This time of year can fire difficult emotions for survivors. Each person has their own reasons for feeling stress, but seasonal overwhelm, difficult memories, and challenging family dynamics can all play a roll.
A few days ago, I hosted a tele-seminar for members of my Meetup group, the Baltimore and Columbia Energy Healers. While the focus of the tele-seminar was releasing holiday stress, the easy to use methods have helped thousands of people gain confidence and balance to navigate emotional challenges of all kinds.
The "Letting Go of Holiday Stress" Tele-seminar Recording
Given many survivors experience far more than their fair share of stress this time of year, I'm sharing the audio recording of the tele-seminar. The recording is part of an episode of my, "Mind Over Stress" podcast.
You'll find the audio player near the end of this post. Simply click to listen.
For a summary of what is shared in the tele-seminar, see the Show Notes below.
In addition, you can download the, "Letting Go of Holiday Stress" guide that accompanies the tele-seminar audio content. The guide offers easy to follow written instructions for the stress releasing methods discussed in the tele-seminar recording.
The guide is available at http://bit.ly/2qM62Iy
The numbers in the show notes below represent time stamps in the audio podcast where the specific topics are covered. If you're only interested in learning about one or more of the topics or techniques, you can advance the audio player to that time stamp starting point.
Show Notes
This episode includes the audio recording of a tele-seminar presented to members of the Baltimore and Columbia Energy Healers Meetup. This is an interactive tele-seminar where you'll hear several attendees participating in the holiday stress releasing processes.
Steve Carter, the host of this podcast and organizer for the Meetup group, opened the event by laying a foundational overview exploring what creates stress, how stress thinking affects mind and body, and the role beliefs play in the stress response.
Here are time stamps for key segments of the tele-seminar:
Foundation Overview - The Larger Context: 02:40;
Recommended Empowering Beliefs to Consider Adopting: 06:15;
Introduction to the SUE Scale - Subject Units of Experience: 09:05;
Identifying a Stressor and Measuring the Intensity: 11:12;
Applying Yawn, Sigh, Stretch as a Preliminary Stress Release: 12:52;
Applying Affirmations and Visualizations to Prepare for Stress Creating Events: 14:00;
Applying EmoTrance: 27:45;
Applying Logosynthesis: 37:30;
CPR - Center Point Release:45:14
Foundation Overview - The Larger Context:
Uncomfortable emotional sensations arise from disempowering beliefs activated by our perceptions of a given situation. Those beliefs can be situational, beliefs about myself, or global beliefs:
Examples:
“My family never gives me the respect and credit I deserve.” Situational; “I’m not enough.” - Beliefs about myself; “The world is unsafe.” Global.
I would like you to consider a truth spiritual teachers have shared with us for centuries:
"You are not your beliefs or your thoughts".
Your true nature - your soul, higher self, whatever name you like - is beyond thought. The “True You” is found in spiritual connection beyond thought in that quiet connection to God, Source, or whatever name you like.
One present day spiritual philosopher, Eckhart Tolle, suggests peace of mind is found only, “in the now”, or in this present moment. Many others have offered the same guidance.
But it’s oh so easy to be sucked into our thoughts. The mind seems to have a mind of its own.
“No”, it says. “You must keep your attention here. Thinking is the only way to find the truth!”
Like an addict, we’re addicted to thinking despite the fact that 95% of our thoughts are nothing more than patterns that keep repeating day in and day out. They may wear different clothing on a given day, but the underlying substance of our thoughts keep repeating.
Thoughts come and go. Thoughts arise through processes of the brain and body we typically don’t / can’t consciously manage.
Our thoughts create a cascade of chemical and neurological activities in the brain and body.
Intensely disempowering and empowering thoughts can typically be felt as sensations in the body. We give those sensations emotional labels and create judgements about whether those sensations are good, bad, or neutral.
Choosing What to Focus On:
Can we consciously control thought? Yes and no.
We can consciously choose to focus on objects, ideas, and beliefs. In choosing what to focus on, to some degree we can create a mindset of empowerment or disempowerment.
Some suggested beliefs to take to heart and mind:
One major source of suffering is believing my disempowering thoughts are true.
I am not my thoughts. I have thoughts, but my true self is beyond thought.
Stuff happens. Whether I suffer depends on what beliefs I choose to explain what happens and what it means.
Thoughts arise, peak, and dissolve. What blocks the natural flow of thoughts is my resistance to them to include resistance to what is. What I resist will persist.
This too shall pass! Lao Tzu in Verse 23 of the “Tao Te Ching” reminds us, “No storm lasts forever”.
All of the techniques we’ll explore are designed to restore energy flow in your mind / brain / body / spirit. Wide open energy flow creates optimum emotional and physical wellbeing and quiets the storms of mind.
Increasing our energy flow can open us to more consistent empowering thoughts, a quieter mind, and elevated happiness.
Guide on How to Do the Processes Discussed in the Tele-seminar:
To obtain your copy of the "Holiday Stress Release" guide, go to http://bit.ly/2qM62Iy and download the PDF.
Listen to the Audio Recording of the Tele-seminar:
Click the player to listen to the, "Letting Go of Holiday Stress", "Mind Over Stress" podcast episode:
Stephen Carter
Stress Solutions, LLC | www.EFT-MD.com | Email: SaleLivingToday@gmail.com
Stephen Carter is a former Chief of Police, Corporate Security Director and safely leader for one of the world's largest financial services companies. He is now the CEO of Stress Solutions, LLC, a company dedicated to helping people enhance physical and emotional wellbeing through stress mastery using mind-body methods. He is the host of the, "Safe Living Today" and "Mind Over Stress" podcasts.
Photo credit: Photo by Burak K from Pexels