jchakrajc

[jchakrajc]

Psycho-Neuro-Immunology

 

Psycho - thoughts and emotions

Neuro - brain and nervous system

Immunology - the study of the immune system

Psychoneuroimmunology is a relatively new study on how the mind influences the immune system. There is conclusive research that indicates that our thoughts and feelings have a direct affect on our immune system function. The aim of this article is to breakdown this science into a simple to understand format with practical applications.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI for short) is a study of the Mind-body connection. PNI researchers study how our emotions and thoughts impact:

- The brain

- Hormones (endocrine)

- Nervous system

- Immune system.

Your thoughts affect your immune system. It can work the opposite way as well —-changes in the immune system create changes in your nervous system which lead to changes in your emotions. Quiet simply put stress and unhealthy eating habits can influence how you think and feel. 

PNI research is concerned with the subtle interactions between our nervous, endocrine and immune systems and disease. The interaction between the different systems are complex but can be explained in a simplified manner.

For example, if you are experiencing fear, anger or other emotions that may increase your stress level, then these unsettling thoughts are picked up by the brain. The brain then stimulates the endocrine system to release hormones that have an adverse effect on the immune cell’s ability to divide. This causes a decline in immune function which may result in your becoming more susceptible to illness.

Simply put - your mental state affects your immunity. Research today is beginning to unravel the complex connection between your psychological state and your immune system.

The Immune System:

The immune system is a complex network of cells and proteins that defends the body against infection.

The body’s protective unit - first line of defense.

The immune system protects body against alien bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites (invaders).

Destroys invaders using an army of white blood cells, natural killer cells and T-cells.

Promoting good gut bacteria is the key to a strong and potent immune system. 

The immune system is comprised of organs, tissues, cells and cell products that all work together to fight harmful substances like the pathogens that cause infection and disease. 

If our lives are greatly influenced by the hormones of stress, then the natural function of the immune system is suppressed, which leaves us more prone to illness or disease. 

When stress is prolonged or unrelenting, it becomes known as chronic stress. Chronic or bad stress can be detrimental to mental and physical health. Constant worrying about things like family or problems are examples of chronic stress. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is another form of chronic stress.

The immune system is a collection of billions of cells that travel through the bloodstream. They move in and out of tissues and organs, defending the body against foreign bodies (antigens) such as bacteria, viruses and cancerous cells.

The main types of immune cells are white blood cells. There are two types of white blood cells:

- Lymphocytes 

- Phagocytes

There are two types of lymphocytes:

B cells - produce antibodies which are released into the fluid surrounding the body’s cells to destroy the invading viruses and bacteria.

T cells - if the invader gets inside a cell, these (T cells) lock on to the infected cell, multiply, and destroy it.

When we’re stressed, the immune system’s ability to fight off antigens is reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections.

The stress hormone corticosteroid can suppress the effectiveness of the immune system (e.g. lowers the number of lymphocytes). 

Healthy Mind Vs Stressful Mind

Being positive and having a healthy perspective could be the difference between longevity and disease. Every thought you have produces a chemical which signals the body to feel exactly the way you are thinking. In turn your thoughts will generate feelings, and your feelings will generate thoughts. This creates a vicious cycle — being mindful of your thoughts in the morning could be the difference in what type of day you have.

The release of stress hormones is the result of a number of complex and interacting factors such as the interaction between the stressors and our perception of the stress. How we perceive an event plays a very significant role in whether the stressor triggers our stress response or not. 

One of the most important factors of stress management is the role that our perception plays in stress. Most people believe that it is external stressful situations or people that cause their stress. But this is not accurate, if it were everybody who was exposed to a particular stressor would be affected, which is not the case — we all react to “stressful” situations differently.

For example; if our perception is influenced by pessimistic thinking style, the potential event will be perceived as more of a threat than say another person exposed to the same potential stressful event but who has a flexible, non-rigid, optimistic thinking style.

How you perceive reality effects not only your physiology but also your health and wellbeing.

Stress can cause unhealthy behavioural coping strategies such as:

Drinking 

Smoking

Drugs

Gambling

Shopping

Eating 

Stress is also linked to:

 Headaches (migraines)

 Infectious illness (viruses)

 Cardiovascular disease

 Diabetes

Asthma 

GI issues (gut health)

Auto immune disease 

”Your cells will either be in a state of growth or protection and if your mind is ‘stressed out,’ then your cells are in a suppressed state, a.k.a breakdown mode—which will leave your body wide open and more susceptible to illness or disease.” ~ Bruce Lipton

Chronic stress:

Creates chronic inflammatory conditions.

Suppresses the smooth operation of the digestive system.

Lowers the immunity of those who otherwise have a healthy immune system.

When long-term stress becomes chronic, high levels of cortisol (stress hormone) begin circulating in the blood for an extended period of time. 

All you need to know is that excessive amounts of CORTISOL run HAVOC in your body system.

We can reduce our stress levels by changing our thinking habits — outdated negative perceptions can lead to distorted thinking patterns which can paint events much worse than they actually are — keeping the vicious cycle of stress turning. 

Our perceptions can be shaped by past experiences — perceiving reality through the lenses of the past. Let’s face it not all of our experiences have been full of joy and love, so it’s critical to identify the perceptions that are outdated and change them to healthy ones.

Stress Management Tips...

Keep a positive attitude.

Accept that there are events that you cannot control.

Be assertive instead of aggressive. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive.

Learn and practice relaxation techniques meditation, deep breathing, mindfulness & excepting term of ur current life.

Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it is fit.

Eat healthy, well-balanced meals.

Learn to manage your time more effectively.

Set limits appropriately and learn to say no to requests that would create excessive stress in your life.

Make time for hobbies, interests, and relaxation.

Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events.

Don't rely on alcohol, drugs, or compulsive behaviors to reduce stress.

Cells can transmit and receive non-physical packages of information that influences their behaviour. 

Think about it - a stressful state changes the heart beat to be erratic which sends out pressure waves (informational waves of energy) to signals cells to change their behaviour (emergency state).

Stress disrupts all the major organs in the body that contribute to having a disrupted energy field.

When you are stressed, the cells in your body will be given information that keeps them in a protective state.

"Cells are either in a state of growth (harmony) or protection (stress) — they cannot be in both."  

Our conscious minds have the power to influence cell behaviour — cells respond to thoughts — the stronger the emotional charge behind the thought, the more cells react. 

Factors that influence cell behaviour:

• Stress 

• Diet

• Exercise

• Sleep 

• Perception  

• Mind set 

• Emotions

How you process and define different aspects of your life ultimately signals your cells to be in a state of growth or protection. 

Learning to consciously harmonise your mind and body will enable you to upkeep the integrity of the cells in your body.

Question:

How does my mood effect my immunity?

Answer: If you regularly experience low vibrational emotions such as fear, anger or other emotions that may increase your stress levels, then it will be extremely difficult for you to maintain balance within the systems of the body. 

Low vibrational emotions will begin to disturb your thoughts because the brain will pick up on the emotional feedback from the body. 

The hormonal system in the body (endocrine) is a major player when it comes to maintaining a healthy balance. Stress disrupts the natural order of the endocrine system resulting that can result in chemical imbalances. 

There are many medical conditions that remain a mystery to doctors and science that maybe caused by chemical-hormonal imbalances in the body. If the adrenal glands are overactive (stress hormone glands) then the other glands suppressed from their natural function.

The adrenal glands are taking up all the energy to activate stress hormones which suppress the other glands from naturally maintaining chemical/hormonal balance in the body. 

MEDITATION IS MEDICATION

Meditation induces the relaxation response in the body which allows the body to reset and balance — creating coherence within all systems of the body. The relaxation response is our physical way of reversing the effects of stress and the physical stress response.

Individuals with high levels of stress should adopt a regular meditation practice to restore balance back in the body.

[jchakrajc]

The Third Eye...

The pinecone is universally revered as one of the purest naturally occurring forms of Sacred Geometry, its pattern being the flower's evolutionary precursor, having its spirals in a perfect Fibonacci Sequence, much like the geometry of a rose or a sunflower.

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This ubiquitous formation in nature is a common type of phyllotaxis pattern, from the ancient Greek phýllon "leaf" and taxis "arrangement", which refers to the set of principles that govern the arrangement of leaves along the stem of plants.  But not only in the plant world, these same principles govern the configuration of cycles of harmonic vibrations at all scales of nature, including in our DNA and in the orbits of the planets.

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The pinecone symbol is one of the most mysterious emblems found in ancient and modern art and architecture.

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Few scholars realize this, but in different cultures the pinecone alludes to the highest degree of spiritual illumination, as well as the Lotus Flower and several other symbols that refers to the rotational symmetries of electromagnetism, which describes the natural forces of creation through the science of Light.

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The Pinecone symbol can be found in the ruins of Indonesians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Buddhists and Christians.  It also appears in the designs of esoteric traditions such as Freemasonry, Theosophy, Gnosticism and esoteric Christianity.

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The pinecone has the same meaning for everyone: it symbolizes the science of light and its relationship with the mind and body through our vestigial organ, the "pineal gland" or "Third Eye", which represents the unified awareness that directs the evolutionary energy flow. The shape of the gland has a phyllotaxis pattern similar to that of the pinecone, hence its name ("Pine" al Gland, means Pineal Gland and has its origin in the word "Pinecone", which means pinecone).

[jchakrajc]

Survival & Stress...

Living in stress and living in survival means there is an alert, there's an emergency, there's an arousal, & it causes you to not want to have that event happen again. That's what survival does. You always have to anticipate or always keep your attention on the idea that it could happen again. This is when you start conditioning that emotion subconsciously in your body. As you start reviewing something that could happen in your future, you make that thought in your mind so real, that you're living in that future, in the present moment. & you start feeling the emotions of that future.⁣

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It's this conditioning process that begins to cause you to become that emotion subconsciously. That means that over time you're not even conscious that you feel that way. It becomes who you are. So then anything in your environment that you could recognize that's remotely similar to the images that created that emotion, triggers that same emotion. Sometimes it's not justified, sometimes it's not real. You're going back to seeing your reality based on memories from the past.⁣

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When you do that enough times & you can recall the past, the thought of the event, the memory of the experience produces a feeling or a chemical or a response in the body. & that chemical response in the body is conditioning the body emotionally to become the mind. & now the body's being conditioned subconsciously into the past even further. ⁣

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Now the body is memorizing that emotion & it's believing that the experience is happening around it all the time subconsciously. & it's those subconscious emotions that drive certain programs & certain behaviors when conditions in the environment appear similar to what we remember or what we believe we remember. The research on memory shows that what we experienced in that past over time becomes very subjective. It doesn't seem to be the truth any longer bc we further embellish the story to people around us & heighten the circumstances of the story to not only feel the emotion but validate the fact that it's really hard for us to change. ⁣

[jchakrajc]

What happens when you feel gratitude when you get what you want? You're likely happier and more receptive to the world. At this moment, the elevated emotion you're feeling has pulled you from your predictable routine. Now, if we can feel this way after the fact, there's no reason it can't happen beforehand. How do we tap into this energy and use it to create change? ⁣

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Step 1. Clear intention⁣

What is it that you want to create? Maybe you'd like to get a new job that pays better & gives you more control over your time. Create that inner world, fill it with rich detail. You'll want to be specific about what you want because this helps create the necessary elevated emotion. If you review the features of your creation enough times, your mind should instinctively create a symbol to represent your desire. That image will then be the cue for you to focus on & you'll know what it means.⁣

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Step 2. Elevated Emotions⁣

How would you feel if you got what you wanted? The easy answers here are likely happy or excited but you'll need to dig a bit deeper to find the sponsoring emotion.  When you embrace elevated emotions in meditation or life, what you are actually doing is signaling your genes ahead of the environment. The body doesn't know the difference between an emotion created by an experience you're having in the outside environment and experience you are creating internally by embracing this new, elevated emotion. So when you embrace elevated emotions and think thoughts that are greater than the self-limiting ones that keep you stuck in the past, your body begins to prepare chemically for the future (bc it believes the future is happening now).⁣

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Step 3. Mental Rehearsal ⁣

Mentally rehearse the choices you will make, what things you will do, what experiences await you, & how you will feel. Soon, your body & mind will respond as if the event or experience has already happened. You know you are doing it properly when 'you feel like the event has already happened'—that's gratitude! Don't try & control the outcome. If you do this, then you'll be drawn back into your old habits. You will get that new job but the "how" & "when" are yet to be determined.

[jchakrajc]

A brain that tells us strictly nothing of what it is like to have a mind.

One of the most peculiar things about being human is that we exist as both minds and bodies. We are in part miraculous machines hung off collagen and calcium skeletons, irrigated by five litres of watery plasma richly packed with erythrocytes and leukocytes and driven around 100,000 miles of blood vessels by a pump that beats 100,000 times a day using power released by the breakdown of potato chips and carrot sticks, buttered toast and lemon pie in a tightly sealed one litre vat filled with a mixture of hydrochloric acid and potassium and sodium chloride.

And yet we are at the same time minds that have memories, imagination, emotions and ideals, unique centres of consciousness that can blend an infinity of fears and insights, excitements and regrets into an unfolding story of identity; minds that can conjure up worlds from spectral blankness, that can classify and order chaos, that can turn mute cries into poetry and agony into arias, that can devise ideas to die or live for and that crave beauty and aspire to wisdom - all within a squelchy 1,400 gram walnut encased in a cavity discretely silent as to the many universes it contains

[jchakrajc]

Energy Centers

The places in your body where the energy gets stuck are the energy centers associated with the issues you’re dealing with. When energy becomes stuck in our body, it cannot flow to the higher centers. Since emotions are energy, these emotions get stuck in different centers and we cannot evolve. If, for example, a person has been sexually abused or has been conditioned since childhood to think that sex is bad, their energy can stay stuck in the first center, the center associated with sexuality, and they may have problems accessing creativity. If, on the other hand, a person can access their creative energy but doesn’t necessarily feel safe enough to use their creativity in the world (instead feeling victimized by their social and interpersonal relationships), or if they have been traumatized or betrayed by another person, they might hold on to that energy in their second center. Such a person would be likely to feel excessive amounts of guilt, shame, suffering, low self-esteem, or fear.⁣

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Now, if a person can get their energy flowing up to the third center but they have ego issues and they feel self-important, self-absorbed, controlling, domineering, angry, overly competitive, and bitter, then their energy gets stuck in their third center and they may have control issues or motivation issues. If a person cannot open their heart and feel love and trust or if they are afraid to express love or how they truthfully feel, energy can also become frozen in the fourth and fifth centers, respectively.⁣

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While energy can get stuck in any of the energy centers, these first three centers are where it tends to get stuck most often. And when it’s stuck, it can’t evolve and flow to the higher energy centers where we’re in love with life and want to give back. Getting that circuit flowing the way it was designed to do is the whole point of doing the Blessing of the Energy Centers meditation—we bless each of these centers so we can get stuck energy flowing again

[jchakrajc]

"If you only knew what walked with you, you would never doubt or suppress fear & walk under loves umbrella"

When we feel safe & secure enough to #create, that #creative #energy from our #firstcenter #evolves, #ascending and #flowing into the #secondcenter. Having to master some limitation or overcome some condition in our #environment, we are able to put this creative energy to good use, and then it will flow to the #thirdcenter, the seat of our will & power.

When we successfully #transcend the adversity in our #life, which has challenged us to #grow & #overcome, we have the #opportunity to feel more #whole, #free, & #satisfied & we’re then able to feel #genuine #love for #self and others as the energy flows through and activates the #fourthcenter.

We then want to express our greatest #truth within the s open of reality- what we’ve learned or the love or wholeness we feel & that allows the energy to then move through and turn on our #fifthcenter.

After this, when the #evolution of energy activates the #sixthcenter, dormant areas of the brain open so that the veil of illusion is lifted & we #perceive a broader spectrum of reality.

We then begin to feel #enlightened, the #body & external #environment moves more into #harmony & #balance, as the energy ascends in activating the #seventhcenter.

Once we feel that enlightened energy, we begin to truly feel #worthy & the energy can finally #rise to #activate the #eighthcenter, where we receive the fruits of our #efforts—#visions, #dreams, #insights, #manifestations, & #knowingness that come not from anywhere within our #minds & #bodies as memories but from a greater #power in & around us.⁣

⁣This is the #evolution that happens when the energy flows consistently—the ideal.

What happens often, however, is that the events of our lives & the way we react to them cause our energy to get stuck so that it doesn’t flow in this #magnificentpattern I just outlined. The places in your body where the energy gets stuck are the energy centers associated with the issues you’re dealing with. As shown I'm the diagrams above, which happens when the energy gets stuck and can’t flow to the higher centers. This holds us back from evolving. 

[jchakrajc]

The Time we don't have...

Timing is something that none of us can seem to get quite right with relationships. We meet the person of our dreams the month before they leave to go study abroad. We form an incredibly close friendship with an attractive person who is already taken. One relationship ends because our partner isn’t ready to get serious and another ends because they’re getting serious too soon.

“It would be perfect,” We moan to our friends, “If only this were five years from now/eight years sooner/some indistinct time in the future where all our problems would take care of themselves.” Timing seems to be the invariable third party in all of our relationships. And yet we never stop to consider why we let timing play such a drastic role in our lives.

Timing is a bitch, yes. But it’s only a bitch if we let it be. Here’s a simple truth that I think we all need to face up to: the people we meet at the wrong time are actually just the wrong people.

You never meet the right people at the wrong time because the right people are timeless. The right people make you want to throw away the plans you originally had for one and follow them into the hazy, unknown future without a glance backwards. The right people don’t make you hmm and haw about whether or not you want to be with them; you just know. You know that any adventure you had originally planned out for your future isn’t going to be half as incredible as the adventures you could have by their side. That no matter what you thought you wanted before, this is better. Everything is better since they came along.

When you are with the right person, time falls away. You don’t worry about fitting them into your complicated schedule, because they become a part of that schedule. They become the backbone of it. Your happiness becomes your priority and so long as they are contributing to it, you can work around the rest.

The right people don’t stand in the way of the things you once wanted and make you choose them over them. The right people encourage you: To try harder, dream bigger, do better. They bring out the most incredible parts of yourself and make you want to fight harder than ever before. The right people don’t impose limits on your time or your dreams or your abilities. They want to tackle those mountains with you, and they don’t care how much time it takes. With the right person, you have all of the time in the world.

The truth is, when we pass someone up because the timing is wrong, what we are really saying is that we don’t care to spend our time on that person. There will never be a magical time when everything falls into place and fixes all our broken relationships. But there may someday be a person who makes the issue of timing irrelevant.

Because when someone is right for us, we make the time to let them into our lives. And that kind of timing is always right.

[jchakrajc]

Attitude vs Intellect

When it comes to success, it’s easy to think that people blessed with brains are inevitably going to leave the rest of us in the dust. But new research from Stanford University will change your mind (and your attitude).

Psychologist Carol Dweck has spent her entire career studying attitude and performance, and her latest study shows that your attitude is a better predictor of your success than your IQ.

Dweck found that people’s core attitudes fall into one of two categories: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

With a fixed mindset, you believe you are who you are and you cannot change. This creates problems when you’re challenged because anything that appears to be more than you can handle is bound to make you feel hopeless and overwhelmed.

People with a growth mindset believe that they can improve with effort. They outperform those with a fixed mindset, even when they have a lower IQ, because they embrace challenges, treating them as opportunities to learn something new.  

Common sense would suggest that having ability, like being smart, inspires confidence. It does, but only while the going is easy. The deciding factor in life is how you handle setbacks and challenges. People with a growth mindset welcome setbacks with open arms.  

According to Dweck, success in life is all about how you deal with failure. She describes the approach to failure of people with the growth mindset this way,

“Failure is information—we label it failure, but it’s more like, ‘This didn’t work, and I’m a problem solver, so I’ll try something else.’”

Regardless of which side of the chart you fall on, you can make changes and develop a growth mindset. What follows are some strategies that will fine-tune your mindset and help you make certain it’s as growth oriented as possible.

Don’t stay helpless. 

We all hit moments when we feel helpless. The test is how we react to that feeling. We can either learn from it and move forward or let it drag us down. There are countless successful people who would have never made it if they had succumbed to feelings of helplessness: Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas,” Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a TV anchor in Baltimore for being “too emotionally invested in her stories,” Henry Ford had two failed car companies prior to succeeding with Ford, and Steven Spielberg was rejected by USC’s Cinematic Arts School multiple times. Imagine what would have happened if any of these people had a fixed mindset. They would have succumbed to the rejection and given up hope. People with a growth mindset don’t feel helpless because they know that in order to be successful, you need to be willing to fail hard and then bounce right back.

Be passionate.

 Empowered people pursue their passions relentlessly. There’s always going to be someone who’s more naturally talented than you are, but what you lack in talent, you can make up for in passion. Empowered people’s passion is what drives their unrelenting pursuit of excellence. Warren Buffet recommends finding your truest passions using, what he calls, the 5/25 technique: Write down the 25 things that you care about the most. Then, cross out the bottom 20. The remaining 5 are your true passions. Everything else is merely a distraction.

Take action. 

It’s not that people with a growth mindset are able to overcome their fears because they are braver than the rest of us; it’s just that they know fear and anxiety are paralyzing emotions and that the best way to overcome this paralysis is to take action. People with a growth mindset are empowered, and empowered people know that there’s no such thing as a truly perfect moment to move forward. So why wait for one? Taking action turns all your worry and concern about failure into positive, focused energy.

Then go the extra mile (or two). 

Empowered people give it their all, even on their worst days. They’re always pushing themselves to go the extra mile. One of Bruce Lee’s pupils ran three miles every day with him. One day, they were about to hit the three-mile mark when Bruce said, “Let’s do two more.” His pupil was tired and said, “I’ll die if I run two more.” Bruce’s response? “Then do it.” His pupil became so angry that he finished the full five miles. Exhausted and furious, he confronted Bruce about his comment, and Bruce explained it this way: “Quit and you might as well be dead. If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there; you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

If you aren’t getting a little bit better each day, then you’re most likely getting a little worse—and what kind of life is that?

Expect results. 

People with a growth mindset know that they’re going to fail from time to time, but they never let that keep them from expecting results. Expecting results keeps you motivated and feeds the cycle of empowerment. After all, if you don’t think you’re going to succeed, then why bother?

Be flexible. 

Everyone encounters unanticipated adversity. People with an empowered, growth-oriented mindset embrace adversity as a means for improvement, as opposed to something that holds them back. When an unexpected situation challenges an empowered person, they flex until they get results.

Don't complain when things don't go your way. 

Complaining is an obvious sign of a fixed mindset. A growth mindset looks for opportunity in everything, so there’s no room for complaints.

Bringing it all together

By keeping track of how you respond to the little things, you can work every day to keep yourself on the right side of the chart above.

[jchakrajc]

12 Ways to Overcome Laziness

Being highly productive isn’t a natural talent for everyone. Some of us have a naturally strong work ethic, while others really like our sitting-around time. But we always seem to find time for the things we want to do.

Laziness, on the other hand, appears for very specific reasons. Maybe we don’t know how to do the task, maybe we feel overwhelmed by everything we do have to do. Maybe we are just plain scared and our mindset needs adjustment.

Whatever the cause, if laziness is interfering with your productivity, if it’s making you unresponsive to your responsibilities, if it’s costing you your success, you must learn to overcome it.

Here are 12 easy ways to get on top of your laziness so you can begin to be more productive.

1.  Make sure you’re not overwhelmed.Sometimes we freeze up when we’re  overwhelmed by everything we have to do–we freeze up and don’t do anything at all. Do you have realistic expectations on how much you are truly able to accomplish? If you have too much on your plate and no idea how you’re going to get it all done, it may be that you’re not lazy but overwhelmed.

2.  Check your motivation. Similarly, if you’re not motivated it is very easy to slip into what looks like laziness. To be productive we need to be motivated. If it’s hard for you to stay connected to what motivates you, make up a list that you can consult when you need an extra push.

3.  Look at your surroundings. Your environment and the people around you matter. Are you in a space that makes it easy to stay organized and productive? Do the people around you spend more time complaining than following their passions? If you surround yourself with people who love what they do, and are creative and motivated, their enthusiasm will rub off on you. Make sure too that your space gives you everything you need to work well.

4. Value your time.  Make the most of the time you do spend working. Look at your to-do list and prioritize–you can do it in your head, on paper, or on a computer or phone-based planner. Just knowing where you are makes it harder for deadlines to sneak up on you and easier to work productively, even if it’s in short bursts.

5.  Reframe your thinking. If you’re in a mindset where work is bad and play is good–something many of us have let over from school days–then any kind of work that needs to get done feels like punishment. Remember the things that are positive about work, such as the higher purpose of your organization or just the feeling of having accomplished something significant.

6. The source of value. It’s easy to become lazy if you don’t see the value in what you have to do. Try this: when you make a to-do list, include the benefits of each task. When you focus on benefits and goals, productivity becomes much more rewarding. Learn the value of each task and then work to achieve it.

7. Make new habits. If you typically put off the most complex or difficult assignments for last, switch it up and begin doing those tasks first. Pick one or two things to focus on and fully devote yourself to those tasks. You don’t want to spread yourself too thin. Remember you have to work to reach your goal; it’s not going to happen right away.

8. Measure the changes. Keeping new habits in place is notoriously difficult. One effective technique to making changes to your productivity stick to is to track your results. If you can see that holding yourself accountable is helping you meet your goals, it will be easier to maintain.

9. Share your goals. If you’re working toward a promotion or a new job, or gearing up to run a marathon or play at an open mic night, tell people about it! Knowing they’ll be asking how things are going will keep you making progress.

10. Schedule work and break times. You need to take an occasional break, but make sure that time is limited so you don’t lose momentum. For example, you could commit to working for the first 45 minutes of every hour and then take a 15-minute break. Use the timer in your phone to keep track.

11. Look for alternatives. Think of ways you can work more effectively. Is there a better way? Can you delegate or automate a task? The more you streamline, automate, delegate, and outsource, the more you can get with the same level of effort.

12. Remember, nothing changes until you do. You can have all the foolproof tips and tricks in the world, but ultimately nothing changes until you do. If your current work style is meeting your needs, you won’t see a reason to change. But if you’re frustrated by your lack of motivation or fear that it’s holding you back, then you need to change from within. Because the truth is nothing will change until you do.

There’s no simple cure for being lazy. The only way to overcome it is by setting your mind to the task and getting up and completing it. Start right now to develop the self-discipline you need to reach your goals

[jchakrajc]

To whom it may concern,

Choose to love,

Choose to live,

Choose to dream,

But Choose, bc the last you'd want is for life, to be chosen for you...

We may have money in our pockets but it's time to put more sense in our heads...

So before your life flashes before ur eyes,

I ask you, will ur movie be worth watching...

Will u regret the stories never told...

The memories that never happened,

The path never explored,

The disagreements/ arguements that were never cured...

Forget New Years resolution, let's make a New Life resulotion...!

To Explore...

To Reconnect...

to see as many places & ppl as we can... with family, friends & those we have yet to meet, so dont wait to enjoy all you've worked so hard for... Dont become a statistic, life is but a dream, so row, row, row ur boat...

[jchakrajc]

The Natural Order of Things Doesnt Care for Your Happiness...

1. Science is confirming key Buddhist ideas. So reveals Robert Wright’s very enlightening book, Why Buddhism Is True.

2. Wright means “true” because evolutionary logic and brain science now fit Buddhism’s ancient naturalistic (non-reincarnation-y) aspects. Consider some of Wright’s mind-stopping sentences and essentially delusion-illuminating ideas.

3. Evolution “doesn’t care about our… happiness.” It wants us anxiously striving, thus life brings suffering (=Buddhism’s dukkha = “unsatisfactoriness”). So feeling happy requires “rebellion” against evolution’s values.

4. Evolution’s sole goal (=“purpose”) is gene spreading. So life feels strongly about and “values” the needs of its gene “vehicles” ( = bodies).

5. Feelings arose to enact evolution's vehicle-centered values (=personalized go-forth-and-multiply mission). And all feelings are elaborations of basic evolutionary good-or-bad approach-or-avoid judgments.

6. “Judging is what we’re designed to do.” Our heads are full of feeling-generating “modules,” constantly running backstage (System 1) that judge (assign affective adjectives to) things in our environment.

7. “There’s no such thing as an immaculate perception” or conception (the cognitive, not sexual kind). All come bundled with feelings (feelings = biochemical judgments + attached stories, see “Darwin’s Hindoo”).

8. Brain science backs Buddhism’s “not-self” doctrine—“thoughts think themselves”—there’s no “CEO” module. Ordinarily, which feeling-thought-story bundles “bubble up” into awareness depends on the intensity of outputs of competing modules.

9. Buddhism calls these feeling-thought-story bundles “delusions” because they arise from misplaced “essentialism.” Your perceptions about X may seem like essential attributes of X, but they result from “interdependent co-arising.” Like color, they’re co-constructed, “caused” by properties of the object, lighting, our physiology, and even language (color =“secondary quality” in Western philosophy).

10. Science calls essentialism about people the “fundamental attribution error” (blaming dispositional traits over situational factors). But this error varies by culture, Jerome Kagan says Asian psychologists wouldn’t ever dream up the “Big Five” personality traits (e.g., Korean uses act-plus-context as the basic “unit”).

11. Buddhists don’t fight feeling-delusions directly. Rather they “R.A.I.N.” them in—recognize, accept, inspect, and nonidentify (feelings aren’t an essential part of you).

12. Mindfulness meditation trains you in metacognitive skills (thinking about thinking) that weaken unhelpful feelings and empower calmer ones.

13. Buddhist language like "nothing possesses inherent existence" can seem to go too far, since our unobjective “delusions” are often accurate enough.

14. But Buddhism beat Einstein to relativity’s core insight, that there’s no “view from nowhere,” or God’s-eye view (even the truths of physics are relational, perspectival).

15. Evolution’s save-your-own-skin values tend to inculcate the perspective that we’re “special.” But perhaps these evolution-given values are more like food than air (the former far more culturally configurable than the latter).

16. Wright feels our evolutionary “vehicle stops at the skin,” but that view is shifting—every vehicle needs ”multitudes,” and “every self is a society.”

17. Our “extended vehicles” raise broader “vehicular viability” issues (see “universal survivor logic”). And beyond the personal practical benefits meditation offers, Wright feels a “Metacognitive Revolution” could save the planet (Buddha and the art of vehicles maintenance).

[jchakrajc]

Heal That Soul...!

Let’s face it. Because we live in the material world, chances are your soul has taken a beating. I think we’re all traumatized to some degree. This leaves us with holes in our soul, which makes it easy to get depleted of precious energy and take on disease, mentally and physically. And without the keys of knowledge about our true and powerful nature, we have unknowingly created suffering for ourselves and others, while succumbing to the mind control of the world’s manipulators and taken on loads of lies, fears and false programming in our souls. Enough!

Let’s get back on the road of living our Truth in radiant health and total fulfillment by making the healing of our souls our first priority. After all, a turtle’s shell cannot move forward without a healthy life residing inside. Nor can a turtle live happily within a shell that is broken.

-Defining the soul...

The human soul is a container-like system made of energy through which our Divine Consciousness within (our God Self) can flow its energy into, co-create in and experience the material world. The soul system has various energetic parts and vibrational levels, including the first seven chakras and four levels defined as:  Self Identity, Mental Body, Emotional Body and Physical Body.

You can have problems in any one or all of these soul parts that affect the whole. If your Self-Identity (the top level) contains the belief you are a victim, for example, that false idea filters down through the other three levels, creating negative effects and experiences in your life as well as others around you. The health of your soul is directly related to the health and happiness of your life

The soul is designed to be an open channel for the expression of Divine Consciousness in the material world, effectively translating and changing its energy into forms and experiences that we desire and envision. You might think of the soul as being kind of like a car in which your God Self travels and creates experiences. But if the windows are covered in dirt or shattered and the engine doesn’t work right, it directly impacts the joy and quality of the ride.

Likewise, if the soul is fragmented and covered in false programming, it doesn’t work well and you are negatively affected. By connecting to and being aware of the Divine Consciousness within, you can mend your soul and let go of the false beliefs that block or censor your God Self’s continual flow of love, peace, joy, freedom, abundance and total fulfillment of all of our desires.

-When our souls are whole and in Truth, dark forces are unable to harm us...

Just outside of the visible light vibration that our eyes see, there are dark forces that deliberately try to mess us up and putus in various states of fear. Why? They feed on this kind of lower vibrational energy. And they need to manipulate us into giving it to them because they cannot get it elsewhere. Be aware of this but do not fear them. To fear them is to give them your precious divine energy, which is your power.

Your knowledge of and connection to the Divine Consciousness within you as your source and supply of everything, however, is your greatest protection. This automatically guards you from them because they are unable to connect to higher vibrational energy such as love and Truth. Which is why they work so hard to keep people in states of fear, soul loss, war, confusion and ignorance. Connect with the loving Truth and move forward fearlessly.

-When our souls are lifted, we lift others and our world becomes a better place...

When we are able to attune our whole soul to the God Self within us, we are not only protected, we’re lifted into a feel-good creative place where our thoughts and actions are in our very best interest. They are effective and totally fulfilling. We then want to help others through our example, inspiring them to also heal and feel better. We become better at keeping our consciousness (awareness, understanding and knowledge) in the eternal now, which brings in more love, peace, joy, harmony, freedom and abundance. And in the process, we make the world feel and work better for everyone. It’s win-win. I think this is what Jesus meant when he said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32)

-There’s never been a better time...

And finally, with the universal emerging awakening of our collective consciousness taking place now, there’s more healing energy coming into our world to help souls who want to mend than ever before. Which means, of course, there’s never been a better time to choose to heal and reclaim your soul—than right now.

[jchakrajc]

Evolution vs Consciousness...

No matter how divided the world may seem, and no matter how many differences people can put between themselves and others, the untouchable truth of being human is that we have more in common with each other and with the other inhabitants of this planet than we have differences. Bound to a shared fate, we all play a role in making up the collective body of conscious life on this living planet.

The material perspective on consciousness and spirit reduces the most intriguing parts of being human to impossibilities, unexplainable phenomenon, or somehow considers them to be tricks of the self, on the self. Materialist reductionism only contributes to a sense of competition and division between man and himself, and between man and nature. Disharmony.

Human consciousness is the mystery that connects us all, the one question that cannot be answered by anyone, no matter what religion, creed, race, color, perspective or code. Every individual arises in conscious spirit from the same unknowable place, and moves on to the same eternal void when the material body no longer supports the spirit.

This we all share, and to this we are all beholden.

“Evolving our consciousness is not something we do only for ourselves – it is something we also do for others…for all others, and for the earth.” –Dr. Ervin László

Jesus and Allah guide the way for some, and we are all free to establish a connection to consciousness and spirit through any philosophy or practice that resonates and helps light our path. Beyond the divisions and misunderstandings, we’ve created lies the untouchable truth about being a human being.

1. We are part of the world, inside and out. We are neither in the world or out of the world, for it is us and we are it.

2. We are part of nature. Nature is both inside and outside of us. We are never in nature or out of nature, as we are nature.

3. We are part of society and society is part of us. Our communication and communion with fellow humans makes us an inseparable part of the entire community of human beings and contributes to the evolution of the whole mass of humans and life on this earth.

4. We are more than flesh and bone and more than a material organism. The elements, cells, and organs that make up our bodies are physical manifestations of the true, dynamic, self-evolving, persisting, self-sustaining drive for coherence and self-awareness that is the nature of the universe.

5. Human beings are one of the most advanced and evolved manifestations of the inherent universal drive towards coherence and self-awareness. Our interaction with all other systems of life is a manifestation of this drive towards coherence.

6. Boundaries as absolute divisions in this world simply do not exist. They are merely the locations of transition points where a set of relations gives and takes with a different set of relations.

7. The sense of separateness and identity that we attach to other people and things is merely a convenient device that helps to facilitate interaction with them. The body, family, community, and totality of humanity is all one complex organism continually seeking greater coherence and self-awareness.

8. We are all living systems that are all part of each other as is displayed by our inter-dependence. The perceived differences that distinguish us from one another are only gradients of the same thing.

9. Competition between the perceived ‘I’ and the perceived ‘You’ runs counter to the drive for coherence and destabilizes and damages the integrity of the whole. It is impossible to damage the whole, for whatever perceived short-term advantage, without also damaging the self.

10. Collaboration instead of competition is the hallmark of healthy living systems in this world.

11. As human beings, we’ve been tasked with tending to our personal evolution, and thereby the evolution of the whole, so that we may fully participate in the universal drive for coherence and self-awareness in the whole.

The atoms in our bodies cooperate to make elements. The elements work together to make cells. The cells pitch in to form organs, and the organs provide a vehicle for the mind. The concentrated efforts of the physical body and the mind activate and bring form to the human spirit. The individual human spirit works together with other humans.

[jchakrajc]

You Are Not Broken but Rebuilding

Pain in life is something that we can not avoid.  And if you walk this planet, you are likely going to experience heart-break (and more than once!)  I think the feeling of heart-break is one of the worst feelings that we can experience.  It’s kind of like having a little flame in your soul get blown out by a cold, loveless wind.  Cheesy, but true.  And society has taught us that the best way to deal with heartbreak is to eat, smoke, drink or distract ourselves into an oblivion— but that’s the path to emptiness & void not emotional healing. We dont give ourselves enough time to truly heal instead entertain ourselves but progress the transgression...

These are some rules I live by & pass on to those seeking to be relieved of burden...

1)  Be kind to yourself

Your heart, mind and overall physiology is vastly affected by how you treat yourself, and feel about yourself.  While heart-break can make you feel worthless, unloved, disregarded and downright sad— it’s so important to be kind to yourself, and take care of yourself the way you would if you were your own child!  (Weird, right?)

Seriously, have a warm bath, relax in the sun, and make the time and space to allow yourself to do things you enjoy.  Treat yourself the way you would treat a sad little kid that needs a hug.  Because when we’re heart-broken, we are stripped of confidence, passion, and happiness— and that is when we need self-love the most.

What I’ve realized from my experience, is that being heart-broken is a powerful opportunity to develop self-love and appreciation that was NOT there before, but should have been, and should always be.

 2) Be grateful for everything you still have

While any kind of heart-break is awful, it is always worse when we lose sight of all the blessings in our life.  They should be the center of our attention, nor blurred out in the background of our pain.  Hey, my boyfriend may have valued a sick, sexual and nostalgic fantasy with his first girlfriend more than what he had with me, but I still have an amazing little cat, people that care about me, a bright future ahead of me (IF I CHOOSE IT), and talents that I can develop and use to enrich my life and others.

No matter how much pain you are in, there is always so much to be grateful for.  So while you may have lost something extremely special, be grateful for everything you still have.  It’s okay to feel deep pain for what you have gone through and are experiencing, as well as gratitude for what you have now and ahead of you.

3) Let the seasons change

Our lives are not just one big blob of random events.  If you take a moment to reflect on your life, you will notice a pattern of seasons, (or chapters, if you fancy), where people have come and gone, played roles in your life, helped teach you valuable lessons, and changed you.  And throughout this insane journey we call life, not every season is going to be a tiki tropical summer.  Some will be cold and difficult, and even lonely, but you must move and grow through those seasons.  And they will change, and pass.  So let that happen, and be as strong as you can be throughout it all.  Be like the trees.

 4) Express yourself and your pain

Express yourself and what you are feeling.  If you need to let the person know just how badly they hurt you, then do that.  If you would rather write a song about it, then do that— but make sure that expression does not get bottled up inside you.  What you are experiencing is real, and it ought to be let out, for the sake of your psychological and spiritual health!  You do not need to be ashamed of feeling broken or pained, you need to love and respect yourself enough to release, through expression and honesty, what you are going through.

 5)  Cut the cords and take your power back

It’s very important to cut the cords or ‘soul-ties’ that have been created with the person that you loved, who hurt you, or that you still feel attached to / affected by.  You can do this with meditation, an affirmation, or with the help of a spiritual teacher or practitioner.  While it may seem painful to finally let go, that’s exactly why it must be done: to release you of the attachment which has and is causing you pain.

And we must take our power back.  When we have a ‘broken heart,’ it’s common for us to feel powerless, and that’s precisely because our power is outside of ourselves and in the hands of someone else.  Don’t allow your emotional state to depend on whether somebody truly loves you or not.  Take your power back and do self-work so the way you feel is in alignment with your intrinsic value— which has nothing to do with what anyone else thinks, feels or doesn’t feel for you.  While this may seem like an impossible task, just try it.  Assert and visualize that all the vulnerability and power you gave to the person who broke your heart is being re-claimed, and that your power resides only in YOU.  That’s where it should be.  Not in the hands of someone else— especially someone who took advantage of you or took for granted the vulnerability, intimacy, trust and presence you gave to them.

Finally, While having a broken heart, or being drowned in humiliation and depression can make you inclined to completely isolate yourself and give up on your hope and goals, you need to remember that there is so much healing that needs to be done on this planet, for all life.  You are not alone in your pain, and if you can come out of it stronger, wiser and more grateful, you will be able to positively affect the lives of so many people, animals and the miraculous planet that we live on.  Let go and release who has dishonored you and wounded you.  And embrace all the opportunities and potential that is still out there, for yourself, and to help others.

[jchakrajc]

4 tips for your Meds... meditation that is

Lao Tzu, Confucius, St. Teresa of Avila, Paul McCartney, Al Gore, David Lynch, Oprah Winfrey, Cory Booker and 19 million of today’s Americans have all found some manner of inner peace through meditation, a practice dating back at least 3,500 years. Meditation is essentially a way of resting the mind to attain a state of altered consciousness. It’s been shown to mitigate anxiety and depression, reduce blood pressure, slow the aging process and improve attention.

There are many forms of meditation, but three of the most popular are concentrative (like transcendental meditation), in which practitioners focus on a single point of attention like an object, a mantra or their own breath; open awareness (like the Zen practice of zazen), which involves opening the mind to whatever is happening, internally and externally; and mindfulness meditation, essentially a combination of the two.

If you’re intrigued by the idea of meditation but haven’t yet gotten your om on, consider these tips. .

1. Breathe Take 30 seconds or so a few times a day to slow down and do nothing but breathe, paying attention to your breath as it goes in and out. If you enjoy the experience, which is central to many forms of meditation, you may well feel the same way about meditation itself.

2. Look It Up One benefit of the rising popularity of meditation is the abundance of books, videos and apps on the subject. Some good places to start: Jack Kornfield’s classic volume Meditation for Beginners (Sounds True, 2008); the similarly named short video Meditation for Beginners, narrated by ABC News anchor (and enthusiastic meditator) Dan Harris (mindful.org/meditation-for-beginners-video/); and the popular Headspace app, aimed at those new to meditation.

3. Dip a Toe In The absolute best way to find out what meditation involves—and how it feels—is to sit in with an established group or attend an introductory session—some of which are free. An Internet search of “New Jersey meditation” brings up dozens of groups across the state.

4. Expect to Be Lousy Don’t be surprised if your first stab at meditation has you thinking about your grocery list, your annoying coworker and your itchy nose—all at the same time. Our minds are wired to wander, and like any skill, meditation takes time and effort. “That’s why we call it a practice,” says Kessler-David, social worker & mindfulness coach

[jchakrajc]

There comes a time in your life when you must put urself first... humbly take care of what makes you, you... the universe will take care of everything else #leadfromwithin #AppreciationIsTheKeyToYourUltimateHappiness