Relaxation

Written By: Natalie - Aug• 03•11
Serene Scene

Image by ChristyInTheSky via Flickr

“Relaxation” – just by thinking about this word and what it associates with, you realize that you open a door for emotional battery recharging time. When you are in the midst of a hectic busy day most likely the thought of relaxation does not even enter your mind. But then you feel spent, stressed and totally drained spiritually, emotionally and physically, and you just can’t take another minute of that busyness. But you know that you don’t have to push to that moment to take a ‘relaxation’ moment. If you take the breaks throughout the day, as short as 5 min each time, you will have more energy and your brain will be able to cope with the demands of the day so much better.

Some people are addicted to work & it takes more conscious effort for them to take a break & to mentally recharge the ‘batteries’. If you are one of those people, you might want to schedule the time, decide at the start of a working day that you will take little breaks at certain times of the day. For example you can take a break every hour or two, or you can take 5 min refresher every time you complete one task before you go on to the next one, or you can break up your morning and afternoon work in half for ‘relaxation’ and reflection.

Remember, just thinking about relaxation brings you a whole lot of positive emotions and therefore positive energy.

So you can expound on that and think about something that have made you smile recently, your family, maybe kids, or friends, or something that happened the day before or previous week. Or you can take time to imagine yourself on a relaxing location, somewhere that you would like to spend a vacation, and just visualize all that would bring you pleasure and relaxation there. And don’t be afraid to go into details. When your brain is engaged in those positive and relaxing thoughts your body will follow suit. Isn’t it wonderful how human body is marvelously created?!

If your situation allows you to walk around a bit, or better yet to go outside, take a little stretch break. Reach down toward your toes, and then stretch as high as you can toward the sky. This gets some blood to the brain, and speeds up your circulation, making you more alert. Do any other stretches that bring relaxation, or just roll your head and shoulders a bit. Close your eyes and take slow, deep breaths from your belly. Deep breathing brings quality oxygen to your bloodstream, and helps relieve stress, grogginess, and is even a cure for headaches.

These little breaks, just few minutes throughout the day, don’t take that much time away from work, but can do wonders to revive you and increase your productivity. When you’re in the midst of something, it can be hard to keep the overall perspective. Thoughts can get jumbled, your eyes get dazed, your head feels clouded. It’s hard to think. Something as simple as taking a break for a few minutes can be a huge boost to you, not just physically, but mentally too.

Almost everyone can spare a few minutes to take a little break for relaxation and to clear their head.

A few minutes out of the roughly 960 waking minutes you have every day is not going to cost you much, but I can guarantee that it will benefit you.

 

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Face lift

Written By: Natalie - Jul• 16•11

By Peter

Looking in the mirror this morning I saw myself and thought, O boy, I need a face lift! Need to put on the smile before I go out of my room and make people worried as if something bad had happened! Ha!

You know, as they say, smile is contagious, but probably the same could be said about the frown on your face!  While I was tinkering in my mind the Lord joined my tinkering with following message!

“To lift a face you need faith lift!” Wow, that’s it! Then I heard next words. “ Look at babies! Babies have lots of faith! They have full trust and faith that when they ask for food, it will come! Look at a baby when it sleeps and smiles! He sees wonderful things of Heaven, he sees Angels and he smiles! What do you see?”

It’s a good question, isn’t it! What do you see with your mind’s eyes? What you are thinking? Do you see things in Faith, like the baby?

Lift up your faith and your face will manifest what is in your heart! Trust, peace and smile!

What would you like others to see on your face?

Baby's faith reflects on the face

Baby's faith reflects on the face

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Time to stop & let life run its course

Written By: Natalie - Jul• 02•11

By Peter

Chinese have a saying: “Do by not doing!”  - Getting something accomplished by letting the life run its natural course. For example a tree is growing, doing something, but not really doing, the growing just happens naturally.

On the other hand we know that we must work to be able to earn our bread!  One must use wisdom in applying this saying. Like the wise man Solomon said: “There is time for everything under the Sun. A time to rend and time to sew; a time to keep silence, a time to speak”. – Time for action and time for no action, time to run & time to stop. Time to keep silence is golden as well as the time to speak the right thing at the right moment is golden too.

The wisdom is found in doing the right thing at the right time! For most of us, it’s easy to keep running somewhere, doing something, worrying about something so that we forget the other side of the coin: taking time to stop, waiting patiently, being silent, listening and letting God’s spirit move things for us! Practicing physical inaction through waiting on God, praying and believing on Him that He will take the action for us!

My question for you today is: What you should be doing right now? Is it time to push and work or is it the time to stop from running, and instead look and listen. Just take that moment of rest and let life take it’s natural course. You might find that the world will not fall apart, but instead God will take care of your business better than you ever were able. Once you have regained that right perspective, found what is right for you, may God’s blessings, His strength follow you throughout the day!

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Train your mind to think deeper or simply “stop, look and listen!”

Written By: Natalie - Jun• 20•11

By Peter

I want you to slow down and think deeper.  I have created many a wonderful things, but it takes time to stop, look and notice! During the day, take a few minutes to stop and reflect. When you pick up something, like a glass of water, or when you remember something you just read and it stick with you, or think on situation that happened, or the thought that bother you – Stop, Look and Listen! And you will notice the difference! You will notice that during those few minutes you start seeing things with your whole being, your soul! You will start receiving answers, become more aware of your life, your thoughts and your actions! You will start appreciating things more! Even a simple glass of water, after thinking about it, will do wonders for you! You will be more appreciative, it will taste better and refresh you and perhaps even remind you of something important! The fact is that this exercise of stopping, looking and listening has many benefits, some of them are: slowing you down from rushing that this world brings upon us, noticing the beauty around you and learning from life more because you take time to stop, look, listen and notice!

(Wikipedia Definition: To notice – is to become aware of something that has caught one’s attention, knowing, being known.)

My question for you today is: What you have noticed today? If you have noticed then you have learned something and so, you know something! What I noticed is that the opposite of the word “Notice: is “to ignore”!  To notice is a mental choice and if we fail to notice we succeed in ignoring!

What is serving you? What will enrich your life?

 

If you would like to share your discoveries with us, don’t hesitate to leave your comments here!

Sunset over rice field

Take time to notice things in your life

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Mental stress management with Imagery

Written By: Natalie - May• 03•11

Reduce your feelings of stress right now!

© iStockphoto/najin

Today I read an interesting article on using Imagery in order to manage mental stress. Most everyone has been in a situation where they were not in control of the environment in order to reduce the stress, but desperately needed to do something about the way they felt.

This article claims that: “The effectiveness of imagery can be shown very effectively if you have access to biofeedback equipment. By imagining a pleasant and relaxing scene (which reduces stress) you can objectively see the measured stress in your body reduce. By imagining an unpleasant and stressful situation, you can see the stress in your body increase. This very real effect can be quite alarming when you see it happen the first time!”

One of the samples of how imagery can affect the way our body reacts to different situation is our reaction to movies. We might not even notice it sometimes, but most of us probably tense up physically when the situation in the movie is real tense, and the opposite is also very true.

So it turns out this is a real effective tool for managing and reducing stress, especially when combined with some form of relaxation method such as deep breathing.

The principle behind the use of imagery in stress reduction is that you can use your imagination to recreate and enjoy a situation that is very relaxing. The more intensely you imagine the situation, the more relaxing the experience will be.

Try to remember or imagine a scene, place or event that you think of as safe, peaceful, restful, beautiful and happy. You can bring all your senses into the image with, for example, sounds of running water and birds, the smell of cut grass, the taste of cool white wine, the warmth of the sun, etc. Use the imagined place as a retreat from stress and pressure.

Scenes can involve complex images such as lying on a beach in a deserted cove. You may “see” cliffs, sea and sand around you, “hear” the waves crashing against rocks, “smell” the salt in the air, and “feel” the warmth of the sun and a gentle breeze on your body. Other images might include looking at a mountain view, swimming in a tropical pool, or whatever you want. You will be able to come up with the most effective images for yourself.

Another method to try is creating mental pictures of stress flowing out of your body, or of stress, distractions and everyday concerns being folded away and locked into a padlocked chest.

With imagery, you substitute actual experience with scenes from your imagination. Your body reacts to these imagined scenes almost as if they were real, calming you down and letting adrenaline disperse.

So you can imagine a warm, comfortable, safe and pleasant place, and enjoy it in your imagination.

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Simple exercise to relieve pressure of the day

Written By: Natalie - Apr• 24•11

Imagine that you are in a beautiful green meadow. It’s surrounded by trees and blessed with the song of many birds. A rippling brook flows merrily through it. It’s the most peaceful place you’ve ever been in. You feel completely safe and at peace. At the moment you can’t remember how you got here; you really don’t know anything except that this place is exactly what you need.

You’re absorbed by the simplicity. You’re satisfied by the calmness. You’re relaxed because you feel at home. There aren’t any other people around, but you know you’re not alone. Someone brought you to this meadow … oh, that’s right, now you remember; you were meditating, and that’s how you got here.

I brought you into the meadow of meditation, My darling. I lifted your spirit out of the world for a spiritual nap on the lush, green grass. I took your hand and said, “Let’s run through My creation. We’re free in the spirit!” You closed your eyes and your spirit was transported beyond the physical realm to a place of sweet peace—your own personal meadow of meditation.

You told Me, “I’m so happy I waited a few more minutes in meditation and that I didn’t give up, because I love coming to this place.” Yes, My love, this is where our spirits commune in a language that no one else can understand, just you and Me. This is where I whisper words of love and encouragement and strength into your ear, and those words go deep into your spirit and refresh you. Stay here as long as you need to and let Me renew every fiber of your being with the touch of My Spirit. Then you can go back and carry on your work with renewed strength and vigor.

 

Message from Jesus (from writings of Karen Zerby)

green meadow

Green Meadow

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