NEUROLOGICALLY. With every beat of the heart, a burst of neural activity is relayed to the brain. The brain in the heart senses hormonal, rate and pressure information, and translates this information into neurological impulses, processes it and sends information back to the brain in the head via the vagus nerve and nerves in the spinal column.

BIOCHEMICALLY. The heart produces the ‘balance hormone’ – ANF. It regulates blood pressure, body-fluid retention and electrolyte homeostasis and exerts its effects widely on the blood vessels, kidneys, adrenal glands and other regulatory regions of the brain. ANF also inhibits release of stress hormones and plays a positive role in reproductive and immune system activity.

BIOPHYSICALLY. With every beat the heart generates a powerful blood pressure wave that travels rapidly throughout the arteries, much faster than the actual flow of blood. These waves of pressure create what we feel as our pulse.

ENERGETICALLY. The heart produces an electromagnetic field that is approximately five thousand times greater in strength than the field produced by the brain. Its power influences every part of our bodies and even broadcasts itself outside the body.

The net of all this is to remind you that your heart affects the way you think. You don’t have a choice. And your emotions¿your feelings–affect your heart. In this you do have a choice. By intentionally shifting to a positive emotional state with HeartMath’s Quick Coherence® Technique (heart focus, heart breathing, heart feeling) you can modify input from your heart to your brain in ways that are good for you. It’s healthy, it’s smart and it’s FAST.

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Staying physically, emotionally, and spiritually balanced serves us to live our life to the fullest aside from taking personal responsibility for the things we attract into our lives we also recognize that there are outer conditions, and toxins in our environment that contribute to many of our overall physical ailments.

In my own life,and with my children, allergies have been a constant issue we have learned to deal with, and treat as best we can. Usually a condition that has apparent hereditary ties it can make us feel miserable and in some instance be life threatening.

No one wants to feel run down or with itchy watery eyes, congestion, sneezing it can literally ruin your whole day it deprives us from vital life energy and facing life with an optimistic outlook. For my daughter in particular, since birth, allergens in the environment have triggered allergic responses that have continued from her adolescent years into adult hood often, with some severe reactions.

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I know for myself feeling the symptoms  of allergic reactions is no picnic dust mites are everywhere in the environment and for those with sensitivity it can cause very uncomfortable side effects.  It’s all about self management and taking care of ourselves in all aspects of our being. Body, Mind, and Spirit

Are you taking care of YOU!

According to an article in The New York Post
Omar Thornton 34, massacred eight co-workers at a Manchester, Conn., beer warehouse before blowing himself away with one of the two 9mm handguns he was carrying on Tuesday Morning Aug. 3, 2010
Manchester Police Lt. Christopher Davis said that the first two people killed by Thornton were escorting him out of a meeting where he had just resigned after being shown a video of himself stealing beer During the incident, Thornton began texting Hannah,his girlfriend but kept his phone on so she could eavesdrop on a conversation between at least two men — one of them believed to be one of the company’s owners — who didn’t know Thornton was listening.

What were the turns of events that brought this young man to commit the most horrific acts of violence kill eight co-workers and, then turn the gun on himself? How many have found themselves in that place? And how many more feel as if they are on the brink of loosing control, and potentially make choices that could be fatal or life altering?

I can never stress enough the importance of continually monitoring our stress levels, and how we are coping with them. Omar, was a perfect example, what finally drove him off the deep edge?

Even if we never commit a crime or murder another human being there are still the everyday realities that we deal with that add up in our energy system, and accumulate over time. Unless dealt with, they can lead to energy blocks within our system and cause mental, and physical illness.

Once these blocks are in place, and left untreated it becomes harder to clear the damage they may have done because it trickles down to the physical body and opens the door for illness to set in.  The ideal solution would be to be cognizant of our feelings, and emotions and treat accordingly before it escalates to such horrific proportions. Understandably, it’s not all that have the ability to see themselves as they are or to take personal responsibility for their actions,and behaviors but for those that can I encourage you to take the time and de-stress from the daily routine of life.

Whether it’s Meditation, Prayer, Journal, Cognitive Therapy or what ever it is that will bring you back into balance give yourself the best gift of all and that’s the gift of a joyous life!

Yoga offers many health benefits and is a good way to develop flexibility, reduce stress, and live a fitter way of life. There are various sorts of yoga that you can take part in, and the type that is best for you depend on your personal well-being and fitness goals. Some kinds of yoga are concentrating more on the physical toning of your muscles and on weight loss, whilst others focus more on meditation and spirituality.

Yoga helps in maintaining the balance between body, mind and soul. Once the balance is achieved with the help of various exercises, the practitioner becomes more calm and starts having a positive approach towards life. With the regular practice of yoga, one attains a level where he/she is at ease with himself, his body and his surroundings and does not easily stress

Ashtanga yoga uses ordered postures, or asanas, connected together by the breath and is moreover referred to as Flow Yoga or Vinyasa (series of poses), and focuses less on alignment than Iyengar yoga, and props are used less frequently.

Iyengar Yoga: these types of yoga are solely focused on the alignment and precise movements. Yoga props such as blocks and straps are usually used as part of this type of yoga for those beginners who are not as flexible as the experts as to compensate for injuries. These Yoga props help assist all sorts of people to be able to do the poses comfortably.

Yoga certainly does help improve strength and flexibility, but there are other benefits as well.

• It can help ease tension in the body,
• Improve joint mobility,
• Ease back pain by strengthening the spine,
• Improve posture,
• Boost glands in the endocrine system,
• Improve digestion,
• Improve circulation,
• Boost the body’s immune system,
• Increase stamina and much more.

Yoga can be a great tool and should be utilized in treating eating disorders. That doesn’t mean we stop getting help from the professional medical world. But what we can do is to have the best of both worlds; the medical field of brilliant minds and the intuitive and spiritual world to help us calm our mind and lift our spirit.

Practicing yoga is a great way to enhance your flexibility if you do lots of stretching; to find your balance by controlling your breath; to keep straight posture when you engage your core and to tone your muscles by overall dynamic yet controlled movements. You can choose from yoga classes designed for stress- release to more strenuous physical workouts intended to supplement weight loss.

Hasya Yoga is physical oriented methods that remove your tension, out of this world and place in new world of peace. During this yoga people laugh for 30 to 40 minutes with noise of clapping and Ha Ha. People perform this yoga to make their mind free from their personal tension.

These days you can find a Yoga class just  about anywhere, whether it’s a private session or at the local school that offers adult education or perhaps in your own living room.

The challenge of trying to give a gift can be overwhelming especially when we put pressure on ourselves to make the perfect choice.  Try this; first, look into your heart for some guidance.  Second, really think about the recipient and why you are giving a gift. Try HeartMath’s Quick Coherence® technique to help you focus in on your heart.   It only takes a few minutes and you may find that these decisions come easier and with more joy.

A year ago Wendy Craig-Purcell, CEO of the Unity Center in San Diego shared her joy and appreciation for the wonderful gift she received:
Wendy video

http://www.youtube.com/user/HeartMath2#p/u/9/Fpxj9l_Q8lo

Feel better. Live Better.

What are my options for relieving stress?

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Some massage therapy modalities, like Ayurvedic Abhyanga massage, dates back thousands of years to India, and is administered by one or paired therapists. This particular body treatment integrates heated herbal oils, with gentle kneading and pressure techniques. Sometimes, the feet are used for the therapy, like the Hawaiian massage technique of Lomi Lomi.

Craniosacral therapy, sometimes used as part of an osteopathic doctor’s health treatment, is commonly referred to as a unique form of massage therapy. A hands-on treatment involving light touch to assist hydraulic forces within the natural cranial sacral system, craniosacral therapy is known to free tension from the spinal cord, and optimizes spinal fluid flow.

Deep tissue technique is one of the more common forms of massage therapy, and is typically taught in most somatic education programs. This specific massage modality involves a deeper pressure application using the fingers, knuckles, or elbow.

Reflexology is an energy-based massage therapy that is most commonly administered to the soles of the feet; however, it is also administered to the hands, ears, and body. Facilitating pressure points on the soles of the feet, reflexology is a therapy with the belief that specific pressure points of the feet correspond to parts of the body that can aid in relieving pain and stress to these parts.

Chinese medical massage therapy, also known as Tuina, is similar to acupressure; and is administered through kneading, pushing, and stretching techniques at the sites of these acupressure points of the body. Also based on energy healing, Tuina is based on the philosophy that these acupressure points correlate to organ systems and parts of the body; and is believed to help promote self-healing mechanisms.

Of course there are several other massage therapy modalities available today. To find out which massage technique is best for you, you should check with your local certified massage therapist who can explain the different techniques that she uses in her practice. As with most practitioners, massage therapists must meet state educational requirements and/or licensure prior to practicing the healing art. While there are many massage therapists, it is important to note that no two massage practitioners are alike. Where one may be certified in Swedish massage, deep tissue and sports massage; more advanced therapists may offer additional services in acupressure/Shiatsu, hot stone massage, neuromuscular therapy, and myofascial release, among others.

If you (or someone you know) are interested in finding educational programs in massage therapy, let professional training within fast-growing industries like massotherapy, cosmetology, acupuncture, oriental medicine, Reiki, and others get you started! Explore massage therapy programs near you.

First off, one of the biggest culprits in emotional eating is stress.

When we are stressed, we eat to cope. Thus, finding effective ways to combat stress will reduce our chances of binge eating. As many studies have shown, daily exercise reduces stress, ridding the body of chemicals that produce stress reactions. Just 10 or 20 minutes a day of vigorous exercise can lead to a less stress-filled life. Then, not only are we less likely to engage in emotional eating, the exercise will burn off calories as well.

Another cause of emotional eating for many people is boredom. You sit around the house, watching television or surfing the internet, and to give you something to stimulate yourself, you head to the refrigerator. Yet a healthier and more productive reaction to boredom is to find a new hobby or activity. Getting involved in volunteering or joining a sports or gaming club takes your mind off eating and gives you people to spend time with.

Having people around you to have fun with is a great way to avoid emotional eating. These friends or family members can also act as a support group in your efforts to stop overeating. Supportive friends will encourage you to stick with a diet and exercise plan, and can probably even be convinced to exercise with you. You can also keep each other strong in times of stress, lending a listening ear instead of a trip to the kitchen.

Being mindful of how and when you eat is important too. Sometimes we are not conscious of what we eat and why and instead tend to eat on autopilot. We come home from a busy day of work, and we pop open a tub of ice cream without considering why. Did something unpleasant happen at work that we are trying to smooth over by emotional eating? If we are mindful about why we might engage in emotional eating we can better keep ourselves from relying on it as a crutch.

One last strategy to avoid emotional eating is to break the cycle of food and guilt that is so often at the center of this problem. You eat because you’ve had a hard day and aren’t feeling too good about yourself. But then, you feel bad about yourself for overeating! Key to breaking this debilitating cycle may lie in being nicer to you. Know that sometimes you will slip and eat too much. When this happens, pat yourself on the back and say you’ll do better the next day. You’ll feel better about things and less likely to succumb to emotional eating

What are my options for relieving stress?

Here are three of them:

Increased Perspiration

A person who feels a certain degree of anxiety and stress will definitely find himself/herself sweating buckets. It could start with sweaty palms first before moving over to the armpits.
Stress actually sends a signal to your brain to create hormones which are responsible for causing sweat. To stop yourself from sweating too much, I suggest you learn some breathing exercises to get your body in control. Or at least, trick your mind into thinking you’re not stressed at all.

Trembling

Trembling is one of the more common physical symptoms of anxiety and stress. You’ve seen versions of this on cartoons; but you might be surprised to discover how accurate they are once you’re in a stressful situation.
It’s not always your whole body that trembles though. It could be your hands or just your legs. Perhaps you can remember your high school days and having trembling hands when presenting in class.

One piece of advice is to try and keep yourself calm, and collected always. If your hands can’t help but tremble, curl them into fists and uncurl them again so as to control the tremors.

Pounding Heart

Another one of the usual physical symptoms of anxiety and stress includes the pounding heart. HeartMath
I’m sure you’ve had moments when you felt like your heart was connected to a really loud bass speaker.
You normally don’t hear your own heartbeat unless you have a stethoscope on; but there are instances of extreme anxiety and stress that you can almost hear it pounding in your ears. Or moments when you feel like your heart is pounding so hard, it just might leap out of your chest!

These are the top three physical symptoms of anxiety and stress. These indications may just be reminding you to take it easy, but it’s up to you to  take the necessary steps to eliminate them.

Stopping Emotional Eating; The emWave Stress and Weight Management Program

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Part 1. Introduction

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Introduction

We live in exciting times. They are simultaneously difficult and yet inspiring and challenging. Famine, suffering, injustice, pain, anger and hate abound and the world might be on the brink of ecological failure. At the same time, we are experiencing a spiritual renaissance that may be our only hope for healing humanity and the planet. Spirituality is no longer a luxury but a necessity for our survival.

Traditionally, spirituality has been identified with self-denial and poverty and thus did not offer many solutions to the social and political problems at hand. We are now being asked to explore the next stage in our spiritual process as co-creators of our personal and collective reality. This does not negate the importance of being free from attachment to material possessions or pleasures. The key word here is attachment. We can have abundance without being attached to it. We can have nothing and be very attached to having. It is the attachment that weakens and traps us.

Happiness is

Happiness can be defined by having what we want and need. Thus, if we do not have all that we need to be happy, there are two solutions: one is to learn to be happy without what we, until now, believed we needed to be happy. The second is to learn how to more effectively create or attract what we need for ourselves and others.

Obviously, both are equally important. On the one hand, in order to experience our true spiritual self, we need to realize that there is really nothing outside ourselves that is essential for our happiness. All that we need in order to be happy is within us. On the other hand, we are incarnated in this material world to create and manifest realities similar to our spiritual state, which is one of no lack whatsoever, which is why heaven is usually described as a state of abundance in which nothing that we could possibly need is missing.

We need to now find that balance between being self-sufficient and unattached to external sources of self-worth, security and fulfillment, and at the same time exercise our ability to create heaven on earth, along with all of the material, emotional, mental and spiritual manifestations of abundance that comprise our personal and collective “heaven.”

Generally, most need to first free themselves from attachment in order to then become effortless co-creators of abundance. Those who have not first learned that lesson may need to learn it after they have already created abundance – which may be a more difficult experience.

The key is to be happy with what we already have while we simultaneously work on creating an ever more ideal reality. In my previous books I have given emphasis to getting free from attachments and other forms of suffering. I still stand by that concept as essential not only for our spiritual growth, but even more so for our everyday happiness.

In this book I shall give importance to learning how to more creatively and powerfully manifest our “ideal life” with all that we need to be happy and to fulfill our life purpose.

Your ideal reality

Your ideal life is the one that brings you happiness, fulfillment, love, peace, meaning and everything else you need and desire. It is the life you incarnated to live and create. It is your destiny and your life purpose. It is the one unique life style that will give you happiness. It is also your challenge – the life you have come to learn to create, just as a painter is challenged to manifest on the canvas the image he has in his mind.

We have encoded within us at birth the image of our personal ideal life that is uniquely different from anyone else’s ideal life. It is the life we have come to create for ourselves, others and perhaps even for society. Manifesting these specific life conditions that we feel motivated from within to create is our personal path to happiness, peace, fulfillment, meaning and evolution.

We are co-creators with the divine

The Divine is expressing itself through us and seeking to manifest through each of us, in our own special way, its unlimited harmony and beauty. We are rays of divine consciousness temporarily expressing ourselves through unique bodies and minds. Our challenge and purpose is to express our divine beauty as creativity, love, peace, abundance, unity and a myriad of other higher values and qualities.

Thus, creating abundance, health, loving relationships and all other aspects of a happy life is not only our right, but is also our duty and destiny. We are here to create beautifully happy lives including all that we need in order to be happy and to fulfill our life purpose – which in all cases also beautifies life for those around us.

We are cells in the body of one universal being. Whatever is good for us as cells is also good for the body of humanity as a whole. Learning to manifest our ideal life is a process, which in addition to increasing our happiness also benefits the whole and enhances our evolutionary process personally and collectively. In other words, it is not only okay to be happy and to have whatever we need, but it is an integral part of our evolutionary process.

We are here, however, to manifest what we are guided from within to create – and that may or may not include some of our desires that are based on our mind’s fears, doubts, selfishness, attachments or the programming we have received from a society which has seriously lost contact with the true values and purpose of life.

The importance of using our power consciously

As you read through and seek to employ these principles for manifesting your ideal life, do not forget that you are an important part of a whole and that, even if you are satisfied with your life as it is and are not motivated to manifest more for yourself, you are free to use these same principles for manifesting an improved reality for those in need, who at this time might be unable to do much for themselves.

You are learning to exercise your creative powers. You can use them for yourself, for your loved ones or for society in general. How you use your powers is your choice. Remember that, as with all other forms of power, it is essential that we use them responsibly and correctly.

If you have doubts as to whether you are supposed to use your powers of creation, you might want to remember that Christ taught his followers that they all had the power to do whatever he did. When his crucifixion was pending, he explained that it was imperative that he leave so that the “Helper” (the Holy Spirit) could come and fill them and give them many of powers he had, which actually occurred fifty days later.

We are all expressions of the Divine here on the earth. God is not some separate being who will come and save humanity. We are the mind, hands and feet of God in the material world. It is up to us and not God to create peace, harmony and abundance for all. Either we will do it or it will not be done.

Learning to create more powerfully and specifically that which we are consciously guided to manifest is a major step in that process. Doing so in cooperation with others is an equally important step, but first of all you need to create a personal reality in which you feel secure, satisfied, fulfilled, happy and at peace. Then we can move on to contribute to world peace and abundance, each in his or her own unique way.

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In my own case I had experienced a serious spinal cord injury from a car accident that left me facing life as a quadriplegic with the possibility of someone having to take care of my every need. I had lost most of the feeling and use of my arms and legs and also lost some organ function like bladder and bowel control. After the surgery to take the pressure of my spinal cord my neurosurgeon said I might never walk again.

Soon after my surgery I could tell something was very different but I couldn’t quite grasp what was happening to me. I was facing what looked like a tragic life altering situation yet I felt very calm and peaceful and I wasn’t on any drugs. In fact it was the happiest I had ever felt in my life. I had stopped taking the pain medications the day after my surgery so I knew it wasn’t the drugs that were affecting me. Along with this newfound sense of peace I could feel a new energy coursing through my body.

After a short period I realized what had happened. Because I suddenly had my whole life turned upside down and was facing losing everything that I lost my identity or who I thought I was and my mind just gave up and surrendered to what was happening without resisting or fighting the situation. It was as if suddenly I was someone totally different than I thought I was previously. I realized the mind attaches itself to certain labels and concepts of whom or what it should be.

I was familiar with energy healing because I had taught Qigong in the past. Qigong is an ancient practice that uses different movement, meditations and breathing techniques to gather universal energy to heal the body and mind. This kind of energy that I now felt moving through me was different than what I had experienced previously and I could tell I was beginning to heal. Soon after leaving the hospital the feeling in my arms started to return. Then within a couple of days of leaving the hospital I began to start taking very small baby steps while holding on to a walker and someone helping to hold me up.

I had to learn to walk again. I was like a baby learning to take its first steps. I could barely feel my legs and they felt like they were filled with sand and weighed 1,000 pounds. This is quite common with spinal cord injuries. It took a tremendous amount of effort just to try and get one foot to just move a few inches in front of the other foot. It took me about 2 and half years of some very challenging times to be able to walk fairly normal again but today I am fairly mobile and pain free.

Years after recovery I had a feeling that I should try working energetically on others to see if I could help them. Previously I had taught others Qigong for self healing. I had learned some healing techniques but hadn’t really used them on others before but I thought I would try them on some friends and they said they would feel better after I worked with them.

I decided I would experiment trying to help people doing it when they were at another location. I tried this because one of my teachers was very effective with distant healing. I had also read some studies where other people were doing the same thing and had results. I found that the people that I was working with at a distance were experiencing the same positive results as when it was done in person.

After a lot of experimenting I found I had a gift for distant energy healing and started working with people all over the world. The distance energy healing works to help clear the blockages in the acupuncture meridians and chakras. The chakras are subtle energy centers in the spine that yoga philosophy recognizes as an important interface between consciousness and matter. Many ancient texts mention that blockages in the chakras can be attributed to most physical, mental, emotional and spiritual problems.

Today some quantum physicists are recognizing what mystics have said for millennium that we are all connected and so the concept of distant healing isn’t such a stretch that distant energy healing can work. Some medical institutions such as the California Pacific Medical Center are now scientifically studying the positive effects of distant energy healing. Distant energy healing will become more popular as people are looking for more alternative healing methods.

Article by: Michael Mohoric

Past Secretary of the International Tibetan Qigong Association and a healer that specializes in distant energy healing. He has studied alternative healing for over 25 years and is a Professional Member of the National Qigong Association.