How our body is trying to help us

Here are a couple of interesting ideas that I have found to be true when working with people as a Lightning Process practitioner:     

• Our minds and bodies are always trying to help us
• We can learn things very quickly

It certainly might not feel like that if what you experience is negative or destructive. If, no matter what you do to change something, it continues to happen, it might even feel like your body or mind are against you and there is nothing you can do about it. But could it be that these negatives are your body’s or mind’s attempts to help you, and they simply need updating?

Say your young child wanted to make breakfast for you because it was your birthday, but when she brought it, the toast was burnt, the orange juice was dripping off the tray, and the eggs were completely uncooked. You would probably say thank you, be delighted, and attempt to eat what you could, because you recognised her intention to celebrate your birthday. But you also might teach her how to do it better next time! And you would know that, with good teaching and a bit of time and practice, of course she would learn to make breakfast well.

So if there are behaviours, thoughts, feelings or even physical problems in your life that are limiting you, you may just need to help your body and mind to help you more effectively. To do this you need to: 

• Gain new information and better tools. 
• And use them to retrain your brain and your body to do things in a different way.

You might not know how to do this at the moment, if you are feeling stuck, but one effective way is the Lightning Process, which is very good at helping people learn to  change their lives. And as humans we are very good at learning! 

The Science of Resilience

This is a great programme about increasing your resilience, and the science behind it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07cvhrs

More mind-body connections

Recently I watched a BBC programme called "How to Stay Young". A few things jumped out at me, because they fitted so well with what we know through the Lightning Process.

• Excess stress can shorten life by up to 5 years. "A happy brain is a healthy brain".
• Brisk walking increases both memory and learning, by helping you grow the part of your brain responsible for them: a great example of the connection between mind and body.
• Positive attitudes to ageing can mean you live 7 years longer, and in a younger person can halve your risk of a heart attack. That is how powerful it is when we change our beliefs about ourselves and life!        

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0770cpf

5 ways to wellbeing

Last week a friend told me about www.fivewaystowellbeing.org. These are 5 things that are proven scientifically to improve our wellbeing, and a great way to check in with how your life is going:

Connect                                         Be active

                      Take Notice

Keep Learning                               Give

So I took a look at how I had been doing in the last week or so:

• A friend’s birthday weekend ticked connecting and being active (walked up a big mountain) plus quietly taking notice of the freshness of the new leaves and the lambs.

• Dancing which, as well as being great exercise, involves lots of learning.
• And I ran a Lightning Process course, in which I was able to share with others (giving) these amazing tools. When I look at my life now I still have a sense of amazement sometimes that I wouldn’t have been able to do most of the above before I did the Lightning Process for my own health and wellbeing over 8 years ago.

What one thing could you introduce to your life this week, whether big or small, that could help you increase your sense of wellbeing?

Dealing with other people's negativity

Here are two good articles about handling other people's negative states of mind.

David Hamilton says in http://drdavidhamilton.com/how-to-deflect-negative-emotion/

"Just as you can catch a cold by hanging out with someone who has one, so you can actually catch emotion too.... You don't just catch emotion from others, you transmit emotion too. Other people catch what you are feeling. So if you want to help others to be happier, one of the best ways is to work on your own happiness. Then they will catch it from you." 

The second article looks at how it is possible to have too much empathy:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/out-the-darkness/201605/negative-empathy

An art lesson on acceptance

At an art workshop I did recently, the facilitator said something that got me thinking about our ideas of right and wrong, criticism, and acceptance. She challenged us to draw something that was in front of us, without rubbing any lines out. She suggested that we just accept all the lines we had drawn, without judgement.

She pointed out that if we draw a line 5 times in slightly different positions, one of them is likely to be where we want it to be. However, if we rub each of them out before we “try again to get it right”, we will lose the line we wanted as well as the ones we didn’t want. If, instead, we leave all the lines in and continue, at the end we can look at the whole effect, and we will have a whole range of lines to choose from.

All we need to do then is strengthen the line we choose. I discovered that doesn’t actually matter if we leave the “wrong” lines in, because our eye is so clever that it naturally creates shapes that make sense out of a set of lines on a page. And in fact, the most powerful art is often the most abstract or the least “accurate”, because then we find our own meaning in it.

I wonder where we are rubbing things in our lives because they don’t seem “right”, and how many opportunities we lose in the process?

Podcast: The Power of Seeing Things in a New Way

Here is my first podcast! It is about the importance of thinking about things in a different way. And I have been busy changing my thinking about my ability to make podcasts: it is actually surprisingly easy!

http://lightningprocessbristol.com/episode-5/