April 2007

James Ray: “I think of Dr. A’s program as ‘the Science of Calm.’”

James Ray, the featured expert in The Secret, wrote the foreword to Snap Out of it Now!, and in it he says:

“Dr. A’s Snap Out Of It Now! system and breathing techniques help you tame your self-defeating unconscious, identify and slay those mental dragons hiding in your dungeon. So simple, yet so life-changing. I call my work ‘the Science of Success’; I think of Dr. A’s program as ‘the Science of Calm.’ She brings the whole work of transformation into the body.”

Transform Your Feelings of Overwhelm!

People often ask me, “What is overwhelm, and how do you stop it?”

The experience of overwhelm is a head-trip. Overwhelm is the by-product of over thinking and the feeling of being out of balance. You can train yourself to transform overwhelm into calm and I will show you how!

Follow these steps and transform your feelings of overwhelm, and as James Ray says, “Snap out of your mental mediocrity…consciously choose to live your life with vibrations of joy, abundance, love, and wealth so the Law of Attraction can’t help but magnetize abundance right to you.”

Recognize & acknowledge your personal warning signals. I teach my clients to recognize the internal signs that they are reaching their limit—tightness in chest, foggy thinking, or maybe your mind goes blank when asked a question or trying to think of something.

Stop what you are doing in that moment. Press the pause button in your emotional cycle.

Breathe away negativity. Use your breathing as your tool to release the internal sensation of the experience of overwhelm from your body. We can use our breathing as the facilitator to release negative energy and expand positive life-affirming energy. When you acknowledge and breathe with a negative feeling, it will dissipate; when you acknowledge and breathe with a positive feeling, it will expand—try it now!

Now—freed from the internal sensations stimulating the process of over-thinking and the experience of overwhelm—you can choose a good feeling and thought to pave the way to performance excellence. The key is that you cannot start thinking positive when you are consumed with negative feelings and thoughts—these have to be acknowledged before the positive thinking can take effect.

If you follow this 4-step process, you will find that you are no longer feeling tense, tight, or overwhelmed. Experience yourself connected in your body, mind, and heart. Feel the freedom of wholeheartedly choosing the feelings associated with peak performance: appreciation, joy, and love.

Once this is practiced, all it takes is one to three breaths to establish a breathing rhythm, and you will find that you can easily release the experience of overwhelm from your body.

The key is to identify and acknowledge the negativity, which is inherent within us as a result of our cultural conditioning. If we don’t address the negative within, it will continue to simmer and thwart our efforts at positive thinking!

Overwhelm can equal overeating…

A client from a corporate retreat I led used this process to break her habit of emotional over-eating.

She discovered that her experience of overwhelm at work was being provoked, not by some external stressor that she had no control over, but rather by an internal sensation represented by pressure and agitation in her chest. This agitation in her chest was her reaction to the stress she was under, and when she didn’t acknowledge this reaction she would lose focus and thus choose unhealthy ways to handle her stress.

As she acknowledged the agitation in her chest, stopped what she was doing in the moment, and sat down and breathed with the feelings of agitation, the sense of overwhelm disappeared, and she no longer felt the compulsive need to reach for her stash of cookies. She told me after the exercise—“I feel calm and in charge of my life! I have found a way to take control of my emotional over-eating.”

You are not alone!

Becoming overwhelmed is very common. It can sneak up on you when you least expect it and always when you are least prepared to deal with it. This is natural, since overwhelm usually occurs as the culmination of a number of stressors. Working at your desk and getting one phone call does not usually provoke overwhelm. It is the combination of work, meeting deadlines, managing the household, nurturing relationships, accomplishing tasks and goals, and so on that can make one feel as though they have too much going on at once.

This is when you must press that pause button and begin to breathe.

As we head into May and the cold weather finally finds its way off the forecast, take some time to get outdoors and breathe in some fresh air! A five minute break spent outside can do wonders.

Wishing you focus, fitness, and flexibility in body and mind,

Adrianne Ahern, Ph.D.

Coming in May! SNAP Out Of It Now! is set for a May release. Check out www.SnapOutofItNow.com for details.

You can pre-order there, or read an excerpt. Find out why James Ray calls Dr. Ahern's method "the Science of Calm."

Learn how to use your breath to enhance mental focus and emotional flexibility, using "the Science of Calm."

Check out my newest program Beyond Breathing - Key One for Elite Athletic Performance Now just $14.95 (book CD) or $9.97 to download an MP3 file.

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