One Square Inch Of Silence

I believe I've written about this subject before as it is near and dear to my heart.  I believe we live in a world of noise and that noise harms us.  It keeps our nervous systems elevated, our ears at attention, and our minds actively searching for the origin of the noise.

We've got a lot going on in our lives, and without silence, it is hard to find peace (as in peace and quiet).  I don't even think we're aware of just how much noise is around us.  We have become so accustomed to it, that it is just commonplace.  Very sad, but true!

We need that moment of silence where we can stop and quiet our soul and mind.  It is so needed for us to help find rest in our life, and repair the things that have hurt our physical body and mind.

Not long ago, I was trying to record a little brook of water.  The sound was beautiful.  So as I hooked my special little recorder up near it, I thought it was pretty silent around where we were at.  I wasn't consciously aware of noise.

When I got it back home and listened to the recording, I kept hearing sounds that I didn't hear while I was there.  Most of them were planes flying high above us that we did not even notice.  Some of the other noises were of cars on far off highways, and people playing hundreds of yards away.  I was shocked at just how much noise there was that I didn't hear.

When I went to the ocean and recorded my Ocean Sounds CD, it was a battle to find a quiet place.  I was in a remote area, almost a wilderness part here in Florida.  Yet distant sounds carried through the air and would interrupt what I was recording.

Nowadays we have to have music and noises, blips and sounds playing constantly. Our phones constantly alert us.  The noise of the traffic never seems to die down.  The hums from the houses and the computers that continuously run leave us hardly any silence.

I'm so happy someone is drawing attention to this through their work, One Square Inch Of Silence.  May we not let silence become extinct, because it may be too late to know what true silence is.  Our mind and body need silence badly.  We need that down time and without silence in our world, we will stay at an elevated vibration which is not helpful to our survival.

Read more about this story on CNN, One Square Inch Of Silence.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Autonomic Nervous System and Stress On Our Body

In this video, Dr. Paul Canali and Jim Fazio discuss the Autonomic Nervous System, stress, and how it impacts our physical well-being.

Key Points In The Video

• The Autonomic Nervous System is responsible for our day to day function.
• Controls things like heart rate, blood pressure, hot, cold, sexual intimacy.
• Almost every function of the human body is under Autonomic Nervous System control.
• We're not always aware of it until something goes wrong.
• Negative impacts of stress are expressed through the Autonomic Nervous System.
• Sympathetic Nervous System
• One part of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).
• It increases and expends energy to meet the demand of the moment.
• Increases
• Blood Pressure
• Heart Rate
• The stress response
• The survival response
• Still in the "danger mode" so your body doesn't waste energy on digestion, sleep, rest, healing.  Even dangers that have long past gone away.
• Parasympathetic Nervous System
• Helps slow things down and bring things back into balance.
• If the threat, real or perceived, is still there, this will not engage.
• Parasympathetic helps in
• Sleep
• Digestion
• Rest
• Healing
• The longer we stay in stress or survival, the longer these systems will stay shut down and lead to constipation, inflammatory disease, and illness of all types. 
• Majority of doctor visits are due to stress or the maladaptation to stress.
• Treatments will only do so much unless you deal with the stress.
• If you don't correct your ways to adapt to stress, nature will take you out of the picture.
• Re-regulate stress by dumping allostatic load, which is how the body adapts to a stressful stimulus.
• Stress happens and it impacts the body, but in a short period of time, we should return back to a baseline called homeostasis.  Unfortunately, we don't always do this.
• Stresses can accumulate and keep us out of balance which ends up in situations where we are in severe pain, physical illness, and conditions that impact the body.

For More Information

1. Dr. Paul Canali, Evolutionary Healing Institute of Miami, Florida
2. Jim Fazio, Integrative Bodywork

Glued To The News Of A Tragedy

Lately, we are overloaded as a people.  Our nervous systems are designed to handle a great deal and so is our brain.  Yet, when we see events of the past few weeks unfolding every day, we push the limits of all that we can endure.

If we are glued to the news of a tragedy, it can be just as harmful in my view as if we were right there involved in the tragedy.  I say this because I can see it in myself.  When we watch the images that are repeated over and over, its like we are re-traumatizing ourselves.  It imprints into our brain and wires us with emotion to make this a very strong neural pathway.

Even if we hover over every news article and tweet or Facebook posting, we are allowing ourselves to be glued to the news of a tragedy.  It is not healthy for us.  It keeps our body revved up as if the events are happening and continuing to happen.

It keeps fear alive inside of us...

It keeps fear alive inside of us because when we see these things unfold, it connects with that part within our mind and body that says, "it is not safe".  When we connect with the unsafe part, it recalls all those memories where we did not feel safe.  It re-traumatizes us as if not only this current event is happening, but that there is a strong basis for past events to have happened.

When we keep our body and our mind ramped up in fear, we are not taking care of ourselves.  We are not allowing our nervous system to calm down.  We are not feeling in our body, because the last thing that fear does is allow you to feel anything in your body.  The less we feel, the more we set ourselves up for illness and health conditions that will have an environment to grow.

Our nervous systems are overloaded...

Our nervous systems are already overloaded in this world.  We have pushed ourselves far beyond the normal limits of healthy behavior.  Events like we've seen unfold lately only push those limits into the upper ends of the danger zones for our mind and body.

It is up to each one of us to limit how much we take in during these tragedies of life.  Being glued to the news is not something that is helpful.  I'm not telling you to stick your head in the sand, but limit your intake of this harmful and toxic news that is replayed hour upon hour.

The media's goal is to keep you hooked into their programming so they make money.  They are not here for our evolution or awareness or consciousness.  If they limit what they show, you'll turn to those that don't.  If you truly want to take care of yourself, then don't glue yourself to the news of a tragedy.  It will only harm you, not help you.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Damage By Jet Lag And the Night Shift

I'm amazed at how we take care of our bodies and while some of it is unavoidable, there are steps we can do to minimize the impact of stress on our physical body.  In an article in The Telegraph, they discuss some of the research that is being done to understand how we are affected by jet lag and the night shift.

In both of these events, they disrupt the normal circadian rhythm and actually throw gene sequences out of sync when the sleep patterns deviated from what was the norm in these people studied.  Our bodies are biologically made to operate in a certain way and although we may interrupt that schedule, this is a biological reality.  The body can adapt, but each adaptation often brings stress with it.  Remember that stress can be positive or negative and stress is anything that causes change to the body.


From work I've done and what I have experienced in my own life, I believe that if you take the time out to really recharge your batteries on a daily basis, some of this is not an issue.  I would love to be able to test this idea fully.

Brain And Nervous System Can Change

But new findings reveal that many aspects of the brain and nervous system can change structurally and functionally—including learning, memory, and recovery from brain damage—throughout adulthood.)  From Chapter 5 of the book by Joe Dispenza, Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself

Nervous System Resiliency

One of the things that I am learning firsthand is how resilient our nervous system in the course of our day. Many of the things that I write about here are ones that I have been introduced to and then I learn about them by living through experiences that become my teacher.

It is not just concepts that are told to me and I continue the story. They are very real lessons that I experience firsthand within my body. When you can experience something within the body and feel the connection within, then there is no doubt that it is a real, truth altering experience.

For a long time I felt overwhelmed in life where I could not seem to get my balance as the winds of various events would come along and knock me off balance. It never seemed like I would get past many things in my life because I always felt overwhelmed. Then one experience in particular that I had on the table with Dr. Paul Canali brought this home in a very real and vivid way.

In this particular session, I came up against some of the root energy where very real and intense anger perpetuates and grows within me. As I pushed through this, my body felt physically awful for several hours but then as the energy of the release began to balance itself, I noticed a major change within my body. For the first time, I noticed a peacefulness and calmness that I had never felt before. It is more than difficult to describe here but it was real and I knew it wasn't just a temporary peace or calmness. It was a life changing moment.

As events of the following week transpired, I noticed that most of these were just rolling off my back. Yes, some of them were pretty intense and I was not ignoring the feeling of them but they were just coming in and almost like bouncing through me. It is then that I came to understand just how resilient our nervous system is meant to be and if treated properly, it can perform in ways that we may not be able to imagine.

For months, I did not think about this entire scenario until I recently went through a very stressful week. In that week, I noticed something about myself and how I was dealing with the stress. While the stress was intense and difficult to be part of, I noticed that much of it was just bouncing right through me. I'm not going to tell you that it was an easy week but without this happening within myself, it would have been much more difficult.

Please don't misunderstand me here because I'm not talking about "thinking happy thoughts" here either as many tend to do. This is about going deep within and connecting to the grounded part of your cells, your body and your mind. It is about having the nervous system at a healthy point that it can absorb these things and let them go. It isn't about avoiding any of the feelings or affects of the stress but feeling all of it and just swimming through it as if you were swimming in a pool.

Of course, most humans go through life in a hurried fashion barely ever taking time to take care of the body, oblivious to the fact that this is taking place. We like to self medicate ourselves with things that keep us from living in reality and keep us from getting to truly know ourselves in an intimate way.

All too often, I've heard many people tell me that they don't have time to get a massage or relax or to take a vacation. In this day of electronics, people cannot even get away from their jobs for a minute. We keep ourselves and our nervous systems in a heightened state of arousal and stress but yet we expect our bodies to hit peak performance.

We go through life dabbling in this or that new age therapy or we turn to religion, doctors and our families to help us exist in our day. However, none of these things will help you deal with the stress in your life unless you go in and stand up to the fear and the ego within your body and your mind. You can fool yourself all day long into thinking that various things are helping you and they may be temporarily, but if you really want to leap upon the mountains, you need to journey within yourself.

The nervous system is meant to act like a rubber band where if you pull it and stretch it, when let go, it should go back to its original shape. However if you stretch it beyond those limits time and time again, you may alter the shape of it. If you stretch it beyond what it is capable of, then there will be a break. The body acts in much the same way.

If we as a society really wanted to improve the overall health of our world, we would be focusing upon learning how the nervous system works and how we impact it every day of our life. We would focus upon learning how to reclaim it and harness the power that we hold within our bodies and our minds. The nervous system should be our friend but much of the time in our world, we barely even notice its existence.




Blog Post & Images (c) 2/20/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com




Photo by NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

Showing Frustrations

The frustrations in life can seem to be too much. I find it difficult to navigate them as if I am walking through a minefield. It may be the smallest thing that gets to me.

At one time, I just held all these things in and no one saw them. I considered showing these little frustrations to be a sign of weakness. At the time, it felt like if I showed this side of me to anyone I was out of control. Of course, now I understand that holding these emotions in makes me more weak and out of control.

It is not easy for me to deal with at times. Much of my reactions to little frustrations is set off like I am on autopilot. It is not like I feel I have an option at times to stop the direction of my reactions and do something different. As much as I would love to be able to do that, I am not superman.

I do understand how emotions, past trauma and current stress play into this. I could suppress all these things as many urge me to do but in many ways, this is like adding more fuel to a ticking time bomb. While most do not understand, it is about going in and allowing myself the space to feel these things as they come up. My goal is to find true healing, not just put on a happy face disguise.

Getting constant work done on myself to balance my nervous system is one good way that I can help myself through this. Releasing the pieces of trauma from my past gives me a greater capacity in my nervous system to absorb and allow the frustrations to roll on. Recognizing that I am healing and becoming more aware of all parts of myself gives me the courage to walk through these unknown roads of consciousness.

(c) 11/30/10 Don Shetterly - Use by permission only.

Play Hard And Rest

Every time I start experiencing stressful moments in life where I feel like I've got more to complete in a day than is possible to accomplish, I'm reminded by my cats to play hard and rest. Watching them as they play hard one minute and then they are sprawled out on the floor resting the next is a vivid example that we as humans should consider following.

Ever since we got our two kittens from the cat rescue organization, Candy's Cats, these two have played hard together. They are brother and sister which really does help. We do encourage the playfulness with them and spend much time playing with them as well. We have done this since they were kittens. When they want us to play, we stop and play.

Never does a day go by that they are not running, chasing, pouncing and playing hard with each other. It is fun to watch and sometimes it feels like a herd of tornadoes running through the house. However, if you watch them, they will go at it strong for several minutes and then all of the sudden they get quiet. The next thing they do is lay on their back sprawled out as if nothing is going on. They might actually go from playing hard to cleaning and grooming themselves but most of the time, it is complete rest after a moment of playing hard with each other.

As kids, we most likely did this same thing where we played hard and then we came inside for a rest. It wasn't something we thought about or knew we needed to do these things. It just happened because we were being kids. It was all in the moment living much like our cats live.

As adults, we tend to lose the ways of being a kid. Yes, I know there are responsibilities and jobs and family to take care of in our lives. Often these responsibilities take away from our time to play or relax or just enjoy life. It is all too easy to get caught up in a million activities or causes which may be noble and justified but sometimes they can rob us of our playtime in life.

Playtime is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves. By playtime, I mean finding things that you enjoy doing from crafts or walks in the wood to spending time out in the sun having fun. These are things in life which are just pure enjoyment to you and there is no work or worry or other stress that you need to connect with when you are having play time. If you are not sure what playtime really is, just connect back to when you were a child. What did you do as a child to have fun? What do you enjoy doing now?

Learn to play hard and then after you have played hard, take some time to just rest and live in the moment of now. There should be no expectations of how long this should go or any other thing that may be on your mind. Just be in the moment like cats are where nothing else matters for them. Resting gives you the connection of pushing yourself into enjoyment and fun, then allowing yourself to drop down and connect to the greatest parts within yourself. Observe how your body feels during the rest time and see if there is any change in muscle tension or pains. Most likely, you will notice a sense of relief and less pain.

One of the best ways to release stress is by pushing your nervous system up and then letting it drop down. Taking time to clean out those closets in your body where stress is hiding gives way for you to allow yourself relaxation and a deeper peace. Playing hard helps push your nervous system up, if you really allow yourself to just let loose and have fun. Then by taking time to rest afterward, you are allowing yourself to connect to the deeper peace and relaxation that your body needs. Through the connection between these two things, you will have released much stress in your body and your life.

I'm sure we all know what it means to play hard but some of us may have forgotten to allow ourselves to do this. That is perfectly okay because what you do in today's moment is totally up to you. You can go out and spend some time today playing and having fun, enjoy life to the fullest! You can be creative in how you do that and maybe step outside of your comfort zone, giving yourself permission to just let loose!

If you are not spending regular time playing in life, I urge you to give this a try. Step out of your comfort zone and see what happens. Even if you are extremely busy, an afternoon of playing hard, then resting will most likely give you more focus, clarity, and energy for your day. You may be surprised at just how much more productive you are.

Our bodies are not meant to be pushed constantly or to their limits without a way to release the stress and build up of emotions. Our nervous systems are resilient but the more stress and past trauma we hold against within our body, the less resilient they are. When we overwhelm our bodies in this way, they react through physical messages that try to get our attention so that we can reverse course and become aware of our connection between our mind, body and spirit.

To live in the moment, is one of the greatest gifts of awareness that we can give ourselves. To be mindful in our day will return many rewards back to us. We really are the masters of our health and well being. Through playing hard and resting, we give ourselves the chance to stop, connect and discover a little more about ourselves. It truly does a body good!

(Above Picture taken of Corey And Topanga (our Kittens) - (c) 10/03/10)

*Read other articles on Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Nervous System and Trauma

Nervous systems are becoming so overloaded and overworked that few people are actually engaged in life and reality. When we overload and overwork our nervous systems without release, we cannot expect to function at 100 percent as humans. We become less than human. We give up who we actually are as a person.

When you are under repetitive stress, the body takes all of this in. It is like the shock absorbers on a car that are designed to take in the stress of the road. If you continue to pound the nervous system of the human body, the shock absorber, than at some point you will over whelm it. When it becomes overwhelmed, the flip will be switched.

Trauma is the same way as repetitive stress. When we encounter a traumatic moment, our body winds up and revs up the major body systems. Our brains begin to record the events, and the amygdala records the emotions that go with these events. All of these events become a neural pathway that is then used to process future information.

While we need the limbic system to function and make sense of experiences in life, if we fill it up and never release anything from it, our capabilities are diminished. Peace in our lives becomes hard to locate. It is as if we are in the jungle and the lion is chasing us. Even though we lost the lion or outsmarted it, in our mind, the lion may still be chasing us. It keeps us running as if it is still on our heels. The traumatic moments become fused with reality. It becomes difficult to tell the two apart.

We continue to carry the trauma or repetitive stress with us throughout our days. We allow the tiger to continue chasing us because through our altered consciousness there is no end to the tiger chasing us. There is no separation from the tiger in our mind and reality. Every day and moment from that point forward is affected without us giving much conscious thought that it is. Our future decisions are now wrapped within this altered process. Our fears are now framed through these experiences. Who we are has now changed into who we have become.

While we often cannot stop in the moment of trauma and release everything we are absorbing, we need to give ourselves the opportunity to do this. If the lion is chasing you, then you need to run. When the lion no longer chases you, it is time to go in and clear the nervous system out. It is time to release these things. An over stressed and over worked nervous system will not get you very far in life. It has a very big impact on how life looks to you and how it affects your physical body.

If you have spent a life time absorbing so much into your nervous system, it may take some intense work but there are ways to release it. While positive thoughts can greatly help the process, what is needed to release resides in the body. Until the body has released these things, they will continue to have an impact upon your life. Of course, fear and control try to give the illusion in our lives that things are different than they actually are. All too often, we succumb to these illusions. They become our reality and yet they are still an illusion.

Trauma and stress change us. It alters our perceptions and balance of everything around us. If we continue to allow the fears and energy of these moments to reside within our cells, we will be allowing a silent thief to rob us of who we truly are. Our potential will be diminished. Our reality will be altered. We will experience physical pains in the body that are overwhelming.

Working to connect our mind, our experiences and our awareness together with our body gives us hope, possibility and freedom. While it may not be easy to reclaim these parts of our life, we owe it to ourselves to become all that we are. For not only the sake of who we are but for the universe, it is imperative that we discover our potential. Anything less than this, and we've reduced the human experience for ourselves and for all those around us that we meet.

Picture taken along Volusia County Fair, Florida (c) 11/05/09


*Read other articles on Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Forgetfulness - Symptoms Of Stress, Part 8

This is Part 8 of 9 Part Series - Forgetfulness

Ask anyone these days and most often you will hear that person make some mention of having memory issues. Whether it is short term or long term memory, many people struggle with this. According to this article on health.yahoo.com, Dr. Lombardo, author of "A Happy You: Your Ultimate Prescription for Happiness", is quoted as saying “Research shows that chronic stress can literally shrink the size of the hippocampus, which is responsible for some memories.” Fortunately, according to Dr. Lombardo, the size of the hippocampus will go back to its normal size once the stress level is reduced.

However, many people are living in a constant state of stress and do not even fully realize it. They often think that if you just relax for a few hours, than all is fine. While that may help, it is just part of what needs to happen. The nervous system in our bodies is meant to absorb stress and deal with it but when we constantly overload the system, the stress becomes overwhelming. Daily chronic stress, if not released, builds up and can be as harmful as if you were involved in a traumatic incident. Both have many of the same long lasting effects on a body.

In our day and age of technology and fast paced business offices, we are not able to readily escape stress. It is everywhere around us. We all have many responsibilities to deal with and even during this time of unemployment and financial crisis we are in, many are struggling to just hold things together and keep going. So it is no wonder right now that the level of stress is at an all time high in our society.

Stress is stored in the body and if you are not doing things to release the stress from the body each day, it will build up and begin causing all kinds of health problems. Bodywork, exercise, meditation, Yoga, deep breathing, movement and just taking some time out each day to let go and relax are all helpful ways in dealing with this. The key though is to find something that works for you and make the time in your day to do this. It isn’t just something that is nice to do once or twice a year on vacation. It is critical for your survival and evolution as a human being into becoming all that you can be.


Symptoms Of Stress: (9 Part Series)
Part 1. Tweaked and Tense Muscles
Part 2. Eye Twitching
Part 3. Ragged Cuticles
Part 4. Cavities
Part 5. Rashes & Itching
Part 6. Nausea
Part 7. Sleep
Part 8. Forgetfulness
Part 9. Confusion



*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Tense Muscles - Symptoms Of Stress, Part 1

This is Part 1 of 9 Part Series - Tweaked Or Tense Muscles

Have you ever had one of those muscle spasms that about sends you through the roof or muscles that are so tense and painful. Hello – welcome to stressville! Tense and tight muscles are messages from your body. Your body is trying to get your attention about something. According to the Yahoo Health article, the person quoted on this suggests that this is just a part of the fight or flight response which is really not needed in our lives anymore. I would suggest that this is a very narrow view and is missing relevant pieces of information.

The fight or flight situation is our response to stress. If our nervous system is so overload and overworked where we cannot process stress coming at us, then we will go into the fight or flight response. Fight or flight is part of our nervous system and our biology. It is there to warn us when we are in danger but when the danger passes, we should be able to move beyond this and let go of it.

When the danger (or stress or trauma) is so intense that we it overloads our circuits, the excess energy has to go somewhere. It finds a home within us and within our muscles, our cells and our overall biology. Until we go deep into these danger points, we will continue to live with this pain and the tight or tweaked muscles. While we can find moments of peaceful relaxation doing all kinds of movements and exercises, we do not truly discharge these things until we go in and release them from ourselves. The good news is that it is possible to release and discharge this stuff from our bodies.

By consciously connecting and allowing ourselves to go into the fears that are locked up within these painful areas of our body, we can choose to let go of all of it. When we do that, we free ourselves from this and it recaptures so much stored energy (potentiation). As we go into these things, we not only get immediate changes in our body, but it sets us up to go further into ourselves and become more connected with ourselves. We are much greater than we believe and we have much more power over our biology than many of us think.


Symptoms Of Stress: (9 Part Series)
Part 1. Tweaked and Tense Muscles
Part 2. Eye Twitching
Part 3. Ragged Cuticles
Part 4. Cavities
Part 5. Rashes & Itching
Part 6. Nausea
Part 7. Sleep
Part 8. Forgetfulness
Part 9. Confusion



*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Silence Is Vanishing

In a Newsweek.com article (Jan 28, 2010 by Julia Baird), An Unquiet Nation, Audio ecologist Gordon Hempton discusses America's vanishing quiet spaces.

As the article goes on to state, "Silence is something you assume you will always be able to find if you need it. All you have to do is drive far enough in the right direction, trek through quiet fields or woods, or dive into the sea's belly." But in all reality, the quiet areas in our country and our world are rapidly disappearing.

In 1983, Gordon Hempton found 15 places in Washington State that were noise free for 15 minutes and by 2007, there were three of them.

Why should we care?
The body needs positive and negative stimulus. If we constantly give it one or ther other, our nervous system remain stagnant and do not allow for elasticity. In other words, without the effects of both positive and negative stimuli on our bodies, we just cannot handle as much as we could otherwise. Our nervous system keeps us in a very tight range of what it can handle.

However, silence is also important in that it allows our bodies, our minds and our souls to stop and rest; to repair and heal; and to experience all that is around us. So many of us live in places where constant noise is the norm from traffic all around us, to a constant flow of people, cell phones, electronic noises, and other barely noticeable sounds that impact our lives each day. With all of this going on around us constantly or almost constantly, how can our bodies come down and find a quiet moment of relaxation? If there is some activity or noise going on, where do we find peace in our day? One could make the argument that we find it within and while that is true, if we are impacted by all that is constantly around us, than can we truly find a peaceful moment?

On top of the noise pollution that is around us each day, many of us barely take the time to stop in our day let alone stop and listen to the sounds of nature around us. When was the last time, you stopped and just listened to the wind rustle through the trees, or maybe just absorbed the sounds of the many different birds singing around you? When was the last time, you just stopped in a remote, quiet place that you love and just listened and absorbed the symphony that nature provides you? Do you realize just how powerful that can be to give your mind, body and soul a place of peace, rest and healing?

We're So Busy These Days
We're so busy these days in our lives trying to go here and there, accomplish this task or that one, getting to this activity or meeting that we fail to stop and "smell the roses" so to speak. We've got music blasting continuously from our computers, the headphones on our iPods, the TV with the talking pundits or many other things. And if these aren't enough, we hear the constant buzz and hum of the computers we work on, or the fluorescent lights humming away in our office or the cars, planes and trucks zipping by on the road. Through all of this, most of the time we are oblivious that it is all occurring and we're taking in all of it whether we realize it or not.

My Challenge To You
So my challenge to you is to find a quiet place in your life, preferably outside among nature. When you find that quiet place, just sit back and take in all the sounds of nature that you can hear, even the silent ones. You can close your eyes if you feel safe or just sit there and observe, doing nothing more. Let the sounds of nature and the silent moments fill you from the top of your head to the bottom of your toes. Take it all in and notice your breathing, how your body feels and just all that you can sense. Notice your body tension, your aches and pains and your worries, than let them be adsorbed in the silent sounds of nature. Spend some time there without worrying about what tasks you have to do and see just how refreshed, relaxed and whole you feel when you come to the end of your symphony. Take a moment and be thankful for all that there is around us that is just waiting for us to connect to and make a pledge that you will do this frequently.

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More Information About Gordon Hempton

Book by Gordon Hempton: One Square Inch Of Silence

*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Into The Itching, Through The Pain

Into the itching, through the pain and out comes possibility, hope and a new layer of life.

While I'm not back to 100%, things are much better now after some sessions at Evolutionary Healing Institute. While it seemed almost hopeless before going in for the session, by the end of that first day, much had changed. My body was in a hypersensitive state as the implicit memory of some past traumatic event was replaying itself over and over. At this moment, I only have bits and pieces of the traumatic event but that's about all that is in my conscious mind at this moment. The details are too sketchy to make sense of and right now, I'm fine with that.

In the few days since my sessions, my rash has gone down and is not as bothersome as it was. It does flare up but for the most part, it has greatly subsided. I have been able to sleep through most of the night rather than pacing the floors during the darkness of the night. Certain anatomical areas of my body are looking more normal and are not as swollen and deformed. The overall anxiety level has decreased greatly. Itchiness is drastically better than it was but now I'm feeling more of a burning sensation.

One of the things that was happening was that I could not sleep through the night. I would maybe make it until 2am or possibly 3am but that was about it. The night terrors, night sweats and thrashing around in the bed would get so great that I could not remain in bed. It would force me to get up and sit in a lighted room until the sun came up which then I could go back to bed and fall asleep.

Some of the things that I have done in addition to the sessions with Dr. Canali is taking oatmeal baths, using baby powder, sleeping with a night light on and some relaxing music, taking melatonin before I go to bed, taking Vitamin B for stress, using the Natural Calm product before going to bed.

If things pick up in the middle of the night which they still have, I've at least been able to go to my treatment room and do some work on myself. While it isn't easy going into the pain of this by yourself, I have found that if I can do this, than my body is able to drop back down which allows me to go back to sleep.

Through all of this, I'm learning just how much of a nervous system dysregulation itching and rashes are. Before this, I don't think I would have completely agreed and even in the midst of this, my doubts and fears sometimes win out. However, I know for a fact that on the table in my sessions, we are able to reproduce the symptoms of the rash, pain and itching and then we're able to watch it dissipate. If it was purely a physical phenomenon without any origination in the nervous system, than to create the symptoms and dissipate them on the table would not be possible. That is the part I hold on to because as I'm learning, the more I go into the pain (as uncomfortable and horrible as it may be), I am able to move beyond the itching and the pain.

The story behind this is still somewhat unclear and a mystery because right now "implicit memory" is what is showing up. In time, as this finds true healing, the story will most likely appear. But it isn't the story that matters - it is the healing through this deep layer that will give me the greatest awareness and growth in my life. Yes, there is a little boy that was traumatized very badly but as I heal these wounds, it will help me fulfill my life's contract and my life's purpose.

One of these days, I'll sit down and write about all of this in detail. I've been keep a journal of the individual moments to help me. One of the things that I have learned throughout all my healing is to write in a journal in whatever form that takes.

*For more articles, check out the Mind Body Thoughts Blog

Health Of Our Nervous System

Have you ever considered just how important the health of your nervous system is to you? It regulates so much in our present lives and it sets up conditions and events for the future of our body systems.

Most likely we have all heard about how outside events and influences can become energy trapped in our bodies. If this energy is not discharged from the body, it will continue to hold residence within the cells, nervous system and our brain. While it may not show any visible signs immediately, some event or trigger will eventually trigger the energy and stir it up like a tornado or hurricane stirs up the ground it passes over.

There are two parts to the Autonomic Nervous System. One is the sympathetic branch which takes over when you are going through stress, illness or injury. The parasympathetic branch is in control when you are relaxing, sleeping or in a state of stillness. It is often called the rest and repair state.

Both of these parts of our nervous system are important to our health. One without the other is an imbalance. However, if we stay “activated” in the stress side of our nervous system more than in the rest and repair state, our bodies are being continually broken down. We need the rest and repair to keep our bodies in a state of optimal health.

Consider this example: You are walking through the woods and a tiger begins to follow you. Your body will pick up a state of fear thereby bringing about an increased breathing rate, heart rate, and muscle tension while your digestion, immune system and other non critical systems slow down. As the danger builds, the more your body prepares to either fight or flee. It is completely biological. Then when the danger has subsided, your body begins to slow back down and your breathing may come back to normal, your heart rate will slow down and muscle tension will change from the fight or flight mode to a more relaxed state. This is how the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems work together.

The only thing is, if the energy of the “event” such as being followed by a tiger in the woods is still located within your cells and your brain, then it begins to take up residence. This one event may not be enough to even cause a long term reaction within you but if the event had a stronger emotional connection with you, then the effects of it would begin to build. As these events build up within your body, the energy is stored until you find a way to discharge it. And that stored energy is “potential energy”, which holds the opportunity to bring about true rest and repair in your body or hold you hostage into the future.

There is a National Geographic video of a polar bear that is shot by a tranquilizer gun so the researches could give it some aid that it needed. When the tranquilizer began to wear off, you saw the bear begin shaking violently. After the shaking stopped, you could witness the polar bear taking a deep breath and then another as his body sank down into a more restful state. The bear was discharging that energy which he had stored up from being chased and tranquilized. It was a healthy thing for the bear to do, and it was automatic because animals just know how to do this. It is normal for them.

So realize that while there are times for us to be in an alert mode and endure stress, that we need to find a calmness in our life and allow ourselves to have that time of meditation, rest and repair. Sometimes it involves removing the tigers of our past, our present and our future from our lives but when we do this, we give so much to ourselves.