Posts Tagged ‘Well Being’

Is it possible? Well, probably – but first, we’ve got to understand how we humans operate on a very basic level.

Many people have heard of humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and his Hierarchy of Needs. He developed a theory of personality that has influenced a number of different fields, including education. This theory accurately describes many realities of personal experiences.

Humanists focus upon potentials. They strive for an upper level of capabilities. They seek frontiers of creativity and the highest reaches of consciousness and wisdom. Maslow calls this level “self actualizing person, a fully functioning person or a health personality.”

In Maslow’s theory of needs, all of our basic needs instinctive (just like animals). Humans start with a very weak disposition that is then fashioned fully as the person grows. If the environment is right, people will grow straight and beautiful, actualizing the potential(s) they have inherited. If the environment is not right (news flash: it is mostly not!) they will not grow straight and beautiful. Maslow’s hierarchy offers five levels of basic needs. But beyond these needs, higher levels of needs exist, including needs for understanding, aesthetic appreciation, and purely spiritual needs. We humans cannot move through the stages of needs until the demands of the first (or supporting) need has been satisfied.

So, what are these basic needs?
1. Physiological: These biological needs consist of oxygen, food, water, and relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if deprived, we would not thrive.

2. Safety: When all physiological needs are met and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as rioting). Children often display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.

3. Love, affection, and belongingness: When the needs for safety and for physiological wellbeing are satisfied, love, affection and belongingness can then emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

4. Self Esteem: When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for stability, a firm base or foundation, high level of self respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable. When these needs are unmet, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless, or worthless.

5. Self Actualization. When the first four levels of needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self actualization activated. Maslow describes self actualization as a person’s need to be and do that which the person was born to do. For example, a musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write. When unmet, restlessness ensues. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something.

Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move well in the direction of self actualization is because of hindrances placed in their way by family or society. He states that education is one of these hindrances. Maslow states that educators should respond to the potential an individual has for growing into a self actualized being.

Interested in learning more? Spend some time online learning more about Maslow and his hierarchical theory. Then, think about times in your life where your basic needs may have gone unmet. What did you do? Think? Believe? Feel? How did you move forward? Or, are you stuck?

The subconscious, or, your unconscious mind, loves patterns and repetition. What’s familiar to your mind resonates instantly. When it’s a positive pattern, great! You can achieve many, many things. But, when it’s a negative pattern or thought that’s repeated over time, then you become your own worst enemy and it’s harder to meet challenges, to excel, to achieve.

Modern research has discovered that our emotional states are produced by a couple of things like how we hold our bodies (our physiology) and the mental pictures we focus on. Did you know that we have approximately 44,000 to 66,000 mental pictures or thoughts a day? That’s a lot of content to experience, process and react to.

The one primary way we can change our emotional states is to change our physiology or how we are holding our body. Exactly how we are holding our bodies can trigger every emotion that we have ever experienced—how you carry yourself throughout the day has the potential to trigger feelings like being sad, mad, happy, or confident. As soon as we train our body to be in the physiology we want, we can instantly feel the corresponding emotion!

My Mental Toughness and Success Moment CDs are each designed specifically to help you get into and stay in the physiology and emotional state you want each and every day. My CDs are designed with specific suggestions and imageries that teach you to develop a mental toughness and with repetition (or, as I like to say, repeatedness). Take control your states of mind—positively and effectively!

Have you ever had a time when you just couldn’t quiet your mind enough (or, at all!) or shut those persistent, disruptive thoughts completely off? We’ve all been there – and, sleep problems have become a national problem. Many of us lead overly stressful lives with high pressure jobs, family situations, or just too much going on at once that for some, it’s just impossible to truly wind down. Many others, too, brag about powering through their super schedules on four hours of sleep, or five, or three…

I believe that people have actually untrained their brain in the ways of sleeping. Sound crazy? Well, the causes are simple, and all round us. Too much stress, anxiety, anger, sadness, and fear get in the way of our positive thoughts. We churn on these negative elements far too often. When we experience crises and traumas, we pave the way for those negative life experiences to make serious impressions on our brains and how we process information.

Ready to break such unhealthy patters? Ready to rest so you can be at your best? Ready to sleep? My sleep CD programs are designed for the purpose of retraining your brain – to sleep! (Remember there was a time in your life when you did actually sleep!) Stay Relaxed is designed to put you to sleep; Stay Asleep is designed to encourage your brain to let go so you can go to sleep. Repeated listening of all CD programs puts you in charge of your sleep patterns. What are you waiting for? Get to sleep so you can recharge!

By the time a person comes in to see me, they are usually pretty scared and confused about anxiety and panic. Most think their panic is coming out of nowhere, just happening to (or attacking) them. Through our collaborative work, early on it becomes very clear that there has been a build up of stress or major life stresses over time for the client, which is natural and normal (more than you think!). The onset of anxiety or panic does not necessarily occur immediately following a major life stress.

Major life stresses range from a death in a family, illnesses, drug use, divorce, financial difficulties, job loss, traffic accident, sports injuries, even allergic reactions to medications. There is no one cause for anxiety.

In the case of built-up stress, the first attack can and mostly does occur when there seems to be no obvious trigger. The victim might be doing something mundane like driving or watching TV. For example, one of my clients (a very successful businessman and athlete in his 60s) was driving to his beach place, which he did frequently for years, and all of a sudden he experienced dizziness and shortness of breath. He thought he was having a heart attack (which many people think is truly happening to them). He pulled off the road and his wife got in the driver’s seat and took him to the nearest hospital where he was diagnosed with vertigo. The symptoms didn’t get better over time, so he came to see me. We discovered over a few visits he had experienced anxiety and stress most of his life. He had learned to suppress it and over time it festered. Through our work together, he has been able to address the stressors in his life, and is presently doing much better and living life to the fullest.

This is typical of what I see with panic and anxiety. Most of my clients are high functioning people that just get good at pushing their feelings aside until they fester enough to turn into something more serious like a panic attack. Often anxiety runs in families, so if you grow up with an anxious mother or father, very early on you are learning to develop anxiety yourself. Children who are constantly taught or shown anxiety or who grow up in an abusive home will often develop anxiety or depression.

You can learn how to cope with the stress in your life. Learn new tools and techniques with a safe guide. The CDs I recommend for anxiety are Stay Calm and Stay Confident. One set is designed for you to listen to in a comfortable place when you can just drift off and relax to the music and suggestions. The other set is designed with repeated suggestions that help you and your brain to stay focused on what you want. Repeated listening is the key to consistent change.

See my CD catalog for these self-guided tools, and consider setting up an appointment with me today so you can be well your way to handling stress in a healthy way.

The new year often brings a new set of stressors to our lives that promote anxiety. Anxiety—or, panic attacks—affects many of us, often on a daily basis. Some feel those debilitating effects have control over our lives.

Have you ever experienced any of the following symptoms?
• Pounding heart (heart palpitations, racing heart rate)
• Sweating
• Trembling or shaking
• Sensations of shortness of breath or smothering
• Feeling of choking
• Chest pain or discomfort
• Nausea or abdominal stress
• Feeling dizzy, light headed, faint or unsteady
• Feelings of unreality or being detached from oneself
• Fear of losing control or going crazy
• Fear of dying
• Numbness or tingling sensations
• Chills or hot flashes

If so, you may have experienced an anxiety attack brought on by a stressful situation or series of events. Often times, too, one (or some) of these symptoms is followed by a powerful and persistent concern about having additional attacks, worrying about the implications from having such an attack (e.g., worrying about losing control, having a real heart attack, going crazy) or even prompting a significant change in other behavior—related attacks. Anxiety/panic attacks can mimic a lot of physical illnesses (like thyroid conditions) so it is absolutely essential to get a medical assessment by a qualified physician.

However, you can stop fearing: there are plenty of healthy ways to combat stress, to become aware of anxiety-producing situations, and to then calm down once you do feel like you’re in the middle of an attack.

You can get help—you can reduce anxiety in your life. See my CD programs on how to get started! My Stay Calm CDs are designed with specific music and words to help you to retrain your brain to be calm. One CD in this program is Guided Imagery designed for you to listen to while lying down or sitting in a quiet place. The Whole Brain Learning CD is designed with specific suggestions, repeated, with specific music. This CD can be used at any time to help you to continually focus on what you want and staying calm. Listening repeatedly is recommended for consistent change to occur.

Welcome to a new year–and to my new blog. Here you’ll be able to find inspiration, guidance, and resources in my weekly posts spanning a variety of topics and issues that concern and affect us all.

Happy new year! Those three small words create a loaded statement for many, especially those of us who are feeling depleted from the holidays, overwhelmed with expectations for a new and improved year, or stressed from life’s many challenges. Get support in your quest to create the life you want. Discover the many facets of our inner workings. Learn strength to work through road blocks that prevent you from a peaceful existence.

As always, I’ll direct you to sources that I know are tried and true–gems from my colleagues, from the current research, from real people with real experiences and lives. I hope you enjoy the content found on my new blog and perhaps are inspired to share your stories via comments posts here, too.

Here’s to your health and happiness!

Diane