The Quality of our Emotions by Dr. Amanda Bowen
What emotions are ruling your day?
”The quality of our emotions determines the instructions that our hearts send to the brain.” ~ Gregg Braden
So the question is …… what emotions are you allowing to run the show?
Are stress, fear & anxiety the front runners? Or love, peace & gratitude?
Did you know that every time you have a thought a chemical is made that will match that thought? The average human has 60-70 thousand thoughts a day! This chemistry then floods the body, bathing our cells in a healing environment or one which is toxic.
By bringing awareness to what is happening within us, we can interrupt the program, the habits that’s have become hardwired will in time lose their strength and the new thoughts, habits and behaviours can take root and create lasting transformation within, which then becomes evident in the world around us.
Science tells us that “energy flows where attention goes.”
Where are you placing your attention? Is it possible for you to be able to switch your focus from the coronavirus and everything that is wrong in the world and focus on health and peace, what positive changes can be made, how can I boost my defences to be able to deal with the challenges that are facing us?
Time to pause, reflect, breathe. See how much better you can instantly feel when you move your attention to something that feels good inside. Blaming & complaining will only feed the negative energy we so badly want to go away, so as energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed, we get to choose what we are projecting, which affects everything around us and beyond.
Let’s all try and make this world a better place to live through kindness, compassion and love. It really isn’t rocket science! If you would like to learn how to put this into practice, join me for educational & inspirational yin yoga & mindfulness classes online and on-demand at a time that suits you.
Get your 1st class free! It’s on me! Go to https://dramandabowen.co.uk/yin-yoga-classes/
Wishing you all health, peace, happiness & joy.
Amanda
xxx
You can learn to be happy again
You can learn to be happy again by Dr. Amanda Bowen
It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself when things are not going as you want or expect them to be, when you are trying to control the uncontrollable, but left unchecked this then puts you in a cycle that becomes an additive state.
Take this time to examine what thoughts are coming into your awareness; are they happy thoughts or thoughts of fear, worry and doubt? How do they make you feel? Recognise the difference.
The quality of your thoughts will determine your state of being and ultimately the quality of your life.
Each time you replace a destructive thought or behaviour with a positive, nurturing one, you physically alter the chemistry of your body that bathes each and every one of your multi-trillion cells.
Your brain is malleable and more powerful than any computer on the planet. You can literally change the hardware just by thought alone, it’s called neuroplasticity.
You can teach yourself to feel joy and happiness; anything you do repeatedly becomes a habit.
So learn to be happy again, it’s just like riding a bike and keep at it until you are back up there, smiling on the inside as well as the outside.
Don’t feel guilty, just spread this love and happiness everywhere to share.
Like the butterfly effect, one small ripple in the universe can go on to create a huge impact.
And as the wise man Gandhi said, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.”
“Everyone wants happiness, no-one wants pain, but you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.”
~ Quote painted on a wall outside the beautiful shop Concept Corner, New Brighton (my home town)
“We’re waiting for tomorrow,
But tomorrow never comes,
Our last breath is right upon our heels,
Yet we still refuse to run,
86,400 seconds,
And we’re in another day,
All slipping through our fingers,
As we look the other way,
Days, weeks, months and years,
Are made up of right now,
A string of fleeting moments,
That we never can pin down,
We gaze into the future,
As though it’s where we’re meant to be,
Always planning for that day,
When we can say that we’re happy,
We spend so long looking forward,
That we may as well be blind,
Since we don’t see until the very end,
All the things we’ve left behind,
Now I know it’s just a theory,
But I think I’ve worked out how,
The only way to happiness,
Is to love what we have now.”
~ Erin Hanson thepoeticunderground.com
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Join my online series of yin yoga & mindfulness classes, specially designed to melt away stress, worry and anxiety.
See my classes page for full details.
Courses and workshops coming soon!
For a personalised private coaching programme or worldwide transformational yoga retreats, please contact me here.
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Forgiveness ~ How to heal your heart and feel the freedom of letting go
A Story of Forgiveness ~ How heavy are your potatoes?
A teacher once told each of her students to bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes to school. For every person they refused to forgive during their life’s experience, they chose a potato, wrote on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag.
Some bags were very heavy. They were then told to carry this bag with them everywhere for a week, keeping it next to their bed at night, in the car with them and beside their desk at school.
The burden of lugging this around with them made it clear what a weight they were carrying around spiritually and how they had to pay attention to it all the time. Naturally, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a horrible smelly slime.
This was a great metaphor for the price that is paid for keeping past hurts and heavy negativity! Too often forgiveness is thought of as a gift to the other person but clearly the gift is to yourself.
Why carry the heavy burden and excess baggage of unforgiving?
Why make yourself sick by holding on to anger by not forgiving someone.
It doesn’t matter if you think that they don’t deserve to be forgiven. You aren’t forgiving them because they deserve it; you are forgiving them because you deserve it. You can choose to not let them live rent free in your head and heart, causing great emotional harm and a whole load of bitterness.
Acknowledge the pain and the hurt they may have caused you, then let it all go to a higher power.
All you have to be is willing to forgive and the rest is taken care of. Allow yourself the joy that will come into your heart, that’s waiting for you.
Make this your day to forgive!
Feel the freedom of letting go.
Amended version by Dr. Amanda Bowen
Original post discovered at Truth To Live 4
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The Final Analysis by Mother Teresa
“People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centred;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, may be destroyed overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is all between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.”
Join my online series of yin yoga & mindfulness classes, specially designed to melt away stress, worry and anxiety.
See my classes page for full details.
Courses and workshops coming soon!
For a personalised private coaching programme or worldwide transformational yoga retreats, please contact me here.
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Images from Wordswag
Every experience in life changes us – give yourself permission to feel good
Every experience in life changes us, physically, mentally and emotionally, even on the most subtle level, over time these make a huge difference in the person you become.
You are not the same as you were a week, month or year ago.
Go back even further and even though more traumatic or highly emotional events are more at the forefront, be aware that each decision, thought and action shapes who you are.
If you are struggling right now, and many are, take some time to reflect on the challenges you have faced throughout your lifetime.
How did you get through difficult times?
What great things have happened since then?
Use this reflection to meditate on, keeping eyes closed.
Now feel the feelings of your achievements, no matter how big, small or even seemingly irrelevant to you, they all count.
Every small change equates to massive transformation over time.
Give yourself permission to feel good.
Happiness is contagious.
But……., so is unhappiness.
Despite the world turning upside down, there is so much love and care around you.
Amazing people helping in every way possible.
You are alive; feel the life within you and somehow find that light that is still there, that’s maybe just hiding in the darkness, just like the sun is always shining, even though we do not always see it.
Let go of how you think things should be.
Feel the freedom of letting go.
Belief is more powerful than you can imagine, one of the strongest forces in the universe.
Trust and believe that good times are waiting for you along the horizon, because they are, and when the time is right, they will find you.
Trust me.
Image : Wordswag
Join my online series of yin yoga & mindfulness classes, specially designed to melt away stress, worry and anxiety.
See my classes page for full details.
Courses and workshops coming soon!
For a personalised private coaching programme or worldwide transformational yoga retreats, please contact me here.
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Nothing Lasts Forever
All change is inevitable, nothing lasts forever.
Change, whether through choice or suddenly thrust upon us can affect us all in many different ways
Usually grief is strongly associated with death, but it can come with any change, whether it’s big or small, expected or unexpected.
It can throw us off track leaving a sense of despair and a deep unconscious longing for how things used to be.
The sense of grief, whether for what is already lost or through fears of what might come, surrounds us. And it is okay and understandably normal to feel this right now, however, it arises.
Whilst negative thoughts shouldn’t be ignored, we can’t allow them to take over and sabotage our lives.
As Shakespeare famously said, “There is nothing good nor bad, but thinking makes it so.”
While this can be seen as a massive oversimplification in many situations, especially right now, there is still great wisdom to be found with this way of thinking.
“Grief is like the ocean; it comes on waves ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming.
All we can do is learn to swim.”
– Vicki Harrison
“Looking at a problem through old eyes, it is not only strengthened but also moves in its well-worn path. This is the miracle of perception, to perceive with a heart and mind that are completely cleansed of the past.”
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Life has been turned upside down. It’s not the same as it was a year, a month, a week ago.
Yet it never really is.
Acceptance, truly is a bitter pill we need to swallow right now. All we can do is accept each new moment, each new development and decision, and make the most of the life we have, in the best way that we can do right now, sending love out to the world along the way.
Each day, listen to your emotions, let them be heard, then let the ones that do not serve you go into the void of this mysterious and unpredictable universe.
Focus on what is getting you through these challenging times.
Find something positive in each and every day.
Nothing lasts forever.
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Join my online series of yin yoga & mindfulness classes, specially designed to melt away stress, worry and anxiety.
Try your 1st class for FREE!
See my classes page for full details.
For a personalised private coaching programme or worldwide transformational yoga retreats, please contact me here.
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Inspired by an article at upliftconnect.com by Ashleigh Wilson
Image from Wordswag
What is yin yoga and what can it do for you?
Yin Yoga is a meditative and healing form of yoga based on the principles of Chinese medicine and the meridian system, or nadis, as described in the Indian system.
Meridians are invisible pathways or energy channels interconnecting every tissue and organ in the body. They moisturise the joints with synovial fluid internally and externally. They work like acupuncture, without the needles!
Meridians enhance the flow of chi/qi (Chinese system) or prana (Indian system) otherwise known as life force or vital energy (in the Western world) through the connective tissues around the joints and ligaments, where energy can stagnate and the fascia (connective tissue) can break down causing immobility and pain.
Each organ has energetic components that affect us physically, emotionally and mentally. Strong emotional states are triggered by an organ imbalance or dysfunction.
Long term stress and negative emotions eventually break down the immune system leading to illness and disease.
Our bodies carry a record of all our experiences in our lifetime, and all experiences carry an emotional charge, so that over the years any trauma, bad relationships, betrayals, stressful jobs and grief can actually affect our physiology.
It is really important to stay with this practice to help release all the emotional baggage that we have been carrying around for so long.
Yin yoga helps to create a balance with all the yang practices of our busy lifestyles and often hectic environments.
Yin energy is peaceful and relaxing, helping to calm the central nervous system, allowing our bodies to heal and recharge.
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Join my online series of yin yoga & mindfulness classes, specially designed to melt away stress, worry and anxiety.
Try your 1st class for FREE!
See my classes page for full details.
For a personalised private coaching programme or worldwide transformational yoga retreats, please contact me here.
