Mental Attitude
The Emotional Stress Factor
This is part of a series of articles about The Stress Factor, from Instant Healing by Serge Kahili King.
Emotional stress is usually thought to be generated externally, in other words, created by what someone else is doing to you. This perception is so widespread that many people are paid compensation for the emotional stress that others have caused them.
In fact, emotional stress happens only when you become afraid or angry or excited, and all of these are internally generated responses. It’s easier, and sometimes financially profitable, to blame others for making you feel bad, but you really do it to yourself. One person may be bothered excessively by a situation that would be taken in stride by another. Your attitude toward what others do has more effect on you than what they do.
The emotions most likely to cause stress are fear, anger, and excitement. Of course, there are variations and levels of these emotions. Emotions related to fear are anxiety, panic, terror, and embarrassment. Some related to anger are jealousy, envy, sadness, depression and grief. Excitement includes enthusiasm and positive anticipation.
In a state of fear, your body is trying to get away from what is fearful. It would actually run if it could. If you decide not to run, the impulse to do so is still there, and the conflict between the impulse to run and the decision not to causes physical tension. In extreme fear, the tension can become so great that fainting occurs or body functions are impaired.
In an angry state, your body is trying to push something away, forcefully change it, or hurt it, and any of these impulses causes tension, too, especially when they are suppressed.
Fear and anger are used to resist people and situations and that gets translated by your body into physical tension. Sustained excitement can lead to tension caused by the body’s need to rest. Acute or chronic fear, anger, or excitement can be very stressful in terms of the physical tension they produce.
Of course, direct muscle tension is not the only physical response to emotional stress. Chemical changes occur as well which can produce stress effects on other systems of the body that lead indirectly to increased physical tension. In fact, emotional and physical responses are so interrelated that chemical changes in the body, either natural or caused by food, drugs, or herbs, can induce emotional stress and physical tension. Endorphins, caffeine, alcohol, heroin, and cocaine or some of the better known substances that can do this.
The Mental Stress Factor
This is part of a series of articles about The Stress Factor, from Instant Healing by Serge Kahili King.
Your slightest thought causes a slight physical response. Your strongest thoughts cause strong physical responses. Remembering, imagining, planning, speculating, wondering, meditating, and any other form of mental activity have corresponding physical effects.
That means your body automatically tries to carry out the physical equivalent of your thoughts by activating your nervous system, modifying your breathing pattern, altering your hormonal and other chemical output, and adjusting your muscle tension, among other things.
If you remember water skiing, the muscles you used when you did it twitch right now in resonance with the mental act of remembering. If you wish you could kick your boss in the rear, the muscles required to do that tense up in preparation for the act. The more abstract your thinking – that is, the less related your thinking is to any kind of physical action – the less response there is in your body. However, sustained abstract thinking accompanied by shallow breathing and an unchanging posture can result in unhealthy physical tension.
Criticism, denial, doubt, confusion, and conflicting beliefs or motivations all produce mental stress and can cause physical tension. Criticism, by itself, is similar to anger without the depth of emotion. When you criticize, you are experiencing an impulse to push, change, or hurt, and when the body tries to respond to the impulse, the effort produces physical tension.
Denial is a mental version of fear, with the same impulse to move away from something and the same kind of tension that results. Doubt occurs when ideas are in conflict, and confusion occurs when choices are in conflict.
When your stressful thoughts also generate stressful emotions, the effects of emotional stress are added to the effects of mental stress and physical tension is increased even more.
The Spiritual Stress Factor
This is part of a series of articles about The Stress Factor, from Instant Healing by Serge Kahili King.
The main symptoms of what I call spiritual stress are apathy and the severe form of boredom called ennui, although headaches and other physical and behavioral symptoms can also be connected with spiritual stress.
Apathy comes from a habit of increasingly distancing oneself from surrounding values, emotions, and activities to the point where a person is less and less stirred or motivated by the things that affect and interest other people. Apathy could be called the spiritual version of anger, because it seems to be a coping response to a sense of being helpless or frustrated.
Instead of feeling angry or depressed about being helpless or frustrated, some people simply suppress feeling. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to keep the muscles in a state of tension so that feelings can’t be felt. And more unfortunately, if enough additional stress of any kind is added to the mix, the effort to hold back feelings may break down and allow an outburst of violence. It is quite common for people who suddenly break out in a frenzy of violence.
It is quite common for people who suddenly break out in a frenzy of aggressive activity to be described by people who know them as “quiet and unobtrusive.” I remember meeting a man who was very placid until someone did something he didn’t like. Then he became quietly menacing. I’m glad that no one did anything to really upset him while I was around.
Ennui is the spiritual counterpart of denial. The state of ennui however, is characterized by a denial of importance rather than existence. This is related to a sense of being unwanted or unloved. By this method of coping, a person tries to pretend that it doesn’t matter. It’s a variation on running away and therefore a version of fear. When this form of turning away from others and from the world becomes acute or chronic, it can also produce physical tension.
A curious form of spiritual stress comes from excessive fantasizing or meditation. The effect is something like the result of eating too much good food. These activities may be termed excessive when they result in physical tension. While the effect varies greatly among different individuals, the process is the same.
When consciousness is “away” from the body for too long, there is an increase in physical tension, which may include symptoms such as headaches and anxiety or worse. This effect is aggravated when fantasizing or meditation is used as an escape from ordinary reality.
It’s possible that even “healthy” fantasizers and meditators may feel a more or less subtle sense of relaxation or relief when they come back to body awareness. To some, the physical response of returning to body awareness is so strong that it seems as if their spirit is “slamming” back into the body because there is often a significant shaking or jerking of the muscles. A close study of this phenomenon has convinced me that the actual effect is one of a sudden release of tension.
Try This Hawaiian Healing Technique
“Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients–without ever seeing any of them.
The psychologist would study an inmate’s chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person’s illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved.
“When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane? It didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t logical, so I dismissed the story.
“However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho ‘oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn’t let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more.
I had always understood “total responsibility” to mean that I am responsible for what I think and do. Beyond that, it’s out of my hands. I think that most people think of total responsibility that way. We’re responsible for what we do, not what anyone else does–but that’s wrong.
“The Hawaiian therapist who healed those mentally ill people would teach me an advanced new perspective about total responsibility. His name is Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len. We probably spent an hour talking on our first phone call. I asked him to tell me the complete story of his work as a therapist.
He explained that he worked at Hawaii State Hospital for four years. That ward where they kept the criminally insane was dangerous. Psychologists quit on a monthly basis. The staff called in sick a lot or simply quit. People would walk through that ward with their backs against the wall, afraid of being attacked by patients. It was not a pleasant place to live, work, or visit.
“Dr. Len told me that he never saw patients. He agreed to have an office and to review their files. While he looked at those files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal.
“‘After a few months, patients that had to be shackled were being allowed to walk freely,’ he told me. ‘Others who had to be heavily medicated were getting off their medications. And those who had no chance of ever being released were being freed.’ I was in awe.
‘Not only that,’ he went on, ‘but the staff began to enjoy coming to work. Absenteeism and turnover disappeared. We ended up with more staff than we needed because patients were being released, and all the staff was showing up to work. Today, that ward is closed.’
“This is where I had to ask the million dollar question: ‘What were you doing within yourself that caused those people to change?’
“‘I was simply healing the part of me that created them,’ he said. I didn’t understand. Dr. Len explained that total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life- simply because it is in your life–is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.
“Whew. This is tough to swallow. Being responsible for what I say or do is one thing. Being responsible for what everyone in my life says or does is quite another. Yet, the truth is this: if you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life.
“This means that terrorist activity, the president, the economy or anything you experience and don’t like–is up for you to heal. They don’t exist, in a manner of speaking, except as projections from inside you. The problem isn’t with them, it’s with you, and to change them, you have to change you.
“I know this is tough to grasp, let alone accept or actually live. Blame is far easier than total responsibility, but as I spoke with Dr. Len, I began to realize that healing for him and in ho ‘oponopono means loving yourself.
“If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone, even a mentally ill criminal you do it by healing you.
I asked Dr. Len how he went about healing himself. What was he doing, exactly, when he looked at those patients’ files?
“‘I just kept saying, ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘I love you’ over and over again,’ he explained.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Turns out that loving yourself is the greatest way to improve yourself, and as you improve yourself, you improve your world.
“Let me give you a quick example of how this works: one day, someone sent me an email that upset me. In the past I would have handled it by working on my emotional hot buttons or by trying to reason with the person who sent the nasty message.
“This time, I decided to try Dr. Len’s method. I kept silently saying, I’m sorry’ and ‘I love you,’ I didn’t say it to anyone in particular. I was simply evoking the spirit of love to heal within me what was creating the outer circumstance.
“Within an hour I got an e-mail from the same person. He apologized for his previous message. Keep in mind that I didn’t take any outward action to get that apology. I didn’t even write him back. Yet, by saying ‘I love you,’ I somehow healed within me what was creating him.
“I later attended a ho ‘oponopono workshop run by Dr. Len. He’s now 70 years old, considered a grandfatherly shaman, and is somewhat reclusive. He praised my book, The Attractor Factor. He told me that as I improve myself, my book’s vibration will raise, and everyone will feel it when they read it. In short, as I improve, my readers will improve.
“‘What about the books that are already sold and out there?’ I asked.
“‘They aren’t out there,’ he explained, once again blowing my mind with his mystic wisdom. ‘They are still in you.’ In short, there is no out there. It would take a whole book to explain this advanced technique with the depth it deserves.
“Suffice It to say that whenever you want to improve anything in your life, there’s only one place to look: inside you. When you look, do it with love.”
It’s the attraction factor – like attracts like – his God-self was so strong that it attracted the God-self in others.”
Article by: Joe Vitale
Tension Caused by Trapped Emotions
Trapped emotions settle into different areas of the body and cause muscle tension and pain. Here’s a list of common emotions and the places they get trapped in:
- Shoulders – Burdens and responsibilities
- Neck – Fear and repressed self expression
- Upper Back – Grief, sorrow, and sadness
- Middle Back – Powerlessness and insecurity
- Lower Back – Guilt, shame, and unworthiness
- Stomach – Inability to process emotions
If you are not sure how to release those emotions, see this post on Deepak Chopra’s 7 step method to release emotional turbulance.
Turn Back Your Biological Clock
Rejuvenation is the deliberate restoration of youth and vigor through self-intervention in the aging process. Negative mental states such as anxiety, depression, hostility, and insecurity tend to be debilitating, hastening the aging process.
Positive mental states such as self-confidence, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and a sense of personal adequacy are empowering and inject rejuvenating energies into the body, eradicating those disempowering states which contribute to aging.
Love, for example, is one of the most empowering rejuvenation elements know. When present in the psyche, it neutralizes hate, its negative counterpart that is destructive. Dormant rejuvenating forces already exist within each of us and can be activated to intervene in the physical aging process.
Psychic Rejuvenation
- Step 1:
Relaxation. Physical relaxation sets the stage for using your psychic faculties to intervene in the body’s many functions. Close your eyes, slow down your breathing and allow your muscles to relax from the forehead down followed by the affirmation:
“I am now in full charge of my body. I am capable of influencing every function, mental and physical. All rejuvenating energies of my being are now at my command.”
- Step 2:
Stress Expiation. Even when stress is reduced through relaxation, certain residual effects tend to linger. By visualizing the major systems and organs of the body and mentally infusing them with rejuvenating energy you can extinguish the residual effects of stress on the body. Energizing the body’s systems and organs is accomplished by centering full awareness on various body regions and mentally bathing them with glowing energy while using the following affirmation:
“Youthful, invigorating energy is now flowing throughout my body. All organs systems and functions are now revitalized. The wear-and-tear of stress is now replaced by the flow of youth and vigor.”
- Step 3
Balance. With the body physically relaxed and the residual effects of stress relieved, an empowering state of full balance is possible through a technique called the Fingerpad Engagement Procedure. Designed to balance left- and right-brain functions, this procedure attunes the mind and body-a condition essential to rejuvenation.
Bring the tips of your fingers together; then with the fingerpads in a comfortable position, with your eyes closed, imagine your hands as antennae for your brain. Imagine your left brain actively generating positive energy, which flows into your right hand as an extension of that hemisphere.
Next, imagine your right brain producing positive energy which flows into your left hand as an extension of that hemisphere, Allow the energies flowing into your hands to mingle and create a powerful exchange that balances your mental and physical systems. After a few moments, disengage your fingerpads and allow your hands to relax, palms side up. Conclude with the following affirmation:
“My total being is balanced and infused with rejuvenating energy. The energies of youth are now unleashed to flow throughout my being. I am completely attuned within myself and with the world.”
- Step 4:
PK Illumination. This is the final and most critical step in the rejuvenation process. Visualize or look at a photograph of yourself in your youthful prime. Study this image, carefully noting the youthfulness in your eyes. Now close your eyes and visualize yourself at the peak of youth standing before a full-length mirror. Study your eyes in the mirror and observe a youthful gleam. Next, surround yourself with a glow of energy, then think of your favorite color. Finally, while breathing slowly and rhythmically, soak in the rejuvenating glow enveloping your body. Conclude with this affirmation:
“My powers of rejuvenation are now being unleashed to permeate my total being with the glow of youth and vigor. Every system within is now being revitalized with the infusion of rejuvenating power. Tired, worn tissue is being fortified with the energies of youth. Every function of my body is now fully infused as sparkling youthful energy is absorbed into every cell and fiber.
Surrounded by a colorful aura of rejuvenating energy, I am now secure in the present, bathed in vitality and the glow of youth. My inner rejuvenating powers are fully and completely unleashed to flow freely throughout my total being. Each day, my mind and body absorb the abundance of youthful energy that is constantly being unleashed within my being. Whenever I envision myself enveloped with the colorful glow of radiant energy, I will immediately become invigorated and fully empowered.”
- A Final Note:
This rejuvenation procedure can be repeated daily, or as often as you wish. You may want to place a small, self-adhesive star or other reminder on your mirror, computer, or TV as a cue to periodically re-activate the inner flow of rejuvenating energy. With practice, the process of combining visualization with affirmations and tapping into the dormant powers of rejuvenation within you will become a natural, spontaneous and continuous function.
© 1995 by Joe Slate Ph.D.
Pain Free with Abraham Hicks
From The Amazing Power of Deliberate Intent by Abraham Hicks
- It is natural for my body to be well.
- Even if I don’t know what to do in order to get better, my body does.
- I have trillions of cells, with individual Consciousness, and they know how to achieve their individual balance.
- When this condition began, I didn’t know what I know now.
- If I’d known then what I know now, this condition couldn’t have gotten started.
- I don’t need to understand the cause of this illness.
- I don’t need to explain how it is that I’m experiencing this illness.
- It doesn’t matter that it got started, because it’s reversing it’s course right now.
- It’s natural that it would take some time for my body to begin to align to my improved thoughts of well being.
- There’s no hurry about any of this.
- My body knows what to do.
- Well-Being is natural to me.
- My inner being is intricately aware of my physical body.
- My cells are asking for what they need in order to thrive, and Source Energy is answering those requests.
- I’m in very good hands.
- I will relax now, to allow communication between my body and my Source.
- My only work is to relax and breathe.
- I can do that.-I can do that easily.
- This sensation of pain is an indicator that Source is responding to my cellular request for Energy.
- This sensation of pain is a wonderful indicator that help is on the way.
- I will relax into this sensation of pain because I understand that it’s indicating improvement.
- My body is flesh and bone, but my body is also vibration.
- The way my body looks and feels is a result of my vibration.
- My body is as it is right now, and that is alright.
- My body is continually changing, and that is alright.
- My vibrational offering affects the changes in my body.
- Physical decline is about vibration, not about passing through time.
- It is possible for me to pass through time and improve my vibration.
- Physical decline is neither natural nor necessary.
- I do not have to wait for others to know this or demonstrate this.
- I can begin now, or whenever I choose, to demonstrate this.
- A shift in my vibration won’t give me instant physical evidence.
- A shift in my vibration will give me instant emotional evidence.
- Once I achieve a vibrational shift and stabilize there, I’ll see evidence.
- I’m willing to shift my vibration and wait for the physical evidence.
- Feeling better emotionally will be adequate evidence for now.
- Finding and maintaining positive expectancy is wonderful.
- I can feel my body benefiting from my new found ease.
- I can feel the stability of my physical body.
- I can feel the life-giving qualities of my new Energy alignment.
- I can feel that I’m coming into Energy Balance.
- I can feel how much my body enjoys my Energy Balance.
- All is well with me right now and getting better still…
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