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Serving a community of private individuals and professionals
who have the desire to cultivate a life of clarity, compassion,
and creativity. Your feedback is encouraged. Please contact
us at seishindo@seishindo.org.
1. Starting Line
If we are to thrive as well as survive, an overall sense
of calmness, and inner peace are crucial to our well being.
When we get to feeling and acting from a stressed out frame
of mind we quickly wind up feeling unhappy, desperate, and
lacking in confidence. In striving for material security in
times of great uncertainty many of us seem to have given up
the hope for a lifestyle that we are comfortable with. It
seems that somehow we have lost our sense of inner security,
while striving for material security. Indeed it seems that
a lack of inner wealth leads people to ever more frantically
search for material wealth. Feeling a deep need, a deep yearning,
we often try to fill the void with "something else".
Recently my lovely Japanese mother-in-law was at our house
and we were talking about all of the uncertainty in the world.
Iraq, SARS, and lots of other stuff. In her usual low key
style she said to me "As long as you don't forget how to work
hard, everything will turn out OK." Perhaps a rather simple
statement, but I immediately felt a greater sense of security
because I do indeed know how to work hard when necessary.
(Other than housework that is!)
For about thirty years after World War II, my in-laws owned
a traditional Japanese inn. They got up about 4AM every morning
to go to the wholesale fish and food markets, and they often
worked through til 10PM or later. And... (imagine dramatic
music playing) they kept this schedule 300 days a year!!!
Yes, seven days a week, week in and week out, and they took
one five day vacation at the end of the summer every year.
It was from this kind of work ethic that the Japanese "economic
miracle" was born. It was birthed on the backs of many hard
working every day people. So yes, if we have the spirit to
work hard and persevere the need for fear about the future
is lessened.
Another member of my wife's family also offers us a wonderful
perspective in regard to fear and stress. Much of Tokyo was
destroyed by the U.S. bombing during World War II. My wife's
grandmother tells about having to go to a nearby park every
night and immersing herself up to her chin in a large pond,
with many other people also doing the same thing. People went
to the park because the U.S. forces would bomb in the evening,
and there were so many wooden structure buildings that sparks
were flying everywhere as if a huge all encompassing fireworks
display was taking place. The only safe place to be was submerged
up to your chin in a cold, dirty pond. Grandma says when it
was cold outside, as she was crouching in the cold water she
would search out with her eyes, a fire raging somewhere in
the distance. She would look at the fire and stare at it until
she felt like she was almost a part of it. She would begin
to feel how hot it was close to the fire, and how lucky she
was to have the pond to cool her off some.
How about you? Do you sometimes feel the water has risen up
to your chin and you are wondering if you will make it or
not? Do you wonder if after a while you will get tired and
stop swimming and start sinking? How about taking a moment
and just floating? How about realizing how lucky you are to
know how to swim in the first place, and how crucial the water
is to your overall safety. How about being like my wife's
grandmother and realizing that you are in the water for your
own safety. You are exactly where you should be, it is just
that you are not necessarily where you planned on being.
2. Main Course
Stress is a topic that I will write about in numerous newsletters.
"But what exactly is stress?" you might ask. There is no simple
answer to this question. Basically we experience what is called
"stress" when we feel under attack, out of control, or like
something "bad" is about to happen. Fear and stress are strongly
related.
Stress tends to send the immune system into an overactive
and over reactive state. When our system feels fear/under
attack the pituitary gland is triggered and a hormone called
ACTH is released. ACTH then stimulates the adrenal glands
to release another hormone called cortisol. Cortisol has come
to be known as "the stress hormone" but it also plays an important
role in the regulation of blood pressure and cardiovascular
function as well as regulation of the body's use of proteins,
carbohydrates, and fats. In short when cortisol levels rise,
the body is preparing for fight or flight. When this preparation
process goes on for the major portion of every day, one of
the results is that the immune system becomes "tired" and
stops functioning as well as it could. Think of it this way.
If you had a security guard standing in front of your house
for protection, and only allowed him four hours of sleep a
night, you would soon find that his ability to protect you
was lessening on a daily basis. This is basically what happens
to our immune system when it is constantly preparing for various
mishaps and tragedies. Given enough overwork and lack of rejuvenation,
just like the security guard, your immune system can become
confused and actually start attacking you. This is what occurs
in auto-immune diseases.
When we encounter a relationship or situation that we are
expecting to go badly, our system prepares for a potential
attack. in the following manner:
1. Our heart beats faster.
2. Our blood pressure increases.
3. Various muscles begin to
twitch on and off.
4. We perspire more.
5. Our breathing quickens and
becomes more shallow.
6. Our self talk (internal
dialogue) speeds up and often literally seems to get louder
inside our head.
And now for the Good News! We have a very similar set of reactions
when encountering a relationship or set of circumstance that
we are expecting to be exciting and or highly rewarding. Why
is this good news? Hang on a moment and you will understand.
When scientists measure the first five reactions as listed
above they find it impossible to know whether a person is
getting stressed out or excited. It is the last two reactions
in this list (breath and internal dialogue) that allow us
to differentiate between stress and excitement. This to me
is VERY fascinating and also inspirational. A number of years
ago, Fritz Perls, the man who is credited as being one of
the main developers of Gestalt Therapy said, "Anxiety is excitement
minus a sufficient amount of oxygen." Modern science is now
led to the very same conclusion. Developing the ability to
gently control one's breathing pattern and internal dialogue
is a set of skills that is well within everyone's reach. Change
the way you breathe and talk to yourself and you will change
your body chemistry and neurological responses. Change your
body chemistry and neurological responses and you will transform
anxiety into excitement, and fear of the unknown into curiosity
about the future.
How about you, are there a number of situations in your life
that you would like to transform from anxious to exciting?
Rather than having fear in regard to the future, would you
prefer to have a robust curiosity? I am guessing that for
most people the answer to these questions is "Yes."
If stress is a concern for you in regard to your own health,
or the health of those that you care for and care about, please
read further and take it upon yourself to engage in some of
the Seishindo
Practices.
3. Prelude to Practicing
If you are learning how to drive a car, please don't do so
out on a busy highway. If you are practicing your golf swing,
please do so way before the tournament begins. If you are
practicing in regard to learning how to transform stress into
excitement, please do so in a safe private space, and if at
all possible please do not wait for a crisis to occur before
beginning your practice.
Many if not all of the Seishindo
Practices are helpful in reducing stress and fostering
a more relaxed attitude towards life. Many if not all of our
Practices can be considered a form of Self-Hypnosis.
The Seishindo Practices will help you change your habitual
non-productive reactions to the world. The Practices will
help you change the way you prepare and organize for life.
When you prepare and organize differently, you will begin
to change your expectations. When you change your expectations
you will already have gone a long way towards transforming
anxiety into excitement.
I presented a Practice in our sixth newsletter that is entitled.
"Katsugen
Undo". This exercises comes from the Japanese discipline
of Sei
Tai, and it is excellent for releasing excess energy.
When you release excess energy you short circuit a stressful
reaction before it gets a head of steam.
Today's Practice is entitled "Somatic
Self-Hypnosis" and it is also quite helpful in doing away
with stressful reactions. This practice is built around one
of the key concepts of Seishindo: When you have a habit that
you are not able to change, find a way to "Do it MORE and
do it better" than you are currently doing it. This means
that in a creative manner you take some of the components
of your currently problematic behavior and use these very
components to help you achieve greater satisfaction in your
life.
Here is what I mean in regard to today's Practice: In general
maintaining a state of stress means that we need to be out
of balance physically as well as mentally, and that we need
to tense up various muscle groups. Since this is what helps
to promote stress this is exactly what we will do as part
of this Practice. The difference between this Practice and
what you do when you are actually feeling stressed out is
that during our Practice we will breathe in ample amounts
of oxygen, and we will speak to ourselves slowly and lovingly.
Five components of your "bad habit" stay the same, and two
components change. Let's see what kind of results we get!
4. Practice
"Somatic
Self-Hypnosis: Do it more and do it better"
This practice is rather unique, yet still quite simple to
perform. In order to make the instructions as clear as possible,
the instructions read quite a bit longer than when I teach
this Practice in person. Because of this, I have decided to
direct you to our website so that you can read the Practice
from there. I think that you will find the Practice easier
to read and follow when you go to the website, as the formatting
of the text is cleaner and easier to read. Please DO take
part in this exercise if you have the time, because most people
find it quite interesting and at least a tiny bit surprising.
5. Links
Since we have so many new subscribers, I want to once again
introduce my friend and colleague Molly Gordon.
The inspiration for the "Pure Heart Simple Mind" newsletter
comes from her excellent newsletter. I was amazed and inspired
to learn that Molly had garnered more than 10,000 subscribers
in her first three years of operation.
Check her site out - "Live
on Purpose and Prosper"
Molly Gordon is a highly successful business and marketing
coach, and she helps people connect their purpose with the
prosperity they desire. Visit her website to subscribe to
her free weekly email newsletter, and to view lots of other
great information that her site houses.
6. Suggested Books and Music
Book
"At Home in the Universe"
by Stuart Kauffman Not at all a simple read, but a fantastic
one nonetheless. If you like to think about chaos, evolution,
and your place in the universe, then you will find this book
VERY interesting.
CD
"One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism"
Aretha Franklin
This is a ROCKING gospel album! Aretha at her glorious best.
7. Endnote and Invitation
We invite you to send in
A) Questions and comments relating
to what you read here.
B) Experiences that relate
to the "Practices" presented.
C) The names of books/music/services/products, etc.
you feel might be of interest to the Seishindo community.
Please include a short write-up about your selections. Let
us know whether or not it is OK to have your name appear with
the information you share. We will do our best to address
most if not all input. Please send all input to seishindo@seishindo.org.
8. Copyright
Unless otherwise attributed, all material for the newsletter
"Pure Heart, Simple Mind"(tm) is written and edited by Charlie
Badenhop ©. All rights reserved.
You may reprint, copy, or distribute "Pure Heart, Simple Mind”
(tm) provided you: a. Receive our written permission (which
is likely). b. Attach the above copyright notice to our material.
c. Do not sell our material to others. d. Keep the content
of our material intact without any editing whatsoever.
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