Mind, Body & Spirit | Naturegrooves

10 Things to Do When Feeling Down

by Lucie | Jul 2, 2020 | Mind, Body & Spirit, Popular, Uncategorized

There are many degrees and shades of not feeling good, from bad mood to serious depression. The latter requires professional treatment, but there are many things to do when feeling down in the ‘common’ way, and considerably improve one’s state of mind. This article explores a variety of ways to come out of those low states.

Explore a Variety of Techniques

We are all different and that’s why I have selected a range of different techniques and approaches, so you can choose a technique that resonates with you. I would recommend exploring all the techniques, comparing their effectiveness, and decide what works for you best. I use a mixture of all these techniques, according to a specific situation.

Feeling Depressed for No Reason?

It’s hard to count how many times in the past I asked myself: “Why do I feel depressed for no reason?” Generally, I perceive myself as a joyful person with almost childlike curiosity about life and fascination by the beauty of creation, but because I can reach such internal highs, feeling truly ecstatic, I can also get seriously down, to the point of self-destructive thoughts. And often there is no clear reason for such states.

I have long acknowledged and accepted this fact about myself, but I have also decided to work on it. I’ve made myself a promise that if I find myself feeling low, I won’t feel guilty for having these emotions, but I will make an effort not to stay in such states for long. I want to systematically work on strengthening my emotional resilience. That’s why I have researched many different ways that would help me spring back from the dark places very fast, and which I could then share with others.

Below is a list of ten techniques or concepts that I have found helpful, and which I frequently use to feel good and keep the low states of mind at bay. I hope that you will find some of them helpful too.

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1) Change Your Physical State

There are many ways to improve our emotional state by changing our physical state. In this section, I will describe four different approaches.

When I feel generally low and demotivated for no obvious reason, I follow the techniques that the ‘motivational guru’ Tony Robbins often uses during his talks and seminars.

These techniques are meant to change your physical state, alter your brain chemistry, and consequently improve the way you feel. You’ll basically trick your brain into thinking that you’re happy when you feel the very opposite. Your brain will then release some feel-good chemicals, which will result in improving your mood, and your day may be saved from being a near-failure into a day with a new perspective, filled with inspired, meaningful action and sense of connection with everyone.

Tony Robbins

It takes some will to get yourself to do anything when you’re miserable, but there’s nothing more rewarding than knowing you’ve overcome your worst self and conquered your own mind. Just like The Buddha said –

“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.”

Strike Some Power Poses

Our posture and body language affect how others perceive us, but – and much more importantly – it also affects how we perceive ourselves. Tony Robbins believes that assuming a confident posture even when we don’t feel confident can increase feelings of confidence in the present moment, while in the long run it positively impacts our chances for success.

To sum up:

Our physiology can change our minds.

Our minds can change our behavior.

Our behavior can change our outcomes.

These points have been a subject of many studies, including a Harvard University study conducted by Dr. Amy Cuddy, whom Tony Robbins often quotes during his talks and events.

The following two simple techniques that Tony Robbins shows in the video further down are known as ‘Power Poses’. They’ve also been explored in Dr. Cuddy’s academic paper published in Psychological Science.

The first Power Pose is done by standing straight with your shoulders back, and placing your hands on your hips, and remaining in this resolute, ‘Wonder Woman’ posture, for up to two minutes.

This should help you feel more clear-minded and decisive.

The second technique is based on the theory that making an expansive posture helps people (and animals!) feel more powerful. Expand and raise your arms upwards as is you were shouting “Hooray!”

In fact, saying “Hooray” to yourself can make the technique even more effective. (Even if you start with a genuinely sour, resentful face!)

Do this three times and notice how you feel afterwards.

This is one of my favourite techniques, because if I’m feeling low or grumpy and try to do this, the sheer absurdity of it makes me laugh, and I know I’m on my way from my misery.

You can check one of Tony Robbin’s motivating mini-lessons on breaking your negative thinking here:

You can also visit his website and glance through all his personal and professional development programs here: https://naturegrooves.com/tony-robbins-programs.

Vigorously Move Your Body

A very simple and effective way to improve your state of mind is to move your body. This will change your physical state instantly. Dancing is one of the best ways to trigger joyful, liberating feelings and diminish the bad ones.

Whenever I think of dance as a way of freeing the mind from all troubles, it makes me remember several poignant scenes from Zorba the Greek. However, for most people, it’s impossible to force themself to dance when they’re feeling low (unlike Zorba, who was able to transform any misfortune, deep grief included, into a wild dance).

If dancing is the last thing you’d think of when you’re in a miserable place, I’d highly recommend getting a rebounder and try some jumping instead. I find it incredibly helpful when I feel down; the flying movement, without having to develop much effort, always lifts my mood.

Or, if I feel angry, jumping helps me to get rid of excessive energy. It feels as if I am literally shaking all the bad thoughts off. After all, we are made of energy, and emotions are just various forms of energy. Energy sometimes over-accumulates or gets stuck, making us feel out of sorts, but fortunately we can influence energy by movement. (Hooray!)

Jumping on a rebounder gets the lymph moving, which helps remove toxins from the body, toxic thoughts included.

Have a ‘Spinal Flush’

Spinal Flush is a simple, but very effective massage technique that I’ve learned from Donna Eden, the renowned energy medicine practitioner and teacher. It is based on pressing the areas about an inch outward from your spine, in a downward movement.

Massaging your body can considerably improve both your physical and emotional state, and Spinal Flush reduces a large amount of your accumulated stress and emotional tension by ‘flushing’ the built-up toxins away.

This technique can be a very welcome treat for women experiencing PMS, and for anyone who feels down in the dumps or is simply tired. I can guarantee that after several rounds of Spinal Flush you will feel considerably relaxed and rejuvenated.

I have described the Spinal Flush in more detail in the article Two Simple Techniques for Deep Relaxation, where you can also watch a video of the charming Donna Eden and her husband David Feinstein demonstrate this technique. It’s very well worth learning if you want to give your partner or friend a big treat!

Donna Eden and David Feinstein

Hold the Neurovascular Points on Your Forehead

You can change your physical state and shift your emotions with the following simple technique, also taught by Donna Eden. It involves holding the two frontal eminences on your forehead. They are known as the neurovascular points.

When you are stressed, a large amount of blood flows into your muscles to help you ‘flee the enemy’. Your brain doesn’t know it is only a stressful thought. Holding your neurovascular points will cause the blood flow back to your head and restore calm.

The technique is simple: Put your one hand over your forehead and the other hand over the back of your head, while thinking of something that bothers you.

By doing this, you will be redirecting the blood flow back to your brain, because the electromagnetic fields of your hands can influence your blood flow and draw it towards them. Bringing the blood back to the head will teach the ‘fight or flight’ system of your brain to respond in a calm way, rather than perceiving your every stressful thought as an emergency-trigger.

You can watch a video of Donna Eden showing this technique in my article How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety. You may also try the fun kinesiology-based experiment with lifting the kettle, described in the article. Children love this experiment!

2) Internalise That You Are Enough

When I notice that my confidence and self-esteem are plummeting, and my mind is haunted by images from my youth when I felt bullied or belittled by some of my peers, I listen to the renowned British psychotherapist Marisa Peer (pun purely coincidental). She has developed a unique method partially based on autosuggestion and hypnotherapy, which can ‘rewire’ your mind to free you from old patterns of self-sabotage and negative thinking.

In her talks and workshops, Marisa Peer highlights the following three points:

1) The common denominator of all our emotional issues is that we don’t feel good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, wealthy enough, talented enough…in short: We don’t feel we are enough.

2) The major cause of depression are the harsh, hurtful words you say to yourself.

3) Your own praise is more effective than praise from anyone else.

The main aim of Marisa’s work is to us fully implement the belief that we are enough. Under her guidance, many people have experienced deep healing from the grip of their subconscious mind and limiting beliefs.

If you’d like to learn more about her method, you can watch her free masterclass.

3) Observe The Voice in Your Head

I often notice that there’s a voice in my head which is making a list of all the things I should worry about. However, the very fact that I manage to notice it is good news. In the past, I would not actively notice the voice; I used to think that I was the voice – and that had caused me to feel bad far too often.

As soon as you learn to recognize the anxious, negative self-talk, you are on your way to freeing yourself from it. You will be able to savour the present moment and become a much more content person.

This concept forms a large part of the teachings of the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now, which has been crucial for helping me gain better control over my thoughts and emotions.

His teachings, closely related to Zen Buddhist philosophy, are based on realizing that the constant voice in our head, which is often negative and criticising, doesn’t have to control the way we feel. He teaches how to recognize this ‘background noise’, observe it, and act from the point of conscious presence and stillness, so the judgmental, self-criticising inner banter no longer controls your emotional states.

Eckhart often talks about the liberating power of the present moment. When we are fully present, we cannot be really worried, stressed or anxious because these emotions are caused by ‘too much future’ in our heads. Likewise, when we are fully in the Now, we can’t be wallowing in guilt, regret, past grievances and resentments.

Realising this has been groundbreaking for me. Whenever I feel overcome by worries, I read a few paragraphs from his book, or listen to his talks.

Here are a few of my favourite qutoes from Eckhart’s teachings:

“Focus your attention on the Now and tell me what problem you have at this moment.”

“Do not be concerned with the fruit of your action – just give attention to the action itself. The fruit will come on its own accord.”

“Negativity won’t survive in your conscious presence.”

“Anything you accept fully will take you into peace.”

“You cannot have an argument with a fully conscious person.”

You can find out more about Eckhart Tolle on the page Resources, where, along with his book The Power of Now, I list some of his teachings and talks, available as audio downloads. This includes Enlightened Relationships, Transmuting Suffering into Peace, The Joy of Being, or The Great Western Classics – Eckhart’s reflections of the writings of famous philosophers and mystics.

Remember: Try to not to lose yourself in the voice in your head. Instead, be aware of it, don’t feel bad about having it, just observe it like you would observe someone else. And from that position, have compassion towards ‘that person’, pause for a second and become aware of the stillness and space of the present moment.

If you practice this awareness and presence, you will start experiencing a sense of deep inner peace, and won’t be thrown by external circumstances as much as before. You’ll be building your internal foundations on a rock, and not on the sand, as described in the famous parable from the Gospels.

4) Take some ‘Kwik’ action

Whenever I feel that I need to improve my memory, think more clearly, or boost my overall productivity and motivation, I listen to podcasts of the ‘brain coach’ Jim Kwik. Jim is a memory expert, who has taught memory techniques and learning strategies to thousands of people, including top personalities in sports and entertainment, such as Will Smith, Jim Carrey, Oprah Winfrey, or Richard Branson.

Despite all his achievements, Jim remains a humble, incredibly nice person. I love his approach and warmth. I have attended several of Jim’s courses and coaching live calls, and every time I’ve done so, things have move forward in my life. This is because Jim motivated me to take the required action.

His personal story is very touching. As a child, he suffered a head injury which left him with learning difficulties, especially in the area of memory and reading. He was called by one of his teachers ‘The boy with the broken brain’.

However, because of his love of super-hero comic books, his ‘inner warrior’ didn’t allow him to waste his life away, wallowing in self-pity. He took his handicap as a challenge, and he decided to develop a learning method – not for what to learn, but how to learn.

Now Jim speaks in front of thousands, teaching memory-improving methods to learn and retain information. He can memorise over one hundred names or numbers and repeat them backward. He doesn’t do these ‘super-brain’ feats to show off, but to demonstrate that if a ‘boy with a broken brain’ can, then everyone else can radically improve their cognitive abilities.

Jim is discussing his learning methods and strategies in his book ‘Limitless’, which I highly recommend. The book is available from Amazon where you can read the first few chapters for free in the ‘Look Inside’ section. It includes the moving story of his childhood.

Learning New Skills Increases Happiness

Now back to the title of this section. By ‘taking Kwik action’ I mean several things that Jim recommends to make us feel better about ourselves, while improving our cognitive abilities. One of them is learning new skills, which creates new neurological connections in the brain.

Learning a new skill will naturally make you feel better about yourself. That’s why I’ve included this section in this post as one of the strategies to overcome low states.

One of Jim’s favourite activities to keep the brain sharp is learning to juggle. Absolutely anyone can do that – because even I have learned it. All it took was following a step-by-step tutorial and a bit of consistency.

Jim Kwik

In my article ‘Learn to Juggle for Your Brain Health’, I’ve included a short video of my first juggling attempts (needless to say, rather laughable), but the same video shows a considerable improvement a few weeks later.

The article also includes a step-by-step video tutorial by a professional juggler Coach Bob. To me, it is one of the most comprehensible tutorials for beginners. I learned to juggle by following the video in about two to three weeks.

I highly recommend you give it a go – it’s so uplifting to realise how easy it is to learn something new if we practice just a little, but frequently. And, to get back to the main point of this article, when you fully focus on doing something, you can’t feel miserable at the same time!

5) Meditate

I used to view meditation as a practice for highly spiritually evolved people only. When I went to India as a volunteer in 2004, I tried it there, but I just couldn’t concentrate. I made the conclusion that my mind was too busy for this kind of thing, and forgot all about it.

Only years later I began to learn about the many benefits of meditation, such as slower process of aging, lower levels of cortisol, better sleep and needing fewer hours of sleep to feel fully rested, increased sense of well-being, becoming much less edgy and reactive…the list goes on.

After learning about all these benefits of meditation, I decided to give it a go again, and I am so glad I did! Meditation has been one of the best things I’ve ever committed to as a regular practice. I’d thoroughly recommend it to everyone.

Regular meditation practice can make measurable changes in our brains, resulting in greater emotional resilience and feeling of contentment and inner peace, even if our life circumstances are unstable or adverse.

Research has shown that deep meditation can cause our brains to release a number of highly pleasurable neurochemicals. One of them is anandamide, a neurotransmitter also known as ‘the bliss molecule’ because of its similar effects to THC – the active ingredient in cannabis.

As we keep cultivating these pleasurable states on a regular basis, they eventually become traits. We won’t just experience short term-happiness which is dependable on external circumstances, or other people making us feel good; the positive changes will be hard-wired into our brains, becoming stable and long-lasting.

You will find out that more people are drawn to you because your peaceful presence will make them feel good. And this can be seen as a gift to others – you are contributing to the world by spreading good vibes.

You can read more about meditation, and my own experience with it, in my article ‘The Physical and Psychological Benefits of Meditation’. It includes a description of how to meditate, and a video of a meditation teacher’s talk at Google’s headquarters. Yes, meditation is becoming a productivity tool as well, apart from just a ‘bliss-drug’!

6) Practice Visualisations

The founder of the online learning platform Mindvalley, Vishen Lakhiani, teaches a visualisation technique which is believed to increase our levels of happiness, and improve multiple areas in our lives. He speaks of six areas that are important to have, in order to live a balanced and happy life:

Love and Compassion
Gratitude
Peace
Vision
Sense of control
Feeling supported

Vishen has implemented all the six areas into a visualisation technique that he calls ‘The Six-Phase Meditation”.

I prefer to call it a visualisation rather than meditation, because the type of meditation that I practice is based on doing nothing with my mind, not engaging in any mental activity, including visualisations. This gives my body a deep, healing rest, and all the other benefits mentioned in my article about meditation.

However, I do practice Vishen’s visualization technique daily – usually after I’ve done my deep meditation. It is a powerful technique that is well worth trying and observing its effects during the day.

The visualisation reflects the six areas mentioned above, and is divided into six parts. The goal of the visualization is to enter a state of mind that allows you to clearly see and feel each area, such as gratitude or forgiveness. This should lead to improvement in multiple areas in your life, including better relationships, increased productivity, clearer goals, and gaining new insights that may help with manifesting your dreams.

The Six-Phase Visualisation comprises of:

Compassion
Gratitude
Forgiveness
Visualising our future
Visualizing our day ahead
Blessing

Let’s look at forgiveness as an example.

A famous quote says:

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

Getting rid of negative charges you have inside you towards other people who may have wronged you is a highly important act to heal multiple areas in your life. It’s really like getting rid of the poison in your body. You may even experience physical healing after you have profoundly forgiven someone.

Vishen Lakhiani has studied, taught and successfully practiced the ‘Silva Method’, which is a technique developed to get your brain into an Alpha state, and which is said to improve your performance and productivity. Vishen claims that when he used to work as a salesman, that after actively practicing the Silva method, his sales had doubled.

I have not tried the Silva method yet, but I believe that by practicing the 6-Phase Meditation (or visualisation) you can also enter an Alpha state.

I fully recommend watching Vishen’s interesting and witty talk he gave in Dublin. It’s called ‘A 15 Minute Mind-Hack to Massively Enhance Your Brain Power and Emotional State’, and in this talk, he addresses the whole Six-Phase Meditation in detail. You can watch it here:

7) Try EFT Tapping

EFT is an abbreviation for Emotional Freedom Techniques. It is also known as Tapping, or ‘acupressure for the emotions’. In clinical use, it is referred to as ‘energy psychology’.

Tapping can often rapidly release the emotional impact of stressful or traumatic life events. It has been used by a considerable number of clinical psychologists and therapists who apply this method when treating war veterans and people with various kinds of trauma or phobias.

Although EFT is still an unknown method for many, it has been successfully used by a huge number of people all over the world, and it is perceived by many as one of the most successful psychology self-help techniques ever. Thousands of people have shared how EFT has helped them with issues like stress, anxiety, fear, anger, depression, trauma, or even physical pain.

The process of EFT is done by tapping your fingertips on specific pressure points on the body which are connected to the meridian lines (energy pathways). This sends signals to the part of the brain that controls stress, and leads to restoring emotional balance.

Three EFT Experts to Learn From

One of the best researchers in this field is Dawson Church, Ph.D., the author of The EFT Manual. The book is based on Clinical EFT, a method validated in dozens of scientific studies. More than 100 clinical trials of EFT have been published in peer-reviewed medical and psychology journals.

You can read a free sample of the EFT Manual in Amazon’s ‘Look Inside’ section.

The clinical psychologist David Feinstein, Ph.D. (who you might have noticed in Point 1 with Donna Eden) is another therapist who has been using EFT for years. He is the author of The Healing Power of EFT & Energy Psychology, co-written with Donna Eden and Gary Craig, the actual founder of EFT.

the healing power of energy psychology by david feinstein, donna eden, and gary craig

The third EFT specialist worth mentioning is Nick Ortner from the ‘The Tapping Solution’. He and his sister Jessica are the presenters of the ‘The Tapping World Summit’, an annual online event where they interview dozens of EFT experts, neuroscientists, and holistic healing practitioners.

Nick Ortner is the author of the book The Tapping Solution for Pain Relief, which got endorsed by Tony Robbins, Dr Christiane Northrup, De Wayne Dyer, Jack Canfield, and many more.

I have devoted a whole section to EFT tapping for pain relief in my article ‘How to Relieve Chronic Back Pain’, which includes a video of Nick Ortner demonstrating the tapping process. If you suffer from any physical pain, I do recommend watching the video and give tapping a try.

Apart from helping people relieve their physical pain, Nick Ortner has also developed special tapping programs dealing with specific areas of life that are often the major cause of feeling down or depressed, such as a bad financial situation or problems with weight.

You can download Nick Ortner’s eBooks dealing with these topics and try the tapping process yourself.

If you’d like some guidance with removing limiting beliefs about money and success, and experience how tapping works at the same time, download Nick Ortner’s eBook and try it out:

103 Disempowering Beliefs About Money and Success and How to Eliminate Them – Free eBook

Or, for tapping for weight loss and body confidence, which is an area governed by a whole scale of emotions, you can try the following guide:

103 Disempowering Beliefs About Weight Loss and Body Confidence and How to Eliminate Them in Minutes – Free eBook

8) Use Essential Oils

Apart from their well-known abilities such as decongesting respiratory system, cleaning and nourishing complexion and hair, or even repelling insects, essential oils can have a noticeably uplifting or calming effect on your state of mind.

This is because our sense of smell, known as an olfactory system, is closely linked to the part of our brain that regulates emotions.

Lavender is known for its calming, relaxing effect, rosemary improves concentration and sharpens the mind (it is great for studying or writing articles!) and frankincense can act as a mild antidepressant.

For a large range of 100% pure, therapeutic-grade essential oils, you can visit Ellia’s Essential Oils, where you will find single note essential oils, essential oil blends, carrier oils, roll-ons, aroma diffusers and more.

relaxation calming blend of essential oils

You can search for your ideal oil by its characteristic – e.g. calming, comforting, energising, grounding, motivating, etc. Or by scent – e.g. citrus, mint, floral, or herb & spice.

Learn About The Ayurvedic Use of Essential Oils

If you would like to gain a deeper understanding of how your olfactory system works on your mind, emotions, and biorhythms, you can attend a free 60-minute online workshop with a renowned botanical expert, David Crow.

The Ayurvedic Use of Essential Oils Event with David Crow

In his free video event, David talks about essential oil healing methods based on Ayurvedic principles.

You’ll learn about the different Ayurvedic energy types, and how to determine the best essential oils for your body type.

You’ll also learn about specific ancient recipes for enhancing and relaxing your mood, as well as strengthening your immune system and help with skin problems or respiratory issues by decreasing inflammation.

9) Balanced Diet – Eating Well, And Enjoying it!

Being happy with your body leads to good self-esteem and feeling good in general. Having a balanced diet with sufficient nutrients fuelling our body is crucial for the way we feel. I don’t know anyone who would fuel their car with the wrong type of fuel, but I know quite a few people who regularly do this to their bodies, which backfires on them by having low energy and excessive weight. Many of them try to lose weight with all sorts of diets, only to regain it all soon after the diet’s end.

I’m not a fan of this approach. I am happy with my body, and I never feel I am restricting myself in my diet. In fact, I can get quite indulgent while still keeping my ideal weight.

I’ve recently come across an interesting weight loss and nutrition program with a fun name ‘Losers Welcome’. Their approach resonates with me, because it represents my own approach to food: Include high-quality nutrients in my meals and make them fully enjoyable at the same time.

Losers Welcome - Weightloss and Nutrition Programme

What’s interesting about ‘Losers Welcome’ is that their meal plans are inspired by technology derived from NASA. Check out their welcome video where the fitness trainer Victor Costa explains the following: In order to be happy with your body and reach the desired weight, you don’t have to go on a drastic diet and forget about your favourite foods.

With Losers Welcome, you enter your favourite foods (even pizza or ice-cream!) and based on this information, the team will create a nutritionally balanced menu including your favourites. You’ll also get access to an online fitness training program, including yoga classes if you wish.

This non-restrictive approach really appeals to me, and if I start gaining more weight, I’ll definitely sign up with their program. If this is something that might interest you, visit Losers Welcome page for more information.

10) Give an Inspiring Gift

It may sound very simple, but it is a well known fact: The act of giving increases our levels of wellbeing. It helps us to defocus from our own issues and seeing someone else happy (especially because of us) will increase our own happiness.

Here are my favourite quotes about giving:

“No one has ever become poor by giving.” ―Anne Frank

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” ―H. Jackson Brown Jr.

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” ―Winston Churchill

“For it is in giving that we receive.” ―St. Francis of Assisi

Give an inspiring gift – to someone else but also to yourself – and you’ll notice that perspective of your day will be enhanced with new meaning. A ray of light will shine through your soul, and your inner colours will gain a warmer tint. (At least this is how I feel after giving a present!)

Buddha Groove Gift Store

For inspiring gift ideas, you can visit my article about Buddha Groove, an online gift store with stunning gemstone jewellery and decor, home and garden accents, and many other soul-uplifting items such as Tibetan singing bowls. The page includes a 6-minute video from Nepal with a fascinating demonstration of the healing properties of singing bowls.

The cute meditating frog near the section about meditation (point number 5) also comes from Buddha Groove. A great smile-generator to be placed in the window!

Inspiring Books and Audio, Courses and Events

If you would like to give an inspiring book, CD, online event, or even a retreat, visit Sounds True, a multimedia publishing company whose mission is to spread spiritual wisdom. You can browse through their large store of books, eBooks, audio, video, courses, trainings, and even spiritual retreats. Amongst their authors are Michael Bernard Beckwith, Wayne Dyer, Donna Eden, Marianne Williamson, Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chödrön, Mooji, Caroline Myss, and more.

The topics include psychology, health and healing, yoga and movement, conscious parenting, mindfulness, meditation, or shamanism.

Another website worth visiting is BetterListen!, where you can browse through a large number of inspirational audio downloads divided into categories such as health, wellness, relationships, psychology, personal growth, philosophy, spirituality, or science.

Featured authors include Marianne Williamson, Mark Hyman, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ram Dass, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Bernie Siegel, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, etc.

Experiment and Share

Now you can explore these techniques, choose your favorite ones, and apply them according to your needs. I hope you will find some of them helpful and beneficial as I have done, and that you will share them with others.

Questions or Comments?

Should you wish to ask about anything in this post or contribute with any other tips, do leave a comment below. I’d love to hear about your experience with these techniques, and any others that have worked for you.

The Physical and Psychological Benefits of Meditation

by Lucie | Jun 13, 2020 | Education, Mind, Body & Spirit, Popular, Uncategorized

What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘meditation’? A lot of people see it as a way of spiritual discipline, but have you ever heard about the psychological benefits of meditation, such as increased productivity? Or physical benefits like better sleep? Or, have you been, like me, rather unclear on how to meditate, and why meditate in the first place?

In 2016 I was going through a stressful period caused by my worries about Brexit and my uncertain future in the UK as an EU citizen. I went to see the doctor about my anxiety and panic attacks, and she ‘prescribed’ me a guided meditation app. I gave it a go and quite enjoyed it, but I felt I was too fidgety to be able to practice it regularly; my mind was just too busy to fully utilize this tool. I thought I had to slow down the stream of my excessive thoughts in order to enter that deeply relaxed state of my mind, and although I wanted to, there was never the right time and space to do that.

Why We Don’t Meditate

To my mind, the most common reasons why people don’t meditate are the following two:

1) They are simply not interested – they don’t have a reason or don’t feel the need to meditate. (If they realised what they were missing, I suspect it would be a completely different story!)

2) They are interested but are convinced that they wouldn’t be good meditators, because they are either too busy and don’t have time, or they can’t force themselves to sit still and empty their minds. I belonged to this category.

What’s Changed My Concept of Meditation

My first closer encounter with meditation was through the rock legend Arthur Brown, when I played keyboards in his band, ‘The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’. (More in the article ‘My Musical Journey‘.) During one of our in Germany, he told me about his meditation practice. The idea that meditation and rock’n’roll could complement each other was not new to me – take George Harrison or Donovan, for example – but knowing a meditating rockstar personally motivated me to learn more about the ancient practice. This wild man, who could set a stage on fire (sometimes literally) was always full of incredible energy and inner radiance and needed to sleep less than the rest of the band. I was starting to see that his regular meditation practice somehow played a part in this, although I couldn’t yet fully figure out how exactly.

One of our wild gigs with Arthur Brown, 2009

My second (and most important) encounter with meditation happened in November 2019, when an upbeat New Yorker, a former Broadway actress Emily Fletcher, appeared in my Youtube playlist. She was giving a presentation at Google, with a provocative title ‘Why Meditation is the New Caffeine’.

The way she spoke about meditation was different than what I’ve seen around so far. To my surprise, she was describing meditation as a productivity tool rather than a monk-like discipline, best done in quiet temples or caves.

I was intrigued by the fact that a woman with an air of a highly driven entrepreneur and looks of a catwalk queen was so passionate about meditation, and that she wasn’t delivering her talk at a hippie retreat, but at Google headquarters.

The meditation technique Emily teaches is called ‘Ziva Meditation’ (Ziva is a Sanskrit word for ‘bliss’ ), and it is designed specifically for high achievers.

Her clients include executives at global corporations like Google or Barclays, NBA players, Oscar winners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, busy parents – simply anyone who wants to boost their productivity and gain more hours in the day while having more energy.

One of the things that caught my attention was when Emily mentioned that meditation gives your body with rest which is from 2 to 5 times deeper than sleep. This sounded a bit far-fetched to me at first, but when I noticed her work has been praised by a number of neurobiologists, I became more open to what she had to say. Sleep was exactly the area of my life that needed improvement; I had never felt fully rested and refreshed if I had less than nine hours of sleep, so I decided to explore her work further.

When Emily said: “We meditate to get good at life, not to get good at meditation“, I got curious: How exactly could meditation be affecting one’s life?

I thought meditation was ok for temporary relaxation, to make one feel a bit better for a while, perhaps with the help of a mindfulness app or the calming sound of Tibetan singing bowls, but how could it improve things in one’s life in general?

As I checked Emily’s website and read through the testimonials of her students, I realised that I was about to discover something powerful. Her meditation technique seemed to improve people’s lives on multiple levels.

One testimony title, written by a financial expert, read:

‘It’s like a shot of espresso without the anxious jitters and the crash.’

Another, by a nurse practitioner:

‘If I could prescribe ONE thing to every single patient who walks in my door it would be: Learn meditation.’

And finally, from a pen of CEO:

‘Ziva blows all other meditation trainings away.’

Emily’s talk ‘Why Meditation is the New Caffeine’

Harvard University Research

I checked what other sources said about meditation and found out that in the 1970s, medical researchers at Harvard University began studying the effects of meditation on human body.

They discovered that during the practice of meditation, a process called ‘the relaxation response’ starts happening in the body, and this is what gives the body deep rest that is deeper than the rest we get from sleep.

They also found that through regular meditation that deep rest accumulates in our body over time, and this deepening reservoir of rest results in the many benefits of meditation, including stronger immunity, decreased stress, healing from old traumas and a sense of inner wellbeing.

What Is (And What Isn’t) Meditation

First of all, let’s clarify what meditation isn’t, and this might surprise (and hopefully encourage) quite a number of people:

Meditation is NOT about trying to clear one’s mind or stopping one’s thoughts. In Emily’s words, “the mind thinks involuntarily in the same way your heart beats involuntarily”. Having involuntary thoughts during meditating is a completely natural part of the process; in fact, the more effortless it is, the better.

So what IS meditation? Meditation, as Emily Fletcher defines it, is accessing a verifiable fourth state of consciousness. It is a state which is different than waking, sleeping or dreaming, and which can be verified (measured) by EEG equipment.

When practiced regularly, meditation will start removing long-term accumulated stress from your system, strengthening your body and mind. What’s particularly nice about meditating is that soon after you get into the state of surrender, you’ll be able to feel your body flooding with a whole range of bliss chemicals.

Get High on Your Own Supply

Amongst these main pleasurable neurochemicals, providing you with elevated emotions and higher states of mind, are:

Dopamine

When people use cocaine, it is not the actual drug that causes the instant high. It’s because cocaine causes a build-up of dopamine—which then gives rise to euphoria and creates a rush of energy, which at that moment seems eternal.

Similarly, THC, the main psychoactive component in marijuana, stimulates neurons in the reward system, causing them to release high levels of dopamine, which causes the user to feel euphoric.

Serotonin

Serotonin causes a feeling of euphoria, happiness, and well-being. This feel-good hormone binds with the same receptor as psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.

Both serotonin and dopamine are alkaline in nature, and an alkaline body can repair itself more quickly. It is also a well-known fact that cancer thrives in an acidic environment, and can’t survive in an alkaline and well-oxygenated environment – both of which meditation provides.

Nitric oxide

Nitric oxide is a molecule responsible for vasodilation – widening of the blood vessels, which increases circulation and lowers blood pressure – the best protection against a stroke!

Anandamide

The name derives from the Sanskrit word ananda, meaning ‘joy, bliss, one of the highest states of being’. Anandamide makes me recall the name of the legendary yogi Parahamansa Yogananda. (The name consists of Yoga = Divine union, and Ananda = Bliss.)

Yogananda is the author of ‘Autobiography of a Yogi‘, a spiritual bestseller held dear by many – i.e. Elvis Presley, George Harrison, or Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs, who ordered 500 copies of the book for his own memorial service.

Anandamide, a neurotransmitter also called the “bliss molecule” for the role it plays in happiness and mental well-being, is one of the most important endocannabinoids in our body. Endocannabinoids are biochemicals produced within the body, and they bind to cannabinoid receptors.

THC, the main psychoactive component in marijuana, also binds to these same receptors, and can induce feelings of unity with all that is, elation, pure happiness and peace – but we can induce the same feelings by own internal production of anandamide.

You can increase anandamide by exercising, spending time in “the zone,” (when you are in the workflow, experiencing that slight trance sensation) eating high-quality chocolate (such as my favourite Ombar), and, of course, meditation.

Oxytocin

Also known as ‘bonding hormone’, oxytocin is a naturally occurring compound that acts as both a hormone and neurotransmitter.

It stimulates the production of the bliss molecule anandamide, so by increasing oxytocin, you’ll also increase anandamide.

Oxytocin is naturally released during giving birth, increasing the mother’s bond with her newborn baby, or sexual climax.

On a daily basis, we can increase production of oxytocin by physical touch, hugs, massage, yoga, and meditation.

Why Do People Take Drugs?

The answer couldn’t be simpler – people take drugs to feel better.

Too many of them don’t realise that they can get intoxicated with their own internal neurotransmitters and hormones.

They can evoke those high states in their brains by releasing all these highly pleasurable neurochemicals, without the side effects of addiction and physical and mental damage.

Meditation can save you both the cash and health. You’ll notice that once you’ll start meditating and experiencing all these elevated emotions, you’ll soon become less reliant on external substances to give your mood a boost.

You’ll find yourself gradually cutting down on sweets, cigarettes, coffee, alcohol etc., without making you feel restricting yourself in any way. The reduced need for all these will come completely naturally. In my case, I’ve experienced a surprisingly reduced need for caffeine and alcohol, the two substances that were such an important part of my daily life for years.

I wish all this would be taught in schools one day. The compound noun ‘high school’ would gain a new, more attractive meaning, if we learned about all the exciting neurochemistry which we can access for free.

The ‘Side Effects’ of Meditation:

Your Health Will Improve

Meditation can have a powerful effect on your physical and mental health. It is proven to reduce stress, anxiety, inflammation and help you detox your body while improving immunity, resilience, and emotional wellbeing.

Harvard researchers estimate that 80% of doctor’s visits are related to stress. And while getting stressed short term may not be too harmful to you, staying stressed is.

Adrenalin and cortisol are the main stress chemicals, which, if accumulated in your body, cause premature aging, depression, and a whole range of diseases including autoimmune diseases and cancer.

While stress causes premature aging, meditation is slowing down the premature aging of your body. This is because your body will be receiving a deep, healing rest, removing large amounts of stress, stored in our cellular memory over the years. People who meditate regularly tend to be healthier, and often look younger.

Emily likes to compare a brain to a computer. If we are using too many programs at once and running out of the storage at the same time, we will start losing our computing power. But if we clean and defragment the computer from all the trash, old files and applications, we will regain computing power again.

‘Defragmenting’ our brain and detoxing our body through meditation has the ability to facilitate healing from long-term illness and old traumas, up-levelling your overall performance and improving the quality of your sleep, which will become deeper and more effective. (Emily’s students have reported a 90% success rate with getting rid of insomnia.)

You may also, rather conveniently, notice a decrease in the hours you need to feel fully rested; I can confirm this from my own experience with The Ziva Technique. Before I started meditating, I needed at least 9 hours of sleep, while now I wake up completely rested, without an alarm clock, after 7 hours, sometimes even just 6.5. And at the same time, I have stopped experiencing those afternoon energy slumps! I’m still in a state of amazement over this fact. If any of you reading this is having doubts about meditation (like I was), please do try it for a few weeks and you’ll see for yourself!

Increased Productivity and Creativity

You will experience increased creativity as well as more focus and alertness, which will lead to better decision making and surprising growth in your productivity. Again, I can confirm this from my own experience with The Ziva Technique.

Improved Mental Wellbeing

As already mentioned, one of the most common reasons for people not to meditate is a lack of time in their already jam-packed life. But meditation shouldn’t be looked at as a spa treatment for your brain. In Emily’s words, it is ‘the most important piece of mental hygiene’ you could ever practice.

I also like her provocative statement that ‘leaving your house without meditating should be considered as rude as leaving your house without brushing your teeth.’

This might be hard to understand by people who have never experienced the positive physical and psychological effects of meditation, but for the ones who have, (and I hope that one day you’ll be one of them ) it makes complete sense. If you commit to a regular meditation practice, you can look forward to the following benefits:

Meditation will start shifting things for you internally. You’ll gain adaptation energy which will give you the ability to handle life’s challenges with more ease and grace, and you will be surprised to observe that you are becoming less reactive to people or situations that would previously drive you mad or make you fall to pieces psychologically.

You’ll experience more of the ‘Power of Now’ moments, as described by Eckhart Tolle in his book (one of the best books on modern-day spiritual enlightenment I’ve ever read).

More Time in Your Day

There is really no better usage of your time than the time you take to meditate. You will start to see this return on time investment in your life very soon after committing to regular practice. Meditation actually creates more time in your day! You will find out that one you have prioritised meditation, you will have more hours to play with.

Mindfulness Versus Meditation

It is very important to point out that mindfulness and meditation are not the same. Many people who have been listening to various ‘meditation apps’, thinking they were meditation, have actually been practicing mindfulness instead.

So what is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

Mindfulness

When practicing mindfulness, we are directing our focus. This could include:

Drawing your attention to the present moment, directing your focus on your five senses, being aware of your breath, doing guided visualisations, feeling your body centered and grounded etc.

Both mindfulness and meditation have long been a topic of neuroscientific studies. An interesting fact has been observed during brain scans of people separately practicing mindfulness and meditation.

When they’re practising mindfulness (i.e. drawing your attention to the present moment, directing your focus on your body, etc.) a small part of the front of the brain – the Prefrontal cortex – lights up very brightly.

This reflects the fact that practicing mindfulness improves our clarity and focus, which makes us good at focusing on our tasks, reading, decision making, coming up quickly with ideas and solutions, navigating, etc.

It also helps to deal with stress in the present moment, which is very useful for staying calm during emotionally turbulent situations, from arguments or missed flights to viral pandemics.

But most of us find long practices of mindfulness almost impossible. Either boring or too challenging to keep focusing one’s attention for too long. There is a reason for this: Mindfulness has been designed for monks!

Not too many people are aware of this. Mindfulness requires discipline and concentration, and it makes sense that a modern-day person with a constantly busy mind can find it challenging to practice it for longer than a few minutes.

So that’s the very reason why many people who try to mediate eventually quit. They’ve been simply confusing meditation with mindfulness!

So once again: Mindfulness is great for dealing with stress ‘right now’, i.e. in any situation where we could potentially ‘lose it’.

Meditation

When practicing meditation, we are entering a different state of consciousness by surrendering, letting go, simply doing nothing. The only thing that we ‘do’ is to have a mantra (a specific word or a phrase) which we use as a gentle anchor for our wandering mind. This means peacefully acknowledging all those constantly arriving trains of thoughts, and replacing them with our mantra.

This process of gently replacing thoughts with the mantra will be happening many times during a single meditation, and it is completely normal. It’s important to remember that we are NOT trying to stop our thoughts: Meditation is the very opposite of actively directing our focus (as during mindfulness).

I really like the analogy of slowly submerging into a hot bath after a long day. Imagining this helps me enter my meditation more effortlessly. And as you slowly and gently give in to the ‘cosmic bath of your consciousness’, things will start happening on a neurochemical level, inducing a state of deep peace and harmony with all that is.

When you connect your brain to an EEG machine during waking, sleeping, and dreaming state of consciousness, it shows that your right and left hemispheres are functioning separately.

But in the state of meditation (i.e. the ‘fourth state of consciousness’), the right and left brain hemispheres start to function in unison.

This is important because your left brain is in charge of your critical, analytical thoughts and your concepts of past and future, while your right brain is in charge of your creative, intuitive thoughts, your ‘right now’. So when we’re meditating, our right and left hemispheres are communicating with each other.

In the deep state of meditation, when the mind just lets go of everything and drifts away, brain scans reveal that the whole brain lights up (instead of a small part of the brain, as in mindfulness).

The light is not as intense as during mindfulness (which we need ‘here and now’ for those cancelled flights), but it lights evenly across the whole brain area, which causes an increase in neuroplasticity – the ability of the brain to change itself. It also increases neurogenesis – the brain’s ability to generate new brain cells.

Your right and left hemispheres are connected with a bridge called Corpus Callosum, and brain scans have revealed that this bridge (or connection) is visibly stronger with regular meditators, allowing both hemispheres to communicate better. You will experience that creativity and intuition of your right brain will start to get in harmony with the logical, analytical part of your left brain.

For instance, when we suddenly get a creative idea, we won’t just critically dismiss it (as we would when our two hemispheres act separately), but take some inspired action. We will experience more presence and a sense of inner wellbeing, which in turn will allow us to act without the negative, self-deprecating thoughts that often prevent us from mobilising our inner drive and achieving our goals.

Highlights:

1) Mindfulness and meditations are two different things.

2) Mindfulness is a focus-based mental technique good for improving your concentration and helping you stay calm and grounded in any given moment.

3) Meditation induces brain cohesion and gives the body deep, healing rest to get rid of stress from the past. Meditation can almost feel like a mini-nap, from which you will come up physically refreshed and energised.

4) Both mindfulness and meditation are beneficial – that’s why Emily incorporated both practices in The Ziva Technique, which I’ll be mentioning further down.

What’s the Best Way to Learn to Meditate?

The best way to learn to meditate is by meditating.

How Often and How Long For?

To fully benefit from all the amazing effects of meditation, it is advisable to commit to a 15-minute session twice a day – one in the morning and the other in the afternoon or early evening.

The benefits are well worth it, and as soon as you’ll start experiencing them as I have done, you will look forward to your 15-minute sessions and won’t feel awkward about asking people around you to consider this. I’ve learned to let others know about my discipline. Even during a busy family visits, I don’t compromise on my 15 minutes twice a day, and it is rewarding for me as well as everyone around me, because as a result, I’ll have more energy and patience. Once I was meditating on a rush-hour train with my mum next to me, or with my little nephews running around in the room – they knew that their aunt was ‘recharging’ and would have more energy to play with them afterwards!

Choosing Your Mantra

The Sanskrit word mantra means ‘mind vehicle’ (man = mind, tra = vehicle), and it is a word or a short phrase that you silently repeat (by hearing it in your mind, not saying it) during your meditation. It can be any word, sound, or short phrase you like. Some people chose the word ‘One’, as it can symbolise unity with everything.

Your mantra can also be chosen according to your religious tradition. “Maranatha”, “Shalom”, (Christianity/Judaism) “So Hum”, Sat Chit Ananda”, “Aham Brahmasmi” (Hinduism), “Insha’Allah” (Islam), “Om Mani Padme Hum” (Buddhism), etc.

Preparing for Your Meditation

Sit in a comfortable position. You don’t need to sit cross-legged or in a lotus posture. Your hands can rest on your thighs, or be folded in your lap.

Close your eyes, and take several long, deep breaths to get to the relaxed state. Try to make your out-breath twice longer than your in-breath.

Then focus on your senses – the light you can see through your closed eyes, the sounds around you, and any bodily sensations, and energy flowing through your body. If you think you can’t feel any energy, try this experiment: Look at your hand and then close your eyes. How do you know your hand is still there? Because you feel its energy.

All the above is a mindfulness practice which makes you more conscious of your body and its energies, and prepare you for the actual meditation.

Entering Your Meditation

Then you gently enter the actual meditation state. I always imagine that I am slowly submerging into a ‘cosmic bath’, surrendering to the most relaxed state, letting go of all my preconceptions, and allowing the wisdom of my body to take over.

Now, with the eyes still closed, start mentally repeating your chosen mantra.

Important: Do not say or whisper the word, your mouth and jaw should be completely relaxed. You’ll only repeat that word by ‘hearing it in your mind’. This should be done with relaxed ease, and if any of your thoughts interfere with the mantra, simply acknowledge them and gently return to the mantra.

But why have I mentioned that your mouth and jaw should be relaxed? There’s more behind relaxing your mouth than one would think. There is an important nerve in your tongue called the hypoglossal nerve. Thus nerve flows into the vagus nerve, which then sends relaxing signals to every major organ system in your body. So holding your tongue completely relaxed on the floor of your mouth has the power to calm your whole body. It’s good to remember this ‘trick’ while getting into meditation, and it can equally useful in any situation when you feel stressed, anxious, angry etc.

As You Are Meditating…

Slowly repeat your mantra (in your mind) in a simple, effortless way for about 15 minutes.

As you repeat your mantra, plenty of other thoughts will appear, which is absolutely natural. Do not try to stop them or get frustrated. When you ‘try to make meditation happen’ it will diminish the benefits of meditating, and it could even give you a headache. The key to meditating is to do nothing.

Instead, when thoughts do come, gently return to thinking your mantra in a relaxed, effortless way. I tend to visualise two clouds – one is my mantra, the other contains my thoughts. This image helps me to switch back to my mantra when I find myself inside the ‘thought cloud’.

When you have finished meditating, rest for a few minutes. Never come out of a meditation abruptly.

How Soon to Expect the Benefits

Avoid looking for immediate experiences or signs of progress because that hinders meditation. Just be confident that by ‘doing nothing’ you will start to notice the benefits of meditating during your day soon or later.

You may be generally happier, feeling more at ease, having more drive and focus, getting along better with others, and sleeping better.

How soon will these benefits show depends on how regularly you do your twice-a-day 15-minute session. Some people notice the benefits within days, others in a few weeks’ time.

The best thing is to just get in the habit of meditating regularly and making it non-negotiable. But have compassion with yourself – if you stop meditating for a day or two, just go back and start meditating again.

The meditation procedure described above is a combination of techniques I’ve learned from several different teachers, such as Emily Fletcher, Dawson Church (author of ‘Bliss Brain’ and ‘Mind to Matter’), Deepak Chopra, or Arthur Brown. If you are serious about getting clear and lasting benefits from meditation, I would really recommend following an experienced teacher, such as Emily Fletcher, who teaches the ZIVA Technique. This is what I practice and what has given me some very real results (mentioned further down).

What Is ZIVA Technique

Ziva Technique is a meditation technique based on ancient meditation practices, but designed for people with busy minds and busy lives.

You won’t have to ‘clear your mind’ in order to be successful at meditation and start to experience all the amazing benefits soon. But The Ziva Technique is not only about meditation – it is a powerful combination of mindfulness, meditation and manifesting.

The mindfulness portion is like the appetizer course, consisting of techniques to immediately draw your awareness into the present moment. (This is what most people have tried already – it is what most apps and YouTube videos walk you through.)

But the meditation portion – the ‘main course’ in Ziva Technique’ – is where the real magic happens: your metabolic rate slows, your breathing gets shallower, and you drift into a rest that is 5x deeper than sleep.

Your brain and body will flood with all the bliss biochemicals mentioned above, and you will be getting rid of the life-long amount of stress you have saved in your nervous system on a cellular level.

Last but not least, the ‘dessert’ portion is manifesting, which means getting really clear on your dreams, goals or desires so you can begin to make active choices in your waking state to transform those dreams into reality. You’ll notice that synchronicities will start happening and that you will draw specific people and situations into your life which will help with fulfilling your dreams.

Stress Less Accomplish More

Soon after watching Emily’s talk about meditation and caffeine, I got her book Stress Less Accomplish More. ‘What a non-meditative title..!’, I thought. But perhaps that was the reason I bought it.

The book is based on deep research and years of experience of meditating and meditation teaching. It is written in a warm, personal, and often charmingly witty way. I highly recommend it. You can read a free chapter in the ‘Look Inside’ section.

I learned a lot from the book, and it ignited my desire to experience being taught by Emily in her 15-day online course.

I enjoyed every day of it, and around day 4 or 5 I started noticing visible changes. It was around that time when I started requiring less hour to sleep and getting into the ‘flow state’ during the day a lot more than before.

My ZivaONLINE certificate

Impact of Meditation on My Life

I can easily say that ZivaONLINE has been one of the most life-impacting courses I have ever taken.

I have gone through a number of transformations while noticing the following:

– Deeper, more restful sleep (decreased need of 9 hours to 7, sometimes even 6.5), and no afternoon energy crashes

– More energy, focus, and clarity of mind, reading with more focus and retaining information better

– More tasks accomplished in the day (which now feels longer), and with less effort, experiencing more states of flow

– Less need for reactivity and getting into arguments, staying more present in tense situations

– Feeling more connected to others, releasing negative feelings more quickly, and forgiving more easily

– A huge decrease of involuntary negative thoughts and inner critical commentaries

– Almost zero need for stimulating my body with caffeine, or relaxing it with alcohol

I can still have both if I want, but I’ve noticed that their effect on my body is much stronger since I started meditating. So if I still feel like having a coffee or a beer, I’ll have it in a much smaller quantity and still enjoy it. I also think that the fact I require less sleep can be attributed to my reduction in caffeine and alcohol intake.

– An annoying habit of biting my nails stopped (I used to do this when I was nervous and edgy, especially when affected by caffeine)

The Ultimate Portable Device

I sincerely hope that this article has helped you clarify some common misconceptions about meditation. The myths which prevent a majority of people from one of the best things they could be doing for themselves and others, by having so much more to offer by literally recharging themselves with meditation.

Who wouldn’t like to have more energy, a new zest for life, increased creativity, and the ability to handle demands and stressful situations so much better than when ruled by stress?

I am convinced that if everyone knew how easy it is to meditate and what powerful effect it can have on our lives, the whole world would be meditating by now, and that, in Emily’s words, ‘coffee shops would be replaced by meditating stations’.

So go ahead and try the ‘ultimate portable device’. You will soon start to notice some very interesting things happening in your life as I’ve seen in mine.

Learn More About the Ziva Technique

Here are a few things you could do to learn more about this transformative meditation technique:

– Check out Emily’s book ‘Stress Less Accomplish More’.

A quote from the book’s introduction:

‘This book is dedicated to everyone who has “tried meditation” and felt like a failure. You are not a meditation failure; you just haven’t been taught yet. This book will teach you.’

I recommend reading the first chapter (for free, by clicking on ‘Look Inside’) which includes the foreword by Mark Hyman, M.D., and preface by Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., so you can have an idea what sort of treats are in store for you.

– Find out more about Ziva Technique online course.

Taking this course has caused me to start thinking about my life as ‘before meditation’ and ‘after meditation’…

– Watch Emily’s talk about meditation for Mindvalley:

– See what Russel Brandt has to say about meditation:

Let’s finish with the words from the director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, Mark Hyman, M.D.:

‘I encourage everyone to check out the Ziva Technique. I can honestly say I can’t live without it. Now I don’t have time not to meditate. “Stress less, accomplish more.” It’s for real, trust me.’

Any questions or comments about your own experience (or non-experience) with meditation are very welcome.

6 Non-Invasive Pain Relief Techniques

by Lucie | Jun 9, 2020 | Energy Medicine, Mind, Body & Spirit, Popular

Edward Munch – ‘Vampire’

This article explores six non-invasive pain relief techniques that I have learned from the legendary energy medicine practitioner and teacher Donna Eden. If you are experiencing pain, I encourage you to experiment with these techniques and see what works for you. I hope you will find some of them helpful, and if you do, please share them with others.

The Nature of Pain

Physical pain, in its various forms and degrees, can range from uncomfortable, unpleasant, to incapacitating and debilitating.

However unwelcome and inconvenient pain always is, it is a useful tool for recognising that our body needs our conscious attention to get things back to normal, and possibly avert a much worse health issue.

Pain insists very clearly that we should start taking care of our body. If we don’t get pain, we might not be motivated enough to take care of our body through healthy diet and exercise etc. But when pain strikes, we can be fast enough to try and get ourselves better. To paraphrase Marcel Proust, we make promise to kindness and knowledge, but we obey pain.

Most of us immediately reach for painkillers, or rush to the doctor or a pharmacy to get some, so we can start pain-free again. What was taken for granted before – our normal state without pain, is now regarded as something so desperately desired that we’d give just anything to get it back.

Using Energy to Diminish Pain

Although painkillers can be highly effective in diminishing the pain, in most cases they don’t cause the actual healing – they don’t really treat the underlying issue behind the pain. Through working with energies, we can often achieve results that are much more beneficial to our body then just numbing the pain with chemicals. What’s more, the results of such treatments can be long-lasting.

Pain As Congested Energy

One of the brilliant things about using energy for treating pain is that when we free the stuck / congested energy in the body, the pain often diminishes very quickly and noticeably. And to move the congested energy is often easier than people realise!

Also, stimulating acupuncture points can often increase pain-suppressing endorphins, and release opioid peptides, which are highly effective in relieving pain associated with autoimmune diseases, postoperative discomfort, period cramps, lower back pain, tendonitis, etc.

There are a number of techniques to diminish pain; here are a few examples of the techniques I’ve used with success:

1.Breathing Out The Pain

This is one of the simplest techniques which can be combined with other more complex ones, but it can be helpful even on its own. Since energy can be moved by breathing, we can gain some degree of control over our pain by breathing in through our nose (with mouth closed), an breathing out through our mouth.

Exhaling can release some energy involved with the pain. It’s good to visualise that on the outbreath we are releasing all our physical tension from our head to your toes.

This technique was also popularised by a French obstetrician Fernand Lamaze, who in the 1950s introduced a method called psychoprophylaxis, also known as ‘Lamaze breathing technique’, which helps women in labour to better manage contraction pains, through the use of controlled breathing and conscious relaxation.

The best way to remember this technique is to think of smelling a rose (for the inbreath) and then blowing out a candle (for the outbreath).

2.Tapping

Tapping is another effective technique which is familiar to the body, as it resembles the heartbeat. You’ll be freeing energy in the congested area. This technique is specially good to use for aching muscles – e.g. after carrying heavy luggage.

If, for example, you experience pain in your shoulders, you can use your fingers or a hairbrush to do the tapping. (I particularly like using a wooden hairbrush.) Keep tapping for about a minute, while breathing in through your nose and out though your mouth, visualizing the pain being tapped out of the sore area.

3. Stretching

If you gently stretch the area around the epicentre of the pain, you can often experience some relief. This is due to smoothing, evening out, or freeing the energy that has over-accumulated at the site where you feel the pain. (This technique is obviously not suitable for open wounds or burnt skin)

4. Pinching (‘Spindle Cell Mechanism’)

Using your thumb and your forefinger, VERY lightly pinch the skin around the painful area. This super-light pinch is powerful enough to free clogged energy in the painful area through communicating with your nervous system, informing it that pain is no longer necessary.

5. Siphoning the Pain

As the left side of our body receives energy, and the right sight releases it, this method can provide considerable relief from pain by placing our left hand on the painful area of the person we want to help. Our left hand will be pulling the excess energy from the sore area – ‘siphoning’ it off the other person, and thus providing him/her with relief. The energy will be draining off your right hand. Hold your right hand away from your body, facing down, and out.

Although this doesn’t often happen, it’s good to be aware of the risk of the energy of the other person being caught in your own body while performing this technique; you may start feeling pain yourself. This happened to me recently when I was treating my husband.

If this happens, stop at once and shake your hands off energetically. (I did exactly that, and then, to free my right hand from pain completely, did another healing technique on myself, described below. My pain was gone in less than ten minutes.)

6. Zone Tapping

One of the ways to stop or diminish pain is a technique called Zone Tapping. This technique is also practised in foot reflexology. I have used this technique on quite a few people including myself, and I’m happy to say that in most cases this simple treatment resulted in noticeable pain relief. According to this discipline, the body is divided into 6 zones (Figure 1 and 2).

First, you first locate the source of the pain on your body, then look it up on the diagram and determine on which zone the point of your pain lies. (This technique is more suitable for localised pain, rather than diffuse, widely spread pain)

You’ll then tap specific points on your wrists or your ankles, depending on which zone your pain is, and also whether it is on the front or the back of your body.

The softer parts of the body, which are in front your body and inside the limbs, (where hair doesn’t grow as easily) are classified as YIN.

This also includes the bottoms of your feet and the palms of your hand. It is easy to remember the yin parts especially when we think of the hairless areas of the arms and legs.

The slightly tougher areas of your body, especially the back, are considered YANG. This also includes the backs of your hands, the tops of your feet, the outsides of your limbs (where hair can grow) and the back of your head and neck.

To practise the zone tapping, follow these steps:

1. Locate your pain on your body and then look it up on the map of the body (Figures 1 and 2)

Figure 1

Figure 2

2. Find the number of the zone which flows through the area of your pain.

3. If your pain is anywhere above your waist, you will be tapping one of the allocated points on your wrist;

If the pain is anywhere below your waist, you will be tapping one of the corresponding points on your ankle.

(Note: ‘A’ in the diagram means Ankle, and ‘W’ means Wrist.

If your pain lies on the front (YIN) part of your body, you’ll be tapping on the INSIDE of your ankle or your wrist. (Remember: Yin = Inside)

If the pain lies on the back (YANG) of your body, you’ll be tapping the OUTSIDE of your ankle or your wrist. (Remember: Yan = Outside)

4. Find the point on the wrist (for pain above the waist) or ankle (for pain below the waist) that corresponds with the point of your pain. (Figures 3 and 4)

Figure 3

Figure 4

For example, if your pain is on the front of your head, near the centre, it will be in zone 1.

As it is above the waist, we’ll be tapping on the wrist.

And as it is located on the front (YIN) of the body, we’ll be tapping inside the wrist.

Then we’ll find W1 (Wrist 1) point on the diagram.

The Tapping Procedure:

1. Tap the point about ten times, and then stop for ten seconds.

2. Tap for 1,5 minutes (90 seconds) more. I usually tap in a one second interval and count to ninety.

3. In about ten minutes the pain should ease or disappear. If it doesn’t, do the same procedure on the opposite side of the body.

Note: If you are unsure whether you were tapping the correct point, you can energy test each of the points first. Press each of the points, and at the same time push the treated person’s arm (which is extended in 90 degrees from the body) down.

The person will lose energy on the zone that needs to be tapped and will remain strong on the other ones.

Back and Shoulder Pain

If you are suffering from back or shoulder pain, I recommend you visit my article ‘How to Relieve Chronic Back Pain.’

I hope you’ve found this article helpful. If you have any questions or comments, leave a comment below. I wish you a pain-free day!

BY LUCIE DUN

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How to Stop and Prevent Panic Attacks

by Lucie | Jun 8, 2020 | Mind, Body & Spirit, Popular

In this post, I’ll be exploring a number of ways to stop and prevent panic attacks. I’ve written the following lines in the hope that they will help you answer the important questions – i.e. how to stop a panic attack, how to diminish its symptoms, and, ideally, how to prevent further panic attacks and stop having them altogether.

All the methods have been tried and tested by me because I have had the ‘pleasure’ to experience panic attacks a number of times. I am glad to say that since I have started practising these steps, my panic attacks have stopped. I hope it will be the same for you, if you are currently experiencing them.

Why Do We Get Panic Attacks?

Those who have not (yet?) experienced a panic attack, might perhaps imagine it as some stronger form of nervousness or increased anxiety. This is all true, but only a person who has experienced it knows how dreadful it is to suddenly start losing control over everything. The intense surge of fear caused by thoughts like ‘These may be my last moments before death!’ is hard to describe.

Panic attacks can come as a complete surprise, especially when you think that everything is going fairly well in your life. They can happen as a delayed reaction to stressful events, various life challenges, over-worrying, thought-processes that we might not even be consciously aware of, or even just not enough quality sleep and too much caffeine!

A Number of Symptoms

Panic attacks are always overwhelming, and the symptoms can be both physical and psychological. They often manifest through a sudden breathing difficulty, especially when trying to inhale. The choking sensation can be terrifying.

Or, you may suddenly feel as if you can’t swallow. A wave of extreme weakness can overcome you, and your heart can start beating very quickly. The increased heartbeat is probably the scariest part of the whole experience, because how can you be sure that you are not having an actual heart attack?!

You may also start sweating, trembling, or feeling uncomfortably restless, with a strong urge to move, fidget, or run away. Some people even get sick.

What’s particularly scary is the unfamiliar sensation of becoming detached from your own mind. It can feel as if you are suddenly not in our body but disappearing from it. Or as if you are falling into a black hole. You may be overcome by a horrible sensation of going insane.

My Own Experience

I had a number of panic attacks in my twenties and thirties. One of them happened at home and completely out of the blue – when I was washing the dishes. All of a sudden, something was not right. And it was changing from ‘not right’ to ‘terribly wrong’. I thought I was beginning to lose my mind.

That was the scariest part – not to be in control of my own mind, feeling that my normal perception of myself and the world is dramatically changing, and fearing that my life is possibly being taken away from me.

I kept asking myself: “Where am I?” My reality suddenly felt completely alien. I was so much in need to get to the familiar state of normality that I grabbed a piece of bread and started to eat it, concentrating on every bite. The taste of the bread was something familiar to me, and was hoping that it would help me to get back from this weird trip.

When, many centuries later, (which, in reality, could have been less than 20 minutes) I came back to the so desired normal state, I found chunks of bread everywhere – on the kitchen floor, all over the carpet in the living room…a strange sight indeed!

An Unwanted Departure

‪I even thought that my body was becoming paralyzed, perhaps by a stroke, because for periods of time I couldn’t speak or open my eyes. Also, I had a clear notion of electricity rising up all my limbs and then leaving them. I was convinced this was what dying must have felt like.

I was afraid I was losing my mind – quite literally. I was trying to control my breathing, but even that was still a struggle. I was hyperventilating and could feel my heart racing extremely fast.

I kept losing consciousness periodically and experienced a few delusions. At one point, I remember my husband holding a cool sponge on my forehead but for some time I was convinced I was an old dying lady at a hospice and my husband was an old nurse!

Then I felt I was being hurled into space with no point of return. I had a clear sensation of falling at a nauseating speed, and I could hear my own thoughts yelling at me “Your time has come – you are dying!”

What to Do When You Have a Panic Attack

Panic attacks may hit you quite quickly. You might be sitting on a train, standing in a supermarket queue, watching TV at home, or hanging out at a party. It can start absolutely anywhere, unfortunately even on the motorway, with you behind the wheel.

Here are a few strategies you can use to try to stop or diminish a panic attack when you feel it’s coming or when you’re already experiencing it:

1. Try to Breathe Slowly and Deeply

Like me, you might be hyperventilating as a result of a panic attack, and this symptom can add to your anxiety. However, if you consciously focus on slow, calm, deep breathing, you can significantly reduce the scary symptoms of a panic attack. If you can gain at least partial control of your breathing, the hyperventilating will decrease and your mind will become calmer.

When you breathe in, (ideally through your nose) put your hand on your belly and try to breathe into your belly. Imagine it’s an inflatable balloon.

2. Acknowledge a Panic Attack Is Not Life-Threatening

Once you have recognized that panic attacks are temporary, and mainly, not life-threatening, your own mind will help you calm down and regain control more quickly. The main thing is to shake off that fear of dying, which is the most horrifying symptom of a panic attack.

By recognizing that you’re having a panic attack instead of a heart attack, you can remind yourself that this is temporary, it will pass, and that you’re ok. Try to diminish the fear that you may be dying or going insane. These feelings are typical symptoms of a panic attack. Once you recognise that you are having ‘just a panic attack’, you will be able to focus on all the techniques to reduce your symptoms.

3. Try Energy Medicine Techniques

In the following video you’ll see the renowned teacher of energy medicine, Donna Eden, and her husband, clinical psychologist David Feinstein, present three stress and anxiety-releasing techniques which may be a great help while you are going through a panic attack.

One of these quick-help techniques is holding your ‘Neurovascular points’, which Donna is mentioning in this video.

4. Find Something to Focus On

As panic attacks can cause a scary feeling of detachment or separation from reality, your main wish will usually be to get back to reality as quickly as possible.

What I’ve found helpful is to concentrate on familiar sensations, such as rubbing my hands on my thighs, chewing something, or stroking my hands.

However, don’t try to run away or do vigorous exercise – you want to calm down, so you might want to do some gentle stretching instead.

5. Calmly Talk to Others

You can share what you are going through with others. Try to describe the symptoms objectively, and then reassuring yourself (and them, if they are equally scared as you are) that this state will eventually pass.

6. Lie Down and Raise Your Legs

If you can, you may want to lie down and raise your legs. I was advised this by a doctor who had seen me during one of my panic attacks. This will help your blood flow back to your head, and you may gain mind control more quickly. It may also help your body relax and ease the overall tension which makes your anxiety worse.

7. Use Soothing Essential Oils or Calming Teas

The best bet is stress-relieving lavender in a form of essential oil, which you can spread on your palms and gently breathe in.

Or if you find the scent of pure lavender too intense, you can try a more sophisticated blend of essential oils, such as the Relaxation Calming Blend by Ellia.com. (You’ll find this specific blend under the category ‘Roll Ons’.)

A cup of soothing chamomile tea might also help you relax if you’re lucky to have someone near you to make it for you. Somehow I can’t picture myself making myself a cup of tea while in the middle of a panic attack. For that reason, it is good to have a flask of essential oil at hand and ideally use the oil with a combination of breathing techniques, such as the 4-7-8 technique mentioned in the next point.

8. Do the 4-7-8 Technique

The 4-7-8 technique leads your mind and body to focus on regulating your breathing, rather than your worries, anxiety, or negative thoughts. Dr. Weil describes it as a “natural tranquilizer for the nervous system.” People who practice this technique say that it can calm a racing heart or frazzled nerves, so it might well help someone experiencing a panic attack as well!

How to do the 4-7-8 Technique:

Inhale for a count of four.
Hold your breath for seven counts.
Exhale for a count of eight.

Repeat this cycle four times.

Watch Dr. Weil demonstrate this technique in the following video.

How About People with Severe Panic Disorders?

In the second video, Dr. Weil talks about the success of the 4-7-8 technique for serious panic attacks. You will find that passage at 7:20. He says that people who have anxiety attacks have one thing in common: Their breathing becomes irregular, rapid, or shallow. However, if you practice the 4-7-8 technique, where the breathing is deep, slow, and regular, it’s almost impossible to be overcome with anxiety at the same time.

Dr. Weil has taught this technique to patients with severe panic disorders. He gives an example of one of his patients whose anxiety disorder was very severe, to the point that he was dependent on valium, but after practicing the technique regularly for two years, he got control of the condition and got off all the medication.

The ‘4-7-8’ Can Help with Insomnia

If you happen to suffer from insomnia, try experimenting with this mothod before falling asleep! The 4-7-8 technique has helped people with sleeping disorders, from difficulty falling asleep to shallow sleep, interrupted sleep, or insomnia.

Practising this technique will decrease your tension and allow your body to relax, which will naturally lead to better sleep. If you would like to learn more techniques for helping you sleep better, see my post 20 Tips for Better Sleep.

How to Prevent Future Panic Attacks

Be Mindful of Your Caffeine Intake

My own panic attacks were often triggered after drinking a larger amount of coffee. The stimuli we get from caffeine is due to our body releasing higher amounts of adrenaline, a hormone that raises blood pressure. From a nice initial kick, this can often turn to feeling edgy or anxious, and can lead to a panic attack.

Practice the 4-7-8 Technique

Practice the breathing method mentioned above (point 8). If you incorporate it into your daily routine and do it twice a day, as Dr. Weill recommends, you may prevent future panic attacks.

Make Sure You Get Enough Quality Sleep

Be mindful of getting proper, deep, restorative sleep to keep your body and mind in balance. I have devoted a whole post to this topic, called 20 Tips for Better Sleep.

Meditate

One of the best ways to prevent future panic attacks from happening is regular meditation. When you meditate, your body experiences a deep physical and emotional de-stressing process, which will have a great impact on your nervous system, your sleep, your focus, your mood, and much more.

Since I’ve started meditating regularly, I haven’t had one single panic attack. It is really, really worth trying. I have written about it in my article The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation, where I look quite deep into the science of this ancient practice, and where I list all the positive effects of meditation which I have personally experienced.

Keep Your Body Moving

There are plenty of ways to do this, from common physical exercise to moving your subtle energies through Energy Medicine or EFT Tapping. If you’d like to find out more, check my posts Ten Things to Do When Feeling Down, where I am exploring such techniques.

Do The Daily Energy Routine

The Daily Energy Routine is a set of exercises designed to balance and strengthen energetic systems in your body. This leads to greater resilience, the ability to fight illnesses, and generally feeling better. I have been doing this short routine every day for almost two years and I believe that these exercises have contributed to keeping my panic attacks at bay. I also haven’t had a cold since I started this daily routine. I highly recommend trying it out!

Panic Attacks Can Serve Us (Before We Get Rid of Them for Good)

Panic attacks are always extremely unpleasant, but once we manage to control our fear, we can start taming their symptoms and eventually condition our mind to avoid these states altogether.

They can, in their own way, serve us as a useful indicator that some area in our lives might need our attention – so a panic attack can actually prove a useful tool for solving a problem we were subconsciously avoiding.

I hope you have found this article helpful. If you have any questions or would you like to share your experience or opinion, leave a comment below.

TIPS ON STRENGHTENING YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

by Lucie | Jun 7, 2020 | Education, Energy Medicine, Mind, Body & Spirit, Popular

We’ve all learned in the past few years how important is to keep our immune system strong. Over the past few years, I have been exploring various ways of strengthening the body’s resilience, especially those that could be easily implemented into my daily routine.

I’m happy to say that I found several tools and practices that caused a remarkable improvement in my health. I used to get colds at least every three months, but since I’ve started implementing these techniques, my immunity has become much stronger. There was a period when I hadn’t had a single cold for more than four years in a row!

In this post, I will mention my three favourite tools for a strong immune system.

1) ENERGY MEDICINE TECHNIQUES

Do the Daily Energy Routine (or parts of it) daily – it only takes a few minutes.

The Daily Energy Routine is a set of simple but powerful exercises by the legendary healer Donna Eden, the founder of Eden Energy Medicine. She was born with the ability to see energies and as she learned to work with her energy systems, she managed to heal herself from a number of serious conditions including Multiple Sclerosis. She has taught thousands of people how to empower themselves by using their own energy to heal themselves and stay healthy.

I met Donna Eden and her husband, clinical psychologist David Feinstein in 2019. I highly admire their work. In 2023 I completed the Eden Energy Medicine Certification program and I’d love everyone to learn about these incredible self-healing tools. The Daily Energy Routine is one of them.

Each of the exercises in the Daily Energy Routine is designed to balance and strengthen specific energetic systems in your body, leading to greater resilience, the ability to fight illness, and feeling better in general.

Follow the steps in Donna Eden’s video and see how you feel after going through the exercises!

Below is an outline of the main points from this video. It is best to watch the video first and use these points as a reference afterwards.

THE DAILY ENERGY ROUTINE:

1. THE FOUR THUMPS:

i) Cheekbones – grounding

ii) Collarbone – vitality

iii) Thymus – immune system

iv) Ribcage under breasts – metabolizing

2. THE CROSSOVER SHOULDER PULL – gives you energy, clarity of mind, supports healing

3. THE CROSS CRAWL – harmonizes energy patterns, helps the brain to function better

4. THE WAYNE COOK POSTURE – helps to stabilise emotions and improves focus

5. THE CROWN PULL – supports the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid, brings fresh energy into your head, good against headaches

6. CONNECTING HEAVEN AND EARTH – sends healing energies through your body, sends out built-up toxins

7. THE ZIP UP – strengthens your energetic field, protects against negative energies

8. THE HOOK UP – connects the central and governing meridians (at the front and back of your body) which creates a strong force, sending spiraling energy around the body and positively affecting all your energy systems. This simple exercise can sometimes stop a seizure. (Energy Medicine by Donna Eden, pg 99)

Note: During each exercise breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth

MORE IMMUNITY BOOSTING TECHNIQUES

I also recommend trying some of the exercises that were shown by Donna Eden and David Feinstein during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the video, Donna and David present several powerful immunity-boosting tools that can be done anywhere. I remember following the exercises and feeling much better instantly. I use these techniques frequently, and tech them to my clients.

DONNA’S IMMUNITY BOOSTERS – PART 1

1. THUMP YOUR THYMUS – to boost your immunity

2. MASSAGE THE POINTS UNDER YOUR KNEES (the ‘Stomach 36’ acupressure points) to stimulate nurturing energy and strengthen your immunity

3. MASSAGE YOUR NEUROLYMPHATIC REFLEX POINTS to help the lymph flow and remove toxins. These points can be found at multiple locations:

– at the seams of your arms (to move toxins out of the body)

– all around your chest (to move congestion out of your lungs)

– on the sternum (to help overcome illnesses and give you vitality)

– under your breast (for the stomach and liver reflex points)

– under the ribcage (massaging your spleen reflex points is particularly beneficial for your immune system)

– under the ribcage (all along) – the small intestine reflex points are also very important for your immunity

– an inch above the belly button, and an inch to each side (adrenal reflex points, great against stress and too much adrenalin)

– the sides of your thigh (outside: Large intestine reflex points / Inside: Small intestine reflex points)

– go down the side of your spine and massage all the neurolymphatic points (‘The Spinal Flush’). This is extremely cleansing and rejuvenating.

4. THE HOOK UP – connects front and back meridians which strengthens your aura and protects you against negative energies.

5. HOLD SPLEEN MERIDIAN ACUPRESSURE POINTS (follow Donna’s instructions in the video)

First pair: 2-3 minutes (do this twice – first on one side of your body, then on the other)

Second pair: 1 – 2 minutes (again, hold the points on both sides of the body – with this pair, it’s is easy to hold both sides in one go)

Holding these points strengthens your immune system and can also generate more inner joy.

6. HOLD / MASSAGE THE ‘LOWER DANTIAN’ CALMING POINTS:

Drop two inches below your belly button and press all your fingers into the area. There is an energy center called the Lower Dantian, and holding it calms fear and panic.

Here is a follow-up on the immunity-boosting video above, with additional tips and exercises.

DONNA’S IMMUNITY BOOSTERS – PART 2

1. MASSAGE THE TRIPLE WARMER POINT (see instructions at 0:45) to mobilise the protective force of this meridian in the optimal way

2. MASSAGE NEUROLYMPATICREFLEX POINTS (Kidney 27 – under your collarbone corners – see 1:52) – to help kidneys function well, help all the other meridians flow in the right direction

3. ‘RAKE’ YOUR NEUROLYMPHATIC REFLEX POINTS around the lung area to help them work well

4. DO STRETCHING EXERCISES e.g. the Ileocecal and Houston valves (3:10) – to help valves in your body open and keep poisons moving out of your body

5. BREATHE DEEP (especially on the out-breah)

6. STRETCH YOUR MOUTH WITH STAINLESS STEEL SPOON – to activate important meridians (4:19)

7. KEEP TAKING VITAMIN C to keep your immune system strong.

2) MEDITATION

Try meditation. I can’t recommend it enough. I was introduced to meditation (perhaps rather surprisingly) by ‘The God of Hell Fire’ Arthur Brown (a 60’s icon singer I used to play keyboards with).

If you’ve ever seen him on stage and wondered where he gets all that crazy energy, I can tell you – after my own experience – that this might well have something to do with it. Meditation is proven to give you more energy, strengthen your immunity, decrease your stress levels, improve your sleep, making you more creative, and much more.

See my article about the numerous benefits of meditation, where I share my own experience with regular meditation practice. If you are a busy person, it is exactly the right thing for you, because it will actually create more time in your day. You’ll find out for yourself as soon as you start practicing it regularly. Together with Donna Eden’s Daily Energy Routine, it’s one of the best things you could be doing for your immune system.

3) HYDROGEN WATER

Drink good quality (filtered or bottled) water infused with hydrogen. This smallest and lightest molecule in the whole cosmos has enormous potential and can power up your cells and provide numerous benefits to the body, from anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, to anti-allergic and anti-aging.

Molecular hydrogen influences metabolic pathways and upregulates the body’s own antioxidants, selectively targeting harmful radicals, thus protecting cells from damage and reducing oxidative stress, which is linked to aging and various diseases. It plays a key role in supporting the immune system.

For me, this has been one of the greatest discoveries ever. I drink hydrogen water daily and feel uplifted, energised and balanced.

Another positive consequence of drinking molecular hydrogen is that I stopped craving late-night snacks, which used to be my long-term bad habit.

You can find all the relevant information about molecular hydrogen on my Home page.

BY LUCIE DUN

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How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety

by Lucie | Jun 6, 2020 | Energy Medicine, Mind, Body & Spirit, Popular

Zen-Inspired Stone Moon Tealight Holders

If you’d like to learn how to relieve stress and anxiety through a few simple but effective techniques, then you are in the right place. The renowned practitioner of energetic healing, Donna Eden, shows several techniques that can calm your emotions in less than a minute. Plus, if you practice these techniqes often, you will contribute to building your long-term emotional resilience.

The Constant Flow of Energy and Emotions

The saying ‘Nothing ever stays the same’ applies to everything, and our emotions are no exception. Since our energy is in a constant flow, emotions are bound to fluctuate as well. Everyone deals with this differently – some people have more natural resilience, while others may become extremely vulnerable. To be able to master emotional control is one of the most valuable skills to have, and the good news is that we can use our own energies to gain more control over our states.

Stress and its Effects

One of the most common causes of feeling bad is stress. It has an ability to impact every single system in your body, and its effects can either be immediate and visible, or gradual and not too obvious in the first stages. It often accumulates over time, and then finally hits us in a form of a physical illness or depression.

Many of us go through our day in the state of emergency response without even realizing it, but the stress keeps building up in our body whether we’re aware of it or now, and it will take its toll on our health eventually.

What Happens in Our Bodies During Stress

When our thoughts about everyday problems take over us, we don’t see what is happening in our body: Up to 80% of the blood leaves our forebrain to provide strength to our muscles to deal with the potential danger, and our bloodstream gets filled with stress chemicals. In that state, our biochemistry is not very different from the one of a Cro-Magnon man facing a wild beast. The advanced cognitive abilities that we have developed become dimmed. As the reactive primitive parts of the brain take over, our ability to respond accordingly to our current evolutional stage is considerably inhibited.

Inner Emergency Triggers

One of the clearest illustrations of this concept is post-traumatic stress disorder; People afflicted with this condition can display extreme, exaggerated reactions to seemingly harmless stimuli. For instance, overhearing someone saying something, seeing something on TV or encountering a certain scent can trigger a traumatic memory. This makes their body think they are facing a mortal threat, and they react accordingly.

But similar, if a less dramatic scenario applies to most of us when we get stressed, anxious or angry. Our body sets in motion all the biochemical emergency procedures which are not really required. However, our body doesn’t distinguish between the real-life threat and something far less endangering, and all these stress processes can have a negative impact on your health.

Rewiring Your Nervous System

The good news is that we can gradually reprogram our autonomic nervous system, so it no longer triggers those extreme stress responses, deeply ingrained in us biologically millions of years ago. By teaching our nervous systems these new tricks, we can keep and even strengthen our health.

This reprogramming can be achieved by teaching our nervous system to keep the blood in the forebrain, which will result in a better ability to think clearly even in the midst of a seeming crisis. And when our brain gets used to these new ways of processing usually stressful impulses, we’ll no longer react impetuously, but we’ll rather respond to the situation by a much more down-to-earth way.

The First Aid Kit for Your Nerves: Holding the Neurovascular Points

All this can be achieved by an incredibly simple energy exercise – holding the neurovascular points on your head while thinking of a stressful situation / disturbing memory, which will cause primitive brain centres to respond in a calm way, rather than as in an emergency. The more you do this exercise, the more you’ll notice that manage that the stress-response cycle is not activated when a certain situation or a memory occurs.

This works because your stress reactions are based more on physical responses rather than psychological. When we hold the neurovascular points, blood flows from the reactive brain up into the prefrontal cortex, where we can solve the issue with more clarity and decrease the emotional reactivity. So rather than blindly react, we’ll be able to respond to an otherwise stressful issue with healthy detachment.

Try in Now

Put your one hand over your forehead and the other one over the back of your head. Take several deep breaths, close your eyes and feel the calm pulse in your hand or on your forehead.

You can also try a variation of this exercise by placing the pads of your fingers on your forehead, covering the two slight indents on your forehead, while your thumbs rest on your temples.

Stay like this for a while, ideally for a few minutes – according to the level of your stress. Doing this will help the blood return your forebrain, and you will realise that you are thinking more clearly and that the painful or disturbing emotion has subsided.

Gaining Long-term Emotional Stability

The more frequently you repeat this exercise, the quicker will your brain understand that it is not necessary to activate the stress-response cycle when that specific thought/memory occurs.

It is comparable to resetting a device to its original factory settings. Your mind will become free of disturbing information written by your life experience. I’d recommend trying this exercise with a number of different stressful memories, thoughts or pressing issues. The brain’s unwanted response to any of these categories will gradually ease out. You’ll soon notice you have acquired much more emotional stability when you experience a stress-triggering situation or a disturbing thought.

Three Techniques with Donna Eden

The renowned teacher of energy medicine, Donna Eden, and her husband, clinical psychologist David Feinstein, show how we can work with our own energies to release stress and anxiety. Holding the Neurovascular Points is one of those techniques (Donna talks about it from 1:23 onwards.)

David and Donna are also the authors of the book ‘The Healing Power of EFT & Energy Psychology’, where they present a large number of techniques for emotional healing. In his clinical practice, David Feinstein uses Donna Eden’s energy medicine techniques as well as EFT, which stands for ‘Emotional Freedom Techniques’, and consists of tapping on specific meridian points. This technique has been used with tremedous success for all kinds for phobias and traumas. War veterans, for instance, have been succesfully treated using EFT tapping.

The ‘Kettle-Trick’: Energy-Test Yourself

It is very interesting to try the following experiment, based on the method used in energy psychology and kinesiology:

Fill a jug or a tea kettle with water, and try to lift it with your arm straight in front of you. You should be able to raise the kettle in front of your eyes. It should be moderately heavy, to make your muscles work. If it’s too heavy (if you can’t lift it in front of your eyes), pour some water out until it reaches an optimal weight.

Now think about something that makes you feel nice. It could be pleasant memory, or something you’re proud of or grateful for.

Lift the kettle in front of your eyes again. It should be relatively easy.

Now think of something that bother you, stresses you or makes you anxious. Try to lift the kettle again. You’ll notice that your arm gets considerably weaker after the negative thought. This shows the instant effect stress can have on your energy flows. Your energy is not feeding your muscles at its full power while you are stressed (or, as in this case, tricking your brain by pretending to be stressed).

You can use this experiment is more useful way than a fun parlour trick. If you know of anything in your life that stresses you or triggers negative or anxious thoughts, do this experiment to confirm it.

Then follow Donna Eden’s techniques, especially the Neurovascular hold by placing your palm on your forehead for one to three minutes while thinking of the pressing issue.

Don’t worry about ‘negative thinking’; this is a method that uses the truth that you feel inside, rather than fooling yourself with positive affirmations. And while acknowledging the uncomfortable or painful truth, you are sending a physical message to your brain, which reads something like ‘Even though I’m thinking about all this bad stuff, there’s no need to go into a fight or flight mode.’

When you have finished, try to lift the kettle again while thinking about the same unpleasant issue.

You’ll hopefully get a nice surprise by being able to stay strong – which indicates that despite a usually stress-triggering image in your mind, your energy remains balanced and you are now responding to stress much more calmly, rather than reacting through the instinctive emergency response. The more you do these exercises, the more your naturally adaptable brain will ‘cooperate’.

Energy-testing with a Friend

Instead of using a kettle, you can get a friend to energy-test you by pushing your arm down (raised sideways, up to the level of your shoulder) while you offer resistance.

Rewiring Your Brain

The amazing characteristic of our brain, neuroplasticity, can cause radical rewiring of your brain’s old reactive patterns, allowing us to start experiencing more peaceful and joyful states of mind, and become much more emotionally resilient.

Gaining Long-term Emotional Stability

The more frequently you repeat the exercises presented in this article, the quicker will your brain understand that it is not necessary to activate the stress-response cycle when that specific thought/memory occurs.

Share Your Thoughts

If you would like to ask about anything in this article, or would like to express your opinion about this field, leave a comment below. I’d also be very interested to learn about your any other techniques for relieving stress, so feel free to share your knowledge or experience.