Tag Archive for: ted’s blog

Are You Ready for Change?

ready for change?

Are you ready for change? You’d better be. Because it’s coming like a locomotive and if you’re not ready, you’ll get run over.

I remember when we went from rotary dial to push button, then to cordless. I got my first cell phone in 2005.

I remember using lps, (long playing records) to 8 track, to cassette, to CD, to iPod.

Those changes were easy, and fun.

Other changes were not so easy. The transition from college to work.

I didn’t learn to use a computer until 1998. That was hard. I’m still learning.

Getting married was great but having kids required a period of adjustment, from only being responsible to myself to being responsible for the care of another human. I thought I was ready for change but I wasn’t so ready.

I pushed back when I was informed that it was time for my baby daughter to start eating solid food.  I had just gotten the baby food thing down. I wasn’t ready for change.

Letting go of the naive idea that all I had to do was print business cards and my phone would start ringing. Not. I had to learn to market my practice. (“Turn and face the strain” D. Bowie)

Every time I thought I had it figured out, something changed, and most of the time, I wasn’t ready for the change.

The pace of change in our lives accelerates exponentially. I read recently that there has been more change in the last 30 years than in the last 300.

We as 21st century humans must assimilate change and new information more rapidly than at any other time in history. To achieve our goals such as happiness, fulfillment, or prosperity, we must be willing to let go of the old and move into the new and unknown. That is my business, the business of change.

Are you ready for change?

Change will come knocking… wait,  back up. Change will crash through your door and come rolling in whether you are ready for change or not.

Birth and death, growth and decay, marriage and divorce, buying and selling, falling in love and falling out, getting hired, getting fired, getting on board and jumping off, sometimes you make the choice and sometimes it’s made for you.

How do you get ready for change? You get ready to let go. You realize that all things are in transition and that all things must pass. It’s not easy and most don’t navigate change easily.

When should you get ready for change? You probably won’t until you realize that you are not ready and that the train is about to clobber you. That’s when it become apparent that it’s time to leave your car stuck on the track and run like hell.

Can we be ready for change? Probably not most of the time. But when it’s time to change, time to let go of what’s been, we can be ready with the belief that we can do it with grace, trust and confidence.

Ted

Having trouble dealing with change? Click here to contact Ted.

Meditation: Is it for You?

Meditation

Young children meditating in a Peruvian school.

“Meditation is a lifelong gift. It’s something you can call on at any time. I think it’s a great thing.” ~Paul McCartney

“At the end of the day, I can end up just totally wacky, because I’ve made mountains out of molehills. With meditation, I can keep them as molehills.~Ringo Starr. If you are old enough, you know that Paul and Ringo hung out in India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Transcendental Meditation.

“I’m quite a neurotic thinker, quite an adrenalized person. But after meditation, I felt this beautiful serenity and selfless connection.” ~Russel Brand. He’s kinda wacky. He probably should be meditating or on meds.

“Meditation is all about the pursuit of nothingness. It’s like the ultimate rest. It’s better than the best sleep you’ve ever had. It’s a quieting of the mind. It sharpens everything, especially your appreciation of your surroundings. It keeps life fresh.”  ~Hugh Jackman. The Wolverine meditates?

“We all have within us a deep well of creativity, which we can access if we can settle down into those deep, calm places, those serene moments that Transcendental Meditation offers.” ~ That’s Dr.Oz, vice chair and professor of surgery at Columbia University in New York City where he performs more than 300 heart operations a year.

Meditation seems right for some well known celebrities. So it it right for you? 

There are many ways to define what meditation is. Most definitions agree that meditation (often referred to as mindfulness practice) is a practice used to bring the mind and body under greater self control for mental well being, relaxation and concentration,  building one’s energy or life force, or to foster qualities such as compassion, love and forgiveness.

Meditation has been practiced since antiquity mostly as a part of religious traditions and beliefs. There are meditation practices that involve sitting, standing, walking, moving (such as tai chi) and even dancing.

So why would you want to meditate? I can only give you my opinion as someone who has meditated in the past and who is trying to get back to it as a daily practice.

Most research has been done on the Transcendental Meditation technique with hundreds of studies published. So there are some proven health benefits of meditation: reduced cortisol (the stress hormone), lowered anxiety and depression, reduced insomnia, lower blood pressure and risk of stroke and heart attack, and increased learning ability and memory.

I think the best reason to meditate, in my opinion, is to get to know and be at peace with yourself. The Tibetan word for meditation is “gom” which means “to become familiar with one’s self”. I think that’s important because whatever we can become familiar with, we can become comfortable with.

We are uncomfortable with ourselves when we have thoughts and feelings that create stress, tension and unhappiness. Sometimes it seems that we are at war with ourselves as we deal with conflicting thoughts and feelings about who we are, what we do and the circumstances of our lives.

The reason our thoughts and feelings can create negativity within us is because we identify with our thoughts and feelings. We believe our thoughts and feelings and we become attached to them.

What meditation allows us to do is to observe our inner process and see it for what is is: our inner process, and not who we are. 

If you have ever had the experience of telling yourself “I don’t need to let that (person or circumstance) bother me any more” then you know what it feels like to detach from conditioned reactions.

Is meditation right for you? It is if

  • you desire more peace of mind
  • you desire more control over what you think
  • you desire a greater sense of self awareness
  • you desire a deeper sense of being present to the experience of your life.

I am not an expert in meditation nor am I a meditation teacher . But I would like to give you a very simple technique that can introduce you to the benefits of meditation. Meditation is a practice, and becomes more powerful if done daily.

  • Start with 5 minutes at a time when you can be still and quiet. Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your hands resting in on your thighs or lap. Do this at a time of day when you don’t feel rushed and won’t be disturbed.
  • Focus and become aware of your body:  how it feels, what the energy of your body is like, what’s going on inside your body. Just notice.
  • Take a few deep, slow breaths and close your eyes.
  • Now let your breathing happen by itself and just watch it. Put your attention on your breathing.
  • Thoughts will come up. Your mind will drift. You may have feelings.  That’s ok. Notice whatever comes up, let it go and go back to your breathing.
  • See if you can be aware of the constant parade of thoughts, images and feeling that flow through your mind. You will find yourself getting carried away by your thoughts. Just keep bringing your attention back to your breathing. Some people find it helpful to count breaths to 10 and then start again.
  • Don’t get attached to doing it right. The key is not to stop your thoughts or prevent the mind from doing what it does. You just want to observe.
  • Do this daily. Try to up it to ten or twenty minutes.

There is much information available about meditation including classes, books and online information. My friend Julia Hilton has an excellent book Basics of Meditation: The First Steps to Changing Your Mind and Your World.

To be able to sit quietly and comfortably with yourself and get familiar with your own mind is an invaluable gift that can be life changing. Consider giving it to yourself.

Ted

Little Changes Here and There

I’ve been diligently working on my blog site and adding cool new features such as share/save buttons under each post.

I’ve also added “Ted’s Most Excellent Links” as well as some new tabs on the main menu, including tabs for my website, TedMoreno.com, and my anxiety blog site, Overcome Anxiety with Hypnosis.

I’m especially excited to finally get my first product, my Peaceful Place Relaxation CD, online under the tab Hypnosis Audio CDs.

As always, I welcome any suggestions for products and/or content.

Happy Day!

Answering Your Questions about Teds Tips for Transformation

I have had a number of people asking me questions such as what is the difference between your blog and your newsletter, why are some words underlined and in color, where do you get those cool pictures? These questions are usually asked by people that are new computer users. I’m happy to respond to these questions.

My blog is what I post at http://tedmoreno.wordpress.com. I create a new post usually once a week. My newsletter sends out by email whatever I have posted over the past week. Some people get my blog via Twitter, some see it on Facebook and some see it on LinkedIn. If you are not currently receiving my email newsletter you can subscribe at http://eepurl.com/Ogg.

If you see words underlined and in different colors like above, that means that if you clink on the word it will take you to another website. If you click on the graphic it will take you to the site where I got the graphic.

Feel free to ask any questions or make any comments regarding what I write.

TMan

www.TedMoreno.com

p.s. Oh, I almost forgot. Some people ask why I call myself TMan, insinuating that I think that I am some kind of superhero. Although I believe we all have incredible superpowers, I have been called TMan for many years. Other nicknames are Ted the Fred, Tedster, Tedley, Ted- a- roni, Tedamundo, T the Flea, and T Marini. You can see why I prefer TMan, the T standing, of course, for “Transformation”.

A New Look, A New Name

You may have noticed that  I’ve changed the name of my newsletter and blog to “Ted’s Tips For Transformation.” A little more interesting than “Ted’s Hypnotherapy Blog.” Besides, it’s not all about hypnotherapy, but it is all about transformation. I adopted a new look for the  email newsletter, just to change things up a bit.

If you missed it,  make sure you read my Happy Halloween Special Offer blog for a nice little discount.