It’s no secret that we are living in a very challenging time in the history of the world. At times it can feel quite hopeless. With that hopelessness can come a whole plethora of other emotions like sadness, despondency, anxiety, fear and anger.

Here are 4 Powerful Ways To Process Your Anger In Turbulent Times

Personally, I have felt most of these emotions regularly lately, and still do at many moments throughout my day to day life. I live in Sydney, Australia and I have been in lockdown for almost 10 weeks. I have felt the energy of anger moving in me many, many times throughout the ups and downs of the past year and a half since the Covid19 pandemic began. 

This isn’t an article about the pandemic though. This is an article about being human. I want to talk about anger – a human emotion often misunderstood and labelled as ‘negative’. 

Why do we do that? Why do we label some emotions as ‘good’ and others as ‘bad’? Emotions are neither. They just are.

What can be challenging is the behaviour that comes from an inability to be with our emotions. This can mean we express them in ways that are harmful to ourselves or others.

4 Powerful Ways To Process Your Anger In Turbulent Times

Many of us have not learned how to correctly process our emotions in life. This can lead to the suppression of those emotions. 

Suppression is particularly common with the emotions that we perceive as painful, or those that we feel unsafe to confront – perhaps because we fear being judged or even outcast by our peers, friends or even our family.

This can happen to both men and women. Suppression of anger for women could be due to a woman not wanting to seem “too emotional” or even “crazy”. For men, they are labelled as weak for expressing emotions – the saying “man up” comes to mind.

This conditioning is more damaging than any emotion.

And here’s the other thing. Emotions are smart – they know what’s what and they do not appreciate being ignored. Emotions (aka the wisdom of the body) are so smart they will even allow you to THINK you have pushed them away – at least for a while. 

Eventually, though, those emotions you tried to hide from that are intimately connected with the deep wisdom of your physiology, will show up in your life. 

It could be hours, months or even many years after an event.

Suppressed emotions or trauma can show up in many different ways, such as physical illness, mental illness and even as an excess of whichever emotion that was suppressed.

So now that we understand the importance of processing our emotions – how do we do it?

Well, each emotion is different – and each human being is different, too. We all process emotions in different ways. These are the ways that have helped me.

4 Powerful Ways To Process Your Anger In Turbulent Times

1- Therapy.

If you don’t first know that you have trapped emotions, or where they come from, how will you ever know to start processing them? If you are reading this article, you have some idea that you have anger and that you need to process it.

Speaking with a qualified counsellor or therapist can be powerful in helping you to uncover where your anger stems from so that you can set about learning to process it healthily.

2- Movement.

When emotions are trapped in our physical body we need to use our body to move them through us. There are many ways to do this. One way I love is perhaps a little surprising – it’s dancing! Yep, when I feel like there is some anger I need to let go of I put on some music and shake it out like nobody’s watching. It is incredibly therapeutic.

I have also found boxing to be helpful. Using my hands to punch through my anger was cathartic. And as an added benefit, it’s awesome cardio.

3 – Setting Healthy Boundaries.

Whatever your emotions are in a given moment are a message from your body. Sometimes that message is letting you know that a boundary of yours has been crossed. Boundaries are what separates you and your feelings from that of another person.

When you feel a boundary has been crossed – be that through a disrespectful comment or someone crossing a line physically with you, emotions will show up to let you know.

Learning to determine what your boundaries are and setting them with the people around you allows you to better understand yourself and your relationship to the world around you.

4 – Acceptance. 

This one is probably the toughest of all – and perhaps the most important. Your feelings matter. Read that again.

Whatever you have been told by those around you or even perhaps from the nasty inner critic, you are important and your experiences are real. Learning to accept yourself in all of your emotional glory is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.

Feeling anger isn’t bad. Emotions are the messengers of the body. When we learn to deal with them in healthy ways, they can help us to evolve closer to the truth of who we truly are.

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What It Feels Like To Be In Love – Peter Crone on Unconditional Love

Speaker: Peter Crone

Transcript – What It Feels Like To Be In Love – Peter Crone

When you really discover what it means to fully accept who you are all aspects then that I would assert is the discovery of what love is.

It’s really that simple, like, you know, it’s very easy as a spiritual teachers and esoteric philosophers and poets to talk about love as though that is our nature, and I’m not denying that, but it’s one thing to know that, okay, I am love. It’s another thing to experience I AM love.

And the way I’ve often used for myself as an expression, I say, I AM IN-LOVE and people often will say, wow, that’s awesome. Congratulations. And I’m like, no, no, no, no… I am IN THE ENERGY… I am in the essence, I am bathing within the quality that is love itself.

Yes, of course. I love companionship. I love falling in love with other… that’s a fun experience, but to recognize that I am actually held by the essence of love itself, that is, I would say not only a rare experience, it’s an anomaly to the norm, but I would assert it’s actually what we’re all here for… is to awaken to the fact that I am held by the container of the essence of love itself. And until such that I get that I will invariably be seeking it through the adoration or the validation or the reassurance of other, for which reason I will constantly be dependent on what they do or say to the point that everything is now a perceived threat. And for that reason, I will be perpetually in a state of exhaustion, which is really a futile battle for me to overcome the fact that I believe that there’s fundamentally something wrong with me. That’s not lovable.

And there in lies, the biggest pretense of all that, I somehow believe that there is something wrong with me. And I’m looking to the outside world to compensate for that or to reassure me otherwise, which is again, it’s a futile plight because if that’s how I’ve defined myself, then it doesn’t matter how many millions of people might love me until such time that I really get that for myself. It’s all window dressing.

You know, when people are like always trying to lean into like positive vibes or good feelings,

they’re denying 50% of what it means to be human, which is that just by virtue of being a sentient being, you’re going to have a myriad of different feelings.

Some of which you might think are great or the negative, but to what degree can you be big enough as a human being, to hold the space, the container of love, just like a really adoring mother does for her child, which she allows all of it to be that, of course you may have preference, but there’s no judgment of a child that’s just experiencing and self expressing whatever is going on. That is the container of love that I want to inspire, that I do inspire for people to bring to themselves, such that they can make space for their humanity, warts and all.

It’s not always going to be pretty, but that’s the nature of love. The very nature of love is such that it actually makes space for that, which isn’t necessarily lovable.

It’s easy to love all the parts of you that you love. It’s easy to love the parts of you that you like or that you think are your greatest features or your greatest character traits, but where can you develop love for the part of you that you find to be imperfect to the part of you that finds to be flawed? That’s the very essence of what loves means.

To make sufficient space for all parts of me, even those that my persona, my ego are somehow belittling, berating, or judging. That is the antithesis of love.

And so that is why it’s almost beautifully designed by virtue of being human… We are flawed, we are imperfect. And if it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t understand what it means to develop true. Unconditional love.

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This Is Why We Suffer (and This Is How We End Suffering)

Speaker: Peter Crone

Transcript – Peter Crone on Suffering and How To End Our Own Internal Suffering:

The way life occurs to us is that there’s always somewhere to get to, until you realize that there isn’t

…Similarly suffering is always present until we realize that there isn’t suffering. And that to me is the beauty of the human experience.

So, suffering is unavoidable by virtue of we’re here, but nonetheless, the opportunity, the possibility that it is to be human is to transcend suffering.

And it’s such a beautiful design again, because if it weren’t for the previous suffering, we don’t get to experience the latter freedom.

As an adult, I got to see myself in a picture and all black and white of me as a child and my cute little onesy, whatever it is running with my arms out, my mother is sort of very gently ushering me from behind. So you can see that she’s sort of directing me towards somebody who you can’t see because they’re off camera. They’re out of frame from the picture. But I know because of the setting, it was set at a Harbor at a dock where the boat had just, you know, come to birth and we’ve probably come off the boat and I’m running towards my dad because my dad worked on the boats. And as I looked at that photo and it’s this whole black and white, and this adorable little child, which you know, is running towards his father, who he loves his dad. And what had occurred to me is at that moment, one of the most important parts of love is the energy of missing somebody.

We often think that love is I’m with someone I’m sharing a dinner with them, I’m going to bed with them, or it could be a family member who I’m living with or I’m sharing time with constantly. But that denies the flip side of the same coin, which is one of the most beautiful aspects of love is what feels like the absence of the experience of love. And we can call that missing somebody… and why it was so profound for me is to see that little child run towards his dad with the excitement of the fact that for a minute, for minutes, maybe a day, maybe a week, it could be longer…. We experience the separation from that, which we love.

And if it weren’t for the experience of separation, we would not appreciate the joy of love.

And so why I use that example as it relates to suffering and freedom is because separation is hurtful, it’s painful, and that is suffering. And in this case, suffering is where we become separate from the knowledge, from the true wisdom of our true essence, whilst freedom is the remembrance and the awakening to the essence of who I am at my core, which is freedom.

So the two are inextricably connected and simultaneously necessary in order to experience one or the other.

If it weren’t for the experience of missing, I don’t get to go to the depths of the joy of love and equally, if it weren’t for the pain and the seeming inconvenience of human suffering, then I wouldn’t get to experience the elation and the joy of liberation that is true freedom.

When you really understand that dynamic…. it’s so beautiful to see the duality of everything. And I would actually take it a little deeper, which is to say the freedom really is the container. Like the love is the container that holds both.

We have the joy and we have the misery, we have the happiness and we have the sadness. And this is where if we can be big enough, expanded enough as human beings that we make space for all of it… it would be as nonsensical.

You know, for people who think they just want to be positive and happy, that is like asinine. It would be like me saying, no, no, no. All I want to do is inhale. Cause that’s so good. You get oxygen. If you’re like, what the hell? Like if it weren’t for the fact that I get to exit and let go of, you know, in this case, obviously physiologically biologically the toxins of carbon dioxide and stuff that no longer serves me because it’s already served its purpose in my body. Then I wouldn’t get the joy of having that cyclical process of inhale exhale that keeps me alive.

So similarly, the actual nature of duality, both parts are flip sides of the same coin that are an inherent experience of being human. And the degree to which we can embrace both is the degree to which we are truly free to allow all aspects of what it means to be human.

So suffering is really one aspect, but it is an aspect where there is ultimately a form of ignorance. And I don’t mean that as a judgment. I mean, it truly, in the fact that we don’t know something.

We suffer because we don’t know how extraordinary we are. We suffer because we don’t know that we actually are loved. We don’t, we suffer because we don’t feel safe. And it is in that ignorance than not knowing the absence of knowledge that we suffer.

And the process of awakening is realizing, Oh, these are lies. And as I transcend lie, I expand into my bigger nature, which then is the experience of liberation, which is contained in the safety that we are held and beneficiaries of life, because we are fundamentally loved.

The way I look at it is that this dimension that we are in as human beings to me is a revelatory dimension. What does that mean? Life will reveal where you yourself, as a being do not experience freedom.

Life will present you with people and circumstances to reveal where you’re not free.

So why is that a completely different perspective or different way of looking at the experience of life? Because most people are playing the human game. What is the human game they’re trying to accumulate, right? Accumulation of status, accumulation of possessions, accumulation of finance. And they’re trying to play the game of I’m becoming a better human by virtue of what I have usually… now that’s not wrong, but it’s also, to me, it’s a powerless game to play.

Whereas the awakening process of who I am as a being who is limitless, who is in its infancy and its true inherent nature, nothing but love peace, power, freedom.

That is to me, the game, that’s really at foot for human beings. That is the opportunity that it is to be a human is to awaken to the true essence of who I am rather than being defined by the persona that has been conditioned over time. That is now founded in the essence of survival. That is two entirely different approaches to the human experience. One is linear and one is vertical, right? So linear is okay, hopefully over time I’m going to improve. I got a promotion, I got a corner office. I got a bigger home. I’ve got a nicer car. I’ve got a little bit more money. That is, you know, there’s again, no judgment, but it is a futile dead end method of trying to find internal value by using external and exogenous means to bring some sense of worth.. versus discovering. Wow. My inherent nature is freedom.

My inherent nature is love. My inherent nature is peace and life is constantly giving me the opportunity to awaken to those qualities by virtue of presenting to me ironically, where I don’t experience that.

So that’s why, again, I said, life will present you with people and circumstances to reveal where you’re not free.

We often look as those circumstances as frustrating as things we don’t want, but that’s precisely why they’re being given to us because we’ve yet to see how powerful and extraordinary we are that we have yet to integrate those experiences and see that I can truly be with whatever is occurring and maintain my inner sense of peace and freedom and love.

We arrive as beings, but shrouded in constraint, we arrive as souls, but constrained by fear and the game of this particular dimension of planet earth and being human is Oh, awesome. We are set here so that we can reveal where we are confined, constrained and have some sense of separation and limitation. And so life is the process of sloughing by virtue of these trials and tribulations. And these sort of confronting circumstances really is a form of resistance, which just like polishing a diamond is allowing us to recognize where we still feel constrained or we arrived with our bucket of fears. And as I say, you know, the “ winner of the game” is who can get rid of their fears the the fastest, not that there is any urgency, but we could say, and I would assert the true liberation and true freedom, which is my main product is when we have confronted all of the fears that we arrived with to recognize that in fact, there is nothing to fear itself whatsoever. And that was always just a narrative that was part of our persona or our ego. That was just simply the cocoon in which we found we needed to live in order to stay safe. When in fact it’s quite the antithesis of that, which is true. Security is when I no longer need the illusion of external security.

If the experience I have with another person is of some form of disharmony, of judgment of hostility. Then that really is a reflection of what’s going on inside of me.

So as I say, as we express, so we experience, right. So if I’m expressing anger towards whoever or whatever the circumstance may be, then I am experiencing anger, right? So this, this water travels through say a garden hose. If the garden hose was sent in today, I had a feeling internally, it would feel the passage of the water when it was cold or hot, or how fast it’s moving. So likewise as we express our emotional state, we’re under the impression that it’s by virtue of what’s going on outside of us, but whether it is or not in terms of our interpretation when nonetheless experiencing all of that.

So then why wouldn’t I, if I know that correlation, if I’m, if I’m actually aware of that formula, then why wouldn’t I, wherever possible, bring an experience of love and joy to whoever it might be, because then I’m equally the beneficiary of it. And this is why exercises like gratitude journals or going and being a volunteer and being of service to a community feels good. Why does it feel good? Because what I’m actually doing is I’m bringing the experience of my true self is what I would have saw and I’m sharing to another, I’m giving to another. And therefore I am equally the beneficiary of my own active contribution.

You know, Einstein said, you either, you look at the universe in one of two ways, everything is a miracle or nothing’s a miracle, right? And so really when you get, we are beneficiaries of life, even though again, I’ve been through a ton of what felt like unnecessarily hardship that at the time, my little persona was like, I don’t want this. This sucks, but really in hindsight is often the case we’ve recognized. Wow. If it weren’t for those events, if it weren’t for those hardships, then I wouldn’t have discovered that expansiveness of what I’ve just stepped into and why I use the expression that smooth seas never made a good sailor, right? So we need adversity itself is the catalyst for growth. It is. Life is the greatest teacher by virtue of the fact that it gives us challenges so that it can, as I said earlier, slough off anything that is confining us, anything that is holding us back a constraint that is in some way, limiting ourself expression, we need some resistance to get rid of that.

And that is at times a very difficult pill to swallow, but it is nonetheless the catalyst to discover that really we are held eternally.

It’s like the metaphor of the image of these trapeze artists, right? The experience for anybody who goes up on a trapeze from the perspective of the ego is fear. If there’s no net, right? You, you would feel such trepidation of letting go of the trapeze bar to transition maybe to your partner and be caught in the absence of knowing there was some safety net and that’s the ego’s experiences. It goes through life. It feels that at any turn its existence is in potential danger. Everything can come across as a potential threat, and that’s an exhausting place to live from.

Conversely, if we can tap into this deeper essence of understanding the nature of life and particularly the nature of who we are, then at every turn, there is always a safety net. It might not feel like it, but we can drop, we can fall. We can miss the grip of the partners. We transitioned from trapeze bar to trapeze bar and it’s okay. And that we could say our errors and mistakes are failures and it’s okay.

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Experts have estimated that the mind has between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day. That’s an average of 2500 – 3,300 thoughts per hour.

It’s kind of intense to imagine all of those thoughts running around through your head with nowhere to go.

But what if we could give them an outlet?

How A Daily Writing Practice Can Change Your Life And How To Start

Getting words out of your head and onto paper can help you in many ways.

Whether you choose to journal or simply decide to write out your thoughts and/or ideas, the impact is similar, and it’s positive.

According to a study from the University of Rochester, journaling can help you to manage anxiety, reduce stress and cope with depression.

Writing can help you identify what’s causing you stress or anxiety in your life. Then, once you’ve identified your stressors, you can work on a plan to resolve the problems.

By choosing to practice daily writing, you will naturally begin to experience many benefits, some of which include:

1. Unblocking your emotions

When you write, particularly around your feelings, you reach into your soul and grab hold of what may be hiding in the dark. Sometimes there may be some ickiness in our hearts that perhaps we haven’t wanted to face. These emotions need to come out and by putting them down on paper, you are giving yourself a chance to acknowledge and resolve them.

2. Creating space in your mind for creativity

When you unblock and release your pent up emotions, you then create new space in your mind and heart. Within this space, there is room for more imagination, creativity and presence to exist. The great thing about creativity is that it builds upon itself. That is, the more you do it, the more you are inspired. As you get more and more comfortable with writing, you will find that accessing your creativity becomes easier and easier. This will flow into all aspects of your life and will enrich it for the better.

3. Releasing the need to be perfect

When you practice writing daily and allow yourself to just flow into a stream of consciousness, you remove the “editing” from your words which would normally be present in a conversation. This means that you are actually allowing your thoughts to be as they are in the moment without criticism or judgement. Naturally, this means they will be imperfect, but upon reflection, you will notice they are still absolutely beautiful!

This all sounds great, so how do you start?

Starting a daily writing practice is like any other habit you wish to create. It starts with a commitment and continues with one!

To begin, all you need to do is :

• Buy yourself a new journal specifically dedicated to this daily writing practice. Or if you are choosing digital, make sure you block out distractions so you can focus on writing.
• Decide what time of day you are going to write and schedule it in.
• Start. Imperfectly.

Whatever you choose to write about will be unique to you. You could try journalling about your day, or you could write a short paragraph of a story. It doesn’t matter what you write, it only matters that you write.

Do you practice writing daily? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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In the modern world, life is fast-paced, ever demanding experience that seems to constantly grab our attention.

Learning to prioritize yourself is no easy task.

From our own personal/familial responsibilities to those we encounter at work. Add in a good measure of technology, and we see that there’s forever something seeking to engage us.

This cycle of engagement means most of us are living in a perpetual state of doing. Never ceasing to rest, or allowing the space to just BE.

It is important to acknowledge that despite its challenges, this type of life is a privilege that not all of us are afforded. There are many people across the world who haven’t the option to access the opportunities we do, or practice self-care by going to a day spa when they feel tired. For many in the world, that simply will never be an option. For those of us lucky enough to born into a developed country where the needs and demands placed upon us are different, we do have a responsibility to nurture ourselves.

We have a responsibility to nurture our humanity.

Self-care isn’t selfish |Prioritize Yourself

The difficulty that comes with this notion is that because of the nature of our society, that being one of consumption, achievement and often egoic self-driven success principles, the space for self-nourishment is not freely given.

So it is up to us to take it. To cultivate that space and enforce it.

There are many ways you can do this. Some of my favourites are:

1. Practice self-compassion | Prioritize Yourself

I put this first on the list because ironically when we actually finally do give ourselves the time to BE, often we are riddled with guilt about it! Practising self-compassion and self-forgiveness if you feel that you haven’t been caring for yourself as well as you would have liked. Accept that you are a work in progress and you are trying to do better.

2. Move your body | Prioritize Yourself

Moving the body you have been given in a way that FEELS good helps us to ground and reconnect with the self we are outside of what we do. Dance, walk on the beach, or yes go to the gym if it feels good for you.

3. Love your insides | Prioritize Yourself

Drink water, lots of it. Eat whole foods, mostly plants. Take quality supplements that support your body and mind.

4. Get off technology | Prioritize Yourself

No phone, no tablet, no TV.. Get off technology and come home to yourself. Remember who you are without that incessant pull of social media, calls, messages and emails. Get out into nature. Breathe.

When you practice these steps and perhaps add more of your own, you will renew and regenerate yourself to feel more whole.

It’s important to recognise though that self-care is not transactional. We don’t care for ourselves just so we can add it to our list of stuff to get done or even to then care for others. 

Don’t allow your ego to tell you that you can only practice self-care if you can DO something with it afterwards.

Instead just allow yourself the joy of being loved by you in a way that you like, for no other reason than it feels good. We must care for ourselves because simply because we deserve it.

Do you have a particular technique you use that helps you to prioritize yourself? Share it in the comments!

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Why A Good Night’s Rest is Fundamental to Happiness

Many of us claim to love sleep, yet so many of us don’t get enough of it regularly. Whether it’s an excess of work, regular social obligations, surfing the web or that new season on Netflix, there’s just too much going on to grab a full 7 or 8 hours sometimes.  

Of course, sleep needs can vary from person to person. But typically, toddlers are supposed to have between 11 and 14 hours, teenagers 9 to 10, and adults between 7 and 9, depending on how active you are. 

What most fail to realize, however, is that a good night’s sleep is fundamental to happiness. We’ve all been there, running on 3 or 4 hours sleep and consequently feeling groggy as a result; but, it actually goes much deeper than a short-term feeling of grogginess. 

There have been multiple studies into the effects of sleeplessness, with one finding that when we’re sleep-deprived, our risk for depression increases, not to mention our stress levels.

Our emotions are largely controlled by our amygdala, which is what can trigger feelings of stress, anger or fear. The prefrontal cortex, after a decent amount of sleep, can keep the amygdala working correctly, allowing us to emotionally process and respond to situations well.  When you don’t get enough sleep, the connection between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex is disrupted, leaving us struggling to process things emotionally.

According to eachnight, sleep is vital in increasing your happiness by allowing your body to function at its very best. When your brain and body are not fully functioning, not only will it affect your immediate happiness, but it can cause a large domino effect in other areas of your life, including your health.

To understand why a lack of sleep can have such a detrimental effect, it helps to understand what happens immediately if you go a long period without sleep. 

Over 24 Hours  

This is the point that sleep deprivation starts affecting both your brain and body, leaving you clumsy and uncoordinated. Pair this with forgetfulness and imbalanced hormones, causing cortisol (the stress hormone) to be released into your body, raising both your heart rate and blood pressure. When the body has increased levels of cortisol for a long period it causes us to become emotional and irritable, and can cause some pretty serious cardiovascular complications. 

Over 48 Hours  

At 48 hours without sleep, our bodies try their best to shut down, which is why you may fall asleep involuntarily when inactive. In fact, you can sometimes experience microsleeps, which can last up to 30 seconds even if in the middle of an activity—this is especially dangerous when driving. Aside from that, your body temperature and metabolism will fall and you’ll be more inclined to snack as a way of getting the required energy elsewhere. This can lead to both weight gain and an increased risk of diabetes. 

So, next time you consider answering ‘yes’ when Netflix asks “Are you still watching?”, think about the impact of sleep deprivation and whether you want to feel groggy or rested the next day. 

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Ayurveda is a practice that goes back at least 5,000 years to ancient India. It blends an understanding of human physiology and the 5 senses with the natural environment’s healing elements to teach you about the fine ‘art of living’. Millions of people around the globe are waking up to this phenomenal holistic health care path because of its power to almost magically uplift people’s day-to-day lives. Here are 3 superb Ayurvedic self-care strategies to help you relax into a more balanced, joyous daily routine.

Eat Mindfully

Patience and calm, deliberate action are core teachings of traditional Ayurvedic healing, especially when it comes to food. This is because the practice celebrates the power of digestion. Ayurvedic methods showcase the processes of the body and mind are set in motion not only by the food that you it but more importantly by how that food is consumed. 

Being aware of how you eat has been shown to have a number of health benefits, including reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression. It also helps people make fewer unhealthy food choices.

What exactly does mindful eating look like? One example of the practice is eating until you are about 80% full.  This works because it takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to signal your brain that you’ve had enough food. Ayurveda encourages you to be mindful of when you’re feeling slightly satiated, so that you can give your brain enough time to catch up with your stomach, and you don’t overdo it. Because good digestion has been shown to thrive in calm, quiet, and stress-free environments, putting on some soothing tunes or turning off the television while you eat is also highly encouraged.

Engage in ‘Abhyanga’

Touch is the first sense to develop as a baby, and the last to fade in old age. It holds powerful healing capabilities, especially when it comes to reducing stress, strengthening the immune system, managing pain from injury, depression, and disease, and speeding up the healing process after injuries. In fact, touch is so vital that it actually helps babies develop normally, and grounds in basic human compassion.

Dacher Keltner on Touch

One of the best therapeutic touch practices is known as ‘abhyanga’ or ‘self-massage’. This is an ancient form of touch where you apply healing massage oils and gentle nourishing strokes to you skin in order to replenish lost nutrients while stimulating your muscles, joints, and lymphatic fluids. It has been shown to have an amazing array of wellness-boosting benefits including decreasing blood pressure, inflammation, back and diabetic pain, anxiety, and sleep disturbances.

Ayurvedic practitioners teach that there are 3 ‘doshas’ or biological energies that exist among people: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. To optimize your abhyanga practice, it’s best to determine your main dosha and then follow a few simple guidelines:

Vata Dosha: Use sesame oil and slow, light to moderate pressure strokes with your whole hand 4-5 times per week.

Pitta Dosha: Use coconut oil, sunflower, or olive oil and slow, light to moderate pressure strokes with your whole hand 3-4 times per week.

Kapha Dosha: Use safflower oil and fast, strong strokes with friction 1-2 times per week.

It’s also recommended to use long strokes on your arms and legs and circular strokes on your joints for all the doshas.

Balance with Essential Oils

There are amazing health-boosting compounds found in nature’s plants, trees, flowers and herbs known as phytochemicals. When these natural organic elements are extracted, they are then used to create essential oils that help bring balance to many of body’s main systems.

Regular use of these essential oils in baths, aromatherapy, and massage oils is a great way to strengthen your immune system, reduce your stress levels, aid with your digestion and weight balance, boost your mental health, and keep your skin fresh and glowing.  In fact they are so powerful that they are even used to help cancer patients with the effects of their condition, and show promise for helping reduce the risk of developing tumors.

Some of the most popular and powerful essential oils include frankincense, lavender, eucalyptus, peppermint, myrrh, turmeric, lemon, ginger, clove, tea tree, sandalwood, and rose. It’s good to note that oils made using chemical solvents (known as absolutes) are not considered essential oils by clinicians. Instead, they advise to use a pure oil that is extracted from the plant using heat, known as steam distillation, or a cold-pressed method, known as mechanical extraction.

If you’d like some help getting started, you can take a look at this 2018 Essential Oils Review and Essential Oils Guide.

Ayurvedic texts have also taught us the power of affirmations to guide you in taking charge of your thoughts and creating your best life! This video will take you through some amazing self-affirmations to help you attract a steady flow of abundance into your life…

Change Your Beliefs & Change Your Life!

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One of the most enlightening experiments ever conceived showcases the power of your thoughts, how positive words and thoughts like ‘gratitude’ that are directed toward water actually cause it to form into stunningly beautiful crystalline shapes, while negative, unkind ideas cause the molecules to become ugly, misshapen, and disjointed.

In 1994, Japanese researcher Dr. Masaru Emoto set up investigations that revealed how water, which makes up 60% of the human body, is greatly influenced by the mindset and feelings of the people who surround it:

Dr. Emoto’s groundbreaking research helped uncover 3 amazing secrets to manifesting the life of your dreams.

1. Speak Your Ideas Out Loud | Power of Your Thoughts

Sound creates form and as the water experiments reveal, what you speak out loud influences the exact material form that will unfold before your eyes. Many other researchers have also replicated the impact of sound on material objects. Such as the sand experiments conducted by physics researcher John Stuart Reid and Grammy-nominated sound healer Steven Halpern. These studies and demonstrations highlight the power of creating your reality based on the words you speak. This is why making a conscious effort to choose your words with care can have such a profound impact on your success.

2. Hold a Clear Intention | Power of Your Thoughts

“Love and gratitude: This crystal is as perfect as can be.” – Masaru Emoto, The Hidden Messages in Water

An intention bridges in both feelings from your heart and thoughts from your mind to give your words maximum impact. For instance, if you say the word ‘Love’ while feeling that emotion and also thinking about who or what you are sending love to, you can influence the makeup of the magnetic field that surrounds you. This energetic field is not some hocus pocus idea, but is in fact scientifically documented and operates much like the Earth’s magnetic field.

Every time you think a thought or experience an emotion, your mind and heart each send out a magnetic ‘resonance’ or ‘vibration’ via your magnetic field. When you focus on uplifting thoughts and feelings, the vibration you send out is likewise more positive.

Our heart has been shown to be the first place that perceives resonances or vibrations that come into our magnetic fields from others. So when you send out a positive resonance, it will be recognized and accepted by those who aspire to interact with someone of that same vibration. This is how you magnetically attract the people and situations into your life who are emanating positive vibrations that support your goals.

3. Make Thought Control a Priority | Power of Your Thoughts

Once your heart perceives resonances or vibrations that come into its magnetic field, it then sends a signal to your brain. Your brain stores most of your memories and beliefs in your subconscious mind. Here’s where things can sometimes get mixed up: your brain’s perceptions about outside vibrations can be unduly influenced by old programmed patterns of thought that are based on past experiences with that vibration.

For instance, if you ever fell love in the past and it didn’t work out, your heart still experiences the vibration of love and sends that signal to your brain. However, your brain’s subconscious mind remembers that love equals pain. Your thoughts then begin forming around the vibration of pain. Instead of thinking welcoming thoughts about getting to know the person, you become fearful or sad. You may come up with all kinds of reasons why things will never work out.

The key is to consciously catch your thoughts at this stage of the process and change them. Many people actually attract the people or situations into their life that they want, but then subconsciously reject them. Then subconscious thoughts manifest themselves via our actions. Consistently check in with your thoughts throughout the day – in other words, by thinking about, what you are thinking about – you will be more successful in taking control of your subconscious mind and shifting into the driver’s seat so that you can enjoy a beautiful life filled with everything you desire.

Use these positive and inspiring affirmations to help influence your thoughts and empower your dreams…

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Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you felt alone?

Maybe it was after a break-up, or when someone you love passed away. Perhaps you experienced something traumatic and you felt like no one understood your pain. However it happens, we have likely all experienced feeling lost or alone at some point in our lives.

In these times it can feel like there is nowhere to turn, and that no matter what we do we can’t find the answers we need.

The thing is, no matter how badly we feel alone, there is always someone close by. But this person is someone we often overlooked. This person is our SELF.

Commonly when we go through struggles, we turn to others for support. And this is a very wise choice! The support of family and friends is crucial in helping us to move through a crisis. But how often do we turn to the one person who is always with us for that love and support we seek from others?

The truth is that we all hold great power within us. We have the ability to overcome huge challenges and we are incredibly adaptable. But often in times of struggle, we feel weak we feel alone and we forget how powerful we are.

So how can we better tune into our personal power in times of struggle?

1- Be present.

Often when we feel alone, or are experiencing any type of uncomfortable emotion our tendency is to avoid the present moment. We do this in any manner of ways from binge-watching TV, to drinking alcohol, even overeating food. This type of avoidance stops us from fully embracing what we are going through, and in turn blocks us from dealing with it. Bringing mindfulness and presence to where you are, no matter how uncomfortable is, is the key to moving through the discomfort you are in. This does not mean spending time in self-pity! It simply means accepting where you are RIGHT NOW so that you can process whatever you are feeling.

2- Write a list of your achievements.

When we are feeling alone or out of touch with our greatness, we can forget about all the amazing things we have achieved. Spend time reminding yourself! Write a list of 5 things you have achieved in this life. Then read over it, every day.

3- Become your own best friend.

You, alone, are enough as you are. Treat yourself as you would your best friend. Go to places you like, indulge in activities that make you happy and have fun!

We all feet alone at one time or another. Learning to enjoy and embrace time alone is an opportunity for self-love, and is a beautiful practice that will serve you for the rest of your life.

Do you have a specific practice to help you when you feel alone? Share it in the comments below.

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Becoming your own bestie is, hands down, on the top of the ‘to do’ list if you’re determined to create a more compassionate world. The practice of unconditional self-love heals inner wounds and provides a solid foundation for pushing past limiting beliefs. People who love themselves have an immense ability to reduce conflicts by patterning a way of being which elevates understanding to a high status. Take a look at these 3 strategies for becoming your own best friend and helping to uplift the world in the process.

3 Keys to Unlock Self-Love and Awaken Your Inner Best Friend

Make a Practice of Bragging About Yourself

Whether you take to social media, tell a friend, or even talk to your pet about it, the point is to give yourself a shout out for a job well done. This is important because speaking our accomplishments out loud helps create a greater sense of self-worth.

If you want to engage in the type of bragging that triggers unconditional self-love. Imagine what a good friend might say about you if they were trying to boost your self-esteem. The key here is to get into the same warm and comforted emotional state that you would be in if this were actually happening. This is because the brain can’t differentiate between real and make believe. Boasting about yourself may seem a bit awkward at first. With repetition time you’ll begin to feel a greater sense of peace because you’ve experienced firsthand your own immense power to shift your life upward.

Begin to Shift Your Inner Dialogue

When you consistently focus on self-affirming thoughts and ideas about yourself, you are actually reprogramming your brain in ways that create new connections in the parts of your mind associated with positive change. In other words, you have the remote control and can change the channel to a new, more uplifting show. This shift allows you to more readily take action in the direction of your dreams because your inner landscape more closely matches your outer goals.

The bonus? Taking action in the direction of your dreams also allows you to have a more positive inner dialogue!

Engage in Self-Care

Overcoming negativity and learning to be your own best friend is no walk in the park. Set aside a little time each week to pamper yourself. You’re sending your brain a strong message that you deserve good things in your life. This is why quality self-care not only rejuvenates your body, but also helps rebalance your mind. Here are a few strategies to get you started on renewing your energy. It’s time to bring more harmony into your life again:

• Take yourself out to dinner. This is a handy one to do because you can combine it with bragging on yourself to the waiter, waitress, or even your fellow diners!
• Take a long, relaxing bath with essential oils, which have been shown to have numerous healing qualities.
• Enjoy some Netflix for an evening. Watching an inspiring documentary can be especially refreshing because you get to see how others overcame obstacles on their way to greater self-love.

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