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Anxiety / Stress News From Medical News Today
Development Of New Scale To Measure Anxiety Outcomes
A new questionnaire and outcomes measurement scale developed by the department of psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital has proven to be a reliable and valid measure of anxiety. The scale can easily be incorporated into routine clinical practice when treating psychiatric disorders. The study appears online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry...
Massage Eases Anxiety, But No Better Than Simple Relaxation Does
A new randomized trial shows that on average, three months after receiving a series of 10 massage sessions, patients had half the symptoms of anxiety. This improvement resembles that previously reported with psychotherapy, medications, or both...
Novel Program Translates Behavioral And Social Science Research Into Treatments To Reduce Obesity
Under a $7.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Rush University Medical Center is developing a novel program, called WISHFIT, to help pre-menopausal women reduce visceral fat through a sustained increase in physical activity and reduction in stress...
Basic Meditation Exercises
The Scream (or The Cry), Edvard Munch, (1893)
Edvard Munch, born Dec. 12, 1863, Löten, Norway, died Jan. 23, 1944, Ekely,
near Oslo.
His evocative and intense portrayal of emotional and psychological subjects was a major influence on the development of German Expressionism in the early 20th century.
The Scream (or The Cry) (1893), is probably his most familiar work, characteristic
in its tormented expression of isolation and anxiety it is considered to be
an icon of existential suffering.
 
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Anxiety is the result of either a) not believing you can achieve your goals successfully or b) having a fear of not achieving your goals. Either can stop .....
Now that you've begun to develop the ability to move energy around in your body there are some things that you can do with it. The following exercises range from pretty simple to pretty complicated, but as you develop your abilities you'll eventually find that you can do them all at once and effortlessly. It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years to develop this ability, so remember what I said about expectations.
Grounding
Grounding will always be an important skill, no matter how 'advanced' you become, so take the time to learn this now and to be able to do it effortlessly.
Stand in the 'Standing Stake' pose described above. Go through the breathing and Full Body Awareness exercises. Visualize roots growing from your feet down through the core of the earth, just like a tree. In later meditations you can add some variety by seeing the roots flow down to a large crystal at the earth's core. Depending on the effect you want you can vary the crystals and access different energies, but that obviously beyond the scope of this exercise.
As you inhale feel the energy of the earth being drawn up through your roots and up through your body and out through the top of your head.
On your exhale, let that energy drop back down through your body and feel all the accumulated stress of your life flow out with it and back down through your roots and into the earth. Feel your muscles relax as the stress flows out. This is a good way to release all your stresses, fears, angers and feelings of inadequacy. Repeat this exercise for awhile, as many times as necessary to clean yourself out.
There's nothing wrong (and a lot of benefit) to stopping at this point and just doing these exercises that we've learned up to this point, until they become completely effortless. Whenever you feel yourself stressed or angry learn to take a moment and ground yourself and let those feelings just flow out.
Progressive Relaxation
Progressive Relaxation is easy to do and you can do it anywhere and anytime.
Assume your meditation position of choice (I like the half-lotus on a zafu) and go through all the exercises I've covered up to this point. Now just take a moment and feel the relaxed energy that you should have after grounding and releasing all your stress. Are you ready to get deeper into this feeling'
Feel the energy that flows up through your roots and into your feet. Now make 'fists' with your feet by curling your toes in as far as you can until it hurts, then relax. Now let that relaxed feeling flow from your toes back over your feet and feel them relax.
As you inhale draw that relaxed feeling up over your ankles and feel them relax completely. On the exhale let any residual stress flow back out and down through the earth.
On your next inhale draw that relaxed feeling back up over your calves, letting them relax after walking all day.
Too much sleep' are you kidding' There's no such thing these days is there' With today's fast paced lifestyle there's barely enough time to grab enough sleep let alone too much .....
As you inhale feel that relaxed feeling flow up over your hips and buttocks. Feel the stress bleed away. We store a lost of stress here, so take a moment and let this area relax.
Now draw that relaxed feeling up over your stomach and lower back. Feel the muscles in your back relax and feel your stomach move with your inhale.
Bring the energy up over your chest and the middle of your back. Feel your heart area expand with the relaxed energy and feel all the accumulated stress in between your shoulder blades release and flow out and back down with your exhale.
Draw the feeling of relaxation up over your shoulders and neck. Feel any residual tension flow out with your exhale.
Now let that relaxed energy flow up and over your head. Let the muscles of your face and those at the base of your skull relax.
Now just sit here and feel this relaxed body that you have. Remember this feeling as its how you should feel all the time. Tense muscles store energy, which means that your energy isn't flowing through you, but rather sticking in certain places in your body.
Copyright ' Jan Tincher - All Rights reserved
http://www.tameyourbrain.com
Are you taking one step forward .....
About the Author
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Robert Morgen is a Reiki Master who currently holds a Black Belt in Hoshin Roshi Ryu and founded High Mountain Hoshin in Denver, CO.
He travels and teaches as much as possible and you can find out how to attend one of his Kundalini Awakening seminars at his website at;
http://www.windhavenco/events.html
His new book Personal Mastery: Develop your true internal power by awakening your kundalini will be released in June 2005.