The Science of GRATITUDE

Loyal readers of this blog are familiar with our beLOVEd Bruce Lipton. Just in time for the season of Gratitude, comes this brilliant explanation of how gratitude enhances your health, happiness and life! EnJOY!!!  :-)

"Whatever you're waiting for, be of peace of mind, contentment, health. It will surely come; but only when you're ready to receive it with openness and gratitude. Of all the characteristics needed for both a happy and morally decent life, none surpasses gratitude. Happiness and health are the just rewards for living in gratitude." ~ Ben Franklin

Labyrinth Naps

Tomorrow I'm going into the studio to record my next CD: Labyrinth Naps This is the introduction:

Hi. I’m Hali Chambers. Welcome to Labyrinth Naps. I designed the following guided visualizations to facilitate a nap. What do Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison all have in common? They understood the value of naps. There’s a wonderful book by William C. Dement, called The Promise of Sleep. Dr. Dement has been a pioneer in sleep research for the past 50 years and has demonstrated the value of sleep to our health, performance, and overall well-being. He has also documented the dire consequences of sleep deprivation including accidents, serious health issues, and even death. Unfortunately, so many people in modern society are sleep-deprived. Naps are a simple, beneficial, biologically-based antidote. Many people experience a natural, physiological dip in energy in the afternoon. Some people push through their drowsiness with the coffee & donut break, but what if you were to take a different, healthier approach that actually makes you feel more alert and energized afterward? What if you were to decide to work with your body’s biology instead of ignoring its signals? In our culture, naps may be viewed as laziness, but research has shown that a well-placed nap will help you to perform better afterward. In addition, the benefits of a nap are long-lasting. It was found that a 45-minute nap improved alertness for a full 6 hours after the nap. In fact, Dr. Dement says that “naps can make you smarter, faster, and safer than you would be without them. They should be widely recognized as a powerful tool in battling fatigue, and the person who chooses to nap should be regarded as heroic.” Now, doesn’t that make you feel better? You’re a hero.

The processes on this CD are only 20 minutes and can be used during a lunch break or later in the afternoon. They can help to recharge your batteries, so that after this experience, you can feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and alert.

Now that I’ve addressed the importance and value of taking naps, you may be wondering, Why a labyrinth? First of all, let’s define a labyrinth, because they are often confused with mazes. A maze is a puzzle or game that has tricks and dead-ends. It requires critical thinking and problem-solving skills. A labyrinth, on the other hand, has no tricks or dead-ends. It is a single path that you follow to the center, and then back out again. It’s more of a walking meditation. By the way, it’s not necessary to have walked one to feel the relaxing benefits of these guided visualizations.

There are many benefits to the labyrinth experience. For example, labyrinths have been used to help people who experience insomnia, so that you are able to get a restful night’s sleep. They are also thought to balance the hemispheres of the brain. They can promote relaxation, and they can also be used to get more energized. For more information on labyrinths, you can visit my website: healinglabyrinthpath.com

Now, back to naps: Another benefit when you take this nap is to lower stress. Stress often prevents people from being able to sleep. Lack of sleep contributes to greater stress and it becomes a vicious cycle. Dr. Bruce Lipton, in his book The Biology of Belief, has said that “almost every major illness that people acquire has been linked to chronic stress.” He likens stress to a race. Imagine you’re at the starting line of a race and poised to run. You hear, “On your mark, get set…” and there you stay waiting to hear GO—but it never comes. You’re stuck in an alert state which fatigues the body very quickly. People pay lip service by saying they’re stressed. Sometimes they’ll say, “It’s just stress.” Our bodies were not designed to be under the constant stresses and tensions in which we live our lives today. And we pay the price with our health. If stress is linked to almost every major illness, doesn’t it make sense to take measures to reduce the stresses in your life? These guided visualizations are processes that help you to begin to feel relaxed. So that as you take time to rest, each time you take one of these naps, you may find that you can relax faster and it gets easier and easier the more you do it.

There are 2 choices for naps. The first is an abbreviated version of my CD The Healing Labyrinth Path. In it, you are guided down a soft grassy path on a breezy summer’s day. The second one is a labyrinth on a beach. I often draw one in the sand when I go to the beach, and this particular process was inspired by the late Dave Dobson, one of my teachers. I’ve combined my labyrinth with his beach trip. You can also use these to go to sleep with at night, and if that’s your intention, you can just sleep through instead of waking up as suggested at the end of each recording. Also, you can rest assured that you can wake up fully alert if there’s something that requires your attention, so that as you begin this process, you can relax on a deeper level… faster.

And now . . . get ready . . . get set . . . nap . . . .

Lushly Green & Growing

I am tempted to say that I am in monsoon season. It has been raining raining raining! So far the river hasn’t crossed my road, so I can still get out. I am surrounded by the lush green forest teaming with life. The fragrance of locust blossoms perfumes the air and there is an everpresent symphony of bird songs and squirrel chatter. I have been asked by a few people if I get scared living out here by myself where there are bears and coyotes and butterflies. No. I grew up like this, roaming the woods of an old boyscout camp. Besides, I am my mother’s daughter.

I am reminded of attending a Holographic Repatterning conference (now called Resonance Repatterning) in Sedona 4 years ago. I was sitting in a group of women and one was saying how she grew up with a mother who would say, "Life is a jungle out there." It was a glorious illustration of what Bruce Lipton was teaching in his Biology of Belief seminar (which we had all just attended). There are 2 states we can live in: fear/protection OR joy/growth. It’s an either/or, you can’t do both at the same time. What drives those states are our beliefs and other-than-conscious patterns. So the mother viewed her life through belief goggles of fear. I said, “What some people call a ‘jungle,’ others call a rainforest.” She took a breath…and smiled…and relaxed. “Oh. I never thought of it that way.”

That week in Sedona was the beginning of my yearning to live a more conscious life. Bruce said, “I woke up one morning and decided to live my life in nothing less than joy.” I decided that was a belief worthy of adoption! If you’ve not had the opportunity to see or hear him speak, you can catch him on XM 156 on the Bob Green Show tomorrow at 8 a.m. EST (I’m sure they’ll be replaying it later in the week). If you don’t have XM, you can sign up for a *FREE* month here. We are one step closer to getting him on Oprah. You can go to her website and write Oprah to help make that happen!

P.S. Blogger is not allowing me to upload lovely photo of v. green scenery. Hehhh...stoopid Blogger. Will try again later.... :-) H.

How Long Do You Plan on Being a Hermit?

Some people have asked. It's not indefinite, this retreat into the wilderness. It's where I need to be for NOW. I can stay in the present moment, out here in Nature. Hmmm...almost sounds sort of Eckhart Tolle, don't you think? haha

But look where I'm living! The road I'm on is so BEAUTIFUL.

[BTW, this is where I saw my first bear!]

I was listening to John's Self Image CD last night and he has a line in there about going to a place where you feel peaceful. I used to imagine another place outside myself, like my labyrinth in WV or walking along a beach. I used to meditate A LOT just to get that sense of inner peace because I was in a much more stressful environment. And as celebrated cell-biologist Bruce Lipton says in Chapter 2 of his BRILLIANT book, The Biology of Belief: It's the Environment, Stupid. Your environment affects your health, your behaviour, your feelings. Change your environment, change your life. Which is what I've done.

And being out here in Nature...is nurturing.

[Science geek reference] haha

What I feel is that peace is where I am. Now. In this moment. And when I venture back out into the world, I trust that I will be able to keep that place of peace within me wherever I go.