stress reduction

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.

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!



Ronna Prince is a filmmaker,  a Certified HeartMath Coach and HeartMath Instructor and a Radical Forgiveness Coach
https://www.facebook.com/SacredJourneyoftheHeart
 
At the end of this article: Information and web links for my 1 hour free webinar on Creating Synchronicities form the Heart on August 25, 2016 a6 5 pm Pacific Time.

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.

heart-earth-love

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.

Airport Waiting

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.

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?

boarding pass

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.

crowding the gate

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.

heart hands

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



by Ronna Prince 
 
Note: I call “dark stress”, the kind of stress that unknowingly you take on just because it’s all around you. BelowL HOW TO SHIFT IT!
 

You may have heard the frequent reports on the news over the last few weeks about the shortage of TSA agents at the airports and the resultant long security lines, missed flights, and in Phoenix last week, 3,000 bags that didn’t even get on airplanes at all because the bag checking machines broke down!

PHX-Airport

So this morning, I went to the airport prepared to put my own tools and techniques in to practice. I talked about some of them in my article “Laughing it Up with the TSA” but that was before the TSA shortage of 6,000 agents in the face of a predictable increase in airline travel.

air travel increase

Apparently, I really meant to test myself because two unusual things happened this morning. 1) For the first time ever, I went to the wrong side of the terminal (the D gates) and waited in the pre-check line, until it was my turn to be ID-checked, only to have the TSA agent send me to the other side of the terminal to get into the A gates line. So I had to go through waiting in line again!  And 2) I “beeped” through the security gate and got pulled over into the random security check line with 4 other people.

 We were all corralled into a corner by a mafia-looking supervisor while we waited to have our hands swabbed for explosive residue – (I wanted to say, “I promise I washed my hands before coming to the airport!” – but just like with cops, I know it’s best to keep your mouth shut and have a pleasant grin on your face.)  

While I was waiting in all of these lines, I noticed the high-level of stress swirling all around me. And I noticed also that despite my intentions, I had started to absorb the other people’s stress (OPS) around me by thinking “Group-think” nasty thoughts, and feeling stressed-out myself. I saw people grumbling, huffing big annoyed sighs, eyeball rolling and outright complaining along with some yelling. “This is ludicrous!” My own chatterbox mind was going a mile a minute, commenting internally, criticizing myself for getting in the wrong line with the wrong shoes, thinking nasty thoughts about the “TSA mafia” and judging others for their wrong behavior when there was nothing that they could do about the TSA procedures and lines.

“Hold the Phone!!”, I reminded myself! I just forgot to do what I know to do because I let dark OPS sneak up on me. I call “dark stress”, the kind of stress that you take on just because it’s all around you.  This has a real and detrimental effect on the health of our bodies, the state of our emotions and the quality of our thoughts. We all know what this feels like, and if we take on enough of it, it internalizes and leads to all kinds of health problems.

Where does this dark stress come from? It comes from the heart-signals that everyone, including ourselves, is broadcasting into the environment around us. This is not woo-woo energy stuff, but the real and measurable signals that emanate from our hearts

heartfield

If we feel annoyed, angry, spiteful and worried, all of that has a frequency and that is what we send out to everyone around us. So the more we are in the middle of it, the more it can impact us so that we too, become attracted into doing, feeling and thinking the same dark OPS things!

So given the current conditions at the airport, it’s a place that we can easily be impacted/bombarded by the dark or negative emotions and thoughts of all the people around us. This applies of course, to every situation in our lives where there is stress – in family squabbles, a competitive working environment and in the impact of constant information coming at us through our electronic devices. So the question is: can we do anything about it?

As you know, the answer is we absolutely can do something simple and empowering to cancel out the impact of dark OPS. But even more, we can shift the energy around us by choosing to be a positive or light-hearted contributor in stressful places and situations.

So when I caught myself in the swirl of dark OPS, I went into my “Airport ZEN” mode. I did not detach from the situation and people around me, I stayed engaged and chose to change it.

HOW TO SHIFT DARK OPS

 I shifted my focus from the outside and into the Observer Self on the inside. I sat back and observed myself watching what was going on inside my own mind as well as seeing the energies swirling around me. “Who am I?”,  I asked. I am the one observing, I am the one who sees. (Note: for those of you interested in numerology, the question, “Who Am I?” =33.  33 is called the Master Spiritual Teacher number!)

In one second, everything quieted down inside, and I remembered to focus on my heart. I remembered to let go of the outside AND the inside noise by concentrating on the subtle feeling in my heart.  And then, and only then, did I deepen into compassion. Compassion for the people around me, for myself and for the TSA.

Everything changed for me in this moment. I was happy to be exactly where I was, waiting to get my hands checked by a young, stressed out TSA agent.  Instead of resenting him, I opened my heart and sent out a big wave of gratitude. I looked directly at him heart-fully saying, “Thanks so much!” as he gave me the “all clear” signal. Yes! Indeed I was all clear and I knew that in that moment, I had contributed to a clear space around me and maybe even brightened the young TSA agent’s day.  

Gratitude

This little practice takes only a second or two to shift into and it completely cancels out the impact of Other People’s Stress in our own daily life. And even more importantly, when we truly open our hearts we are able share a ray of happiness and gratitude that just may help others. When we can lessen others’ stress, if only for a moment, we receive the gift of continuing on our journey with more lightness and joy inside our hearts.

Cheers to enjoying traveling the friendly skies where YOU can make a difference!

For more information on HeartMath coaching and my Triple Heart Healing Technique, please contact me at ronna@modernmastery.com

 

 



Ronna Prince is a Certified Practitioner of Brain Tek’s BRE program, a Certified HeartMath Coach and HeartMath Instructor and a Radical Forgiveness Coach
Going on now! The Fat Summit Click here to join

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!

cupcake wars

stressed desserts

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.

THT web banner logo

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.

amygdala-bypass

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.

 stopping-emotional-eating

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!

a carmel turle cupcake

For information about the Triple Heart Technique, and the BRE or Stop Emotional Eating Programs, please email me at ronna@modernmastery.com

 



Ronna Prince is a Certified Practitioner of Brain Tek’s BRE program and a Certified HeartMath Coach and HeartMath Instructor

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?

cupcake wars

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!

stressed 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!

mindless eating

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.

amygdala-bypass

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.

 stopping-emotional-eating

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!

a carmel turle cupcake

For information about either the BRE or Stop Emotional Eating Programs, please email me at ronna@modernmastery.com

 



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.

take care of your monkeys

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”!

THEM -scifi flick

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!

an ant picnic

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!

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.

do it anyway

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!

trying to meditate

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.

Focus Mental

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!

anteater

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?

anthill

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

 



Drivers who don’t signal to turn or who speed up when you try to pass, cigarette butts on the ground, people who carve their initials in rocks in state parks, people who cut in line… This is a short list of my pet peeves. Instead of letting these little peeves sneak up and upset me, I decided to work with them and wow! I discovered that these pet peeves can create a BIG change in my inner landscape.

But first, why ever bother to do anything about a personal peeve?

speeding upa blinker peeve

What is a pet peeve? According to Wikipedia: A pet peeve is a minor annoyance that an individual identifies as particularly annoying to himself or herself, to a greater degree than others may find it. Also, it is defined as “a thing that provokes one the most”. (Etymonline.com)  The origin of the word came about in 1919, from the 14th-century word peevish, meaning “ornery or ill-tempered”.

So really, anything that provokes us to be ornery or ill-tempered has the potential to reflect on our own inner emotional landscape.

Each time we get riled up, there is a cascade of physiological reactions: our blood pressure can go up, our heart rate accelerates, and we get a dose of cortisol, the stress hormone, racing through our entire system. And, we are usually angry, annoyed and provoked about “them” doing something to “us”. And if you’ve read my HeartMath blog articles, you know that the heart signal that emanates from within, sends BIG signals to all of those around us, that translate to “stay away from this person! they are mad!”  http://sacredjourneyoftheheart.com/blog/?p=163

Take a minute to write down your top 5 pet peeves before reading on. This is a fun exercise!

pet peeve

Now that you have your list, ask yourself, “What does each peeve really mean about what I am doing? How does it reflect on my actions and reactions?”

For example, when I discover that there’s no more toilet paper on the roll, I am capable of yelling around the house: “Am I the ONLY one who can change a toilet paper roll in this house?!”  Even if my kids are not home, I can stomp around and be angry. And depending on when you discover the absence of this crucial element in the bathroom, it can be worse than just an annoyance!

Having fun with this means translating each pet peeve to a more symbolic meaning: (and there are many with the empty toilet paper roll, but I will stick with the less visceral ones…) For example, what are the “clean-up” things in my day to day activities, am I leaving undone, or expecting someone else to do for me? Oh boy! this points right to something going on right now. My PR guru is setting up a new landing page for me and I have yet to get her the two paragraphs of  content for it. Somehow, I’ve been hoping she could do this little “dirty work” for me – after all, she knows what I’m trying to do!!

Another interpretation is this: it’s time to get into the crevices and around the floor boards of my home for Spring cleaning. I’d rather have someone else do it for me, but I know it is an important task for me to do myself. Taking care of my beautiful home is an important act of gratitude. Why is it important and useful to do this little exercise?

freedom steiner

1) it frees you from petty reactivity and unnecessary physiological stress

2) when you realize that you can actually change your physiological reaction to little stressors, it is much easier to apply the principles to bigger events.

3) You stop reacting like a victim to other people’s “bad actions” and you CHOOSE to  shift your behavior and emotions to a more responsible place.

4) You have more fun interacting in the world from a place of levity and light-heartedness instead of anger, judgment and blame.

Before I go through a few more examples, I want to clarify that doing this exercise does not mean that we are condoning littering, bad driving, and selfish behavior. We all have the responsibility to take action when necessary and to be considerate and caring of others. But when I look at my pet peeves from this new perspective, I am able to clearly see the reflection of places I can personally do a better job in living day to day life.

To finish up, here are some potential meanings of the other peeves I’ve listed and questions to ask yourself:

Getting mad a drivers who do no use their turn signals: In what way I am neglecting to indicate my own direction in life- with my work and relationships. Am I giving clear intentions about where I am going? Or am I being clandestine,  secretive or at times, just plain clueless?

Being upset by people who speed up when I am trying to pass them on the highway: Am I supporting the people around me and honoring the pace that works best for them? Or am I judging and internally criticizing people who are trying to move forward from a place of stagnation? Is it possible that I am being pushy?

Getting annoyed with people who carve their names in rock in state parks (or anywhere else!): Am I trying hard to leave an “impression” with others? Where am I focused on me, me, me  – to the exclusion of others needs and desires? Am I secretly harboring a fear that my life doesn’t matter unless I do something of permanent lasting “value”?

Being upset by people who throw cigarette butts on the ground: Where am I leaving emotional debris? Am I being responsible for my interactions with others, or am I  throwing  ‘buts..’ around (i.e. getting defensive) when someone points something out to me about how I could do something better.

Getting upset when someone cuts in line: Am I trying to short cut or get ahead others? Am I being considerate and patient?  I am cutting someone off while they are talking to me, or allowing myself to be distracted on the phone instead of paying attention?

When you uncover the true meaning of your pet peeves, you are then able to make a commitment to yourself to be more aware, more kind, more caring and basically, more heart-centered.

I’d love to hear your pet peeves and the inner meanings you discover!

Happy Discovery!

Ronna

PS – guess what just happened? (Sorry if I’m getting too personal here but this is too good not to share!) I just discovered an empty toilet paper roll in the bathroom. I had a wonderful, heart-centered laugh!! AND I’m off to write my 2 paragraphs.



The Clear Heart Program Introduction outlines the process of amp-ing up to enjoy life’ s pleasures. Please email me to request the re-broadcast link. 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:

busy and feeling guilty

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!

guilt-heart

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.

Clear Heart

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



Interested in learning more on this topic? Join my 1 hour webinar – info below.

How often have you heard someone tell you, when contemplating what to do about an issue, to “just let it go”? Or have you found yourself saying, “I just have to let this go..” and then realizing later that the issue, person or thing is still there, lurking around the corner?  Or even more obvious, you find yourself facing another situation just like the one you gotten out of! I’ve seen this with my clients and experienced it myself, in relationships, work related projects, issues of health like the recurring 10 pound weight loss and gain.  This pattern reminds me of the French saying, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

on-letting-go-248641-485-295_large

After spending some time immersed in the pattern of “letting go” and having it crop up again, I finally got to the core of this issue that underpins a lot of repeating experience. And I call that getting to the core of the 5 W’s of Letting Go and Holding Dear. And these are not the journalistic – who, what, when, where and why questions! Those are just facts that fall into place after the foundational “W”s are solidified.

The Foundational 5 “W”s in the Art of Letting Go and the Act of Holding Dear

Wisdom

Worthiness

Wholeness

Wealth

Well-Being

I am going to delve into each one of these during my webinar on 1-21, 2015 during which I will share with you the specifics of how to work with these 5 energies or states of being.

courage dear heart

But before we get to that next week, I have listed below the 5 surefire ways of having something we want to let go of, happen again (i.e. what not to do) and 5 reliable ways to ensure that we expand upon the things that we hold dear to our hearts. It looks like a simple list, but it’s an empowering starting process to become more clear and conscious about what we are creating in 2015.

How to ineffectively let go – i.e. bring it on again! How to truly let it go – a new beginning:
Letting go without learning the lesson What have I learned? How did I grow from this situation?
Letting go without realizing the gift What is the gift In what happened? What happened for me, vs “to me”.
Letting go with blame, regret or shame How did I contribute to this situation? Have I truly forgiven those involved?
Letting go with conditions Am I holding onto conditions such as “I will let go only if I’m sure it won’t happen again.”
Letting go with the spiritual bypass (or cop-out) of “it’s all good” Have I allowed myself to feel my true feelings around the situation – or have I stuffed and denied how I feel?

About mid-way through 2014, I started using this new technique and tool for myself… and in doing so, I shifted out of some old patterns that continued to clear and in late December 2014, completely ended.  I have never been so excited about a New Year as I am in January 2015!

I invite you to join me to create from a new platform in 2015!

Title: The Art of Letting Go
Time: Wednesday, January 21st at 5:00pm Mountain
Listening method: Phone + Web Simulcast
To attend, visit:
http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=64448400

Phone Number: (425) 440-5100
Pin Code: 339751#



Second Chances…

Are you ready for the holidays or are you like me, doing last minute shopping and meal planning? In the midst of last minute activities, it seems like I’m bombarded by “last chance” emails, ads and signs everywhere I look. Today, I’m pondering “last chances” – of which there really are very few in life, and “second chances” – what we gift to ourselves and others when make new choices.

a second change

When you think about it for a minute, there are truly very few things in life that are last chances…. But if we end up missing a last chance at something important, it can be really hard to let go of feelings of regret and move on… and in looking back, we can easily end up missing second chances that are right there in front of us now. In this article, I’ll share with you 3 ways to shift out of last chanc-ing.

The problem with last chance thinking and acting is twofold and it runs on a very powerful emotion-based program.

Here is the problem with last-chances: 1) they prey on our tendency toward impulsivity, bypassing the higher-brain processes of reason and logic and, 2) they pull at our heart-strings, typically in ways that deplete our energy… as in “I should do x, y, or z, or else….”

This is because “last chances” are tied into old wired-in emotional patterns of fear and regret. Fear and regret are very powerful because they keep us looking backward at the past and/or lock us into anxiety about the future never presenting us with an opportunity again.

When we dissect it this way, it’s easy to see how dysfunctional last chance thinking and acting really is!

a letting go

Here is a personal example I just experienced. My younger brother, John, today is happy, well-adjusted, employed and in a committed relationship. Five years ago, he was homeless, alone and literally wandering in the desert in Arizona. I didn’t know if he was alive or dead. He had been missing for about 3 years. The last time I saw him was in 2007 when I left him at a rehab center for indigent people. He had spiraled into alcoholism after our mom died in 2002 and his wife left him. He had run out of “one last chances” with me as I had learned how to stop enabling his addiction.

A few years later in 2010, I was playing the Radical Forgiveness game called “Satori” that is featured in my film, Sacred Journey of the Heart.  Satori is a board game created by Colin Tipping, that takes the players through all 5 steps of Radical Forgiveness that I depict in the film. Playing the game results in reframing issues to a new perspective that literally shifts reality in small and sometimes huge ways.

Each player “randomly” selects an issue from a stack of cards and plays the game around that particular issue. The card I picked for the game that day in 2010 was “Alcohol and Drugs have affected your life” and the context was Family. So obviously, I was being led to dive deep into Radical Forgiveness about my brother John’s alcoholism.  It was one of the toughest games of Satori I ever played. Through the process, I was able to look at how I still blamed myself for not doing enough for him, not just through his addiction, but when we were growing up and I was trying to fill in for an absent dad and a stressed out mom who had gone to back to school to get her master’s degree after her divorce. I was able to shift into a new perspective about the events around his addiction and see what the experience did “for” me vs “to” me. It helped me untangle my lack of self-forgiveness and enter into deep forgiveness for my brother and through him, for myself.

Radical Forgiveness Logo

Literally 10 days after I played the Satori game in August 2010, my brother was found in the desert, brought back to our hometown in the Midwest and entered into a very strict rehab program. All he had to his name was a change of clothes. He didn’t even have an ID card. Less than 10% of the people entering the rehab program complete it. My brother was one of the successful graduates.

Today, he is sober, he has rebuilt his life, he has a good job and he is living in a committed and happy relationship. It is a miracle that was built on radical forgiveness, his hard work, the support of many people and the second chance he received to start again.

The other day he called to ask me for a recipe of one of our mom’s favorite holiday breakfast casseroles. I told him it was in the 3-ring binder book that my mom gave to each one of us before she died.  The book contained her favorite recipes, favorite poems and the original artwork and poetry she created as she was dying from brain cancer. It was a gift we all cherished because it contained so many fond memories and her expressions of love which came through her cooking, poetry and art.

John reminded me that he had lost the book of our mom’s precious gift. I said to myself, “Ah! That’s right! He had literally lost every single thing he owned from his past.”

Of course, I emailed him the recipe right away but in that moment, I knew what to give my brother this Christmas.  One by one, I copied each page from the 3 ring binder book from our mother. The recipes are in black and white, the artwork and poetry are in color – about 250 pieces of paper and several hours of my time were spent in gratitude that my mom left us such an amazing gift. And in deep gratitude that my brother had not at all “lost” this part of his past:  the legacy of love from our mom that I could give back to him.

I believe that there are always second chances for love. Radical Forgiveness opened my heart in 2010 and I got my brother back. And my brother is getting the gift from our mother back!

I’ve continued my exploration of emotions and the brain, the heart and the mind since 2010. I’ve discovered that doing the HeartMath program, Voyage to Heart Intelligence, activates the power of our hearts and creates many second chances for love and great moment-to-moment connections with the present moment.

And my latest discovery, Brain Tek’s brain wave entrainment program, caps it all off by unwiring stuck pathways in the brain that tend to resurface during stressful times. Brain Tek’s personalized sound therapies literally create new pathways in the brain that end worry, rumination, anxiety and procrastination.

I will be comparing all three programs next Monday, December 29th 2014 at 5 pm Mountain time. My primary focus will be Brain Tek – if you’ve missed my other free webinars, here’s your second chance to learn how to permanently change old patterns and give yourself the gift of living in the present!

For information on how to join the free webinar email: ronna@sacredjourneyoftheheart.com

Happy Holidays!