Thursday, June 27, 2013

3 Ways to Practice the Mental Healing Power of Movement

3 Ways to Practice the Mental Healing Power of Movement

 

You know that eating an apple a day will keep the doctor away—as well as the cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. Our bodies were designed to consume nutrition and then burn off those calories. But in this computer-based, sedentary world, many of us continue to eat but don’t move nearly enough – and we may pay a price in forsaking the healing power of movement.

Your digestive system uses movement to assist in moving food through passageways. Movement increases blood circulation, which increases oxygen to cells, which may help detoxify the body. But movement isn’t just healing to the body. The power of movement can also help heal the mind.

The Healing Power of Movement – Fast or Slow the Benefits Are Many

 

The art of mindfulness, or living “in the moment,” is thought to reduce stress and assist in developing clarity of thought. Living mindfully can help you cut back on calories, keep you calm when others rage, and when practiced along with slow deliberate movement, help improve your overall sense of wellbeing. Exercise has long been known to release mood-boosting chemicals in the brain, so while you’re improving your strength & endurance, you’re also creating more feel-good neurotransmitters. Movement can also be an important part of a weight management program, and losing a few excess pounds may make you very happy indeed!
Here are three ways, through simple exercise, to use the healing power of movement for improved mental & spiritual health:
  • The slowest walk you’ll ever take: One principle of the practice of mindfulness is to be aware at all times of your body and mind, your position in space, and your location. But how can you get used to staying in the moment – not thinking about a conversation you had earlier, what’s on TV later, or tomorrow’s meeting? The answer may be to take it one step at a time, literally.  Use deep, meditative breathing to set your pace. As you inhale, take a small step with your right foot. Hold the air in your lungs and just focus on where you are, how you feel, and what your body is doing. As you exhale, take a step with your left foot. Let your empty lungs relax completely for a moment as you focus on the here and now. When you need to inhale again, do so gently, as you move your right foot forward. It may look odd to outsiders, but mindful walking is an extraordinary experience for the walker. Consider practicingTai Chi which in many ways epitomizes the artful blend of mindfulness and movement.
  • The oddest shapes you’ll ever make: Yoga is a popular mind-body exercise that has been around for centuries.Yoga incorporates meditative breathing with fun stretches and positions that tone your muscles while releasing your stress. For yoga to be beneficial the mind must be clear and you must be focused in the present moment.  Yogamovements are thought to have healing powers for many ailments. Certain positions are designed to improve different organ functions, including lung capacity and circulation. The mindfulness aspect of yoga allows you enough time between positions to truly feel your body: which muscles are contracting, which are stretching, and how it feels. You’ll be more in tune with your sense of balance and your body in space.
  • The best groove you’ll ever shake: Dancing is a popular and delightful mind-body healing exercise. Dancing is fun because dancers can get lost in the music. You might not even realize you’ve been getting a full cardio workout! Dancing has been part of rituals in many cultures and continues to be popular in clubs and studios around the world—but you can “dance like there’s nobody watching” in the privacy of your own home.  You may want to select instrumental music so you won’t have words to distract you. Classical, electronic, or tribal music are excellent dance music. Don’t focus on any specific dance “steps” at first—just move your body in whatever way feels most natural. Even if you find your mind wandering and you struggle to stay in the moment while you dance, you will still reap the healing rewards of physical movement. Move serenely, eyes closed, to classical or jazz songs—or put on some happy tunes and shake it like you stole it! If you feel completely clumsy and clueless, find some online videos that show you beginner steps for aerobic dance or Zumba and follow along to get started. Be sure your healthcare provider gives you the go-ahead to do anything aerobic.
Remember, you can’t resolve the things that are worrying your mind if you just sit and stew about them. There is a healing power to movement, so get moving! Take a walk, whether fast or slow the benefits are many. Take a yoga class, or crank out the jams. If you stay in motion, movement may heal your mind.

Tiger Iron Gemstone

In Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese art of placement, spiritual values that once were regarded as entirely personal have taken on wider importance. Now many people are interested in creating harmony and balance in the workplace, too. And that's most often done through color. That's a big part of tiger iron's spiritual power. Its balance comes from the combination of yellow (earth colors) and black/dark brown (water colors). Because yellow is also associated with communication and dark colors with independence and strong self-discipline, you can give others a strong, clear message when you wear it. 






Tiger Iron is a combination of Haematite, Jasper and Tigers Eye. It is a stone of vitality believed to bring energy, strength, confidence, willpower and motivation.
Tiger Iron is said to be beneficial for those who are deeply exhausted and drained by taking on other people’s feelings and emotions. It is also valuable for those suffering from emotional or mental burnout or family stress.
Tiger Iron encourages and supports change, giving you the energy to take the necessary action. It is also a creative and artistic stone believed to bring out hidden talents and to help with creative endeavours
In healing Tiger Iron is thought to be beneficial for the blood and for balancing the red white cell count. It is also believed to increase natural steroids and muscle strength and to aid iron and vitamin B absorption

Monday, June 17, 2013

Top 10 paranormal abilities.


This list is a look at some of the abilities people claim to have that science can not verify – or oftentimes, even witness. The list should be taken with a grain of salt. In no particular order, the top 10 paranormal abilities.
1. Psychokinesis
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Psychokinesis is also known as Telekinesis and mind over matter, and it is the ability to move or manipulate objects with the mind. This, in combination with pyrokinesis (item 5) is the ability that Carrie White had in the excellent book and movie adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie. Of all the items in this list, I would say this is the one that most people would love to have. It would make the television remote defunct and we could basically sit on our butts all day long and do nothing! The position normally taken by scientists and skeptics is that any apparent evidence of this ability is the result of fraud. Many books claim to help you learn this ability and they often contain exercises to help. For example, you may be told to throw a dice repeatedly whilst trying to control the number that comes up. Unfortunately, this creates the psychological state of illusion of control, in which a person comes to believe they are influencing the dice, when in fact, on every roll they have a 1 in 6 chance that their number will come up. One famous person who claims to have this ability is Uri Gellar, who is well known for his spoon bending trick in which he would (apparently) gently rub a spoon just beneath the bowl and the spoon would twist or turn. In fact, skeptics have been able to mimic this trick with great success and no claim to having supernatural abilities.
2. Extra Sensory Perception
Zener
Extra Sensory Perception, or ESP, is the ability to gather information without the use of the 5 senses (hence it is also sometimes called sixth sense). ESP is often tested with a deck of 25 cards called Zener cards. Familiar to most people, these cards comprise a deck of 5 patterns, a circle, a square, a triangle, a set of squiggly lines, and a plus. Two people participate; one views the cards one by one, and the other attempts to “see” the card with the power of the mind. Again, there is a 1 in five chance that you will guess the card correctly, so it is not a particularly useful method of proof. Of course your odds improve with every card produced if you are told whether your guess was correct, as you can use card counting. The cards are also used in tests of telepathy when the viewer does not just record the shape on the card for verification, but attempts to “transmit” the shape to the other person. On average, most people guess right about 20% of the time.
3. Telepathy
Extrasensoryperception
Telepathy is the ability to communicate with others with the mind. Within the field of parapsychology this is considered to be a form of ESP. Most often telepathy occurs spontaneously in incidents of crisis where a relative or friend has been injured or killed in an accident. An individual is aware of the danger to the other person from a distance. Such information seems to come in different forms as in thought fragments, like something is wrong; in dreams, visions, hallucinations, mental images, in clairaudience, or in words that pop into the mind. Often such information causes the person, the receiver, to change is course of action, such as changing his travel plans or daily schedule, or to just call or contact the other person. Some incidents involve apparent telepathy between humans and animals.
4. Clairvoyance
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Clairvoyance is the transfer of information without the use of the senses – it differs from telepathy in that there is no transfer of information from one person to another. Clairvoyants often say that the information comes from the spirit world. A related ability is called Clairaudience – which is the ability to internally hear information that is passed from the dead. A very famous clairaudient was Doris Stokes, a British spiritualist. Current thinking among proponents of clairvoyance posits that most people are born with clairvoyant abilities but then start to subliminate them as their childhood training compels them to adhere to acceptable social norms. Numerous institutes offer training courses that attempt to revive the clairvoyant abilities present in those early years
5. Pyrokinesis
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Pyrokinesis is the ability to ignite or extinguish fires with the mind. In yet another book by Stephen King, Firestarter, the main character, a young girl, has this ability. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that this ability is real, though many people involved in the field of parapsychology believe it exists. There may be a connection between this alleged ability and the various reports of spontaneous human combustion.

6. Psychometry
Psychometry
Psychometry is the ability to “read” information from objects. For example, a psychometrist may hold a watch or wallet belonging to a person they do not know, and by concentrating on the object, garner information about the person’s past, present, or future. The concept of psychometry is a popular theme for stage act and Séance; with participants being asked to provide a personal object to be “read” by a medium or psychic. It was used as the basis for Johnny Smith’s visions in Stephen King’s 1979 novel The Dead Zone and its subsequent 2002 television adaption.
7. Precognition
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This is the ability to foresee events. It was precognition that the famous American Psychic Jeane Dixon. She is best known for allegedly predicting the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the May 13, 1956, issue of Parade Magazine she wrote that the 1960 presidential election would be “dominated by labor and won by a Democrat” who would then go on to “[B]e assassinated or die in office though not necessarily in his first term.” She later admitted, “During the 1960 election, I saw Richard Nixon as the winner.” Nixon held her in such high regard that he ordered preparations for a terrorist attack she had predicted. She was also one of a number of psychics who gave advice to Nancy Reagan during the Reagan Administration.
8. Bilocation
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Bilocation is the alleged ability to be in two places at the same time. St Pio of Pietrelcina, the famous stigmatic, was said to have this ability. It is said to be a physical, rather than spiritual ability, which makes it different from astral projection. Friends of Aliester Crowley, the occultist, claimed that he had this ability, though in situations were he was meant to have bilocated, he was unaware of it. Although it is uncommon, bilocation is an ancient phenomenon. It is claimed to have been experienced, and even practiced by will, by mystics, ecstatics, saints, monks, holy persons, and magical adepts. This is also normally the explanation given for the tales of people appearing to loved ones just prior to their death.
9. Postcognition
Psych 1
Postcognition is the opposite of precognition; it is the ability to see an event after it has occurred. This is probably the most widely used ability in modern days as many police forces invite psychics to assist them on difficult unsolved cases. This ability has been yet another topic of a Stephen King novel, the Dead Zone, in which the main character is able to see bad aspects of a person’s past from touching them or an object belonging to them. While there has often been some success with postcognitive visions in criminal investigations, it is still generally considered to be the result of hoax or fraud perpetrated by a person who has done research in to the crime, enabling them to give broad enough description to seem legitimate.
10. Astral Projection
Proj2
Astral projection is the ability to spiritually separate from your body and travel vast distances with the mind alone. It differs from bilocation in that the second body is a spirit body. The concept of astral projection has been familiar for thousands of years, dating back to ancient China and other ancient cultures. A great deal of skepticism exists around this ability due to the fact that the only evidence is the word of the person claiming to be able to project. A study done by Dr. Charles Tart tentatively concluded that astral projection may have objective validity. For example, in a 1967 study, a subject was not able to discover a five digit number written down and placed face up in an adjoining room, but did provide some details of the activities of the technician monitoring the experiment. Tart summarizes, “Thus, there is some indication that ESP may have been involved with respect to the technician’s activities, but it is not at all conclusive.”
Notable omissions: Aura reading
Sources: Wikipedia

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