Everyday Bliss

From the BBC, in the “if you’da asked us, we could’a told ya” file:

Hypnosis has a “very real” effect that can be picked up on brain scans, say Hull University (UK) researchers.

An imaging study of hypnotised participants showed decreased activity in the parts of the brain linked with daydreaming or letting the mind wander.

The same brain patterns were absent in people who had the tests but who were not susceptible to being hypnotised.

One psychologist said the study backed the theory that hypnosis “primes” the brain to be open to suggestion.

Hypnosis is increasingly being used to help people stop smoking or lose weight and advisers recently recommended its use on the NHS to treat irritable bowel syndrome.

This shows that the changes were due to hypnosis and not just simple relaxation Dr William McGeown, study leader

It is not the first time researchers have tried to use imaging studies to monitor brain activity in people under hypnosis.

Read the whole article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8359170.stm

I enjoy bringing you innovations in consciousness & healing, hot off the press, to entertain and enlighten. And do I ever have a great resource for you today…a balm for the troubled spirit. This is for everyone who’s had a rocky time in life and finds that makes it rea-a-a-lly difficult to maintain a state of consciousness, and love your life again, despite it all.

It’s a book, and the fantastic woman who is providing us such a great example of using her life to bring consciousness to millions – Lynne Klippel (at right). Lynne and I have mixed it up in various conferences and coaching experiences for the past ten years and she’s a self-publishing go-to gal. Today is special to Lynne as she has just published her new book “Overcomers, Inc. – True Stories of Hope, Courage and Inspiration”. You can find it here or read on for my review:

http://www.overcomersbook.com/booklaunch

(and nope, in case you’re wondering: I don’t get a penny for this,  I’m sharing just for the joy of it)  

I did an advance review of the book – still true, plus some:

“It is no coincidence that happiness, gratitude and simple, time-honored truths are key themes in this beautiful collection of stories where faith, hope, optimism, and sheer determination, triumph over the worst of odds.

If you’re stuck in a rut, or doing well either one, you’ll enjoy the unfailingly positive message and relish the tools Overcomers, Inc. provides to surface deep gratitude and awareness to empower your life.”

Who is this book aimed at? You’ll get the most out of it if:

• If you liked the “Chicken Soup For The Soul” series, you’ll LOVE “Overcomers, Inc.”. Chock-full of real situations, gutsy determination and not a bit of fluff, anywhere. This collection is to be savored, over a cup of soothing tea or hot chocolate. (mmm…chocolate!)
• If you’re experiencing hard times, these 37 stories will give you great comfort and real tools you can model in your own life.
• If you are into Arjuna Ardagh’s notion of translucency, you will enjoy the stories of people who have overcome overwhelming odds and become themselves, translucent in the process. And you’ll learn too, exactly how to follow their footsteps when things become overwhelming in your own life.

Plus which…
A number of excellent authors, teachers & conscious entrepreneurs have contributed health & wellbeing bonuses & goodies as part of Lynne’s special launch for Overcomers, Inc, and while what I’ve seen today is great stuff the real treasure are the stories, the triumphs and lessons in the book itself.

If you order today, there are bonuses and more, here:

http://www.overcomersbook.com/booklaunch

It’s my pleasure to support Lynne and support consicousness in those who are going through rough times by letting everyone I know, know about “Overcomers, Inc.”.

If you’re into a life of ease, grace and joy, you’ll find it in this book .Congratulations to Lynne for a job very well done!

There’s nothing for revealing the truth like a chat with a girlfriend. I was talking this summer to my bookkeeper and gal pal Paula about how much we loved our lives and why others we knew didn’t. Paula said to me “You know Maryam, people just want to feel good about themselves. But in this economy, and with all the violence going on in the world, they just don’t. What can we do to help people out?”

Why don’t people love their lives? It’s a question that has driven many of us (me included) into therapy, coaching, spiritual studies and years of self-examination. For many here, it’s what has driven us to divorce, separation and anxiety-driven lifestyles.

We talked some more about how much of what appears in our lives is illusory, and how people sometimes buy into illusions that make them miserable. People are going through some very hard times caused by those illusions right now and misery is widespread. The rough truth of this caught my attention – this is something I can help with, I thought.

I examined my life to determine why, other than the obvious,I loved my life when many with far more in the way of possessions and prestige seemed so miserable. I came to some valuable conclusions that I wanted to share with you, as I believe just examining these issues in your life can make you so much happier. I am presenting these as coaching questions for you to use alone or with a mastermind partner or coaching buddy, and to pass on to those whose happiness you care about.

Powerful Coaching Questions
To Start Loving Your Life Again

1)  If you shed the false illusions you live under, you’ll be a lot happier. An example of a false illusion might be “If s/he falls in love with me, my life will be perfect.” That makes YOUR emotional state dependent on the whims of someone else. Who may never fall in love with you, or if they do, may turn out to be a nightmare.

Same thing goes with “When I win the lottery, I’ll finally be happy” or “When the divorce finally comes through I’ll be happy”. Why wait? Choose to be happy today, regardless! Happiness is available to both princess and pauper. What we think of as externally-created emotions are ALL self-generated chemical combinations cooked up inside your own body. YOU have the power to change your emotional state simply by choosing what you want. So ask yourself: “What is True about this situation?” All of it? None of it? 15% of it?

What is yours, take responsibility for and change. What comes from someone else, give back.

To do that, ask of unwanted emotions: “Who does this belong to?”  Is the illusion self-created, or another person’s that you’ve bought into? Women are tremendously sensitive to energy. Oftentimes the angst, sudden anger or even menstrual cramps you’re feeling don’t really belong to you, but come from your neighbor next door or a stranger you passed in a crowd.

Our bodies are giant tuning mechanisms for Radio Station Y-O-U. What you give the most attention to in your thoughts will broadcast outward energetically and will attract back to you similar emotions, situations and people. One of the things your body does naturally is to “pick up” other people’s broadcasts of negative emotions, pain, or symptoms. This too is an illusion, because these feelings aren’t really yours. Asking “who does this belong to” helps you realize – and drop – other’s expectations and energy.

2)  You don’t need to know the answer to any of these questions, just keep asking them and the change will happen. If you learn to live in the question, without hardening and fixing your expectations around “the one true answer”, you’ll be happier because answers come more abundantly. Bellyaching about how bad things are or saying “this is just the way it is and there’s no point in hoping for better” only keeps you in the rut you’re in.

When you say “I wonder what it would take to start my own business?” instead of griping about not having one, you free yourself to go find out what it would take, get funding if necessary, study up for professional exams and so on. Use “I wonder what it would take…” to defuse the natural human tendency to gravitate towards the negative.

3) If we know the right questions to ask, we open up even more possibilities for happiness than ever before. Here’s an absolute barn-burner of a question to ask – and not be attached to any answer or outcome of:

“What generative energy, space and consciousness can I be to manifest ______________?”

Then say: “Anything that wouldn’t allow that to happen, I uncreate, dissolve and release it completely” and let it go.

If you have difficulty letting things go, I created a quick and easy consciousness bringing method that features healing of “issues” as a welcome side effect. It’s called ETHOS, it works beautifully, invisibly, and is entirely free to the public. You can download the whole method and participate if you like, in our online support community at: http://ethosmethod.ning.com

Put these questions to work and I guarantee, you’ll be happier, open more options in your life and witness amazing things happening that you never would have expected – gifts from nowhere, funds you forgot you were owed, old friends calling you’d wondered about just this morning and more. I’ve even seen miracle cures when people simply stopped needing to know the answer and rested contentedly in the arms of the question.

Try it, you’ll see!

And if you want more structured support around getting happy please do join our “Ethos For Loving Your Life Again” class in September. Bonuses & $70 off until September 1st. Read about it here:

http://maryamwebster.com/ethosclass/

And if you’d like to reply to this article with your experiences, you can do that in the contact form below. I’d really love to read what you have to say. B-)

For all you Chocoholics out there, there’s really a VERY simple process from neurolinguistic programming that kicks chocolate – or anything else (cigarettes, icecream whatever kind of “mouth” addiction) in the booty. No tapping unless you really want to. Follow this simple process up with a round of EFT tapping if you really want to hammer it into the wall. But for now, just do this pattern below.

First, a few definitions and an equipment list:

1. “Associated” means you see yourself inside your own body, doing or saying the thing listed. “Dissociated” means you’re several feet to miles away watching yourself.

2. “Cues” refer to how you know it’s time to do this behavior. For instance, you eat chocolate every time you think of working out, or every time you hear a certain song, or when you’re depressed.

3. Anchor refers to setting a “bookmark” in your emotional state, so your mind can find its way back there. Don’t worry about bookmarking negative states – you’re only doing that so you can hone in on the negative state in order to uncreate that state.

4. Equipment: To establish and break anchors to your addictions, you’ll need a pencil, and a spoon. It could easily be a pen and a feather, or an apple and a can of tunafish. What we want is for you to have two dissimilar objects to hold in your hands, to represent the anchors to each state. You’ll also need a piece of chocolate or a cigarette or whatever your addictive substance is. Dove chocolates are particularly good for this as they are quite highly scented and come in both milk and dark chocolate for addicts at both ends of the spectrum.

From NLP Masters Steve & Connirae Andreas: The  “Godiva Chocolate Pattern”

1. Bring up something you absolutely adore and feel compelled to do. We’re going to use “chocolate craving” for this example (though you can easily use anything else, such as cigarettes, “carbs” and so on). Elicit the cues that tell you to eat chocolate by remembering what happens just before you feel the compulsion to engage in the addictive behavior. What is going on inside you the minutes and seconds before you unwrap and eat a chocolate? Take note of these.
2. Now you’re going to create an intensely associated picture of this addiction in order to get rid of it. Unwrap your sample chocolate morsel and smell it. Only inhale the chocolate scent. Feel what this does to your craving. Feel it fully.Now, take a tiny lick of the chocolate. Again feel what this does to your craving.

   Take it further by having a small bite and savor the feeling of the chocolate in your mouth. Savor fully and truly enjoy it. (for other cravings such as cigarettes, this might be to smell the cigarette, light the lighter and have a very small drag) Again, fully experience what this does to your craving for more.

   Now rate your craving on a scale of 1 – 10, with 10 being the highest possible craving you could ever muster. The kind where you would lie, cheat or steal to get that thing. Make a writtten note of this number, you’ll reference it later. Return to savoring the mouth feel, the creaminess, the taste and feeling on your tongue…

   When you have this image, the sights and sounds and feeling of it firmly in mind then…

3. Establish anchor #1 by picking up the pencil
   
4. Break the addictive state by putting the pencil down, looking at your watch or clock on the wall and noting the time.
5. Create a disassociated picture of something you need to do but have trouble making yourself do – the bills, paperwork, vacuuming, meeting new neighbors if you’re shy, etc. Remember that dissociated means you’re observing yourself from far away. When you have this image, the sights and sounds and feeling of it firmly in mind, then…
6. Establish anchor #2 by picking up the spoon.
7. Break this state by putting the spoon down, looking at your watch or clock on the wall and noting the time.

8. Now, bring up the picture/feeling/sounds from Step One, those Cues that tell you “eat chocolate now”. Pick up and hold the pencil. Now, FADE the image/sights/sounds of that and as you fade these, bring up picture #2, the DISSOCIATED image of doing the thing you have trouble making yourself do. Now, pick up and hold the spoon.
9. Hold both pencil and spoon at the same time. Note the time again, and put both pencil and spoon down.
10. Test yourself by picking up the chocolate morsel and smelling it. What is your craving rating on the 1 – 10 scale? Has it changed? Take a test lick of the chocolate. Again rate your craving. How much has it changed? Now take a bite. What has changed?
11. You might find that you still enjoy chocolate when you actually eat it, but when you smell and lick it, there’s no overwhelming compulsion to eat it. If there is, simply go through this process again, choosing a different image for Step 5. Sometimes it takes a bit of adjustment to get the correct “meh, I don’t care for this” image.

Good luck with this, though you won’t really need it. <wink> This process is really easy and once you get going, if for any reason the craving should ever re-surface (once you’ve pounded it down it shouldn’t) you can simply plug and play again. Have fun!

Posted via web from maryamwebster’s posterous

Breast cancer survivor Kris Hart, right, vice president of global brand management at (casino operator) Harrah’s Entertainment, was still breastfeeding when she found out she had breast cancer. In this month’s Pink Magazine email, Taylor Mallory interviews Kris. Here are a couple of relevant highlights:

Hart’s Advice for Breast Cancer Newbies

1. DO take a breath and come up with a plan. The cancer has probably been in you for years, so you can wait a week.

2. DON’T make emotional decisions about your care. Get all the info you can before you make a decision.

3. DO surround yourself with people who don’t make you feel like a victim.

4. DON’T be afraid to ask for support. Your friends and family want to help.

Hart also adds her greatest challenge dealing with chemo:

"I have always had an innate sense of organization in my head. Since the chemo, and even now as it’s still in my system, I’m fuzzy. I can’t retain things, and I’m not as quick as I used to be. I can’t remember names as readily as I could. That’s really frustrating."

Maryam’s Note: Kris Hart, if you’re out there reading this, please check out the energy therapies (no drugs, no needles, no hassle, easy to learn and practice) like ETHOS, EFT and ZPoint to help "get your brain back". This involves the energy in your body, not in a box or machine. You’re using the natural energy an acupuncturist manipulates by putting needles in the body, only with the new energy therapies, you only tap on the acupoints, hold them gently and breathe, or use the energy solely in your mind. No gadgets or drugs needed!

Anyone dealing with fuzziness like this can regains clarity by practicing a couple of simple exercises to synch the hemispheres of your brain back up. Go to my page on that here:

http://maryamwebster.com/stressrelief

Do every exercise on the page, especially the Cross Crawl. This highlights part of the Bliss Coaching Process that is laid out in full in my book, Everyday Bliss For Busy Women.

PINK asks: How can colleagues help when a co-worker has cancer?

Kris Hart: "Be specific about how you want to help. Everyone says, "I’m here for you." But very few people will ever take you up on that. So say, "I’d like to bring dinner for you on Wednesday." Also recognize it’s not only the physical victim but the whole family that needs support. Someone called my husband to go have drinks. He was thrilled to get away too."

Maryam’s Note: I’ll second the "be specific" part. When Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in the 90’s she deteriorated rapidly, and the community troups were marshalled to provide friendly visits for she and Dad. The best visit they had was after dinner one Tuesday evening from Bill Hall, a buddy of Dad’s from Rotary Club. Though Bill offered, Mom refused to let him go into the kitchen and get her usual offering of lemonade and cookies – it was important for HER to "do for" visitors as long as she was able.

Bill visited with the family for awhile, drank his lemonade and nibbled his cookies, chatting easily on a variety of topics. The ease with which he carried on conversation soon put Mom and Dad at ease. They reported during this time feeling pressed to entertain people and alleviate their discomfort with Mom’s cancering*, which only caused them to feel more stressed and tense after friendly visits than not. Bill’s visit was a welcome exception, doubly so because of what he did next.

After a polite amount of time had passed, Bill said to Dad: "Charlie, get your coat. You’re coming out bowling with me and the boys, and I won’t take no for an answer." Dad didn’t bowl, but he was too much of a gentleman to refuse such a public invitation. He went, had an excellent time, and Bill managed to wheedle him into coming to the "boys night out" from then on. It got him out of the house, Mom had a peaceful evening once a week to do as she liked, and Dad had a place to blow off steam and "be a regular fellow" as he put it. That’s important, and it was the best present a friend could have given him at this sensitive and crucial point in his life.

It doesn’t have to be a whole-hog fancy evening, any level of attention and caring is good. Just be there.

You can find out more and subscribe to Pink Magazine for Women Professionals here: http://www.pinkmagazine.com/index.html

Pink is about women having money and worldly power too – what activist and author Naomi Wolf calls "the last taboo". Canted towards C-level professional and executive women, Pink provides gathering opportunities at locations around America to help women network and excel in business.

* Cancering - Using the word "Cancering" creates a gerund, or non-finite verb form out of the noun, cancer. When you add the "-ing" to a word that is so definite, so negatively final, it transforms the disease into a process which can have a positive end – the disease process ends, but you go on. This is a form that I take from the teachings of Master NLP Health Coach, Suzi Smith, who reports that this simple linguistic change brings empowerment back into the equation for those living with this disease process.

I can’t tell you how cool my friend Mary Sise is. I first met her when we were board members together in the Association of Comprehensive Energy Psychology and Mary was president. An inspiring president she was too, full of fire and vision and with a personal style all her own that left no room for anything but the greatest of good cheer, faith and confidence. What a gal! Mary and another great therapist, Sheila Sidney Bender, have written an inspiring work that you really need to own. But why waste words here when a movie will do? Check it out:

Can’t see the video? Then check it out here: http://snipurl.com/marysvideo

Below is a post I made to a high-level email list of advanced energy coaches and therapists. It answered a colleague’s question regarding Emotional Freedom Technique:  "What is the intention of the tapping? To reduce SUDs, eliminate distress, or enhance mindfulness?"

But back to  SUDS, distress and mindfulness.

Hello my friend, thank you for asking. 

Intention is one of the main reasons I’ve found in my research, why certain methods don’t work well upon occasion, or don’t work 100% all of the time. (yes, even those ones many of us hold near and dear to our hearts).

What is our intention as practitioners? As petitioners at the gate of forever?

In not choosing, we choose. In choosing not to make intentions, we make intentions. I believe knowledge of some of the inner workings of the universe and how we affect it all the time by our thoughts, beliefs and intentions, is crucially important to knowing how to work any method.

Intention is a natural clockwise/counterclockwise conjugate spiral energy flow that as far as I know, runs much of our experience if not all of it.

Think of a Moebius strip with positive energy running down one surface and negative energy running up the opposite surface. You try to connect the two ends. Attraction/repulsion factors of the differing valences cause the strip to twist and bend into the familiar infinite loop. Bent back upon itself, the ends meeting where like attracts like, it is possible to fasten such a strip.

Such is consciousness, for it folds and bends back on itself as well, seeking the familiar, repulsed by the unfamiliar.We often get lost in those folds and end up snoozing down at the bottom of one of those bends in the strip of consciousness. That’s how routines get started and encoded into imperatives. Mindfulness and intention are sovereign remedies, plus the knowledge that we are truly, without Limits. And can have an infinite variety of things that we desire, including elevated levels of Presence, abundance and joy.

This all may be a crock of manure and not true of course but…it appears to be working for me…I’ll bet it works the same way for a whole lot of us here.   

And Mindfulness = Presence = The Ultimate Resource State from which all magical things might be accomplished. And become quite mundane.

That being said, as myself and a small but devoted band of colleagues developing the new ETHOS Method, (about which you’ll hear in the August 18th ACEP teleclass <hint: I’m giving the class>) have found that the Ultimate Resource State is what I/we call the Unlimited Self. I pondered very deeply *why* certain personal development methods didn’t work well sometimes. One of the reasons that I found is that many of them come from the point of view of us needing to be fixed and of healing. Not that these aren’t perfectly valid occupations, but fixing and healing are like slapping a bandage on the problem and never getting to the real issue from which said "problem" distracts.

We only have one Problem at the root of it all. That problem is, that we are endorsing the absence of awareness of our Unlimited Self. And the more we endorse or give energy to something, the more of that thing we get. Conversely if you desire the polar opposite of a bad situation, that too will manifest. Basic energetic dynamics.

But we most certainly are not in need of being fixed. We are already standing blindingly close to that perfect self – our Unlimited Self.

Most humans stand a bit outside to far outside awareness of this template of their Unlimited Self, unlike animals who live so much more honestly than we. You look at a dog or a cat and it fully embodies the joy of being fully Present, fully alive.

A cat is guaranteed never to give thought to its grocery list: "three mice, one pitcher of cream, four scoops kibble, two bags litter – check, check, check and check. Now…where on earth do you suppose they keep the herring?" A dog or cat will never go so fully out of consciousness as this – and as humans do on a consistent basis. I advise my students to study animals for pointers on their spiritual growth. They’re much wiser than we in such matters.

So in short, in creating ETHOS, we are predicating an energy transformation method on the premise that self is already perfect and not in need of help or fixing. This predicate and our main goal to re-embody and live life through our Unlimited Self, has been of phenomenal use in increasing effectiveness and reducing recidivism in clients who may in time come to take back their problems – a common difficulty in all therapies (energy therapies included).

And yes, this is an intention, but also a realization, and active participation in reality as each of us chooses to fashion it.

More on this shortly. And if you’d like to be kept aware of the news, changes or want to be involved, check out our very new (and still being populated – be an early adopter!) ETHOS website: http://ethosmethod.com

Are you your things? Or are you something more? Wonderful interview from David Hoffman at TED, who lost everything and gained…

When a need is felt, heroes arise, doors open, poets are inspired and birds sing new songs. When God closes a door, s/he opens a window. And when things we think we need are taken away, better and more elegant things arise to not only take their place, but provide superior levels of service…if we but open our eyes to them.

I’ve long been pondering energy therapy methods and why they sometimes work and sometimes fail. It’s a particularly interesting conundrum, as when energy therapies work, they work spectacularly well.

Let’s start at the beginning. From the very first premise, I think most therapies are taking a direction somewhat skewed from that which would provide the best chance of success. Most therapies start with the premise that something is wrong, there is a ‘problem’ and the person with the problem is in need of fixing in some way.

I say, no.

I say that the real problem, the only problem that truly exists, is the fact that we’ve managed to convince ourselves both individually and as a species that we have limits. That we in fact can be limited: by ourselves and by others and by circumstance.

What if….

What if we truly have no limits?

What if that is true?

And being true, what does that mean? What does this realization give you?

It gives you your Unlimited Self – your perfected self, minus all the sludge, junk and limitations. And this is where a consistently workable energy therapy might choose to begin – with that template of you without any limitations whatsoever.

The template for that Perfect You, that Unlimited Self is out there. Not in our DNA, as many therapies are now concentrating, for genetic abnormalities can begin literally as sperm meets egg. Look further, right next to you, right inside you. Your Unlimited Self template exists in the energy field – has always existed, will always exist.

Myself and now a close group of energy therapists and coaches have been developing a new personal transformation method over the past two years. It includes its own, very new brand of energy therapy, somewhat superficially similar to several other methods, yet completely unique. The last few months have seen significant strides on both the tools of this method and in client studies I have conducted with over two hundred different clients and issues.

The name of this method is ETHOS, which stands for "Energy Transformation and Healing: Open Source". The ETHOS Method was created in response to the need for a permanently free and very easily learnable energy therapy that would be useful in a variety of issues, with a variety of different cultures and in all possible situations where one may be able to use the hands and may not be able to do so.

It is "open source" in much the same way that some software is open source – the source code is free to all and development is done by a large developers community who donate their time to create this free gift to the world. You can use it, teach it, make money with it, create a revenue stream with it  – anything you want. And you don’t have to pay us a dime.  All you have to do is promise to teach this method to as many people as you can, forward them to the original ETHOS website and to assume your own liabilty in using the method. And, if you make any significant  changes or additions, to post those to our "Addendum" board.

Interested? We’ll be releasing the website and further content very soon. And you’ll be invited to a free class on how to use ETHOS for yourself, your family, friends and clients.

We’ve come to understand it’s not the issue focus that makes an energy therapy work….

It’s not "getting specific"….

It’s not holding, tapping, breathing, visualizing or repeating a mantra…

It’s not your choice of tool at all… they all work.

It’s where you start.

When we start out with every problem we encounter as a limitation we have somehow bought into, the goal is really removing all limitation back to that template of our Unlimited Self. When we start with Unlimited Self as the focus, we don’t need to know the specifics and it doesn’t matter which tool we choose to go forward with, as the power of your intent is fully enough to get the job done.

Tools are nifty though, and our old-brain monkey minds just love tools as focusing aids.

We are now in active beta-test trial of the new ETHOS Method. After several years of having my private client list closed, I am reducing my usual session fees and opening to new clients willing to test-drive this most extraordinary method for the next few months. Want to book an appointment to go further with me in recovering your Divine / Perfect / Unlimited You? I promise you’ll leave each session walking on a cloud – and you’ll learn in session how to stay that way.

These appointments won’t last long – get ‘em while they’re hot! Click here to proceed.

"a perfected self template". could it really be that simple? what would it mean if it was? deletions in the foregoing allow for creative expansion. comment if you have gnosis.