Spiritual Progress

"Spiritual progress is like detoxification. Things have to come up in order to be released. Once we've asked to be healed our unhealed places are forced to the surface. Detoxifying allows our system to perform more optimally creating an environment for good health. As we've explored, toxins from our earth, air, water, and food can adversely effect our health and the health of our planet. Let's take responsibility to cleanse ourselves and the planet by making mindful and sustainable choices." Sean Corn Yoga Teacher and Spiritual Activist

What makes a person wake up?

My question is always, "what makes a person wake up?" Living unconsciously can lead to more damage and destruction. Why live like that and put your loved ones through it.  Some people say it's the degree of pain and suffering that keeps a person in denial. Maybe they are too afraid and scared to face it and give up their unhealthy coping mechanisms.  Some say the pain is exactly  what makes a person motivate to heal themselves and live a consciously aware life.

  I personally find it fascinating that people can live in an unconscious state of mind never aware of their unconscious drives or motives. What's the price they  pay for living here? Usually, this leads to more destructive behavior patterns and damage to their lives and the lives of loved ones. Sometimes it's too late and they wake up after devastation has occurred. Or, they may wake up after they have dug a nice big fat hole for themselves, making it more difficult to help themselves.  Living in awareness, yes, maybe challenging and scary however,  at least you know what the truth of the matter is and can help yourself and the circumstances you maybe in.

 It could definitely be life transforming. Which, would be healthier for you, your children, and loved ones. Or, you could continue the cycle of unawareness and ignorance  pretending things are OK when they are NOT. All you're doing is creating the pattern of destruction in your life and watching how this effects the lives of your loved ones. What you don't resolve and heal from in your life does directly affect others. I know what I write may not be either understood or popular. I don't care what you think of it. What I care about is that you do the work to live in your truth and heal from your pain so you effect others more positively. That will directly affect my life and make my job a lot easier.. I see many people who wake up after 6 months, 2 years, 5 years 10 years. It's never too late and at least they are working on it. 

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10 Steps in the Healing Process

10 Steps I use in My Practice to Help Assist Patients in Healing their Mind, Body, and Spirit.

1. Living in the Truth

2. Trust and have Faith in the process

3. Learn Mindfulness Techniques

4. Positive Thinking Strategies/ Affirmations

5. Identify what your needs, wants, and desires are

6. Learn how to communicate your thoughts and feelings effectively to significant others

7.Learn how to use Meditation Techniques and Prayer for deeper healing

8.Eating whole foods and maintaining a balanced diet

9. Physical exercise

10. Yoga (Learn to do gentle yoga exercises not just for physical health but to enhance a feeling of peace, calm, joy, and happiness in the mind)

So much more detail goes into each step which I will not be discussing here. This is a good framework to start from when evaluating your level of health.  Remember that each person is different and some steps will be more challenging for some than others.
~Namaste~

Living in the truth: How our Body, Mind, and Spirit are effected

Living in the truth is a very hard thing to do. Being truthful with yourself and others can be extremely complicated and scary at times. Every cell in our bodies store memories from our past.  These can be good memories and bad ones. When someone is not able to remember a memory or event because it was to traumatizing for them, the cells in our bodies store the information so when the person is in a less stressful time in their life, the information will come back to them in hopes of healing from it. Our bodies are designed to heal itself not just physically, but emotionally too. The truth can be very hard and can hurt, but it is the only thing that can set us free from carrying the burden in our conscience mind. I believe that we have debts to pay from past wrong doing not just from this life but from previous lives lived. Or you could call them lessons. If these lessons are not learned and the debts have not been paid you will continue to work this out in life times to come.  The truth is the only way to free yourself and others from this pain. Hopefully, we have strong enough loved ones in our lives to work through it with us. Being a healthy minded person does NOT mean being perfect. We are all imperfect, full of flaws, and disappointing. The one thing we can do is forgive one another and ourselves. This is so important if we want to lead healthy lives. I believe being healthy is about being forgiving and living in the truth. Forgiveness and living in the truth is paramount because it helps us constantly re evaluate our lives so we can create the necessary changes to stay on a healthy path.
~Namaste~
The divine light in me bows to the divine light in you..
Meaning, I bow to you ~Namaste~

Living in the truth: How our Body, Mind, and Spirit are Affected.

Living in the truth is a very hard thing to do. Being truthful to yourself and others can be extremely complicated and scary at times. Every cell in our bodies store memories from our past.  These can be good memories and bad ones. When someone is not able to remember a memory or event because it was to traumatizing for them, the cells in our bodies store the information so when the person is in a less stressful time in their life, the information will come back to them in hopes of healing from it. Our bodies are designed to heal itself not just physically, but emotionally too. The truth can be very hard and can hurt, but it is the only thing that can set us free from carrying the burden in our conscience mind. I believe that we have debts to pay from past wrong doing not just from this life, but from previous lives lived. Or, you could call them lessons. If these lessons are not learned and the debts have not been payed you will continue to work this out in life times to come.  The truth is the only way to free yourself and others from this pain. Hopefully, we have strong enough loved ones in our lives to work through it with us. Being a healthy minded person does NOT mean being perfect. We are all imperfect, full of flaws, and disappointing. The one thing we can do is forgive one another and ourselves. This is so important if we want to lead healthy lives. I believe being healthy is about being forgiving and living in the truth. Forgiveness and living in the truth is paramount because it helps us constantly re evaluate our lives so we can create the necessary changes to stay on healthy path.
~Namaste~
Dr. Melissa Samartano, Phd, LMHC, RYT

The divine light in me bows to the divine light in you..
Meaning, I bow to you ~Namaste~

An Alternative Path to Healing

Native Remedies the Natural Choice: Herbal and  Homeopathic Remedies
nativeremedies.com

If you are looking for an alternative way to heal your mind, body and spirit this is a great website to take a look at.  I always recommend my Ct's seek a Homeopathic Practitioner first however, this is a good place to start too.  One of my Ct's bringing his daughter in now for counseling came in four years ago and still takes the Pure Calm before he goes off to work.  It continues to be an effective way to help reduce symptoms of anxiety without side effects. They are FDA approved and do have a 1-800 number to help you with any questions or concerns you may have.

http://www.nativeremedies.com/?ysmchn=GGL&ysmcpn=Google+Main&ysmgrp=Native+Remedies+Brand&y

Remember that people who have ADHD can be brilliant/ very creative

ADHD – unleashing brilliance in the workplace

Submitted by Deb Gilbertson on April 19, 2007 - 5:39am. ADHD | Business | Careers | Mind

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Look for creativity and drive and you are likely to find somebody in the ADHD spectrum. Canadian research found that ADHD adults are nearly four times as likely to be entrepreneurs as their non-ADHD counterparts. But British and American research also shows that their jails are full of people in the ADHD spectrum.
Our view is that ADHD is a set of exceptional qualities that can give organisations a competitive edge – but with challenges. Many great people such as Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Winston Churchill, Leonardo de Vinci, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, John Lennon, and Agatha Christie all had classic ADHD characteristics. This article considers how to unleash the talent in ADHD colleagues.
ADHD stands for ‘Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ and is a label for people with chronic inattention, impulsivity, and/or hyperactivity. Recent research is focused on a gene that appears to be a major cause of ADHD.
The gene is common occurring in about 20% of some new world countries. It shows up as ADHD behaviours in about 5-7% of children of whom over half continue to have ADHD characteristics as adults.
The gene has a fascinating effect. It increases the brain’s activity in the modes used for creativity, meditating, hypnosis, relaxing, daydreaming and lucid dreaming. But it also reduces the brain state used for being awake, alert and processing information - especially when faced with tasks! So people in the ADHD spectrum use their creativity and intuition to tackle tasks rather than being focused and analytical.
This is the secret to their brilliance, as well as the cause of their inability to fit into classrooms and orderly workplaces.
Bizarrely too much slow wave activity can cause hyperactivity because the brain seeks external stimulation to compensate for the lack of internal stimuli. This is why some ADHD people are inattentive and dreamy, others hyperactive, and others are both.
It also points to why adrenaline can take over creating fight or flight behaviour. The frontal lobes of the brain simply don’t make the executive judgments to put the adrenaline away.
Discussions on ADHD usually highlight the problems but there are just as many bounties. The same characteristic can be viewed as a strength or a challenge like two sides of the same coin:
ADHD Strength - ADHD Challenge
Highly energetic - Hyperactive
Action oriented - Doesn’t stop to think
Entrepreneurial - Unmanageable
Intrinsically motivated - Hard for others to motivate
Passionate - Intense
Self directed learner - Won’t follow rules
Creative - Unfocussed
Imaginative - Forgetful
Problem solver - Impatient with routines
Great in a crisis - Creates crises
Strong initiative - Not a team player
Work under pressure - Chronic lateness
Adventurous - Dangerous
Humorous - Over the top
Characterful - Mood swings
Courageous - Ignore consequences
Hyperfocused if interested - Distractable if not interested
Uninhibited - Uninhibited
Optimistic - Ignores issues
Loves new ideas - Easily bored
Copes with uncertainty - Disorganised
Insightful - Discounts others views
There are some new labels emerging that acknowledge the strengths and challenges of ADHD. ‘Latent Entrepreneur Personality Type’ reflects that 50% of entrepreneurs are in the ADHD spectrum. The term also suggests that ADHD is an end to a spectrum like being tall or short. It is neither a deficit nor a disorder.
‘Hunter Genes’ suggests the gene may have been dominant when we were hunter gatherers. Attention deficit can be viewed as noticing everything. Rather than filtering out everything but the task at hand, the hunter is aware of all of the possible food sources and threats around. But when the hunter sees the prey, he becomes intensely single focused and energised. In ADHD people this shows up in their intent focus on things that interest them, a characteristic that drives entrepreneurs on when others would have given up.
‘DaVincis’ is an upbeat label borrowed from a man who almost certainly would have scored highly on the tests for ADHD. For the remainder of this article I will refer to DaVincis to describe people in the ADHD spectrum.
For many DaVincis, life is a genuinely dangerous experience. Being constantly in trouble with parents, teachers, employers and colleagues they often lose self esteem, abuse alcohol and drugs, are dishonest and become antisocial. Constant danger causes the body to produce 40% less of the chemical that puts adrenaline away, which may show as anxiety, aggression, stress, fear or hyperactivity.
DaVincis are also the most likely people to inspire, excel and drive change.
Managers and colleagues can make all the difference. But it takes some real skills to unleash the potential. And it takes real heart to enjoy DaVincis for who they are, rather than dwell on who they are not.
DaVincis are motivated by the big picture. We know organisations do best with a compelling vision that fosters shared values and intrinsic motivation. This is especially important to DaVincis. But often it means they are hard to motivate with the usual array of offerings like job security, pay, benefits and status.
Except in sales. DaVincis make excellent sales reps, uninhibited in their approach and bouncing back from setbacks. They thrive on commission as it provides instant feedback on their performance. It is not the money so much as the instant measure of success that they crave. Sales can feed their thrill seeking nature, like the pleasure of the chase.
Many DaVincis lack self esteem, despite their apparent over-confidence. This is a product of being constantly in trouble or not fitting in. It takes so little effort but makes so much difference to notice and reflect their abundant qualities.
Positive psychology is a rapidly expanding new field which has demonstrated that people enhance their strengths and weaknesses most effectively when they use their signature strengths most often, in the most ways, with the most affirming feedback.
DaVincis are passionate when intrinsically motivated and absent when not motivated. So it is imperative to match the job to their passions. This is easier said than done, because passions can emerge with involvement.
Parenthood is probably the best example. We are so much more passionate about our own children than the nice kid down the road. As parents we will throw our heart and soul into raising our children for reasons that are not entirely logical. As nannies we will just do a reasonable day’s work.
DaVincis are passionate parents of their own projects, but disinterested nannies of other people’s projects. The key is to encourage ownership through providing authority, responsibility and accountability.
When good ideas bubble up through the organisation, ideally the creative spark is encouraged to explore the idea and progress it further, calling on help and resources when needed. Such processes ideally suit DaVincis rather than passing ideas to the person with the right skills and job description.
DaVincis will take initiative whether you want them to or not. It can be threatening to managers who feel they should be in control, and to organisations that want to be certain of everything they do. Actually healthy organisations take the rollercoaster ride, fostering initiative and coping with the bounties and the risks.
Both schools and organisations have become overly managed hoping they can guarantee success with clearly defined performance standards. While laudable the effect is to sanitise education and workplaces to know with measured certainty that the right output has been achieved.
But it is very hard to measure higher order learning or outputs that draw on insight, judgment, initiative, leadership, interpersonal skills, creativity and complex problem solving. Many of these are the qualities most abundant in DaVincis, and most at risk from over-measurement and over-control.
The key is to find the ‘big, hairy, scary measure’ that most defines the vision of the organisation, add a few supporting measures, and to dump the rest.
The visionary measures unleash the capacity of staff to find creative ways to solve the big challenges. DaVincis have to work in this kind of environment, while other staff benefit from it.
DaVincis are a challenge to manage. But any organisation that manages its DaVincis well, will also be managing its entire organisation well. The organisation will be a leader in innovation, problem solving and aspiring to its greatest potential.
For more ideas on ADHD DaVincis please see archives in www.windeaters.co.nz