As a former board member of the American Holistic Health Association, as well as a holistic practitioner, I am both intrigued and pleased with the current increase in scientific studies on the body/mind connection.  The research of biochemists such as Dr. Candace Pert is proving that there IS a connection between our thoughts, emotions, even the words we speak, and our physiology.  Her fascinating work is substantiating that our feelings can stimulate certain hormones and chemicals in our body that can enhance or suppress our immune system, that a negative attitude, for example, can literally lower our metabolism.  No wonder that diet never works when we’re depressed! 

I believe, therefore, that the first step to a more holistic lifestyle begins with being AWARE.  Just by being aware of our thoughts, our state of mind, our attitudes, we can make a subtle shift.  The body, an obedient and faithful servant, is listening.  I remember as a child growing up in Chicago, in the fall season, my family started stocking the medicine cabinets with cold pills and aspirin.  The flu season would soon be upon us.  Alas, self-fulfilling prophecy, our bodies obeyed, and sure enough, we would bout with a round or two of the flu.  The body was indeed providing what we asked for or expected.

Similarly, as we indulge in a marvelous hot fudge sundae, we often say, I’m going to gain ten pounds! and maybe we do.  The body is always listening.  Think about all the negative and often erroneous information we feed our bodies on a daily basis.  Review your belief systems for the truth you tell your body.  Think about the dialogue, the positive as well as the negative things you convey to yourself.  What is your belief about your health?  What do you tell yourself about diet?

We have the power to control our thoughts, adjust our attitudes, our outlook, and slowly, I believe the body is given the permission to heal.  We can gradually give the body freedom to mend and perform all the functions of health in perfection.  This, indeed is a continual process of our own self talk.  By affirmation, whether it is by our thoughts or our words, slowly the body will obey in health.

The second step in this journey of health is BELIEF.  Modern science is continually baffled by the phenomenon of the placebo effect.  When we believe that a certain procedure or medication will be effective, it will.  Increasing the efficacy by 50 to 60%, I believe our positive self talk to the body is working.

Decades ago, during the Vietnam War, ill prepared for the enormity of the conflict, medics found themselves too often tending to the severely wounded with no morphine.  Time after time, they would administer an IV saline solution, the only thing they had, telling the soldiers that it WAS morphine and that their pain would soon subside.  Within a short time, the pain was alleviated.  How?  Sugar water is hardly an analgesic.  Was it their belief that it was morphine that literally tricked the body into producing the chemicals, the endorphins, necessary to block pain?  Lab reports taken from these soldiers who had been given only saline, but with the understanding that it was morphine, revealed there was morphine in the blood. Where did it come from?  The body was listening indeed.

Wherever your healing journey takes you, be aware of your self talk.  Do you believe in the treatment, what is your belief system about each particular modality?  If you believe and have confidence, the body hears this and will respond in a positive way.  If you are fearful and apprehensive, the body likewise will react in a negative way. 

And the third step in the process is REMEMBERED WELLNESS.  As researched by Dr. Herbert Benson, Harvard University Medical School, when we visualize or think about our bodies in health, remember a time when we felt our bodies were the strongest and healthiest, certain hormones and chemicals are literally secreted to replicate that good health.  Time and again, in my private practice, I use this technique with my clients to promote healing.  As they imagine and remember themselves in perfect health, their bodies are literally obeying.

Right now, think about a time when you felt the best, when you felt you were the healthiest.  It could be last week, last year, or twenty years ago.  Close your eyes and literally see yourself as that strong, perfect you.  Feel the balance, the strength.  Now, throughout your day, continue to think about that healthy you.  The body IS listening. Research has proven that just by focusing and thinking about yourself in health enhances the immune system.  By doing a simple saliva test, scientists are proving that the immunoglobulin A increases.  Indeed, proving a powerful body/mind connection.

Your journey to a more holistic lifestyle begins with being AWARE.  Your very thoughts and attitudes can greatly effect your health, positively or negatively; it’s your choice.  Then add BELIEF, the strong commitment that what you are doing is in the best interest of your health and wellbeing.  And, lastly, focus on the healthy you, the REMEMBERED WELLNESS of when you felt the strongest and healthiest.  Your body is a faithful obedient servant that will respond. 

Simple tools to begin your journey.

Namaste,

Patti Leviton

October 3, 2010

Synergy Seminars

www.synergyseminars.com

In my post awhile back entitled Show up and Pay Attention, I discussed the Sufi’s four levels of consciousness.

Show Up

Pay Attention

Tell your Truth

And Don’t be Attached to the Outcome

In today’s world, these words of wisdom are even more profound and insightful than when they were first written some two centuries ago.

With all the craziness in the universe right now, with the exaggerations and polarities, we need to truly SHOW UP. To be in each moment, in the present. Not go back to the past, which may be filled with anger, sadness or regret. Not to look to the future which may contain anxiety and fear. But, in the present, the NOW. Eckhart Tolle does an exquisite job of discussing this in his book The Power of Now.

In Neurolinguistics, it is said that when a person is thinking about the past, they tend to shift their eyes up and look to the left. While thinking about the future, eyes go up and to the right. But, with eyes forward, the person is more able to be present and in the moment. So, to be in the NOW is indeed looking straight ahead. As modern research is proving, the place in the brain that is functioning in the here and now, really has no emotion. It’s that place of just taking in information. So, SHOW UP is about gathering facts, without judgment, and just being present.

Then, as we PAY ATTENTION, we begin to see details and process, again from this place of non-judgment, to see the world without the morphic resonance or collective unconscious of the world. To see things as they truly are, not clouded by prejudice or according to the preconceived notions of what it should be or could be.

Then, the TELLING YOUR TRUTH becomes much easier, because it’s about our authenticity, our truth according to us. As we separate from the situation according to how the world wants us to perceive it or believe it, we can truly speak according to how it resonates with us.

Now, the hard part. DON’T BE ATTACHED TO THE OUTCOME. Hey, we showed up, we paid attention and we told our truth. Of course, we should be attached to the outcome. Right? However, as I mentioned in the previous blog page, to the contrary, if we show up and pay attention and truly speak our truth, there’s no need to be attached to the outcome. Whatever happens is fine, because it happened. Believe in the process of the first three steps and then let go of any outcome. Perhaps the universe has bigger and better plans. Perhaps the outcome can give us lessons to change, or maybe not change.

By not being attached to the outcome, we don’t define ourselves by that outcome. If, for dinner, I make a quiche that turns out terrible, am I a terrible person? No. Not being attached to the outcome makes me conscious of the preparation of the quiche, and if it turns out poorly, that doesn’t define me, but gives me information of what I did wrong or what needs to be changed in making it again.

In a similar fashion, DON’T BE ATTACHED TO THE OUTCOME applies to our past, our history. Now, more than ever before in our history, we have come to carry our past, the outcome of our lives, as an attachment, defining us, defining who we are.  Hi, I’m a rape victim or Hi, I’m an alcoholic. We attach to all the traumas from our past, carrying with us each day, each moment, the pain of all the things that have happened to us.

Years ago I was proud of the fact that I could say I’m a cancer survivor. Indeed, I am blessed that I’m still here today to even make the comment, however, I’ve come to realize that this statement really re-enforces the attachment to that journey. It defines who I am and continues to feed the emotions wrapped around the cancer, the pain, the fear, the anxiety, the desperation. As one of my favorite authors, Karol Truman, captured so well in the title of her book, Feelings Buried Alive Never Die.

We all have the traumas and pain from our past, that’s our history. But, staying attached keeps all those negative emotions alive within us. We carry them like a badge of honor, defining our very being. Then, when we’re face with a new experience, a new challenge, we not only react with the one trumpet of the moment, but a  symphony of all the past hurts join in. Often creating an exaggerated and deafening reaction to the present situation.  

I lost my parents in a car accident many years ago. After years of work, I have been able to let go of the attachment to the trauma. Of course, I can’t let go of the memory, it happened and nothing can change that. After almost forty years, I still miss them so. All of us have a history we can’t change. But I have let go of all the emotions and now, if I’m ever involved in a car accident, I know my emotions will be appropriate to the moment, without re-awakening the pain from my past.

Ok, so how do we let go of the past, let go of the attachment? The brain processes all our experiences in two different places. One place, the hippocampus, holds the actual event, the details of what happened and the other part, the amygdala, holds the reactions, the feelings, the emotions. Through imagery, we can literally unplug, if you will, from the emotions, the pain. The event must remain, but the emotions of the trauma can be released. A simple shift in changing the ATTACHED to CONNECT. We no longer need to attach to the outcome, but we can connect to the experience, it is part of our history and it has indeed brought us many lessons of personal growth and empowerment.

Imagine that sacred ritual of people standing in a circle. Arms outstretched to their sides. But rather than holding hands, which it truly a symbol of attaching, we need to re-define that to connecting. In many Native American cultures, this circle involves arms outstretched, left palm up, right palm down but not touching; connecting WITH, not attaching TO the other person.  

Right now, I invite you to think of an event from your past that you would consider a trauma or was very painful for you. Now close your eyes and see it as a symbol that represents that event. Got it? Now, see yourself standing in front of that symbol and you realize that there is a fine cord attaching you to that symbol. See it? Now, I invite you to see a tool right there on the ground that would be able to cut that cord, and I’ll give you some time to just sever the cord. The symbol must remain, it is part of your history, but the attachment to you is no longer necessary.

Since research is proving that the brain cannot distinguish between what’s real and what’s imagined, use your imagination to re-frame and shift from being defined and attached by our past, our traumas, to a place of personal empowerment and connect as just part of our history, our story; changing the words from ATTACH to CONNECT, a simple shift in consciousness. Similar to my theory of telling the body to RELEASE weight, rather than LOSE weight. Because, in the processing of the brain, everything is taken literally. Whatever we lose we will try to find. So release is letting go forever. Come on, admit it, how many times have you lost a few pounds and then gained them back? Indeed, the body is obeying and finding once again what it has lost.

Attach, in Latin, literally means TO BECOME PART OF. We become part of each event and it defines us.  I become my cancer. We become whatever happened to us.

Connect, on the other hands, connectere, its Latin meaning, to tie together, each remaining separate in and of itself.

Subtle difference, but profound. So rather than saying I’m a cancer survivor, I now say I happen to be a person who had cancer.  I no longer need to attach to the experience, but rather connect that it is part of my history.

Namaste,

Patti Leviton

September 21, 2010

Synergy Seminars

www.synergyseminars.com

Chuck and I were at a conference in Tucson this past week, and I didn’t check my blog. Home now, this morning, armed with my cup of coffee, I checked the site. WOW. I was blown away by all your comments about our articles. Indeed, that warms my heart. I’m sharing my observations about the world around me, and you validate that we are all experiencing the same thing. Like minded, fellow journey men, if you will, traveling and experiencing the same adventures. I’m sharing my world, according to me, and find there are many on the path. Thanks for all your complimentary comments, and I hope you will continue to enjoy our words.

For all of us, honor the synchronicities of the universe. I read years ago the quote by Allen Vaughn, “a coincidence is just a way for God to be anonymous.” Indeed, pay attention to all those coincidences in your life right now. Even the simple experience of starting to hum a special song and then turn on the radio and they’re playing that tune. Perhaps that’s the universe saying “we honor you, we’re paying attention”. Don’t try to figure out the logical reason why, when you were thinking about someone and then, out of the blue, they just called you. Just smile and say “thank you”. Pay attention to all those sacred synchronicities. It is indeed a validation that you’re on the right track.

I take comfort in these synchronicities. It’s as if I know there is a greater power out there taking care of me. From the simple coincidences of going to the market to buy toothpaste and discovering your favorite brand is on sale, to, quite by accident, meeting someone who will become your best friend or life partner. Indeed, there are no accidents. So, from  these small and sometimes silly coincidences as validation, build your trust that all the traumas of life will bring the right person, the right information, the right whatever your way to give you the power to handle anything.

I was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor some twenty-five years ago. I look back and see all the wonderful synchronicities that opened the doors for my healing. Quite by chance it was during that time I met my husband. A therapist, he was teaching and using guided imagery with his clients, and we began using this modality as a tool, first to reduce the side effects from the chemotherapy and then, to delve deeply into the issues of what were the lessons I was supposed to learn from this journey of cancer. Through imagery, I learned how to get out of my own way, if you will, and give my body permission to heal. And so it was. From a diagnosis of six months to live to now, my life path of sharing and teaching the art and science of guided imagery.

So, to you, my bloggers, I am interested to know how you found our site.  There are no accidents. And also, if you’re interested in learning more about imagery, visit our website at www.synergyseminars.com. Namaste,

Patti Leviton

Synergy Seminars

www.synergyseminars.com

August 28, 2010