I am a family nurse practitioner and so many of my patients are reporting that they are suffering; not knowing how to handle their persistent, anxious thoughts about what is happening in the world. My job as their caregiver is to help them feel better and I recently learned that writing things down helps us clarify our beliefs. This is my attempt at explaining how I use Mind-Body Medicine to relieve suffering. It wasn’t until I understood this connection that I was able to address my own suffering and began to feel better myself.

I’m feeling grateful for all of the manifestations in my life. I am particularly enjoying feeling better because I feel a level of freedom that I never appreciated before. I now know that that I have control over how I feel. The gift of learning how to practice living mindfully (please see earlier posts) has helped me clarify what feels good and what doesn’t feel good and allows me the opportunity to make decisions that help me feel better. There is great comfort in knowing that I am in control of my own happiness.

Well over a year ago, I stopped engaging with Facebook, the news and anything I perceived as negative. I felt that it was contaminating my thoughts. Disturbing comments and events continued to filter in but I practiced pivoting my perception of what is being reported in a way that I am grateful for the experience. I now know that resisting certain experiences simply holds them more firmly in my awareness. Only I have control over how I choose to perceive it.  Growth happens as we feel more and more control of how we respond to our thoughts and experiences.

So, how exactly do we listen to beliefs that are so contrary to our own and create a life without so much anxiety and fear?

First, notice a feeling of gratitude that you do not think those thoughts or share those beliefs. Pay attention to what gratitude feels like in your body and seek out other experiences that help you feel this way. Use this as a strategy when feeling dis-ease. As you can read in earlier posts , it is physically impossible to have a stress response and a relaxation response at the same time. When you realize which experiences help you feel better, you can strategically practice them as soon as a stressful experience arises.

Second, know that you are connected to so many others who feel similarly to you and choose to surround yourself with those folks.

Third, know that these thoughts and beliefs have always existed and now, because the contrast may seem so obvious, we all have an opportunity to explore our own thoughts and beliefs about the subject. You don’t always know what you want until you clearly see what you don’t want. Feel grateful for the transparency and the spotlight on the issue at hand.

Forth, take this opportunity to share positive stories highlighting love and joy. Trigger emotional responses that will help us relieve the resistance we are feeling in our minds and bodies.

Fifth, remember that to resist strongly only draws more of that experience into our lives. Only love will conquer hate. Practice focusing on what you want not what you don’t want. So much energy is being directed at what we don’t want that it continues to show up in our experience. I don’t know about you but I want peace, love, joy, beauty, comfort, ease, clarity, freedom, function, fitness, health, well-being, rest, deliciousness, bounty, creativity, curiosity, humor, anticipation, abundance, excitement, awe and connection.  Practice seeking out experiences that fill your life with anything that lights you up. As we practice adding more and more precious moments to our day, there will be less and less room for anything else.

Be well!

Cheryl