There are a couple factors to consider as to why we are feeling so much fear.

The first is that of law of attraction. This law states that like attracts like, in other words, like thoughts attract more like thoughts.

The second is the amount of fear on our planet right now. This is happening for a few reasons. The first we can consider is Iraq and the war we have participated in for years. Secondly we have had numerous natural disasters over the last few years.  Lately these events have been one right after the next, major catastrophic events all over the US and even the world, from hurricanes and flooding to earthquakes. How does this affect us?  When one single person has a fearful thought, it literally launches out of us and finds other like thoughts and they collect or clump together. This is also known as the collective consciousness, a collection of thoughts that collect that are similar.

Think of the smog in San Francisco. It’s a thick layer that rests over the city. This is what happens to all of our thoughts only it’s two fold. All of our fearful thoughts get launched out into a collective consciousness “smog” in our atmosphere that sits there and continues to accumulate. Here’s the problem, we not only add to it but we have easy access to it when we have a fearful thought. Remember because of law of attraction, like thoughts attract like thoughts, so when we have one fearful thought, we have an entire planet wide collective consciousness of fear that we pull from that adds to our already negative feeling. It literally dumps into our own consciousness when we have one negative thought.

The third and final ingredient to this is something people are already talking about which is 2012. I plan to write a separate posting on this but for now I will say that with 2012, it is NOT the end of time, in fact it’s a very exciting time. But what is happening as we approach 2012 is that time is speeding up. What this means for us is that we are attracting in these fearful thoughts much faster than in the past. So we have one fearful thought and it attracts in the smog (collective consciousness) from our atmosphere of other heavy negative thoughts, one comes in and another one and another one. It happens incredibly fast these days. It’s a real slippery slope once it starts.

I have asked so many people lately if they are experiencing this and I get a unanimous, “YES!” “What is going on?”

So now we know what’s going on but how do we prevent these moments, hours or even days of anxiety, sadness or even depression?

First of all, know that it’s not really anxiety or depression, so don’t run out and grab anti-depressants. At least until you try a few things.

Here are some tips to help stay out of the fear consciousness:

1. WATCH YOUR THOUGHTS! We must stay on top of every thought. When we experience one little thought that comes from fear, we must turn it around immediately. Don’t let them build. This means we must live very aware, very present moment. Do not let them slide down the slippery slope creating anxiety/depression.
2. STAY GROUNDED Make sure to do exercises that keep your energy in your body. Do yoga, take a walk or go for a run, do some visualizations for grounding. Get your feet on the earth.
3. SALT WATER BATH Soak for 20 minutes in a sea salt bath to cleanse your auric field. The aura (the energy field that sits outside our physical body) is a collection station of all thoughts we have as well as other people’s thoughts that we are near. Put some quiet music on in the bath, do some deep breathing and/or meditate. Relax and release while soaking. Use 2 cups of sea salt in your warm bath.

If you have already slipped down the slippery slope, here’s what to do:

1. GROUND YOURSELF
2. REMIND YOURSELF WHATS REAL. Our negative thoughts tend to take us on a crazy roller coaster ride down very quickly. Just today my husband texted me while I was getting on an airplane to head home and he said we needed to cash out our investments and that the stock market was going down and had fallen 200 points today already. We have lost almost everything 2 years ago for various reasons and I was not about to lose our last and only investment. I texted my husband and told him to do it but realized it was in my name and his hands were tied. The flight attendant came on and told us to turn off our phones. My head began to race…”We are going to lose everything like our friends did in the market crash after 9/11.” “Why didn’t I sell last month like my sister told me to, blah, blah, blah” .” My thoughts continued and I felt the knots in my stomach arrive and then the tension in my neck and shoulder then I said to myself, “WAIT A MINUTE…STOP!” “Michelle, you are out of balance!” I promised myself not to let that happen and to be as conscious about these moments as I possibly could be. So I immediately stopped my thoughts, closed my eyes and began some slow deep breathing, ceasing all thoughts. I then reminded myself of what was real,” would we really lose everything in 1.5 hours during the flight home?” I decided to chose the thought “No.” I began to ask myself a list of questions that were real and in the moment like, “if we lose almost everything could it someday come back?” I decided yes. I asked myself if I knew for sure that the market was going to crash today. I decided, I did not know for sure but felt like maybe not totally crash.  I began to climb out of the dark hole I had fallen into. I forced myself to reach for the thoughts that made me feel better. This 10 minute process (at the most) turned me around from sliding into complete anxiety and panic to peaceful and calm. I then began to put in positive empowering thoughts about our finances (creating in a positive way and not negative). I felt great, got off the plane got home and called my planner and found that the stock market had begun to come back and now it was only down 90 points.

All that stress for nothing! BUT it was an amazing experience and was so happy to experience myself fall out of balance and then shift back into it in 10 minutes. It’s really that easy, it just takes desire and effort.

During this time of so much fear on our planet the greatest tool I have utilized for myself has been awareness. We MUST slow down and catch our negative thoughts and our negative feelings before they take us down. It’s imperative that we do this and we do it as soon as we experience the slightest negative thought or feeling, it will maintain balance within our emotional state and not allow the fear to creep in and take us down.

Disempowerment, depression, anxiety, simple stress, big stress, loss of focus, anger, over eating, drinking or spending, suffering of any kind, the list goes on and on….All of this starts with a thought.

It’s time to monitor our thoughts! Each experience we have whether it be negative or positive begins with a simple thought. The question is, do we choose to  buy into it or not. The key word being CHOOSE.

We CAN disagree with what we are hearing in our minds.We are not helpless to our thoughts.  Our thoughts randomly and continuously come throughout the day. It’s time we ask ourselves, “Do they make me feel good?” OR “Do they make me feel bad?” It’s time we pay attention to what’s free flowing out of our minds. When the first, very small negative thought occurs, pay attention and notice that another one follows a bit larger than the first, then the next a bit larger etc. It’s very rare that we get hit with a whallop of  negative thoughts at once. BUT, the small one’s can build into giant one’s in about a minute. This is due to the Law of Attraction that states “like attracts like.” Therefore, one thought attracts another thought just like it, and with a lot of emotion behind it, that next thought is bigger and stronger than the first. This is why we sometimes feel like we were hit with an avalanche of negative thoughts. It’s a powerful law. This is also why awareness is SO important and stopping the FIRST negative thought as it comes into our awareness.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO?

TALK BACK to ourselves. When we hear that first negative statement, decide if you want to accept it or not. Here’s a hint….if it makes you feel bad, don’t accept it!

For example, if we hear ourselves saying something like, “I’ll never find a new job in this economy, I’m stuck!” We can respond, to that statement inside our heads and boldly state to ourselves, “Not true!” In that moment, the negative feed that’s coming down the pipeline has stopped!

HAVE A STATEMENT READY

When we hear, “I’m not good enough,” “Not pretty enough,” Won’t pick me because…””Never lose weight…etc. ” Pick a statement, they come all day long! What we can do is have a statement ready to combat the negative statement. So when we hear anything at all that’s negative, we can say “CANCEL,”  “I LOVE MYSELF,”  “I AM WORTHY,” “I AM POWERFUL”or “NOT TRUE!” etc. pick an empowering statement that can be said immediately after the negative statement and use it.  Sometimes the positive statement has to be said over and over. Just keep saying it!

THE CHALLENGE

Try for the rest of the day today not to say anything negative about yourself or anyone. I am not asking to be positive, just stop every time a negative thought comes to mind. This is excellent practice and ultimately if practiced often, life changing.

Our THOUGHTS are SO POWERFUL, they create our realities. We MUST pay attention and begin to talk back to ourselves when we have negative statements or thoughts. Once a negative statement begins, it’s a slippery slope and the others come fast. If we stop them quickly, after hearing the first one, it is without a doubt that our lives, our realities will begin to show up differently, better, more joyful, it is law.

Enjoy!

MEDITATION

Meditation is sustained and unbroken concentration that leads to a highly focused mind. Meditation moves us from using our subconscious mind to our conscious mind. Living in the conscious mind, trains us to live with more focus, proficiency and creativity and less disorganized, chaotic and scattered.  Meditation will actually help you to think in new ways and gain deeper perspective on experiences. You will find that you are not bothered by things that might have bothered or even upset you in the past.

Other benefits of meditation include:

• Slows the release of hormones in response to stress
• Stronger immune system
• Reduction of anxiety
• Lowers blood pressure
• Decreases muscle tension and headaches
• Increases serotonin production (low serotonin levels are linked to   depression, obesity, insomnia and even headaches)
• Substance abuse, alcoholism and cigarette smoking have all been helped by meditation
• Increases compassion for others
• Self Acceptance

The list goes on and on and these are just a few ways  that meditation can be life changing.

HOW TO MEDITATE?

Find a nice peaceful area, and sit quietly (don’t lie down), set your timer (by setting a timer you are not constantly interrupting your practice by opening your eyes and checking your clock) and just clear your mind. As thoughts come in, imagine an ocean wave rolling in and pulling them away, gently, slowly then return to silence. Another visual is to see the words falling off a cliff then the cliff is empty. Any visual will work, have fun with it. Remember, meditation is a practice and even people that have done meditation for years for hours per day still call it a practice. The human mind must be trained NOT to have thoughts and it takes practice! So be easy on yourself.

Meditation seems difficult to some people, I often will hear, “I have tried but I can’t!” YES YOU CAN! Meditation is the simple act of quieting your mind. For many people having a focus, like a mantra helps them with mediation. Pick a mantra like “peace” or “OM” or any word that you are drawn to and simply state it over and over again, slowly. You can even sing it out loud or to yourself. The point is to concentrate fully on that word and that word only. When other thoughts drift in, repeat your word/mantra.

You can meditate while walking, riding a bike or even driving! It’s simply clearing your mind and thinking of nothing! Try driving home from work without your cell phone to your ear or the radio on and repeat your mantra out loud for 10 minutes, it’s so incredibly powerful. The next time you go for a walk be present moment with what you are noticing, do NOT bring your iPod or your cell phone, remain present moment and focused on what’s around you!

HOW LONG TO MEDITATE?

Meditation is not something that you have to do 60 minutes a day to begin with. When you first begin a meditation practice, begin with 2 or 5 minutes per day. Stick with that for a week until you feel you are ready to extend your time. Continue extending your time to 15-20 minutes per day and if you can maintain this amount of time-great! If you can only commit to 10 minutes per day this is great too. Spending even a few moments a day of being mindful is far better than not spending any time. It would be nice to have a goal of 20 minutes per day at some point; this may take some time to accomplish and it’s OK.

Be easy on yourself and celebrate even your smallest accomplishments, even your 2 minute victory. You may feel like 2 minutes is nothing but I guarantee you, you are benefiting your brain in more ways than you could ever imagine.

As we know, bath time is a time of not only cleansing dirt but is also a time of relaxation. We all know that ads “Calgon take me away!” Bath time is where let go of all of our tensions and frustrations from the day. But there is actually more to a bath.

When we add 2 cups of sea salt to our bath and soak for 20 minutes we cleanse our emotional field.  This field of energy that we all have exists off of our physical body. Imagine a bubble of soft light/energy that encircles the human body, this is the emotional body.

When we leave our home and encounter another human being, whether we know them or not, we step into their energy field. Unfortunately when we step away from them we also take “their emotional stuff” with us. We may take their good mood or bad mood, their fight with their boss, their depression or their elation  over getting engaged-all of it.

Have you ever left the house in a great mood and by the time you got home you were in a terrible mood? When we absorb someone’s emotions from their energy field, we feel their emotions-good and/or bad!

Sea salt baths remove other people’s emotions that have attached to our field but also balance out our energy centers, our chakras to create an extra peaceful state.

This is a beautiful excerpt from the book Nourishing Traditions that reminds us the importance of being present in performing every daily task, even preparing our meals.

“If woman could see the sparks of light going forth from her fingertips when she is cooking and the substance of light that goes into the food she handles, she would be amazed to see how much of herself she charges into the meals that she prepares for her family and friends.

It is one of the most important and least understood activities of life-that the radiation and feeling that go into the preparation of food affect everyone who partakes of it, and this activity should be unhurried, peaceful and happy.  It would be better that an individual did not eat at all than to eat food that has been prepared under a feeling of anger, resentment, depression or an outward pressure, because the substance of the lifestream performing the service flows into that food and is eaten and actually becomes part of the energy of the receiver.  That is why the advanced spiritual teachers of the East never eat food prepared by anyone other than their own chelas.  Conversely, if the one preparing the food is the only one in the household who is spiritually advanced and an active charge of happiness, purity and peace pours forth into the food from him, this pours forth into the other members and blesses them.  I might say that there are more ways than one of allowing the Spirit of God to enter the flesh of man.”  (Maha Chohan Electrons)

When we get tripped up and fall into a bad day one idea to get us back into balance is food. Before we go on an eating binge, hang on, there are certain types of foods to help us back to happiness.

Let’s take a look at the nuts and bolts behind this theory. There are two ideas to examine:

1.  Negative thoughts and emotions carry an energetic vibration that is very low (feels heavy), versus happy thoughts and emotions which carry a much higher vibration (feels lighter).

2. The law of attraction teaches us that “like attracts like.”

So we can conclude that when we are feeling down, we crave something that has a similar vibrational match to our mood, like the vibration of candy bars, potato chips, ice cream or something similar.

One solution to help lift us out of our sadness is to choose foods with a higher vibration. If we are eating foods with a higher vibration then (because of law of attraction) we could begin to feel better.

Foods with the highest vibration are “live” (or uncooked) like raw fruits and vegetables.

Sometimes when we feel the need to be comforted, an alternative choice are foods that are warm like soups, stews or steamed vegetables. These foods are cooked but still hold a higher vibration (because of the vegetables) than fried or sugary sweets.

So the next time you feel you need an emotional boost, eat your fruits and veggies. They help to your energy to vibrate higher, in your heart, the same place happiness resides.

There are actually many ways to keep in balance and not get sucked into the collective consciousness of “holiday stress.” The holiday’s can be joyful from Thanksgiving through New Years. In fact the tools that you will read about throughout the next 6 weeks are tools that can be used throughout the entire year to maintain peace, balance and joy in your daily life! So learn the techniques now and continue using them throughout 2010.

The first tool that in this holiday series is:

MEDITATION

Meditation is sustained and unbroken concentration that leads to a highly focused mind. Meditation moves us from using our subconscious mind to our conscious mind. Living in the conscious mind, trains us to live with more focus, proficiency and creativity and less disorganized, chaotic and scattered.  Meditation will actually help you to think in new ways and gain deeper perspective on experiences. You will find that you are not bothered by things that might have bothered or even upset you in the past.

Other benefits of meditation include:

• Slows the release of hormones in response to stress
• Stronger immune system
• Reduction of anxiety
• Lowers blood pressure
• Decreases muscle tension and headaches
• Increases serotonin production (low serotonin levels are linked to   depression, obesity, insomnia and even headaches)
• Substance abuse, alcoholism and cigarette smoking have all been helped by meditation
• Increases compassion for others
• Self Acceptance

The list goes on and on and these are just a few ways (relating to holiday stress) that meditation can be life changing.

HOW TO MEDITATE?

Find a nice peaceful area, and sit quietly (don’t lie down), set your timer (by setting a timer you are not constantly interrupting your practice by opening your eyes and checking your clock) and just clear your mind. As thoughts come in, imagine an ocean wave rolling in and pulling them away, gently, slowly then return to silence. Another visual is to see the words falling off a cliff then the cliff is empty. Any visual will work, have fun with it. Remember, meditation is a practice and even people that have done meditation for years for hours per day still call it a practice. The human mind must be trained NOT to have thoughts and it takes practice! So be easy on yourself.

Meditation seems difficult to some people, I often will hear, “I have tried but I can’t!” YES YOU CAN! Meditation is the simple act of quieting your mind. For many people having a focus, like a mantra helps them with mediation. Pick a mantra like “peace” or “OM” or any word that you are drawn to and simply state it over and over again, slowly. You can even sing it out loud or to yourself. The point is to concentrate fully on that word and that word only. When other thoughts drift in, repeat your word/mantra.

You can meditate while walking, riding a bike or even driving! It’s simply clearing your mind and thinking of nothing! Try driving home from work without your cell phone to your ear or the radio on and repeat your mantra out loud for 10 minutes, it’s so incredibly powerful. The next time you go for a walk be present moment with what you are noticing, do NOT bring your iPod or your cell phone, remain present moment and focused on what’s around you!

HOW LONG TO MEDITATE?

Meditation is not something that you have to do 60 minutes a day to begin with. When you first begin a meditation practice, begin with 2 or 5 minutes per day. Stick with that for a week until you feel you are ready to extend your time. Continue extending your time to 15-20 minutes per day and if you can maintain this amount of time-great! If you can only commit to 10 minutes per day this is great too. Spending even a few moments a day of being mindful is far better than not spending any time. It would be nice to have a goal of 20 minutes per day at some point; this may take some time to accomplish and it’s OK.

Be easy on yourself and celebrate even your smallest accomplishments, even your 2 minute victory. You may feel like 2 minutes is nothing but I guarantee you, you are benefiting your brain in more ways than you could ever imagine.

When we are confronted with a situation that we cannot repair, the next step simply for ourselves is acceptance. Put down your boxing gloves and just accept what is happening, it’s out of your control. By accepting the situation, our life energy is able to flow again, the depression/anxiety/rage dissipates and the dust settles. Clarity is the predominant state when we choose to accept a situation that we cannot change.

Acceptance is not for the benefit of the other person, it is for you and your own healing.