Props

So, you have considered hypnosis or rather making some sort of change - what then? If you are making a change to improve your health, lose weight, or motivate yourself to exercise, it may necessitate new foods, new exercise materials such as Yoga Mats like the Ecowise Yoga Mat or the PurEarth Eco mat, Pedometers such as the Omron HJ-720ITC or the 340 Step and Distance, health conscious Stainless Steel Water Bottles such as the Stainless Steel Hydration Bottle or a New Wave Enviro Stainless Steel Bottle, workout clothes or a variety of these sorts of things. So, where do you go?

As much as I subscribe to the idea of buying from local small businesses, its good to get as much information as possible. A company with good blogs can really be an asset. You get a feel for both the products or services and the people behind the company. Fit Fuel is one such company that provides both healthy products and has a blog. They offer organic products, raw food bars, yoga supplies, to mention a few of their products.

And though Fit Fuel may not be local to you - they are human. The site does not feel like a large corporate site, but one that is more personal. It is a good start in moving beyond the hypnosis session. But please know that all this is based on my experience with their web site. It is an excellent resource whether you order or not.

Inspiration for a Meditation

Sometimes I wonder if indeed we are not too fixated on our thoughts. We claim to have trouble meditating or letting go of the here and now (i.e. our problems). A battle goes on when we sit down and try to just clear away our thoughts. They bombarded our little amount of time we have put away for just relaxing. Then we dwell unproductively.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You can chose to focus on something positive. Coming from an art background, I have always personally been inspired by beauty (my own inner definition) and can easily find myself absorbed in various forms of art. Thomas Moran is particularly meaningful to me with his landscapes of the American west as seen in the 1800s. His color palette and composition bring harmony to my thoughts.

Relaxation can be as simple as going to an art museum like the Stark Museum of Art. They feature many works that deal with the American west, native American culture, and for the birders out there , several originals by James Audubon. Maybe it is the curve of a wing, the gesture of a tribal dance, or the rich detail of landscape that romances your inner peace. Try a number of types of art. It could be three-dimension, even. Whatever works and takes you away from the day-to-day and allows you to find harmony within, well that is just fine. Meditation does not mean sitting in a formal garden in the lotus position and humming. Meditation can be just letting go and becoming absorbed into something, allowing it to transform your consciousness.

Plus, if you spend a little relaxation time at the Stark, you will be helping the Stark Foundation with its mission statement of improving the quality of life in that area by encouraging and health, along with human services - not to mention that you will gain a little local color and culture with the arts.

Nope, I am Not a Smoker

Have you quit smoking? How's it going if so?

In perusing Cyberville, I came across an interesting widget for smoking cessation. It was created by Josh Houghtelin of www.burnmytime.com. You'll notice I put it at the beginning of the this post (since I am not a smoker, I don't have great data, but you get the point). If you find it inspiring to remind yourself of your progress then this is great. It can be a wonderful tool for reaffirming your commitment of being a non-smoker.

To get your own non-smoking banner, click here.

On another note, stay tuned tomorrow. We are having guest blogger Francis Scudellari carrying on in our thoughts behind 2012 series. He is a wonderful writer and extremely creative. His blog is in-the-stream.blogspot.com.

A Non-hypnotic Resource for Saving Us Both Time

The thing that truly appeals to me about hypnosis is the idea that you can fix things inside yourself that need fixing or tweaking. These run the gamut. And then I look back and I realize, problem solving or fixing things has been a part of my life for a very long time. In my other incarnations, I have been an "IT" person (hey, that is cool, I always wanted to be an It girl) and did my own special brand of hypnosis on computers (call Apple, read the manuals, give it a go).

However, as a hypnotist, I am still my own IT person. Because I do a lot of my marketing and communication on line, I also end up being a client IT person as well. I will get calls with people asking what the Monday Contemplation was because they are getting
errors connecting to the Internet. Since this happens, I have had to look for a source that explains technology better than I can (there are only so many hours in a day). Hence, there is www.web-articles.info. They offer easy to understand tutorials and answers to these problems. It has an easy to find search button and over 1300 articles. It is a great resource. So, I suggest taking a look at them. It may save both of us time.

Flowering Tea

For those who have visited the N*tranced office (or just know me), I have a custom of always offering a cup of tea to those who enter my realm. Not only is it a nicety, but something that I believe offers a bit more comfort to the N*tranced (or L.S. King, lol) experience.

But there are also many health benefits to tea, which you may or may not know. Recently, I gotten on a white tea kick. It has anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties to it and may also contain less fluoride than other teas. Plus drinking tea in general (3 cups or more a day), according to Oregon State University study, may be healthier for your heart.

A while ago a friend asked it I had ever seen tea flowers, tea which expands and blooms like a flower when hot water surrounds it (as in a pot of tea). I had not, but became intrigued. So, I finally found a source at Vat19.com. They have a Teaposy Gift Set that includes just such a flower (six), along with a glass tea pot, strainer, and two cups and saucers.

So, I see potential for this as a wonderful meditation tool. While watching, in a contemplative manner, the flower open, as it does so, imagine yourself opening up to something positive, be it better health (there is that heart thing, you know), positive energy, or the potential of the day.

Minimizing the Risk

It is all very well to hear me preaching about the benefits of hypnosis, mediation, and RELAXation sessions, but what does it all translate to personally? Of course it is a great way to make changes, increase self-esteem, sleep better, learn about the inner mind, but it is also a great way to add relaxation to your life. That is why we do RELAXation Sessions at the office. Studies have shown that using guided meditation and relaxation can help minimize the effects of stress. How does this affect you? It can help to lower blood pressure and literally decrease emotional stress.

But to make it all a little clearer and bring home the idea of why it is important to lower blood presser and reduce stress, maybe learning about problems such as Sudden Cardiac Arrest would help. You could spend the rest of your life with an ICD Implant, a personal defibrillator that is implanted within your chest to help regulate the rhythms of the heart. It is a wonderful advancement in human health, but it is also good to know about how it works (distributes an electrical shock when the rhythm gets away from its normal pace) and why itmight be good to maintain your health before getting to that point.

St. Jude Medical has a very informative site about the heart and Sudden Cardiac Arrest at www.insidecardiacarrest.com.

Here are the risk factors they mention:

• Stress
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Cigarette smoking
• Excess weight
• Drug or alcohol abuse
• High fat diet
• Sedentary lifestyle

All of these can be worked on with hypnotic techniques to help lessen their impact on your health.

A Health Insurance Resource

Healthcare insurance is an interesting idea. Ultimately it is a stress in itself, unless you have it paid through your company or live in a country where medicine is more socialized (and I have heard horror stories about that as well). The paper work and application process can be a nightmare, not mention if you have issues like allergies, depression or carpal tunnel in your past. The prices are high and list goes on and on.

From my point of view as a hypnotist, I am often asked if I take insurance. I do not for similar reasons to the ones listed above, as well as many health insurance companies do not accept hypnosis in their treatment plans (that may change once I finish with the college process). There is also a psychological reason why many of us do not wish our clients to use insurance. But that will have to be for another post.

With all that said, insurance questions seem to be a routine part of my life. Many clients who come to me have health problems and are in need of family insurance policies of one sort of another. Should they go with a medical savings account or traditional healthcare options? They had that illness in the past and are presently dealing with something awful. It may not seem like insurance is in my realm, and it is truly not, but it happens so often I thought it should be addressed.

One potential option for finding reasonable insurance is to use an online source such as Advantage Healthcare Quotes. I cite them because they are designed as a resource for most of the United States and offer several different polices from reputable sources. It is a way to see several options rather than one.

This is meant to be a resource, and do remember, currently, I am unable to accept insurance.