Archive for the ‘end anxiety now’ Category

Anxiety disorders can effect people of all walks of life, ethnic backgrounds, and age groups. Child anxiety attacks are not only possible, they are probably happening more than doctors realize. This condition seems to especially effect teenagers and can persist into young adulthood.

Symptoms of a Child Anxiety Attack

The symptoms of a child anxiety attack are generally the same as an adult having an anxiety attack would feel. A child anxiety attack may start with a psychological symptom, such as a persistent and strong feeling of dread or fear. This is then followed by physical symptoms, the same as an adult would experience: racing heart, chest discomfort, numbness or tingling in the extremities, et cetera. Also common among child anxiety sufferers are diarrhea, stomach pain, headaches, nausea, and shortness of breath.

Effects of Child Anxiety Attacks

Even though anxiety attacks generally don’t cause any direct physical damage, the effects on a child’s psyche can be very noticeable. Children suffering from child anxiety attacks often have trouble concentrating in school, and may show an overall lower ability to learn or make decisions. Often child anxiety attacks can be triggered by social situations, so the child may attempt to isolate themselves to try and avoid triggering a child anxiety attack.

There are many different kinds of child anxiety disorders: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), acute stress disorder, social or general phobias, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and adjustment disorders with anxiety, to name just a few. Many of these involve child anxiety disorders that focus on specific situations, people, objects, et cetera.

Helping Your Child

If your child is experiencing anything that you suspect may be child anxiety attacks, you should take them to see a doctor. He will be able to diagnose whether there is anything physically wrong, and if not, will be able to recommend some treatments that can help.

Generally, child anxiety is treated the same way as adult anxiety: with medication and therapy. Your doctor will be able to prescribe medications that will help control your child’s anxiety attacks. The therapy will help them to overcome the fears that are at the root of the child anxiety attacks.

At home, try and keep your child’s life as stress-free as possible. Don’t be overbearing or put too much pressure on them to be perfect. Don’t argue with your husband or wife where they can hear you. Stress from a bad home life can really take its toll on a child’s mind. Rather, make sure they feel loved and secure, and that they know they will always be loved even if they don’t get that “A”. You’ll find that reducing the stress your child feels can help their recovery quite a bit.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/child-anxiety-attacks-the-unreported-truth-709322.html

Black Eyed Peas anxiety song expresses a very clear message of not letting anxiety in control of your life.

Are you familiar with Black Eyed Peas anxiety song? Yes, the Black Eyed Peas hip-hop group who is responsible for the major hit of the song “Where is the love”? Black Eyed Peas anxiety is one of the tracks in the Elephunk album of which “where is the love” is also included.

To know more about the group, let us know first each of the members of their members. Black Eyed Peas are an American hip-hop and pop group of Los Angeles, California, who have gained international pop success because of their songs, which made it to the top. The group is currently composed of Wil.i.am (William Adams), Apl.de.ap (Allen Pineda), Taboo (Jaime Gomez), and Fergie (Stacy Ferguson). They’re the artist who did the “Where is the love?”, which made them very well-know these days.

The Black Eyed Peas was formed back in 1989 when Wil.i.am and Apl.de.ap met and began rapping and performing together around Los Angeles. The duo signed to Ruthless Records (managed by Eazy-E) after catching the attention of Eazy-E, manager Jerry Heller’s nephew. Together with their other friends, Dante Santiago, they called their trio Atban Klann. But, their debut album was not released because Ruthless Records did not believe that the positive ideas indicated in the group’s music are marketable to the audience. It was in 1995, after the death of Eazy-E that Atban Klann reformed the group to Black Eyed Peas, named so because according to will.i.am “Black Eyed Peas are the food for the soul”.

Elephunk was their breakthrough album, and it was released in 2003, featuring a new female vocalist Fergie. She replaced the background singer Kim Hill, who left the band in 2000. It is in this album that they became popular because of the anti-war anthem “Where is the Love?”, which became their first ever major hit, which top the chart everywhere, including 6 weeks at #1 in the UK where it became the best selling single of 2003. It was in this album that Black Eyed Peas anxiety song is included, as well. Unfortunately, anxiety does not have a music that is why it’s not as popular compared to the other hit singles in the album. But, Black Eyed Peas anxiety is a very good song. In fact, it has given 4 stars rating from those who have listened to song.

The album Elephunk won worldwide success and went gold and platinum in the US, UK, Germany, and other European Countries. Although, Black Eyed Peas anxiety single is not as successful as the other songs in the album, the meaning that they want to convey to the audience is that how serious anxiety condition can be and how it can affect your life in all aspect. But, you are still the one who has control over your own emotion and thoughts. So, don’t let anxiety ruin your life.

Jocelyn Snider
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-anxiety-song-by-black-eyed-peas-752343.html

We all feel anxious and stressed from time to time. It’s just factored into life itself.

As we go through life, we naturally seem to adjust to a reasonable amount of stress and anxiety and we just get on with things.

It’s when stress and anxiety become unmanageable, when they overwhelm us, threatening to bring things to a grinding halt that something needs to be done about them.

But there is really no necessity to wait for this to happen.

There are some simple things we can do to manage our lives better and make a difference to our mood and our outlook.

Here are 3 important and helpful things that anyone can do.

1. Accept Yourself

When we are at war on the inside, then very little goes well on the outside. After all, we see things not as they are, but as we are.

As we journey through life, it’s so easy to become self-critical and to beat ourselves up for past mistakes and shortcomings.

But what, really, is the value of doing this? Does it make us better human beings?

Of course not.

But sometimes, even though we know this, we just don’t find it easy to come to terms with and to accept who we are.

The fact is that until we have achieved some degree of success in the area of self-acceptance then we can find ourselves in a constant state of stress and anxiety.

Inside each of us there is a good, positive human being. Why not try a gentler, kinder approach to yourself?

Remind yourself of all your positive qualities. Focus on what you have, not on what you do not have. You might be surprised at how much you have going for you.

2. Talk About It

Don’t be afraid to talk to someone about what you’re going through and what you’re feeling. Choose a good friend or trusted family member and sit down for a chat.

If you really cannot think of anyone and you’re feeling desperate then the Samaritans are a wonderful source of support.

There really is little point in running over the same things time and time again if you are not prepared to actually do something about those things.

There is a saying in therapy circles: ‘If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you always got’.

As you talk things over, try your best to see what needs to be changed in order for things to be different. A good friend, therapist or counselor can be truly helpful in getting things back into perspective so that you can move on past the anxiety and stress.

3. Put Yourself First

Try something new.

Yes, perhaps it does feel like everyone wants a piece of you. But so do you. And unless you invest time in yourself then you won’t have much to give to anyone else.

Maybe it’s time to get a little bit more selfish. After all, you really are worth it!

Why not learn a new skill?

Learning something new stimulates your mind and really does increase your confidence. Self-hypnosis, meditation, tai chi, yoga, for example, are all fascinating and can bring you into contact with new people, providing a fresh perspective on life.

You don’t need to learn new skills in a group setting, of course. You can buy a recording or a book. And your library has many books that will enable you to get a real grasp on many new skills and interests.

Make these 3 basic changes in your life and watch how thing change and become so much more manageable.

Invest in yourself and that investment will pay real dividends!

Peter James Field
http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/coping-with-stress-and-anxiety-a-psychotherapists-tips-for-a-healthy-mind-883286.html

If you are having trouble making your cosmic dreams come true, maybe you need to add this secret ingredient into the mix. Without it, you may end up sabotaging the dreams you seek.

Celebrity stories and press coverage of the successes of Cosmic Ordering can easily leave you with the impression that all you have to do is make a wish and voila! Your deepest desires immediately arrive as if by magic. However, this is not the whole story. The cosmos expects you to do your part too. “What? I hear you exclaim. “You mean I actually have to DO something to make it work” Well, actually, yes you do and if you do it, you will supercharge your Cosmic Orders and take them to a completely new level.

Barbel Mohr reveals the secret in her book, “The Cosmic Ordering Service.” Like all fundamental truths, it is very simple. To quote her words, “You must commit to yourself.” By committing to yourself, you emphasize your own self-worth. When you recognise your own unique value, you open yourself up to a new wealth of possibilities.

If you are unable to make this commitment, it is likely that you will choose to ignore, or fail to recognize opportunities when they appear. The cosmos will simply fulfil your true underlying belief that “you don’t deserve it.”

So what is this self-commitment thingy? Well to put it briefly, it is to value and love yourself, to start putting yourself first. Start living YOUR life. When opportunities arrive or events occur; do what is right for you. The analogy I like here is the advice given by airlines in the event of a crisis. Fit your own oxygen mask first before helping your companion or children. The point is YOU must first be OK, before you can give effective help to others.

This vital self-commitment will supercharge your ability to recognise and receive good things when they arrive. By focussing on yourself with love, you fulfil one of the fundamental laws of the universe: ‘what you focus on, grows’. By focussing on yourself, you will grow spiritually. Moreover, so will your ability to manifest wonderful things for yourself.

A great way to maintain your commitment is to treat it a bit like an affirmation, just repeat the words “I commit to myself” regularly or write it down on a piece of card and leave it somewhere where you will regularly see it.

Then you are ready to place your cosmic orders, just visualize what it is you want and then release your request to the Cosmos. Let it go without fear or anxiety and leave it to the Cosmos to deliver your request in the best possible way and at the best possible time for you. You can forget your order because it is now in the hands of the Cosmos, but you must not forget the commitment you have made to yourself.

George Symond
http://www.articlesbase.com/religion-articles/cosmic-ordering-the-secret-ingredient-revealed-83239.html

Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and it also helps you cope in tense situations.

Everyone knows what it feels like to be anxious- you feel butterflies in your stomach your actions become topsy-turvy, you can almost hear your heart beat right next to your ears, and you are sweating like you are jogging. These are what you go through usually if you have stage fright and you are required to speak in public, or during your first date (who knows when was that!). These, among other feelings (feelings of anxiety) are normal reactions to stress.

Anxiety stirs you up in action. It helps you deal with a tense situation like focusing on a speech that you are about to give, studying harder for an exam, or staying interesting on your first date to make it to the second, and all that. In general, it helps you deal with any situation that is normally terrifying, especially if you are doing it the first time. I, for one, have many times been in this kind of situation and I can tell you it is only passing. But, if it elevates to excessive, irrational fear of everyday situations, now it has become an immobilizing disorder.

Anxiety disorder can cause you to be filled with fearfulness and ambiguity which maybe felt briefly only. However some anxiety disorder last at least 6 months and has the tendency to get worse if not treated immediately. Anxiety disorders usually occur along with other psychological or physical sickness, including alcohol or drug abuse, which can actually worsen the situation.

If you think you have anxiety disorder, don’t hesitate to seek information about it and find treatment right away before it gets into you. There are effective therapies out there and recent research reveals new treatments that can help most people with this condition lead fruitful and fulfilling lives.

There are five major types of anxiety disorders; general anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panics disorder, posttraumatic disorder (PST), specific phobias, and social phobia or social anxiety disorder. Each of the anxiety disorder has different symptoms, but all the symptoms come together around excessive and irrational fear or dread.

Every normal thinking person is expected to feel anxious in certain areas of his/her life, especially when he/she feels out of control of a situation. There are many reasons that anxiety creeps to your life but if it triggers you to some positive action, then you are handling it the best way. Stop worrying too much after you have done the best you can on any life situation or responsibility. Let things be, if things are meant to happen, they will happen. Enjoy life for there are many reasons to be happy, so why worry?

Jocelyn Snider
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/stress-can-cause-anxiety-752294.html

Everyone knows that regular exercise and the right diet can help you lose weight, but there are times that both these methods may not be enough to help you reach your goal. Also, exercising regularly and eating the right food seem like impossible goals for most people. As such, they end up doing nothing at all to address their health needs.

There is, however, a new method that you can try to help you lose weight, and this is nothing but hypnosis. Although hypnosis is generally known as a method to influence people into overcoming traumatic or tragic events, revealing the truth, and relieving one self from stress, hypnosis can also be used to help people lose weight.

There are several ways for you to lose weight with the help of hypnosis, and one of such ways is by listening to hypnosis recordings. These recordings are created by professional hypnosis practitioners and contain carefully chosen statements that are designed to help listeners attain their goals in this case, losing weight.

Using the Services of a Hypnotherapist for Weight Loss

If you do not think that merely listening to hypnosis recordings is sufficient to help you lose weight, you can opt to hire a hypnotherapist and have a one-on-one session.

Make sure that your hypnotherapist has the required education, skills, and experience for the job since hypnotherapists have varying fields of expertise. Hypnotherapists are also paid by the hour so the total cost for this option depends how long it will take you to hypnotize yourself into losing weight successfully.

Using Self-Hypnosis for Weight Loss

People choose to exercise self-hypnosis for weight loss either because they are working with a tight budget or consulting with a hypnosis professional is too big a step to take for them.

Although using self hypnosis to weight loss is a longer and more difficult process than the others, it can still be as effective as working with a professional or using a recording if you have the required skills and attitudes for the job.

Other Advantages of Using Hypnosis for Weight Loss

Seeing the New You - Hypnosis require you to make use of guided imagery, and this consequently allows you a glimpse of a more beautiful future and the more beautiful you as well.

Absence of Pressure - Hypnosis also eliminates factors such as stress and anxiety from your weight loss program. These things can often make it more difficult than easier for you to lose weight. Hypnosis however will help you gain a calm manner and be able to maintain it while you focus all your attention and efforts in shedding off those extra pounds!

The Power of Positive Thinking - With the absence of pressure, the power of positive thinking can finally enter your mind, body, and soul. You can now fully concentrate on the more positive aspects of your goals and effectively make use of affirmations as well. Instead of futilely worrying about the time you are spending losing weight, you can simply focus on happy images of being able to lose weight and seeing those dreams gradually turn into reality.

Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis is a method that anyone can use as long as you willing to be patient and work hard for it. Moreover, hypnosis will not cost you a dime if you are willing to work by yourself. As such, there is everything to gain and nothing to lose if you try hypnosis for weight loss so else what are you waiting for?

Bill Urell
http://www.articlesbase.com/fitness-articles/using-hypnosis-cds-for-weight-loss-77345.html

Anxiety attack symptoms are what we typically experience if we feel sudden danger is going to happen.

Anxiety attack can be a very terrifying experience. It is a period of sudden and intense fear or discomfort, typically with an abrupt onset and usually lasting for no more than 10 minutes. Sometimes a person can experience a panic attack all of a sudden without particular reason. Most people that experience one attack will usually experience another attack, and those who have recurring attacks, or feel severe anxiety about having another are said to have panic disorder.

Various individuals report different symptoms during an anxiety attack. Some of the common anxiety attack symptoms are:

Palpitations, a pounding of heart, or an accelerated heart rate

Increased sweating

Trembling or shaking

Shortness of breath

Chest pain or discomfort

Nausea or stomach discomfort

A feeling light-headedness, or faint

A feeling of unreality

Depersonalization or a feeling of being detached from oneself

Fear of losing control or going crazy

Fear of dying

Numbness, or a tingling sensation

Chills

Feeling of impending doom

These are some of the possible anxiety attack symptoms. A normal person may experience one or more of these symptoms from time to time. Having to experience some of these anxiety attack symptoms is considered normal if you have reasonable explanations for them. But if you are experiencing them with no apparent reasons, it can be a sign of a more serious condition.

A person with phobia will usually experience an anxiety attack as a direct result of exposure to the things that trigger the phobia. These anxiety attacks are short- lived and quickly relieved once the trigger is escaped.

Usually an anxiety attack begins with an unusual bodily sensation from the anxiety attack symptoms. A person having an anxiety attack will then react, with fear that the symptoms are indicators of a much more serious threat and in turn reacts with more fear which intensified into a state of intense anxiety and panic. Cases of the possible situations where anxiety attack can occur are: when driving, on an airplane, crowded areas, or during sleep at night. Sometimes anxiety attack occurs in a situation where the person cannot exit easily from a social gathering, or in a meeting, but others may experience an incident of anxiety for no reason while in comfortable place or even in sleep.  Anxiety attack symptoms are more or less the same feelings we might experience if we feel danger is about to happen. They are signs of how we usually react if we are triggered by fear, worry, and concern. But, chill out! Fortunately, anxiety attack is not an illness.

Jocelyn Snider
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/the-signs-of-an-anxiety-attack-752306.html

Two holistic health practitioners at New York University Medical Center recently launched an innovative program to help staff and patients begin the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of moment-to-moment awareness. Mindfulness exercises can improve your attention span, mental clarity, memory, mood, and self-esteem. With regular practice, you can experience a reduction in anxiety, muscle tension, blood pressure, heart and respiratory rates.

Alex Tatarinov-Levin met recently with the founders of NYU’s Mindfulness program,  Jackie Levin, RN, MS, and Tara Piergrossi, a Masters candidate in Public Health at Hunter College. Jackie and Tara talk about the concept of mindfulness and how to begin your own practice in this in-depth interview.

It’s All in Your Mind: an Introduction to Mindfulness

Alex Tatarinov-Levin: How did you get involved in the concept of mindfulness?

Jackie Levin: I have a master’s degree in holistic nursing, and as part of that I became interested in the practice of meditation. I studied mindfulness first with Jon Kabat-Zinn [Associated Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School] and learned about his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program, and that became a foundation of my own personal strategy for becoming centered, focused and aware.

Alex: What kind of stress are you referring to?

Jackie: All types of stress are interconnected, so while we might see emotional stress manifested physically, for example, tense shoulders, aches, pains, and the beginnings of disease - we can also experience it emotionally through anxiety, lack of focus, forgetfulness, mood swings or spiritual distress, in which you don’t feel a connection to others or to a spiritual being.

Alex: Is mindfulness intended to relieve stress?

Jackie: No, but it can be a byproduct. Mindfulness is the moment-to-moment awareness of what is going on around you. It’s a practice of becoming more aware and awake. So many of us are spending most of our time distracted, consciously or unconsciously, thinking about memories of the past or worrying about the future, but the only moment that really exists is this one. The practice of mindfulness helps you become a better observer and non-judgmentally aware of what’s going on in your environment.

Alex: What’s the importance of non-judgment to mindfulness?

Tara Piergrossi: You’re not trying to change the moment, just to accept it without judging it, and without trying to hold on to it or labeling it as good or bad.

Jackie: Your judgment says, if I were to see a dog going down the street and as a child I was bit by a dog and maintained that fear my whole life, I would see that dog as threatening. So is that dog threatening? I don’t really know, but if I take a moment I can become a non-judgmental observer of the dog walking down the street, I can then better understand if that dog is a threat or not, and whether I should turn and run or whether I could actually stop and pet the dog.

Alex: What if I’m restless or have trouble clearing my mind for five minutes?

Tara: Then you’re probably normal.

Jackie: Yes, very normal. You’re not trying to clear the mind; you’re trying to wake up the mind. We think our minds are awake, but mostly they’re asleep to what’s going on.

Alex: So mindfulness helps you step back and assess each situation on its own merits?

Jackie: Yes, that’s it. Each moment is unique. It doesn’t mean you don’t have memories and it doesn’t mean you don’t utilize those memories to make current analyses but you’re not letting those past memories dictate your current experience.

Alex: Is there a relationship between mindfulness and meditation?

Jackie: Mindfulness is a type of meditation practice.

Tara: You can sit in meditation position and notice your thoughts. So thoughts come in, you notice them and just go back to your point of focus, whatever it is, and you do that as many times as you need to, without judgment.

Alex: So it’s intended to help you make sense of your thoughts?

Jackie: Most of the time, we’re not aware of what we’re thinking. Those thoughts are just having random effects on us. So if I stop and I just sit there, I see sometimes I have a repetitive thought. Which means I can begin to attend to it and say, oh, that’s a worry I didn’t realize I had, and what is it I’d like to do about that? Is it really as big a problem as I think it is? So you can begin to discharge some of the tension through natural stress reduction and observe it. And you develop a compassion for yourself—a softness. Saying, oh, I did something I wasn’t so happy about. Most of the time, we end up being hard on ourselves. In mindfulness you’d be able to say, well, ok, I can now see how I did that in a clearer way, and I have lots of options and choices now. I can go talk to that person, I can redo the situation, I can get more information.

Alex: What other benefits are there to mindfulness?

Jackie: In the mental realm, it can increase focus, memory, clarity of thought. In the emotional realm, it can improve your mood. In the relationship realm, it can improve how you connect to others. In the physical realm, it may lower your blood pressure and regulate your heart rate and respiratory rate. Relaxation enhances your metabolism, so it can help your digestive processes because it’s actually activating the parasympathetic system.

Alex: What is the parasympathetic system?

Jackie: There are two systems: the stress response and the relaxation response. The stress response stimulates the sympathetic system that puts me in a fight or flight mode, and that raises the blood pressure and sends your blood out into the extremities so you can run or fight as you might need. It also narrows your focus, so you’re only able to focus on that stress. The relaxation response is the opposite and stimulates the parasympathetic system. It’s about the bodily processes that can go on when you’re not in a fight or flight situation. For example, you don’t need to digest food when you’re trying to fight or flee. The relaxation response reduces your blood pressure. Your heart rate is more regulated; your digestive system is working better and your body releases muscle tension. A lot of energy goes into stress-related anxiety. Stress requires a lot of energy in the body. Sort of like if you’re in a car and revving in the engine but not going anywhere, you’re wearing the engine down.

Take a Minute to be Mindful

Alex: What’s the best position for mindfulness practice and what can people do if they’re not comfortable with it?

Jackie: People should find a position in which they’re comfortable and not in pain, whether sitting or lying. If you’re sitting, your feet should be on the floor, your spine should be tall, but not rigid, and your neck should be long. You’re trying to give enough room for your ribs to breathe and take tension out of your spine. Arms are in your lap so there’s no tension in your shoulders. If you feel tension in your shoulders, put a pillow in your lap to reduce it. If your feet don’t reach the floor, put a pillow underneath them so that there’s no tension in your legs. You can also sit on the floor cross-legged, if that’s comfortable, with a little pillow under the buttocks so that your hips are higher than your knees.

Tara: Or lying down, but it’s sometimes hard not to fall asleep.

Jackie: If you’re lying down you may need a pillow under your knees. You can do it lying down, but the trick is not to fall asleep. Sleeping is not meditating. If you’re having difficulty sleeping, it’s sometimes helpful to meditate first. There’s also yoga meditation, anything that has a point of focus that captures your attention in which you practice not letting your mind wander off your point of focus. Walking can be a form of meditation, chanting is also a form of meditation.

Alex: What connection, if any, is there, between mindfulness and yoga? Between mindfulness and Buddhism or spirituality in general?

Jackie: Mindfulness meditation is a form of Buddhist meditation and many forms of eastern meditation practices. The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program that Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli developed put the spiritual practice into a more secular format.

Alex: Is mindfulness similar to prayer?

Jackie: For me, mindfulness is related to contemplative prayer.

Alex: Is there any conflict between mindfulness and religion?

Jackie: No. people can practice their own forms of religion and spirituality and can also explore and practice meditation.

Tara: It can actually enhance religion.

Jackie: Other practices might call it prayer, concentration, contemplation. It’s a practice to give you insight into yourself. Jon Kabat-Zinn suggested in a program I took with him that we become our own scientist in our own laboratory, and just a keen observer of what goes on in that laboratory.

Alex: Do you have an example of an easy exercise that anyone can start out with?

Jackie: Start with a breath and smile. Put yourself in a comfortable position, with your feet on the ground and your neck and back long and feeling supported. Begin by bringing your awareness to your breath and letting your mind rest on your natural rhythm of breathing. Next, bring your attention to the full duration of your in-breath and the full duration of your out-breath. Wherever you notice your breath the most, at your nostrils or mouth as the air enters and leaves your body or during the rise and fall of your belly and chest.

Alex: Does that help you relax?

Jackie: It can help many people relax, but some people can become more agitated. Then you watch your agitation without judgment and observe it. We tend to run away from the difficult parts of our lives, so if agitation is a response you have to sitting quietly, just observe your experience with agitation, and then experience your mind frame. You might say, I want to get off this cushion as fast as I can, or, I just want to run away from the experience of agitation!

But what is this experience of agitation? You might feel your chest tightening or your heart racing, and observing these symptoms in your body will help you deal with them. What can often happen from there is that you can begin to relax. When we stop avoiding our problems and start gently, compassionately and non-judgmentally facing who we are in this moment, you’ll realize it’s just one moment. And this one might be different from the next. Mindfulness can lead to relaxation, but it’s different for everyone, there is no one way. It’s only you that you’re observing, in an intimate way, when you’re sitting in formal practice of meditation.

I want to connect this to making changes. The whole point of Healthy Monday is to develop a practice of reinventing yourself and changing once a week. If you’re not able to stop and reflect on what are the barriers to making change, or if you’re not able to observe yourself non-judgmentally and with compassion, when you realize you’re not making the choices that are good for you, you can just sit back and reflect on that and gain greater insight. And then perhaps you can make a more lasting committed change.

Formal vs. Informal Practice

Jackie: Formal practice is saying, I’m going to sit down for five to ten minutes a day and just sit with my breath and observe my thoughts and sensations that might be passing through my awareness in these ten minutes. If have the urge to get up or to avoid a thought, then that’s just my experience during this meditation. Informal practice is in our day-to-day life. Taking an everyday experience and being mindful throughout that activity. If I’m brushing my teeth and I let my mind wander to the 50 things I’m going to be doing the rest of the morning, I just stop and for two minutes just focus on the experience of brushing my teeth.

Tara: That’s a great way to utilize mindfulness. I was telling my students, pick one activity you do every day and just be mindful of it. Maybe washing your hair. Where are you going to go? Are you thinking about washing your hair? Probably not.

Jackie: Washing the dishes, making your bed, doing laundry. All those things in daily life are an opportunity to stop and just be present to this one moment. Let’s say you’re on this incredible beach and you’re watching the most amazing sunset. The first few moments you’re actually watching the sunset, but the rest of the time you’re thinking about how you’re going tell this friend of yours about it. In reality, you left the sunset and were actually in a conversation with your friend in your mind. You missed that beautiful sunset.

Tara: Another thing is when you’re on vacation, you’re thinking ahead to, oh, there’s only three days left, and you’re missing your whole vacation because you’re thinking about when you have to go back to work.

Jackie: Then as we go about our day, our formal and informal practices can be utilized spontaneously when moments of stress arise. For example, If I’m standing in a very long line at the supermarket and I’m running late, I may begin to experience a sense of agitation because I’m in a hurry. I just take a deep breath and observe my experience of standing in line, which then helps me realize it’s not that big a deal. I’ll be 5 minutes late, or I’ll put my groceries back and get them later, but I don’t have to let my blood pressure go up, I don’t have to let my agitation take over, I don’t have to stamp my foot and have all those experiences we have when you’re feeling stressed.

Tara: The benefit of using the breath-centered approach to mindfulness is that your breath is always with you; any time of day you can always focus on your breath.

Jackie: And your breath is always changing, so it’s dynamic, and that relates to life. If you’re able to connect to this ever-present dynamic aspect of yourself, you’ll be able to better manage the ever-present changing dynamics that go on in your external life as well. The thing that gets us most stressed and disrupted in our lives is that when we have an expectation of something happening and it doesn’t. Unrequited expectations cause stress. So the more you’re able to accept the moment for what it is, then there’s less chance of your being disappointed.

Alex: Is there a specific breathing method you recommend?

Jackie: In this form of mindfulness it’s just observing your breath. There are many powerful distinctive ways of breathing in meditation, but, mindfulness is just observing the breath, one breath at a time.

Jackie: So there are a hundred ways we can lose our balance - emotional balance, natural, psychological balance, physical balance – every moment. If you’re practicing mindfulness, you have a greater awareness of when you fall off balance, and you can then grab onto your practice of mindfulness to bring you back into balance. This way I don’t get so off-center.

Mindfulness Monday: Practice Living Each Moment

Alex: Let’s say I’m in an angry mood because I recently got laid off. What if meditating doesn’t make me feel any better?

Jackie: Mindfulness is not necessarily about changing an angry person into a non-angry person, it’s about you becoming aware of your anger and how you experience it. So imagine you’re feeling anger, and you send all this rage externally. Unless you’re being violent to someone physically, most of the violence is done to ourselves. Only we’re not aware of it because we’re so focused on our emotional hurt. The goal is not to take away the anger, the goal is for you to become awake to the feeling that you’re angry and that you might have all these varieties of thought and physical and emotional experiences while being angry. When you allow yourself to be aware of your experience, the experience shifts. Say you got laid off and you’re angry. A lot of us would be resentful and angry towards the person who laid us off and we’d blame them for our problems, instead I could become more specific about the concerns of being laid off like, I’ve been laid off, I don’t know if I’m going get another job. I’m scared about not paying the mortgage. What am I going to tell my family? If you can get down to that beginning level of awareness, you can begin to sort through and go on. Just breathe for the next few moments and don’t try to change anything at all. Then see where your thoughts can lead you. Oh, I didn’t like this job anyway, or, maybe I can tell the bank I was laid off, and they’ll give me a month without penalty of paying my mortgage.

Tara: Mindfulness helps you not to cling to that past experience. If you’re in the present, you know, that happened, I’m here now, not looking forward, not looking ahead, just being here for a moment.

Alex: How can mindfulness help you stay away from extreme behavior while encouraging acceptance of it?

Jackie: The beauty of mindfulness, like life, is that it is full of paradoxes. On the one hand, mindfulness helps you not get so angry, but then you say but mindfulness is not asking you not to be so angry, so both are true. It’s a paradox. Human beings want things defined, without confusion. But what mindfulness teaches is that if we’re being present fully in the moment, we become aware of the multidimensionality of our existence. So there is no absolute. So when I practice mindfulness long enough, I become more aware of what takes me, personally, out of balance, so that I am much more sensitive and alert to those situations - and when they start to happen, I go into my practice which is to be present to my own responses. However, if I’m observing my anger, I’m not necessarily acting my anger out. So you could say something to me that makes me angrier than I’ve ever been, and you might never know.

Tips for Starting Your Own Practice

Alex: Who are your Monday Mindfulness Memos intended for?
Jackie: This is on the NYU Medical Center intranet, available for any employee of the NYU Medical Center right now.
Tara: But eventually we’d like to house them on our website, which is being created. We already have one for our preparatory surgery program, but we’re creating one for the Mind Body Patient Care program, and we’ll put these on there - so they’ll be available to anyone. We want to do one memo a month and then supplement that memo with weekly Monday tips on how to use mindfulness and apply it to your daily life. So every Monday you start fresh – you use mindfulness and incorporate it into your life.

Alex: Are the tips cumulative? Or can anyone start fresh?

Jackie: Anyone can start fresh. We’re going to have links and an archive for monthly memos so people can click on that and then utilize those tips.

Tara: The first one is basically, what is mindfulness? and that will always be on the intranet in case you come into this later and you don’t already know what mindfulness is. Later on we are going to write memos on mindful communication, mindful eating… all sorts of ways to use mindfulness in your everyday life.

Alex: What are you trying to communicate with these memos and tips?

Jackie: Basically it’s utilizing the principles of compassion and non-judgmentalness when we listen and speak with each other. The more skillful we are at listening deeply to what another is trying to communicate to us, the more we are able to understand the intent of the speaker.

Tara: It’s an ideal way of communicating. Also, when you’re talking to someone, instead of thinking of what you’re going to say next –you’re actually listening, mindfully listening, and then responding.

Alex: Sounds brilliant - and common sense.

Jackie: The practice of meditation is essentially common sense. But in order to implement it on a regular basis you have to practice. It’s difficult to always remember to be mindful when somebody says something that I want to react to. It also helps me remember that the other person has a frame of reference too, and I want to understand it. That’s where the compassion comes in and the non-judgmental attitude. If you say something to me, I first try to understand your motivation, your reason for saying that, then I can honestly assess what kind of response I should give.

Alex: How does Monday fit in?

Jackie: I think the Monday idea is great. Change doesn’t happen overnight, and it takes practice and commitment. Using Monday helps you realize, without judgment, that changes will eventually occur if you stick with it. And on the days that you don’t, you’re not harsh on yourself. Be kind to yourself. If it’s Thursday, you can decide to meditate or skip meat or whatever else you’re trying to do on that day, but you also know that every Monday is another day when you can begin seeing yourself fresh and anew. In mindfulness, every moment gives you that opportunity – but I think it’s very clever to connect it to a day of the week. The whole point of Healthy Monday is to develop a practice of reinventing yourself and working on changing once a week. If you’re not able to stop and reflect on what are the barriers to making change, or if you’re not able to observe yourself non-judgmentally and with compassion, when you realize you’re not making the choices that are good for you, you can just sit back and reflect on that and gain greater insight. And then perhaps you can make a more lasting committed change.

Tara: I think it really supports being compassionate to yourself. I know in my life, if I don’t go to the gym, I’ll be like forget it. But with Monday, you have a weekly opportunity to start over. It helps you not get discouraged with quitting or having a setback.

Jackie: Mindfulness has really helped with my greater sense of patience. When we’re taking on a big change, like quitting smoking – which is huge – you commit to Monday, you commit to being mindful of every time you have an urge to smoke, and you accept that urge, but in this moment, I can resist that urge because next moment that urge might go away. I know that if I can wait 30 seconds, that urge will be gone. That urge may come back later in the day, and then you sit with it. You can quit cold turkey, but it doesn’t mean you won’t have other desires for cigarettes.

Tara: When you have the urge to smoke, you supplement it for something else, unless you really feel the reason why you’re smoking.

Tara: You don’t practice mindfulness to make yourself a better person or to relax or make changes in yourself, but to help you tune in to what’s going on. All those things could happen as a result, but it is really easy to think I need to practice mindfulness to be better, to do more.

Alex: How has mindfulness changed your lives or perspectives?

Tara: Well I found mindfulness through yoga, and from the process of yoga I started teaching it. I just started doing yoga and it really changed my perspective on my life, and I didn’t know why. I wanted to figure out why and then help teach that to other people. I spent so much of my younger years looking forward, thinking I’ll be happy when I’m in college or I’ll be happy when I’m doing this. You can keep saying you’ll be happy when you get somewhere else, but this is your life right now. So that really helped me to live now and be happy.

Tara: My brother is a mindfulness meditation instructor. He did a workshop with people, and he had a little cup with sunflower seeds. We were sitting and observing our thoughts, and every time you had a thought, you’re supposed to drop a sunflower into the cup. So you could hear when everyone else had a thought, and it was like a rainstorm, and it was just a wonderful to hear everybody’s thoughts. You’re always giving off thoughts, and there’s nothing wrong with having them, just remember to come back.

Jackie: Mindfulness has helped me take things less seriously, be more playful. I can deal with things that are serious and hard, but also have an accompanying lightness to that experience. The people that I know who practice mindfulness on a regular basis smile a lot more, laugh a lot more, enjoy life a lot more.

Tara: Since you’re observing your thoughts, and if you notice your thoughts, it’s like, oh, that’s interesting. Where did that come from? It’s much more playful.

Alex: How’s this for a headline? Mindfulness: live for the moment.

Jackie: It’s more, be present in each moment, really.

Jackie: The more mindful I am the more precise I am. Not in an exhausting way; but, because I’m trying to actually capture everything as it is. I’ve become less satisfied with a lazy approach to understanding what others are trying to say or do. It’s a very precise practice.

Tara: We’re also much more curious about ourselves, and the world around us.

On Mindful Eating

Alex: Can you tell our readers a little bit about mindful eating?

Tara: If you’re mindful of your body, you will be swallowing and chewing when you need to, and you will stop way before you have gorged yourself. To be full, sometimes we throw food in our mouths, but you’ll enjoy and taste the food more if you practice mindful eating. You can extend it to the mindfulness of purchasing and preparing the food, and it will also connect you to the food though awareness of who grew the food, who harvested it, packaged and delivered it, if we’re not in a rural community and growing it ourselves.

Alex: Why is it important to have a connection with our food?

Jackie: I think it’s important to have a connection with everything that’s around us, and that I think good food is important, and the more we’re aware of how our food came to us, the more likely we are to make healthier choices.

Tara: If you’re mindful that you’re hungry, you’ll eat when you’re hungry, and you might make better choices if you’re mindful of your body’s hunger. So if right now I’m hungry, I know that I would probably go eat that whole counter, but if I’m aware of that it will help restrict me.

Jackie: When you connect to where your food is grown and the environment it’s grown in, we have a global awareness, and global awareness will help eventually bring peace.

Tara: It shows that we’re all connected—

Jackie: —and we should appreciate the people who grow our food.

Jackie Levin, RN, MS, and Tara Piergrossi, a Masters candidate in Public Health at Hunter College, are the founders of the NYU Mindfulness program.

Alex Levin
http://www.articlesbase.com/mental-health-articles/the-deceptively-simple-art-of-living-in-the-moment-715865.html

Is your canine friend showing signs of separation anxiety in dogs?  This type of destructive dog behavior can make life an absolute nightmare for a dog owner.  In fact, it’s the second most common reason that dogs are either given away or even put to sleep. 

You can avoid these bad outcomes by learning the signs of this condition, and finding out what you need to do about it.

Signs Of Separation Anxiety In Dogs

Dogs with separation anxiety may show different levels of bad behavior.  A dog with a mild case may pace around, pant, and over-groom himself. 

A dog with a more severe case may bark frantically for hours, driving the neighbors crazy.  He may display destructive dog behavior, tearing up whatever he can get a hold of.  Your dog may urinate or defecate inappropriately in the house.  He may go so far as to mutilate himself by chewing on his own tail, yanking out fur, and licking himself until he bleeds.

If you dread coming home because you don’t know what kind of mess is awaiting you, it’s time to take action to solve this problem.

Is Separation Anxiety Really The Problem, Or Is It Simply A Bored Dog?

Is your dog is bored, or does he really have a separation anxiety problem?  Here’s how you can tell:

• Destructive dog behavior occurs only when you leave him alone.  If he’s destroying things just to amuse himself, he’ll do it anytime, not just when he’s by himself.
• Your dog is “hyperattached” to you.  He follows you around the house, wanting you to hold him all the time.  This is flattering for the owner, but it’s not healthy for your dog to be this attached to you.
• He’s learned what you do when you leave, and he starts getting distressed before you go.
• He begins destructive behavior within 30 minutes of your leaving home.
• He tries to destroy barriers, like a door.  A dog may go after the door he last saw you go out of.
• Your dog barks in repeated, high-pitched yips.  This is reminiscent of a puppy’s distress call when he or she is separated from mom.

Your dog may not do all of these things, but if your dog is showing some of these behaviors, this shows his problem is not boredom.

Suggestions For Dealing With Dogs With Separation Anxiety

You may be surprised to learn that separation anxiety in canines is related to dominance issues.  In a wild dog pack, the leader can leave.  The others, however, never go away from the leader on their own. 

If your dog thinks he’s the alpha dog, or pack leader, he’ll get very upset if you leave him, since you’re not supposed to do that.  He thinks he’s responsible for you, and if you go away, something might happen to you.  Many times, once you establish yourself as the pack leader, the separation anxiety goes away.

Your dog needs lots of exercise to use up all that energy he has.  You should take your dog for a brisk walk twice a day.  You need to understand that your dog instinctively knows that the pack leader goes first.  He should be walking next to you or behind you, so that he’s following you, the pack leader.  Allowing him to pull ahead of you on his leash is telling him that he’s the alpha male, not you. 

So there you have it; now you can see how easy it is to inadvertently train your dog to do exactly what you don’t want him to do.  You can avoid this by finding a dog training course that focuses on teaching you how dogs think.  Once you understand how your dog’s mind works, separation anxiety in dogs is much easier to deal with.

Darlene Norris
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/separation-anxiety-in-dogs-and-what-your-dog-wishes-you-knew-736286.html

Why Web-Users Are So Impatient

While watching a Toronto Raptor basketball game I saw T.J. Ford, one of the fastest players in the league, rush down the court like a man possessed and proceed to throw the ball behind his back to a trailing Andrea Bargnani. The trouble was the ball sailed over the head of the seven-foot Bargnani into the second row of seats. Ford, himself, ended up with a beer and popcorn facial after landing in the lap of a front row patron. So what does this have to do with website design and marketing you ask? A lot.

As talented as Ford is a basketball player he sometimes plays out-of-control, and his major asset, his speed, becomes a liability. When this happens in a basketball game the answer is to slow the game down and get back in control.

Don’ Speed-It-Up; Slow-It-Down

Website visitors are like the speedy T.J. Ford; they are so intent on getting what they want as quickly and efficiently as possible, that they often surf the Internet out-of-control.

How many times have you sat in front of the computer with your hand resting on your mouse searching for some desired product, service, or information, when all of sudden you find what looks like what you want, but before you even have a chance to discover exactly what it is, your hair-trigger finger decides it’s time to move-on. It’s like your finger has a mind of it’s own.

Speed Kills Marketing Efforts

All the talk and discussion about short attention spans caused by people raised on video games and quick-cut-edited music videos is very misleading.

What website visitors won’t tolerate are websites that waste their time, and many websites are guilty of exactly that. Contrary to popular belief, the job of a website designer, who understand marketing, is not to speed up website visitors, but to slow them down so they can absorb the marketing message.

If you want your audience to remember you, if you want to make an impression, if you want website visitors to understand why they should give you their business, then you have to slow them down long enough to absorb your message. And that message better be worth their while or they will never come back.

It isn’t about how fast a page loads; it’s about delivering an appropriate payoff for the wait.

Now I will admit there people who absolutely, positively will not wait more than eight seconds for anything to load. You know who you are. And I say, the hell with them. These are the same people who won’t wait their turn in a brick and mortar store either, they demand to be served before everyone else - it’s just not possible to satisfy these people, so why design your entire website marketing around them. They are never going to hang around long enough to grasp your message and learn why they should be giving you their business, so forget about them.

The people you should be worrying about are the ones that really want to find out more about what it is you do, and are prepared to invest a little time and effort to give you a chance to explain yourself. These are the important people; this is your real audience, and you disappoint them at your financial peril.

The Reasons Why Web-users Are Impatient

The real reason website users are so damn impatient is not that they have such short attention spans, it’s because most websites are designed to meet perceived company objectives, rather than audience needs.

How To Drive Traffic Away From Your Website

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why your website visitors may be leaving your website before they’ve had a chance to hear what you have to say; or to put it another way, if you want to drive traffic AWAY faster than you attract it, here are some of the things you should do.

1.Give Web-visitors Too Many Options and Choices
Social scientist and Swarthmore College professor, Barry Schwartz, has coined the phrase, “the paradox of choice.” His studies have concluded the more choice you give people, the less likely they are to make a decision. Some choice is good, but too much choice creates confusion: it’s a case of diminishing marginal utility.

A well designed website explains, directs, guides, and focuses visitor attention on the things that are of real benefit to your visitors and to your company.

Every business provides a variety of products, services, and information to their customers, but these things are not all of equal importance. Your website is a place to focus attention on your core marketing message, not a place to provide a shopping list of everything you are able to do and every product or service you may be able to offer.

2. Give Web-visitors Too Much Information To Process
Architect, author, and information designer, Richard Saul Wurman, in his book, ‘Information Anxiety’ talks about, “the ever-widening gap between what we understand and what we think we should understand.”

Good website design is about more than technology and aesthetics; it’s about deciding what information needs to be presented and what information needs to be left out. If you are truly an expert in your field, you should know what information is important to your customers in order for them to make a decision. Too much information is like too much choice, it confuses rather clarifies. Focus on delivering meaningful content or risk having your visitors hit the exit button.

3. Give Web-visitors Too Much Non-relevant Content
The only thing worse than overloading your website with more information than visitors can absorb is confusing them with useless and non-relevant content.

Non-relevant content is content that doesn’t advance your major purpose: to deliver your marketing message in an informative, engaging, entertaining, and memorable manner. If it isn’t relevant, dump it.

4. Give Web-visitors Too Many Irritating Distractions
Websites should be designed to direct visitors to the information they want and that information should be the content you want to delivery.

You cannot sell someone a product or service they do not want. A real prospect is one that needs the same information you want to provide; the art of sales is directing potential clients to relevant information, and presenting it in a way that visitors see your product or service as fulfilling their needs.

On the surface, third-party advertisements and banners may seem like a good way to make some extra cash from your traffic, but these ads become so distracting, visitors either get feed-up or click on one of the links that takes them away from your site. Whatever few bucks you earn from these ads, you are loosing by chasing real customers away; this of course assumes you are a real business with something legitimate to sell and not a website that’s an excuse to deliver advertisements.

Other nonsense like favorite links and silly fluff-content merely distracts visitors from investigating your site to find what they are looking for.

5. Give Web-visitors Too Many Red Flags
Website visitors are constantly looking for red flags that tell them that the site they are visiting should be skipped as soon as possible.

If you want to make sure visitors won’t deal with you make sure you don’t provide any contact information: no contact names, no phone numbers, and no mailing address is a sure sign that you won’t look after any problems that arise from a website transaction.

Your website must be designed to build trust and foster a relationship, not scare people away.

6. Give Web-visitors Too Many Decisions To Make
How many decisions do you demand from your visitors in order for them to do business with you?

Take for example the seemingly simple task of purchasing a new television. Do you purchase the inexpensive but old tube technology, the newer Plasma technology, or the LCD technology? How about all the various features to choose from like picture-in-picture, commercial skip-timers, and on and on? All you really want to do is relax with your spouse and enjoy a good movie - is that on a VSH, DVD, Blu-ray, or HD-DVD?

7. Give Web-visitors Too Many Stumbling Blocks
Do you make people go through the order processing system before they can find out how much something costs, or do you demand potential customers read a ridiculous amount of small print legalese that only a lawyer could understand?

If you want to drive traffic away from your site make sure you build in as many stumbling blocks as possible.

8. Give Web-visitors Too Many Forms TO Fill-in
Do you attract your visitors with special offers or free white papers and then demand that they fill-out complex forms, surveys, and questionnaires before you give them access to what they came for? If you do, you are probably losing a lot of people you attracted, and you are guaranteeing that your next email promotion will end up in the trash.

9. Give Web-visitors Incomprehensible Page Layouts
Good design, proper page layout, consistent navigation, and well organized information architecture that promotes serendipity, helps visitors find what they’re looking for and provides a pleasant, efficient and rewarding experience for the website visitor.

Website designs that rely on technology, databases, and search engine optimization rather than focused content, coherent organization, articulate presentation, and a memorable, rewarding experience are designs designed to chase traffic away.

10. Give Web-visitors Too Many Confusing Instructions
One of the most frustrating experiences website visitors encounter is confusing instructions and incoherent explanations of how your product or service works or how to order what you are selling.

11. Give Web-visitors Too Many Reason To Click-out
If you really are determined to fail, make sure you provide website visitors with as many reasons as possible to leave your site: irrelevant links to your favorite sites, links to your suppliers because you’re too cheap to put their information on your own site, or any combination of the reasons mentioned above, all contribute to driving traffic away from your site.

Jerry Bader
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/11-ways-to-drive-traffic-away-from-your-website-130010.html