MIND HEALING

Rarely are we in the present moment. We are in coma most of the time with our stressful and busy lives. Let's wake up to reality! Problems of smoking, alcohol, and overeating will be solved.

Events in our lives are interpreted by how we see them, not as they really are. Our thoughts are always on what we will do tomorrow and what we should have done yesterday. Our busy lives have left up depressed, robotic, analytical and stressed. Let's wake up and see things as they really are. In short, get into the present moment.

Society programs up to think we will be forgetful and inefficient if we don't constantly plan our daily activities. We try to snalyze and predict our futures instead of being comfortable with the unkown. Young people are always thinking about their 401k's and early retirement.

We don't really enjoy the present moment. You are brainwashed into thinking the more stress you can handle, the stronger you are. You try to do many things at a time. It's hard to stay focused on what you are doing. By working longer hours, are you working smater? During times of change your number one priority must be to keep your cool and perspective on life.

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THE LEFT BRAIN

Your left brain (the dominat side) stores information, analyses it, aplans your future by your past experiences, and remembers all the information you have learned. It is predictable, detailed and memory based. It is always active and requires focus and effort.

This side of the brain is active all day while you are at work. This mode is important to handle details and to learn new tasks. You are forced to seek answers immediately, that would naturally come in your mind was quiet and you were relaxed.

Uncomfortable feelings buildup. You try to analyze them. Most of your meetings are held in this analytical mode of thinking. No one listens to anyone. Everyone is waiting to give his opinion. If you quit analyzing your negative mood, you can begin to slow down. If all the variables are known, it's great to be analytical. Certainly, you must be in the analytical mode when you are scheduling, memorizing and are recalling data.

However, when all the information isn't at your disposal, you refuse to admit it. To get out of the analytical mode you must admit you don't know the answeres.

By focusing on details all the time, we are funning at full speed and missing the present moment. You miss what you have in front of you by filling each moment with numerous activities that are never satisfying. Right now is not good enough. A busy mind can't get into the moment. It is wondering what to do next.

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THE RIGHT BRAIN

The right brain (the non-dominant side) is creative, reflective and effortless. It wants to enjoy life and have fun. It provides you with new thoughts never before considered. When actie, athletes call themselves in the zone. They can do no wrong and perform superbly and effortlessly. Michel Jordan was in the zone most of the time.

When stimulated, the right creative brain is natural, looks for the unknown, and is stress free. Your thinking is no longer influenced by your past behavior and is always appropriate for the moment. Your view is panoramic and inspiring thoughts and new solutions appear out of nowhere. Uncomfortable feelings flow away like clouds. The more you let go, the more room you have for healthy thoughts.

You are either in one mode or the other, creative or analytical. Like a walkie-talkie, you either listen or talk. Thinking from memory is the processing analytical mode. When fresh new thoughts appear, you are in the creative mode. By letting go of the analytical mode, you allow the creative mode to fill the vacuum. You think a new way when you pay less attention to negative thoughts.

Emotions are your thoughts and are not caused by others. Old ideas are reframed by raising your level of understanding. you see life differently and become more at peace.Don't take your thoughts too seriously when you are down in the dumps. Look for areas of agreement not disagreement.

Feelings let you know you are working too fast. They tell you its time to slow down. When you catch yourself in a nasty negative mode, say (as former president Regan did during his debates with Carter), "there you go again". This puts you back on track. Being in a low mood is not the time to make important decisions.

Boredom is not a sign of lack of activity, but a sign of a busy mind. Why would anyone intentionally wnat to be bored? Quite your mind and you will place yourself into the present moment. You will welcome leisure activities into the rest of your life. A calm mind brings calm life.

Moods are your internal weather barometsr. When you mood has dropped, pick it up by being aware. You are responsible for your behavior.

When tired, you can't enjoy the present moment. Beware when you are frustrated during leisure time. You are probably comparing this moment with a past moment. When firghtened, you retreat to your old familiar habits and memories. You can't see the big picture when you are overwhelmed by problems.

Your feelings tell you which mode of thought you are in, right or left brain. Your feelings are eithercomfortable or uncomfortable. Being angry is a signal that your thinking is not serving you well. Like the red light that goes on in your car, check for problems.

When doing something else sound more interesting, you know your mind has drifted away from the present moment. That is when you reach out for Joe Camel, Al Cohol, or Dolly Madison.

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THE PRESENT MOMENT

Get in the present moment and you have the key of mental health. Now is the most important moment of your life. By having fewer experiences, you will feel life more rewarding. The past moment is history. The future moment will somday be a moment.

Thinking pulls you away from the present moment. Set priorities and do the best you can, one at a time. Put your problems in the file cabinet. Spend more time living at a slower pace. Slowing down lets you live and enjoy the moment.

You will find a new way of thinking about your life and how you feel about your past. The future will be filled with optimism. You are always living the present moment. The question is: "A you absent or present".

Pace yourself, and never do too much at a time. Set priorities, listen and reflect. You need very few activities when you are in the present moment.

The very thought of having nothing to do can cause you to panic. Your unconscious mind tires to fill every moment with some kind of activity. "Can you sit for two minutes without doing something?" Sitting quietly, you often get inspired and find solutions to important problems.

Each experience will be rewarding and satisfying because of the quality of thinking that you bring to it. You feel satisfied and life is just right.

Spend time listening, with no preset interpretations and no expectations. It's like listening to the symphony and not analyzing the melody or the instrumentation. Listening allows you to change your mind. It dose not cost anything and there is no downside.

There is wisdom in not knowing. Get into a problem, and you don't know what to do next. Just tap into your creative right brain and the answer will come. By bing comfortable in not knowing, you can relax and know you are doing the best thing possible. Accept the fact that you don't know what is best. A wise man never knows. Admit when you are stumped.

Let go and the answer will come in. You remember something when it is no longer important. Focusing your mind on the past robs you of bing receptive to new thought.

Put your problems, timetables, facts, and solutions in the file cabinet until you need the answers. Problems occur when your present moments are filled up with thoughts of the future. See what is happening now and enjoy this moment and answers will spontaneously become clear. Never relive the past. Having regrets and feelings of resentment causes us to repeat the same errors and relive the old pains.

How you handle stress depends on your thinking at the present moment. Know in your heart that you can feel calm and peace. Don't keep trying to control the uncontrollable. You set certain conditions that must be met before you are happy. You are always looking for happiness, but you already have it inside yourself. Society says: "You must have certain things to be happy." When you get them, you need more and more things. We all want things we can not have. Admit it would be nice to get the things we can not have. Admit it would be nice to get the things you want but it is not the ultimate answer. Don't get cought up in details. There is no happiness wouside of you. Look inside and you will find happiness.

When under stress, you either cope with it or try to change the conditions. Either way it's a battle. You always lose. The stress is in your thinking and perception of the situation. You try to manipulate and manage the situation. Whishing thins were different blow things out of proportion.

Thinking and feelings are the same. Thoughts have no power to hurt you. When you think about all the things you must do, pick one at a time. Nothing says you can't have a negative thought (like wanting a cigarette, or eating a big bowl of ice cream), but don't focus on this negative thought or desire. Instead of reacting to the negative thought, let go. Say to yourself "Ah, there is another negative thought!"

When you are in the present moment, others touch you. You become connected by love. you develop appreciation of everything you have. You allow intimacy to grow in your family. The busy mind prevents intimacy. Don't always rush off to be somewhere or to plan your next activity. Know that you have lost your cool when you feel like smoking, overeating, or over drinking. When you are anxious, irritable and troubled, take time for a vacation away from your analytical left brain.

Will you wait for your death notice before you change? Your happiness does not depend on houw your spouse is acting or how things are going at work. Get yourself into the creative right brain mode and then listen and speak from the heart.

Look back at your past as if you were watching the autobiography channel about your life as a child and a teenager. Make no judgments. See your pleasant moments, your sad moments, your failures and your successes.

What relationship did you have with your parents? Who hurt you? Were you lonely and unloved? Are you still carring that anger? Is that why you need Joe Camel, Al Cohol, or Dolly Madison to comfort you? These feeling were reality to that child but it is not you know. Heal that child in you by reframing those events. See them as the adult you are, and they will let go. The result is as powerful as seeing a psychiatrist for twenty years of treatment. It's not real. It's only a memory. Everything that happended to you is only a memory. You have a life to lead. Get into the present moment and see that you really are and how lovely life is.

What about the future? your 40lK, your early retirement! It's only a thought that hasn't happened. The present moment is the only real moment. It frees you from your past and your fears of the future. Keep your mind on the only real moment, NOW!

Can you accept this moment as it is? Don't anticipate how wonderful the next moment will be, or how painful the last moment was. This moment is unique. you have never had it before. And you will never have it again. Don't judge each moment as nice or bad. Accept each moment as it comes. Don't make a big deal of it.

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WHAT MUST YOU DO TO GET IN THE PRESENT MOMENT?

Take each moment as it comes and work with it. It is what is present now. Take a little time for stillness and non-doing. Stop what you are doing and watch, listen, and understand.

Stress is a part of life. You have no control over many things. Find meaning in them and work with them. Let go of your expectations. Everything important is in this moment. Make it worth living. Don't let the moment slip away unnoticed.

Don't force things to happen. Allow them to be as they are. Accept ideas that don't fit. See what is really important in your life. things happen because other things happen. Everything is connected to everything else in a certain way. Don't try to control them. Learn not to push. Be patient and continue listening. Don't create an opinion. Trust and honor your instincts. Sit at home tonight and do nothing. Go to sleep early. Don't look for anything. Don't confuse your thoughts with realtiy. You don't have to have all the answers. Answers come and go by themselves. Stay open to not knowing.

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THE WAKE UP EXERCISE

When you are upset and want a cigarette, a drink or junk food, your brain is in the left brain mode. It demand gratification. Such negative thoughts need not lead to action. Acknowledge the feeling and get yourself ou of that mode and get in the present moment by doing the following exercise.

• You will hum a tune briefly and then count to five slowly.
• While you do the above, you will tap on your hand and move your eyes around the wall. (Sounds bizarre? Read on!

When you hum you are stimulating the right brain (creative brain). When you count you are stimulating the left brains ( analyzing brain). It is as if you turned your windshield wipers on in the rain. Now your window is clear to see what is really happening.

To connect the two sides of the brain, you move your eyes around the room. This stimulated the optic nerve that sits between the two sides and makes them one unit.

To reverse the thought, you need amotor. Tapping on your hand over a strong acupuncture point (between the fourth and fifth finger) does the job.

The thought for gratification loses its intensity for 4-6 hours and you are now in control and in the present moment.

STRESS AND THE MIND

Stress affects the mind as well as the body. If you can control the mental and emotional state, you will help stay healthy or recover faster. It is important to treat the whole person including the emotional element. The severity and frequency of medical symptoms will diminish when the mind and body are in harmony. That is what acupuncture is all about. Acupuncture complements western medicine whose best traditions are ignored with the high tech era of modern health care.

In the 4th century BC, Hippocrates, the founder of western medicine, equated health to a harmonious balance of mind body and environment. Disease was due to disharmony of these elements. In Hippocrate’s eyes, nature is the healer of disease.

Our ancestors had the physical stress of fighting animals and nature. Modern life stresses are not physical but psychological. Chronic stress with constant pressure results in the body reacting as if it was acute stress for the first time. The heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension rise. Heart arrhythmias and hypertension result. Blood cholesterol rises, calcium leaves the bones, and the immune system is suppressed. Blood sugar rises for more energy, and anxiety or panic may occur. Chronic stress does not allow the body to recover. All these described reactions to stress are sympathetic in nature. These set of responses can be reversed by stimulation of the parasympathetic system through acupuncture which results in calmness and relaxation.

Stress and anger precipitate heart attacks. They trigger a deficiency of blood flow to the heart. In the compromised heart, spasm of the coronaries occur and vessels experience increased clotting. The heart rate becomes uncontrollable by the brain. Fibrillation and death may then occur.

In the past, it was assumed that stress was a universal force acting on a passive body, and everyone reacted the same way to stress. Stress is not something that happens to someone but how that person reacts to what is happening. Personality and character traits of depression, anxiety and hostility can raise the overall risk of disease.

There are some positive traits that can balance stress.

1. Viewing life’s demands as challenges rather than a threats.
2. Sense of being in control and having the right information and the ability to make decisions. In today’s jobs, people have no control. This can result in disease.
3. Having a meaningful commitment to family or community. Stress can be buffered if there is a strong social support of friends and family. Isolated people have higher death rates.

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Ancestral Medicine assumed that sickness occurred because people did not worship their ancestors properly. Altars were erected to honor one’s ancestors and pictures were drawn to revere the deceased family members. Ceremonies revolved around family cultures.

Spears were used to chase away evil spirits and to puncture the body to release those spirits. Around 1000 BC, spears were replaced with herbal wine. Po (Chinese character in the ancient writings of the Yellow Emperor) stated that one’s life style made one ill by not obeying the laws of Yin and Yang.

According to Chinese medicine there are five factors that control emotions, thinking, and actions:

SPIRIT UNITES EVERY ORGAN AND ELEMENT

Shen has two meaning: destructively it means the mind but it also means the spirit, including Hun, Po, Yi, Zhi and Shen. It is the spirit of the heart (fire). It encompasses all 5 human emotions and forms the mind. Abnormalities result in mental disturbances.

Hun is a swirling head without a body. This spirit leaves at death and becomes a ghost. On our death our spirit can be a good spirit or a demon. Hun is influenced by:

1. Sleep and dreaming, including day dreaming
2. Assist Shen (mind ) in mental activity
3. Maintain balance in emotional life
4. In relation with eyes
5. Relation to courage or cowardice
6. Planning and sense of direction

When one is dreaming, it is said that one’s Hun is wandering. When one never dreams, it is also considered abnormal because Hun is never wandering.

A wandering Hun during the day is considered absent minded, unsettled and obstructed. At night when one sleeps, the Hun is controlled by the liver and at daytime it is controlled by the eyes.

Hun provides the Shen and gives movement to Shen. It allows our spirit to have insight, introspection, inspiration, and outward relationships with other people.

A baby at birth is 100% Po. It then becomes Hun. At age seven, SHEN appears. A child has imagination, imaginary playmates, sees ghosts, and has an active Hun and extrasensory perception. It is felt that a child should not be put out of the world of Hun till he turns seven. If the child’s Hun is suppressed, he will later day dream, become depressed, and have no goals or desires. If the Hun is too strong, it pulls us into the universal mind (resulting in mental instability). The Hun deals with our relations with people. Release of serotonin is stimulating to the Hun. Tranquilizers as Prozac can stimulate serotonin artificially. Acupuncture can stimulate the body’s own release of serotonin. The Hun must relate to the environment. The Hun spirit never dies.

Shen identifies me as me. A weak Shen cannot pull the Hun back. There is a need for balance. As the Hun activates our creativity the Shen pulls the Hun to reality and mental insight through the physical eyes. A weak Shen results in inability to react to environmental life and results in indecision and no action. A weak Shen results in depression, indecision, inability to embrace life, to whine and cry over small inconveniences of life. There is rebellious emotion to culture, society, environment, and inability to accept who and how we are. Anger and love are exaggerated. Anger suppressed or exaggerated, results in liver imbalance.

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Po

Po resides in the lung. It is attached to the body and dies when the body dies. It is given by the mother at conception and a newborn is 100% Po. The father gives the Hun to the newborn three days after birth. This spirit is vertical in movements. When we die, Po enters into the earth under the area where we die.

Po is Yin in nature. Herbal yin and yang relate to Po. If Po is disturbed at conception, pregnancy, or during birth, it may result in newborn asthma, eczema or acne. Yang give Essence its form and turns Essence into a human being. At birth the baby has all Po sensations and feelings. Breathing results in pulsating of the corporeal soul. When we meditate we allow the Hun to come in. We become connected to our own individual life and our physical body. Po is connected to the Yang and Qi. It protects us from psychic influences.

The characteristics of Po, (the corporeal soul) are:

1. Very close to the physical body
2. Closely linked to Essence (Jing, DNA, Genetic makeup)
3. The first physiological process after birth
4. Sensations, feeling, hearing, sight, itching
5. Weeping, sadness, grief
6. Linked to breathing
7. Corporeal soul and individual life