In June 1998 I was sitting at a restaurant in Ankara with a curious and somewhat provocative Turkish professor. I was in Turkey for an environmental research project that I had just started as part of my PhD. The subject of my research may seem far away from the work that I am presently pursuing as part of MindShift Coaching. However, in hindsight, the strings and parallels are now fascinatingly clear…
Love and fear go hand in hand
Have you ever wondered why you become particularly anxious and nervous in certain situations? Or, why certain fears keep coming back regardless of how much you try to ignore them, push them away or think positive? A fundamental reason for why our fears keep clinging to us, is simply the fact that they reflect what we love.
From disconnection to belonging
We are all wired to feel connected with others and to feel a sense of belonging in the world. This sense of belonging with others also brings joy, love, gratitude and higher meaning to life. However, many people lack this feeling of connectedness with others. What Brené Brown found in her extensive research was that the key to feeling connected with others is to feel worthy of belonging. And, what keeps us from feeling worthy of belonging…
Energy – the key to holistic healing
In the future, healing is most likely to happen through multiple and parallel modalities that are holistic by nature and that recognize our body not only as a mechanical system but also as made up of subtle energies (that “work” through several energy systems). Such new healing modalities already exist, but will be found, explored and applied by more and more people and health centres worldwide.
Clearing old limiting beliefs to create new empowering
As children, we are not able to make sense of the world in the way that an adult would; also, our worldview is centered around our Self. Therefore, we inevitably explain any event in terms of our existing understanding of who we are, including our self-worth. In our childhood, we thus adopt a range of beliefs about ourselves and the world. Over time, these beliefs become “self-actualizing”.
“My Safe Space” – a meditation to enable deep relaxation
MindShift Coaching has developed a new meditation called “My Safe Space”. It is an exercise intended to bring awareness to any tension in your body and the underlying reasons hereof. Also, this exercise is an opportunity for you to give yourself a moment of deep relaxation. A full body relaxation, in turn, can support profound healing at the physical, mental, emotional and energetic level.
Three types of stress-related symptoms
As individuals, we can react in both unique and partly common ways to long-term stress. While some persons react primarily with psychological symptoms, such as anxiety, irritability, and low patience, others react more physiologically with digestive issues, migraine and body aches, etc.
Stress-related physical pain
For the last eight years, I have been deeply interested in the causes and symptoms of stress, particularly physical pain. Stress-induced pain can be experienced in almost any part of the body. Some persons get headaches and migraines, while others get aching arms and legs. Still others experience pain in the neck, shoulder and back, while many have recurring pain in the stomache.
Be a wise gardener of your mind
Your mind can be likened to a garden where you plant seeds of beliefs and associated thought patterns. These seeds of beliefs eventually grow into flowers of emotional and physical experiences. Hence, it follows, that some thoughts are like ‘weeds’ that grow into painful emotional and physical experiences, while other seeds of beliefs are like the seeds of beautiful flowers, which eventually become expressions of compassion, peace, joy, beauty, and freedom.