25 Wonderful Things To Do First Thing in the Morning

First thing in the morning

I believe that what you do first thing in the morning will determine how the rest of the day goes.  For the first half hour after you wake up, you’re are in a state of hypnosis, so what you do gets impressed upon your mind and has an effect on your day.

Here’s some ideas for starting your day in a powerful way. Pick one or two that you think will work for you and try them out. You won’t believe the difference it makes when you choose what you’re going to do first thing in the morning.

  1. Get up earlier. Getting up earlier gives you more day and  more peace and quiet. You also give yourself  more time to do some of the things you want to do. Start by setting your alarm 15 minutes earlier. Then, drink a big glass of water.
  2. Have a daily ritual that creates awareness, peace and serenity. NOT watching/ listening to the news, reading the paper or Facebook. Pick a few things from this list and put them together to create your own ritual that you do first thing in the morning.
  3. Make your first thought of the day a positive thought. The night before, write down the positive thought that you want to have as the first thought of the day. “It’s going to be a good day!” or “Glad I’m alive!” or maybe a gratitude list. I have a list of affirmations that I read to focus my mind on what I want to create.
  4. Create your day. I got this from Dr. Joe Dispenza who was in the film “What The Bleep Do We Know!? Create your day first thing in the morning or the night before by imagining how you want your day to be. Say to yourself: “Today I will experience inspiration (or relaxation fun, etc.).  Today I will attract things that  inspire me. When they happen I will know that I created it.”  Believe you can affect the universe.
  5. Read and visualize your goals. Your mind cannot distinguish between what is real and what is vividly imagined. The mind likes and moves toward what is known. Get your mind comfortable with your goals first thing in the morning by closing your eyes and seeing yourself doing what you want to do, having what you want to have and being who you want to be.
  6. Pray or meditate. Get in touch with the Infinite, whatever you consider that to be. It could be as simple as sitting in a chair and breathing, or in a lotus position or on your knees. Use a candle, beads, rosary,  incense or chanting. Take time to inquire within.
  7. Go outside. Let the sun shine it’s rays upon you. Breathe in the fresh morning air. Walk barefoot through the grass. Drink your coffee,  and eat your breakfast outside. If you do yoga in the living room floor, do it outside.
  8. Do something in the garden. Water, weed, plant or harvest. Pick a tomato or a bunch of flowers for a vase. Or just sit there in amazement and wonder.
  9. Do yoga or stretch. A flexible body means a flexible mind. You don’t want hardening of the attitudes. Stretching releases tension and toxins, and gets you in touch with your body.
  10. Read something inspiring. Religious books, your favorite inspirational authors, self help books, or a short quote to ponder for the day.
  11. Listen to music. Music stimulates the brain and awakens the emotions. Whatever makes you feel good, listen to it first thing in the morning.
  12. Write in your journal. Keep it positive. What have you learned recently? What is good in your life? Write a Gratitude list. Or, just quiet your mind and let it tell you what to write.
  13. Take a walk. Greet the world as it awakes while moving your body. Breathe deeply. Walk to Starbucks to get you out the door. Walk to someplace beautiful if possible. Walk the dog.
  14. Ride a bike. There’s something about riding a bike that is freeing and joyful. Maybe ’cause you did it as a kid.
  15. Get some exercise. Exercising first thing in the morning jump starts your metabolism, giving you a sense of relaxed energy. It could be walking, lifting weights, Pilates, going to the gym, push ups and/or pull ups. Make it work for you. I’ll repeat that: Make it work for you.
  16. Look at beautiful images. Fill your mind with beauty. Perhaps you have photos, or a great garden, or a picture book with incredible images. Give yourself a few minutes to take in the good stuff.
  17. Do the magic that you do. If you are a writer, write. If you are a painter, paint. If you are a musician, make music. If you’re a singer, sing. If you are a dancer, dance. If you are a photographer…
  18. Write a letter to someone you haven’t contacted for a while. Just say hi.
  19. Call someone you’ve been meaning to call or haven’t talked to in a while. “Hi, I know it’s first thing in the morning, and you’re probably getting ready for (work, school) but I just wanted to say that I really (miss you, love you, am thinking about you, remembering the good times, want to apologize, etc.) That’s all! Bye!”
  20. Treat yourself to breakfast. If you usually fix your own stuff, go out and eat, connect with the world.
  21. Fix your own breakfast. If you usually go out, then nurture yourself by feeding your own sweet self.
  22. Make a donation.Write a check or go online. Make your first act of the day one of generosity.
  23. Get in bed with your kids and smooch on them. I do this every morning.
  24. Wear something that’s comfortable that makes you feel good. Get it ready the night before ( ironing it or washing it).
  25. Call in well. Instead of calling in sick, call in well. Say  “Hi, I’m feeling too good to go to work today. Think I”ll hang out in the Rose Garden at the Huntington instead. See you tomorrow.” Or call in sick for a mental health day. Take the day off, you deserve it!

Step out of the insanity of the daily grind by getting in touch with what is true and meaningful on a daily basis. Making a “first thing in the morning habit” out of just of few of these things can change your life.

If you need help getting up earlier, or with a better attitude,  contact me and let’s talk about what we can do to help you start your day in a better way.  

Ted A. Moreno

FEEL FREE TO — USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE, WEB SITE OR BLOG. Just let me know, and include the following:
Ted A. Moreno is a Certified Hypnotherapist and Success Performance Coach. Ted helps his clients transform their lives by and reach their goals of success, abundance, personal development, health and happiness. To learn more, visit www.TedMoreno.com/blog

Mindless Fat: Packing it On

 

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Credit: www.bodysynergypt.com

 

 

Todays post is by guest author Veronica Dascalu. This is excellent advice and in line with what I teach my weight clients.

“The best diet is the one you don’t know you’re on,” writes Brian Wansink in his book Mindless Eating. We follow nutrition guidelines, read trendy diet books, and take up the craziest diets to reach one common goal — weight loss. If you ask me, it can be very exhausting, not to mention futile. As much as we try to “watch what we eat,” we eat mindlessly. Read more

The Greatest Gift You Will Ever Give to Yourself

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Your Most Valuable Asset

What do you value most in your life? Is it your house or car? Your investments? Is it your family? Your job?

It’s often suggested that the things we value most are those that we have worked and sacrificed for; those things that do not come easy to us.

I’d like to suggest that your most valuable possession, Read more

How to Avoid Overwhelm During the Holidays

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I’m going to share with you a secret that I’ve learned in my time working as a hypnotherapist. Knowing this secret could change your life, because whenever you are aware of something going on, you have the possibility of changing it. Knowing this secret could even save your life.

The secret is that most people are asleep most of the time. By asleep, I mean that they walk around in a trance, in hypnosis, unaware, their minds a thousand miles away from where they are at any given moment.I’m not putting people down for being sleepwalkers. It’s simply a function of 21st century America. There’s too much to think about, to much to do, too much going on. Life these days can be very overwhelming.

 Overwhelm is the feeling that you don’t know whether you are coming or going. The feeling of running around like a chicken without a head. You lose the ability to think clearly or make a decision. You walk into a room and can’t remember why you went in there. You may find yourself driving your car without the proper focus and attention. (I’m not immune, I recently rear ended someone while rushing to get somewhere.) This is a type of a trance or hypnotic state, what we hypnotherapists call hypersuggestiblility, which means that every little thing can have a negative effect on you. You can no longer deal effectively with life’s challenges.

We are especially susceptible to this type of overwhelm during the holidays. For many of us, our list of “things to do” doubles. There are parties, events, shopping, more traffic, more noise. We may have negative associations to this time of year because of negative family dynamics or the loss of a loved one. It’s colder and darker, creating a desire to hibernate or curl up in a ball and sleep. It’s harder to wake up in the mornings.  People exercise less, and there’s the tendency to eat and drink things that lower our immune systems. We spend more time indoors so we’re in closer proximity to cold and flu viruses.  It can all be so overwhelming, that it’s commonplace to hear people say that they dread the holiday season.

However, we always have a choice in how we respond.

Here are a few suggestions that may help you to stay focused, awake and aware so that you can enjoy whatever you choose to do over the next few months that we call the Holiday Season.

  • First and most important: Sit down and choose powerfully what the holidays mean to you and what you want to get out of them. If you choose to fly to Cancun and hang on the beach with a Pina Colada, that’s your choice, if you are willing to accept the consequences. If you want to go gaga and go all out with parties, decorating, spending a ton of money and eating and drinking to your heart’s content, then do that, and be willing to accept the consequences. If you want to stay focused on the spiritual  aspects of the holidays, then make that your goal. Overwhelm happens when we feel that we have no control and that we are at the mercy of the season. It’s your life, you decide how to spend it, now, today, during the holidays, whenever.
  • Be realistic with your expectations. There is only so many hours in a day, so many days in a week, and only so many days until this that or the other.  Think clearly about what you will be able to accomplish at any particular time. In addition, be realistic about what you expect from others. Their expectations my differ radically from yours. If in doubt, ask.
  • Don’t neglect your self care. Exercise, eating regularly, getting enough sleep, taking your vitamins, drinking enough water, etc., become even more critical when you are busy, under stress, and the cold and flu season is in full swing.
  • Plan. I always suggest planning your day the night before. Being prepared helps manage stress. Running around, forgetting stuff, not eating, and driving while distracted, on the phone or after drinking, is not only highly stressful, it’s dangerous.
  • Have a mantra or affirmation that reminds you to stay present, aware and awake. For example, “Eyes open, wide awake”, “Breathe”, “Focus” or “It’s ok!” are all good ones.
  • Take some alone time. After shopping, sit in your car and take some deep breaths. Nothing creates overwhelm more quickly than a shopping mall during the holidays. At a party, step outside for some peace and quiet, a chance to collect yourself, and check in on yourself. (Am I good to drive? Am I done eating? Am I running on time for other commitments?)
  • If you know that you are going to be involved with family dynamics that have the possibility of being dicey, then acknowledge that going in and be clear about how you want to act. Stress, fatigue, alcohol, and familial dysfunction can be a lethal combination. Manage accordingly.
  • Finally, look for the joy, the special moments, and the magic and you’ll have a good chance of finding it. Be open to love, acceptance and forgiveness. Notice beauty whenever it presents itself; in the clear crisp light of a winter sky, in a tree twinkling with lights,  in the eyes of someone smiling at you. Be willing to accept and acknowledge the greatest gifts, those that are priceless, precious and enduring.

Happy Holidays!

If you liked this post, please leave a comment and/or share it with your social networks.

Dedicated to helping you move to your next level of greatness,

TMan

p.s. Just for reading this far, as my gift to you,  I’m going to give you $35 off of my regular fee for any hypnotherapy session you come in for in the month of December.(Can’t be combined with any other offer out there, sorry!)

Ted A. Moreno
Personal/Small Business Coach
Certified Hypnotherapist
www.TedMoreno.com                                                                       
 (626) 826-0612
Photo by Skye Moorhead
www.skyemoorhead.com
 

Extolling the Virtues of Walking

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Last week I decided to do something that I have been wanting to do since I moved to where I now live. I’ve been wanting to take a walk in a nearby park that has a large reservoir. It’s within walking distance from my house, but I usually don’t have enough time to both walk to the park and explore the many trails. So last week I drove the three minute drive to the entrance and started walking. Read more

Zombies! How to Keep from Being One of the Walking Dead.

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It’s close to Halloween, and people are already talking about what costume they’re going to wear. For a couple of days there will be lots of ghosts and skeletons, goblins and witches, vampires and Antoine Dodsons walking around.

But regardless of what time of year it is, you can always count on there being Zombies. Read more

Giving Yourself Permission to Just Hang Out and Relax.

 

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Friday I stayed home with a bad cold.  Cancelling the two appointments I had on Saturday was not an option.  I got through Saturday without sneezing on my cleints, and spent the rest of the day on the couch with a box of Kleenex.

Sunday I woke up at 6 am still feeling pretty lousy. Saturdays and Sundays I usually get up at 6, and write this blog in my home office. The voice in my head  was saying: “Get up right now, go into the office and start writing…wait, how about just a couple more minutes sleep? OK. Then I’ll get up and get to work…yeah, that’s it…”

I woke up at 8:30, feeling guilty and behind schedule. All of a sudden, something occured to me: “I’m under the weather, can’t I get a break??”

After all,  I was battling a cold. It seemed like it should be OK for me not to jump out of bed and start working on this particular Sunday. Then I decided something that totally changed how I felt: I wasn’t going to do a darn thing  that day except take it easy. And that’s what I did. I sat on the couch and watched TV, something I never do. I played with my kids. I felt like I was on vacation. No pressure, no work, I had nothing I had to get done. It felt freakin’ great. Here I thought I was the expert on how to relax, but I had to be reminded that day how incredibly important it is to just chill out.

Relaxation is as necessary as food and water. Without regular relaxation, stress builds up and creates dis-ease. Yet, it seems that in our culture, we feel the need to jam more and more into each day. The fact is, research shows that daily time for relaxation actually increases productivity.

The mind can only take in so much information or stimuli before it becomes overwhelmed. Many factors can contribute to overwhelm, including lack of sleep, physical discomfort or pain, emotional challenges, hunger, and especially stress and worry. When we become overwhelmed, we aren’t able to keep things in perspective anymore, and our tolerance and patience plummets. We actually enter  a trance state, and since we’re focused on what we don’t want, we create more of it through the power of suggestion, creating a vicious cycle.

If you stay stressed and overwhelmed long enough, this state can become a habit or the norm. Things begin to fall through the cracks, exhaustion kicks in, and if you don’t have the good sense to say “I need a vacation” then your body will force you to take one.

If you’re having trouble relaxing, here’s a few useful tips:

  • Schedule your relaxation time in as an appointment with yourself. Could be a whole day, a few hours, or a few minutes to listen to a relaxation or hypnosis CD. The key is make the choice to do it and do it regularly.
  • Take breaks. I know you’ve heard this before. Alex Mandossian suggests having a timer and work in 50 minute increments, then when 50 minutes is up, you absolutely have to get up and take a break, walk around, or have a snack or a meal.
  • Take a power nap. According to Wikipedia, “Scientific experiments  and anecdotal evidence suggest that an average power nap duration of around 15-30 minutes is most effective.”
  • Keep your perspective. Will your email inbox ever be empty? Will you ever really conquer all the weeds? Have you every been truly caught up? Will the work at your job ever be “done?” If the answer is no, then that is the reality. Work when you should,  relax when you should. I don’t know for sure, but I’ll bet that it’s true that nobody ever said on their deathbed, “I should’ve spent more time at the office.”
  • Learn to say no. Is it imperative that you attend every invitation you recieve?  Give your time whenever asked? Are you guilted into attending parties, weddings, work functions etc. even when you don’t want to? It’s your life, your precious and valuable time, and your choice, so choose wisely.
  • Take one day a week off. One day when you absolutely do not involve yourself in your work, job or career. One day to let your mind be free to focus on something else. Even God took a day off.
  • Loosen up and have some fun. The last time I spoke to God, She told me that we’re here to enjoy life. Who am I to disobey? What good is working hard and  having lots of stuff, if you can’t hang loose and enjoy it? Short answer: no good.
  • Listen to music. In my house, I’m the kitchen clean up guy. It’s a lot more tolerable if I’m listening to tunes. Even if you aren’t a big music lover, listening to relaxing music while driving can go a long way towards  easing the stress of a daily commmute.
  • Take a walk outside. It will get you out of your head, and that’s where your stress lives. A walk after dinner will do wonders for your attitude.
  • Then there’s the tried and true…yoga and meditation or some kind of mindfullness practice. Having been around for a couple of thousand years, we can assume that there’s something valuable in these practices.

Or you can make it really easy on yourself and just call me. Here’s what I’ll do for you. I’ll give you a half hour Power Relaxation Session  for $59, including a recording of the session. You come in, we say our howdy dos, you get in the happy chair, I do the hypno-relax magic, you walk out with a smile on your face and a recording waiting for you in your inbox. How easy is that? (South Pasadena location only, this offer expires September 30th.)

If you liked this post, please leave a comment and/or share it with your social networks.

TMan

 Ted A. Moreno
Personal/Small Business Coach
Certified Hypnotherapist
www.TedMoreno.com                                                                       
 (626) 826-0612
 
Photo by Skye Moorhead. www.skyemoorhead.com
 

The Elements of Change

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(This weeks post is written by Leo Babauta from his blog Zen Habits.)

Change can be a difficult thing. Most people want to change their lives, in some way, but find it difficult to either get started or to sustain the change for very long.

I’m happy to report that after years of studying it, I’ve become fairly good at it (though happily failing all the time). I actually relish change, not because I feel I need to improve my life, but because in change, I learn new things. Constantly.

What have I learned from my changes? I could write a book on this (and probably will someday), but the essence can be found in the space between the inevitable fact of change, and in the incredible resistance to change inside ourselves and in the people around us. We want to change, and yet we don’t. How do we resolve this tension?

It can be incredibly difficult, or it can be wonderfully joyous. I’m here to show you the elements of the joyous path to change. The difficult path … I think we can each easily find that on our own.

My Recent Changes

I’ve made dozens of changes over the last few years (read My Story for a partial list), but here’s a short list of a few I’ve made just this year:

  • Lost over 40 lbs since last year. I’ve not cared as much about losing weight — it’s just a number — but more about losing some fat and getting fit. The weight loss has really been a side effect of that focus. I’ve tried a lot of different methods, but I’ve found that only two things matter, and they’re ridiculously obvious: cut back on calories and increase the calories you burn through activity. Finding ways to do those two things has been the fun part.
  • Gave up our car and walk, bike or use public transit everywhere. I’ve slowly been reducing how much I use a car, and increasing biking and walking. Then we drastically made the change just a few weeks ago when we sold our van, moved to San Francisco, and have been car-free ever since.
  • Began walking more. Obviously this goes with being car-free, but even when we had our van I would walk for an hour or three on many days, just for the simple pleasure of it.
  • Eat foods with no or little packaging. From bulk bins or farmer’s market, with reusable containers, if possible. I strive for fresh fruits and a variety of veggies, plus beans and nuts and whole grains and seeds. None of this needs packaging, all of it is great for you.
  • Gave up almost all of my possessions. I was slowly whittling away at my possessions, then took a huge leap when we sold or gave away almost everything and moved to San Francisco. We’ve bought some furniture (mostly used) but haven’t come anywhere near the (modest) amount of possessions we had before.
  • Started working less. A task needs to meet a high threshold of importance for me to consider doing it these days. This means I work fewer hours but am more effective during those hours.
  • Drastically reduced the time I spend online. I love online reading, and connecting with others, but it can really eat up your life if you let it.
  • Focused more on being in the moment.
  • Stopped setting goals and planning so much. I used to be a rigid planner and goal setter, just a couple years ago. You can see it in my old posts here on Zen Habits. I’ve dropped that habit, mostly.
  • Instead, embraced going with the flow.

Again, this is a short list — there are others that are less noteworthy, and probably a few I’m forgetting.

The Elements of Change

So what’s the joyous path to making these changes and others? I’ve broken it down into six elements, many of which overlap and have very blurred lines. They’re useful, though, in considering how to make potential changes in your life.

1. Beating inertia. We all have inertia — that resistance to change, especially major change that disrupts our living patterns or way of thinking. Sometimes it’s not difficult to overcome — we can get excited to make a big change and want to overhaul a certain part of our lives. The joyous path, though, is in the middle ground between no change and drastic change. It’s in small changes — as small as possible. Small changes mean it’s not hard to get started, but also that the change is sustainable. If you make a drastic change, there is a great likelihood that it won’t stick very long.

If you’re feeling that inertia, set out to make as tiny a change as you can — just get out and walk for 5 minutes, or start writing or painting or playing your violin for 5 minutes. You can do anything for 5 minutes — it should seem ridiculously easy, but that’s the point.

2. Beating the resistance of others. This resistance can be even tougher to beat than your own inertia — very often people in our lives do not want change. They’ll be negative, or even actively try to stop us from changing. There are various strategies for beating this: ask for their help and get them on your side, or negotiate a way for you to make change without disrupting their lives too much, or if necessary, cut them out of your life for a little bit. Read more.

3. Finding the joy. Here is the key to it all. Forget the rest of these steps if you need to, but never forget this one. Doing something you hate is possible, for a little while, but you’ll never sustain it. If you hate running, you’ll never keep up the habit for long. You need to find the joy in doing the activity, and when you do, you’re golden. So either choose an activity that you love, or find something to love in the activity, and grab on to that.

4. Keeping the joy alive. Joy can be fleeting, and to keep it going, you need to nurture it. This is an art form, and I can’t give you step-by-step instructions here. If I could, I’d be a billionaire, as it would change the world. But some advice: be grateful for your joy, every day. Be in the moment with that activity, instead of having your mind drift elsewhere. Refresh your joy often, by starting over or approaching things from a new angle or doing something a bit differently. Find new people to share this joy with, people who love it as much as you.

5. Celebrating the little victories. We often get discouraged because we’re not as far along as we’d like: we don’t have those six-pack abs yet (after a month of exercise!) or we’re not a full-time blogger yet (after three months of blogging!). But we forget how far we’ve come. Every step along the path is a victory, not because we’ve accomplished a goal but simply because we made the step. Celebrate those steps — jump up and down in joy, scream Halelujah, brag about it on Facebook, post a victorious message in bold marker on your fridge. You rock.

6. Making it a part of your life. Whether a change stays with you forever or not, making a change has value, in the momentary joy you get from doing it, and in what you learn from it. But making a change stick can be a great thing. To integrate change into your life, it must become a part of your daily routine. If you want to meditate, you need to do it at a regular time: right after having your coffee and before showering for work, for example. Having the coffee becomes your trigger for this new habit, and as the coffee is already integrated into your life, it becomes an anchor upon which this new habit will be grounded. The more times you do the new habit after this trigger, and the more regularly you do it, the more firmly it will stick.

And lastly

One last note, to anyone making changes: you will fail. I don’t say that to discourage you, but to release you from the fear of failure … because if you already know it will happen, then there’s no pressure to avoid it. Failure is an inevitable part of change, and in fact it should be celebrated — without failure, we’d learn nothing. Fail, fail often, and learn. Then you’ll be better equipped for the next attempt. Find joy in every attempt, in every victory, in every failure, and the change will be a reward in itself.

Zen Habits is one of the Top 100 blogs in the world, with about 185K readers. Zen Habits features  articles on: simplicity, health & fitness, motivation and inspiration, frugality, family life, happiness, goals, getting great things done, and living in the moment.

Leo Babauta, the creator and writer of Zen Habits, is married with six kids(!), Recently moved to S.F., is  the author of a new best-selling book, The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential, in Business and in Life.

If you liked this post, please leave a comment and/or share it with your social networks.

TMan

 Ted A. Moreno 
Personal/Small Business Coach 
Certified Hypnotherapist 
www.TedMoreno.com                                                                        
 (626) 826-0612

 

A Time Tested Technique for Stress Relief

 I believe that the most powerful force on the planet is the human mind. However, instead of using our minds to create, many of us are controlled by our own minds. The most obvious result of being controlled by your mind is stress.  I’d like to suggest one technique to help you get control over your mind and that is meditation or awareness practice.

I won’t bore you with statistics regarding how stress can kill you or how stress related diseases are the number one killer of Americans. And you know that we cannot avoid stress. A certain amount of stress is good and needed to keep us alive.

In our modern culture, though, the amount of stress we experience can be crushing. Much of our stress comes from thoughts of fear and worry:

  • How am I ever going to..
  • I have to….
  • I really need to..
  • This sucks…
  • I can’t believe this is happening…
  • I hate this…I can’t stand this…I’m sick of this…
  • Why does this always happen…
  • I can’t deal with this…
  • What if (this bad thing happens)

Meditation is one of the most powerful ways to  deal with stress. When you read the word meditation, you might think of someone sitting in the lotus position chanting “Om”. You might think meditation refers to a particular religious belief system. It is much more than that. I have sat in Zen meditation alongside Catholic  nuns and priests.

Meditation means awareness. Awareness of what your mind is thinking. You are present to what is going on now.

When we become aware of what our mind is thinking, then we can have detachment. Detachment allows us to see our stressful thoughts for what they really are: stressful thoughts making us stressed. This gives us the opportunity to choose what we think. This is the beginning of true freedom. We can learn to stop worrying ourselves or scaring ourselves to death, or at least, ill-health.

A daily practice of meditation can be profound and life changing. You may not have time nor the desire to develop a daily practice. That’s fine. What I’d like to do is give you a few simple things to do that can be very helpful when you are feeling stressed out.

  • Basic technique: close your eyes and take some deep breaths while focusing on your breathing. Breathe deeply into your abdomen. This can be done just about anywhere, anytime. Try it right now. You’ll notice a change right away. You can say something to yourself, such as “I’m ok”  or “calm” or “relax”. What you are doing is taking your mind off of what is causing you stress and focusing on NOW. Just for a few minutes, let go of the outside world.
  • While driving: … please don’t close your eyes! See if you can let go of wanting your traffic situation to be different. Be present to what is. Most people drive unconsciously, their minds a million miles away. Try driving consciously. If you are stressed, turn off the radio or music. Notice the color of the car in front of you. Notice your surroundings, where are you? Notice the sky, the trees, the landscape.
  • A more formal way to meditate: before bed or right after waking up, sit in a chair. Try to keep you back straight. Breathe deeply and count your breaths, starting with each inhale. Count to 10, then start over. Do it for 5 minutes. If you can’t do it for 5 minutes, do it for 3 minutes, or 1 minute.
  • Focus on an object. It might be the flame of a candle, or a flower in a vase. Sitting on a bench in a park, it might be a tree.Breathe and simply focus on an object without trying to describe it, categorize it or have an opinion about it.
  • Devotional meditation. It’s said that when you pray you talk to Spirit and when you meditate you listen. You can focus on Divine Love, simply allowing yourself to feel it. Or you might focus on a religious icon or a picture of a divine being.

Don’t worry about doing it right. The point is to get in the habit of letting go of the stressful thoughts, going inside and getting centered and grounded.

If you are interested in creating a regular mediation practice, I encourage and support you. Hypnotherapy can be helpful in developing the determination and motivation to practice. If you have questions or would like some coaching regarding meditation, feel free to call me or a free half hour consultation.

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Tman

 Ted A. Moreno 
Personal/Small Business Coach
Certified Hypnotherapist
Specializing in Your Success
www.TedMoreno.com                                                                       
 (626) 826-0612

Hypnosis and Cancer

I’m proud to provide hypnotherapy services to those with mesothelioma cancer.  Initial studies have shown hypnosis to be extremely beneficial for cancer patients and loved ones who battle anxiety, difficulty sleeping, and other secondary symptoms associated with traditional cancer treatments. Aggressive cancers like mesothelioma can have harmful side effects associated with radiation and chemotherapy regimens. Hypnosis has been shown to demonstrate improved capacity to manage these symptoms in mesothelioma patients as well as that of other types of cancer.

The following article has been provided to me courtesy of Mesothelioma.com, one of my Recommended Resources links.

Hypnosis a Powerful Tool in Complementary Cancer Care

Complementary therapies, while not given the attention that more traditional cancer therapies may receive, are perhaps equally important while undergoing treatment for certain types of cancer. Patients diagnosed with difficult to treat malignancies will often use these types of therapies in conjunction with traditional surgical, chemotherapeutic, or radiology techniques to form a more comprehensive and effective treatment regimen. Among the most important and effective alternative therapies utilized by those diagnosed with cancer is hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy has been used for many years in clinical settings. Hypnotherapy’s role in cancer management however, is relatively new and indications are that its utilization has not been fully maximized yet. Effective cancer treatment often depends on the patient’s ability to not only defeat the cancer through treatments but also to maintain their health and mental spirit throughout the painful side effects of cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation.

Often, the symptoms and effects of the cancer itself on the body are negligible compared to the pain and other side effects of chemotherapy and radiation. This is where acupuncture has been said to be most effective. Cancers such as mesothelioma, which are often unable to be removed by surgical means, are often treated with some combination of chemotherapy and radiation. While these potent therapies can be effective in eliminating some of the tumor mass and growth, they also profoundly affect the health of the surrounding tissue. Symptoms of these effects including fever, nausea, and general pain have been dramatically reduced through the utilization of hypnosis. Patients, who are able to withstand these symptoms and recover quickly, will often be able to be more aggressively treated, increasing the efficacy of the treatment regimen as a whole. Some specific hypnotherapy techniques utilized in pain management include altering the neurophysical configuration of pain, control of anticipatory anxiety, and targeted imagery.

Hypnotherapy techniques may not be appropriate for all patient’s pain and individual symptoms but it’s certainly worth exploring as it can do very little harm in experimenting with integrative therapies. The goal with alternative therapies, as with traditional mesothelioma treatments, is always to increase the effectiveness of treatment as a whole. If hypnotherapy can assist in any way in helping patients recover or manage symptoms of chemotherapy or radiation, then it will have contributed to the treatment regimens overall efficacy and should certainly be utilized.

References

Erickson MH: Hypnosis in painful terminal illness, in Haley J (ed): Advanced Techniques of Hypnosis and Therapy: Selected Papers of Milton Erickson, MD. New York, Crune & Stratton, 1967.

Sunnen, Gerard M.D. , Hypnotic Approaches in the Cancer Patient Ozonics International, LLC