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.

If you would like to: "Unleash the blocked energy of stress and transform it into health, well-being, and creativity!", please come to my two day stress management workshop in Arkansas this summer.

1. Starting Line

A number of years ago I had a client who came to me in a really bad stressed out condition. He came for one session, and then the next thing I knew I was told he had had a nervous breakdown. As a courtesy I went and visited him in the hospital. When I walked into his room, although he looked rather weak, I was quite surprised to see that his face had a certain radiance to it that I had not seen previously. Somewhat tentatively I asked how he was doing, expecting to hear a lot of bad news. The man looked at me, smiled and said the following:

"I feel very lucky right now. Very blessed. I have let go of nearly everything I was trying to hold onto before, and I finally became aware of the mantra that I had been repeating to myself over and over again. I now jokingly call my old mantra "The mantra of doom and gloom." "What happened to me was so surreal." he said. I was sitting in an unemployment office waiting my turn to be seen, and I was feeling more and more agitated. Then all of a sudden I passed out. Or at least they told me I passed out because I don't remember that part. What I do remember is waking up in this bed here, and for the first time in my life, there was this deafening quiet inside my head, and a great calmness in my body that touched my soul. For the first time in my life, for at least a few minutes time I had no internal dialogue. This was a very amazing experience. I was no longer repeating my old mantra of doom and gloom. I decided right then and there I would consciously create a new mantra, a mantra that would help me to appreciate myself and my life. Had I known a nervous breakdown could feel this good I would have had one a long time ago!"

"You see," he said, "When I first came to see you I was afraid of losing my job, my wife, and my house. The thought of losing all of this had me in a state of terror, and I was relentlessly repeating various 'What if' mantras. 'What if I lose my job?' 'What if I lose my wife?'. As it turned out I did lose my job. And upon getting fired, because my finances were already totally frazzled, I soon had to hand over ownership of my house to the bank. And upon learning about the foreclosure on our house my wife immediately left me. And now I feel like a bright and energetic fourteen year old starting all over again! I have new dreams, new ways of thinking, a whole new life ahead of me now, and perhaps most importantly I have a new mantra."

"My only sadness is that I wish I would have had my nervous breakdown much earlier in life, so I could have much sooner gotten into living from a place of enthusiasm rather than a place of fear. I just didn't realize how fantastic a nervous breakdown could be! But all said and done, no regrets. I am here, I am alive and kicking, and all the worst is behind me. I have lost everything, but in the process I have gained a completely new way of being in the world. It is such a joy to know that I no longer need to live in fear."

I was so happy to hear what this man was saying. In the process of finally being released from the tyranny of "What if" he attained great wisdom and peace of mind. And since he no longer owned a house, he no longer had to spend two hours every Saturday afternoon in the summer cutting the lawn! After chatting a bit longer I finally got ready to leave. My ex-client said "One more thing if you don't mind me suggesting it. When a client comes to you all stressed out and fearful. Tell him to take a moment, and take a deep breath. Then go ahead and suggest that the best thing he can do is to have a nervous breakdown right then and there. There is no sense in prolonging the agony. Invite him to have his breakdown on the spot, so that he can get back into living a full life again, free from stress and fear! Believe me, the sooner you can completely let go, the better. In math, ten minus ten equals zero. In life, if you take everything that you have and minus all of it, you wind up with much more than you ever dreamed of!"

2. Main Course

My Concise Oxford Dictionary defines "mantra" as:
"A word or sound that is repeated to aid concentration during meditation." In Seishindo, depending on the topic we are discussing, we use two, more specific definitions of the term "mantra." 1. "A mantra is any word or sound that is willfully repeated in order to help organize or focus one's experience and attention." 2. "A mantra is an involuntarily repeated verbal response to one's perceived circumstances. It is any internal dialogue, sound, or word, that we are driven to repeat over and over again as a way of focusing and organizing our experience and attention."

In Seishindo we believe that we all have numerous mantras that we habitually repeat during the course of our everyday lives. Some of these mantras are helpful, and others detract from the quality of our lives. We also believe that much of our mantra making activity goes on outside the range of our conscious awareness.

In the past I have occasionally had people get a little shy or withdrawn when I mentioned the term mantra because they think it has something to do with a religious perspective. I want to emphasize that in Seishindo when we talk about mantras, in most instances we are talking about an every day occurrence that every human being takes part in, and not something special that only occurs when we are meditating or praying. The term "mantra" as mainly used in Seishindo is "A repetitive form of internal dialogue." Nothing more, and nothing less.

In this issue I want to look at how internal dialogue can turn into a mantra, because I believe that we tend to become who we are based on the repetitive statements that we make to ourselves.

"Ah, what a clumsy idiot I am!" "God, what a fool I am!" "I'll never be able to do this well." "Why am I always the one with the most problems?" The above negatively oriented statements of internal dialogue can easily turn into mantras that we repeat over and over again. Negative mantras tend to make us feel inept, stupid, nervous, hopeless, or just plain incapable. When our tendency is to use negatively oriented mantras, we will like ourselves when we do things "correctly" (which we will feel only happens infrequently) and we will beat ourselves up verbally when we make a mistake.

Mantras that orient us to a positive way of thinking and feeling will have a very different affect on the way we feel about ourselves and our capabilities. You want to use mantras that support you in making the changes you need to make, while maintaining a positive perspective about yourself. For instance, you can realize you DO have a lot of potential, even if you are not yet fully manifesting your potential. "Breathe, and start again." "Think different and feel different." "Slowly but surely." "One more time. I AM capable." The idea with positive oriented mantras, is to urge yourself on to being all that you can be, without needing to generate a bad feeling about yourself as an impetus to change.

The human intellect is a mighty power. We can use our intellect to conjure up scenarios of doom and gloom and then become paralyzed and do nothing but sit there and imagine the worst. Or, we can use our intellect in a much more generative manner and construct scenarios of a future that we would like to live in. If you would like to live your life with a greater sense of vitality and well being; If you would like to sense greater meaning in your life, and feel more connected to yourself and your everyday experience; I would suggest that you work with some of the Practices offered on the Seishindo website. Create some mantras for yourself that encourage you to organize and focus your attention in a way that leads to a sense of calmness and well-being.

Some of you might want to take a moment and make a decision right now. If you really find yourself short of time, resources, and inspiration, you might definitely be best off following the excellent advice of my ex-client: Have your nervous breakdown today, instead of waiting inexorably like a frightened deer frozen by the headlights of an unfriendly world. Have your nervous breakdown without first needing to lose what is near and dear to you. Once you let go of the massive amounts of energy that you have been holding onto, you will be free to live a life of hope and dignity. In the process, you might possibly wind up with less in the way of material goods, but much more than you ever dreamed of in regard to happiness, peace of mind, and fulfillment.

If you would like to have a first hand experience of the importance of mantras, you can join other of our subscribers and attend one of my workshops this summer, either in Wash. D.C in June, or San Diego in July. Please click on the links below for further information. Wash. DC: June 28, 29 "Body, Psyche, and Soul-Feeling into and Expressing Your Essential Self" San Diego: July 20, 21 "Structure, Movement, and Flow - The spontaneous expression of thoughts, feelings, and actions"

3. Prelude to Practicing

In all of the Seishindo Practices, it is suggested that you connect your breath, your heartbeat, and the micro movements of your head, neck and trunk, with your authentic desire. When your whole system enters into a state of harmony, you release excess energy and experience a state of living calmness.

In order to enter into this state of living calmness you need to slow down, notice your breath, and have a deeper sense of the rhythm of your system. Notice that even when you are sitting still your trunk and head are always moving at least a little bit. Becoming aware of and allowing this movement, while freeing your breath to flow in and out in a relaxed manner, will tend to lead towards a feeling of peace and inner security.

This feeling of peace and inner security is meant to be the base state that you begin each practice from.

4. Practice

The Practice for today is entitled "Heartbeat Mantra". The first stage of this Practice is exactly the same as the "Heartbeat Breath, Calming Breath" Practice which I previewed several newsletters ago. Everything you need for todays Practice is contained in the one document you can access by clicking below. Make sure you feel comfortable with the first stage of the Practice before commencing with the second stage. The whole process and the directions are actually quite simple.

5. Suggested Books and Music

Book: "Persuasive Online Copywriting" by Eisenberg, Eisenberg, Davis
I am getting a LOT of value out of this book. This book is excellent if you have a website, but it is also excellent if you need to write any kind of promotional copy whatsoever. For a very small price you can add tremendous value to whatever kind of promotional writing that you do.

CD: "A Different Space" Bob Holroyd
A very entertaining and eclectic range of electronic music. Some great upbeat stuff as well as slower pieces. I have taken this CD and separated out the slow music from the upbeat, and I use each disc according to the mood that I want to create.

6. Endnote

A reader recently contacted me with the following message:

"I was perplexed by a paragraph.in your last newsletter which said that when one's emotional state changes, one's body and thoughts change as well.But isnt it just the reverse of this? My understanding is that we change our emotional state by changing our toughts/beilefs and to a lesser degree our bodily state. I thought the way things work is that thoughts lead to emotions and emotions lead to behavior. I know there are feedback loops and obviously some interaction of these elements, but the key to changing ones behavior is to alter one's emotive energy by revising how we think/believe/picture reality."

My reply — Well yes there are feedback loops and yes there are many ways to think about how to change one's emotional state: In Seishindo work we find that one of the best ways to help a person change their emotional state is to help the person make sensitive changes to how (s)he uses their body. When you skillfully change the way you use your body you will have a major impact on how you feel. When you feel different you think and act different. This is one of the hallmarks of Seishindo. We approach one's emotional state through the body. People often spend years trying to change the way they think and believe, with little results. In Seishindo we believe that one of the reasons that people have difficulty changing the way they think and feel is because the body impedes such changes. Often after two or three sessions engaged in learning how to make the necessary somatic shifts, a person can achieve the results that were so elusive in the past. Subtle work but very powerful. You would need to see at least one session in order to have a beginning understanding. If you read through some of the articles on my site, what I am saying here will hopefully make more sense.

Thanks for taking the time to engage and ask.

7. 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.