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This is not my regular blog, but I just had to share this great Law of Attraction tool with you. It’s called Mind Movies, and it is an awesome software tool that creates images and affirmations to help you think about what you want.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Pray Rain Journaling and shared how much writing about my dreams helps me think about them more. Well, a tool like Mind Movies is at another level. It’s all about energy and the Law of Attraction. We get what we think about and our vibration draws stuff to us. You can change your vibration, so you can attract the life you desire.

Making your own Mind Movie is really easy, anyone can do it. The company has made this software very easy to use. It’s just drag and drop. You can use the images and affirmations they have in the software or upload your own. You can even save your movie and have it playing in the background of your computer while you are doing something else to act as subliminal affirmations. I wanted to share with you a Mind Movie I created with this software in a very short time. I spent the most time picking out the pictures and uploading my own.

To find out more about Mind Movies, you can watch some of the video interviews they have produced. Many of the people interviewed were in the movie “The Secret,” and talk about how they use Mind Movies as a tool. The latest video that Mind Movies released has Ryan Higgins interviewing Joe Vitale and Nick Ortner about a tapping technique called EFT. I use this technique in my practice (and with myself) all the time. It has helped thousands of people get rid of fear, anxiety, food cravings, and even physical pain!  You can watch all the videos at:

http://www.mindmovies.com/mm20videoseries/joevitale-eft.php?16942

Be Well and Dream Big,

bonnie

How often do you get frustrated or upset about something? And in these situations, how many times has someone died or something so disastrous happened that your life was in danger?  There are very few things in life that truly have a negative consequence, and most of those we can fix, change our minds and choose again, or make amends. It’s the chronic little stressors in our lives that cause us the most harm. Most people do just fine in a true emergency – maybe even better than they thought – but it’s the everyday irritations that make life difficult.

How many times do you say, “So what,” and let it go right then and there? I think we don’t say “so what” enough in our lives. Sometimes I hear people say, “Oh well,” and that’s great, but I think saying “so what” gives it extra punch and feels more empowering than “oh well.”

It’s the letting go part that many of us have trouble with (me included), and I find if I say “so what” it’s easier to let it go. What’s the worst that could happen? Will this be an issue five or 10 years from now? Did anybody die? Will this one little event change my whole life in a big way? Will I remember this event 10 years from now? Well, if you are not able to let it go, it may affect your life for a long time.

I have known people who missed family weddings, experienced deteriorating physical issues, gotten sick, or experienced a multitude of other irritating things. This is largely because they couldn’t let go and move on. It’s all about energy. If you read my last couple of blogs, I talked about energy and vibration. When you are upset, frustrated, angry, etc., your vibration is not attracting what you want. Like attracts like, it’s as simple as that. Feelings like anger and frustration are not bad or negative, they are just feelings, and we should honor them, but then let them go. 

My challenge to all of you is to say “so what” more often. See how many opportunities you have throughout the day to say “so what” and maybe even laugh a little. You will be surprised how this simple little phrase can change your life! 

I came upon another really cool tool for people to help them attract what they want, and I have to admit that I have never seen anything like it before. I can’t wait to use it myself. If you want to check it out, go to Mind Movies.

In my last blog, I shared a story about Gregg Braden and his exposure to praying rain, which is an example of the lost mode of prayer. This form of prayer has no words. It’s simply a feeling of the appreciation as if our prayers have already been answered, even if the world appears to show us otherwise.So why does feeling appreciation and gratitude, as though what you want is already here, make such a difference? 

 It’s largely about energy and vibration. Everything has energy and all energy vibrates. This includes you and me, as well as all of our thoughts and feelings. We create a vibration when we think thoughts and have feelings or emotions.

 It’s that law of attraction principle again. “Like attracts like.” We need to be a vibrational match to what we want so it can manifest in our lives. Have you ever heard the phrase, “she’s wearing rose-colored glasses?” Well, that’s not a bad idea! We notice, see and experience what we think about. Our vibration is created by simply thoughts and feelings. In difficult times, I think some of us wear dark, cloudy glasses rather than rose-colored ones.  It’s how we see the world. Because of the vibration, that’s also what we attract. This is not New Age stuff – the earliest written record of this principle dates to the Emerald Tablet, which goes back to about 3000 B.C.

 Some people say affirmations don’t work, but they might be forgetting how important the feeling part is. When you say an affirmation, and in the back of your mind you’re thinking, “yeah, like that’s ever going to happen,” you’re probably not in vibrational alignment with what you just said. It’s no wonder people sometimes think affirmations don’t work. Affirmations without feeling are just words, and the feeling is the most important part!

 Recently, a friend of mine shared a website with me about using journaling to increase your vibration in order to align with your desires and manifest your dreams. The author of the site is Jeannette Maw, a life coach, and she teaches how to use the power of the written word to focus on what you want. Her technique, Pray Rain Journaling, uses a journaling technique to write about what you want as though it’s already here. It doesn’t take much time, maybe five minutes a day. Just write, don’t worry about using the right words, grammar or penmanship…just get your thoughts out and feel good. Maybe get yourself a special journal and pen, but most of all, have fun with it.

 The interesting thing I found when I started to do this is how often the thoughts of my journal that day came to my mind again, sometimes many times throughout the day. I have been “praying rain” for a long time, but had never written my thoughts down before, and I do believe there is power in the written word. For me, it’s a fun way to start my day. You can do it anytime, it doesn’t have to be in the morning, just dedicate some time every day to dream and feel good about it. Writing down your thoughts strengthens your emotional connection. Feel good and have fun with it!

 If you’d like to check out the Pray Rain Journaling process in more detail, you can go to Jeannette’s site at  http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1220603

Do you want something you don’t currently have? Pretty much everyone would say “yes” to that question. It’s easy to focus on what we don’t have because it’s in our face every day. Whether it is lack of a romantic relationship, not enough money, or lack of just about anything…we probably think about it a lot. 

I believe we get what we focus on and think about. There is an old quote that goes like this: “Whatever you put your attention to, grows, whether it’s your garden or your fears.”  We really do get what we expect. We can shift our thoughts, and more importantly our feelings, to what we do want and engage the law of attraction to help manifest our desires.

There is a story I often tell my clients to illustrate this. Gregg Braden is known internationally as a pioneer in bridging science and spirituality. He is both a scientist and an individual interested in spirituality practices around the world. He has written many books including The Isaiah Effect, The God Code, The Divine Matrix, and his newest book, The Spontaneous Healing of Belief: Shattering the Paradigm of False Limits.

In one of his books, The Lost Mode of Prayer, he talks of an experience he had when he was in New Mexico in the early 1990s visiting with the Hopi Indians. It was a year of great drought, even the rivers had dried up. A Native American friend of his asked Gregg if he wanted to join him in a prayer of rain. Gregg was excited to go with him and learn about this, so of course he said yes. They hiked a long time in the arid desert until they came to a sacred ceremonial place that had been there longer than anyone in the village could remember. It was stones arranged in a large circle, similar to a medicine wheel.  

Gregg’s friend took off his shoes and walked into the center of  the stone formation. He thanked his ancestors and was quiet for just a few minutes and then he walked back to where Gregg was standing and said, “Well, I’m hungry, do you want to go get something to eat?” Gregg was surprised, he expected to see drums, dancing, chanting and praying for rain. ­­­­So he asked his friend what he just did when he was quiet for a few moments.  His friend said, "I prayed, but if I prayed for rain, it assumes that it does not exist in this moment. So I didn’t pray for rain…I prayed rain. I felt the feeling of mud squishing between my toes when there has been so much rain that there is mud everywhere in our village. I felt the smell of our adobe houses when the rain has been showering them all day. I felt how it feels to already have the rain and then I gave thanks.”

The “lost” mode of prayer is a form of prayer that has no words, no outward expression, and is based simply in feeling. Specifically, this mode of prayer invites us to feel the appreciation and gratitude in our heart, as if our prayers have already been answered, even if the world appears to show us otherwise.

By the way, later that day, it rained. They had more rain than they knew what to do with. Now, Gregg noted that he has no scientific basis that this prayer of rain caused the rain that day, but it rained, for the first time in many months.

Simple, right? But simple is not always easy. In my next blog note, I will talk about ways to make this not only simple, but easy to incorporate into your daily life so you can manifest the life you want.  

Gregg talks about the different modes of prayer and tells this story much better than I can. The video is in the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0__Vqr_C3E&feature=related

Watch for part two of this blog in the coming days.

Be Well!

bonnie

We are all hypnotized many times in our life, and we don’t even know it. There are really only two things that are required for hypnosis: one is a focused state of attention and the other is a suggestion.

An example of a focused state of attention is when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office, waiting for a diagnosis or test result. You bet you are in a focused state of attention! It really depends on what is said, and more importantly, what we hear, as this becomes the suggestion. And boom, we have been hypnotized! How many times have you been in a focused state of attention like that? It may not have been in a doctor’s office, but it happens more often that you think. Don’t let others program or hypnotize you to believe what to expect in your life.

Here’s a story that illustrates how we can be hypnotized.  There was a little girl in grade school, and the music teacher said she shouldn’t sing with the other students because she couldn’t carry a tune. This “suggestion” was given in front of the other kids. She was probably in a focused state of attention, as she was embarrassed that she had been singled out. That little girl is now in her fifties, and to this day she still doesn’t sing around other people. I know there are several voice teachers who would say everyone can sing. The little girl was hypnotized to believe she couldn’t.

We are all carrying around negative suggestions in our subconscious mind. It’s those tapes playing in the background. The subconscious mind influences about 90 percent of what we say, do, feel and think every day. All of it’s in there…the good, the bad and the ugly. It behooves us to have the good stuff at the top of the pile. What’s at the top of your pile?

Any previous hypnotic suggestion can be undone if it doesn’t serve you. I do this with patients in my practice all the time. You can do self hypnotic suggestions as well.  Relaxation is an easy way to get in a focused state of attention. Perhaps begin by focusing on your breathing and relaxing all of your muscles, one by one. Giving yourself suggestions or affirmations while you are in a state of relaxation can help bring the good stuff to the top of the pile in your subconscious mind and undo previous suggestions. 

If you are interested in some good thoughts to help you achieve better health and the life you deserve, check out the link below. It’s a series of teleseminar calls with some very impressive speakers, and it’s free to listen in. You can listen for 48 hours after the actual live call.

I have heard many of these speakers before and they’re great. If you want to check out the series, just click on the link or copy/paste it into your browser.

 http://wellnessrevolutionsummit.com/cmd.php?af=1205618

Be Well, 

bonnie

Finshed the Bellin 10K Run

 

Wellness Everyone,

 

On Saturday, June 12, 2010, I ran the Bellin Run in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  I had run the 10K race several times before, but this time was different. Now, I don’t really run, I jog (that’s running really slow). I’ve always said that I only run so I can eat. :-)  This year my husband ran with me, just for fun. He was recovering from a badly sprained ankle this year and wanted to do it with me this time. 10K (6.2 miles) was the longest I had run in a long time. After surviving a car accident and resulting brain injury last summer, my balance was not so good for a long time and I was advised by the doctors not to run, as I could fall and hit my head again. I guess they were just keeping safety in mind.

 

In case you’re not familiar with the Bellin Run, it began in 1977 and has become a Green Bay tradition. This year was the 34^th year, and it’s now one of the largest 10K races in the country. This year, there were over 18,000 registered runners. Shortly before the halfway mark, there is a house that plays a continuous loop of the “Rocky” Theme Song every year, so all the runners can hear it as they are coming down the street. This started with the first race back in 1977. Even when the house was sold, there was an agreement with the new owners to continue playing that song for the Bellin Run event.

I got to that point in the race and felt good, I was just running comfortably. I heard the song and all of a sudden I began to cry with gratitude. I am amazed and so very grateful that I am still here and able to use my body (and brain). I have always gotten a bit emotional when I run past that house, but this year was more intense. I am so thankful!

I know there are many people who cannot use their body in this way due to a disability of some type. This year there were several adults running while they pushed Burleys with disabled people in them. Perhaps it was the first time these people had the opportunity to hear the “Rocky” Theme Song in the street and hear people cheering for them. The smile on their faces was unforgettable. The 2010 Bellin Run was a very emotional event for me this year, and I am grateful that I could participate. Life is good!

Research shows that simply focusing each day on three to five things for which you can be grateful will increase your health and happiness. For an even stronger dose of health and happiness, express your gratitude to someone else. Holding the thought of gratitude for a good friend will benefit you. Expressing that gratitude to the friend will benefit both of you.

People with an attitude of gratitude are in better health, sleep better and exercise more. In the International Positive Psychology Association Newsletter of April, 2008, Dr. Alex Wood, a postgraduate researcher in the Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, defined gratitude this way: “Gratitude is a life orientation towards noticing and appreciating the positive in the world. As such, gratitude is an integral part of well-being. Gratitude can be contrasted with a depressive bias – where depressed people focus on the negative in the self, world, and future. A grateful personality leads to well-being during everyday life."

Dr. Michael McCollough, of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and Dr. Robert Emmons, of the University of California at Davis, say in their initial scientific study that gratitude plays a significant role in a person's sense of well-being. In fact, several studies have indicated that daily gratitude resulted in higher reported levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy. Additionally, people experience less depression and stress and are more likely to help others, exercise and make more progress toward personal goals. People with an “attitude of gratitude” have lower stress hormone levels, like cortisol.

Work gratitude into your day and improve your health!

Be Well,

bonnie

If you love what you do, you’ve got the right idea. It doesn’t matter if you’re a stay-at-home mom or homemaker, a factory worker, salesperson, professional, entertainer or a lion trainer in a circus. If you are happy and doing what you love, you’re on the right track and life is good.

How many of us go through life at a job we just tolerate or maybe don’t even like? We say it pays the bills and it’s OK, but we don’t really love what we do. There is really no reason we have to go though life like that if we don’t want to.

I heard a song about dreaming big a few years ago. It was at a time in my career that I was not very happy and felt stifled. I remember listening to this song (“Dream Big,” by Ryan Shupe and The RubberBand) almost every day while driving home from work, oftentimes with tears in my eyes. I remember it always gave me hope for a better future. Perhaps it influenced me to change my life and the direction of my career. That was six years ago.

Today I am living my dream. I have been in private practice for almost five years, spending as much time with patients as I want and not limited by the restrictions of a multispecialty clinic. I am also doing more teaching. I love to learn and share the information I learn with others. I have begun reaching out into the world and broadening my career.

A couple of years ago, I recording some guided meditation and self-hypnosis CDs. Without knowing what I was doing, I signed up for the $50 web package. I was already spending money on producing the CDs, so I thought, ‘what’s another 50 dollars?’ As it turned out, the web package turned my CDs into digital downloads, and they went to retail websites all over the world. Soon, I was seeing small royalty checks from places like Amazon UK and Australia. This was so cool! I could reach people around the world, and it happened by accident.

This got me to thinking about sharing some of the teaching I do with patients in the office with people around the world whom I have never met. This blog is a part of that. Now, I am working on audio classes and e-books that I can share without the constraints of time and geography. I’m excited to say that I feel I continue to live my dream. I learn and share with others, giving them hope. I believe it’s what I am meant to do and is my life purpose. Perhaps I would have found my way here anyway, but I truly believe that listening to this song over and over again – and dreaming – helped me get here faster.

I encourage all of you to dream big and be happy…love whatever you do.

Enjoy the song….I still do! Just click on the link. There is a very short musical piece by the band and they go right into "Dream Big" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=188fVog7KiI

blessings,

bonnie

Magnesium is the “relaxation” mineral in our body. If we have enough, we feel calmer, sleep better, have more energy and generally feel better. We have literally trillions of cells, and magnesium is involved in over 300 enzymatic reactions in our body. Consequently, it affects a lot of things.

Many of us are deficient in magnesium. At the turn of the century, diets typically contained 500 mg/day of magnesium. Now, our diets contain only 175-225 mg/day. Magnesium is almost totally lost in the processing of packaged and fast foods.

Magnesium absorption is blocked by certain medications, supplemental iron, high protein diets and high doses of calcium. Calcium is stronger than magnesium, so when we take calcium without adding the magnesium as well, we loose magnesium as the calcium pushes it out of the cell.

Physical and emotional stress also causes us to lose magnesium. Now, who doesn’t have stress of some kind in their life? If you suffer from chronic pain issues, you are certainly stressed! As magnesium leaves the cell, calcium jumps in and the cell becomes contracted. Guess how you feel when your cells are all tight and contracted? Not so good, right?

Now, not everyone is a nutrition nerd like me, and I have been looking at the research on nutrition for a while. Most of this is actually conducted in Europe, as research is costly and the pharmaceutical industry has funded most of it in this country. Not surprisingly, this leads to little money and attention given to research not related to pharmaceutical drugs.

Magnesium-rich foods include spinach and other green vegetables, pumpkin seeds, nuts, legumes, halibut, unprocessed grains, kelp and sea salt to name a few. Remember, foods do not have the nutrition they did 100 years ago due to poor soil from decades of commercial fertilization.

I recommend my patients eat a healthy diet with magnesium-rich foods. They also benefit from taking a good multivitamin/mineral with an adequate amount of magnesium (about 300 mg). If they take a calcium supplement, it should have magnesium in it as well. Remember, calcium is stronger than magnesium in the cell and pushes the magnesium out. Calcium also tends to have a constipating affect and magnesium can cause loose stools at high doses. If you take them in the same supplement, you avoid the side effects.

Magnesium oxide is not the best, and unfortunately it’s what you will find most of the time. Only about 4 percent absorbs in our bodies. Instead, find a calcium supplement that contains a better form of magnesium, like citrate, malate, glycinate or taurate, or oxide mixed with another form. Chelated minerals generally absorb better as they are bound to an organic material, like an amino acid.

Monitor your blood pressure if you’re on blood pressure medication, as it may decrease your blood pressure and result in the need for less medication. Do not take higher doses if you have kidney failure, excessively slow heart rate, bowel obstruction or myasthenia gravis. This is because magnesium “calms” the cells, which can calm you!

One of the categories of products on My Relaxation Center website features multivitamin/minerals and calcium supplements. I use a company that only deals with licensed healthcare professionals, and they have access to other nutraceutical companies. I spent a considerable amount of time reviewing the research (The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements, by Lyle MacWilliam) and the ingredients for all the products. I only offer the ones that meet my criteria on my website. That’s why there are not very many. I hope I’ve narrowed the field for those of you looking for a good multivitamin/mineral. You can watch the video below.

Be Well, bonnie

For more information visit www.myrelaxationcenter.com

Wellness Everyone,

I was on vacation on beautiful Kauai, one of the Hawaiian Islands, when I wrote this blog. The universe reminded me that I should relax and enjoy my vacation by providing me with an inconsistent Internet connection, so I am posting this after my return. I guess I still need to be reminded to just relax and do nothing sometimes.

This trip was even more special to us than trips we have taken in the past. I find myself being filled with so much gratitude that it makes me emotional at times and actually takes my breath away, leaving me speechless and a bit teary-eyed.  

About 9 months ago, my husband and I were involved in a serious car accident that left me in a coma and on a ventilator (breathing machine) for a couple of days. I had a serious brain injury and do not remember much of the hospitalization. Apparently my brain did not work very well in the beginning. Thinking was difficult and a lot of work, but with lots of therapy, I recovered quickly and my brain came back. I am so appreciative of life and being able to use my brain, think and remember things. I am grateful that I was able to enjoy this vacation. We had planned this trip before the accident happened, so we felt very blessed and thankful that we could still go.

I find that I appreciate everything even more than I used to. I see more, notice more, smell, taste and feel more. You could say I look at life a bit differently.  I think I have always been a pretty positive person and thankful for my blessings.  During my recovery, I had thoughts of being even better than before the accident, and celebrated the little successes along the way. I feel I appreciate everything more now, every minute of every day, the sun, birds and flowers. Even the sky is more beautiful than I remember.  Because we are in Kauai, I especially notice how spectacular the ocean is!  

I am so blessed and grateful that my life just took a detour with the accident, and now I am back on the road again. Many of us face detours in our journey through life. Sometimes it’s struggling with an illness, a relationship, job, loss of a loved one, or an accident, as I had.   

I truly believe our thoughts can influence our outcomes. Regardless of the difficulties you may struggle with or the detour you find yourself on, you can influence your situation by the thoughts you have.

Sometimes I think we forget that we have the ability to choose how we feel. A millisecond before we have a feeling or thought, at some level, we decide to have that feeling or thought. Often this is an unconscious decision based on our life’s experiences, values and beliefs. When we are faced with unpleasant circumstances in our lives, it’s sometimes difficult to “choose” to feel good about the situation. But it is still our choice.

Now, we all veer off the path, that’s human nature, so just recognize it and choose to feel a bit better. You don’t have to feel great…just better, then, reach for the next better-feeling thought, and so on.

Your brain doesn’t’ know the difference between real and imagined, so tell your story the way you want it to be, not necessarily the way it is at the moment. Pretend “as if” you are already where you want to be in your life, and you’ll get back on the road again. Even if your life is not the same as it used to be…it may be better, it’s all about how you look at it!

Blessings and be well,

bonnie