I've been watching the news of Michael Jackson's death non-stop for a week now. I was-am-a huge fan of Michael Jackson. His magical dancing kept me in awe. The purity of his voice shimmered just like his white glove when he sang "Have You Seen my Childhood?" and "Gone Too Soon." I used to sing "Gone Too Soon" outdoors when no one was around. The lyrics and melody and quality of singing touch me deeply. He wrote it when Princess Diana died. Every word rings true for his life spirit and death.
"Like a comet blazing through the evening sky ... gone too soon...."
"Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight. Here one day, gone one night... gone too soon."
Michael Jackson was amazing - his talent unquestionable. But perhaps the quality most alluring of all was his tender heart. We will never know the truth of all his more questioned actions. But when you hear Michael talk about his love for children around the world, and when you hear his friends and family express their admiration and love for his heart you have to wonder. could it be his heart that was overlooked amidst all the amazement at his talent? His heart, perhaps, too tender for the trappings of his constructed world.
Dear Michael, Thank you. I hear you singing with amazing clarity and heart, "Gone Too Soon." Indeed, Michael.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Friday, July 3, 2009
Afraid of your drives?
I was having lunch today with a young man in his 30’s ( that used to sound old, but now it’s young!). He brought up The Secret as he was asking me about EFT and how I use it with golfers. He is an avid golfer and expressed that each time he walks up to the tee box he is fearful that he will slice the ball. Wow, talk about a set- up for slicing the ball! He has been trying to “talk himself into” just using positive thoughts that he will hit the ball straight and powerfully. He focuses on these thoughts. It sounds good, doesn’t it?
The Secret is a favorite book of many – and I, too, enjoy the book and have loved the many contributors and their wisdom for years. I do find in my experience working with people, and with myself, that there is one big ingredient missing in The Secret. It is one thing to say “change your thoughts and change your reality.” And I know that this is, indeed, what happens. Reality and your sense of peace and happiness does shift once the negative thought shifts to a positive. The trick is in how you truly get that thought to shift.
Trying to convince yourself of anything when you really don’t believe in it is never going to work. Let’s not forget that the subconscious mind controls 96% of our behavior and thoughts. So when the subconscious mind is rehearsing fear about slicing the ball, and that fear is literally a chemical in your cell receptor sites, you can rehearse all you want about hitting the ball straight and powerfully. It is not going to fly!
The beauty of EFT is that you address the NEGATIVE THOUGHT which causes the disturbance in the body’s energy system. When I use EFT with a golfer like this, we tap on the very thought he wants to shove back in the closet and pretend doesn’t exist. When this golfer insists on using his conscious mind to talk himself into “ I am hitting the ball straight and powerfully” the subconscious mind will be saying, “ yeah, go ahead, say what you want. I still know you can’t do it and you’ll slice the ball!” That is how the subconscious mind works. It believes what it believes, until the fear or any other negativity is literally removed from the body’s energy system. I’ve seen it hundreds of times. Maybe it sounds crazy to you, but ask yourself – how has it worked for you, really, to just be using positive thinking to rid yourself of chronic problems that you really want gone?
I am biased. I have seen EFT do amazing things over and over. I still hear clients say, “That is amazing!” 95% of clients use those very words. The reason it is amazing is that it is addressing the negativity that is stored physiologically in the body’s energy system; in the body’s cell receptor sites. So when this golfer is willing to do EFT- to tap on, “Even though I’m afraid I will slice the ball every time I walk up to the tee . . . ” - he will experience amazing results in his fear going down by the mere fact of tapping on the acupressure points and saying some things I put into the equation. As his fear becomes zero, which usually happens quite rapidly, THEN WE CAN tap on, “ I see myself driving the ball straight and powerfully.” “I can feel my body turning in full rotation as I drive the ball with strength and accuracy” and other positive statements to really anchor his ability to do just what he wants.
We want what we want ( straight, powerful drives off the tee) and interestingly enough, the way to get it is not what we thought. Allowing yourself to see what the negative thinking is and applying EFT to those negative thoughts may just be your most powerful way to get what you want – a lower golf score and more pleasure doing it! Happy golfing!
The Secret is a favorite book of many – and I, too, enjoy the book and have loved the many contributors and their wisdom for years. I do find in my experience working with people, and with myself, that there is one big ingredient missing in The Secret. It is one thing to say “change your thoughts and change your reality.” And I know that this is, indeed, what happens. Reality and your sense of peace and happiness does shift once the negative thought shifts to a positive. The trick is in how you truly get that thought to shift.
Trying to convince yourself of anything when you really don’t believe in it is never going to work. Let’s not forget that the subconscious mind controls 96% of our behavior and thoughts. So when the subconscious mind is rehearsing fear about slicing the ball, and that fear is literally a chemical in your cell receptor sites, you can rehearse all you want about hitting the ball straight and powerfully. It is not going to fly!
The beauty of EFT is that you address the NEGATIVE THOUGHT which causes the disturbance in the body’s energy system. When I use EFT with a golfer like this, we tap on the very thought he wants to shove back in the closet and pretend doesn’t exist. When this golfer insists on using his conscious mind to talk himself into “ I am hitting the ball straight and powerfully” the subconscious mind will be saying, “ yeah, go ahead, say what you want. I still know you can’t do it and you’ll slice the ball!” That is how the subconscious mind works. It believes what it believes, until the fear or any other negativity is literally removed from the body’s energy system. I’ve seen it hundreds of times. Maybe it sounds crazy to you, but ask yourself – how has it worked for you, really, to just be using positive thinking to rid yourself of chronic problems that you really want gone?
I am biased. I have seen EFT do amazing things over and over. I still hear clients say, “That is amazing!” 95% of clients use those very words. The reason it is amazing is that it is addressing the negativity that is stored physiologically in the body’s energy system; in the body’s cell receptor sites. So when this golfer is willing to do EFT- to tap on, “Even though I’m afraid I will slice the ball every time I walk up to the tee . . . ” - he will experience amazing results in his fear going down by the mere fact of tapping on the acupressure points and saying some things I put into the equation. As his fear becomes zero, which usually happens quite rapidly, THEN WE CAN tap on, “ I see myself driving the ball straight and powerfully.” “I can feel my body turning in full rotation as I drive the ball with strength and accuracy” and other positive statements to really anchor his ability to do just what he wants.
We want what we want ( straight, powerful drives off the tee) and interestingly enough, the way to get it is not what we thought. Allowing yourself to see what the negative thinking is and applying EFT to those negative thoughts may just be your most powerful way to get what you want – a lower golf score and more pleasure doing it! Happy golfing!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Weight Loss: The Missing Ingredient
Weight Loss: the Missing Ingredient
There’s more to weight loss than exercise and proper nutrition. Ask any fitness trainer worth their salt. They ponder why people just don’t “stick with it.” Most people who struggle with cycles of weight gain and loss have very chronic and complicated relationships with food. No amount of great fitness training and nutrition education is going to clear up the client’s inner demons of thoughts and emotions about food and their bodies. I’ve watched it for decades.
• Food is my best friend; always there in time of need.
• Food is my worst enemy; always haunting me, always grabbing hold of me, taunting me.
• Fat can be my protection from anything I need protection from.
• Overeating calms my frightening feelings, my anxiety, boredom, loneliness . . . [you name it]
• Well, I “blew it” for today, so I might as well eat all I can. Tomorrow it’s “back on the program.” (Those Last Suppers add up!)
Overeaters will out-eat whatever exercise program they’re on if they don’t address the missing ingredient. This crucial ingredient is learning to handle difficult moments without the aid of food. It is eliminating food cravings and seeing all foods as equally satisfying psychologically and emotionally. They must learn to be truly free around all foods. “It’s important to enjoy the freedom to eat and the freedom not to eat!”
Bernadette Hunter, MS, is a licensed professional counselor and EFT Performance Specialist, with over two decades of experience helping compulsive eaters and dieters clear the obstacles to permanent weight loss. Bernadette employs the energy psychology tool of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as seen on TLC’s I Can Make You Thin. She offers EFT demonstrations to groups and you can also learn about EFT and Bernadette through her website at www.powerful-performance.com.
There’s more to weight loss than exercise and proper nutrition. Ask any fitness trainer worth their salt. They ponder why people just don’t “stick with it.” Most people who struggle with cycles of weight gain and loss have very chronic and complicated relationships with food. No amount of great fitness training and nutrition education is going to clear up the client’s inner demons of thoughts and emotions about food and their bodies. I’ve watched it for decades.
• Food is my best friend; always there in time of need.
• Food is my worst enemy; always haunting me, always grabbing hold of me, taunting me.
• Fat can be my protection from anything I need protection from.
• Overeating calms my frightening feelings, my anxiety, boredom, loneliness . . . [you name it]
• Well, I “blew it” for today, so I might as well eat all I can. Tomorrow it’s “back on the program.” (Those Last Suppers add up!)
Overeaters will out-eat whatever exercise program they’re on if they don’t address the missing ingredient. This crucial ingredient is learning to handle difficult moments without the aid of food. It is eliminating food cravings and seeing all foods as equally satisfying psychologically and emotionally. They must learn to be truly free around all foods. “It’s important to enjoy the freedom to eat and the freedom not to eat!”
Bernadette Hunter, MS, is a licensed professional counselor and EFT Performance Specialist, with over two decades of experience helping compulsive eaters and dieters clear the obstacles to permanent weight loss. Bernadette employs the energy psychology tool of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) as seen on TLC’s I Can Make You Thin. She offers EFT demonstrations to groups and you can also learn about EFT and Bernadette through her website at www.powerful-performance.com.
Got Niche?
Lots of marketing professionals – good marketing professionals- have advised me that I must pick a niche for my work. Maybe someday I’ll follow their advice. Everything they say makes sense. It takes 3 years to get known in 1 market; 3 markets take 9 years. “You pick Bernadette. Do you have 9 years? People don’t know who to refer to you, and you’ll never get rich and famous.”
Well, for now, I continue to enjoy working with athletes, performing artists and business professionals. I like delivering my highest spiritual, clinical, intuitive, most humorous and loving self to this wide variety of amazing clients. They are: addicted, abusing food to calm themselves, full of rage, grief, just fired from their jobs, have cancer, are post-cancer, want more success in business. They are opera singers wanting to make it big, golfers looking for better drives and putts, tennis players yearning for a consistent power serve, Parkinson’s patients who know there is a better way to find relief from their symptoms. Many experience chronic emotional and physical pain from accidents, migraine headaches, insomnia. They are filled with old grudges, fears, and hurts that block their writing, their art, their every form of dancing in life. They are seeking the joy of knowing their true, highest, most powerful selves. They come in so many forms - all human, all lovely, all looking for healing, success, freedom.
So for now I’m just an EFT Performance Specialist – and all these people somehow find me. I’m glad they do. Yup, maybe someday I’ll listen to the marketing pros. Right now, I’m busy helping and being witness to my clients making profound changes. They get results mixed with self- acceptance and love. I think it’s a great combination! It’s niche-enough for now.
Well, for now, I continue to enjoy working with athletes, performing artists and business professionals. I like delivering my highest spiritual, clinical, intuitive, most humorous and loving self to this wide variety of amazing clients. They are: addicted, abusing food to calm themselves, full of rage, grief, just fired from their jobs, have cancer, are post-cancer, want more success in business. They are opera singers wanting to make it big, golfers looking for better drives and putts, tennis players yearning for a consistent power serve, Parkinson’s patients who know there is a better way to find relief from their symptoms. Many experience chronic emotional and physical pain from accidents, migraine headaches, insomnia. They are filled with old grudges, fears, and hurts that block their writing, their art, their every form of dancing in life. They are seeking the joy of knowing their true, highest, most powerful selves. They come in so many forms - all human, all lovely, all looking for healing, success, freedom.
So for now I’m just an EFT Performance Specialist – and all these people somehow find me. I’m glad they do. Yup, maybe someday I’ll listen to the marketing pros. Right now, I’m busy helping and being witness to my clients making profound changes. They get results mixed with self- acceptance and love. I think it’s a great combination! It’s niche-enough for now.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The biggest “problem” with our golf games is not that we hit bad shots. The problem is that we think we are bad for having hit them. It’s when we tie our very self esteem into our performance or our shots that deeper inner problems begin to arise, and we begin to lose a piece (peace?) of who we really are … quoted from "Spirit of Golf" Thought of the Day.
When we begin to get hard on ourselves for our bad shot, our bodies record this negative energy - and the problems really begin. You've heard it about the greatest - "His game seems to be unraveling." I played golf twice this weekend. And though I'm not a competitive golfer by the stretch of anyone's imagination, I used to be very competitive in many other sports. I can't afford to get uptight about golf - it's much too complicated a sport for that! And if you want to really excell at golf, you can't afford to get uptight- period! Just think of that word, "uptight." If our thoughts after a poor shot are ones of denigration, or even too much disappointment, they signal the distress directly to every muscle, ligament, tendon. . . You won't be in the flow when you are tight. I've been using my favorite energy technique before, and on the way to, the golf course, incorporating the thought of "expecting nothing" - putting my mind in neutral. It is working quite well. It does not take anything away from wanting to do well. But it takes away all pressure, all expectation, all castigation of missed shots or downright awful drives! "Oh well!" My body stays at neutral. I'm enjoying myself. And I'm not defined by how poorly I play or even by how well I play! Try it. You will play to your optimal ability and enjoy yourself more than ever. I am!
When we begin to get hard on ourselves for our bad shot, our bodies record this negative energy - and the problems really begin. You've heard it about the greatest - "His game seems to be unraveling." I played golf twice this weekend. And though I'm not a competitive golfer by the stretch of anyone's imagination, I used to be very competitive in many other sports. I can't afford to get uptight about golf - it's much too complicated a sport for that! And if you want to really excell at golf, you can't afford to get uptight- period! Just think of that word, "uptight." If our thoughts after a poor shot are ones of denigration, or even too much disappointment, they signal the distress directly to every muscle, ligament, tendon. . . You won't be in the flow when you are tight. I've been using my favorite energy technique before, and on the way to, the golf course, incorporating the thought of "expecting nothing" - putting my mind in neutral. It is working quite well. It does not take anything away from wanting to do well. But it takes away all pressure, all expectation, all castigation of missed shots or downright awful drives! "Oh well!" My body stays at neutral. I'm enjoying myself. And I'm not defined by how poorly I play or even by how well I play! Try it. You will play to your optimal ability and enjoy yourself more than ever. I am!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Following your heart is good science
“Use your head!”
“Think!”
“Concentrate!”
Most of us have been encouraged, actually trained, to think our way through most situations . . . perhaps even scolded into the idea that we should stop feeling so much and use our noggins more.
Thinking, of course, has its place. I love to read and ponder what Socrates, Plato, Nietzsche have to say about the truth of mankind. But we’ve revered thinking to the point where we have lost one of the most fundamental truths: To be our most powerful, productive and human selves, we must have our hearts and our brains in literal harmony. Science now proves this to be actual fact.
Research has now found that the heart is the largest generator of electrical and magnetic energies in the body. The heart produces the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field of any of the body’s organs. The heart’s electrical field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain. Additionally, the magnetic field produced by the heart is 5,000 times greater than that produced by the brain.
What does this mean? We’ve been conditioned as a mind-dominated culture to believe that the touch-feely world of feelings and emotions are inappropriate and ineffective. In truth, the most powerful source of our inner power lies in the heart and in our ability to experience and manage our emotions.
In my performance practice, it is always a variety of emotional elements that need clearing and clarifying in order for the brain to then begin seeing and acting from a clear, logical perspective.
The singers have rehearsed, and rehearsed
The athletes have their skills honed.
The public speakers know their material and are passionate about their message . . .
But it is the heart’s magnetic field of some unresolved emotional component of fear or self-doubt or some little old memory of it going south that keeps their system from delivering their most powerful performance. Once the emotional component is brought into clarity, the heart and brain come into alignment and there is no stopping the talent coming out of them full force!
My advice to you? Go out of your mind!
Finding the places in the heart that hold you back has immense rewards. Often these blocks are little niggling feelings that you don’t even know you have that are keeping you from your heart’s desire. What is your heart’s desire? You will find the answer in your heart, not your brain. But your brain can get you there, when it is in harmony (literal electromagnetic harmony) with your heart.
Use the most powerful generator of energy in your body to reach your highest aspirations and dreams – your heart.
“Think!”
“Concentrate!”
Most of us have been encouraged, actually trained, to think our way through most situations . . . perhaps even scolded into the idea that we should stop feeling so much and use our noggins more.
Thinking, of course, has its place. I love to read and ponder what Socrates, Plato, Nietzsche have to say about the truth of mankind. But we’ve revered thinking to the point where we have lost one of the most fundamental truths: To be our most powerful, productive and human selves, we must have our hearts and our brains in literal harmony. Science now proves this to be actual fact.
Research has now found that the heart is the largest generator of electrical and magnetic energies in the body. The heart produces the largest rhythmic electromagnetic field of any of the body’s organs. The heart’s electrical field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain. Additionally, the magnetic field produced by the heart is 5,000 times greater than that produced by the brain.
What does this mean? We’ve been conditioned as a mind-dominated culture to believe that the touch-feely world of feelings and emotions are inappropriate and ineffective. In truth, the most powerful source of our inner power lies in the heart and in our ability to experience and manage our emotions.
In my performance practice, it is always a variety of emotional elements that need clearing and clarifying in order for the brain to then begin seeing and acting from a clear, logical perspective.
The singers have rehearsed, and rehearsed
The athletes have their skills honed.
The public speakers know their material and are passionate about their message . . .
But it is the heart’s magnetic field of some unresolved emotional component of fear or self-doubt or some little old memory of it going south that keeps their system from delivering their most powerful performance. Once the emotional component is brought into clarity, the heart and brain come into alignment and there is no stopping the talent coming out of them full force!
My advice to you? Go out of your mind!
Finding the places in the heart that hold you back has immense rewards. Often these blocks are little niggling feelings that you don’t even know you have that are keeping you from your heart’s desire. What is your heart’s desire? You will find the answer in your heart, not your brain. But your brain can get you there, when it is in harmony (literal electromagnetic harmony) with your heart.
Use the most powerful generator of energy in your body to reach your highest aspirations and dreams – your heart.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Music – The Voice of Angels
Music is the voice of angels.
The bedtime lullaby your mother sang. The rock song you listened to in college.
The hymn sung at your parent’s funeral. A lifetime of music surrounds us.
Think back to whatever music was playing at your 8th grade dance—mine was "Crimson and Clover," while dancing with Greg Gebeke. Maybe you have a favorite hymn or Christmas song that still brings warm, tender memories.I remember with such delight the 4-part harmonies my sisters and I sang while riding in the car to Aunt Rhoda’s house as children. It has been over 40 years since I’ve sung it, but yes, I still can feel the whole song and hear the first line, “White choral bells upon a slender stalk, Lilies of the Valley deck my garden walk. Oh don’t you see how you can make them ring, that will only happen when the fairies sing!"
Yes, music is the voice of the angels. It speaks to our souls. It comforts, motivates, disturbs, uplifts. It enlivens, takes us to the depths of contemplation and reflection, causes us to dance deliriously, and brings memories into sharp focus.
Make sure you are listening to the music – the music that stirs your soul. Make sure you are listening to your own music in your soul. That is the voice of angels for you. We can all use more angels around us and through us, and music is a perfect way to do so.
Keep the music playing!
The bedtime lullaby your mother sang. The rock song you listened to in college.
The hymn sung at your parent’s funeral. A lifetime of music surrounds us.
Think back to whatever music was playing at your 8th grade dance—mine was "Crimson and Clover," while dancing with Greg Gebeke. Maybe you have a favorite hymn or Christmas song that still brings warm, tender memories.I remember with such delight the 4-part harmonies my sisters and I sang while riding in the car to Aunt Rhoda’s house as children. It has been over 40 years since I’ve sung it, but yes, I still can feel the whole song and hear the first line, “White choral bells upon a slender stalk, Lilies of the Valley deck my garden walk. Oh don’t you see how you can make them ring, that will only happen when the fairies sing!"
Yes, music is the voice of the angels. It speaks to our souls. It comforts, motivates, disturbs, uplifts. It enlivens, takes us to the depths of contemplation and reflection, causes us to dance deliriously, and brings memories into sharp focus.
Make sure you are listening to the music – the music that stirs your soul. Make sure you are listening to your own music in your soul. That is the voice of angels for you. We can all use more angels around us and through us, and music is a perfect way to do so.
Keep the music playing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)