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!