The hearts electro-magnetic feild. Image from the HEART MATH INSTITUTE.

STRESS IS A KILLER
.....One in three adults suffer from moderate to extreme stress....ABS NATIONAL HEALTH SURVEY 2001

.....This represents an increase of nearly 40% in only 4 years.

.....Stress related workers compensation claims have risen 400% in the last 10 years... VIC.WORK COVER.

.....Payout costs have doubled in the last 6 years...VIC. WORK COVER.

.....The total cost of Australian Workplace stress is now estimated to be
1.2 billion per annum...!

and that was in 2006...!!!!!

REPETATIVE THOUGHTS
ARE YOUR THOUGHTS MAKING YOU STRESSED ?

.....Stressful people and situations will always exist...

..... it is not stressful situations or stressful people that make us sick but how we react to them....


....our reactions affect us physically, emotionally and psycho-spiritually...

.....YOGA breathing...(pranayama)...will help you slow the mind, so that you can observe it and your habitual reactions....

....once you have familiarized your self with your habitual thoughts and reactions you can choose to change them.....

.....we need to observe our minds from an entirely new perspective...

.....we must learn how our mind works....

.....we must learn how some of our habitual thought patterns can create a negative result....

.....we must observe THE LANDSCAPE OF OUR MIND.

......BUT HOW.....?????

THE LANDSCAPE OF THE MIND
In order to understand your mind you must first slow it down, to slow it down we must slow the physiology......this is done via PRANAYAMA (controlled breathing...)click on 'PRANAYAMA' top right hand corner of this page.

Pranayama is a vital part of this process. I believe without pranayam (controlled breathing), this process is likely to be impossible. The physiology of the body needs to alter before you can slow your mind....to create that change you must control you breathing first.

**please do no practice pranayama if you have high blood pressure, unless you are supervised by a certified yoga teacher.

.....once your breathing has slowed you will notice thoughts are difficult to eliminate....

These constant thoughts are known as 'VRITTI'....or I like to refer to them as 'ORDINARY THOUGHT'.

To familiarise yourself with your 'VRITTI' or 'ORDINARY THOUGHT' close your eyes and try not to think for one minute....you can count to 60 if you like...and watch the flow of 'VRITTI ' enter your mind un invited.

In my experience some students are able to clear their minds effortlessly. Unfortunately they are a minority. For most of us, including myself the mind if full of 'VRITTI' most of the time.

This may not be a bad thing.
If you are highly functioning happy and healthy, clearly your mind is supporting you. It is your ali.

But, if you suffer any form of ill health, whether it be physical or emotional it is likely that your thoughts are not helping.

In fact your thoughts may be making you sick..!!!

You've all heard "YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT"...some of you may have heard ...."YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK. !!!

both very true.....





.....DO YOU HAVE THOUGHTS LIKE...

....i'm too tired...
....i'm bored...
....this is too hard....
....i want to go home....
....i cant do it....
....i hate my life....
....cant afford it....
....they think im stupid...
....im an idiot....
....this is rubbish...
or as Jonny Depp said in the movie...' THE LIBERTINE '..
....why should i....what's the point...


and hundreds and hudreds more...

.....these habitual / negative thoughts have the power to stop you in your tracks... making you tired and grumpy....and eventually sick.

....one of the most common malaise that i see in my students is negativity coupled with fatigue....

.....even the fittest and healthiest people can exhibit these symptoms of negative thinking.

.....old core/subconscious beliefs have the ability to plague you your entire life....

.....eg:if you had an unfortunate experience as a child...deep within your pshyche that trauma may still exist...often manifesting in a core belief that you are not worthy....

....a common clue to this is when women, mostly young women frequently apologise when they have done nothing wrong...

....actually they are apologizing for existing...

....this is extremely common.....not to mention sad but very easy to change...

THE POWER OF AFFIRMATION
...
Most of us have had dissapointment in our lives...Not to mention many many sad and traumatic experiences. Each unfortunate experience has the capacity to leave us feeling negative about ourselves and our lives....My own experience is worthy of sharing.

I had prepared to become a PRIMA BALLERINA (seriously) from the day I fell in love with ballet. I was 5 or 6 years of age...
Over the years I had sacrificed a normal childhood for the dance...I was in love with ballet...it was normal for me to have no friends and to leave school in a hurry every night and rush to dance .I was happy when I was dancing. Nothing compares...even now...

By 15 years of age I got as far as the AUSSIE BALLET SCHOOL.....which is where young women from all over australia prepare to compete for a place in the AUSSIE BALLET COMPANY. I was good...very good...but I was too tall and my achilles tendons too short....I couldnt jump high enough.

I was not selected for the AUSSIE BALLET....

Im telling you my story to demonstrate that an ordinary occurance for a young person such as mine can create long term negetive self image...thus low self worth.

My disappointment in not becoming a ballerina as a teenager set me up for poor self esteem...low self worth...basiccally i didnt like myself very nuch...although at the time I had no idea...i was doing what veryone else did....SELF MEDICATE....

during the 70's and early 80's I was extremely self abusive...Alcohol, drugs and late nights were part of my everyday life...the outcome of long term self abuse was depression....

...after many years of relative misery I was able to turn my life around with Yoga, Traditional Chinese herbs and the power of positive affirmation / meditation. I was able to "re-boot" my brain... changing old core beliefs about myself....

.....interestingly i never actually thought much about my failed dancing career,until my life and health began to unravel after my mothers death 5 years ago. Once I scratched the surface I realized that it had actually been extremely traumatic for me.....sending me spiralling down leading to decades of self hatred, which most often manifests as self abuse....then depression...

In my yoga practice I see alot of women you have old unresolved issues , creating negative core beliefs....

these negative core beleifs create life long habitual negative thinking....that can ruin your life.


.... we dont have to have had experienced extreme trauma in our lives to develope negative thinking....it just happens...

CREATING AN AFFIRMATION
We know that....." YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK "...this has become popular psychology...

.....so how do we change what we think about ourselves....

....often a trip to a counselor or psycho therapist is essential, but sometimes we can do the work ourselves...

....lets use CIGARETTE ADDICTION as an example...

Throughout the day the smoker who is trying to give up might agonise over the situation...saying things like...

...I'M DYING FOR A CIGARETTE....
OR
...I HATE GIVING UP SMOKING...
OR
...I DONT WANT TO SMOKE BUT I AM ADDICTED....

...this way of thinking will not help stop the addiction...

.....it will affirm the struggle you are in....


* * * * * * * * *

.....alternate positive affirmations....


"SMOKING MAKES ME SICK ...."
OR
....."I LOVE MY SELF...I HATE SMOKING..."
OR
...."I AM NOT A SMOKER"
OR
... "I USED TO BE A SMOKER"

* * * * * * * *

.....A useful affirmation repeated often enough WILL make a difference....although a great deal of committmant needs to be applied....I have affirmations I use every day depending on my mood....

very rarely does a week go by when I havent needed to shift my head space..ie..control my thinking.

....interestingly, you do not have to believe the affirmation....and the affirmation does not need to be true....

eg.........I FEEL GREAT.....

...........I AM AMAZING...

........I AM RICH, I HAVE ALL I WANT...

.........I AM SUCCESSFUL.....

these may not be entirely true, but they will be better than affirming that you are broke and probably always will be....

OR FEEL LIKE #@*#....

so to create an affirmation is not rocket science....

i have a few that i use all the time....

" PEACE AND LOVE "
" I FEEL GREAT "
" I AM BLESSED "
" I AM HAPPY AND RELAXED "
" I AM PERFECTION "

on days when having a small business and being a single mum is overwhelming...usually when im pre-menstrual...my affirmation is

...."I AM A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS WOMAN...."

i use that affirmation alot and it does make a difference.....

or, if i'm overwhelmed by being too busy..my affirmation is...

" I HAVE SO MUCH TIME.....and SO LITTLE TO DO"....

.....BELEIVE IT OR NOT IT APPEARS TO MAKE TIME SLOW DOWN.....

* * * * *

THE POWER OF YOUR MIND IS UNKNOWN...

YOU ARE MIRACULOUS....

TRUST YOURSELF...

Develop an affirmation that seems to make a difference and use it (repeat it hundreds of times a day) as soon as you have negetive thoughts....

REPEATING YOUR AFFIRMATION
Creating an affirmation is great...but unless you use it regularly it is useless....

....As we are all so busy, it's difficult to find time to use / repeat affirmations....


here are some simple ideas....
*every time you are in the shower...repeat it as many times as you can...
*every time you are in the loo, repeat it as many times as you can...
*when you are driving...
*when you are walking the dogs....

**you will eventually come to understand that whilst you are repeating your affirmation you dont think any other thoughts......

this is when the re-progaming of the mind takes place....

....your old reactive habitual thought patterns will slowly dissipate..until they are no more....then you will turn around one day and say....I USED TO BE LIKE THIS OR THAT......BUT I HAVE CHANGED.....


REMEMBER

YOU ARE WHAT U THINK