Come to the calm of a well functioning brain.
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Some of the researchers at Yale have found a connection in the brain related to a religious experience. This experience is not just related to the saints and the church, it can be related to going to a football game. The researcher's name is Marc Potenza, he works in the field of psychology.
The area of the brain that was found to decrease in activity is in the parietal region. This region is in charge of sensation, spatial orientation, language and attention. The decrease in activity creates a sense of a loss of boundaries between ourselves and others. It can be reduced or eliminated. So this area shifts perception and buffers stress. It can help to increase intellectual abilities and help with the emotions. It can also help to keep an open mind. I have found that LENS can help with opening up the areas of the brain that can lead to this improvement. Give it a try. I have seen many people come in and out of my office. I often wonder what is going on with their underlying trauma. Some of what I see is the feeling of being vulnerable. What if I am not good enough to get this help? What will others think of me getting this help? Am I weak because I am getting help?
I would like to look at these feelings. People who know that they could use help, have a hard time doing it. Oh, I think that if I hang in there this will get better. Then the slide into the dark stuff starts happening again. Please know that to shine a light of understanding into these places is good. And that it takes others (at times) to help you get out of that self-destructive loop. Research has found that OCD can come from having been in a critical environment growing up. That loop is stuck in the brain, The brain says I need a break, this is the lower limbic system. Depression and Anxiety are strongly related to lack of self-compassion and can mean that there is a lack of compassion for others. We just don't want to be vulnerable. Come in and try LENS, during these stressful times, we really can teach ourselves to be calm. It is gentle and noninvasive. And better than that alcohol. Alcohol sales have gone up 240 percent. I have been working on my house; painting, cleaning, and organizing. I have found some pretty old things that need to be used up or thrown away. This act of cleaning has helped me to focus on what I can do. I have grown weary of the news and how it has affected so many people. I know that the hospitals are full of people that are in a very high stress state. How can I help?
Here are a few things to become aware of. One is something called rumination. This is when there is extreme brooding and dwelling on negative thoughts. This makes us feel paralyzed and worthless. We have a choice in this kind of situation. Remember we can only think one thought at a time. So, how about moving over that dread and make some room for a little bit of fun. Getting aware of your breathe and calming down those bad guys that want to take us over. We can create a better future by learning to get out of these negative loops. All of the sudden good things start happening around us and we wonder were it all came from. The next thought process is called Negative Bias. This is finding it hard to believe or receive positive information. This leads to catastrophic thinking and getting stuck. That mud gets pretty thick. How about getting away from the news? These people are paid to do this job, but we need to understand that this is getting us in the mud. So what are you grateful for? This can lead to getting better things happening again. Keep it up and soon you will find that you are not so overwhelmed. Please don't beat yourself up for the stress, just learn to understand it. LENS can help the brain and body to calm down. All of this discord about staying at home and staying away from others and staying away from...almost everything....Keep your face shield up, don't touch....This part of life is very different then all of the running around and quickness....
What can we do to get around all of this uncertainty? This worry about our jobs and family and financial stability. About the only solution I can come up with is to enjoy the quiet. I know that all of those little monsters of ideas keep coming up, the negative thoughts and disturbance. But to quiet these things down, we need to quiet ourselves down. If you give it some time quietness becomes like your therapy. It will eventually help you to cope. What the quiet and solitude have to offer is a heightening of perception. Then if you keep following it, you will have an increase of intensity and connection with your surroundings.. This will help you to feel better and will increase your happiness. You will soon find that each moment is a gift. LENS helps this kind of awareness to awaken. I feels like it is in the air...This fear and worry. It can bring concerns about your own and other peoples health, including your family. This health is related to your physical or mental health. These things can get worse when there is so much uncertainty, we are chasing a ghost. This can also lead to changes in your sleep and concentration. Then we want to escape all of this tension and get lost in alcohol, drugs and smoking. But then we have to come back to reality.
One of the things that I keep hoping for out of all of this crisis, is that people learn to help each other. We are not able to see smiles as much, but even this can help another to cope. The exchange will help everyone because we are looking at their eyes and seeing the compassion there. If we just take a few minutes to breathe. This is part of the box breathing that the Navy Seals practice. Breath in hold for 4 seconds, out for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds and again. This is a great way to get your higher brain functions working, so you can work out what needs to be done. I wish you all good mental and physical health. Remember, stress is being here and wanting to be there. LENS works! A BRAVE AND STARTLING TRUTH
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet Traveling through casual space Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns To a destination where all signs tell us It is possible and imperative that we learn A brave and startling truth And when we come to it To the day of peacemaking When we release our fingers From fists of hostility And allow the pure air to cool our palms When we come to it When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean When battlefields and coliseum No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters Up with the bruised and bloody grass To lie in identical plots in foreign soil When the rapacious storming of the churches The screaming racket in the temples have ceased When the pennants are waving gaily When the banners of the world tremble Stoutly in the good, clean breeze When we come to it When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders And children dress their dolls in flags of truce When land mines of death have been removed And the aged can walk into evenings of peace When religious ritual is not perfumed By the incense of burning flesh And childhood dreams are not kicked awake By nightmares of abuse When we come to it Then we will confess that not the Pyramids With their stones set in mysterious perfection Nor the Gardens of Babylon Hanging as eternal beauty In our collective memory Not the Grand Canyon Kindled into delicious color By Western sunsets Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji Stretching to the Rising Sun Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor, Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores These are not the only wonders of the world When we come to it We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace We, this people on this mote of matter In whose mouths abide cankerous words Which challenge our very existence Yet out of those same mouths Come songs of such exquisite sweetness That the heart falters in its labor And the body is quieted into awe We, this people, on this small and drifting planet Whose hands can strike with such abandon That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness That the haughty neck is happy to bow And the proud back is glad to bend Out of such chaos, of such contradiction We learn that we are neither devils nor divines When we come to it We, this people, on this wayward, floating body Created on this earth, of this earth Have the power to fashion for this earth A climate where every man and every woman Can live freely without sanctimonious piety Without crippling fear When we come to it We must confess that we are the possible We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world That is when, and only when We come to it. “A Brave and Startling Truth” was published in a commemorative booklet in 1995 and was later included in Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry (public library). I watch as so many people are walking around with a mask and eyes as wide as they can be. I would like to talk to them but the fear keeps me away. If you are looking at a bunch of information about COVID 19 please know that this can create a fear response that has no place to go, except inside and up goes the cortisol. Change things up a little and take a walk, not with your phone.
Some things to watch out for with our loved ones and ourselves, to keep our mental health at it's best, can be grouped into 5 categories. A big number one is a personality change. How is that person coping? Are they heading into a hole to big to crawl out of? Number two is withdrawal. Is that person not able to engage with others? Number three is poor self care. There are many excuses for lack of hygiene, but let us get past that. Number Five is a feeling of hopelessness. Some people have been knocked down so many times that these times are really, really really hard to deal with. One in five Americans suffer from a mental health disorder. I don't like those numbers, these times can only make it worse. Please get help if you are finding that you are spinning out of control in a bad way. LENS can help to calm down the brain to work better. Have you heard of the Stoics? They were some philosophers that looked into how our thinking works and how we can improve our lives. The main goal was to cultivate a excellent mental state with virtue and being rational. Their definition of the ideal life was to live in harmony with Nature, and to cultivate an attitude of calm and in difference towards external events.
Epictetus liked to teach about controlling your thoughts. We can understand that some things are in our control and some are not. Unhappiness comes from thinking that we can control what happens to us and what others are saying and doing. We can control how we think about the things and judgements that we make. So the things that happen to us are neutral, it is how we think about these things. Seneca liked to take stock at the end of the day, to train his mind. He would look back at the day to see what mistakes he made and learn how to do better the next day. Marcus Aurelius would remind himself each morning that people where not always going to be their best. Everyone is not intentionally wanting to hurt other people, we are all victims of our misjudgements. Epictetus teaches us that we must learn to accept what happens. We are relatively unimportant in the big, big picture. If we expect things from the universe, then we will probably be disappointed. If we accept what the dance is sending us, then life will be smoother. LENS will help to smooth and soothe the anxious brain. Give it a try. Here is some information from Joseph Grenny. He travels the world teaching people how to work better.
We have all been staying at home or at a distance. We will soon be in contact with others, other than the ones we live with. This is something that you can practice, even with your family. We need to learn to own our emotions, this is about me, not them or that...or.... What is going on is not externally caused, we are not victims. We can learn to name the story. Is this a victim story? I have no responsibility with this problem, I am virtuous and it is really the other persons fault. Or is it the villain story? This increases the faults of others and their evil motives. Or is it the helpless story? There is nothing that I can do, any action on my part is pointless. So what about listening, humbly and speaking up honestly? Without reactivity! It is important to challenge the story. Ask questions of your self. These questions can include: "Why would a person say this?", What do I really want?", What is the right thing to do?" What is your primal story? How are you predictable in certain situations? What the brain likes to do is perceive certain situations as a threat and this causes reactivity. So saying things to yourself like: This can't hurt me, Humility is strength, not weakness. This helps the frontal part of the brain to become activated. LENS neurofeedback helps to heal the brain of that old reactivity. It helps the brain to work in a flowing, less stressed way. |
AuthorHello, my name is Dana Lee Collins M.A.,L.P.C. I am a psychotherapist that has been trained in the art of neurofeedback. This science helps to heal the brain of trauma. I am dedicated to helping people heal. Archives
January 2021
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