EEG's and Thanksgivings

Or:  How to Heal Negative Thoughts (Part One)

This past weekend I participated in a scientific experiment to see if positive thoughts and intentions significantly affect brain waves and personal health.  Several thousand people around the globe, many of whom are healers and healthcare workers, checked in on a website at a synchronized time to see the picture of a woman.  We were instructed to focus on her for exactly ten minutes with specific intentions and visualizations.  It was an awesome experience for me and the results of her brain wave scans and other tests appear to be off the charts!!  (We're still waiting for the data to be analyzed completely.)  The woman who was the case study had no idea when the experiment would begin.  She says she was just sitting in a room off by herself, all hooked up to an EEG, and...

"Really, I was becoming a little bit bored, when suddenly, I sensed a kind of wave, visually curling in front of me, and with it a slight, vibrational tingling spreading over my whole body.  Then I saw what looked like stardust, many tiny light pulses just scattering all around me.  After a moment these little particles seemed to coalesce into a very bright wave of light permeating my whole body, putting me into a rolling, wave like pattern.  I felt that I was rocking slightly back and forth, kind of in the infinity loop pattern.  The light wave became even stronger, engulfing me.  I felt heat and prickling all through my body, a rush of physical energy pulling me along.  This waxed and waned; it was not a solid, fixed entity but had movement to it.  I felt I was wired to an ongoing energy source that made my nerves tingle, and my mind seemed to be expanded.  I have no idea how long this lasted, I had no sense of time at all.  The only awareness I had was my body and my mind simultaneously existing, awareness shifting back and forth on a continuum.  It is hard to put this into exact words.  When they told me the experiment was over, I did not want to leave it.  I was in a state of vibration, of flux, of tingling, of sensations and emotions resonating within me.  My heart was full of gratitude for all the people participating, sending energy to me."

I will write more about my own experience participating in this experiment in another blog, but it definitely showed scientifically that positive thoughts, intentions, and energy can make a huge difference in affecting our brain and our health in beneficial ways.

If you have trouble with negative or unwanted thoughts, below are three methods to help you heal negative thoughts.  Each method is valid and each method has an assumption behind it that is equally valid.  Which method you use is entirely up to you.  I have found that different methods appeal to me at different times and sometimes my negative thoughts are multi-layered requiring several methods to completely heal them.  Choose which method resonates with you and try it out!

PROGRAM IN, PROGRAM OUT

The first method is based on the assumption that the brain essentially functions much like a computer and follows the general principle:  program in, program out.  In other words, if you feed your brain negativity, that is all it's going to spew back out at you.  You are what you eat.  You become what you think.  I could go on, but unless you're reading this while watching reruns of The Office, I think this is pretty self-explanatory.  

So then according to this model, the way to change your negative thinking patterns is to reprogram your mental habits.  Change the channel.  Tune into a different frequency.  I could go on..

Here is how to do that:

1) Whenever you catch yourself thinking a negative thought, immediately give your brain a new command and say to yourself (out loud if there are no people around, or at least no people who will question your sanity),  "Stop!" or "Cancel!"  or "Delete!" just like you would use these commands on your computer if you wanted to stop or cancel or delete a computer operation or file.  Then, immediately replace the old negative thinking pattern with a new positive thought.  So this is an example of what I might do.

I catch myself thinking, "Gosh, I'm just not able to get done what I want to get done!"

I then say to myself, Delete!"

I program in a new thought, "I am able to get done what I want to get done.  I will use my time and energy effectively today."

Because our brains literally become hardwired into patterns, whether negative or positive ones, you may have to repeat this process many times to hardwire in the new positive thinking you want to have.

2) A variation of this that I really do not recommend, but I am going to mention it because some psychologists promote it.  This method is to produce a small amount of pain whenever you catch yourself thinking a negative thought.  For example, a person might keep a rubber band on their wrist and whenever they catch themselves thinking a negative thought, they snap the rubber band so that the brain associates the negative thought with pain and over time will stop.  This may, in fact, be effective for some.  But because it can so easily be abused and escalate into self-flagellation and also be associated with the belief, "I need to be punished for my bad thoughts, actions, feelings" that I don't recommend it.  Although it may work, there are healthier methods that are just as effective, if not more so, and in the end promote a stronger sense of self-love.  Here's an episode from the TV show, Cheers, you may remember.  A psychologist tries to cure Cliff, the postman, of negativity, by electronically shocking him via a remote-controlled dog collar every time he says something obnoxious, boring, or outrageous.  It demonstrates how out of control this methodology can get!!

TAP TO RE-TRAIN

The second method for healing negative thoughts builds on the first method.  It also assumes the brain works like a computer and gets hardwired into thinking patterns.  However, it adds an energy component.  Not only are our brains hardwired in their circuitry, our brain's ENERGY also develops patterns that need to be re-programmed.  This can generally be done through a process of energy tapping.  This is by no means a new methodology.  Rather it is an ancient one found in many different cultures, that recently has been discovered by the west.  I will teach you the general tapping technique as found in the books, Energy Medicine and Energy Psychology, by Donna Eden and David Feinstein (with permission from authors).  

1) Choose a negative thought you would like to change.  "I don't like my body."

2) State the new positive thought you would like to have.  "I like/love my body."

3) Now state this same positive thought but using a negative word(s) in it.  "I no longer dislike my body."

4) The left brain is more sensitive to negativity and critical thinking, so now using the positive statement with the negative twist from #3 above, tap your left-hand fingers several times along the side of your head starting at your left temple, across the head above your left ear, and in a general arc down behind your ear as you say out loud, "I no longer dislike my body."  Repeat this several times.

5) Because the right brain is more sensitive to positivism and creativity, use the positive statement from #2 above and do the same thing on the right side of your head that you did on your left.  Tap several times with your right-hand fingers starting at your right temple, across your head above your right ear, and down in a general arc behind your right ear as you say out loud, "I like/love my body."  Repeat this several times.  

6) Repeat #4 and #5 a few times a day for up to 30 days.  Tapping has been scientifically shown to create receptivity in the brain to new thoughts.  The more you tap, the more you create a new energy field with a positive habit, and help your brain re-write its old programming in both its wiring and its energy patterns.

THE ZEN ZONE

The third method  comes from Zen Buddhism.  The assumption behind this method is that thoughts do not arise from any particular individual.  Thoughts arise from a larger consciousness that we all are a part of, but the fact that you have negative (or positive) thoughts is of no significance.  So, the solution is to detach from any negative thoughts that you have.

To illustrate, I might notice the thought arises in me when I'm walking down the street: "I really don't like that person's purple hair."  Rather than attach significance to it, such as ("This must mean I'm a bad person for having such a nasty thought" or "Shame on me for thinking that" or having more judging thoughts about the person: "They really have issues"), I simply allow the thought to be.  I notice it, and then I let it go. You can visualize this by imagining all thoughts that pass through your mind as clouds floating by or as balloons floating away.  And, if it is helpful, name the thought as you watch it go, such as "fear" or "judgment" or "anger."

Because everything is energy, all thoughts have energy, too.  I'm sure you've been in a room of negative thinking people and you can feel it, just like you can feel it when you're in a room with positive thinking people!  This is what the scientific experiment I participated in proved.  Thoughts have energy and they can make a big difference!!  

Thus, energetically, by detaching from a negative thought and not giving any significance to it, this de-energizes the thought form.  By not attaching "bad" to it or any "bad" feelings, it loses its potential power in your mental energy and health.  If, on the other hand, you add more judgmental thoughts and feelings about yourself or someone else because you had a negative thought, you ENERGIZE the thought form, making it more likely it will repeat.

Detaching from thoughts is a helpful practice in general and can teach you that you are not your thoughts.  You are greater than your thoughts.  Your identity is not dependent on your thoughts (or your circumstances, or emotions)!  By not judging yourself for having it, or thinking that the thought is any big deal, it can lose all its boomeranging power, and never return.

However, sometimes there is more to healing thoughts than any of these three methods allow.  Perhaps you do all of the above and the negative thought STILL recurs.  Maybe you notice strong emotions or unwanted behaviors coming along with the negative thought.  Then what you might need is some good old-fashioned soul work, and what I do to heal these particularly sticky negative thoughts will have to be a blog all its own.   

FAIL-SAFE METHOD #4

But in the meantime, give thanks.  If you find yourself thinking anything negative, whether you reprogram, tap to train, or zenly let it all go, follow it all up with gratitude.  Keep your attention focused on your heart when you do this and think of one thing, or five things, or everything you have to be grateful for, and then dwell in this state of being for a while.  Gratitude can help shift you out of most negative thinking patterns by refocusing on the heart rather than the head and by stimulating in you a positive energy that's as strong as any method or trick or technique.  Donna Eden states that "gratitude is the best vaccination for everything"and energetically, it generates radiant energy flows which help in your body's healing and health.  

So as we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, remember that by giving thanks, you are helping to heal yourself mind, body, and soul.  Heal yourself, help heal the world!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

To schedule a healing session or speaking event with Monica call her at 206-306-1144, email her at monica@monicamcdowell.com or for more information, check out her website at www.monicamcdowell.com

Copyright © 2009 by Monica McDowell, MDiv.  All Rights Reserved.  This entry may be linked, forwarded, or copied in its entirety as long as this paragraph is included and there is no profit gained by doing so.  Monica is an energy healer, speaker, spiritual director, minister, and author of My Karma Ran Over My Dogma:  Lessons Learned by a Whistle-Blowing Minister Turned Mystic.  She has the distinction of being the first ordained minister in the United States ever granted civil rights in a federal ruling.

The Why's Have It: Healing Limiting Beliefs

Here in Seattle with all our rain (the past summer is an extraordinary exception to the norm) the growth of dandelions in size and number is truly spectacular.  Pre-historic-sized.  Copious.  Even noxious.  And very, very hard to get rid of.

This is how limiting beliefs function in our lives.  They can grow so large and spread so quickly that without constant vigilance, in a very short amount of time your mental yard can turn into a limiting-belief-dandelion-field interspersed with a few patches of healthy-mental-green-grass.

As with all weeds, but with dandelions in particular, the solution is to get to the root of the plant.  If it hasn't been uprooted enough, the dandelion will just re-grow itself from a partial root.  This isn't "bad" as it just reveals that there's more to unearth in your limiting-belief-mental-yard.  But you will save yourself a lot of time and effort in the end, if you can get most of the root out the first time, before the dandelion has the chance to re-grow and blow its seemingly infinite and eternally propagating seeds into the breeze to multiply all over again.

There are a variety of tools that can assist you in dandelion root excavation.  So, too, there are many tools to search out and dissolve limiting beliefs in your life.  Here is one I use that is easy to remember and effective.  I borrow the general principle from Martha Beck who got it from Japanese automakers.  Yup.  True.  

It seems that one of the main reasons Japanese automakers have become so efficient in their production lines is that they have adopted the philosophy of "The 5 Why's."  If a problem emerges in their cars at any point in production, it is the supervisor's MO to ask, "Why did this happen?"  No matter what answer they get, they don't stop there.  If they did, they'd probably only solve a surface issue and the problem would keep repeating.  So, after they solve the first "why," they ask a second time, "And why did this happen?"  They have found that it generally takes up to 5 "why's" to find the source or root of their problem.  By searching for the source from the beginning they save themselves a lot of time and effort (and money) on all sorts of levels.

I often apply this "5 Why's" principle to finding the root of limiting beliefs (and stuck emotions) in myself and clients.  Let's say I have the intuitive hit during a healing session with a client named "Dave" to have him say the affirmation, "I love myself totally and completely" outloud.

If Dave then repeats this with all the force and conviction of an emaciated worm, I suspect that perhaps he doesn't really believe it.  And then I know we're dealing with a limiting belief (or two or three or a whole yardful) that needs to be uprooted.  Having him say the affirmation over and over again without uncovering the limiting belief behind it is like mowing over all the dandelions in your lawn:  a temporary fix.  

To begin the uprooting, I have Dave repeat the opposite of the affirmation.  (Always side with the fear, the anger, the grief, the shadow, the unknown, the unconscious, allowing it to surface and flow while holding space for it in compassion, rather than fight it.  It loses its power that way.)  

So continuing on with the above example, I would have Dave side with his mostly unconscious, limiting belief and state out loud:  "I do not love myself totally and completely."

Probably, Dave will confess this with quite a bit more energy, even relief, showing that this is the real belief lurking in his mental yard, controlling his life from the shadows.  Even this early in the process, pain may start pouring out of him he didn't know he had, revealing how much emotional energy he has had to use up in order to keep this limited belief rooted and buried in his mental yard.  Once any emotions that have surfaced have been allowed to be, have run their course and thus mostly subsided, our dialogue might continue like this...

"Dave, why don't you love yourself totally and completely?"

"I'm a failure."

"And why do you believe you are you a failure?"

"Because I'm worthless."

"Why are you worthless?"

"My dad told me so when I was growing up.  Over and over."

"Why did your dad tell you that?"

"I don't know.  I guess, because he felt worthless."

"And why do you think he felt that way?"

"Because his dad told him that, too."

Aha!  In "5 why's" we've uncovered the root of this particular mental belief.  It's a family belief that has been passed down father to son, perhaps for generations, like a worn-out, out-of-style suit that doesn't fit.  The rest of the session, while I work with his energy surrounding this belief, I would ask my client to verbally release his family belief and affirm what he can now see as truth (that the belief that he is worthless doesn't have anything to do with him personally, and he can now choose whether to keep holding onto this belief or affirm a new one.)

There may be more limiting beliefs that have to be uncovered for Dave to truly begin to love himself totally and completely.  Actually, I'd say that's a given.  Dandelions and limiting beliefs don't live in solitary confinement for very long and so it's necessary for a person's mental yard to be excavated one dandelion belief at a time, until the "meta-shift" happens.  

This "meta-shift" happens the day you suddenly realize, "Hey, I don't need limiting beliefs at all anymore." You then bulldoze your entire mental yard all at once and start living with a completely new reality.  Your new MO?  Unlimited potential.  The sky's the limit.  Vast possibilities.  Unconditional love for self and all.  Then when an occasional dandelion pops up, as they invariably do in even the most meticulously cared for lawn, you can admire it for its own beauty, its tenacity, thank it for what it has to teach you, gently dig it up by the root, and put it in the compost pile to eventually feed and nurture the flowers in the mental garden you do want to grow.  

It takes quite a bit of work to unearth these limiting beliefs and dissolve them in compassion--what one healer calls "The Great Undoing."  But emerging from the other side is a life full to overflowing with love, joy, peace, beauty, and fulfillment.  Don't believe it?  Then you may have some mental dandelions to start digging up!  

In my own belief system, there's no time like the present to start re-creating your inner landscape and what you achieve inwardly, will absolutely change outer reality.  I have no doubt about it!

To schedule a healing session or intuitive spiritual consultation with Monica call her at 206-306-1144, email her at monica@monicamcdowell.com or for more information, check out her website at www.monicamcdowell.com

Copyright © 2009 by Monica McDowell, MDiv.  All Rights Reserved.  This entry may be linked, forwarded, or copied in its entirety as long as this paragraph is included and there is no profit gained by doing so.  Monica is an energy healer, spiritual director, minister, and author of My Karma Ran Over My Dogma:  Lessons Learned by a Whistle-Blowing Minister Turned Mystic.  She has the distinction of being the first ordained minister in the United States ever granted civil rights in a federal ruling.