phone:
Guest pin code: 339751#
Primary dial in number: (425) 440-5100
Secondary dial in number: (619) 471-1669
Full list of dial in Numbers:
http://InstantTeleseminar.com/Local/?eventid=87054564
Event Page:
http://iTeleseminar.com/87054564
YOU must email me for the password to this free event: Why? Because it helps me know who is interested in my work – aka, reciprocity! ronna@sacredjourneyoftheheart.com
In the beginning of new year, many of us set new goals about weight loss. Last summer, I talk about “desserts” as “Stressed” spelled backwards. I had just been introduced to the show Cupcake Wars by my kids and was amazed by how stressful making cupcakes could be! The more stressed I became watching the show, the more I wanted cupcakes!
I’ve learned over the years that excess body fat at a basic level is not so much related to what we eat, but WHY we eat what we eat. Many of us eat more when we are stressed but why is this?
My conclusion is that stress-eating and getting fat is directly correlated to what we are not dealing with. And what is that? Our feelings!
So my acronym for F-A-T is Feelings-Avoidance-Technique!
If you ask someone how they deal with stress, they won’t say, “I avoid my feelings”. But that’s often exactly what happens. Instead of slowing down, tuning in and dealing with the underlying cause of stress, it’s easier to just “stuff it” and go on. And stuffing is easiest done with a comfort food, a mindless TV show or getting immersed in social media of some kind.
I’m exited that we can now get accurate information about food, eating and health. This week, January 25-29, 2016, the first-ever Fat Summit is being hosted by Dr. Mark Hyman. I consider him to be a pioneer in functional medicine and so I’ll be listening in to his interviews with leading experts. Click here for the Fat Summit
There is so much misinformation about how best to lose weight and even more difficult, how to keep it off. I’m happy to see my friend Nick Ortner as a guest on this event. I interviewed Nick for my telesummit a few years ago and clearly, he understands the connection between weight, stress and feelings.
In my experience, every time I gained weight, I had been experiencing stress for a long time. There’s a cascade that happens for us, especially women that goes like this: we start getting stressed by being over-busy. Then we reward ourselves with a treat (like a dessert). This makes us feel temporarily better (due to chemical responses in the body such as serotonin), but then it leaves us feeling sluggish, tired and craving more. The more we indulge in the cravings, the less active we become. The less active we become, the more weight starts to pile on!
In my case, I have had bouts of going into denial about getting fat that included not weighing myself at all and then starting to wear only yoga pants so I don’t have to notice how my regular clothes were getting uncomfortable! So yep, like a lot of you, I have tons of experience gaining and losing weight.
Below, I’ll share with you three approaches that can stop this cycle without dieting! I’ve realized it’s never really about the fat content in food, but about our ineffective methods of coping with emotions and stress!
#1 Feelings Incorporation Technique (F-I-T!) is my all-new Triple Heart Healing Technique.
I created this technique last year to help my clients easily learn how to move emotions and effectively deal with their feelings. This technique uses music in a specific healing frequency (528 Hz) and involves connecting to the body in a specific area where a lot of emotion is stored. In the 3 hour webinar, I outline a new foundation for understanding our subtle energy anatomy based on 12 chromatic chakras as opposed to the existing old system of 7. My online webinar is ground-breaking and encourages you to change your belief around your energy anatomy. In doing s0, you can easily access stored feelings and let them flow – without getting stuck and without going into past pain! The cool thing is that the more you let your feelings flow, the less you find yourself reaching for food to stuff them!
For more information on the Triple Heart Healing Technique click here
I also have two other techniques that are very helpful in managing stress and reducing cravings and binge-eating.
If you find yourself struggling with stress-related cravings or bingeing, either one of these programs can help and neither one of them involves dieting or restricting food:
Brain Tek’s Behavioral Relationship Entrainment (BRE) program is a 4 to 6 week program where individualized sound protocols are used to re-wire your neural pathways so that you can get back in control of your decisions. The key thing that happens is that under prolonged stress, your frontal cortex- your brain’s executive command center, is hijacked by your limbic system or the emotional brain. It’s nearly impossible to make consistent and good decisions when you’re experiencing this brain hijack process.
During the BRE program, you also learn a quick and effective technique to activate your frontal cortex and get back on track, anytime, anywhere.
Combined with personalized sound therapies that re-wire the brain for optimal functioning, it’s very easy to keep up your progress. Week-by-week, you will see the results of your brain’s improvement. But more importantly, you will feel the difference and even maybe see it on the scale if over-eating is an issue!
The other technique I use with my clients comes from my HeartMath training. With the 4 week Stop Emotional Eating Program, you learn 3 quick and easy self-regulation techniques that use the innate power in your heart to make better choices. It’s a different approach but just as effective if you keep up the techniques.
These HeartMath techniques are Notice and Ease, the Power of Neutral and Quick Coherence. The first two, Notice and Ease and the Power of Neutral, are helpful to stop cravings as soon as you become aware of them. Quick Coherence is the main technique we use to change the pattern of stress eating and to sustain commitments you make to having a healthier lifestyle.
Both programs are very robust and include individual coaching with me. They are tailored to your needs and your specific goals. And as I stated above, neither one of them focuses on dieting, restrictions or calorie counting!
The good news is that when you are stressed, you don’t have to find yourself reaching for more desserts or treats. You can learn to effectively deal with your feelings. And also learn to activate either the brain or the heart’s power to learn new skills for managing life’s every day stressors before they get overwhelming or out of control.
It truly is one of life’s greatest pleasures to enjoy a great dessert every once in a while! For me, the more conscious I am of making a good choice, the better the dessert tastes!
For information about the Triple Heart Technique, and the BRE or Stop Emotional Eating Programs, please email me at ronna@modernmastery.com
All –New Heart-Healing plus Quantum physics discovery combine to create an effective and powerful manifesting technique!
On Saturday, December 5th at 10 am Central Daylight time, I will be presenting a two-hour webinar on the Triple Heart Healing Technique. (Click here or see below for details)Have you ever made a discovery about how life operates at its most basic level that it nearly knocked your socks off? And created a big rush of tingling all over which feels like a physiological confirmation about fundamental truth?
Knock your sock off!
I believe that I made this type of discovery in preparing for my recent webinar on Manifesting with the 12 Universal Laws of Consciousness. The awareness I had resulted in synthesizing a powerful, effective method for mastering our own life circumstances.
I’m calling my new method The Triple Heart Healing Technique (THHT) and it involves learning about the physiological presence and function of our two “hidden hearts”.
Once you know about this, you can then learn how to easily move stuck emotions through the mind-heart-body and thereby creating a new signal that gets broadcast into the field around you. When you do this, you then have the capacity to consciously interact at the quantum level with the Law of Assumption – the 12th of 12 Universal Laws. The Law of Assumption is the highest manifesting law and in mastering this, many new possibilities expand into reality!
The Origin of THHT:
I actually created the technique in 2008 but didn’t start using it until late 2014 because I didn’t realize the power of what this process unleashes! At first, I thought it was another nice meditation that resulted in inner calm and balance. But when I started using it with consistency and a higher level of understanding of the Laws, I began to notice that things were changing very, very quickly!
In fact, so quickly that I actually went through the 5 stages of “reality altering emotional process”! I borrow this from the Kubler-Ross 5 stage grief model. When our reality or paradigm shifts suddenly, whether it’s caused by an unexpected diagnosis or any other sudden shift of our reality, we will go through these stages.
In the Kubler-Ross model for grief, the stages are:
—-denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance
In my adapted model for the 5 stages of “positive paradigm shift”, the stages are similar at the beginning and end, but different in the middle:
—-denial, excitement, verifying, doubt and acceptance
Here’s how the process went for me and many of my clients when we combined the THHT with our awareness of the highest Universal Laws:
Denial: “The result I just experienced is related to something else” ; “This is just a coincidence”; “It can’t be this easy” (red alert: this statement can kill change before it has a chance to sink in!);
Excitement: “Wow! This really works” “I’m going to share this with everyone!” “Why didn’t anyone tell me this before?” “I can’t believe it!” (stay on the lookout for this statement because it is very negating unless you catch it quickly!)
Verifying: “I’m going to test this out on everything”; “This is working!”; “I’m going to see if my friends experience the same thing”
Doubt: This sets in when some things you are working on take a little longer (an effect that I explain in relation to the 7th Universal Law, the Law of Attraction – i.e. Why it takes longer to manifest a new love interest than a parking space!) “This isn’t working anymore!”; “This is just like everything else I’ve tried – it works for awhile and then stops”; “I don’t have time to keep this up.”
Acceptance: If you continue to use the technique and experience results and transformation, the 5th stage sets in: “I am a powerful manifestor!”; “I am so happy to be in the driver’s seat of my life now!” “I am empowered!”
The sooner we recognize this 5-stage process and have a technique to help us, the easier and faster it is to navigate. Before my discovery, I would NOT have used the word “faster” because I had an experienced-based belief that transformation takes time – a long time. I believed that true and deep transformation is related to many factors, internal and external. And that a big part of it was the repetitive and consistent practice over time of learning to master emotions.
But now I know just how fast the transformative process can be. For example, I had been searching for an explanation and a cure for a mystery illness one of my children had been struggling with for a few years. After countless and frustrating attempts to uncover what was at the root of his symptoms, the answer came in a day after we did the Triple Heart Healing Technique together! He is now in the road to regaining his health and getting on with life as a teenager.
The Key Factor:
The gist of how the technique works is based on something you probably already know. But the shift of it resides in a few things you might not yet know!
Very simply put, the underlying issue in having difficulty creating the life we desire is “inconsistent vibration”. And the inconsistent vibration is a conflict between thoughts and emotions. In other words, a conflict between your head and your heart. And because our culture emphasizes the intellect and the mind, we learn early on in life to ignore the wisdom and intuition of our hearts – and in doing so, disconnect from our most powerful energetic organ that we have!
For example:
In your mind you can think and repeat this thought: “I am Successful”
But if you truly feel: Anxiety about your current situation, Fear of not measuring up, or Shame about past failures, your heart will be broadcasting this emotion-based signal every moment!
No wonder it can be hard to change our circumstances if we don’t know HOW to access and tap into different energies to create a different outcome.
I’m sure you’ve heard the Einstein quote that says the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. So how, exactly, do we do something different?
That’s the HOW-To that comes into play in the Triple Heart Healing Technique. We learn to tap into the hidden heart energies in our own physiology while at the same time accessing a new quantum reality….
What’s really interesting is that one of the latest theories in quantum physics provides the “how-to” of accessing expanded possibilities. So we no longer have to rely on the “old” to create something new! The latest discovery in quantum physics is upending the current understanding of Quantum Wave Mechanics- you know, the theory that we probably first encountered either in advanced science classes or in the “What the Bleep Do We Know?” film; if you saw this film you may remember the particle-wave duality that was briefly explained.
When I learned how the particle-wave duality is now understood, this was the moment that knocked my socks off! I’ve figured out how to translate this new understanding into our own lives and shift out of old patterns!
If you are interested in the intersection of science and spirituality, you may want to join me for my online webinar where I share the hidden heart energy, the quantum experiment and a step-by-step practice for manifesting a new reality! Click here to register
In the webinar, I will be covering:
The Triple Heart structure: Biology, energetics and moving stuck emotions through the hidden hearts
The 12 Chromatic Chakras – the missing link: the 5 Aquarian chakras for healing and balance
The latest quantum physics Theory and what it means for us as human beings
The Triple Heart Healing Technique: what it is, how to do it, and what to expect
If you are ready to try something totally new, based on a new process and new scientific understanding, click here to register!
Here’s what people are saying about the Triple Heart Healing Technique:
“The Triple Heart Technique is absolutely Amazing! It is so fast and so simple…when I was driving last week, I was in an emotional state that just seemed to pop up, so I pulled into a store parking lot and used it. The relief was instant. It’s such a gift. Thank You!” BH
“ I now have a sense of understanding how to manifest that makes me feel like “oh, I get this now”. You just made it more real for me! Thank you, again! I love your work!” Kathy W
“I haven’t felt such a deep sense of peace for a long time – and it only took a few minutes! No wonder I was procrastinating, there was too much mind chatter going on and now I’m calm and get on with things. Thank you!” Rhonda C
“I love how you combine DNA healing music with the triple heart… I can feel my cells changing –and have a new outlook on life!” Cheryl A
In gratitude and with blessings for a heart-centered holiday season!
Ronna
In the sizzling peak of our hot desert summer in Phoenix, Arizona, my kids have gotten me hooked into watching cooking shows for the first time ever: our favorites are Chopped! and Cupcake Wars. Getting engrossed in these shows, I can’t help but wonder- when did cooking become a competitive sport and so very, very stressful?
Also — when did TV watching become connected to “bingeing”? I thought bingeing was just about food and now there are all these shows about cooking under extreme stress, that you can binge-watch, while I guess, also binge eat! Or at least get some good food cravings going from all the great food being prepared!
When I realized that “desserts” is “stressed” spelled backwards, it’s no wonder that when we are stressed- we sometimes go for extra desserts!
It’s easier now than ever before to give in to cravings- and end up bingeing and feeling out of control. There have never been so many different ways we can distract ourselves and/or reward ourselves for dealing with the stress in our daily lives. I may be behind the curve with this trend because I didn’t ever know it existed, until I found myself binge-watching cooking shows. This lasted a few days until my kids and I were watching one episode that was very high stress and ended up with a cooking fire in the kitchen!
This led me to smack my forehead and say “get a grip Ronna! Turn off the TV and walk away from the cooking shows!” I had slipped into an adrenaline craving – i.e. watching TV shows that are based on high-stress and thereby getting stressed myself, and that led to binge TV watching! Thank goodness, it only took me a few days to get out of the grips of the adrenaline carving, binge indulging cycle! Because guess what? The more I sat on the couch, the more I mindlessly snacked! Oops!
Happily, I have a lot of resources to access when I find myself going in a direction that isn’t productive. I was able to use the techniques from Brain Tek’s program and also, to re-activate my heart’s coherence and make better choices about my time and energy.
If you find yourself struggling with stress-related cravings or bingeing, either one of these programs can help and neither one of them involves dieting or restricting food:
Brain Tek’s Behavioral Relationship Entrainment (BRE) program is a 4 to 6 week program where individualized sound protocols are used to re-wire your neural pathways so that you can get back in control of your decisions. The key thing that happens is that under prolonged stress, your frontal cortex- your brain’s executive command center, is hijacked by your limbic system or the emotional brain. It’s nearly impossible to make consistent and good decisions when you’re experiencing this brain hijack process.
During the BRE program, you also learn a quick and effective technique to activate your frontal cortex and get back on track, anytime, anywhere. This is exactly what I did when I had the moment of awareness that I had been binge-watching cooking shows. During the BRE program, you learn to give yourself a very simple cue. In my case, I touch my forehead (or smack it if needed!) –and that gets my decision-maker back on track!
Combined with sound therapies that re-wire the brain for optimal functioning, it’s very easy to keep up your progress. Brain Tek also has a great standard stress sound protocol that you can purchase for $9.99 and own forever! It’s called “Stress Relief” and it specifically targets the stress centers of your brain so you can calm down and relax.
http://www.sgserver.net/braintek/?idev_id=117
With the 4 week Stop Emotional Eating Program, you learn 3 quick and easy self-regulation techniques that use the innate power in your heart to make better choices. It’s a different approach but just as effective if you keep up the techniques.
These HeartMath techniques are Notice and Ease, the Power of Neutral and Quick Coherence. The first two, Notice and Ease and the Power of Neutral, are helpful to stop cravings as soon as you become aware of them. Quick Coherence is the main technique we use to change the pattern of stress eating and to sustain commitments you make to having a healthier lifestyle.
Both programs are very robust and include individual coaching with me. They are tailored to your needs and your specific goals. And as I stated above, neither one of them focuses on dieting, restrictions or calorie counting!
The good news is that when you are stressed, you don’t have to find yourself reaching for more desserts or treats. You can activate either the brain or the heart’s power to learn new skills for managing life’s every day stressors before they get overwhelming or out of control.
It truly is one of life’s greatest pleasures to enjoy a great dessert every once in a while! For me, the more conscious I am of making a good choice, the better the dessert tastes!
For information about either the BRE or Stop Emotional Eating Programs, please email me at ronna@modernmastery.com
We are not taught how to let go! No one teaches us this but everyone seems to say it from time to time: “Just let it go!” Usually our only instruction about letting go happens when we are a toddler and not sharing a toy, hanging on to it for dear life. As a consequence, the toy gets taken away and we hear about how nice children “share”. So it’s no wonder we struggle with how to actually willingly let go of something. 
In today’s article, I will share with you the 2 specific things that prevent us from permanently letting go.
At some point in life, most of us find ourselves searching for resources, tools and techniques for letting go of the past or shifting a repeating pattern. My search has led me to the best experts in the self-help industry and I have tried an “alphabet soup” of supposedly proven techniques. Here are a few that I have tried, many of which I delved very deeply into: The Sedona Method, The Release Technique, EFT –Emotional Freedom Technique or “tapping”, Psych-K, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), shamanic soul retrieval, and The Healing Codes. I have also heard first-hand accounts from my clients about their experiences with many of these techniques.
The good news is that most of them work, if we work consistently with the system. But the bad news is, they only work up to a point or we stop doing it.
The key to unlocking the doorway to permanent letting go (without the “Bounce-back effect”) is to discover where the stopping point is, and “let go of the stopping”.
I have discovered exactly where the stopping point is. And it is located right inside our physiology. It is NOT, in my experience, in the non-localized mind –i.e. conscious, subconscious or unconscious or in repressed emotions.
This is exactly why all the techniques listed above work only up to a point, and tend to stop working during a big stress-related event. Why?
SPECIFIC THING #1: Because we have a biological tendency to stick with the familiar, especially in times of stress. It is wired into our physiology to reset to old patterns when we encounter an intense or prolonged challenge.
SPECIFIC THING #2: Releasing techniques rely upon only certain parts of our energy anatomy and many are dependent upon a practitioner to do something for us, to us or with us.
For example, the Sedona Method focuses on cognitive and emotional processing. Psych-K focuses on spiritual and cognitive processing with a practitioner facilitating the sessions. EFT focuses on physical, emotional and cognitive processing and can be self or practitioner led. ALL of them require a lot of time, a lot of repetition and a lot of discipline.
What happens along the way when we encounter a stressful event? Discipline is often the first thing to go out the window and then the old habit, thoughts, and feelings creep back in and we find ourselves with the weight back on, or overextended on a credit card or in a similar relationship conflict.
So what to do? I will be sharing the 2 foolproof ways that resolve the issues related to SPECIFIC THING #1 and #2. (Anybody read Dr. Suess’ Cat in the Hat? We will have fun with Thing 1 and Thing 2 in the workshop!)
When you “get” the Thing 1 and Thing 2 antidotes, it will enhance your progress with any other releasing technique and ensure that you don’t stop. And I will also share the Secret Ingredient to Letting Go: it is a specific state of being, both mental and emotional. It’s a state that is easy to cultivate and fun to be in- and it’s not acceptance or gratitude. It requires no meditation, specific breathing or any other outside tool.
The details for the May 30th online and in-person event are listed at the bottom of this article.
Before I close, I want to examine the surefire ways we know we are stuck in old patterns.
These are three signs that indicate that we are NOT yet letting go: 1) Asking “Why is this happening?” , 2) trying to act or pretend that “It’s all good”, and 3) feeling incredulous about what is happening. What does incredulous mean? “Disinclined or indisposed to believe, indicating or showing shock, surprise or disbelief.”
Will Ferrell acting incredulous
There is actually only one mental/emotional state where the true act of letting go happens, and again, it’s not acceptance and it’s not gratitude!
I know this because the events that occurred for me personally in 2014 led me to dive deeply into the letting go process. In the beginning of 2014, I found myself embroiled in a situation that left me feeling incredulous and asking “Why?” Mid-way through the year, I found the “missing link” to letting go and since then, I have created a very effective multi-dimensional practice to keep the process moving.
So why do issues and challenges have a tendency to bounce back? The answer is very simple – so simple we often complicate the process.
In the first half of 2014, I had been doing what a lot of my clients were reflecting back to me when they would come to my office, throw themselves into the chair opposite me and say “This (relationship conflict, being alone, not getting the job they want etc.. ) HAS TO STOP!, I’m done with it! I’ve let go of “IT”. And then the next month, the same thing would happen. It is immensely frustrating when the “IT”, keeps dragging on, like my situation did with court dates, depositions, and attorney meetings – none of that could just stop.
So what’s the simple answer? It’s found in the analogy of a rubber ball. When we throw a rubber ball at a wall, it just bounces back! It comes back with a lot of force, sometimes it even hits us. That’s what most of us do when we want to let something go. We throw it away with emphasis, force and an exclamation point! This HAS to stop! Some of us are so good at it that we have a strap on our wrist attached to the rubber ball and we don’t even know it!
But, if we learn to let the ball roll softly out of our hand, it just rolls away. It doesn’t come back.
In my workshop/webinar, I will be sharing exactly how to let IT roll away. It involves a very simple process and does not entail a ton of repetition, self monitoring or rating yourself or your feelings on a scale of 1 to 10 or on any scale for that matter!
Please click here for information about the workshop/ webinar. Click here to register. I invite you to have fun with me as we learn new and effective ways to Let Go!
If someone offered you the key to unlock the door to complete mastery of your mind and emotions would you take it or leave it?
That’s the question to keep “in mind” while you read this article that will demonstrate how EASY it is to stop negative mind chatter (just 2 steps) and why this is the Key to ending our dance with unconscious patterns that keep us locked in an inner prison of unfulfilled hopes and dreams as well as the accumulated effects of daily stress.
What is the result of stopping negative mind chatter or ANTS? (ANT means Automatic Negative Thinking, the acronym coined by Dr. Daniel Amen, a leading researcher on brain and behavior.)
The result of eradicating mind chatter ANTS:
A calm, centered mind, restful sleep, increased productivity, easier decision making, and an easy-going attitude towards life’s ups and downs. If this is something you want, I’ve discovered the key that unlocks the inner-prison door. And to boot, a much easier time meditating.
Because we are going to be talking about ANTs, I just have insert this movie poster from the 1954 sci-fi flick, “THEM”. If you’ve never seen this movie, it’s worth checking out. It’s considered one of the best sci fi films of the 1950s. It’s even more entertaining if you watch it and make the connection between THEM –the ants, and the negative mind chatter going on in the collective psyche, post WWII and in the beginning of the nuclear era! Being a fan of acronyms, I like to call THEM (the ANTs) “Thoughts Hijacking Emotional Mastery”!
I’ll explain later why ending mind chatter is so key to unlocking all other undesirable conditions. And by the way, this one “condition” is the common denominator on the list my clients share with me as we start the easy process of ending old habits.
But first let’s look at the before and after picture of ANTS.
I’ll use an example of hosting a picnic to show the difference:
The ANT party:
BEFORE: Start planning a picnic and up creeps an Automatic Negative Thought – “Something might go wrong” or “I probably won’t do it right” –> worry —>anxiety –> procrastination —>stress –> feeling sick and/or tired —> sending out this “sick and tired” vibe to everyone around us —->people tend to avoid us in this state —> isolation —> depression —> the ants carry off the chips or there’s no picnic at all!
AFTER: Start planning a picnic and up creeps an ANT —“What if I mess up somehow?” —> oops! There’s an ANT —> Shift the thought out of the deep limbic brain structure from whence it came! Into the Frontal Cortex of the brain —-> Go back to planning a great picnic —> Enjoy an amazing picnic with friends!
(And by the way, I have nothing against ant insects. They are an important part of our ecosystem and play key roles of ecosystem engineers.)
So as you can tell from this quick example, the KEY is healing the very cause of the ANT right at its source – the deep limbic structure of the brain!
Dr. Amen says this: “When the deep limbic system (the emotional center of the brain) is overactive, it sets the mind’s filter on “negative”. His theory is this: “My patients have to heal their deep limbic systems to change their negative thinking patterns.”
I’ve looked at 6 suggestions and techniques that claim to be the solution to ending negative mind chatter. I’ll share these quickly, including Dr. Amen’s “kill the ant” technique and then suggest a process that is 1) way easier than any of them and 2) is quick and effective. According to Dr. Amen, if you have enough red ants at the picnic, you can’t enjoy the beautiful day, the delicious food that you’ve prepared or even the lovely people you are with!
(If you want to skip to the 2 step process that is easy and works, just scroll past my summary of the 6 current thought methods of eliminating ANTs.)
6 Current ideas about how to end mind chatter:
1) Gut it out and do it anyway! This one is actually my old practice of getting things done despite my negative mind chatter. I grew up in a very negative personal reality of childhood abuse which created a pessimistic world view. I had no training on how to be positive. Even though I had chronically negative thoughts, I found a way to get things done successfully by just gutting it out and doing it.
In many ways, my life stands in direct opposition to the Law of Attraction (a topic for a later article.) I even went so far as to be mentored by the leading “positive thinking gurus” on the planet. And I still couldn’t force my way into positive thinking. Challenge with this approach: it creates a huge amount of stress and a perception of failure if you can’t force your way into being positive!
2) Consciously clearing (suggested by Marcia Reynolds, PsyD)– “you have to empty your brain to control your mind”. The idea is that you start by practicing clearing your mind for one minute and building up until you can do it at will. This is a cornerstone to meditation. However, if you have an overactive mind, it is likely that you have tried meditation and given up at some point for the very reason that you can’t stop your mind and meditation gets annoying!
Challenge with this approach: it either doesn’t work (try it for one minute and see how you do!) or it takes a lot of time and patience.
3) Concentration exercises (suggested by Remez Sasson, author of “How to Focus Your Mind”) – “Shutting down the mental noise voluntarily develops gradually, and over a long period of time through concentration exercises and meditation.” Challenge with this approach: it takes a long time and people generally do not devote the time to do it.
4) Make peace with mind chatter (suggested by Steve Andreas) – “If you have ever tried to stop a critical voice, you know that it is extremely difficult—if not impossible—to do.” He suggests that rather, we make peace with it (accept mind chatter) and then try to educate it so that it speaks to us in ways that are more helpful and useful, becoming a friendly and supportive ally instead of a cruel tormentor. Challenge: you can’t think your way into educating the deep limbic system where these thoughts arise.
5) Stop negative mind chatter by no longer pursuing the goals that create it (suggested by Raj Raghunathan, Ph.D) This is an interesting one. Dr. Raghunathan participated in a research project that identified 3 categories of negative mind chatter: a) thoughts related to inferiority, b) thoughts related to love and approval and c) thoughts related to control-seeking. He explains, “Each of these categories of mental chatter is, I believe, rooted in goals and values to which most of us blindly subscribe. As such, it’s not surprising that our thoughts revolve around inferiority, love, and control. For example, most of are brought up to succeed and excel in life; as a result, we are habituated to comparing ourselves—in terms of our skills, talents and endowments—with that of our peers, which generates inferiority-related thoughts.” He wonders what would happen if we simply stop pursing the goals of success, of being in love and of being in control. Challenge: most of us probably don’t want to do this or have no idea how to go about it and get anything accomplished!
6) KILL the ANT – Feed your anteater! (suggested by Dr. Daniel Amen). Dr. Amen’s “feed your anteater and feel better” exercise is an excellent tool. First you learn about the 9 types of ANT species, and then monitor your thoughts. As ANTs creep into your thoughts, you use his worksheet process to interact with the ANT species and talk to the ANT, thereby killing the ANT and feeling better. Challenge: Again, it takes a lot of work, constant self-monitoring and practice, practice, practice. But the process is so good, that I am sure I will continue to use it from time to time to clean up any random ANTs that creep up on me!
So if these don’t really work or take a lot of time and effort what does work? Sound therapy and a simple brain exercise!
Here are the two steps, created by Dr. Dennis Manness of Brain Tek Institute, that easily and effectively work to end mind chatter:
1) Create more effective brain-based neural pathways. Using cutting edge sound therapy developed by Brain Tek Institute, you first rewire your brain’s neural circuity that automatically (a la ANT) drives your thoughts into the deep brain structure called the cingulate gyrus. The cingulate gurus is part of the limbic system responsible for repeating thoughts and emotions over and over again. By rewiring your brain, you restore effective higher-thinking processes that occur without your having to “think about it.” The sound protocols do the work for you. All you need to do is relax and listen! This is the easy solution to what Dr. Amen suggests: healing your limbic system to eliminate negative mind chatter.
2) You easily shift your thoughts and emotions out of the limbic system and into the frontal cortex of the brain. During the 4 to 6 week program, you will learn how to use a simple technique to shift your thoughts into the frontal cortex of your brain, thereby immediately eliminating the cascade of emotions and behaviors that perpetuate negative mind chatter.
That’s it! It is easy, effective and it lasts. No time-consuming thought-policing, exercises or trying to wrestle your brain into positivity.
The final piece of information in this article is this:
Why ending negative mind chatter is this the key to establishing “emotional and mental mastery
Ending negative mind chatter is KEY because one ANT never lives alone! Ants live in ant hills, called colonies. If you eradicate one red ant, you still have thousands of underground red ants to deal with. And until recently, scientist believed that ant colonies were discreet units, consisting sometimes of as many as 306 million worker ants and one million queen ants! However, more recent research suggests that there is something called a “single-global mega-colony”. What does this analogy mean for our brains?
Until we deal with the mega-colony of red ANTs that reside in the brain’s limbic system, we will deal with the cascade of emotions and thoughts that develop over time as the ANT’s run around unchecked: negative mind chatter leads to all the other patterns I described in the “before” picnic scenario: worry, rumination, anxiety, loneliness, and depression.
When we eliminate negative mind chatter, we automatically feel better, more at peace, more capable of making good decisions and a whole host of other positive changes. And the good news, is we don’t have to think our way into it. It happens naturally as our limbic system relaxes and no longer hijacks the rest of our brain.
I have seen this at work with my Brain Tek clients who have gone through the 4 or 6 week program. Without exception, every person I have brought through Brain Tek’s Behavioral Relationship Entrainment program stated that they wanted to deal with their ‘mind chatter issue”.
Just for fun, I will elaborate on how the successful picnic unfolds after we heal the deep limbic system in the brain:
Thought: “I’m going to invite my friends to a picnic.” Because old neural pathways are still in the brain, even after sound therapy, the one little ANT may show up again: “I might not do it right”. But after sound therapy, what occurs, is we notice this thought right away and we naturally shift it OUT of the deep brain structure, namely, the cingulate gyrus, and easily drive our brain’s dominant function to the frontal cortex – the “executive decision maker” of our brains. So if and when we notice an ANT, we simply say to ourselves, “shift the dominance!” That’s it! The pattern stops right there!
And with great enjoyment, we invite our friends, plan the picnic, don’t worry about the weather and voila! Enjoy an ant-free, beautiful day with people we love spending time with. We feel great! We are satisfied and fulfilled with things that matter – people, rich and meaningful sharing and a deep sense of contentment.
That’s the picnic I’m planning! And I can do it now, and so can my clients who have experienced the life-changing and easy process of Behavioral Relationship Entrainment.
To learn more about the Brain Tek program, please email me at ronna@modernmastery.com
Have you ever gotten to the end of the day and thrown yourself on the couch and wondered “What did I do today? How did the day go by so fast?” This is a hallmark statement of an over-busy life. I’ve had a few of those recently. And it was as if the universe had honed in on this issue for me when I received a slew of emails from people that started, “I know how super-busy you are but…. “
This gave me a pause. One that I was over-due in taking! Because I had gotten into a whirlwind of activity, some of it creative, some of it habit-driven multi-tasking and some of it related to an old avoidance pattern.
When I started looking into the issue, I came across this interesting chart:
This poll from yougov.com shows that 59% of people being polled consider themselves to be busy and over 1/3 of the people polled felt guilty or anxious if they were not busy! Uh-oh! When I got honest with myself, I had to admit that I can easily slip into the feeling of “not-enough” if I really slow down! So underneath a lot of busy-ness, can be feelings of unworthiness or the desire for perfectionism. That’s what I’m referring to when I mention an old avoidance pattern.
If we have some vestiges of unworthiness or perfectionism, they will tend to crop their heads up from time to time when we start slipping into busy-ness.
Obviously, keeping busy then becomes a defense pattern to avoid these feelings and being not-busy results in guilt and anxiety! And it’s true, guilt feels like a shadow on the heart- this is not a clear heart at all!
So rather than diving in to change my busy-pattern right away, I took my own advice from my last blog (“When not to change your life…. Now), and just observed myself for a few days. But the more I observed myself in my over-busy-ness, the more I slowed down naturally, remembering to breath more consciously, to pay attention to what I was doing, and to enjoy the little things in life.
I also realized my upbringing with a strong mid-western work ethic had caught up with me again. Don’t get me wrong, having a good work ethic is important but some of us got a big dose of guilt with the message. My grandparents were farmers and spent long days working in the fields. When we wanted to laze about on the weekends, we always got a lecture about some aspect of the value of work, sometimes peppered with words like “good-for-nothing” and “low-down lazy dogs” to describe people who didn’t work hard enough.
Guilt and Fear mixed all together: Snakes in the field:
The summer that I was 13 years old, my parents decided we needed to spend some time working on our grandparent’s farm in Wyoming in order to learn the value of work. So my 15 year old sister and I would get dropped off in the beet fields at 6 am to hoe weeds all morning. This was in the days before cell phones. The only problem was that the beet fields were filled with rattlesnakes because it was such a dry season that year. We finally got out of our weeding job after I nearly sat on a baby rattlesnake next to the irrigation ditch!
We spent the rest of the summer painting outbuildings. It seemed that whatever we did, someone else was always working longer and harder than us, so my sister and I would find ways to goof off while no one was looking! A few times we got caught up and received a dose of “lazy kid” guilt. I’m sure a lot of you have had similar experiences.
The key thing today, is this pattern of guilt for being not-busy will drive periodic times of over busy-ness. The first step then, is bringing it up to consciousness again~
Banish Guilt- Create from a Clear Heart!
This is the way “Creating from a Clear Heart” program works. The first step is being conscious and the rest of the steps flow from here.
The steps of the Clear Heart process are:
C- Conscious – Choosing to bring consciousness to a situation or emotion
L- Light Heartedness – Learning to cultivate and activate a sense of light-heartedness
E- Empowerment – Emancipating old patterns and habits by taking empowered action
A – Appreciation – Acknowledging your appreciation for what is occurring
R- Responsible – Restoring appropriate balance between heart/brain resulting in responsible thoughts, feelings and actions
In the recorded broadcast of the Clear Heart Program, I discussed the 90/10 and 10/90 equation relationship between the heart and the brain. An optimal energy equation is 90% heart/ 10% brain. As I described in the webinar, this equation correlates to our physiology where 90% of the signals through our vagus nerve travel UP from the heart to the brain and only 10% of the signals go DOWN from brain to heart.
Out of stress and over-busy-ness, most of us are operating energetically in the inverse 0r 10% heart and 90% brain.
When we learn how to correct this imbalance, we can easily choose to slow-down our pace and our breathing. We then end up being more present and flowing and capable of amping-up life’s pleasures in all things! And we easily let go of old feelings from the past that related to unworthiness and the drive to perfectionism.
For example, writing this article could be stressful and feel like “work I HAVE to do”. But I am experiencing it as a flowing, easy energy grounded in appreciation and enjoyment.
So in this way, I am not busy, I am present and enjoying what I am doing this very moment. Likewise, with my work with clients, I am not busy when I am present in a session. I am focused on being present and I am appreciating the privilege of connecting with another person’s heart, hopes, challenges and dreams.
To schedule a Clear Heart Session with me or to view the rebroadcast of The Clear Heart Program, contact me at ronna@modernmastery.com