I'd like to introduce you to 2 members of our family: Candy and Sandy. They're our gerbils!
We have a bit of a problem with them. They chew away the plastic door to their cage, then they can escape, as Candy did in the middle of the night, and scared the life out of me scuttling around under my bed! I thought we had rats!
They are very busy animals. In between sleeping, they work, chewing and burrowing. When you put even strong tape on the door, they chew through that too! The only way to deal with the problem is to keep them supplied with other things to chew, like toilet roll middles and their favourite: egg boxes. If only we ate more eggs!
Us humans are different. We may have urges to behave in certain ways, but because we can think things through, we can resist doing that which is 'wrong', but it isn't always easy. Sometimes we have to replace one habit with another. If we feel restless and are constantly looking for activity, like Candy and Sandy, we can decide to focus our energy on something productive (like chewing egg boxes!) or we can choose to do something destructive (like chewing doors!). (Or maybe Candy and Sandy really do know about the door leading to freedom!)
But it isn't that simple. Why would we ever choose the door rather than the delicious egg box? When we keep going back to the door, it's because we 'resonate' with it rather than the egg box! Why do we keep going back to chocolate, when trying to lose weight, rather than eating fruit? Because we resonate with it. The part of us that creates the resonance is our 'mind pollution', and can mostly be unconscious. Like an iceberg, the unconscious mind is unseen and not obvious, unless we know what to look for. Life gives us signals all the time. Whatever gives us emotional pain acts as a signal. This could be in the form of a person or situation that creates emotional pain, or that which comes from emotional pain, i.e. physical sensations and tensions or bad behavioural habits.
Beliefs are what we bring from the past to the present. Negative beliefs create fear and tension and make us resonate with destructive things. If we didn't have the tension, we wouldn't feel the need to 'chew the cage door'. In traditional psychotherapy, the purpose would be to make the unconscious beliefs conscious, then work on letting them go.
However, getting rid of the tension is much easier than you think, if you are willing to be open to the possibility that 'energy therapies' work. You don't have to identify all your self destructive beliefs either! My favourite self help ones are 'Timeline Detachment Practice' (invented by me!), 'EFT' and 'Z point process', and for those who don't want self help, homeopathy. There's lots of free information and links on my website: http://www.stressalternatives.co.uk/.
Got to go! I've got two eggs left in that box. It's time to make pancakes!!
Tuesday 17 July 2007
Tuesday 10 July 2007
Live Earth was on this weekend, so here's my tuppenceworth.
It's nice to know that the world is waking up to the fact that our behaviour is wrong. It's not that we are bad. but many are unaware of the impact wasteful, thoughtless behaviour has on the environment, so this weekend's awareness raising session by celebrities is fantastic.
But how has it got to this stage? Why do we have to be 'sick' as a planet, race or individually before we sit up and go "Oh shit"! (in more ways than one).
I guess that it's more than just lack of awareness. Probably many of us will have been exposed to this message many times before, but we still choose to behave wastefully. Those who profess to religiously recycle and reuse etc, usually do it because they like doing it. It fits in with their thrifty ideas about the world anyway, so it's no hassle. They then can feel righteous and say, "well, I recycle, buy 2nd hand clothes and cycle everywhere and so should everyone else!".
Like any behaviour, we do it often because it 'suits' us. It 'resonates' with us. If there was a law made forcing us to stay indoors, it would 'suit' the socially phobic and agarophobic, but the rest of us would build up tension. Same with the environmental message. To be green would create 'tension', particularly begin with as we change habits. It doesn't come naturally to us .
So how could it be made easier? Could we change something so that we can resonate more with the green way of life? The message this weekend delivered by celebrities went some way towards it, as what they did was change beliefs. Beliefs create tension which creates our behaviours.
The message that I got at the weekend was: 1. It's cool to be green; 2. It's important to be green; 3. It's wrong to be wasteful; 4. We all have individual resonsibility and 5. Working together will produce big results.
Beliefs like this can enable positive desirable behaviour, but what if you also hold on to the old previously held beliefs? for example: 1. Green is for hippies; 2. Live for today and don't worry about tomorrow and 3. Green is the government's responsibility? Will it result in positive change or will old habits win?
Repetition might be one way to get the message through, and I guess that's what we do in health education, but it's pretty costly, hard work and time consuming. It's not just about education about the positive, but a process of identifying the negative beliefs and consciously working on getting people to let them go.
The same thing happens when we want to tackle our health or make any positive changes in our life. We can do it a lot easier if we sort out the opposing beliefs that sabotage our good intentions.
When we want to lose weight, for instance, we get a diet plan, and a target weight to aim for, but the reason so many people fail is because of the sabotaging part of us (and cos fat and sugar taste sooo good!). Many of these beliefs are unconscious. They might be several of a whole list of beliefs, for example, "I have no self control; I am scared of being the right weight because of new responsibilities; Being fat protects me from advances of the opposite sex; Eating stops me being angry; I am a bad person who doesn't deserve to be healthy or beautiful" .
There are a few new energy therapies that can be used in a self help way to quickly deal with these. Check out my website for my favourites.
www.stressalternatives.co.uk
Liz
It's nice to know that the world is waking up to the fact that our behaviour is wrong. It's not that we are bad. but many are unaware of the impact wasteful, thoughtless behaviour has on the environment, so this weekend's awareness raising session by celebrities is fantastic.
But how has it got to this stage? Why do we have to be 'sick' as a planet, race or individually before we sit up and go "Oh shit"! (in more ways than one).
I guess that it's more than just lack of awareness. Probably many of us will have been exposed to this message many times before, but we still choose to behave wastefully. Those who profess to religiously recycle and reuse etc, usually do it because they like doing it. It fits in with their thrifty ideas about the world anyway, so it's no hassle. They then can feel righteous and say, "well, I recycle, buy 2nd hand clothes and cycle everywhere and so should everyone else!".
Like any behaviour, we do it often because it 'suits' us. It 'resonates' with us. If there was a law made forcing us to stay indoors, it would 'suit' the socially phobic and agarophobic, but the rest of us would build up tension. Same with the environmental message. To be green would create 'tension', particularly begin with as we change habits. It doesn't come naturally to us .
So how could it be made easier? Could we change something so that we can resonate more with the green way of life? The message this weekend delivered by celebrities went some way towards it, as what they did was change beliefs. Beliefs create tension which creates our behaviours.
The message that I got at the weekend was: 1. It's cool to be green; 2. It's important to be green; 3. It's wrong to be wasteful; 4. We all have individual resonsibility and 5. Working together will produce big results.
Beliefs like this can enable positive desirable behaviour, but what if you also hold on to the old previously held beliefs? for example: 1. Green is for hippies; 2. Live for today and don't worry about tomorrow and 3. Green is the government's responsibility? Will it result in positive change or will old habits win?
Repetition might be one way to get the message through, and I guess that's what we do in health education, but it's pretty costly, hard work and time consuming. It's not just about education about the positive, but a process of identifying the negative beliefs and consciously working on getting people to let them go.
The same thing happens when we want to tackle our health or make any positive changes in our life. We can do it a lot easier if we sort out the opposing beliefs that sabotage our good intentions.
When we want to lose weight, for instance, we get a diet plan, and a target weight to aim for, but the reason so many people fail is because of the sabotaging part of us (and cos fat and sugar taste sooo good!). Many of these beliefs are unconscious. They might be several of a whole list of beliefs, for example, "I have no self control; I am scared of being the right weight because of new responsibilities; Being fat protects me from advances of the opposite sex; Eating stops me being angry; I am a bad person who doesn't deserve to be healthy or beautiful" .
There are a few new energy therapies that can be used in a self help way to quickly deal with these. Check out my website for my favourites.
www.stressalternatives.co.uk
Liz
Friday 6 July 2007
From the Heart Not the Head
I was not always into homeopathy and alternative therapies. I was brought up by pretty 'normal' good working class Scottish parents. I studied science at university then psychiatric nursing: all good reasons for sticking to the 'straight and narrow' of the conventional medical world.
My first experience of holistic medicine was receiving homeopathic treatment 11 years ago for what I thought was a purely physical problem that my doctor had run out of ideas to treat. Not only was my physical problem sorted out very quickly, but a week after a course of 4 tablets only, my mood was so much better than I had experienced ever! It felt great to be alive!
Working in the mental health field, this emotional aspect fascinated me, and I set about studying the subject for the next 5 years.
Each time I received a good remedy, I made leaps in my understanding of myself, and felt a bit further along my personal journey.
Pretty quickly I discovered the opposing force of the conventional medical world and the skeptic, but the more I treated family, friends and my patients, the more I knew this treatment was much more powerful than the 'placebo' (sugar pill) reaction that many skeptics claim to be the reason for it's success. I didn't need scientific studies to convince me, and neither did my patients. Only some of the doctors I worked with seemed to need this too. I did for a while get concerned about this and look into trying to find evidence for homeopathy's effectiveness mainly just to defend my practice. There is evidence available, though not for many specific ailments as it's a holistic treatment. Nowadays I don't feel the need to pursue this line of enquiry, as it takes good energy away from what I really want to do, which is to get on with it!
Somehow I was pushed to the fringes of society, just because I found something that actually worked for the mental and physical health of myself, my family, friends and patients, and it was safe to take!
I would say (though not in those early days) that homeopathy can only take you so far in personal growth. I had been looking at other self help and new age authors such as Brandon Bays and Louise Hay, and doing their courses, and the Silva Mind Control helped me move forward a little more. However, the most powerful book to 'change my life' was 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle, which made me realise the power of awareness of my thoughts. I discovered just by watching my thoughts that I was still essentially a negative, critical person, and learned that they are only thoughts and could be changed. This set me further along a journey which made me look at mindfulness, psychosynthesis and cognitive behavioural principles which have been the main recent influences in my writing and practice.
I was very thankful that I worked in the NHS, and not principally as a homeopath, because it led me to find ways from within oneself to solve emotional pain.
My most recent discoveries of EFT (emotional freedom technique) and Z point process, have helped further move on my growth process to the point I am at now. (By the way, I am still 'only toty!'). My aim now is to get this information out to others. It's a bit evangelical for me!
My point: I never set out to look at alternative therapies. I discovered something that worked though I didn't know how. In doing so, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for treatment and self help.That appeals to my increasingly rebellious independant sub-personality I wasn't even aware of before. I am not a hippie, irreverant 'tree hugger', but a pragmatist who has found something that works because I was open to the possibility that it might.
Give it a try yourself!
Read my articles on www.stressalternatives.co.uk
Liz Temple
My first experience of holistic medicine was receiving homeopathic treatment 11 years ago for what I thought was a purely physical problem that my doctor had run out of ideas to treat. Not only was my physical problem sorted out very quickly, but a week after a course of 4 tablets only, my mood was so much better than I had experienced ever! It felt great to be alive!
Working in the mental health field, this emotional aspect fascinated me, and I set about studying the subject for the next 5 years.
Each time I received a good remedy, I made leaps in my understanding of myself, and felt a bit further along my personal journey.
Pretty quickly I discovered the opposing force of the conventional medical world and the skeptic, but the more I treated family, friends and my patients, the more I knew this treatment was much more powerful than the 'placebo' (sugar pill) reaction that many skeptics claim to be the reason for it's success. I didn't need scientific studies to convince me, and neither did my patients. Only some of the doctors I worked with seemed to need this too. I did for a while get concerned about this and look into trying to find evidence for homeopathy's effectiveness mainly just to defend my practice. There is evidence available, though not for many specific ailments as it's a holistic treatment. Nowadays I don't feel the need to pursue this line of enquiry, as it takes good energy away from what I really want to do, which is to get on with it!
Somehow I was pushed to the fringes of society, just because I found something that actually worked for the mental and physical health of myself, my family, friends and patients, and it was safe to take!
I would say (though not in those early days) that homeopathy can only take you so far in personal growth. I had been looking at other self help and new age authors such as Brandon Bays and Louise Hay, and doing their courses, and the Silva Mind Control helped me move forward a little more. However, the most powerful book to 'change my life' was 'The Power of Now' by Eckhart Tolle, which made me realise the power of awareness of my thoughts. I discovered just by watching my thoughts that I was still essentially a negative, critical person, and learned that they are only thoughts and could be changed. This set me further along a journey which made me look at mindfulness, psychosynthesis and cognitive behavioural principles which have been the main recent influences in my writing and practice.
I was very thankful that I worked in the NHS, and not principally as a homeopath, because it led me to find ways from within oneself to solve emotional pain.
My most recent discoveries of EFT (emotional freedom technique) and Z point process, have helped further move on my growth process to the point I am at now. (By the way, I am still 'only toty!'). My aim now is to get this information out to others. It's a bit evangelical for me!
My point: I never set out to look at alternative therapies. I discovered something that worked though I didn't know how. In doing so, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities for treatment and self help.That appeals to my increasingly rebellious independant sub-personality I wasn't even aware of before. I am not a hippie, irreverant 'tree hugger', but a pragmatist who has found something that works because I was open to the possibility that it might.
Give it a try yourself!
Read my articles on www.stressalternatives.co.uk
Liz Temple
Sunday 1 July 2007
My Despair!
I'm indignant!
I've been working in the helping profession for a long time now, and would you credit it? Some people don't listen to what I say, and don't do what I tell them! They come to me full of complaints about how their life is, and I, with my great wisdom learned from books (isn't this the best way?) tell them all the ways they can change. Do they realise how honoured they should be? That stressed mother of 5, or the woman who has lived through a childhood of abuse and fear doesn't have to read all the books themselves! Sometimes people have the cheek to find a way to cope that hasn't been proved by psychologists, doctors or scientists! Even my husband and children don't listen to me! I despair!!
I've been working in the helping profession for a long time now, and would you credit it? Some people don't listen to what I say, and don't do what I tell them! They come to me full of complaints about how their life is, and I, with my great wisdom learned from books (isn't this the best way?) tell them all the ways they can change. Do they realise how honoured they should be? That stressed mother of 5, or the woman who has lived through a childhood of abuse and fear doesn't have to read all the books themselves! Sometimes people have the cheek to find a way to cope that hasn't been proved by psychologists, doctors or scientists! Even my husband and children don't listen to me! I despair!!
Do you know that some of my patients don't trust me? After I've spent hours studying and tell them about this fantastic (sometimes even evidence based) therapy that will sort them, they metaphorically stick the two fingers up at me, and carry on doing what they usually do, even though it hasn't worked in the past! Where do they get this total mistrust of people from?
OK, so they've maybe spent a lot of time in the past being let down by people who they should have been able to trust, or have had to churn out their story to umpteen well meaning curious professionals in their life, but THAT'S NO EXCUSE! Even I have to admit I have made the odd error of judgement myself in the past, but now I'm perfect and I DEMAND RESPECT!
I also demand respect from conventional medics. How dare they mistrust homeopaths and other new agers! Just because some of us believe in Atlantis, angels and tree hugging! What's wrong with that? And we drone on about energy, auras and vibrations! (see my website http://www.stressalternatives.co.uk). Some of the claims they make are just as unlikely, for example,'cure', 'non-invasive investigations' and 'very mild side effects'.
I blame the NHS because it's free. Bring back charging, and the patient will listen to every last word of wisdom, as each one will have cost them. Maybe we'll then get the trust and respect we truly deserve!
Liz
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