Anji's Blog

Weekly Meditation and Self Care Tip

Posted on: 2006-05-03 16:06:05. Comments

Weekly Meditation and Self Care Tip

Posted on: 2006-05-03 16:05:01. Comments

Weekly Meditation and Self Care Tip

Posted on: 2006-05-03 16:03:10. Comments

Weekly Meditation and Self Care Tip

This is the second in a four part series that will talk about the fundamentals of creating A Place of Peace (use the links at the end of this newsletter to learn why this is a MUST for fertility, pregnancy after infertility, and women's health).

At the end of the series, you will have my blueprint for creating emotional and physical health and wellness.

This month's step? RELEASE
Have a great month!

Warmly,

Jennifer

Just the Facts! Step 2 - Release

First, a short review: The Anji system for creating A Place of Peace teaches you a simple 4-Step process. When you are finished, you will have an entire tool box of skills which will put you in control of your physical and emotional health. The 4 step process is:

Relax
Release
Renew
Reconnect

This month's newsletter is all about Step 2: Release

Now that you have given your body and mind a break with tools from the 'Relax' step, you are ready to begin to let go of the thoughts and feelings which keep you out of your Place of Peace.

It is truly hard to feel peaceful when you are filled with stress and anger and sadness and... whatever else is tucked up inside your mind. I certainly know this from experience!

When you start from a place of relaxation rather than all wound up in your emotions and feelings, you will find that it is easier to identify just exactly what you are ready to let go of.

Knowing what you want to let go of and what you're ready to let go of are two different things.

Sometimes, even though you know logically that you want to get rid of a particular thought or emotion - it wants to hang on because it is either serving you in some way or your body thinks that it is protecting you by holding on. Approaching the issue after relaxation gives you a clearer view of what can be released first.

Here are three tools to help you begin to release the thoughts, behaviors, or emotions that no longer serve you - the second step in creating A Place of Peace:

Tool #1 Be Congruent

One of the first decisions that people tend to make as they begin to become aware of how their emotions affect their health is to strive to ALWAYS be happy and joyful.

I don't care how long you have been meditating or finding peace or practicing mind-body techniques. NO ONE is happy all the time.

It does your body more harm than good to pretend you are happy when you are really frustrated or angry or overwhelmed.

Whatever you are feeling, own it. This will take you much farther than "stuffing it" just to pretend you're happy. Just think - each time you do that, you will have more work and more releasing to do later!

Tool #2 - Shoot for neutral

In this first phase of learning to create a Place of Peace, don't even make joy or happy all the time your goal.

It is perfectly fine to consider a 'neutral' feeling an accomplishment when you have been living with anger or sadness.

OWN neutral and congratulate yourself for it. When you can get to neutral, you are really close to release. Can you feel how much less resistance there is from a place of being neutral?

Tool #3 - Personal Peace Process

Gary Craig, creator of EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), suggests this process. What a difference it can make!

Make a list of any bothersome thought, past experience, emotion. Give each one of these a title, like it was a movie (e.g. "The telephone call with bad news", "The jerk who nearly knocked me off the road", "My friends made fun of me")

Come up with as many as possible - they don't have to be related to what you are specifically trying to release, just anything that comes to mind.

Once you have made your list, look it over. Which are the events that you would rate as a "10" on a scale of how much emotional weight they carry for you.

Over the course of the next several weeks or months, choose 2 or 3 titles to work with using EFT (see below) to bring each of your experiences of these events down to a 0. Nothing will change your past - but you can change how you feel about it.

Getting rid of even the smaller, least emotionally charged events, will bring down your overall level of tension making it that much easier to release everything else.

Now you have three tools to begin to work with the second step of the blueprint for creating A Place of Peace.

As you practice with these tools, you will find yourself gradually letting go of thought patterns, emotions, and behaviors that no longer serve you.

With this step, you're halfway through the process. The next step will help you add back in the thoughts and emotions you DO want.

Meditation and EFT to support the Meditation

Close your eyes and take several deep breaths

With each breath, imagine that the experiences, thoughts, and behaviors that you want to release are coming to rest on the outside of your boy. It is as if they are laying on the surface of your skin - almost as if you have a weighted washer with what you want to release etched on its surface for each issue.

Notice how many washers you have dotting your skin. Do you have layers and layers - or only a handful?

Now, imagine that you make a decision to let them go. Feel the ones that are ready to go simply falling to the floor. Honor the ones that are leaving - without them you wouldn't have as clear of a picture of what you DO want.

Notice how you are feeling without all that added weight.

EFT to support Step 2: Release

Even though it's hard to own my negative emotions, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though I don't really want to stop at neutral - I want joy and happiness NOW, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though it feels like I could release forever and still not be done, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Tapping in Affirmations

I am releasing a little bit more each day
I am patience
I am relaxed
I am allowing the process to work
I am giving myself a break
I am relaxing into my life more each day

Find out more at www.Anjionline.com

Blessings!
Maria A. Armstrong LMT
888 770 2770

Posted on: 2006-05-03 16:02:17. Comments

Weekly self care tip

This week's meditation and self-care tip focuses on the third tool in the first step of the Anji system for creating A Place of Peace (didn't see the article about this? Read it here: click here).

The first step is: Relax. This week's tool is: YOU ARE IN CHARGE

As I said in the newsletter that outlined these tools, this is the step that I struggled with for a long time - and yet, it is the one that has given me (and my clients) the most emotional freedom. Learn to move from feeling like a victim to knowing your own personal point of power.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Jennifer

Weekly Meditation Tip

"We don't see things as they are. We see things as we are." ~~ Anais Nin

You will need to read this tip at different times this week to get all of it. Even though it is simply explained, it isn't simply absorbed.

Afterall, if YOU are the one in charge, doesn't it mean that YOU have to take responsbility for all that is wrong in your life?

How can you really be in charge when you have to deal with spouses, partners, family members, employers, etc? You can't control them or what they say.

Exactly

The only thing that is within your control is you and your response and your beliefs. When you step in and understand that how you feel is directly related to what you think about what is happening outside of you, it brings your control directly to your center. YOU are in charge.

Even though it can sound like a lot of pressure and just one more way to beat up on yourself for all that is wrong, think of what this gives you. IF you have experiences in your life that 'make' you feel bad, you have the power to change the feelings. You don't have to rely on anyone else to change or to create something for you. You alone hold the power.

You can choose to change your perception, your beliefs, your feelings. It doesn't get much more powerful than that.

Now, powerful and easy are two different promises! I said powerful. I didn't say easy. So, here are some questions to get you started thinking about this particular tool. Make sure to follow up with the EFT statements - they will make this transition so much smoother for you (again, notice I refrained from using the word easy!)

Questions to ask yourself

If it were truly only up to me, what would I believe about myself?
If I were to write the script of who I am, what would I write?
If I were to let go of just one other person's emotions and beliefs about me, what would it be?
If I were to do one thing that normally makes me feel guilty, what would it be?
What do you 'get' for playing victim or martyr?
What would you have to give up if you gave up these roles?

EFT to support the meditation

Even though it seems impossible to accept that I am responsible for all my emotions, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though I have difficulty believeing that I can be in charge of my emotions and feelings no matter what the other person is saying or doing to me, I deeply and completely love and accept myself

Even though I am not comfortable giving up feeling like a victim or a martyr, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Affirmations (tap around on all the points except the outside edge of the hand. Begin at your eyebrow point)

I am learning to find my personal point of power

I am honoring all of my emotions

I am taking responsibility for all of my emotions

I am letting go of the need to be the victim

I am honoring all parts of me

For more information or for tapping points go to www.anjionline.com

Blessings!
Maria A. Armstrong LMT

Posted on: 2006-04-26 11:53:48. Comments

Weekly Meditation and Self Care tip

Welcome!

In last week's monthly newsletter, I introduced the first in a series of articles which details the Anji system for creating A Place of Peace. Once you can create a place of peace no matter what is going on around you, you will be able to have much more control over your own emotional and physical health. If you aren't a regular subscriber to the monthly newsletter or you simply would like to read the article again, click here.

The first step of the Anji System is to build tools to Relax. Each weekley meditation tip will focus on giving you more detailed instructions for each of the tools. The first tool I talked about was Breathing.

Deceptively simple, this is a very powerful tool, with many differnent ways to use it. It's also one I have talked about before in this newsletter. This week's meditation is a technique I haven't detailed for you before.

Enjoy and keep breathing!

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Jennifer

Weekly Meditation Tip

In her book, The Breathing Book, author Donna Farhi describes what she terms, the essential breath.

First, get comfortable. Begin to pay attention to your breath without trying to modify it, or change it. Begin to notice your exhalation. Watch your exhalation - from the time it begins to the time it ends. Watch your exhalation for several breaths.

Notice what happens at the end of your exhalation. Does an inhalation begin right away, or do you notice a pause between the two? The pause between inhalation and exhalation is a pause of restfulness.

Allow this pause to happen naturally - not trying to lengthen it beyond what your body naturally wants to do, or to rush into the next breath. Simply allow yourself to experience the quiet and stillness in your body in between breaths.

"This pause is a well, a resource that is always available to you. Know that at any time when you feel tired or confused, hurried or overwhelmed, you can draw from this well for rest and replenishment simply by entering the pause at the end of the exhalation. Without anticipating or projecting the outcome of the next moment, can you wait and see what the next breath brings?"

For more information visit us online at www.anjionline.com

Posted on: 2006-04-12 10:39:14. Comments

Weely Meditation Tip

To sign up for our newsletter, visit www.anjionline.com

Welcome!

We've all had loss and disappointment and hurt in our lives. These experiences help us grow to the next level (although that is only visible from the other side of the experience!). But, how do you 'get past' these experiences? How do you begin to let go of the hurt and disappointment so that you can get to the next level?

This week's meditation and EFT statements are the beginning of the process.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Jennifer

Weekly Meditation Tip

Death is not the greatest loss in life; the greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live ~ Norman Cousins

Too often, we don't know that we can release these parts of us that have died. So often, the painful parts of our hurts and disappointments live on and on - long past when they have served their usefulness.

The experience will never leave; but the pain and hurt can. Imagine what you could do if you could really leave the pain and hurt behind...

This week's meditation begins the process of releasing. Follow it up with the EFT statements to deepen the work.

Imagine that you sitting on the top of a broad rock in the middle of a cloudless day and it is daybreak. As you watch the day progresses as if you were in the middle of a time-lapse movie. You first feel the strength of the sun on your left side; the rays of the sun begin to warm your skin and gently begin to penetrate into every cell of your body on your left side. You can feel the warmth loosening and releasing any dark memory or experience. Loosening and lifting all that you no longer need to carry with you.

The sun continue to progress through the sky, coming up and over your body and then gradually working its way over to the right side of your body. All along the way, the warmth of the sun is coming into your body, loosening and releasing, loosening and releasing, over and over.

You control the speed of this time-lapse film, letting the sun linger in the places you need it the most.

Have a great week!

Maria A. Armstong LMT
www.anjionline.com

Posted on: 2006-03-29 11:38:48. Comments

Weekly Meditation tip

Staying Grounded

Have you ever felt so disconnected and out of synch with the world around us, that you begin to feel like you don’t even exist. Do you ever feel completely invisible to others or as if what you want most in the world is so elusive that your voice can't even be heard?

At these times, it is almost as if we have become invisible, without any form or meaning. One way to begin to combat this feeling is to “get out of your head” and “into your body”.

What I mean by that is to go back to the basics and look for the evidence of existing. Close your eyes and feel, very strongly, the way your feet feel against the ground. If you can, take your shoes off and feel the ground connecting with the balls of your feet and your heels.

Take a few steps and feel the difference between the foot that is complete contact with the ground and the one that is moving ahead to form the next stride.

Feel your clothes against your skin. Become aware of the temperature of the air, feel that air coming into and out of your lungs. Make yourself hypersensitive to every sensation that you are experiencing.

Once you have the physical sensations magnified, let the following phrase echo through your mind, “I AM here and I DO matter.”

This type of exercise is wonderful to use if you find yourself trapped in a cycle of negative thinking as well. Feeling the physical sensations gives you a new cognitive activity to break the negative cycle as well as help to dissipate the negative emotions. It requires that you be present in this very moment.

EFT to support the meditation

This is a new feature of the weekly meditation tip. I introduced readers to EFT several weeks ago. (see the link at the bottom of this section if you missed the discussion). Each week, I will give you EFT statements to use that support the theme of the meditation. It is my hope that by seeing the statements I create and trying them out will show you the power of this simple technique.

Even though I feel completely out of touch, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though I feel invisible, I deeply and completley love and accept myself

Even though I feel like no-one can hear me, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Affirmations (tap around on all the points except the outside edge of the hand. Begin at your eyebrow point)

I am here

I am worthy

I do matter!

I am whole and complete, just as I am

My voice is getting stronger

I am fully connected

Blessings on your week!
www.anjionline.com
Maria A. Armstrong LMT

Posted on: 2006-03-22 10:24:07. Comments

Meditation and Self Care Tip

Creating a pathway for new thoughts

As you are in the process of letting go of thoughts that you don’t want, you must have thoughts to fill back in the space left behind. After all, we have about 60,000 thoughts per day – you can’t just keep your mind quiet.

Too often we reach for the “final” thought – instead of being angry and upset, I want to be feeling happy. Instead of being intensely sad and hurt and disappointed, I want to feel as if this situation doesn’t bother me at all.

Such pressure!

Have you ever found that when you are trying to think or feel a new way, that it works really well for the first hour or day or week and then it just comes crashing down in one large movement, only to feel worse than you did before?

Avoid that crashing and burning by creating small steps in your thoughts:

I am beginning to believe that I can feel differently

I am thinking it would be nice to feel as if this situation doesn’t bother me 24/7

I am beginning to believe its possible to start to feel happy again

When those thoughts are the automatic thoughts even as other situations are happening around you, begin to push your thinking forward another step, and then another step, and then another step. You will reach your goal.

EFT to support the meditation

This is a new feature of the weekly meditation tip. I introduced readers to EFT several weeks ago. (see the link at the bottom of this section if you missed the discussion). Each week, I will give you EFT statements to use that support the theme of the meditation. It is my hope that by seeing the statements I create and trying them out will show you the power of this simple technique.

EFT Statements

Use the statements outlined in the tip as a place to start, then add in your own:

I am beginning to believe that I can feel differently

I am thinking it would be nice to feel as if this situation doesn’t bother me 24/7

I am beginning to believe its possible to start to feel happy again

**One of the most amazing results of EFT is that when you begin tapping on an issue, you will often get 'ah-ha' moments. The tapping allows you to think in a different way and you are able to get new insight into whatever topic you are tapping on.

Copy and paste this link into your browser for tapping points and EFT instructions
http://www.anjionline.com/EFT.php

Posted on: 2006-03-15 10:41:58. Comments

Merry Christmas

This month's weekly tips are all about simple visualizations and techniques to give you the gift of stepping away - even if it is only for a minute - from the busyness of the season.

This week's exercise is an escape meditation - one that allows you to truly step away from your current situation and take a break.

Take 3 deep breaths and close your eyes. In your mind’s eye, imagine that you are walking through a beautiful wooded area. You are safe and alone.

The light filtering through the leaves is beautiful and the air is filled with the scent of all of the growing plants around you. As you walk, you hear the sound of water and you walk towards the sound.

As you walk, you come upon a natural pool, surrounded by flat rocks. At the top of the water, you can see wisps of steam rising. You bend over to touch the water and your hand is surrounded by warm, bubbling water.

Gently, you slide into the pool, feeling the warmth massage each area of your body as you slip in. Finding a flat rock to sit on, you relax into the water , letting the warm water flow over all of your body, loosening and relaxing every muscle in your body.

You take as much time as you want to allow the water to relax your body as you enjoy the beautiful surroundings..

www.anjionline.com
maria@anjionline.com

Posted on: 2005-12-21 11:13:10. Comments