Meditations and Exercises To Reduce Stress
from "Positive Energy" by Judith Orloff MD
Dr. Orloff’s Ten Prescriptions for Positive Energy
The First Prescription: Awaken Your Intuition and Rejuvenate Yourself
The Second Prescription: Find a Nurturing Spiritual Path
The Third Prescription: Design an Energy-Aware Approach to Diet, Exercise, and Health
The Fourth Prescription: Generate Positive Emotional Energy to Counter Negativity
The Fifth Prescription: Develop a Heart-Centered Sexuality
The Sixth Prescription: Open to the Flow of Creativity and Inspiration
The Seventh Prescription: Celebrate the Sacredness of Laughter, Pampering, and The Replenishment of Retreat
The Eighth Prescription: Attract Positive People and Situations
The Ninth Prescription: Protect Yourself From Energy Vampires
The Tenth Prescription: Create Abundance
How To Protect Yourself From Energy Vampires - Take an inventory of people in your life who give energy, and people who drain. Specifically identify the energy vampires, and begin to evaluate ones you'd like to limit contact with or eliminate.
- Set Clear Boundaries
It’s crucial to limit the time you spend discussing a vampire’s gripes. Remember: the difference between being a bitch and setting boundaries is attitude. Instead of saying, “You’re selfish and self-obsessed, I can’t take you anymore,�?which a part of you likely feels, take a breath and shift to your heart.
- Meditate for a few minutes. Sitting in meditation is a life-line to your center, to the earth. it will ground you when you’ve been zapped by a vampire. By calming the mind, you can re-align with your essence. Close your eyes. Focus on your breath. Then. picture having a long tail that extends down into the earth’s core and lodges in that center. Let the earth's energy to fill your body.
- Visualize a Protective Shield. When you’re with vampires you can’t get away from visualize a protective shield of while light surrounding every inch of you. This lets positive energy in, but keeps negative energy out—particularly efficient for vampires at family dinners or social events where you’re trapped.
A Three Minute Meditation to Open Your Heart - Settle in a peaceful place with no interruptions. In a cozy chair or in in a hot bath with candles all around. Make it as sensual as you like. Get very quiet. Relax your body. Slowly inhale. Then exhale. Your breath will bring you back to center.
- Gently rest your palm over your heart. Concentrate on a person, place, song, or memory you love. You may want to start with nature. Visualize a sublime dawn. Or picture your puppy napping in your lap. If you prefer, focus on your higher power, whatever your definition. The purpose is to feel love in a general sense, then specifically as a localized energy in your chest.
- Observe the sensations in your heart, dramatic or subtle. Heat. Coolness. Tingling. Vibration. Expansion. Bliss. Pressure releasing. Compassion. Let it happen. Don’t hold back. With time, you’ll feel a vortex of positive energy growing in your heart which spontaneously flows out into your body.
8 WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR POSITIVE ENERGY - The Three Minute Mini-Meditation Three minutes of meditation can work magic! Take a break in a quiet place to center yourself. Close your eyes. Sit in a comfortable position. Then slowly inhale and exhale. If thoughts come keep refocusing on your breath. Then practice this visualization: Breathe in light and clarity. Breathe out stress. Breathe in vitality. Breathe out fear. Do this until positive energy fills you.
- Avoid energy vampires who suck you dry, and be around nurturing friends
- Create a Sacred Space at Home to Replenish Yourself. It can be very simple. Mine is a small table with candles, incense, and a rose in a vase. When I’m exhausted I sit there, close my eyes, and get centered again. A place to sit for at least five minutes where no one can interrupt you. Home can be a retreat, not merely a pit stop where we plop ourselves down on our bed after work exhausted.
- Take Technology Fasts. Energetic breaks from machine or cyber exposure. Sitting at a computer all day can drain you and cause what I have termed “techodespair�?fatigue or depression that comes from being around machines too long—faxes, emails, phones included. Go out for a walk, breathe fresh air, feel the sun on your shoulders instead.
- Stop Rushing! If you’re a rusher focus on one thing at a time. Take a few minutes out to be in the Now.Be totally present in the moment. Open your senses. Notice your environment. Take pleasure in the tulips, the fountains, the puppies.
- Do Nothing. Allow yourself to veg out and do mindless activities for a while (watch a soap opera instead of CNN, read magazines, stare at the sky. Or stay in bed all afternoon with the phone unplugged.I see the occasional veg out as a spiritual state because it restores energy.
- Laugh at something or just be plain silly. Laughter increases positive energy, elevates the immune system and endorphins, and decreases depression.
- Anonymous giving builds energy. The paradox is that we profit from this at those time when we may least feel like it. Help an old lady across the street. Hold the elevator for someone. Bring a friend a peach. This reverses the misery and exhaustion of self obsession and negative thinking.
4 Intuitive Tips to Be In The Now - Tip #1. Observe People Who’re In the Now
To feel the power of Now, observe those who’re in it. This intuitively attunes you to vibes you can resonate with. Babies and young children are naturally in the Now. Similarly, for creative people, the moment is everything. Take Maya Angelou singing and strutting her poetry. Or YoYo Ma stroking his celestial cello. Attend a performance of someone you gets you going. Also recognize that during emergencies we revert to the Now. If your seven-year-old falls from a tree, your mind isn’t going to roam; all your energy and attention will be with her.
- Tip #2. Follow Your Breath
Following the breath brings you back to the Now during a busy day. Many cultures equate the terms spirit and breath: Latin, spirtus; Hebrew, ruach; Greek, pneuma; Sanskrit, prana. Many of us walk around unconsciously holding our breath which constricts energy. Take a few quiet moments to relax, eyes closed, focusing on each inhalation and exhalation: the softness of breath entering your nostrils, your lungs; your chest rising and falling. Simply follow the breath; don’t control it. If thoughts intrude--and they will!--intuitively visualize each one as a puffy cloud passing in the sky. Try not to attach to thoughts, an ability that gets easier with practice. Just let them float by. Then, each time, return to your breath, your body, and the Now.
- Tip #3. Physically Feel Your Pulse
Locate and concentrate on the beat of your pulse: with your palm facing upward gently align two fingers vertically on the wrist just below the thumb. Get used to how your pulse feels. Then, with each beat, intuitively visualize your life force as golden energy rushing through you, a beautiful sensation.
- Tip #4. Repeat A Mantra
A mantra is a sacred word or phrase that can cue you to return to the Now. One translation is “that which protects one from negative energy.�?In Tibetan Buddhism, a mantra is passed from teacher to student. It’s either recited inwardly or aloud, a way to focus during meditation or during chaos. So, in the chaos of your world a special mantra can retrieve you. It could be ohm or shalom for peace, the Beatles song “Let It Be.�?MIne is “I am that I am that I am that I am...�?Choose one that appears to you.
6 Positive Energy Tactics to Overcome Fear - Tactic 1. Know your fears well to avoid ambush
First, identify your fears, small or monstrous. Don’t censor. For instance, “I’m not smart enough, pretty enough...I’ll never find a soulmate so I might as well not try.�?Some of my biggest fears include ending up drooling and alone in a nursing home: or if I suddenly die at home I’d just lie there unmissed until my cleaning lady found me. Second,, say to your fear, “Thank-you for sharing.�?Then make a conscious move into your heart. To replace fear with faith, I affirm, “I will be taken care of, not abandoned.�?I also suggest meditating on your heart to reconnect with whatever you love. I do this by focusing on Spirit--letting all that renewing energy fill me. This reminds me I’m not alone--nor are any of us.. Conjuring positive energy in these ways collapses fear.
- Tactic 2. Listen to your intuition
Once you’ve identified the fear, tune into the actual truth of the situation. Some fears are protective, others are not. Our species�?history makes us anticipate danger for survival. In contrast, we need to question fears tied to low self worth: we’re all entitled to an extraordinary life, whatever form that takes. We also must question fears that we’re unable to love. Even the severely traumatized can have enormous capacities. Fear seduces most when we doubt ourselves. Follow these guidelines to tell intuition from fear. (1) Trustworthy intuitions will energize you. They are either neutral, simply conveying information; compassionate, never beating you up; or a gut feeling that something feels right or off. For instance, if late at night you notice an unkempt man with sleazy vibes--your gut affirms this--walking toward you, it’s prudent to avoid him. Or if during a date, your gut yells “beware,�?don’t marry the guy. At the very least, take the relationship slow. (2) Irrational fear, on the other hand, exhausts you. It’s emotionally charged so that centered neutrality is impossible. The content is often cruel or demeaning, with no gut-level confirmation. Irrational fear lacks the clarity of feeling on target. One good thing: its denigrating rants give it away. Knowing your fears keeps you from getting hooked.
- Tactic 3. Say A Prayer to Lift Fear
Sometimes fear grips your spirit and just won’t let go. You do everything right. You pin down the fear. You tune in. You know it’s irrational, but still can’t shake it. Now, ask for another kind of help. You may believe in angels, or that your grandfather is watching over you (mine is!). Whoever your positive energy emissaries are, get ready to call in the troops. Take a breath. Close your eyes. Be innocent, not cynical. Know that the non-material world holds much magic our rational mind can never understand. Then say a prayer from the heart. It could be very simple: “Please take this fear from me.�?Meanwhile, just stay open. No tensing up. Let the positive energy you’re summoning do its job. Requesting such intervention brings amazing results.
- Tactic 4. Make a gratitude list
Concentrating on what you’re grateful for shifts fear. Gratitude is a form of positive energy. If you want it, you’ve got to seek it out. Gratitude doesn’t just happen. By accentuating blessings, not problems, you’re supplanting negative thoughts with positive vibes. Writing gratitudes down solidifies them. Sometimes, though, riddled by fear, a gratitude list is the last thing you feel like doing. Nevertheless, take “contrary action�?-even if you resist, make one anyway.
- Tactic 5. Visit an uplifting place
When fear takes hold, brooding in isolation isn’t the answer. Get out of the house. It’s all over if you become fear’s captive audience. Go to a setting that makes you happy. Positive vibes will rub off on you. Soak them up. One of my patients goes to an aquarium. Another to a cathedral. Another to a Malibu bluff. The energy sites you cherish in the world offset fear.
- Tactic 6. Avoid Absorbing Other People’s Fears
When fear crops up instantly ask yourself: Is this mine or someone else’s? Sometimes, though, it could be both. If the fear is your’s softly confront it. If not, it may be easy to pinpoint the source. However, say you’ve come home from a comedy full of fear, you could’ve energetically picked it up from someone beside you; in close proximity energy fields overlap. Ditto with going to a mall. To detach from fear: (1) When possible, distance yourself from the source. Move at least twenty feet away, out of their energy field; you’ll feel relief. Don’t err on the side of not wanting to offend strangers. In a public place I don’t hesitate to change seats if I get unsettling vibes. (2) For a few minutes, center yourself by concentrating on your breath: keep exhaling fear, inhaling calm; practice the grounding and breathing meditations you’ve learned. Try visualizing fear as black smoke exiting, and calm as while light entering; it can yield quick results. (4) Fear frequently lodges in your emotional energy center at the solar plexus. Place your palm there, as you focus on sending that location loving energy to flush fear out. Keep pumping love from your heart into the area to purify the emotional pollution.
Judith Orloff MD is a board certified psychiatrist, a practicing intuitive, and author of Positive Energy: Ten Extraordinary Prescriptions for Transforming Fatigue, Stress, and Fear Into Vibrance, Strength, and Love (Harmony Books.) She is also author of the bestsellers Guide to Intuitive Healing and Second Sight. She's an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA, has a private practice in Los Angeles, and is an international workshop leader on the interrelationship of medicine, intuition, and spirituality. Her work has been featured on CNN, PBS, A@E and NPR. Dr. Orloff's website is www.drjudithorloff.com. |
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