Positive thought patterns heal the body

Just believing you will get better can make you better. Unfortunately, many conventional scientists believe that if something works by eliciting the placebo effect, it doesn’t count. but most patients just want to get better, so if chanting a mantra--like you might do at the beginning or end of yoga class or throughout a meditation or in the course of your day--facilitates healing, even if it’s just a placebo effect, why not do it?

The mind is very powerful. It is the mind that causes illnesses, it is also the mind that can cause  wellness. It doesn't matter how long we’ve had negative thought patterns. We can begin to make a change today. The thoughts we’ve held and the words we have repeatedly used have created our life and experiences up to this point. That is past thinking. What we chose to think and say, today, at this moment, will create tomorrow and the next day and the next week and the next month and the next year, and so on. The point of power is always in the present moment. I almost always give my thai therapy clients a thought pattern to help with their healing, it is powerful.

It is true “Whatever you say, you speak into the existence”, whether it is positive or negative.
I have a friend who’s mother had dementia. All his life, his thoughts were, I don’t want to have dementia, or, I hope I don’t have dementia like my mom. “Whatever you say, you speak into the existence”.  He is now in his sixties and was just diagnosed with dementia. I have another friend whose father has high blood pressure, he has spent his whole life telling himself he will probably be like his dad and have high blood pressure. I could go on and on with people I know. I counsel my thai therapy clients to change their thought patterns to  “I am strong and healthy”, “it is normal to feel good”, “I am safe at all times”, “I am loved”.

Positive language heals the body, negative language brings illness. Dis-ease can be reversed by simply reversing our mental thought patterns. The word incurable, which is so frightening to so many people, really only means that the particular condition cannot be cured by “outer” methods and that we must go within to effect the healing. The condition came from nothing and will go back to nothing.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.

“Ultimate Forgetting”

Occasionally  I put together a yoga class that is amazingly invigorating and inspiring. Everyone’s mind is totally focused on our breath and body during the whole class. When class is over we are all so relaxed, we just sit and bask in the quiet. Then slowly we all start to roll up our mats, not wanting to say anything for fear of losing the peace that is permeating the room.

We feel centered, balanced, in touch with ourselves. We vow to never let this feeling slip away. But then we get busy with work, with the kids, and we completely lose the connection and the composure we had. Even more disturbing, we have no idea how to get it back.

In the midst of doing, there’s a sense of enjoyment, fulfillment, and alignment with a deeper current of aliveness. But as soon as you position yourself behind the wheel of your car or sit down in front of your computer, you  tense your shoulders, hold your breath, and lose touch with yourself. What happened, you wonder. How did I lose my balance.

We all do this, we read books that help center us, we meditate, we do yoga, and we vow to implement it all into our lives. And then without realizing it, we return right back to our old habits and routines: Over booking our schedules, filling our time with texting, and other technological devices, completely forgetting to stop, and breathe, and be present.

There seem to be powerful inner forces at work that induce this “Ultimate forgetting” and sabotage our genuine attempts to create balance and peace. I find this even in my own life. I put off my morning meditation, thinking I will do it later, then I “forget”. then the next morning I have lost my balance already, and I forget again. Then everyday gets busier and busier because I have forgotten to center myself with meditation, and instead, I hit the ground running like it is a race to see how much I can get done.

I pride myself on being able to take care of myself, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, so when I start to feel my neck tense up, and my shoulder start to ache, I know I have lost my balance emotionally. All physical pain starts with an emotional pain. The physical pain is the nervous systems way of giving our body a wake up call, that all is not well emotionally.

In today’s world there is an enormous incentive to work harder and faster but hardly any encouragement to slow down, do less, and enjoy life more. If we really slowed down to a more balanced pace and took time to enjoy life, what would happen? I find when I take the time to start my day with a meditation, I feel more connected to what I am doing during the day, I get more done, I feel more peace, relaxation, and a pleasant current of energy. life becomes more enjoyable. I feel balanced emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.

Find Stillness in the moment

Can we learn to be and do at the same time? If you are flowing down the river, you are just being, yet you are moving downstream. the present moment is like that. If you concentrate your attention in the moment, you are totally present, yet it is not stagnant or fixed. The stillness is the state of mind that observes the movement. Where do we discover this stillness? In the timeless moment, the eternal Now.Time is merely a creation of the mind, only the Now exists. Usually we are so caught up in the doing, that we don’t pay attention to the Now.

Yoga and meditation is the continual refinement of staying present with the mind so time stops, when you are just being, you lose the aspect of time, but you don’t lose movement. when the mind stays steady of the moment, there is no time.

Sometimes we hear meditation called “just sitting.” There is no attempt to achieve some particular state of mind, but merely a steady presence in the Now. You do not need to be confined to sitting, you can be “just walking,” “just eating,” “just driving,” total absorption in every activity without separation.

During this busy month of December, treat your family to a walking meditation, the idea is to pay attention to the walking itself. This sharpens your awareness and trains the mind to concentrate, pay  close attention to the physical act of walking, the way you take one step after another.
I teach the 10 and 11 year old girls in our church. I took them for a hike this past summer, during the hike I had them stop occasionally  and listen to their heartbeat, I had them pay attention to the way their breath changes. When we got to our destination, the place we had planned to have our lunch, I asked the girls to sit and just listen to all the different sounds, with their eyes shut. After about ten minutes I asked them to open their eyes. As they opened their eyes they all sighed a deep sigh of satisfaction, and one girl said “that was awesome.” Even children can discover the stillness, in the timeless moment, the eternal Now.

Walking meditation encourages the development of mindfulness in ordinary daily life. If you can learn to establish awareness during walking meditation--that is, while you are physically moving with your eyes open---then it won’t be difficult to awaken the same awareness during other activities, such as washing dishes, and of course practicing yoga,

If, while walking, you become aware that your mind has wandered away, clearly note the distraction and gently but firmly bring your attention back to your steps. Experiencing the simplicity and peace of being with one step at a time--with nothing else to do and nowhere to go--can be liberating.

Nancy Adams Certified Thai Yoga Therapist

and Ayurveda Consultant

These are my own thoughts. I sometimes take writings from others to support my own ideas.