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Hope this group will provide you with the peace that you search for in your busy days! Look for upcoming discussions on Stress, Women's Guilt, Connect With Your Child/Connect With Your Soul, and Reaction vs. Action in Your Interactions. If you have any questions or comments, please post to the board. All ideas are welcome! Enjoy your day!
Join us in this self-exploration, the posts are designed to get you thinking and reflecting, if you have some input, please join in...and help yourself and others to learn many new things along the way!
Jennifer |
| Posted by Jennifer on 05/23/2008 11:39 AM
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Thanks Jennifer!
I have been replying to your messages by email instead of posting, which is not really the greatest way for me to get to know the group, I just realized.
Anyway, you just asked me about my change in career, and also about my music therapy background and things that might have come from that to share with the group.
I think I might have more direct comments on that when you start the discussions on Stress, in particular. I have some techniques I might be able to share that have worked for me and others. Also, along those lines, I went to a conference session recently discussing multi-cultural healing techniques, and though I was familiar with some of the methods, I thought the combination and the way they were presenting it was pretty interesting. I haven't really been able to research it much on my own, and don't know how others will respond to the ideas, but the site is www.capacitar.org if anyone wants to take a look.
Also, since I saw a lot of book recommendations, one that really helped me personally was "Anatomy of the Spirit" by Caroline Myss. People have varied reactions to her writing, so it might not be for everyone, but I think it's definitely worth browsing in a bookstore to see if it might be something helpful to you. A friend gave it to me and it prompted a lot of spiritual reflection and changing attitudes at a time when I was in pain and facing surgery, and really needed the nudge to examine my thinking and my spirit.
Hope to have some great conversations here and get a lot of new ideas.
Thanks!
Debbie |
| posted by Debbie on 05/24/2008 12:44 AM
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Debbie,
It is nice to meet you and I would be interested in finding out more about you, this month we are discussing stress and it is a pretty big topic for us. Please see the other posts on this board and let us know how you react to stress and how you deal with it. Thanks
Kyleen |
| posted by Kyleen on 05/24/2008 08:59 AM
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Hello Girls! Good job keeping the conversations going! We went camping this whole weekend...talk about Stress! HA! I did manage to find some stillness though ;) Certainly will check out that book...come to think of it, my Mom probably has it b/c she loves Carolyn! But Debbie, what you can do for us, since we don't have the book, is look up something on stress and post it to the message board, I would really appreciate it!
Well, the end of the month is coming so its time to wrap up on this topic with ideas in how to manage stress...if that is OK with you all :) It seems like we just got into it, I know, but everyone is welcome to continue with past month's topics...the month's beginnings are only to serve as starting points for each topic and I think you will see that they all build upon each other anyway!
I am really excited about this part because now we get to heal the places inside of us that "choose" to get stressed out...so this will be fun and always a learning experience for us all! Thank you all for your wonderful comments, AND for helping us all out! |
| posted by Jennifer on 05/28/2008 04:35 PM
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Hi everyone,
Jennifer, camping sounds like a lot of fun, but yeah... I can see where it would have the potential for stress. As far as your request regarding the Caroline Myss book, she has a lot of great info that's intertwined between personal power, creative energy, stress, etc... so it's hard to know where to start, but when I look back at my journal, these are a few of the points that I really responded to about stress.
She talks about fear vs. faith in it's role on how we make decisions in our lives, encouraging examining the decisions and realizing what is motivating us. She says "every choice made based on faith has the full force of heaven behind it". Often our stress is based on decisions or pressure that we feel to make decisions based on fear, or habits that aren't positive for us. She also talks about creating, or creative energy, as a grounding force in our lives, and that when we block it, this can give rise to stress and even physical distress or disease in our bodies.
Some things that have been helpful to me in dealing with stress:
Making a practice of jotting down each positive thing that's happened in my day, when I'm feeling really bad. Sometimes this is a song I happened to hear on the radio, sometimes it's that it's not raining, or I saw an interesting butterfly when I was walking in the courtyard... just anything.
Remembering one positive interaction that I've had with a person when I look at them, even if the interaction in the present moment is frustrating.
(sometimes this gets relegated to 'after' I have the interaction, trying to do this instead of letting my mind focus too much on the recent upset)
Singing, yoga, making cookies, digging in the garden, taking a walk with my daughter, listening to music (starting with something that matches my mood and working towards the mood I want to be in), praying, browsing free stuff in the local craigslist, or looking at ebay, playing hand drums and just beating the heck out of them...
All of those are things that work sometimes for me as coping strategies. I don't always (or I should say I frequently don't) remember to use them. But there they are.
Hope this is helpful to someone. Thanks for including me in your discussion.
Debbie |
| posted by Debbie on 05/29/2008 01:05 AM
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Debbie,
I agree with making choices based on fear rather than faith. I think in my life that "fear" equates guilt. I make a lot of choices based on guilt and that obviously adds stress. For me the thing is that I can not get away from the guilt no matter what decision I make. If I say no because I am too busy or it is not right for me then I beat myself up with guilt thinking "Well I probably could have fit it in or made it ok for me" and then ofcourse if I say yes then I beat myself up with the guilt of trying to fit it in. It is an endless cycle that I have subjected myself to my entire life and a very hard habit to break. |
| posted by Kyleen on 05/29/2008 07:36 AM
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