Lawsagna

Meditate NYC : Free Meditation Instruction at Open Houses Throughout NYC, November 9 – 15

Meditate NYC begins on Sunday, November 8 with an afternoon of meditation instruction by Buddhist teachers from a great variety of traditions. The event is free and open to all.  Meditate NYC's kick-off will be followed by a full week of free meditation instruction, November 9 – 15.  People from all faiths, backgrounds, and experience are welcome at Open Houses hosted by meditation groups and dharma centers throughout the NYC area.

Ongoing scientific research confirms meditation's positive effects on body and mind. Meditate NYC offers an accessible way to find out what various approaches to meditation involve and what the benefits are.  For more information, visit http://meditatenyc.org

The stressful way to happiness

If learning a new skill is stressful for you, don't despair.  According to a new study, people who work hard at improving their competence at something may feel stressed in the moment, but experience greater happiness on a daily basis and longer term. 

The study examined whether people feel happier when they fulfill certain psychological needs, specifically, the need to be competent, to feel connected to others, and to be autonomous or self-directed.  ScienceDaily reports in the article "No Pain, No Gain: Mastering A Skill Makes Us Stressed In The Moment, Happy Long Term":

Contrary to previous research, the study found that people who engage in behaviors that increase competency, for example at work, school or the gym, experience decreased happiness in the moment, lower levels of enjoyment and higher levels of momentary stress. Despite the negative effects felt on an hourly basis, participants reported that these same activities made them feel happy and satisfied when they looked back on their day as a whole. This surprising find suggests that in the process of becoming proficient at something, individuals may need to endure temporary stress to reap the happiness benefits associated with increased competency.

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While behaviors that increase competency were associated with decreased happiness in the moment, people who spent time on activities that met the need for autonomy or feeling connected to others experienced increased happiness both [on] an hourly and daily basis. The greatest increase in momentary happiness was experienced by participants who engaged in something that met their need for autonomy -- any behavior that a person feels they have chosen, rather than ought to do, and that helps them further their interests and goals.

According to Ryan Howell, assistant professor of psychology at San Francisco State University, these findings may have implications for workplace stress management: 

Our results suggest that you can decrease the momentary stress associated with improving your skill or ability by ensuring you are also meeting the need for autonomy and connectedness, for example performing the activity alongside other people or making sure it is something you have chosen to do and is true to who you are.

The best smell for your brain: the science of olfaction and emotion

What comes to mind if I ask you to imagine that you are at the following places: 

• a bakery,
• a candle store,
• a hospital,
• a rose garden,
• a perfume counter? 

One of your associations is likely to be the sensation of smell because all of the places above have strong aromas.  Does it feel like you can almost smell them?  Those aromas can quickly change your moods and emotions, and evoke memories.  Why do odors play such a significant part in our emotional regulation?

The sense of smell is the only one of the five senses directly linked to the limbic system – the center of emotions in the brain.  According to "Essential Oils Desk Reference," when we inhale a fragrance, the odor molecules travel up the nose where they are trapped by olfactory membranes, protected by the lining inside the nose.  Each odor molecule fits into specific receptor cell sites. Each one of these hundreds of millions of nerve cells is replaced every 28 days.  When this lining of nerve cells is stimulated by the odor molecules, it triggers electrical impulses to the olfactory bulb in the brain.  The olfactory bulb than transmits the impulses to the gustatory center, responsible for our perception of taste, the amygdala, where emotional memories are stored, and other parts of the limbic system of the brain. 

Alan Hirsch, M.D., F.A.C.P., the founder and neurological director of The Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, explains this quick connection between odors and emotions in his interview for the medical journal Alternative & Complementary Therapies [PDF]:

What makes the sense of smell unique among the senses is that the brain reacts positively or negatively to an odor before identifying the source of the odor.  That is, a person encounters a pleasing smell and his or her reaction is one of pleasure.  Then, a second later, the person figures out that he or she had smelled lilacs.  Visually, one sees a picture of a tree or a cow and first identifies the subject, and then determines whether or not he or she likes the picture.  This is the opposite of the sense of smell; with smell emotional reaction comes first.

As we all know, smells can also transport us into the past.  In one of his studies, Dr. Hirsch discovered the number-one odor to evoke childhood memories.  Can you guess what it is?

We looked at 989 people from 45 states and 39 countries, and found that the number-one odor that made people nostalgic for childhood was baked goods.  After that, it depended on when and where they grew up.  If they grew up on the East Coast of the United States, the smell of flowers made people nostalgic for childhood.  In the South, it was the smell of fresh air; in the Midwest, the smell of farm animals; and in the West it was the smell of meat cooking or meat barbecuing.

It turns out that environmental smells affect our behavior.  In the same interview, Dr. Hirsch reports that people drive more aggressively on days when there is bad smell of air pollution, causing an increase in motor-vehicle accidents.  Bad environmental odors tend to promote aggression, impede learning, and encourage school kids to misbehave.

I don't know about you, but I am about to diffuse some peppermint oil to improve my environment.  It helps with task performance by increasing concentration, enhances athletic performance [PDF], and curbs appetite [PDF].  Smells good to me!

Related Posts:
Do you smell success?
Want to be a better problem-solver in your dreams?
Orientation Series: 21 Steps to Becoming a Better Learner: Memorizing

To learn more about essential oils:  http://www.smartessentialoils.com

Mind illusions and portion control

"Habits are basic and foundational aspects of our mental lives.  Without habit, there is no calculation, no speech, no thought, no recognition, no game playing.  Only a creature with habits like ours could have anything like a mind like ours.  But habits, at least many of them, are situational or environmental.  A habit is like a trail laid down by our own repetitive action.  A habit is not merely a disposition to act or an automatic or unthinking tendency; it is a responsiveness to the environment in which we find ourselves.  If the trail is paved over or if familiar landmarks are removed, our habits can frequently be extinguished."

~ Alva Noë, "Out of Our Heads: Why You Are Not Your Brain, and Other Lessons from the Biology of Consciousness"

How much of what you do is in response to things that are happening around you, your immediate environment?  A couple of days ago, I was putting together a collage of colorful images of fruits, vegetables, and herbs for my Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover coaching class.  One of the images was a picture of mint plants forming a bright green carpet.  Later, when I went to get some tea for myself, guess what kind of tea I chose…  That's right, I chose mint tea.   So, how does our environment influence our daily actions and decisions? 

Studies on habit formation reveal that as much as 45 percent of what we do every day is habitual, that is, we act almost without thinking usually because of subtle cues in our environment, such as "a specific location or time of day, a certain series of actions, particular moods, or the company of specific people."  For example, you may experience the urge to check your e-mail if you feel stuck in your current task.  Similarly, you may want to grab a cookie if you feel upset or bored.

On occasion, those cues in our environment can trick our minds into behaving in a way that is inconsistent with our goals and we may not even realize it.  Here are a few examples of mind illusions related to the issue of portion control.

You may have heard that it is helpful to use smaller plates if you want to eat less.  The following experiment illustrates this point.  If you cut a sandwich into two same-size portions and you put one half of the sandwich on a small plate and the other half on a large plate, you will create an optical illusion.  People will perceive the half-sandwich on the small plate as bigger than the half-sandwich on the large plate.  Moreover, if they eat the half-sandwich on the small plate, they will feel fuller compared to eating the sandwich on the large plate.  Thus, physical objects around you can affect your appetite. 

The second example explains why all-you-can-eat buffets cause people to eat more.  Researchers investigated how variety influenced consumers' quantity perceptions. "Does a bowl with both red and blue candies seem to have more or less than a bowl with only one color candy?" they asked.  It turns out that we tend to underestimate portions if there is greater variety.  People poured larger portions when there was variety of food without realizing it.

You don't even need to go to a magic show to experience the power of mind illusions in your daily life.  

What triggers hide in your immediate environment?  How can you eliminate or minimize those that sabotage your goals?

Music as medication

Music can entertain, shift our mood, relieve stress, promote cognitive development, make us better at recognizing emotion in sound, and now scientists search for evidence that music can heal, according to The New York Times article  "Composing Concertos in the Key of Rx" by Matthew Gurewitsch:

But could music ever take its place as medicine?

One expert who is betting that it will is Vera Brandes, the director of the research program in music and medicine at the Paracelsus Private Medical University in Salzburg, Austria. “I am the first musical pharmacologist,” Ms. Brandes said last fall in Vienna. In that capacity she is developing medication in the form of music, dispensed as a prescription. To market the product line, she helped found Sanoson (sanoson.at), a company that also designs custom music systems for medical facilities.
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In a pilot study, which in 2008 received a citation at the annual scientific meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Baltimore, Ms. Brandes and international associates investigated the effects of music on patients suffering from hypertension for which no organic cause can be found.

“Conventionally hypertensive patients are treated with beta blockers, which suppress their symptoms,” Ms. Brandes said. “Music can address the psychosomatic root causes.”

According to her study, listening to a specially designed music program for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, for four weeks, patients experienced clinically significant improvements in heart-rate variability, a major indicator of autonomous nervous function. In her next study Ms. Brandes will subject these findings to a full-fledged clinical trial.

Click here to read the full article.

"What Is Love?"

Sally Kempton wrote a beautiful piece titled  "What Is Love?" for Yoga Journal.  Here's an excerpt on the practice of love:

The practice of love—actions and attitudes that create an atmosphere of kindness, acceptance, and unity in ourselves and in those around us—is not only the basis of spiritual life, it is also the basis of civilization. We can't always feel gratitude, but we can remember to say thank you. We can't always like other people, but we can try to pay attention when they talk to us and help them out when they're in trouble. We may not feel good about ourselves all the time, but we can practice treating ourselves gently, slowing down and breathing when we want to rush, or talking back to our inner voices of self-criticism and judgment. When it comes to daily life, feeling love may actually be less important than acting loving.

... How can I, in spite of what I may be feeling at a particular moment, offer my best to myself and other people?

Sally Kempton offers several practices to reconnect to the source of love:

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine you are sitting in the center of a vast flow of love. Imagine that love is flowing toward you like water or passing into you like a gentle wind. Whether you actually feel this love or not, keep imagining that it is flowing toward you and into you.

Another way to receive love is to imagine that just outside the window of your room sits a compassionate and loving being, someone wise and incredibly forgiving. This person is watching you through the window; her glance protects you and surrounds you with sweetness.

Allow yourself to receive the love that is flowing toward you from this being. If thoughts come up to block it—like "I don't deserve this" or "This is just an exercise; it's not real"—notice them and let them go as you might in meditation, saying, "Thinking," and then breathing the thought out. Your only task is to receive.

When you open your eyes, look around you with the thought that the love you have been contemplating is still flowing toward you from whatever you see and from the air itself.

Click here to read the full article.

Watch your reactions: a Zen parable

I came across this Zen parable in the Yoga Journal article "Living on the Edge" by Ezra Bayda: 

On the first day of a four-day meditation retreat, a student went in to see the Zen master with whom he'd been studying for many years. Sitting at the teacher's feet, he asked, "Can you tell me how I'm doing in my practice?" The Zen master thought for a minute, then said, "Open your mouth." The student opened his mouth, and the teacher peered in and said, "OK, now bend your head down." The student bent his head down, and the Zen master looked into his hair, then said, "OK, now open your eyes really wide." The student opened his eyes, and the Zen master glared into them and said, "You're doing fine." Then he rang his bell.

Because the teacher rang his bell, the student had to leave. The next day, he returned, quite perplexed by what had happened the day before. "I asked you how I was doing in my practice yesterday," he said, "and you made me open my mouth, bend my head, and open my eyes. What did all that have to do with my practice?" The Zen master bowed his head in thought. Then he said, "You know, you're not really doing very well in your practice, and the truth is, I am not sure you are ever going to make it." Again he rang his bell.

The student walked out. You can imagine how confused and angry he felt. The next day he went back, still fuming, and said, "What do you mean, I'm not going to make it in practice? Do you know that I sit in meditation for an hour every day? Sometimes I sit twice a day. I come to every retreat. I have really deep experiences. What do you mean I'm not going to make it?" The master just sat there, apparently thinking. Then he said, "Well, maybe I made a mistake. Perhaps you're doing pretty well after all." And again he rang his bell.

On the last day of the retreat, the student went back to see his teacher, utterly exhausted. He felt distraught and confused, but he was no longer fighting it. He said to the master, "I just wanted to know how I was doing in my practice." This time, the teacher looked at him and with no hesitation, in a very kind voice, said, "If you really want to know how you're doing in your practice, just look at all of your reactions over the last few days. Just look at your life."

The wisdom of this Zen parable seems to apply to so many life questions:
How am I doing in my business?  How am I doing in my relationships?  How am I doing as a parent?  Our reactions are often the first indicators of how things really are. 

Your Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover teleclass tonight

Our Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover team hears it all the time here --  

"Things are crazy."  

"I am so insecure I keep eating."  

Tonight, our three coaches are offering a freebie call  on new technologies of human performance enhancement to help you connect with your Best body and your Best future.

Click HERE to learn more.

The practice of joy and happiness

Do you notice the stories you are telling yourself?  How do they make you feel and act?  Do they  leave you inspired, joyful, clear, and confident?  Or do they generate negativity, doubt, or resistance?  Many of us take whatever our mind conjures up as the truth and don't challenge our thinking even when it is not working for us.  What would you need to tell yourself to feel joy and happiness? 

In the Yoga Journal article "Joy Story," Sally Kempton is describing a practice of happiness that can help us cultivate the inner states of joy and content that are often missing in our busy, hectic lives.   

Close your eyes and remember a time when you felt really happy. Then take yourself into that moment. See if you can get a feeling-sense of yourself in the situation. Perhaps you'll do this visually—by remembering where you were, what you wore, who was present. Perhaps you'll do it by invoking the feeling, asking yourself, "What did that happiness feel like?" and then waiting until the feeling-sense begins to make itself present in your body. Stick with it until you actually feel the happiness—even if only a little.

Then remove the memory of the scene or situation and just feel the feeling. Find the place in your body where the feeling is centered, then let it expand until it fills you. If you're very visual, it might help if you give the feeling a color—a warm one, like gold or pink. Or you might work with the breath, breathing into the feeling and letting it expand on the exhalation.

Sit with this feeling of happiness. See if you can hold it. See if, for this moment, you can let the happiness become your primary feeling. This is a glimpse, however small, of your true reality.

If you want to learn about the four meanings of happiness, read the rest of  "Joy Story."

"How the city hurts your brain" by Jonah Lehrer

Jonah Lehrer, the author of "How We Decide," discusses the perils and benefits of city life as they relate to the brain in his article "How the city hurts your brain ...And what you can do about it" in The Boston Globe:

"Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it's long been recognized that city life is exhausting -- that's why Picasso left Paris -- this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so."

But the urban environment has its positive sides too, including creativity and innovation:

"Recent research by scientists at the Santa Fe Institute used a set of complex mathematical algorithms to demonstrate that the very same urban features that trigger lapses in attention and memory -- the crowded streets, the crushing density of people -- also correlate with measures of innovation, as strangers interact with one another in unpredictable ways. It is the 'concentration of social interactions' that is largely responsible for urban creativity, according to the scientists."

One of the ways to mitigate the negative effects of city living is to spend more time in natural settings that can restore and replenish our mental energy.  Click here to read the full article.

And check out the Urban Mindfulnes blog for tips on how to stay mindful in the city.

5 Tips to Help Busy Professional Manage Stress and Be More Productive

This post was contributed by Kelly Kilpatrick, who writes on the subject of massage careers.  She invites your feedback at kellykilpatrick24 at gmail dot com.

Our world is a busy one to say the least.  This is why we must find ways to manage our stress and time in order to be more effective and productive individuals.  It can seem like a daunting task to make changes that will impact our lives in a profound way that will ultimately make things better, but rest assured that it is not as difficult as it sounds.  What follows is a brief list of ways to help manage stress on a daily level and become a more productive individual in the process.

Find a Balance Between Work and Personal Life

This may sound difficult, because many of us see ourselves as full-time representatives of our professions.  Though this may be partly true, it is important not to let work bleed into personal time, or vice-versa.  Allowing work to take over all of your time will only serve to alienate others from you, which will only hurt more later on down the road.  Balance your life so that you know you are doing your best on all fronts.

Practice Deep Breathing

When things feel like they are getting out of control, practice deep breathing.  Inhale slowly and deliberately through your nose, then try and exhale for twice as long through your mouth.  Doing this ten times when you feel overwhelmed will help bring you back to the present moment and will bring about feelings of relief and relaxation in the process.

Live in the Moment

Living in the moment is something that many people have trouble with.  When you are at work, you may be thinking about problems at home, car trouble, or any number of things from your past or upcoming events in your future.  This is simply wasted time; you cannot be in two places at once.  Why not re-focus to get back to the task at hand while you can.  If not, you may be sitting at home later, thinking about all the work you could have finished when you were there.  Live in the moment and you will feel better sooner rather than later.

Know When to Take a Step Back

This can be just as important as living in the moment, if not more so.  If you are unable to regain focus or if something is really bothering you, you may need to take some time to gather your thoughts.  Take a break, go for a walk, or call and talk with a close friend.  Many times whatever is bothering us will melt away if we can just remove ourselves from a situation temporarily.  Get back to things as soon as you have found your center once again.

Make Time for Yourself

No one can go on forever only fulfilling the needs of those around them.  You need to make sure and have some "you time," where you meet your own needs and can take time to recharge, rest, and relax.  Spending time doing the things you enjoy will help make sure that feelings of resentment don’t grow to an alarming scale and will help you maintain your identity.

"De-Stress Kit For the Changing Times"

Doc Childre, founder of HeartMath, a leading stress research institute, has written a free booklet De-Stress Kit for the Changing Times that provides a few simple practices to help people intercept and manage stress during this period of challenge and uncertainty.

Release stress and weight these holidays...

We are launching a community-based free half-hour program, hosted by Sue Stebbins, Master Coach and clinical hypnotherapist,  starting the second of December at 12:30 Eastern Time  to GIVE People struggling with Stress and Weight and Isolation a BREAK -- want to join the fun and--  Drop the Holiday Baloney...??  Click here.

"The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety"

Researchers at the University at Albany – SUNY are looking for participants in an online research study.  The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of a new self-help workbook for people who are suffering from anxiety-related problems -- "The Mindfulness & Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety,"  written by John P. Forsyth, Ph.D. and Georg H. Eifert, Ph.D.   Here's what they say about the book:

"The workbook we are using has one purpose:  to help you live better, more fully, more richly. Your life is calling on you to make that choice, and the skills in this workbook can help you make it happen. Find out how your mind can trap you, keeping you stuck and struggling in anxiety and fear.  Learn to nurture your capacity for acceptance, mindfulness, kindness, and compassion.  Using these qualities to shift your focus away from anxiety and onto what you really want your life to be about. As you do, your life will get bigger as your anxious suffering gets smaller. No matter hat kind of anxiety problem you’re struggling with, this workbook can guide you toward a more vibrant and purposeful life. "

Visit the "Act for Anxiety" website to learn more about the study and the eligibility requirements. 

Meditate NYC

If you happen to be in the New York City area, you have an opportunity to explore meditation through a series of free events, workshops and meditation open houses that will take place around New York City from Sunday, November 9 to November 16.   (A hat tip to Urban Mindfulness).  To learn more, visit http://www.meditatenyc.org

Mindfulness in Movement

If you want to bring more mindfulness into your daily life, consider matching your mindfulness practices to your dominant intelligences.  According to the theory of multiple intelligences developed by Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, and discussed in his book "Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century," there are eight different intelligences that describe the ways people relate to information.   Your preferred ways to process information are your strengths or dominant intelligences.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I begin with the bodily-kinesthetic intelligence today and proceed with the rest of the intelligences in the upcoming posts.

We engage our bodily-kinesthetic intelligence when we express ourselves through movement and use movement to process information.  If you have a strong bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, it may be easier for you to concentrate when movement is involved.  There are many ways to develop awareness through movement.  In fact, many types of physical exercises can help you get into the zone, a state of mind where you feel focused, your senses are heightened, and time tends to disappear.  So, you can choose whether you want to do yoga or rock climbing to practice mindfulness in movement.  Your physical sensations, your breath, the rhythm of the movement, the flow of energy through your body are all good anchors for your attention that can help you get beyond the mental noise.  Sometimes, simply being mindful of your posture and remembering to relax your shoulders or do a few shoulder rolls can be a centering technique that can teach you to pay attention to your body signals.  Here are a few more examples of kinesthetic practices:

Yoga offers an excellent way to strengthen your mind body connection.  We are often concerned with changing, toning, shaping, sculpting, building our bodies.  Yoga allows us to experience our bodies and learn to respect their needs.  Focusing on the breath, movement and physical sensations helps to quiet the swirl of thoughts in the head and develop better awareness.

A meditative walk not only gently introduces even the most sedentary folks to a more active lifestyle, it can also calm the nerves and clear the mind.  You can gain more self-awareness, energy, relieve stress, improve your body image and your mood – all while walking.   As you walk, train your attention by noticing your breath and bodily sensations or observing the surroundings.  You can also try walking the labyrinth.  Here's how Daniel Pink describes his labyrinth walk in his book "A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future" :

"This labyrinth, which I walked one morning not too long ago, is composed of four-inch by four-inch brick squares.  Eight concentric circles, formed from similarly sized white squares, orbit a center space that's roughly two feet in diameter.  Along the outer edge a few squares have single words stamped onto them: Create, Faith, Wisdom, Believe.  Visitors often choose one of these words, and then repeat it, like a mantra in meditation, as they circle to the center.  I began my labyrinth walk by heading left and walking down the first ring.  As I looked around, I saw a few Medical Center buildings on one side and a parking lot on the other.  Nothing transcendent about this.  It felt as if I was simply walking in a circle.  So I started again.  To avoid distractions, I looked down.  I focused my sight on the two curving lines that formed the outline of my path, and I began walking – as slowly as I possible could.  The lines curled around me.  And after a while it felt a bit like driving on a long empty road.  I didn't have to pay much attention, so my mind slipped to a different place – and that had an unexpected calming effect."

Dancing is another great way to practice mindfulness by noticing how your moods, ideas, and emotions are expressed through movement.  I have to admit that I am biased here because Latin ballroom dancing got me moving throughout college, helped me manage the stress of law school, and allowed me to meet my most wonderful friends for years, including my husband.   Dancing is an excellent tool of self-expression.  Even if it's just you alone in the room, turn on the music that speaks to you and try expressing what you feel at the moment through movement.  No specific structure or choreographed routines – just your emotions flowing through your body.  

Hobbies that require you to work with your hands, such as pottery, woodworking, knitting, or cooking, make it easier to focus your mind on the process and away from nagging thoughts. 

The rhythmic movement of prayer beads in prayer, meditation, or simply during the repetition of affirmations can also be helpful to people with dominant kinesthetic intelligence. 

Do you have any kinesthetic or tactile habits, such as pacing the room when you need to think things over, tossing up a pen, playing with a stress ball?  Next time, use these habits as reminders to take a few moments for yourself and clear your head by focusing on the movement. 

What kinesthetic practices help you to be more mindful?

Awareness practices for multiple intelligences

How do you stay centered when the waves of life come crashing against you?  It's not easy.  We all know how hard it is not to get caught up in a negative whirlpool when we feel threatened, attacked or snubbed.  But it is worthwhile to remember that you can build resilience and inner peace to withstand turbulent times.  When you are able to center yourself, you take power away from difficult people and circumstances.  You are able to respond consciously, as opposed to projecting your own anger, doubt, frustration and letting the emotional whirlpool twirl and spin you around.  

Much like you build your core muscles through targeted exercise routines over time, you can strengthen your center of awareness through consistent practice.  It's like going to a mind gym.  The real test to your mindfulness is not how long you can meditate, but rather how you can take what you learn through meditation and apply it to your daily interactions.  Similarly, the purpose of this mind workout is to empower yourself and develop confidence that you can constructively handle whatever comes your way.  

Recently, I've been working with some of my coaching clients on the ways to match awareness practices to their dominant intelligences.  I will be sharing some ideas for awareness practices for each type of the multiple intelligences in the upcoming posts.  In the meantime, what helps you stay centered in challenging situations?  I’d love to read your comments.

Strategies to build resilience to stress

The Texas Medical Association offers ten strategies to build resilience to stress:

   1. Make connections
   2. Avoid seeing crises as insurmountable problems
   3. Accept that change is part of living
   4. Move toward your goals
   5. Take decisive actions
   6. Look for opportunities for self-discovery
   7. Nurture a positive view of yourself
   8. Keep things in perspective
   9. Maintain a hopeful outlook
  10. Take care of yourself

Visit their Coping with Stress website for more detail.

Personal productivity and mind body connection

In our fast-paced world, maintaining focused energy is one of the biggest personal productivity challenges.  Much of the energy drain happens due to the sense of mental overwhelm and frequent information overload.  This sense of overwhelm and inability to cope effectively with the daily flow of information, interactions, and distractions is a significant cause of stress and decrease in productivity for many people.

What stops you from having focused mental energy right now?  Here's a list of common energy drainers and stressors.  Do you see anything that applies to you? 

•    Lack of focus
•    Mental clutter;
•    Mindless distractions;
•    Fear of uncertainty;
•    Pessimistic attitude;
•    Self-criticism;
•    Unrealistic expectations or beliefs;
•    Information overload;
•    Perfectionism;
•    Low self-esteem;
•    Procrastination;
•    Negative self-talk;
•    Overwhelming negative emotions;
•    Resistance;
•    Misalignment between your life purpose and everyday actions;
•    Poor diet;
•    Insufficient physical activity;
•    Lack of sleep;
•    Toxic home or work environment;
•    Lack of social support.

Now, picture the power of the focused energy and how it could transform your life.  Imagine what it feels like to be so absorbed by the task that nothing else matters.  Certain practices enable us to maintain clear focus and add more energy to our days.  Here’s what you can do to boost your energy and personal productivity. 

1. Stop multitasking to avoid the "sprinkler effect."
   If you are easily distracted by thoughts buzzing in your head as you are trying to concentrate on a project, you are not alone.  Mental noise and distractions create energy leaks.  I call it the "sprinkler effect."  Just like the sprinkler cuts through the stream of water dispersing it, distractions dissipate our energy.  Our focus and perception diminish when it happens.  Think of all the distractions throughout your typical day:  a phone rings, an urgent email pops up, somebody interrupts your train of thought, etc.  A common response is to multitask, but multitasking doesn't work.  Our brains cannot do parallel processing if it requires conscious awareness. Multitasking is really a rapid task switching.  The more complex and unfamiliar the tasks are, the longer it is going to take to switch between them.  Multitasking causes the sprinkler effect. 
2. Pay attention:  awareness = mental "White Space."
   We can experience more focused energy if we practice mindfulness and give our full attention to the present moment.  As we cultivate awareness, we gain the state of clarity, or the mental "white space."  In art and design, the concept of "white space" refers to the absence, or nothingness, that makes the content stand out.  White space creates balance.  Similarly, when we are truly present and aware, our perception is heightened.  We notice things we wouldn't otherwise.  We experience more insights.  We respond to situations as they arise without stress or worry generated by mental clutter.
3. Chop up your projects and your work days into chunks.
   Create a sequence of specific, measurable steps to complete your current project.  Set milestones and deadlines to keep track of your progress.  Then, divide your work day into chunks of uninterrupted time when you can focus on your scheduled tasks and eliminate distractions.       
4. Verbalize distractions:  pour your disruptive thoughts onto paper.
   When you feel bogged down by persistent, negative thoughts, write them all down and set the time when you will review the list.  Writing thoughts down decreases their negative influence on the mind.  When your scheduled time comes, review the list and determine which thoughts actually deserve your time and energy.  Develop a habit of verbalizing your fears, doubts, and concerns.
5. Practice WOW: "Witness Ordinary Wonders."
   Present is the only thing that we ever experience, but how much time do we spend projecting our present fears and beliefs into the future or holding on to the constructs from the past that don't serve us well?
   
   It takes practice to be present, but it can be done with any activity, no matter what it is and how small it may seem.  This is about your mental attitude, and not the attribute of the activity itself.  Here's what you do:
   
   Each day, take time to choose an ordinary thing from your surroundings or a simple activity that you normally do almost on auto-pilot.  Approach it as if you have never seen or done it before – with the beginner's mind.  Think of a child who has not learned a label of your chosen item or action and is trying to figure it out.  What new aspects of this familiar object or activity do you notice?  What piques your curiosity?
6. Befriend your emotions, even the negative ones.
   It's natural and human to experience the whole range of emotions.  What's important is how we process those emotions in our minds and our bodies.  There are constructive ways to deal with negative emotions.  You don't want to bottle them up because you will end up with emotional and energetic imbalances.  Instead, you want to let yourself experience the emotion, just be with it for some time and observe.  Recognizing negative emotions, labeling them, and paying attention to the physiological responses these emotions produce in your body may help to counteract their effect.
7. Don't resist, accept:  stewing is worse than doing.
   Do you ever feel so overwhelmed and exhausted by all of the things you need to do that you can only complain and procrastinate instead of taking action?  All this time, you are building resistance.  Many people can relate to this experience.  Resisting and complaining sap your energy.  Whenever you feel the build-up of resistance, you want to stop and think about how you can move from resistance to acceptance.  My earlier post on 5 ways to procrastinate with purpose can help you prepare for action. 
8. Get excited!
   Don't wait for the next holiday to start a celebration.  Make a list of five things that you are excited about today.  What brings you joy when you just think about it?  We all should have something to celebrate each day.  This is a good exercise to do in the morning to begin your day on a positive note.
   
   Next, list five things that you are grateful for or people you would like to thank.  Notice any shifts in your emotional state once you have competed the exercise. Expressing gratitude for things that go well is a sure way to cultivate positive emotions.  Positive psychology studies have linked feelings of gratitude to emotional well-being.
9. Have a clear vision.
   When Michelangelo was asked how he created the sculpture of David out of the block of marble, he said:  "I simply chipped away everything that wasn't David."  You can chip away at marble, but you won't create David unless you have a clear vision. Know what your "David" is. 
10. Eliminate inconsistent goals:  don't try to be in two places at the same time.
    Prioritize and eliminate inconsistent goals.  The goals we set often compete for our time, effort, and resources.  It’s important to know the priority of your goals and check for conflicting objectives.  You may be as passionate about visiting Italy as you are about visiting Brazil, but you can't be in two places at the same time.  You must choose.
11. Use the three "Energize-Rs" to supercharge your days:  rhythms, rituals, and routines.
    Paying attention to the changes in your energy patterns throughout the day is a first step towards bringing more energy into your life.  You can do it with the help of the three "Energize-Rs":  Rhythms, Rituals, and Routines.  Here's the link to my post on these three powerful "Energize-Rs."
    
12. Embrace uncertainty, just like you would do in a casino.
    How comfortable are you with uncertainty?  What stops some people from pursuing their dreams and their mission is fear of the unknown.  Interestingly, uncertainty can actually add to our motivation.
    
    Do you ever wonder how people can spend hours pulling a lever of a slot machine?  It is the uncertainty of the reward that keeps them interested.  The anticipation of uncertain rewards has been linked to the increased production of the neuromodulator dopamine, which is responsible for a focused attention and more pleasurable experience.  Imagine what would happen if you were to get a regular salary for pulling the same lever but no chance of a random win. You’d be bored to death very soon.  The uncertainty of the reward keeps the excitement alive.
13. Practice bodily awareness: think on your feet.
    We all have bodily-kinesthetic intelligence that enables us to learn through movement.  Our body can also guide us in making decisions if we are attuned to our physiological responses.  When you are evaluating your options, listen to your body.  If your breathing is full and open, your muscles are relaxed, and you sense pleasant spaciousness in the chest or head, you may be moving in the right direction.  On the other hand, if your muscles become tense, especially in the shoulder and neck area, you have a "pit" in the stomach, or your attention is scattered, your body may be telling you that something is amiss. 
14. Don't let toxic words poison your body.
    Avoid negative conversations as you eat because the chemicals your brain sends through your body in response to the negative emotions or stress affect your digestion, and you need nutrients for sustainable physical energy.  Don't let toxic words poison your body and block your energy flow. 
15. Open an account at the Bliss Bank.
    Start feeding healthy, energizing images to your mind and you will feel more energized yourself.  Consider opening an account at the "Bliss Bank."  The Bliss Bank is a collection of small things that can cheer you up quickly.  It can be pictures of your kids or your pets, a souvenir from your favorite place, a song or an image.  Your Bliss Bank should be easily accessible at home, in your office, and your car so that you could draw from it whenever you felt sad, stressed out, or simply needed to recharge.
16. Use the power of visualizations: if you don't like what your eyeballs see, use your mind's eye to create whatever you want.
    The images we create in our mind's eye can be as real to our brain as the ones we see with our eyeballs.  Athletes use the power of visualizations and mental rehearsal to train, and so can we to boost our energy.  What could you imagine right now that would help you feel energized?
17. Tune up:  listen to music and healing sounds.
    Music elevates dopamine levels, those "feel good" molecules.  If you think of it, music delivers many of the benefits that people often try to get from food:  stress relief, comfort, energy, pleasure, etc.  So, let's start using music and movement to bring more energy, joy, and vibrance into our lives.
    
    Ayurveda, a system of medical knowledge that originated in India more than 5,000 years ago, explains healing sounds as rhythms and vibrations found in nature that resonate with our bodies.  Spending more time outdoors and listening to natural sounds of wind, waves, leaves, and birds can have a harmonizing effect on your body and mind.
18. Embrace your "wild" side: spend more time in nature.
    We’ve all probably experienced the peace and clarity that nature can bring about.  We don’t need to go far to have the benefits.  Take your pressing problem for a walk in the park.  If you enjoy gardening, remind yourself of the need to love and nurture yourself as you water and nurture your plants. 
19. Hang out with people who can lighten up the room.
    Sometimes, all we need to do to get energized is to talk to certain people. 

• Who are those people with vibrant, positive energy in your life?
• How can you limit your interactions with people who drain you? 
• How can you strengthen your support system?
  
  Taking personal responsibility for your energy also has an effect of attracting more people with positive energy into your life.  Do you know people who can lighten up the room with their presence?  Everybody wants to be around them.  With little practice and conscious choices, you can be that person.

What are your best personal energy management practices?

Constructive thinking during meditation

Many people find it difficult to quiet their minds when they meditate.  Some erroneously assume that they are supposed to eliminate thinking altogether.  The article "Thoughts on Thinking" by Edward Espe Brown, a Zen priest and author, offers tips on how to engage your thinking constructively when you meditate. 

Rather than eliminate thinking, you could say that one of the basic skills to develop in meditation is to be able to hold and sustain contradictory thoughts—calming the impulse to eliminate the opposition. One obvious example has to do with sitting still. You want to sit still, so can you have the thought to move and go on sitting still? Or do you have to do what the thought says?

The first strategy is to focus your thinking on posture and breathing.  For example, your thinking may enable you to count the breaths or keep your spine straight. 

The second strategy is to give your thinking a task.  For example, you can ponder Koans to break traditional thinking patterns or take mental notes of what's going on, such as "thinking," "judging," "labeling," "feeling happy," etc. 

The third strategy is to ask your thinking to leave you alone for now and promise to check back later.  The author recounts the advice he received from a speech consultant when he had trouble expressing himself at meetings:

"Tell me what you wanted to say," she prompted.

"I can't." When she wondered why not, I explained: "My thinking won't let me. It says it won't be good enough."

She offered some instructions: "Ask your thinking to go into the room next door while you talk, and promise that you will check back with it when you are done."

"It won't go."

"There's a television there."

"It doesn't believe I'll check back."

"Promise."

"It still won't go," I lamented.

"Close the door! Force it shut!" she insisted.

Finally, I told her what I had wanted to say at the meeting. "Now, let's ask your thinking what it thought," she said. My thinking was pleased and relieved to be consulted: "That was rather good," it told me. But my speech consultant wasn't finished. "And now let's ask your thinking if it has any suggestions for improvement?"

My thinking was so pleased and politely responded, "You might have tried this or emphasized that a little more."

This was a fundamental shift from the more habitual approach of simply telling my thinking to go away and not "bother" me. Here, I asked my thinking to be quiet so as to closely observe what was happening—and then tell me about it.

You can read the full article "Thoughts on Thinking" by Edward Espe Brown here.

My video of positive affirmations

How selective are you when it comes to the images that appear in front of your eyes, sounds that you hear, words that you use?  What we feed to our senses affects our perceptions, emotions, and vibrations.  We don’t always have a choice of blocking negative signals, and there is no need to, as long as we have tools to counterbalance the undesirable effects with strong positive messages that help us stay centered, peaceful, and aware.  Visualizations, vision boards, meditation, affirmations are all helpful techniques to bring balance and clarity to our hectic lives. 

Yesterday, I created a brief video of positive affirmations.  I had lots of fun doing it and hope you enjoy it too.  Here it is...  

Meditation Retreat for Law Professionals and Students

The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society is offering Meditation Retreat for Law Professionals and Students on September 11-14, 2008 at Menla Mountain Center, Phoenicia, NY: 

Mindfulness meditation can provide a practical tool for busy legal professionals to quiet the mind, enhance clarity and professional effectiveness, and restore a more peaceful balance to their lives. This program will include meditation instruction and practice, and will explore the interplay between contemplative and legal practices and the role meditation can play in the professional and personal lives of lawyers, judges, law professors, law students, and other legal professionals. There will be periods of silent meditation, lectures, and group discussions concerning skills training and the ethical practice of law.

The Center for Contemplative in Society has offered retreats for legal professionals for ten years, offering annual retreats in California since 2004. We are pleased to return to the East Coast to present this special program.

This retreat is co-sponsored by the City University of New York School of Law.

You can learn more about this event at the Contemplative Mind Law Program website and register here.

Stephanie West Allen of Idealawg wrote about the benefits of mindfulness in the practice of law in this post.

I am making plans to attend the retreat.  Who else is going?  

Using multiple intelligences for health and wellness

Yesterday, I led a session on bridging the gap between information and transformation at “My Ultimate Mind-Body Makeover” event organized by Master Coach, NLP Practitioner and Audio Author Sue Stebbins, the founder of Successwaves.  We discussed the topic of information imbalances and the ways to correct them by engaging multiple intelligences.

We may not think of ourselves as information, but that's what we are:  the cells in our bodies contain information about who we are, what traits and predispositions we have.  The information is also all around us.  It comes to us through a variety of channels:  text, images, people, experiences, dreams, insights, feelings, emotions, etc.  Our reality is, in essence, defined by the combinations of information:  what information we choose to recognize and what information we ignore, how we access and interpret this information, and how we integrate it into the knowledge we already possess.  

Have you ever played with kaleidoscopes - those tubes of mirrors with loose colored beads?  You turn and shake them, and the same stones form different colorful patterns reflecting off the mirrors.  Our minds can be like kaleidoscopes.  We receive the same pieces of information, but they get reflected off the mirrors of our experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and form our own, unique patterns of understanding.

Learning is about taking in information, making it your own, and using it to function well in the world.  I wonder if a person who only uses some information channels but not others is at risk of information imbalances.  For example, as lawyers, we have been trained to rely on our cognitive skills to solve problems and ignore our gut feeling and intuition in favor of critical thinking and analysis.  An unfortunate consequence is that we often stop recognizing the intelligence of our bodies.  The disengagement from the wisdom of our bodies manifests itself in addictive behaviors, compulsive eating, prolonged stress, anxieties, and a multitude of other health and mental issues.  The good news is that this body intelligence is always present and available to us, but we have to re-learn how to access it and interpret its messages.  Engaging multiple intelligences can help open up some of those underused information channels.  Here are some examples:

1. Use your bodily-kinesthetic intelligence to take time throughout your busy day to notice how your body feels.  Think on your feet:  let your body guide you when you need to make a decision.  If you experience muscle tension, a "pit" in stomach, or a sudden headache, perhaps, your body is telling you that you are moving in a wrong direction. 
2. Use your logical-mathematical intelligence to rebel against your own limiting thinking.  Flip your assumptions, mock the established thinking patterns, and come up with fresh, powerful, energizing ideas. 
3. Use your linguistic intelligence to build a healthier vocabulary and ban toxic words that poison your body.  Avoid negative conversations when you eat because the chemicals your brain sends through your body in response to the negative emotions and stress affect your digestion.
4. Use your spatial intelligence to practice stress-reducing visualizations.  Here’s the one I like to use.  Close your eyes and imagine that you are near the ocean.  As you are walking along the shore, you feel the softness and warmth of the white sand under your bare feet.  And with each step you take, your worries and anxieties just dissipate into the sand.  You feel peaceful and relaxed…  
5. Use your musical intelligence to listen to natural sounds of wind, waves, leaves, birds, etc. to harmonize your body and mind.
6. Use your naturalist intelligence to explore how a certain concept that’s relevant to you is played out in nature.  BEAUTY, BALANCE, PURPOSE, HARMONY are all good candidates.  For example, if you want more balance in your life, you can explore how nature manifests it.
7. Use your intrapersonal intelligence to learn what brings you joy and energy and do more of it!
8. Use your interpersonal intelligence to strengthen your support system and share your curiosity, humor, creativity, and appreciation with others.

Related post:  For suggestions on how multiple intelligences can be used in law school, read 8 times smarter : learning with multiple intelligences.

Go Red for Women

Today, February 1, 2008,  is the National Wear Red Day.  Its goal is to promote awareness of heart disease and empower women to reduce their risk.  Cardiovascular disease is the No.1 killer of American women and the cause of one in every 2.6 female deaths. 

Consider these alarming heart health statistics:

• One in three women has some form of cardiovascular disease.
• Cardiovascular disease kills approximately 460,000 women per year.
• More women die of cardiovascular disease than the next five causes of death combined,
  including cancer.

It may be a little late for a wardrobe change, but it’s never too late to learn more about your heart.  Read about the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women Campaign and take the Go Red Heart CheckUp for a personal heart-health assessment:

"This important tool forecasts a woman’s 10-year risk for heart disease and provides a personalized action plan to help women reduce their risk. Go Red wants women to know their numbers and track their blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and weight and keep them in a healthy range."

Practice of law can be stressful.  Please keep your heart safe and spread the word.

   

Smart Dinner

Here’s a suggestion from "The Dinner Choice That Thwarts Alzheimer’s" at RealAge:

Recipe for a sharp mind: chop some mango, jalapeno, and cilantro; toss together with lime juice, salt, and pepper; then spoon generously over grilled fish.

The combo of fatty acids from the fish and antioxidants from the fresh fruit helps protect the brain from dementia.

Other brain foods:  nuts, fish (especially wild salmon, whitefish, tilapia, catfish, flounder, mahi mahi),  soybeans, tomato juice and spaghetti sauce, olive oil, nut oils, fish oils, flaxseed, avocados, real chocolate (at least 70% cocoa).  Read the full article for the explanation of the benefits and recommended amounts.