The Inside Story of How Slow Breathing Calms You Down

Take a deep breath. That’s routine advice for how to calm down or slow down. Yoga instructors, therapists, parents, and even elementary school teachers use long, slow breathing exercises to instill tranquility or reduce anxiety. Now, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine are giving the same advice, with brand-new neuroscience to back it up. In a recent study, they and their colleagues have uncovered a direct and powerful connection in the brain between breathing and states of mind.

Source: The Inside Story of How Slow Breathing Calms You Down | Psychology Today

April 8, 2017 0

Weekly ‘love bomb’ for 04/08/17

Great thoughts curated in the past week. Click an image to enlarge and share…

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April 8, 2017 0

RC fighter planes land on an RC aircraft carrier

RC fighter planes land on an RC aircraft carrier…

Source: RC fighter planes land on an RC aircraft carrier / Boing Boing

April 8, 2017 0

Don’t just accept where you are in life

“Don’t just accept where you are in life. If you want to be better, do better. If you want to be more do more. It’s all on you. Do it!” — Unknown Author

Source: SimpleReminders.com — “Don’t just accept where you are in life. If you…

April 8, 2017 0

Saying yes to happiness means learning to say no…

“Saying yes to happiness means learning to say no to things and people that stress you out.” — Thema Davis

Source: SimpleReminders.com — “Saying yes to happiness means learning to say no…

April 8, 2017 0

The Story of How ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ Almost Never Got Recorded

When the other members of The Beatles seemed disinterested in recording a new song that George had written, George decided to call upon a good friend…

Source: The Story of How ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ Almost Never Got Recorded –

Best version of this song? I think it’s the one below which features Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Dani Harrison and of course, the one and only Prince…

Just one question. Where did Prince’s guitar go? :-D

April 8, 2017 0

This is Your Anxious Brain on Meditation

In mindfulness meditation, when you notice a thought, you’ll likely be tempted to dwell on it and take it somewhere. Instead, you can just touch it lightly with your attention and go right to your breath. It doesn’t matter if you were off in space for a long time. In the moment you touch the thought, you can bounce right back.

Source: This is Your Anxious Brain on Meditation – Mindful

This talk from Tara Brach may help with this issue!

April 8, 2017 1

All discomfort comes from suppressing your true identity

All discomfort comes from suppressing your true identity. — Bryant McGill

Source: SimpleReminders.com — All discomfort comes from suppressing your true…

April 7, 2017 0

pablo

April 7, 2017 0

Normal people eat chocolate bunnies ears-first

Source: Normal people eat chocolate bunnies ears-first / Boing Boing

April 7, 2017 0

You can always hold out for something better

You can always hold out for something better when you know your self worth. — Bryant McGill

Source: SimpleReminders.com — You can always hold out for something better when…

April 7, 2017 0

Live Your True Life via @ashleyberges

Live Your True Life

April 7, 2017 0

How to Be Mindful When You’re Anxious

Good thoughts in here! Go to the source for the rest of the article…

Anxiety is not all bad. It can prompt us to take stock of our actions and life situation. It can give us a psychophysiological flick toward taking corrective, repairing action or artfully dodge oncoming peril. In these ways, a certain amount of anxious ants in our pants is helpful—it’s a major component of our in-the-moment motivation for healthy change.

The problem arises when anxiety overwhelms and blocks us. Traditional contemplative tradition refers to a pool of water (representing the mind), with anxious restlessness being the whipped up waters leading to muddiness, a lack of clear seeing to the bottom. When anxiety gets this wild inside us, we don’t see ourselves or the world accurately. We distort and react in order to stave off this internal chaos and we are hindered in our ability to relax into seeing clearly. We have a harder time focusing, and our efficiency in daily life takes a hit. Our brains juice up with the stress hormone cortisol in an ancient attempt to reduce threat, and we’re left feeling drained and depleted.

Go to the source for more: How to Be Mindful When You’re Anxious – Mindful

April 7, 2017 0

Not Everyone Will Know How to Love You; Let Them…

“Perhaps, the problem is not the intensity of your love,
but the quality of the people you are loving.”
-Warsan Shire

People will misunderstand, formulate and create misguided opinions of you no matter how diligently you’ve proved differently…

Let them.

People will judge, condemn and confine you to their own preconceived boxes from which you have no chance of escape…

Let them.

But,

Let them…

ONLY LOVE YOU FOR YOU. Not some projected image of who they expect you to be.

And

Let them…

ONLY ACCEPT YOU JUST AS YOU ARE, and if that is something they cannot do…save yourself and walk away.

You cannot force love from the people who are never quite ready and may likely never know how, but another person’s inability to love you does not diminish your worthiness and make you any less deserving of being understood and loved.

Your self-worth is far beyond judgment and mistreatment, and your life far more valuable than spent wasted in convincing someone else of something they refuse to see…

Let them…GO.

It is their misunderstandings, thoughts, opinions and judgments about you which are faulty, not you as a human.

The misconceptions of another is not your burden to bear…

Let them…GO.

Your humanness is not FAULTY, unlovable, unworthy, broken or any other lies you’ve told yourself.

History needn’t repeat itself, and painful wounds from the past needn’t be reopened, only healing…

Let them.

Not everyone will know how to love you…

Let them.

But realize you are worthy, valuable and destined for greatness…

Let them…settle.

But not you.

You are strong enough to walk away from anything incapable of reciprocating the love you deserve. Your entire essence of being radiates an irrefutable proof that you LOVE YOURSELF, and by loving yourself with such an intensity, the doors have inevitably opened to the possibility of someone else to enter your life baring the same capacity to love you.

So when this special person comes to love you…

Let them.

Go to the source for more: Not Everyone Will Know How to Love You; Let Them… –

April 6, 2017 0

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April 5, 2017 0

Seeing Invisible Things

Good stuff from one of my favorite thinkers: David Amerland!

If you could see thoughts what would change for you? How much would you be able to improve your own thinking by? Would you be able to prevent bad thought patterns from developing? Would you steal other people’s thoughts and have them as your own? Would the thought patterns you saw transcribed inside their heads allow you to determine how successful people think and emulate them? Would your path through life suddenly become clearer as a result? Would it be better? Would you?

Go to the source: Seeing Invisible Things

April 4, 2017 0

Change the Channel

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The metaphor I use for dealing with unwanted thoughts is Pandora. Almost everyone is familiar with this music service; give a thumbs up to the music that you like and a thumbs down to the things you don’t like. I don’t need to ruminate about my failed marriage – when that thought comes into my mind, I can give it a thumbs down and move on to the next thought. Perhaps author Rick Hanson says it better:

Sometimes the inner practices fail you – or at least aren’t matched to the pickle you’re in. You’ve let be, let go, and let in. You sat to meditate and it was like sitting on the stove. You tried to be here now and find the lessons – and wanted to whack the person who told you to do this. You still feel awful, overwhelmed, angry, afraid, inadequate, or depressed. Now what?

Sometimes it helps to change the channel, to take some kind of action. Watch TV, eat a cupcake, ask for a hug, get out of the house, something (not harmful) to shake things up, distract yourself, tune out, burn off steam, etc.

At some point you still have to engage the mind directly and do what you can with your situation. But there is certainly a place for respite or pleasure in its own right, plus these help refuel you for challenges.

Plus, changing channels has the built-in benefit of taking initiative on your own behalf. This helps counter the natural but harmful sense of helplessness that comes from tough times, and it supports the feeling that you and your needs truly matter.

Go to the source for more: Change the Channel | Psychology Today

It may be as simple as the old Perry Como song: “Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative and don’t mess with Mr. In-between.”