Laura S. Conley

Stress Factors

Taking Charge of Your Thoughts: Exercises for Mastering Your Mind

“Attitude is everything” and your attitude is a direct result of the thoughts you think and believe everyday.  What we now know is that you can control your mind and your thoughts to reconfigure your brain wiring.  This is called “neuroplasticity”.  The same way you can sculpt the muscles on your body, you can sculpt your mind to be powerful and strong, or loving and compassionate.  It simply requires time and dedication the same as exercising your body would.  

Here are some exercises to help you achieve mindfulness:

Mindful Exercise #1: Yoga

You may think yoga is mostly about stretching. While stretching is part of the practice, the magic of yoga is the focus on breath to move through self-imposed limitations. As you practice, you start to hear your mind crying, “that’s too much. I can’t do that. What am I doing here?” Basically saying anything to get you out of the intensity of the present moment.

The more you practice it becomes a little better each time.   You stay steady with your intent, focus a little more on your breath; you release deeper with every exhale. The awareness starts to grow and mindfulness trickles over into your everyday life before you notice.

Nature

We all know how relaxing sitting on the beach gazing out over the ocean as well listening to the waves crashing on shore; or walking through the woods gazing at humongous trees.  Contemplation in nature is the original form of meditation.  Being in nature it is far easier to quiet the mind and become aware of our monkey mind chatter. 

Meditation

So many people say “meditation doesn’t work for me”, “I can’t stop thinking or quiet my mind”  Well that’s the point!  So actually that means it IS working since they noticed how much their mind was thinking-THAT’S mindfulness!  You can choose from many different styles of meditation, find one (or many) that you like best.

Open Focus – It is a process of relaxing your focus to an empty space in your body. Transcendental (TM) – The claimed advantage of TM is that an amateur can reach the same state as a master within weeks of starting the practice. Repeat a simple chant, distracting the mind long enough for consciousness to emerge.

Vipassana – This form of meditation has you focus on your breath as it passes through your nostrils. Gradually, you expand this awareness to your whole body.

LVK Meditation – Focus on all the love and kindness in your heart while loving the world so much that your mind can’t handle it anymore. This will result in your heart expanding and leading your mind.

Guided – Guided meditations are a great way to start. A vocal guide will lead you through the entire meditation so all you have to do is relax and follow along.

Biofeedback – One of the recent styles is using a biofeedback device. This measures brainwave activity and plugs into a computer or iPhone app.  With this data you can see exactly how well you are actually calming your mind.  

Body Movement/Dance

Dance is a universal cultural phenomenon. In ceremonial dance, dancing is the vehicle to induce a deep trancelike state.  In  “ecstatic dancing”, participants are encouraged to move freely with their body, surrendering to the music.  Some movements may not even look like things we would consider “dancing”. Once you release the mind from concerning itself with how you look, your body comes alive.  Every cell seems to wake up and the mind takes a huge step back. 

Floatation (Sensory Deprivation)

Floatation tanks, also known as sensory deprivation tanks, eliminate all external sensory input (sight, sound, smell, etc) therefore tricking the mind into quieting into a hypnotic meditation like state.

Breathwork or Hyperoxygenation

Kundalini yoga (breathwork) practice has been around for thousands of years, but now another form of breathing practice was developed.  “Holotropic breathing” – or Shamanic breathing – works by creating a temporary excess of oxygen in the blood.  Oxygen goes into the brain, suppressing normal thought patterns and allowing consciousness to emerge. These practices are best in a guided setting with trained practitioners for maximum effect.

Fasting

Numerous cultures from around the world have utilized the tradition of fasting to clear the mind and body.  Although challenging at first, people report having extreme clarity from fasting.

Make the Choice

Ultimately, YOU are in control of YOUR mind. As much as you would like to think otherwise, you really are the boss.  If you want to still your mind, CHOOSE to still your mind.  It’s a powerful move we always have available, but often overlook its full potential.

 

The top things that are stressing you out that you aren’t even aware of

I deal with a lot of people who seem very frazzled and overwhelmed or are complaining about certain aspects of their life and they say to me, “oh, it would all be fine if this would just fall into place.”

But, I want to say there are so many more pieces affecting them than just that one thing that they are looking at.  For starters, your thoughts can create a stress hormone release in your body and your body won’t realize the difference between an actual stressor in your environment versus you just thinking about that stressor.

So, that’s why it is so important to work on your mindset and your awareness of yourself and your brain because being aware of what your mind is doing is extremely important to shift your thoughts onto more positive things and create a relaxation response.

Another big issue I see is the environment that people actually live in.  Did you know that being under florescence lights or even LED lights is terrible for your mitochondria? Your mitochondria are the powerhouses of every single cell in your body so if you are damaging your mitochondria you can bet that you’re damaging every cell in your body and I’m not going to be fully healthy and productive. That’s why it is so important to be cognizant of what’s in your environment such as: the lights, materials used (carpet or flooring can have toxins in them), chemicals used in the house, or being released from other products in the house. I knew someone who was reacting to their brand-new mattress because of all the fire retardant that had been sprayed on the mattress. In addition, one of the biggest biological stressors is mold in your environment. So many people are living in moldy houses and not even realizing it. Mold is an entirely independent topic which we’ll will discuss later but just know that that’s a part of your stress load too.

So, along with the physical materials in your house, there are also electromagnetic frequencies (EMF’s) that are stressful for your body and brain. Think about that Wi-Fi signal going through your house, it’s also going through you. It’s important to think about turning off your Wi-Fi at night and grounding any dirty electricity that may be in your house.

Lastly, we will also discuss emotional and psychological stress. So many athletes would tell me how they were reducing their training load but not recovering as fast. It wasn’t until they told me about relationship or emotional drama that has been occurring in their life recently that I understood how huge of an impact it has on your recovery time.

If you’re living in an emotionally drama filled environment that is wearing down your system every single day, than these may be bigger stressors than even challenging workouts.  If there is stress at work or a financial burden than these also pile on to the big picture of added stress in your life. Therefore, it’s very important to understand where you can reduce any of these extraneous stress inducers to reduce your overall load and give your body the best chance at being healthy and thriving! For more tools and information check out the other articles in the blog or schedule your free consultation today!