The ART of Healing

As an author, words are a daily part of my life. Stringing together descriptive words to create a certain scene, a certain mood. And as Gavin McAllister says: “the impact of the words was in direct correlation to the emotions of the reader. Words could be twisted, knives to open up wounds long hidden. Maneuvered to evoke buried nightmares. Bare the soul, expose the wound”.

We often remember hurtful words, hateful words, words thrown out in moments of anger, depression and despair. And words, as well as images, can be incredibly powerful. They can and do create drastic changes in both your mind and your body.

Imagine a scene for just a moment. Your very best friend is about to reveal something to you. He/she states “I booked us on an Alaskan tour.” Your reaction would be elated. Happy. And you would feel that happiness in both your mind and your body. Now, let’s change the scene. And he/she says: “I just found out I have cancer.” The mental and physical reaction is drastically different. Instead of elation, you feel pain, fear, and perhaps just a little anger. Your physical reaction will also be different. Where before you felt energetic, anticipating the cruise, you now feel a certain tightness and/or depression.

There are some words, like the example above, we can’t control. We can’t control the words being spoken to us, nor can we totally control our mental and physical reaction to those words.

But let’s take a look at everyday life. Are we letting words we speak or hear control us? When you utter harsh words to someone it doesn’t just hurt them, it also hurts you. Your own mental and physical well-being are damaged by the internal conflicts of those words. And how often have you been so sorry for words you uttered in anger, or words you lashed out with when in pain? Words you wished you could take back the moment they were spoken?

We all need love, affection and reassurance. Words attached to emotions. In meditation we often give ourselves positive suggestions. In a deepened state of awareness words like: “I am loved” have an overall positive effect on our emotional and mental attitude as well as our physical health.

But we live in the real world the majority of the day, faced with money problems, finding a job, paying the bills, feeding the family, and just trying to survive. So how do we find time to use words that purify our mind of negative thoughts, lighten our mood and add a positive element to both our surroundings and demeanor?

This is where the ART of healing comes in. Try this for just a moment, paying special attention to how you feel emotionally and physically. Sing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” making the hand motions (yeah, I know you’re at work and everyone is going to think you’re nuts—do it on your lunch hour when you’re alone, or go to the bathroom and sing it to yourself). Actually if managers would take a fifteen minute break and have all the employees sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” I bet production would increase because the employees would feel better both mentally and physically.

It’s hard to sing these little nursery rhymes and not smile. An immediate mood adjustment. And those mood adjustments create an immediate physical reaction, allowing your body for just a moment or two to relax the tension that has been building throughout the day. Relaxing the body allows your organs to function easier, and blood to flow to tense areas. Healing to begin.

Can’t bring yourself to sing nursery rhymes? Then choose another upbeat song. Something you like. Something that makes you feel GOOD. Do this several times a day and you should see a noticeable change in both your mental attitude as well as your physical well-being and even perhaps your surroundings. Happy thoughts create a happy atmosphere.

Have a great day. And give someone a smile—it makes you both feel better.

Self-Hypnosis - Change your mind - change your world.

Self-hypnosis is not a magical state. It is merely a state of mind in which you are very relaxed, you are paying complete attention to the suggestions you want to implant and you do not criticize the suggestions made, and accept them at face value. Much like dreaming the dreams you want to dream, your conscious mind and subconscious mind are making agreements to work together.

We all enter the self-hypnotic state every night. It’s called the pre-sleep state. You’re relaxed to the point in which you don’t want to move. You know you can, but you don’t want to. At this point of relaxation you can actually program your subconscious mind with affirmations and suggestions.

Emotions, like stress, have a drastic impact on our physical health. Mainly through our immune systems. The immune system has many functions. It consists of white blood cells, amino acids and some specialized organs. Its basic function is to eliminate and destroy disease agents, toxins as well as dead or mutated cells.

In the 1970’s a Harvard study provided the first scientific evidence that our immune system is directly affected by moods and emotions. The evidence came in the form of the discovery that our immune cells contain neuropeptides – the brain chemicals connected to our emotions. Today immune system research is psychoneuroimmunology, or PNI. PNI research has confirmed that every part of our immune system is connected to the brain either by a direct nerve connection, or through the brain’s chemical language of neuropeptides and hormones.

What happens in your mind has an immediate effect on your immune system. Major studies have determined that our mental states influence our immune system. Negative mental states, chronic stress, and low self-esteem dramatically reduce our immunity. Likewise there is proof that positive mental states and activities can increase your immunity. Boosters include: Aerobics, humor and laughter, a sense of hope, relaxation, physical exertion, social support and satisfying relationships.

Emotional ups and downs are a part of life. However, chronic stress damages the ability of your immune system to resist disease, infections and even heart disease. Overcoming this is a matter of taking charge of your thoughts. Boost your self-confidence. Learn to relax. And learn to use subliminal message you yourself give your subconscious mind to improve your emotions, your moods, and thereby your overall health. These can also be called intentional emotions and/or intentional thoughts. The benefits: Energy used for positive purposes and constantly replenished; look and feel mentally, physically and emotionally healthier; reverse mental and physical aging; transform your outlook to a positive one; reduce your stress levels; more relaxed around other people.

Learning to hypnotize yourself:

For those who meditate learning self-hypnosis will be easy. If you’re not a regular meditator then it will take a little more time and practice to get used to the idea of total relaxation. Self-hypnosis uses a combination of relaxation, visualization and positive suggestions.

First let’s learn to visualize. Close your eyes and imagine you’re holding a lemon. Feel the rough texture of the skin, see the color. Now imagine you’re cutting the lemon. Smell the aroma. Now you’re tasting the lemon. Make notes to yourself of the parts of this exercise that were easy and the parts that were difficult. Visualization is just a part of your imagination that you can hone by practice. Not everyone sees clear pictures. Perhaps you just have a sensing of what you’re supposed to see. That’s perfectly fine. Keep practicing and the pictures will come.

Now, let’s do it again. Close your eyes and imagine you’re standing in your own living room. Look around and note where everything is located. Mentally walk through your home one room at time. Keep practicing this until you feel comfortable that you actually COULD walk through your home blindfolded and know exactly where everything is located.

The eye fatigue method of self-hypnosis is usually the easiest to start with. Pick a spot somewhere on the ceiling and simply stare at it. Clear your mind and breathe in deeply through your nose, exhaling through your mouth. After a few seconds slowly close your eyes and feel how good it feels. Relax your eyes allowing that relaxation to flow down your body all the way to your toes. Mentally repeat the number 10. Do this 9 more times, breathing deeply and exhaling slowly, opening and slowly closing your eyes as you mentally repeat the numbers 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. If at any time during the exercise your eyes are so relaxed you don’t want to open them, then don’t open them, but continue to give yourself suggestions that your body is relaxing, you mind is relaxing and you’re going deeper and deeper. Always give yourself the added suggestion that each time you do this exercise you will go deeper, more relaxed than the time before. It takes about 30 days for the program to be incorporated into your normal everyday routine and after a while it will take only a few counts for your body to be totally relaxed.

Now that you’re totally relaxed give yourself positive affirmations. Work on the areas of your life you feel need it the most. Health, happiness, anger, love, stress, self-esteem. Whatever area is making you unhappy, work on it. As your happiness improves, so will your physical health. You’ll find yourself more positive about work, home and life in general.

In the next few months I hope to totally revamp my website to include a page of downloads for meditations and self-hypnosis programs. Visit www.prather-author.com

All programs and downloads will be totally free of charge.

I wouldn’t be an author, if I didn’t put in this final plug. If you’re looking for a great mystery novel to take your mind off life’s programs check out The Gifts, A Jacody Ives Mystery at Amazon Kindle. Current price is only $.99.