We are told that there is stillness in the eye of the storm. Everything might be crazy and wild around us and yet when we go to the centre of ourselves it is actually quiet.

As a doctor I saw literally 1000 of people who lives were so busy and stressful and again and again it was clear how this was impacting negatively on their health.

In my life , as a family practitioner or GP, the busier I was the more essential it was for me to take time in my day to stop and do nothing. When I first became aware of the value of stillness 25 years ago I would begin my day with a short meditation that allowed me to find my centre before work.

I also took one hour a day to sit on my lounger and do nothing !

I wouldn’t read or talk on the phone .

I just sat there and luxuriated in doing nothing.

I learnt by trial and error that without this one hour of stillness I wasnt nearly so productive.

The temptation was always there to just finish off a few things at work …to empty my in tray; to ring just one more person but every time I got tempted the rest of the day would end up so much less productive……and I always finished work much later on the days that I didn’t take that time out for myself .

I shared this with some of my busiest patients and at first many of them couldn’t even imagine taking 5 minutes for themselves in the day and soon they too were taking 1/2 hour or even a hour every day . One woman told me that she would stop and sit in a hammock at the bottom or the garden where no one would find her ! It was “her “time….. which she luxuriated in and relished every day.

Why is it that having this time of stillness in our day makes such a difference to the rest of our day ?

Its no surprise that millions and millions of people all around the world have been practicing relaxation and meditation for centuries.

If you practice relaxing daily or meditating daily that stillness starts to filter in the rest of your day and into everything you do.

I encourage you too to just try it. Start with taking some time for you every day for the rest of this week and notice how different you feel .

For those of you who have never meditated before it can be good to give your mind something to focus on. I’ve created several guided relaxation processes ……have a listen …. this might be a good way to start. There are lots of other wonderful guided relaxations out there too……. or have a listen to Oprah and Deepak Chopra 21 day meditations.

For seasoned meditators who have gotten out of the practice of daily meditation have a read of my Daily Habit post. It might help you get back into a daily practice.

Remember , as Henry Ford said “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.”

The post Your Daily Practice appeared first on The Body Mind and Spirit Connection.

Ranging from mild to moderate to severe.

It is a hideous condition for so many people …..both those who experience it and those who live with and love someone who suffers from it.

As a woman doctor I saw , literally , thousands of people with depression of different severities and different types.

For years I worked within the traditional orthodox model trying to help my patients . Trying to ease their suffering. Every time a new psychologist or psychiatrist came to town talking about their approach to helping people with depression I would eagerly go along to the talk hoping to learn something new. A new way . A new approach. A new angle.

They all helped a little..

However it wasnt until I went on a training where we studied success that I started beginning to be able to help people at whole different level. What does someone do when they recover from depression ? What happens in their mind, body and spirit ? I started seeing patterns . Common threads. I was intrigued. I started sharing these new discoveries with people who saw me which exciting results. People were shifting state so much faster than they did in the old model of antidepressants and psychotherapy.

It was amazing for me to see such dramatic changes in people who would have taken years to recover in the traditional orthodox approach.

These results spurred me on. I continued to train more. I travelled the world looking for more answers to not just the question of happiness but also to health and wellbeing at all levels.

I became an NLP trainer (neurolinguistic programming, one definition being the study of success).

I studied focusing and hypnosis.

I went to conferences around the world.

I listened to the Dalai Lama speak, sharing his wisdom and insight into this problem of depression in our modern world.

Every time I got a new skill in my tool box the people I saw seemed to “heal” so much faster. It was like the more I studied the faster I could guide people out of the darkness of depression.

I continued to travel the world going to conferences and devouring books about different approaches. I was intrigued by positive psychology and “textbooks” such as Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligmann.

Positive psychology says instead of looking at the dis-eased state why don’t we focus on what we want to create ?

And then I discovered mindfulness. Of course I had already heard about the mindful approach. Im a fan of the Dalai Lama. Ive attended kindergarden Buddhist classes. Ive listened enraptured by Thich Nhat Huhn.

I have meditated for many years myself and experience the benefits of a daily practice . However experiencing mindfulness was a whole different ball game. It felt like the icing on the cake ! It seemed to encapsulate all that Id learnt so far. Going on retreat embodying this mindful approach took me to deeper levels within myself.

So , now , it is time for me to share this with you….this approach is a path to depth , to wellness , to happiness and to wellbeing.

The post A New Look at Depression appeared first on The Body Mind and Spirit Connection.

I’m sure you too were told as a child to not get your new clothes dirty and not to fall into a puddle and you too maybe were so busy trying to avoid the puddles that you actually fell into them..

“Dont think of a blue tree”. Well of course we had to think of one in order not to.

It’s always surprised me that in the medical world we focus so much on dis-ease as opposed to focusing on what it is that we do want.

As a doctor, in my quest to help people with depression I learnt everything I could about the subject. After years of working with people in the traditional model I started looking at depression differently. Surely it makes more sense if I want to help someone who is depressed instead of helping them to not be so depressed instead to help them be more content and calm ?

It’s no surprise to me that the field of positive psychology has taken off in the way that it has.

Martin Seligmann’s book “ Authentic Happiness “ was refreshing for me to read after years as a medical student and then as a doctor studying pathology and disease.

Of course it’s useful for someone to know that what they have been experiencing has a name . For many people once they have a diagnosis it gives them not only a greater understanding but also they no longer have to soldier on alone for they now can get help.

It’s rather like going to the pharmacy in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language and trying to get the pharmacist to understand you. Then someone comes up and translates for you and tells the pharmacist what it is you want.They give it a name. Everything changes and the pharmacist nods, smiles and wraps up your pills in a brown paper package and you leave , maybe somewhat exhausted and exasperated but relieved. Now you have a name for what it is you need.

However so often people can get stuck in their diagnosis.

One woman I worked with told me that she realized she’d become stuck in her diagnosis of depression and she hadn’t realize that it belonged to another time. By the time she saw me she was infact no longer depressed but she thought she must be because she had that diagnosis.She said it was rather like a friend of hers who had diabetes and had eventually after 5 years of struggle lost the excess weight and then no longer had diabetes anymore but he couldn’t quite believe it and he continued to take his medication despite medical advice until he eventually ended up in hospital collapsing from low blood sugar caused by the tablets !

So how to heal from the black dog and move towards happiness ?

Unfortunately the answer isn’t something I can write in one or two blog posts. For this new approach is not a quick fix . It’s not a magic pill that I can bottle and give to you. Of course it’s different for everyone. That’s why I am creating a full program called The Calm Kit to help you to turn around and face in this new direction. Instead of running away from what you don’t want changing your approach and moving towards what you do want. Moving towards contentment and calm. Like any skill contentment and calm is also a skill that improves with practice.

In this Calm Kit I guide you in your journey to retrain your mind.

For some people they shift so dramatically after doing these exercises and these daily proactices that they no longer need to take their antidepressant medication. However for others it’s important to continue with their prescribed medication. I urge people who are taking medication to continue to work with their doctor and as to see this as a journey not a quick fix.
Hence this kit is designed to be used by you to help you in this journey of yours to health and contentment.

That’s the first important step……

The post What direction are you facing? appeared first on The Body Mind and Spirit Connection.

And what is a panic attack ?

Being given a label or diagnosis of “anxiety “or “panic attacks “is an important first step but we must remember it is just that – merely a first step…..

There are different causes for anxiety and panic attacks. For one person it might be that their blood sugar levels are out of balance, for another it can be a hormonal imbalance and for someone else it can be a sensation triggered by unhelpful thinking that keeps on re-playing in their mind again and again.

By knowing that that sensation in your chest is not a heart attack but is in fact anxiety can help someone understand it and not be so frightened by it .

However so often people can get “stuck “in this first step…..

I remember the woman who came to see me with a self diagnosis of anxiety that she had struggled with and lived with for several years and base line bloods showed that her thyroid gland was out of balance. Her anxiety was a result of her over active thyroid.

Or the young woman who came to see me again with a history of anxiety and she was iron deficient.

Or the child whose anxiety resulted from a high copper.

Or the man who saw me with anxiety caused by constantly stressing about his boss and worrying about when and whether she would tell him off for something that he had done wrong. He got so stuck in this groove of worry and ruminating about this that his worry turned to anxiety and soon – with daily practice – became full blown panic attacks.

The point that I’m making is that so often people think that anxiety is caused by over worrying and therefore since they somehow created it they can heal it – however hopefully I have underlined the fact that it really helps to get checked out thoroughly and once again start with the physical. Get your bloods tested. Get someone to help you look at your diet. Then get help to find a way to break the pattern from trigger to anxiety or panic attacks.

I  remember many years ago a woman coming to see me in my surgery and she told me she wanted some pills for her anxiety.        I asked her to describe what she meant……. she showed me in her body where “it “ started……

Explain this “it “ I asked.

Ten minutes later she was laughing at the sensations in her body . Sensations that she had previously called anxiety ………or depending on the severity, a panic attack. Now they felt more like a “slinky” moving between her belly and her neck….. A very strange sensation she said as she laughed with surprise and delight !

She saw me the next week and told me that she’d had that strange feeling several times since she’d seen me and how she would so often find herself laughing out aloud much to the quizzical amusement of her friends.

So much for a debilitating panic attack she said ! And yet had I not been able to be with her giving her permission to safely feel those feelings she told me that she would still be dis-abled and controlled by them for ever.

For the past five years of her life since she had started experiencing those sensations that quite rightly she called panic attacks, she had not dared to travel overseas or even go to another city by herself incase she experienced one.

But now the world was totally different………now it was her oyster !

I am sharing this with you to encourage you to start thinking differently. To encourage you to seek the right help so that you too can discover what the underlying cause of that anxiety or panic for you. From the man who was buzzed out on excess caffeine triggering anxiety to the woman with an overactive thyroid – the cause can be different for everyone.

I was able to help the woman with the sensations in her body by using the tool of mindfulness – so helping her to stay with her experience long enough so that she didn’t freeze frame the experience in fear.

In my practice I found that most people need help and support to do this level of change for it can often be too frightening to do something like this alone.

For me this was the beginning, all those many years ago, a beginning of seeing panic attacks in a different way. Instead of giving out a pill taking a little more time to go deeper.

You can image that I was intrigued by what happened with that woman. I was fascinated by how quickly she was able to transform panic into an interesting sensation. It certainly opened up my eyes to a different way of looking at things. It was the start for me of working with people in a whole new way.

What I realized is everyone is different ……..that’s the beauty of this work……that everyone is different and it certainly not one size fits all.

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