Solstice Full Moon and Positive Affirmations

The Solstice full moon beaming down over the cross at the top of the Basilique Notre-Dame Montreal.

It was an amazing and special sight to see.

There are NO limitations to your possibilities.
You create your own vision and so the promise of what life has to offer is limited only by your thoughts.

Negative thoughts draw more negative energy to you; however it is possible to create a healthier mind and body simply by changing the way that you think. Choosing encouraging and upbeat thoughts create a pattern of behavior that greatly assist you in creating a life that is healthy and a pleasure to experience.

Carry an affirmative phrase with you every day to remind you to stay optimistic.

Affirmations

My vision is clear
My positive thoughts create a positive image of what I desire for my life.
I love and accept myself.
I am in a constant state of fulfillment.
I am filled with energy to do all the daily activities in my life.

Creating Opportunities

To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive.   Robert Louis Stevenson

Manifesting and Intending
As the end of the year approaches there can be a feeling of completion, the energy of withdrawal, or anticipation of what lies ahead in the New Year.
This is also a wonderful time to apply reflection and introspection followed by manifesting and intending in order to welcome what lies ahead with open arms.

There are NO limitations to your possibilities. With a vast array of promise and potential to choose from, ask yourself if you are shrinking from what you really want because you are making mediocre choices based on what you think that you deserve.

Reset your energy and use it to let go of preconceptions that hold you back and instead view the myriad of opportunities that exist as a turning point to achieve what you didn’t think was possible.
Finding true meaning and value in your life occurs by looking deep within, shedding what you are done with, and identifying your innate abilities.

Create a turning point in your life by using your inner fire to stoke your ideas and carry you forward with a passion.
Surprise yourself with what you are capable of achieving.

Know that you can dare yourself to overcome perceived obstacles and succeed by action. Fill your life with enthusiastic people who will stand beside you and behind you and encourage you to grow.
Live your life free from anger, doubt, and guilt and overflowing with love, happiness, and the wisdom of your past experiences.

The future is filled with exciting opportunities.
Make your thoughts as wonderful and extraordinary as YOU are, and see the transformation that occurs.

Affirmation

My life is overflowing with joy and peace

I am clear on my intentions and my goals

My ideas are flowing and opportunities present themselves

I have what I need to accomplish all that I desire

I love and I am loved

I delight in sharing

I feel wonderful

Meditation, Soldiers, and You

 Meditation is a proven method for inner peace

Meditation and Soldiers
According to the David Lynch foundation an estimated 30-35% of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer from the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD.

When an event is shocking and severe it can cause physiological changes in the brain. The trauma and stress is still carried around by the soldiers months and even years after their tour of duty has ended, with soldiers re-experiencing the smells and sounds of the traumatic event and creating stress that compounds over time.

Operation Warrior Wellness
Their minds are in a state of heightened activation, stress, and aggressiveness and while medication can alleviate some symptoms, the underlying stress still remains.
David Lynch’s organization is teaching Transcendental Meditation to soldiers in a program called Operation Warrior Wellness and the soldiers report experiencing “resilience, strength, and internal hardiness.”

Stress-Relief
Stress is relieved enabling individuals to talk about and cope with their feelings and to successfully get through their day without turning to alcohol, gambling, or other methods of self-medication that are used in order to escape from what is re-occurring in the mind.

Meditation is an evidence-based approach to provide deep relaxation that is deeper than sleep. During meditation, practitioners experience deep feelings of relaxation and relief from stress. Deep relaxation allows soldiers to sleep better, enabling their daily activities to be performed better. Moreover, it allows the individuals to return to an active and productive life.

During meditation, the mind withdraws from the information gathered from the senses permitting a fullness of relaxation.

Awareness of Self
The Self emerges and you realize that you are not the body, nor are you the mind. This realization of the Self enables discernment to emerge and with it comes heightened intuition.

Relaxation achieved during meditation is profound and the mind and body find the method so beneficial that it wants to keep repeating the experience. Research shows that even after the first session, there are both positive chemical and physiological changes occurring in the brain and that the experience is not merely subjective.

No one has control over your thoughts except yourself. Your hope, wishes, even your imagination are all within your own power to direct their energy in one path or another. The mind cannot discern between what it has actually seen and what it is seeing via your imagination.

Meditation is a simple yet proven method to attain release from acute and chronic stress, even severe stress as in PTSD.

Living a Happy Life
Life is not about what you think may happen in the future. Life is about enjoying the journey of daily creativity and loving experiences, of focusing on the beauty of life, of filling your life with positive experiences through books, music, and the right people who uplift you with their happiness and attitude.

Meditation is a unique practice that provides relief from stress and immediate benefits that will enable you to enjoy life to its fullest.

Releasing Barriers to Peace
Self-inquiry via meditation helps you identify barriers to peace and to see that they are dependent upon the senses for their fuel. You can release all obstructions by permanently taking away the energy source and putting a permanent damper on the obstacles that threaten to ignite when the environment is right. So, what lies buried beneath the ashes in your life?

Affirmations

My thoughts are creating the reality that I desire

My imagination creates what I believe

My affirmations are creating habits in keeping with my objectives

I am now achieving my goals

Breathe Deep! The Power of Your Breath

Power Of The Yoga Breath
A 2006 study on the effects of pranayama (yoga rhythmic breathing) in patients with severe COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) examined forty eight patients randomly divided (24 each) into two groups.
The study group patients were trained to do pranayama daily, six times a week, for 3 months for at least half an hour duration and both the groups were allowed to continue with their usual physical activity and medications.

Pranayama consisted of six breathing exercises: Bhastika Pranayama,'Kapalabhati Pranayama, Vhasya pranayama, Anulom-Vilom pranayama, Bhramid pranayama and Udgeedh pranayama.

Lung function tests, spirometry, and blood gases were taken and compared with the control group.

Amazing Results
The results showed that there was improvement in the lung function parameters in the study group which in turn had an overall positive effect on the patients. “Patients had reduced symptoms, became more actively involved in their own health care, more independent in performing their daily activities, increased exercise tolerance and therefore were less dependent on family, friends, health professionals, and expensive medical resources. There was improvement in the psychological function of the patient with less anxiety and depression and increased feeling of hope, control and self- esteem.”

The researchers concluded that yogic breathing is a “noncompetitive, personal, inexpensive and enjoyable activity which can produce truly amazing results.”

Your Breath
Your feelings and emotions correspond to your thoughts and actions and the subsequent flow of the breath.

Yoga philosophy teaches that where the breath goes the mind follows and vice-versa, highlighting the distinct relationship between how you breathe and your individual physical and spiritual well-being.

The average body takes approximately 21,600 breaths every day, which equates to 15 breaths per minute. We are all breathing but all too often the breath becomes held, rapid, or uneven in response to events that either exist in the mind or are actually happening in the present moment. These events include, fear, laughter, and even stress.

Maintaining a full and steady breathing pattern not only benefits the mind and body by promoting a relaxed physical state and clear decision-making but there is also an abundant supply of oxygen to ensure completion of daily tasks while the cells of the body are nurtured and stale waste products are eliminated, ensuring better overall health.

Connecting with the flow of the breath is also a spiritual tool that draws you closer to the quiet place within while acting as a means by which to train the mind to maintain a single-pointed focus.
Conscious awareness is further strengthened by concentration on the rhythmic breath.

Simple Techniques to Practice
Awareness of each of the senses, and whether one is more active than the other, assists you in not only regulating the flow, rate, and rhythm of the breath, but helps you to make better choices in relation to the thoughts that you produce and their impact on you and your surroundings.

You can embrace the senses and the breath when you are walking outside, perhaps in a park, the beach, or the countryside. Synchronize each inhale and exhale with each step while noticing what you hear, feel, smell, see, and touch. As each step becomes linked with each breath, you can cease the awareness of the senses and draw closer to the rhythmic flow of the breath.

You can also link the breath and step with an affirmation or with each word of your affirmation.

Breath Affirmation
Affirmations are a proven and powerful method of changing the way the mind thinks and creating a positive (or negative) outcome.

1. Recognize what you want.
2. Create language that affirms what you want.
3. By repeating and believing what you have written, the mind will gradually replace the outdated patterns and images with ones that support you in achieving a new reality.

I fill my body with light

I release all impurities

I am free and strong

Or you can try the following method:

With each inhalation I breathe in ….(add a word)

With each exhalation I breathe out …(add a word)

Role of Pranayama in Rehabilitation of COPD patients - a Randomized
Controlled Study. S K Katiyar, Shailesh Bihari
Dept. of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases Dr. Murari Lai Chest Hospital
G.S.V.M. Medical College, Kanpur
Indian J Allergy Asthma Immunol 2006; 20(2) : 98-104

Fallen Millie's Christmas Song "Want to Be"

Instead of the regular blog posting I'm so happy to share with you the following information on my niece Amy's band Fallen Millie.
Their first single is set for the UK Christmas charts and if you are looking for an uplifting Christmas story of hope that will put your faith back in teenagers, this is it.
A brief sample of their song is at the end of today's posting.
Here is their official press release and photograph from their single.

‘WANT TO BE’

 FITTING A CHRISTMAS HIT

IN WITH OUR GCSEs

Five school girls from North London are aiming for the Christmas No. 1 with a festive song.

'Want To Be (Under Your Christmas Tree)' by Fallen Millie was released on iTunes on 29th November.

It’s an unashamedly Christmassy and hopeful record. Recorded for fun because, as Fallen Millie say, “Christmas records should be about Christmas!”

From the stage that launched Amy Winehouse and Alexandra Burke.

Fallen Millie – Amy, Brooke, Franky, Tash and Yasmin – all met at ‘open mic’ vocal nights at the Bull Theatre in Barnet, North London. The same venue where Alexandra Burke used to sing and Amy Winehouse trained.

The girls are all still at school – aged 15 and 16 – and doing their GCSEs at the moment.

“We want to make records we love and to send out our own positive messages,” say Fallen Millie.

“We have unique voices and very different personalities, but somehow we all gel together. We’re not a girl band – we’re a band of girls who love singing together. And we’re having the time of our lives!”

‘Want to Be (Under your Christmas Tree)’ by Fallen Millie is available on iTunes and all good on-line digital retailers.

Fallen Millie are available for appearances and interviews.

Fallen Millie Christmas Song "Want to Be"

Contact Susi Earnshaw Management for further information or contact me and I'll have the management team get in touch with you.