Inner Peace

Inner  Peace:    

If  you can start the day without caffeine,

If you  can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains, 

If  you can resist complaining and  boring people with your troubles,

If  you can eat plain food every  day and be grateful for it,

If  you can understand when your loved  ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and  blame without resentment,

If  you can conquer tension  without  medical help,

If you can relax without  liquor,

If  you can sleep without the aid of  drugs,   

...Then  You Are  Probably  The  Family Dog!      

 And  you thought I was going to get all spiritual didn't you..?

Moments of Mindfulness

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/therapist-within/2011/01/coming-to-your-senses-moments-of-mindfulness-in-the-everyday/?utm_source=PsychCentral&utm_medium=twitter

Coming To Your Senses: Moments of Mindfulness In The Everyday

By Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar

I was hanging out the washing in the backyard yesterday, mildly annoyed with having to do this chore, when I happened to glance over my shoulder.
This butterfly filled my vision…
And suddenly the mundane became exquisite.
Have you had one of those moments lately? Where something small sort of awakened you and seemed to elevate whatever you were doing, bringing it richness and depth.
It’s this ‘small stuff’, and the paying of attention to it, that mindfulness embraces. The everyday, yet miraculous, stuff that we see, hear, sense, feel, are.
So instead of glossing over something that you might already have encountered before (like your trip to work, or hearing the sound of rain, or hanging out the laundry), mindfulness asks you to remember that that’s actually impossible.
That ‘you can’t step into the same river twice.’*
That you’ve never lived this particular moment before.
That it’s different from all the others you’ll ever experience.
Unique.
And your whole life is made up of these moments; these little universes unto themselves…
Yet how often are we really in them?

How often do we sort of sit back  and live our lives at the distance of intellectualization or rationalization or busy-ness or boredom instead?
How often do we ignore this life, this moment, that we’re actually in – instead, daydreaming about what we might wish would happen, or wishing that this present moment wasn’t happening? Or projecting ourselves forwards or backwards in time, remembering past pain or imagining future plans. Ignoring our present.
It seems a pretty risky deal in some ways – to trade all that you have right now (this moment, this piece of your life) for something already gone or perhaps never to be. To exchange a fragment of you and of the world for something else which is quite possibly unattainable.
(Especially as, just like the butterfly in my backyard, we have such a limited time here).
Maybe that’s why so many therapies, like Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) are bringing mindfulness into their work.
So what would it be like to try it for a moment?
For this moment.
To just delve into the life you do have.
Just here.
Just now.
Just into whatever is…
To see what’s around you.
To hear it.
Feel it.
And perhaps to notice if these ‘small’ pieces of your life can also illuminate the bigger picture…
.

*’You can’t step into the same river twice’ is from Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher.The title of this blog post draws from Jon Kabat-Zinn‘s book: “Coming To Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and The World Through Mindfulness“. Photo: Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar
Gabrielle Gawne-Kelnar (Grad Dip Counselling & Psychotherapy) is a writer, blogger and Sydney psychotherapist in private practice at One Life Counselling & Psychotherapy. Gabrielle also co-facilitates telephone support groups for people who are living with cancer, for their carers, and for people who have been bereaved through a cancer experience. She was the former editor of a journal on counselling and psychotherapy and she provides regular therapeutic updates on facebook and Twitter @OneLifeTherapy.

Who Do You Want To Become?

"You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important decision you will ever make. Forget your past. Who are you now? Who have you decided you really are now? Don't think about who you have been. Who are you now? Who have you decided to become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully."  Anthony Robbins

Take a Silence Siesta

Unplug and Recharge: Taking a Silence Siesta

Rev. Susan Sparks

Author, 'Laugh Your Way to Grace: Reclaiming the Spiritual Power of Humor'

Perhaps you've heard the fable about the two frogs. One accidentally hopped in a pot of boiling water. When he felt the heat, he immediately jumped out. The other frog hopped into a pot of cool water that was slowly being heated to a boil. He swam happily around as the pot got hotter and hotter, oblivious to the rising danger.
Sound familiar? It should. We too are swimming in a pot under slow boil, unaware of the rising danger; and that danger is the rising decibels of noise. Our lives are permeated with sound: our iPod music, the blare of televisions pundits, the ringing of our cell phones, e-mail alerts and tweet notices -- noise that over time, we don't even realize is there.
While we may think it harmless, constant noise is a very real danger. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, for example, reports that the effects of excessive noise can include difficulty concentrating, stress, muscle tension, ulcers, increased blood pressure and hypertension.
Humans aren't the only ones vulnerable to its dangers. Scientific studies have shown that human-created noise causes a similarly destructive response in wildlife, interfering with core life functions, such as foraging for food, mating and tending to the young.
While human beings don't seem to care, thankfully action has been taken on behalf of the ecosystem. According to a recent article from The New York Times, the National Park Service (NPS) has implemented steps to restore quiet to some of its major parks.
For example, in Muir Woods, the great redwood forest outside San Francisco, a sort of "silence siesta" has been imposed: Parking lots have been moved farther from the entrance, electric maintenance vehicles now glide silently through the park and a decibel level meter now hangs outside the gift shop measuring the sounds of visitors' voices. The forest appears to be responding, as two spotted owls were recently observed, an endangered species once believed lost to the area.
What if we followed the NPS lead and took a "silence siesta?" What if we unplugged the iPod, silenced the cell, turned off the television, the radio, the alarms and the timers? Even if only for half an hour a day, our blood pressure and stress levels might lower for those few precious moments. With continued effort, maybe our concentration levels would sharpen. With consistent time away from the daily "noise," perhaps our relationships with our partners, our spouses and our children might improve. It worked in Muir Woods. Why not in daily life?
Don't live your life in a fog of noise and distraction. Don't, as James Thurber warned, lead a life of "noisy desperation." Give yourself a little silence siesta. Who knows? A little peace and quiet might bring a renewed sense of healing, growth and possibility in your life -- things, like those Spotted Owls, once believed lost.

Feeling Secure?

 Feeling Secure?  You may Value Possessions Less

By Psych Central News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on March 4, 2011

 http://psychcentral.com/news/2011/03/03/feeling-secure-you-value-possessions-less/24116.html

New research suggests that people with greater feelings of interpersonal security — that is, a sense of being loved and accepted by others — placed a lower monetary value on their possessions than people who did not feel as secure.

The research was conducted by Edward Lemay, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at University of New Hampshire, and colleagues at Yale University.

In a set of two experiments involving 185 individuals gathered from an Internet discussion forum and 68 college students, the researchers measured how much people valued specific items, such as a blanket and a pen that had the university’s logo on it.

In some instances, people who did not feel secure placed a value on an item that was five times greater than the value placed on the same item by more secure people.

“People value possessions, in part, because they afford a sense of protection, insurance, and comfort,” Lemay says. “But what we found was that if people already have a feeling of being loved and accepted by others, which also can provide a sense of protection, insurance, and comfort, those possessions decrease in value.”

The use of the blanket was thought to be associated with warmth and comfort, while the use of the logo pen was associated with belonging to a valued group. The researchers suggest that the use of these specific objects can readily generalize to other possessions that fall into similar categories.

The researchers theorize that the study results could be used to help people with hoarding disorders.

“These findings seem particularly relevant to understanding why people may hang onto goods that are no longer useful. They also may be relevant to understanding why family members often fight over items from estates that they feel are rightfully theirs and to which they are already attached.

The researchers also suggest that their data may help explain why a person may be reluctant to part with possessions for money, because the person’s existing ownership of the good gives the person this sense of interpersonal security. They suggest this is often likely an unconscious feeling, hence the reason a person may not be able to verbalize it.

The study also points to why people often may over-value a possession that provides them with a sense of security.

“Inherited items may be especially valued because the associated death threatens a person’s sense of personal security,” Lemay says.

The research is published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

Source: University of New Hampshire

Seeds of Solutions

 

Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems, you don't get any seeds.

Norman Vincent Peale

You Go, Girl!

March 8 is International Women's Day - a day to celebrate the wonderful achievements of the many women who have paved the way for greater rights and freedoms of girls and women today and for future generations. This is the 100th year of celebrations.  Let's make sure that the progress continues so our daughters all over the world can grow up in an atmosphere of  safety and security, hope, optimism and equal opportunity!

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/iwd_factsheet.pdf