LOTUS IV: Circumventing the Stress Response

Audio Version: LOTUS IV

Introduction

Part III of the LOTUS Series discussed the many challenges we face when trying to ‘Create our Life’ and introduced three broad approaches that may be used to overcome these challenges.  These approaches were 1) Circumventing the Stress Response, 2) Mitigating Turbulence, and 3) Overwhelming the Creatrix.

This Series, Part IV, will discuss in detail, methods and techniques to attack the FIRST challenge: Circumventing the Stress Response.  The next two challenges will be discussed in the following LOTUS Series posts. 

Circumventing the Stress Response primarily works on decreasing and to the extent possible, eliminating, our habitual self-destructive thoughts and feelings.  There are many ways to do this, but I am going to present the three most powerful techniques of which I am aware:

1. Exercise
2. emWave Technology
3. Hemi-sync Technology

Of all the techniques we will discuss during the LOTUS Lessons, these involve the only ones that could get pricey.  Most of the techniques and methods we will be learning about are free to use and to implement.   I mention this now, because I do not want readers to get the impression that there is a price tag for all the techniques we will be discussing.  This simply isn’t true.   But it is true in dealing with the Stress Response.  For those with the funds, the cost of these technologies is well worth it.  For those who haven’t created a financially abundant life (… yet), there is never anything wrong with a little exercise.  It’s free, and it does work magic on stress. 

Before I get into specifics, I want to point out something.  Nearly anything that 1) lowers blood pressure, 2) lowers blood sugar levels, and 3) decreases joint pain is usually working, directly or indirectly, to circumvent the stress response.  This is because, quite simply, the stress response CAUSES these symptoms.  Therefore, anything that circumvents the stress response must improve these symptoms.  Each of the three methods will we discuss today has been known to improve or eliminate them.  

Exercise 

This may not comes as a great surprise, but physical activity lowers our cortisol levels, thus weakening its power over us.  There is no great mystery here.  Our body was designed to ‘fight or flee’ and the bio-chemicals produced to ready us for this action are meant to be used.  The simplest method of bringing our body back into balance is to simply fulfill the original intent of the body – by undertaking physical exercise. 

What type?  I suggest either aerobic activity or strenuous weight training.  Circuit training is a good way to approximate both, but any physical activity, if reasonably strenuous, from weight lifting to advanced Pilates and Yoga or Tai Chi, to jogging or a stationary bike will suffice.  Martial Arts are also wonderful.  Remember, you are trying to simulate fighting, or fleeing (running, climbing, etc).  So anything that does that, works. 

There are hundreds of documented cases where individuals who stuck to a plan of exercise have lowered their blood pressure, lowered their blood glucose levels, and reduced or eliminated muscle and joint pain in their body.  This doesn’t happen overnight, and, in fact, can take months to even a year or more to max out the results, but adding physical exercise to your life is one of the greatest, most productive activities you can undertake. 

Best of all, it’s free.  And completely natural. 

Exercise attacks one facet of the Stress Response – after the cycle is initiated.  It is a reactive weapon, not a preventative one.  It does not stop stress from starting, nor does it help us to eliminate our addiction to it.  It is one weapon (and a good one) in our arsenal.  But we need to add a few pre-emptive weapons so that we may put together a more robust battle plan. 

Two Invaluable Technologies

There are two other proven technologies to wage the battle against stress.  I personally use both myself, and I cannot give any processes or technologies a higher recommendation.  The first is EmWave technology developed by the HeartMath Institute, and the second is HemiSync Technology developed by the Monroe Institute. 

HeartMath and EmWave Technology

Unlike exercise, EmWave Technology is a pre-emptive weapon.  It teaches us how to induce stress-free states at will, and it produces a longer-term more coherent vibratory rate or ‘pitch’ in our bodies that buffers us against entering a fight-or-flight physiological response as often as we do today. 

Personally, I find this technology fascinating.  It turns upside down the way we think about our body, something we’ll discuss in a minute.  I also like it because it lends itself to precise measurement.  You can quantify and see your progress.  It’s not just an opinion – it’s entirely provable.  And most importantly, it produces amazing changes in your internal bio-chemistry if used consistently over time. 

The EmWave Technology uses a bio-feedback system that measures the difference in length between heartbeats.  The time between each heartbeat is never exactly the same, and the duration between beats can be plotted.  One might think that extremely consistent beats are the desired state, but this is not true.  In a ‘coherent’ state plotting the time between heartbeats will create clear wave-like rhythmic pattern.  This means that the difference between beats is NOT consistent, but they do follow a predictable pattern of increasing and decreasing durations between beats.   The more consistent this rhythm, the more Coherent is the heart and, therefore, the body.

Most of the time our heart beats in a chaotic pattern, not a coherent one.  Plotting this pattern, we would see no consistent rising and falling; no wave–like pattern would form.  What we would see instead would be a chaotic, non-repeating formation. 

Coherent heart patterns send signals to the brain to lessen the production of cortisol and to increase to production of serotonin, the chemical that produces a ‘runner’s high.’  Chaotic patterns do the exact opposite – they stimulate the stress response and suppress the production of serotonin.

Why I find this technology fascinating is that is turns upside down many of our pre-conceived notions of what processes govern our body.  Most of us are aware that the Brain produces an electromagnetic field.  Anyone who has seen The Secret, or read anything about the Law of Attraction, is aware that the brain produces Electromagnetic Waves that can be measured by scientific devices.  It has been argued that these frequencies interact with our environment and is, at least, one of the ways we interact with and ‘create our reality.’   These frequencies resonant with the ‘potential frequencies’ (quantum possibilities) that exist around us, and manifest those potentials that are harmonic to those frequencies we emit. 

This seems quite plausible to us because we maintain an unspoken, unwritten underlying belief – that the brain is the master organ of our body, and therefore, brainwaves are the basic operating force that ‘creates’ our reality.  The brain, we believe, is the CEO, and it is in charge. 

A quick review of available research, however, reveals that the brain really doesn’t run the show – not exactly what we thought.  It certainly does not run the electromagnetic show.  The heart does.  And it is not a close contest.  The heart’s electromagnetic force is 50-5000 times greater than that produced by the brain, and it has been proven that the brain’s frequencies ‘entrain’ to those produced by the heart.  Put another way, the heart leads and the brain follows. 

This conclusion is supported by the percentage and types of nerves that connect the brain and the heart.  Both the number and type of nerve cells connecting the heart and the brain primarily establishes the heart as the controller of the brain’s activities.  And this turns topsy-turvy our notions of what really controls our body. 

It is our heart, the center of our emotions, that controls our brain, the center of our thoughts.  And therefore, emotions are the driving force of the universe, not thoughts.  The point is simple and straightforward – emotions are the key to the Language of the Universe, and thoughts only serve to ‘limit’ an emotion to a particular area of our life.  Emotions are primary.  Thoughts are secondary. 

Put another way, thoughts don’t become things.  Emotions do.   Thoughts, in fact, are more the by-product of our emotions. 

And this primacy of emotions is reflected throughout the body.  We tend to think of the Brain as the controller of everything in the body, but what we are discovering is that the Heart is both literally and practically at the center of control. 

Therefore, by learning to focus on emotions and on the heart using the EmWave technology, we in effect, learn to establish direct and conscious control over the stress responses of the body.  I know of no other technology that allows us to do this. 

HeartMath’s two primary products using emWave Technology are the emWave PSR and the emWave PC (or emWave MAC, depending on your platform).  Both products are state-of-the-art, and each has its own unique strengths.  The emWave PSR is portable, and it requires no wires or other connections.  It can be used almost anywhere and at anytime – before critical business meetings, presentations, sporting events, and generally in situations that could cause (or may have just caused) a stress response.  It is about the size of a large cell phone, and can fit into your pocket or your purse.  Its portability and self-containment are its primary strengths and makes it a very valuable tool to circumvent stress all day just about anywhere.

The EmWave PC (or EmWave MAC) loads onto your computer and uses an ear contact to monitor your heart beat.  It isn’t portable (unless you have a laptop), but it can track and graph results over time by different users.  It contains games that help teach Coherence as well as online tutorials, and provides real time graphics and statistics.  It also provides both visual and audio response which allows you to use whatever mode of monitoring is the most effective for you.  Its strength lies in its useful (and encouraging information) about your success through both real-time and historical graphs and charts. 

I recommend both of these products.  If you had to start with one, I would go with the EmWave PC, just because of its tracking data.  It provides better feedback which helps you learn to create Coherence more quickly – at first.  However, once you have a better mastery of how to enter into a coherent state, the EmWave PSR becomes the more effective tool.  Both tools, if used in conjunction, are optimal, and if you take this technology seriously, you will find yourself frequently switching between the two products. 

EmWave technology is used for many things, but it has documented success in reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, overcoming insomnia, overcoming emotional eating, and treating anxiety, anger, and depression.   It is now being used by athletics around the world to enhance Sports Performance.

Here are some helpful links (hyperlinks to be added soon):

• HeartMath Main Website
• Research and Articles
• EmWave PSR
• EmWave PC or MAC
• Reducing Hypertension
• Overcoming Insomnia
• Overcoming Emotional Eating
• Meditation, Prayer, and Self-Help
• Books
• Courses taught by Licensed HeartMath 1:1 Provider
• Free Newsletter
• Products For Children

 The Monroe Institute and Hemi-Sync Technologies

Scientists have known for many years that the two hemispheres of the brain will talk to each other to reconcile different audio frequencies heard in each ear.  For example, using headphones, if a sound wave of 495 hz was placed into the left ear, and another of 505 hz was placed into the right ear, the brain would produce a frequency of 10 hz between the two hemispheres.  This is called a binaural beat.  More amazingly, this frequency can be heard as though it is an actual sound coming through the headphones (it sounds like a vibrato or a wave).  However, this vibrato stops the second you remove either of the headphones.  If you replace the headphone back again, in a few moments, the vibrato will begin again.  These sounds, which seem 100% external in nature, are actual 100% generated by your brain. 

By altering the frequencies entering each ear, we can force the brain to produce various electromagnetic signals with a specific desired frequency.   In the previous example, the 10 hz frequency would have placed the listener into a Alpha state (a relaxed state). 

The Monroe Institute has been studying this technology, specifically with a view of achieving various states of consciousness, for years.  I know of no other organization that has done more work in this area.  They have developed a comprehensive  product line of audio CDs and programs designed to help people in their physical, emotional, and spiritual growth.   Their primary technology is called Hemi-Sync, and it fundamental to all their products.   The technology lends itself to an almost endless spectrum of applications.  Here are a few:

• Emotional health and control
• Enhancing creativity
• Improving self-esteem
• Productivity and mental performance
• Improving sleep and dream recall

It has been subject to hundreds of medical and scientific studies, and it is nearly impossible to explain to another person how life-changing the technology can be.  For those interested, I strongly recommend beginning with the Gateway Experience Series.  This can be a little pricey, but worth it.  If your budget stands in the way, I recommend the Mind Food series to familiarize yourself with the process before expanding into the Metamusic or Human Plus series.   

There is another facet of the Monroe Institute that bears mentioning: their Online Community is second to none.  There isn’t nearly as much traffic as MySpace or Facebook, but the resources there are unparalleled, and it’s free.   You might check it out. 

Used in tandem, emWave and Hemi-Sync technologies can literally transform your life in a very short period of time.   With exercise and practice, they effectively allow us to circumvent the Stress Response, and thus, reduce the ‘accidental and habitual’ creation of negative events as we try to create a better life. 

 I recommend the following protocol:

1. Use emWave technology for 20 minutes every day. 
2. Listen to a Hemi-Sync CD 3 times per week.
3. Exercise 20 minutes, at least 3 days a week (skipping every other day). 

Continue this protocol until you feel positive and calm during the day more often than not.  Once the stress cycle begins to break (a minimum of three weeks), you can begin to use both the emWave and Hemi-Sync technologies less often, as you see fit.  However, it is okay to continue their use as long and as often as you like. 

If your time is limited, then I recommend (unfortunately) cutting out the Hemi-Sync tapes (since most run about 40 minutes, and they can be hard to fit into a demanding schedule).  Use your emWave daily and work out 3 days per week. 

This ends LOTUS IV: Circumventing the Stress Response, with its focus on techniques to eliminate habitual, self-defeating thoughts and feelings.  The next lesson in the LOTUS series will discuss  Mitigating Turbulence, or techniques we can use to stay in a positive mental and emotional state as often as possible.

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LOTUS III: The Language of the Universe – The Practice

Audio Version:  LOTUS III – The Practice

In Part II of this Series, we discussed how the act of Conscious Creation frequently produces the opposite of the desired result.  This begs the question – if the most common result of ‘creating’ our life is to produce the opposite effect of what we desire, is there a way we can change this result? 

Essentially, our brain and body has a wonderful built-in mechanism that creates habits out of routine thoughts, actions, and feelings.  This mechanism allows us to talk, play musical instruments, type on a keyboard, tie our shoes, and it even controls our breathing, heartbeat, immune system functions, assimilation of food, hormone production, metabolism, etc.  Without this mechanism, life as we know it would be impossible.  Humans simply could not exist, nor could any higher-level form of life. 

The habitual nature of our thoughts is not due to our weak will power to change them or to a flaw in our personality.  It is due to the powerful forces of evolution as they take over routine activities freeing up our mind to focus on higher and higher levels of thought.  That is far from a weakness.  Our habitual thoughts and feelings are driven by a highly sophisticated, interlocking, self-supporting, natural physical cycle that connects neural networks in our brain directly to our cellular bio-chemistry.  And this cycle is 100% supported and maintained by ‘physical addiction’ –an addiction, in fact, to the most powerful drugs on the planet – the body’s own neurochemicals.

In the distant past, this system served mankind quite well.  However, today we face a world-wide addiction to cortisol, a natural hormone produced by the brain.  Cortisol is THE stress hormone, and it controls the ‘fight or flight’ response produced by threatening situations.  To the caveman, a threat from a sabre-tooth tiger initiated a hormonal cascade that prepared the body to fight the tiger or to flee from it.  This physiological response heightened certain physical abilities by re-directing blood flow away from vital areas to muscles and the heart and lungs.  It also directed internal energies away from immediate needs.  For example, immune system function decreased and digestion slowed.  These energies didn’t dissipate, but were redirected elsewhere in the body as blood pressure went up, breathing increased, blood sugar increased to provide fuel to muscles, and reflex responses accelerated, among many other changes.  The body generally prepared itself to fight or to flee.  The fight or the fleeing that was certain to follow reduced the cortisol in the body, thus helping the body return to a more normal function.

Things are different in today’s world.  We don’t fight tigers today.  But we do fight customers, spouses, bosses, parents, children, and the guy in the car next to us.  Of course, we don’t really fight them, but threats from them are treated just the same as if that tiger was about to eat you.  Your cortisol levels increase, and you physiologically prepare to fight or flee, whether or not you consciously realize it.  Unfortunately, in the board room, at the water cooler, or in our car, we can’t fight or flee, so our cortisol levels don’t return to normal very quickly.  Instead they stay elevated.  In time, our cells become addicted to the neurochemicals that cortisol controls, and when our cells do not get their chemical fix often enough, the brain initiates stressful thoughts and feelings and memories designed to produce more cortisol, locking us — all of us — into a permanent, chemically dependent state of stress. 

As a result, in our world, what was meant to be a short-term, one-time biological adjustment becomes chronic: our blood pressure stays elevated, our blood sugar levels stay elevated, our immune response stays chronically weakened, the blood flow to our brain stays diminished and it becomes difficult to concentrate, and our muscles feel tense and start to hurt (cortisol also controls inflammation).  High blood pressure (heart disease), elevated blood sugar levels (diabetes), lack of concentration, and joint pain – do any of these sound familiar.  These IS the world we live in.  It is brought on by stress.  Chronic stress.   When homeostasis, the desired physiological condition, becomes an unrealized state, we start to suffer mentally, emotionally, and physically.  Chronic stress affects our thoughts, emotions, and our bodies.  If you are into holistic medicine, then you realize that stress is THE Holistic Disease. 

And it, stress, controls the state of humanity at the present moment.  Unfortunately, this state of being, with its associated dependencies, thoughts, feelings, and memories creates the very reality around us through the action of the Creatrix.  A reality which many most of us want to change. 

It is very hard to break the stress cycle that is so prevalent in today’s world.  There is a lot working against us. 

Can we overcome this cycle?  Is it possible?  Yes.  Definitely. 

Is it worth it?  Absolutely. 

It really isn’t hard.  But it DOES take commitment, time, and effort.  This is NOT a ‘only 20 minutes a day and change your life forever’ online infomercial.  This isn’t a scam, and I am not selling snake oil.  There is no magic bullet here, nor do I believe in magic bullets.   This is, however, reality – the way things really work.  I’d love to tell you that ‘In only five minutes a day, you too can be a billionaire, marry a super-model, and have the body of a super-hero.”  I’d love to tell you that, but it isn’t true.   

However, what is true is that our life, our world, and our reality is totally within our control – completely.  The only thing stopping you from having everything you’ve ever dreamed of is simply the right knowledge.   We can divide this in to three areas:  1) how the Creatrix speaks to us, 2) how we communicate to it, and 3) how the mechanism of Inertia works in our lives.  Once we fully grasp the nuances of these things, it is just a matter of building a plan of action and executing it.  When we do this, when we make this commitment and put forth the effort, life stops being hard, and life…

… yes…  I’ll go so far as to say it…

… life becomes magical. 

Creating a New Life

To create a magical life, a fairy-tale existence, there are several approaches we can take.  We can 1) learn ways to circumvent the stress response and the resultant hormonal cascade that rampages through our body, 2) employ methods and techniques to mitigate the Turbulence produced by the Creatrix, and 3) overwhelm the Creatrix with consciously directed thoughts and feelings superseding the subconsciously produced ones. 

Circumventing the Stress Response

Medical science and recent discoveries related to the both the human brain and heart have provided us technological ways to circumvent the stress response.  Most of these work to turn off the part of the brain that produces cortisol and activate the parts of the brain that produce serotonin and other needed bio-chemicals.  In addition to providing a needed rest from the chronic overproduction of cortisol, it also allows our body to start to produce new, healthier and happier internal chemical addictions.  Most importantly, it breaks the cycle of negative thoughts and emotions that confuse the Creatrix.  In short, it clarifies our intent and communication to the Universe, and produces more consistent, desirable events in our lives. 

Mitigating Turbulence

By further dissecting the Language of the Universe, we find simple techniques that we can employ throughout the day to mitigate the Turbulence from the Creatrix.  These techniques are, in essence, the other side of the coin.  While technologies can be used to break the stress cycle and eliminate negative thoughts and feelings, these techniques provide ways for us to maintain more positive thoughts and emotions throughout the day. 

Overwhelming the Creatrix

Simple modifications to our daily visualizations can also help us overwhelm the Creatrix through careful use of appropriate sub-modalities, emotional anchors, affirmations, and other techniques.  These techniques are really nothing more than learning to speak the Language of the Universe more powerfully. 

Each of these approaches – 1) Circumventing the Stress Response, 2) Mitigating Turbulence, and 3) Overwhelming the Creatrix – and their applied techniques will be presented in greater detail in future LOTUS series posts.

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Creating the Ideal Life

What is it we all want in life?  I’ll give you a hint: it’s really simple, and it’s the same for each of us.  It’s just to be happy.  That’s really all there is to it.  That’s all there is to life.  And yet… each of us is different, unique in our own way.  What makes me happy may not necessarily make you happy.  We each have to understand what our happiness means.  What life, what ideal life, would make us happy?  Before we can have that life, we must understand what such a life would look like.  In fact, that’s the first step to make your life better – to understand exactly what you want your life to be. 

I first undertook this task several years ago.  I failed miserably.  It seems I really didn’t know what I wanted.  I thought I did.  Everything I considered was colored and tainted by my current situation and place in my life.  Things clouded my vision; my age, my home, my career, my health, my kids, my spouse, my parents, my culture, and my financial situation all influenced what I thought my ideal life should be. 

So, as I undertook this exercise, nothing I visualized ever resonated as true.  Sure, my vision of an ideal life was nice – I’d like to have it, but it never really felt like me.   Something was missing.  I suspect this is true of all of us.  But then, seemingly out of nowhere, I discovered two techniques, or tricks, if you will, that allow us to see through our ‘clouds’ and clearly see what our heart really desires. 

The first technique is a trick of the mind.  It probably is more relevant to the westernized world that elsewhere, but you live in an industrialized, capitalistic, materialistic world that most of us do, this will help.  To start, simply sit back, relax, take a few minutes to calm your mind, and then start to imagine what your ideal life would be.  Imagine where you would live, what your day would be like, what you would do for a living, and anything else that seems relevant to you.  Your ideal life is uniquely yours, so do not worry if you leave something out that someone else might feel is important.  What is important is only what you think.  Now here’s the first trick – imagine that money does not exist.   For this exercise, money is not important.  Divorce it from your mind. 

Did that change your image?  Did that affect where you live, what you drive, where you work, what you do for a living?  Does it affect what you eat?  How often you exercise?  What classes you take?  You are completely free to live life as you choose, with no monetary restrictions.  Imagine that.  How would you live it? 

When monetary concerns are removed from the equation, it becomes easier to see if money is influencing our decisions.  This exercise had a profound influence on my understanding of what I wanted out of life.  It also made me realize how much money influenced what I thought I wanted.   

For you, however, money may not be the ‘clouding’ issue.  It may be parents, or children, or education, or a particular job or boss.  Regardless of what obsession in your life might be clouding your vision, remove it, and imagine a life without it.  And THAT will be your ideal life.

There is another trick I have found that works.  Have you ever done something that energized you?  Have you ever talked about something that got you excited?  For many of us, we can literally feel the excitement rising in the pit of our stomach.  Some things will fuel that positive energy, while other things elicit fear in exactly the same area of our bodies.  If you are wondering what path may be right for you, just take a moment to ‘feel.’  Are you energized thinking about it?  Or are you scared or anxious?  Can you not wait to get started?  Do you pop out of bed ready to face the day?  This energizing feeling is a key.  It is a sign that you are on the right path. 

When you visualize your ideal life, observe your reactions and feelings.  Are you excited?  Do you feel that rising energy in the pit of your stomach?  Or do you have no real reaction, or worse, are you scared?  The energy you feel is a clear sign if you are on the right path or not.  Become aware of it, and let it be your guide.

If you remove money, or whatever obsession clouds your vision, and if you pay close attention to how different thoughts and visions affect your emotions and energy, you will be able to clearly understand what you ideal life should look like.

And once you’ve identified that, it’s just a simple matter of making it happen.  But more about that later!

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