Energy Healing

Recently having explored meditation has opened up my eyes to other forms of Natural and Holistic studies.

Currently, I am reading a book called "Your Healing Power: A Comprehensive Guide to Channeling Your Healing Energies." It deals with your own intuition and sensitivities, and body energies and Chakras. Having been a very sensitive and intuitive person all my life the material is completely drawing me in.

It is giving me a new understanding of how my negativity,thoughts and energy, has affected me physically, spiritually and emotionally all my life.

It is particularly intriguing to me since it deals heavily with the often untouched spiritual side of life. Nonetheless, I am discovering more and more that it is a core part of our lives just as our thoughts, feelings and physical bodies are. Moreover, they are integrated in such a way that it is becoming apparent to me how unbelievable it is that so many of us deny that this aspect of life is real.

Perhaps, I am opening a floodgate of controversy with beginning to discuss spirituality. My personal standpoint is that I am openly opposed to organized religion of any sorts (this I can discuss further in a seperate post). However, I am perhaps as spiritual as a person can be, and I plan to develop my spirituality to unseen heights, now that I am starting to gain a greater awareness of the subject.

What are your thoughts on spirituality, healing and energy?

Spiritual Healing

Originally, my idea for this blog was to get information to people about healing the mind, as well as use it as a personal format to express my own feelings and challenges.

I think that I was approaching my writing from a conventional, purely scientific standpoint.

Even though I had been utilizing western medicine and health to deal with my anxieties, I had also been stressing the need for more holistic therapies such as meditation. However, I still was sharing my views of these alternative therapies from a neuroscientific standpoint.

My goal over the past few months was to get into a local technical institute to pursue a career in Neurophysiology. I know I want to study the brain and the mind, and help people who have had similar mental and emotional ordeals as me but I wasn't sure how I was going to go about it. Getting back into school to health science dealing with the brain seemed like the most logical and reasonable step.

More recent gains in personal understanding and awareness have led me to believe that perhaps I am on more of a spiritual journey- here to explore the holistic therapies as well as the scientific ones and combine and share these techniques with the world.

My ultimate goal here remains the same - healing the minds of others.

The world is rampant with negativity largely stemming from the manners in which we were conditioned to think. Sadly, most people are conditioned to believe that ignorance, fear, prejudice and greed are a way of life. It is the nature of today's primitive societal norms. This equates to widespread health problems, mental health issues, depression, anger, addiction and so forth.

Personally, I've had to deal with all of the above mentioned issues. Very few people are aware of the totality of my struggle - my parents and my wonderful wife- and the probably dozens of doctors, therapists and healers that have seen me over the last ten years. Only these people know that I have had to explore countless avenues in each- western medicine and practices, spiritual guidance and counsel, psycho therapeutic and analytical diagnoses and treatment and others- in order for me now, finally, to move forward

Now I am seeing the positive rewards, the joy of life and the possibilities of the universe that are unfolding for me. It's been a lot of work, and admittedly I have to increase my diligence, but for the first time ever, I am beginning to feel like I can put the past to rest, build a substantial life, and help others in a powerful way in doing so.

Thank you for reading. Peace and bless you.

Brain Performance Index

As I said a few days ago, I use Lumosity software to exercise my brain. It does this by measuring your cognitive brain activity through tests in different categories. The categories are speed, attention, flexibility, memory, and problem solving.

I just figured out that you can adjust the exercises to co-ordinate how you want to train your brain in regards to these categories. My weakest areas are attention are attention and flexibility so I've adjusted those areas to be my highest priority. Hopefully, now I can work on improving those areas. We'll see how it works.

I really highly suggest this website to improve your brain function and have fun!

Meditation and Mood

Meditation has been recommended to me as a method to help deal with depression and anxiety from many sources such as books, doctors and martial arts instructors. The "Anxiety and Phobia Workbook" written by Edmund J. Bourne, has been referred to me as "the Holy Bible for people with anxiety" by my family physician. I have been working through it since late summer and one of the chapters in it is on meditation.

I had tried meditation on its own but I could never stick with it for any significant period of time to truly see benefits. However, during the summer, I spent three weeks on a Minke Whale research trip on Cormorant Island in British Columbia with my brother, who is a science teacher and Marine Biologist. It is during this time that I truly got back in touch with nature. While there I journalled and meditated daily along a shoreline looking into the Pacific.

That is the first time I had utilized meditation consistently and began to reap its rewards. Coming back from that trip I felt galvanized, rejuvenated, loved, aware and in touch with people and the world around me.

However,when I got back to the real world, work and everyday life stresses caught up to me and I forgot about those healthy habits I had developed. I had continued dabbling, doing a bit here and there, but not with the daily ritualization I had taken on during that trip.

This past month, I have found myself looking for work again and have made it an almost daily ritual to meditate then make an entry in my gratitude journal.

I was surprised by the benefits I had forgotten about.

There are times while meditating that I can literally feel activity and blood working in different parts of my brain that aren't usually active- the same feeling one has when one exercises a muscle and experiences the soreness felt in the changing and growing muscle.

I then feel a sense of relaxation and thoughtlessness or mindlessness. It is very calming and peaceful

Another, positive change I have noticed is that my mood and spirit has lifted from the time I enter the mediation until the time I complete the meditation.

This is why I am so adamant about taking time to utilize this practice and am beginning to see it more as a daily necessity, as opposed to something I should or could do that might affect my mood. Now I know it does, and that is great knowledge I have gained.

How do you use meditation and how does it affect you? Do you use it for guidance, knowledge, to sharpen your intuition, or to change your mood?

Let me know. Thanks for reading.

Brain Exercises and Neuroplasticity

Yesterday, I mentioned my use of the website www.lumosity.com in order to do exercises that train the brain to be healthier. The Lumosity exercises help in areas such  as attention span, quick thinking, problem solving and memory. I find it to be a helpful and fun website that also tracks your cognitive progression as well as offers comparisons to other people in your age bracket.

The lumosity website claims to affect physical changes in the brain called neuroplasticity. More and more studies show that neuroplasticity is in fact a truth and not a myth.

I recall watching an episode of David Suzuki's, "The Nature of Things," regarding the brain that showed when a person has damaged a part of their brain that controls a certain aspect of living (such as speech), it was proven that through exercise (as well as other techniques), other parts of their brain can take on the function of the damaged sector. This proves that the brain is malleable, alterable and plastic. Nothing is set. We are able to change the most engrained patterns.

In Shawn Achor's, "The Happiness Advantage", he shows how thinking in a positive manner literally alters the physical and chemical make-up of the brain. Different studies display the changing levels of hormones in the brain, and also show the mapping of different synapse connections into new sectors of the brain, all from altering thinking habits. It is a fascinating book (not to mention helpful), and I highly recommend reading it if one is wondering how to become happier.

It is from this book, that I adopted the habits of daily meditation and daily journalling. It also offers other practical exercises one should do to maintain a healthier, happier mind.

I am hoping that occupying my time with more and more concrete, positive mental exercises will eventually bleed into my daily thinking habits over time and affect my brain and mind in a positive way.

Frankly, it is still a work in progress. I naturally tend to worry and think negatively and anxiously, so it takes great purposeful effort on my part in order to have positive thoughts and positive conversations with myself. However, it is through this effort that I can see definitive progress and am able to feel the positive affects of these exercises, by my ability to be happy and think in a healthy manner at least some of the time. And on good days...most of the time.

This is a big change from the first 30 years of my life where most days, I was thinking when I would die, or "Why was I put here? I'm miserable."

If anyone feels as hopeless as I did, I would like to offer hope. There are people out there with answers that are willing to help.

And if you want to change the way you think, you can. Though I have just started my journey (and  have a long way to go), I am proof. I, like most people, have faced great struggle, but I intend to change and live a very fun, fulfilling, rewarding life.

I hope to help others find answers as well. This is my promise.

Replacing Bad Habits with Good Habits

Have you ever tried get rid of a bad habit? Were you successful? Did you relapse back into your old ways once you had thought you'd kicked it for good?

I'm certain I'm not the only one with bad habits and demons I've tried to exorcise to no avail. Does anyone out there have any good techniques or tricks for altering their habits for good?

They say it takes 21 days or repetitions to form or change a habit. I have a long, laundry, list of negative things I'd like to change and a list of positive habits I'd like to incorporate into my life. I will say with certainty that I am making progress, but I have a lifetime of negative thinking and habits to change, so it isn't always easy. But then again, perhaps it isn't easy for anyone...and maybe it shouldn't be. Everyone has their own unique set of challenges and circumstances to face.

For me, I will share that perhaps my greatest challenge is overcoming my bouts with Social Anxiety Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Without elaborating too much at this point, I will say that I come from an upbringing of negativity and ignorance, without a lot of socialization or love.

What I previously thought as normal thinking patterns and habits, I now realize were as unhealthy as one man could have and still function with some semblance of normalcy. With the help of some great support networks, and some great family physicians, I now realize it is possible for a person to think, feel and live positively, and happily.

Though it is still a daily struggle for me, I now see that happiness is a possibility. A year and a half ago, I wouldn't be able to comprehend or fathom how someone could be happy. My mind was nearly always consumed with negativity, worry, and fear of judgment from others.

Looking back, I don't know how I made it as far as I did without seeking treatment. But now that I have received the help and knowledge that is allowing me to heal, I am slowly but surely, beginning to move forward with my life, and am beginning to make some significant changes.

Some of the newly formed habits that I have incorporated into my life are journalling and meditation. Both help me to clarify what I'm thinking and how I'm feeling, and also bring peace into my daily routine. I haven't done either with so much consistency in all my life, and it is bringing me a greater understanding of daily situations, and also offering me an opportunity to evaluate my perceptions -often negative- of what is occurring.

A technique I am currently employing to change a bad habit is to track whether or not I can eliminate one negative habit while replacing it with a more positive one for 30 days straight. A 30-day challenge. I have the dates circled on my calendar and check them off for each successful day I have completed.

I have read that this is a good method in order to make changes permanently since often we try to change everything at once. This way of changing everything simultaneously in a short period of time is often overwhelming and so that leads to relapse and the individual feeling shameful and full of guilt - counter-productive feelings for someone trying to get mentally fit.

By changing one habit monthly, it gives the habit a greater chance of sticking permanently. And in one year, drastic, measurable changes will be seen. Of course, I understand more than anyone theories are easier said than done.

My 30 day challenge is to quit wasting time surfing the internet and replacing it with doing brain exercises on a website I've chosen (www.lumosity.com). I'm about half way through, and I haven't been perfect, but I will say that by me raising my awareness of how much time I spend needlessly online, it has helped to significantly reduce the amount of overall time I waste.

Lastly, I have made it a point to do my brain exercises as soon as I wake up in the morning and it feels great to be on track in regards to that.

Do you think the 30 day challenge is a good technique to use? Has anyone else tried this method out and can offer some feedback? Does anyone have any other methods or techniques for breaking there old, outdated, automatic mental and physical habits?

Why I want to Blog about the Marvelous, Magnificent Mind of Man.

The reasons for me starting this blog are personal. Yet I want any person who is in need of this kind of support and information to feel free to take what they need and apply it to their own lives.

First off, I see the blog as a way for me to express what I'm experiencing in my life - as a means of therapy -and also in hopes that others experiencing similar challenges reach out to each other and to me, so that we can connect about our lives.

I want to share what I've learned about issues such as anxiety, depression, addiction, phobias and mental health through personal experience, and through learning and growing from the most relevant and state of the art material. I would like to share obstacles I've faced in my life and how I've overcome them, and what I'm doing currently to continue my growth.

I want a forum where I and other people can feel comfortable discussing these issues honestly and openly, so that we can raise awareness, and offer help and solutions to those who are suffering.

Lastly, I want to test for myelf, whether or not, that,  if I alter my inner thoughts and feelings and harness the power of the brain in a positive manner, will my exterior world adjust accordingly, as has been theorized by many a successful poet, physicist, prophet, businessman, inventor, actor and countless others.

As quoted by the late, great Bruce Lee, "As you think, shall you become."

Bruce...baby... is this true? I need to know.