Friday, August 19, 2011

In Today's Email

Nearly ten years later, I still listen to your tapes, but they are entirely shot! I’m dealing with some challenges right now and was hoping to come in for a session or two and upgrade to CDs.
It was good to hear from "Betty" again. I love that she's been benefitting from the hypnotherapy tapes I made for her so many years ago and that she thought of me now that she needs some help once again.
People often ask me if the results of my work are permanent. Well, yes and no. My work helps create a solid foundation of wellness that lasts. At the same time, our challenges may change as we age and grow and sometimes that foundation needs to be tweaked to meet those new challenges.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Argh!

Obviously none of us in the 6 am Bikram class is working as hard as R. Otherwise, why would the rest of us be so silent? Especially during final savassana.
Breathe, Lucy, breathe.
It cracks me up when people say to me,"Oh, you must be so calm all the time with the work you do." Hah! Those people should have seen me stomping out of class this morning, seething with resentment and dripping with judgment.
I do recognize that R is a good teacher for me. I should be able to tune him out and just go about my business in total peace and serenity.
Well, it's not happening that way.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Good Stress

Our daughter's boyfriend proposed to her last week and now she is engaged. My husband and I are beyond thrilled.
We are also really goofy. Last night my husband walked around the entire house looking for a bottle top that ended up being in his hand the whole time. This is my usually grounded-like-a-rock husband.
This morning in my Bikram Yoga class I caught myself in the the wrong posture, totally out of sync with the rest of the class because my mind had drifted to plans for a family party we'll be hosting in a few weeks.
I keep having to pull my breath down out of my upper chest into my belly. My daily Vimala Alphabet practice is showing some weird patterns that I have to stop and fix as I write.
It occurs to me that this wonderful development in our lives has activated the ancient fight-or-flight response that's usually associated with bad things, not good ones. This good-stress factor kind of sneaked up on me, but now that I'm aware of it, I am doing my best to address it the same way as I teach my anxious clients to address theirs:
1. Take a deep, deep breath! Make sure I'm breathing in through my nose every time and doing my best to draw the breath all the way down into my belly.
2. Pay attention to grounding myself. I like to imagine roots coming down through the soles of my feet and into the earth.
3. Go to bed earlier -- in case my brain wakes up at 3 am (as it has done a few times already) and decides to walk me through all the details it thinks I need to be aware of right then and there.
4. Pay attention to the direction of my thoughts. What is it about wedding plans that generate catastrophic thinking?
5. Write everything down. At least one comic incident illustrated quite clearly that our minds cannot be trusted to hold new information.
6. Remember to laugh!
7. As much as possible, keep JOY as the launching pad for any and all planning. It's all too easy to get sucked into should's that rob me of my perspective, my energy and my sense of self.
If you have anything to add to my list, please comment. I plan to post updates as we go through the days counting down to October 6, 2012. What fun!