Free Stress Relief 2: Aromas

September 7, 2011 · Posted in Health, Self Improvement · Comment

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Pleasant memories are a package of sensations: sights, sounds, smells, temperatures. Really anything your senses can detect can be stored and associated with a memory. You may have grown up with a yard but for the past many years lived in the city. The smell of fresh cut grass could suddenly take you back to warm summer days when you were a child, carefree with no stresses of adult life. Sometimes scents can bring back memories we hadn’t accessed in so long we’d forgotten we had them.

There are a lot of aroma therapy oils, candles, sprays and other methods of delivering scents. Some of them can be really relaxing. I especially like the smell of pumpkin spice in the early fall as it reminds me of Thanksgiving, going back to school, and the weather getting cooler after long, hot summers in the south. Concentrated oils can be found in many stores and are a long lasting and inexpensive way to take your mind off your current troubles. But if you can’t afford oils, you may be able to gather all natural scents. Some suggestions are: fir branches or sap, pine cones/needles/bark, cloves, sage, thyme, various flower petals to your taste such as jasmine or rose, mint leaves, sassafras leaves or sticks.

You can take these ingredients and use several methods to release their scents. Grind up fresh leaves or flower petals. Prepare a hot bath and sprinkle them in the water. Take an orange and stick cloves in it til it looks like a prickly ornament and set it on a shelf in the kitchen. Simmer water with bark or leaves in it that you’ve gathered to make your own all natural potpourri. The possibilities of what to use are varied and will best be defined by what scents are most associated with good times. Just remember that all natural items are not treated with preservatives and won’t last as long as oils or other store bought items. So don’t leave that orange on the shelf for weeks.

Filling your home with relaxing scents is best used occasionally. If you use them all the time, the effects will fade as your mind begins to associate your current surroundings with the smells. So use them when you especially need to recover from a hard week or series of stressful events.

Tags: Smell Your Stress Away

Your Sanctum Within: Part 3

August 26, 2011 · Posted in Self Improvement · Comment

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In the earlier two posts in this series, we discussed how to make a special construct in our mind as a private inner retreat. In this post we will go over some ideas for useful tools to add to the construct.

Tags: Better Living Through Imagination

Your Sanctum Within: Part 2

July 21, 2011 · Posted in Self Improvement · Comment

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Now that you have chosen a location for your Inner Sanctum, it’s time to create your fortress. I use this term broadly. For example, my personal “fortress” is a bamboo one room shack attached to the side of a sheer mountain cliff. The mountain is covered in dense green vines and the building is just below the cloud line. A covered porch extends out along the other three sides with a half wall for safety except for a couple of openings where I can sit and dangle my feet. It’s perpetually raining, sometimes heavy, sometimes just a mist.

Tags: Better Living Through Imagination

Your Sanctum Within: Part 1

June 30, 2011 · Posted in Self Improvement · Comment

Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)

This is the first post in a series designed to provide a method for you to further take advantage of your mental capacity. This is not for everyone, nor is it the only way to achieve the goals listed below. It’s simply a way I have found to be rewarding and fun at the same time. The exercises detailed in this series should be repeated each day to increase their effect. As with any training, be it physical or mental, it will not be mastered immediately.

Goals: to gain full access to all memories, communicate with your subconscious, amplify natural healing, increase energy, enhance awareness, unlock your creativity and many other mental abilities

Part 1:
Creating the Mental Construct

Before you can begin any great work, you need a workshop. It should be designed to best accommodate the tasks being performed. A woodworker and a blacksmith need two very different workshops. Your work will be entirely mental, and likewise your workshop will be within your mind. This will take some planning.

First, you need to decide on the environment surrounding this place. It can be something you are familiar with or a place that makes you feel comfortable. It doesn’t have to be a place that can be found in the real world. Some ideas: a rainforest, an arid desert, a giant warehouse, a deep underground cave complex, an island, a fortress floating in the clouds, or someplace entirely alien like inside a nebula in deep space. The location is very important. Make sure you give it meaning. Ask yourself why it is where it is. What gives this location a connection to you?

Tags: Better Living Through Imagination

Building Stronger Connections

June 29, 2011 · Posted in Self Improvement · Comment

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Almost anywhere you look, you can see people pointing out the faults of others. Political candidates work hard to expose the failures of their opponent. Whatever the issue, it’s always someone else’s fault. They are to blame.

These are the traits of a weak and combative person. Those who focus on placing blame cannot be expected to provide solutions. Whatever you bring attention to also becomes associated with you. If you are known for burning the enemy’s crops, you will not be known for growing your own.

Keep this wisdom from the Daodejing in mind: “The virtuous promote agreement, the vicious allot blame”.

There is no need to draw attention to the negative traits of another. Focus always on solutions and agreements and you will be seen as a positive force, wise and preferred over those who focus on putting down their opposition.

Tags: The High Road