Tweaking My Meditation Routine

Now that I'me back on track with meditating almost every evening, I've learned a few tricks that work wonders for me.

• Knowing I won't be interrupted- since I'm a mom, there are only a couple of places or times when I get uninterrupted peace. In the bathroom and/or after my daughter is asleep. I've made my meditation time either in the bathroom while waiting for bath water to fill the tub. The back ground noise is good and my family knows to not interrupt me during bath time. And another time that works is after my daughter goes to sleep.

• Having background noise is helpful- I can't have absolute quiet when meditating or else there is a noise in my head called silence that gets too loud. I put on a mood cd with natural, soothing sounds. If my daughter is asleep, this also won't wake her up.

• Try focus meditation- I have, what looks like a deck of cards, but it is phrases or a specific thought/goal to focus on while meditating. This has been extremely helpful for me. Having something to focus on is probably best for anybody new to meditation, like myself.

Everyone's Excuse

I'm just like everyone else who says "I'm too busy". I swore, after being diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis that I would not make myself too busy again. My theory about illnesses, at least part of how I got RA, is overextending myself in every aspect of life. It's not enough that I'm a wife, mother, daughter, worker, blogger, friend, but add to that a need to be a perfectionist.

Yep, I swore off all this chaos and decided to begin my self-help journey only to be right where I started 3 months ago- doing too much and not taking care of myself. Isn't that everyones' excuse about not taking care of themselves. "I don't have the time!" How do you get everyone else to accept how important you are, enough to demand time to help yourself and be healthy and happy? Everyone is overextending themselves so we hate to see anyone being happy or having leisure time.

There is a reason for my ramble. Needless to say, I've taken the last couple of weeks off from meditating. You see, meditation is time away from other people, mainly my 3 yr old. Well, that's impossible. She always needs something and I seem to be the only one who can give it to her. In other words, 3 years after my daughter's birth, it is still hard to get away and a big part of my stress. I haven't been away from her more than about 3 hours since she was born.

Well I hope to back on track with my meditation. I resumed it tonight and it was nice, but made it hard to go back to chaos right afterward.

Health and Happiness Come From Within

I've noticed since meditating that I am much more focused on my health and body and getting things under control with my Rheumatoid Arthritis. I've been focused on doing the research on supplements and medications. I feel energized and hopeful in this journey now. Instead of spending money on clothes or make-up, I am now spending it on supplements that may help my arthritis, even getting non-teflon cookware and natural products.

Meditating makes a person aware of the inside world within our bodies and minds. I am hoping to discover a better more solidified connection between my mind and body in the upcoming weeks from meditating.

The hardest part about it, is finding time to do it. My husband is the furthest person from being mind-body and health aware so it's not really a priority to him that I get time to meditate. In fact, he laughed at the idea when I first mentioned it to him. It's like a lot of things in life where we just have to realize it's not up to us to explain why we need what we need, it's a waste of time, but just doing it and making it clear it's important to you will speak for itself.

Meditation is not for the weak of mind

Meditation is for busy minds like mine. Actually this past week or so trying out meditation wasn't so hard. I've just sat alone, sitting straight up with good posture, resting my hands on my knees, and simply tyring to let thoughts come and go without attention to them. This, of course, takes practice, and I'm getting the hang of it and realizing the vale of meditation. Plus my posture has improved all through the day. Interesting.

This next week I want to focus thoughts on my health; physical and mental well-being.

p.s I was focusing on improving my blood test outcomes by listening to my hypnosis CD's but I got my blood tests back from during that time and nothing had improved, some worse. So I'm not sure about hypnosis CD's working for much more than just relaxation.

First Transition

It's the end of my Hypnosis journey for now. Perhaps I'll use it in the future when I've tested the other self-help techniques on my 1 year quest for self-help HELP.

I was expecting more dramatic results using hypnosis because studying psychology, I know what the mind is capable of and I really wanted more physical healing benefits from it. However, during my last week with it, I skipped listening to it for two days and woke up with stiff, swollen, painful joints- a bad day for a Rheumatoid Arthritis sufferer. Then last night I resumed listening to it intently with renewed enthusiasm and I woke up with one of my best days in a long time.

I think it will be easier to determine if hypnosis was helpful once I have other methods to compare it to later on in this process. This will be my first transition from one self-help method to another. Going from hypnosis to meditation seems like an easy and likely transition too. I need something easy in my life. I already feel good about it.

I'm a little off schedule. Originally I wanted to post every Friday, but weekends are too hectic so I think I will shoot for Mondays or Tuesdays. I will listen to my hypnosis CD one last night tonight then I will be starting MEDITATION. I'm excited about this because I've never meditated- oh yes, one time I tried, but it was more stressful trying to get into a comfortable position, then figure out what to think about or not think about.

Just for review, I am trying 6 different self-help techniques- one every two months for an entire year. It's hard to call this an "experiment" because it's hardly scientific, very subjective as well. So here's what I do. At the end of each day I record how I am feeling, mentally and physically, on a scale of 1-10. I try various products for each method and by doing this I hope to not only help myself, but others who have ever wondered whether any products or self-help techniques readily available to them would actually work.

Short and Sweet

This is going to be a short post because I am tired, but good news is I am getting more sleep- did I just contradict myself in the same sentence? Like I said, I'm tired.

The hypnosis CD I'm using is putting me to sleep like a baby- every night. My arthritis is better in the morning too. I'm still puzzled why this CD was making lose sleep when I originally used it and after switching to another CD and going back to it, I am sleeping better. Incredibly, in fact.


Another thing I have to look up is if hypnosis is still beneficial if you fall asleep to it a few minutes in. Technically, I am not hearing or consciously aware of what's being said so am I still being hypnotized or just simply falling asleep.

Sites to Seek; Hypnosis Links

First, a quick update on how I'm doing with my hypnosis CD's. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and get routine blood work done once every 3 months. Last week it came back that I am anemic (iron deficiency), which is pretty common for people with an autoimmune illness like myself, but I want to make an experiment out of this too. So I am going back to using the "healing guided imagery" CD in Dr. Weil's Mind Body Tool Kit because it had healing suggestions, including increased blood flow and healthy blood cell formation. I go back in to retest my blood work for iron levels next week and I am curious if my levels will increase with the help of the CD.
Now onto helpful and useful tips and links about hypnosis:

Free hypnosis scripts. You can record your own voice, which works great for self hypnosis, using these scripts for ideas and guidelines. http://www.choosehypnosis.com/scripts.htm
Related to this, is self-hypnosis MP3 downloads. This is super convenient and sites like Amazon have them- very easy to find.

Milton Erickson is the godfather and one of the founders of mainstream hypnosis. Ericksonian hypnosis scripts are the best and most useful- far above and beyond others. They are clear, thoughtful, unique, and I hate to say this, for fear of scaring anyone off, but there is a lot of wordplay invloved that tricks you into learning lesson or breaking a habit. Sometimes just reading them can make you reflect deeply on certain issues you need to resolve. These links include books- some I have read and recommend.

• http://www.amazon.com/Uncommon-Therapy-Psychiatric-Techniques-Erickson/dp/0393310310/ref=cm_lmf_tit_5
• http://www.amazon.com/Hypnotherapy-Scripts-Neo-Ericksonian-Approach-Persuasive/dp/0876305478

This link will take you to "Hypnodude" a username of an individual who is well-versed in everything hypnosis. I have been following his article site for quite some time and there are other useful articles on related topics such as Reikki. http://hubpages.com/profile/hypnodude scroll to find hypnosis articles.

Other good sites:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy
• http://hypnoticadvancements.com/index.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_H._Erickson

The 2 products I have used for my self hypnosis experiments:

• http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Andrew-Weils-Mind-Body-Tool/dp/B00185VKP0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1281944112&sr=8-1-catcorr
• http://www.amazon.com/Self-Hypnosis-Kit-Discover-Hypnotherapy-Improve/dp/0670865303/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281944347&sr=8-1

One last note on the products I used; Dr. Weil's is spoken by a man. Some people, including myself, prefer a woman's voice for relaxation. The other product is a great starter kit- book and general relaxation hypnosis CD- not too expensive either. However, another consideration is the speaker, a woman, but she has a strong English accent. Take your preferences into consideration before purchasing a self-hypnosis CD. Enjoy!

Mind Control Never Felt So Good

This week, being my 5th with 3 more to go for the hypnosis segment of my experiment then moving onto meditation, I've suddenly noticed a remarkable difference since using hypnosis tapes. I sleep better, have more energy, and most of all I am able to control my stress level in the middle of something stressful. Whether I'm in an argument with my husband or worrying about my health problems, I've been able to pause and automatically take a time out to go to my happy place and speak calming words to myself. I immediately feel tension slip away from my body and my nerves begin to calm.
A particularly cool line mentioned in my hypnosis tapes was "you are doing something by doing nothing, giving yourself permission to do nothing". How great is that? People aim to be or would claim to accidentally be way to busy all the time. I personally think we don't know how to do nothing anymore. Who sits down and does nothing- nobody. People will turn on the TV, eat a snack, call or text a friend, get on the laptop, but do nothing? Nope, their always doing something. We even jam pack our vacation schedules- so when does anyone do nothing? Going back to the aforementioned hypnosis line, it gives someone a new perspective- we are doing something by doing nothing. Too philosophical for you, maybe you're not ready to do nothing, but I guarantee it feels so good.
Those are my tips and my "findings" for this week. Maybe just try to do nothing some time this week. It sounds silly, but it might take some practice.
Next week I will post links, etc to all the helpful products (hypnosis tapes) I've used and aything else I found to be helpful concerning hypnosis.

Simple Buzz

This is almost my third week using a self-hypnosis tape for healing and relaxation. This last week I started a new cd because the other one was difficult. Let me explain that, I felt like I was working when I should be relaxing. My last post I said the cd involves healing statements and suggestions even down to the cellular level, but it became labor intensive. I did not feel relaxed and since my only chance to listen to the cd is at night, I would rather listen to something relaxing before bed. I just got a simple cd to guide me into my happy place and let me veg out in lala land- isn't that what we all want to do, legally of course.

So here's what's cool about hypnosis. Any of you who may be anxious or doubtful about trying it. My first time, and sometimes now and then this still happens, it feels like being buzzed off good wine or even a little "drugged". It is a great, relaxing feeling.

Another interesting tidbit I've learned about hypnosis is you get to know what is causing your issues. For example, you want to lose weight so you go purcahse a weight loss hypnosis cd or any weight loss product and it may not help. Why? Because your weight isn't really your problem, maybe it is stress, anxiety, abuse, etc. So if you have a weight problem or even an illness (as in my case) don't go buy products aimed at that- self hypnosis works on a subconscious level and even an illness stems from that level. I figure by dropping the healing cd and doing the relaxation cd instead, I will be working on the cause (stress) of my illness and not the illness itself.

Today's Lesson: I think it's counterproductive to concentrate and work on our issues, but helpful to work on the cause of our issues. Sometimes we need to take several steps backwards and figure out the cause but it is easier to do that once we give up focusing on the problem itself. Stress is sually the culprit of a lot of issues that plague people. Hypnosis is a cure and really easy too- you must commit for 30 days at least and listen to the cd once a day- that's it.

We'll see how it works out...see you next Friday.

Just Relax and Fight

It's been 10 days since I began listening to a self-hypnosis cd- Dr.Weil's Mind Body Tool Kit with self-hypnosis cd included "Guided Imagery". I selected this cd because it is based on physical healing. I mentioned before I have prior experience with self-hypnosis, but have never used it for physical ailments until now. Doing research on my Rheumatoid Arthritis I learned it(and other painful illnesses)can greatly benefit from imagery and hypnosis. Also, one of the first things I learned about hypnosis was it could be used for pain in such a way that it can ease labor pains and assist a woman through natural childbirth- now that's powerful!

Listening to it at night before bed was putting me to sleep easily. Usually it takes an hour to quiet my brain at night- sometimes it's the only time I get to think, sadly, about all the things I didn't do, should have done differently, or might have done if I my head was as clear as it is when it hits the pillow.

This cd is very detailed about all parts of the body contributing to the healing process, even your cells and blood. Let me epxplain that I am one of those people with a strange imagination and even crazier dreams. So here is one of my frequent dreams since listening to the cd:
My red blood cells are marching in perfect uniform order, ready for battle. No clear leader, no followers, just dedicated fighters all on my side, all for my mission. My thoughts are somewhere in the background as this is occurring in my body, but I'm thinking 'How simple, my body should be able to heal itself.' Meanwhile my cells are determined and I personally wouldn't want to mess with them.

How Do I feel? As I was saying, I'm sleeping a lot better, but my sleep has been restless because I feel like my body is working hard to fight pain and inflammation in my body. I found myself automatically drifting/daydreaming to my happy place whenever I became stressed. Most hypnosis or imagery cd's will encourage you to create a place where you feel completely comfortable and relaxed. Actually this is the hardest part for me- my mind scatters every direction from somewhere in Tahiti to Hawaii to Arizona. I'd have some serious frequent flyer miles if my brain was a plane.

Just in case you were wondering what my happy place is, I decided on a spa somewhere in Arizona, foothills in the distance, kelly green golf course grass surrounding me while I sit back in a mud bath and enjoy sounds of trickling water with a beautiful stone wall protecting me from any possible interruptions. I've never been to a spa unless this counts.

Anybody want to share their happy place- is anybody out there or are you all in your happy place right now. See you next week.

What is The Self-Help Project?

"Freakishly Resilient" describes the self-help industry (Forbes.com, 1-15-09). What industry has not been effected by slumps in the economy? As if you couldn't guess by now- of course! The self-help industry. So how does someone help themselves? I don't know, but I'm going to find out.

If anyone needs help, it's me. I've been in transition the last few years: from single to married, from not mother to new mother, from career woman to stay-at-home mom, from "normal" to dealing with a recent chronic illness diagnosis (Rheumatoid Arthritis). Needing to redefine who I am would be an understatement. At this point, if I were to write a self-help book, it would be titled "What Not to Do; and Other Stupid Stuff."

Even though I consider laughter a cure-all, I am searching for something more- plus Adam Sandler hasn't delivered in his last few movies. I am willing to venture far outside my logical boundaries (and comfort zone) and what I was taught during my academic days of strict research psychology. I will look no further than the self-help industry for a me make-over.

I am enlisting the help of an industry that requires no evidence, no research to support their claims, and no quality control- even you can write a self-help book. In fact, I haven't seen much of my Chihuahua lately so I think he's been writing one entitled "Own You Owner; Take Back the Leash and Be Your Own Boss".

On a side note: I do find it humorous that if you look up "Self-help" on Wikipedia.com, a comment box at the top of the page states "This article has multiple issues". Seriously? Too funny!

This is my quest to test various self-help strategies, techniques, and advice. I will be testing a new self-help technique every 2 months and giving weekly updates on my blog, beginning with:

~ Self-hypnosis CDs. Actually, I was trained in hypnosis 13 yrs ago but never pursued it. I believe it is beneficial with follow-through and that's what I plan on doing. Average results seen in 30 days and I am trying it for 60.

~Dr. Andrew Weil; 8 Weeks to Optimal Health. I want to revive my eating regimen and Dr. Weil gets a lot of credit in his area of expertise.

~Spiritual or Religious program

~ Meditation. I would self-diagnose me as borderline ADD and I have a 2 year old so I may need some medication before my meditation.

~ Daily self-affirmations and nightly gratitude journal. This should be an interesting one for me since I would otherwise label self-affirmations as fluff talk or conversations Martha Stewart has with herself while watching re-runs of her own show.

more to come....suggestions welcome....