. Azriel, I like that... I am aware, I am away of you my negative thoughts...
]]>Hogrot there may well be some natural alternatives to SSRIs that may work for you, Kava Kava, wild oats, St Johns wort, Flower and Homeopathic remedies. etc Best wishes to you.
]]>I also have a deep breathing exercise I often do in the mornings before I get out of bed. This was given to me in a channeling some years ago,
for restoral of my energies, which were somewhat depleted
at that time: place your hand on your solar plexus region and breathe
deeply and slowly for about 50 counts (it ought to take about 15 minutes total). It is both energizing and relaxing.
...I definatly do not want to take meds for anxiety. Its not like over powering but it can stop me from doing work i need to do because Its hard to concentrate on things when your in thought loops...
It was suggested to me, by another poster, that I begin with breathwork for overcoming anxiety (this was in response to a thread about nightmares).
I've since tried it--(it's so simple!)--and it works for me terrifically. It is very difficult to be anxious when the body is relaxed. So I always take the "battle" to the body. ...I breathe slowly and deeply. That's all. A simple, obvious, and elegant solution.
As above, so below, AND, as below, so above. What you do in the body can have effect in the mind and spirit.
The breath I use: I breathe in for four counts, and breathe out for eight counts. (I read in a yoga book that longer exhales relax the mind).
]]>If only we could use our purest plants ...cannabis and pure tobacco. Such a crime to persecute against natures gifts.
I hear ya. But I think if we really want to, we will find them one way or another. I do wish it was easier...
]]>In their visions, shamans take their consciousness down to the molecular level and gain access to information related to DNA, which they call 'animate essences' or 'spirits.' This is where they see double helixes, twisted ladders, and chromosome shapes. This is how shamaic cultures have known for millennia that the vital principle is the same for all living beings and is shaped like two entwined serpents (or a vine, a rope, a ladder...) DNA is the source of their astonishing botanical and medicinal knowledge, which can be attained only in defocalized and 'nonrational' states of consciousness, though its results are empirically verifiable.
I knew this hypothesis would be more solid if it rested on a neurological basis, which was not yet the case. [...] The Ashaninca say that by ingesting ayahuasca or tobacco, it is possible to see the normally invisible and hidden maninkari spirits. [...] There ought to be an analogous connection between nicotine and DNA contained in the nerve cells of a human brain.
A molecule of nicotine shares structural similarities with the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and fits like a skeleton key into its receptor on certain neurons.
The note in Narby's book that is appended to the above remark reads:
In the human brain there are tens of billions of neurons, and they are of several sorts. Each neuron is equipped with approximately a thousand synapses, which are junction sites connecting the cells to each other. Each synapse has ten million or so receptors. The number of neurons is frequently estimated at ten billion; [some researchers put the number at a 100 billion to a trillion.] There are approximately 50 known neurotransmitters, and a given cell can have different receptors for several of these. The nicotine and acetylcholine molecules have different shapes, but the receptor cannot tell them apart because they have the same size and the distribution of their electrical charges is similar.
The more you give nicotine to your neurons, the more the DNA they contain activates the construction of nicotinic receptors, within certain limits. [...] However, scientific accounts in terms of 'receptors,' 'flux of positively charged atoms,' and 'stimulation of the transcription of the genes coding for the subunits of nicotinic receptors' did not explain in any way the effects of nicotine on consciousness.
The discovery that nicotine stimulates the construction of nicotinic receptors was only made at the beginning of the 1990s; the connection between this phenomenon and the addiction displayed by tobacco users seems obvious, but has yet to be explored in detail. [...]
There are fundamental differences between the shamanic use of tobacco and the consumption of industrial cigarettes. The botanical variety used in the Amazon contains up to eighteen times more nicotine than the plants used in Virginia-type cigarettes. Amazonian tobacco is grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides and contains none of the ingredients added to cigarettes, such as aluminum oxide, potassium nitrate, ammonium phosphate, polyvinyl acetate, and a hundred or so others, which make up approximately 10 percent of the smokable matter.
During combustion, a cigarette emits some 4,000 substances, most of which are toxic. Some of these substances are even radioactive, making cigarettes the largest single source of fadiation in the daily life of an average smoker. Cigarette smoke is directly implicated in more than 25 serious illnesses, including 17 forms of cancer. [According to popularized medical studies. But, one might wish to consider if it is the nicotine, or the additives?]
In the Amazon, on the other hand, tobacco is considered a remedy. The Ashaninca word for 'healer, ' or 'shaman,' is sheripiari - literally, 'the person who uses tobacco.' The oldest Ashaninca men I knew were all sheripiari. They were so old that they did not know their own age, which only their deeply wrinkled skin suggested, and they were remarkably alert and healthy.
You may not be able to find Amazonian tobacco, but I've heard there is natural American Indian tobacco available, which should be better than those commercial "coffin nails." Point is, if you are going to smoke tobacco, you may as well use it in its most natural form.
]]>Interesting thing that Hogrot wrote about not smoking as I think that me being hooked on smoking has a lot to do with whats left of my anxiety.
]]>Outside of that, there are a few things to do. I have a sign above my desk where I spend the majority of my life. It says "fight autopilot" and it's there to remind me to stay awake and aware at all times. It's really easy to forget this when I get caught up in cripling thought loops, but seeing the sign every day helps to remind me. When I feel one coming on, I tell myself to relax, I work on controlling my breathing. Not deep breaths, but normal, paced, controlled breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
Overbreathing can be really bad. It leads to hyperventillation, which mucks up the chemicals in your brain because you're taking in too much oxygen. It has bad side effects like dizziness, nausea, shakiness and weakness, and, I quote, "a feeling of impending doom."
The key to it, if you are sure you're actually overbreathing, is to exhale more than you inhale. You can tell for sure because you actually get bloated in your upper chest. Take a short breaths in through your nose and focus on sustained exhales. Burping helps too to get rid of some of the chest bloating.
Also, watch what you consume. Drink less soda and coffee (caffeine=bad) and more water and green tea. Quit smoking cigarettes (I still smoke but felt 10 times better when I had quit.) Green tea helps me out alot. It calms without making me drowsy.
]]>. Azriel, I like that... I am aware, I am away of you my negative thoughts...
]]>By don Miguel Ruiz with Janet Mills
Adapted from "The Voice of Knowledge" by don Miguel Ruiz, published by Amber-Allen.
Before we were born, a whole society of storytellers was already here. The storytellers who were here before us taught us how to be human. First they told us what we are–a boy or a girl–then they told us who we are, and who we should or shouldn't be. They taught us how to be a woman or how to be a man. They told us to be a proper woman, a decent woman, a strong man, a brave man. They gave us a name, and they told us the role we would play in their story. They prepared us to live in the human jungle, to compete with one another, to impose our will, to fight against our own kind. They filled us with knowledge, and of course we believed them. From the storytellers around us, we learned how to create our own story.
By exploring the story that we create, I discovered that the story has a voice. You can call it "thinking" if you want. I call it "the voice of knowledge" because it's telling you everything you know. It's always trying to make sense out of everything. That voice is always there. It never stops. It's not even real, but you hear it. You can say, "Well, it's me. I'm the one who is talking." But if you are the voice that is talking, then who is listening?
The voice of knowledge can also be called the liar who lives in your head. The liar speaks in your language, but your spirit, the truth, has no language. You just know truth; you feel it. The voice of your spirit tries to come out, but the voice of the liar is stronger and louder and it hooks your attention almost all of the time. You hear the voice, and what is it telling you? "Look at you. Who do you think you are? You will never make it. You aren't smart enough. Why should I try? Nobody understands me. How can I be happy when millions of people are dying of starvation?"
That voice is usually lying because it's the voice of what you have learned, and you have learned so many lies, mainly about yourself. The voice of knowledge can come from your own head, or it can come from people around you, but your emotional reaction to that voice is telling you, "I'm being abused." Every time we judge ourselves, find ourselves guilty, and punish ourselves, it's because the voice in our head is telling us lies. Every time we have a conflict with our parents, our children, or our beloved, it's because we believe in lies, and they believe in them, too.
But it's not just that. When we believe in lies, we cannot see the truth, so we make thousands of assumptions and we take them as truth. One of the biggest assumptions we make is that the lies we believe are the truth! For example, we believe that we know what we are. When we get angry we say, "Oh, that's the way I am." When we get jealous: "Oh, that's the way I am." But is this true? I'm not sure about that. I used to make the assumption that I was the one who said all those things that I didn't want to say. It was a big surprise when I discovered that it was not me; it was the way I learned to be. And I practiced and practiced until I mastered that performance.
Two thousand years ago one of the greatest masters said, "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Free from what? From the storyteller who lives in your head and talks to you all the time. I no longer have that voice in my head, and I can assure you that it's wonderful. When the voice in your head finally stops talking, you experience inner peace.
That voice has been in control of your head for so many years, and no, it won't give up just because you want it to leave you alone. But at least you can challenge it by not believing what it tells you. If you follow these two rules, all the lies that come from the voice of knowledge won't survive your skepticism and will simply disappear.
Rule number one: Don't believe yourself. Listen to your story, but don't believe it because now you know that it's mostly fiction. When you hear the voice in your head, don't take it personally. You know that it's usually lying to you. Listen and ask if it's speaking the truth or not. Lies can only survive if you believe them. If you don't believe your own lies, you can make better choices based on truth.
Rule number two: Don't believe anybody else. You know that if you lie to yourself, surely other people lie to themselves. And if they lie to themselves, they will lie to you also. When people talk, you have no idea if what they are saying is coming from their heart or from the liar who lives in their head. Listen to other people tell their story, but don't believe them. You know that it's just a story that is only true for them, but listen because the communication can be wonderful.
You can change your life by refusing to believe your own lies. Start with the main lies that limit the expression of your happiness and your love. If you take your faith away from the lies, they lose their power over you. Then you can recover your faith and invest it in different beliefs. If you stop believing in lies, your whole life changes just like magic. You will be free of fear, drama, and conflict. This is the absolute truth, and I cannot put it more simply than that.
]]>I really have been meaning to get back into meditation.
Well, you don't have to be meditating to use a mantra. I am not a meditator myself, not formally anyway. I do frequently go into meditative spaces, when doing yoga, walking, writing, etc. I often use mantras during those times, usually saying them silently.
Seth said that the "Aum" mantra was very effective in raising our vibrations...
]]>The sage Upamanyu says: "What severe austerities does one need to practise, what holy centres does one need to visit, what difficult spiritual practices does one need to do, when in his heart "Om Namah Shivaya" vibrates constantly?"
..."Namdev has sung of the glory of Om Namah Shivaya with great eloquence in his poetry. He says, "Om Namah Shivaya is the redeeming mantra, the mantra which takes you across the ocean of change. It is the Guru's most precious gift. O man, repeat it." (290)
"The Guru is the mantra, the Guru is not a physical form. When the Guru initiates a disciple by transmitting his Shakti into him, it is not the mantra which enters the disciple, it is the Guru himself who enters the disciple in the form of the mantra. Then the Guru's form should emerge from within the mantra, and you should be able to see it in the inner red light. That is an authentic vision. You should be able to see the Guru's form in your meditation all the time. So the mantra is the Guru himself, and it is the Guru who enters the disciple in the form of the mantra.
"While I was in Karnatak I heard a story from Siddharudha Swami. There was a very great saint who had practised Om Namah Shivaya throughout his entire life. After he was buried, for some reason his samadhi had to be opened up. His body had been reduced to mere bones, and when someone picked up one of the bones and held it against his ear, he could hear "Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya" coming from it. This is quite possible, because the mantra comes to permeate your body."
"Om Namah Shivaya is nothing but a concrete embodiment of the Guru and Shiva. One should be constantly aware that one's own Self, the Guru and Shiva are absolutely one. There is not the least difference between these three."
I also use my tagline as a mantra and have done so for about a decade now...
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