February 2007
As you may know, February is American Heart Month (and not just because of Valentine’s Day!). American Heart Month is devoted to raising awareness about heart disease, the number one killer of both men and women in America. In fact, according the National Health & Human Services, one in four women will die of heart disease.
There are many things that can lead to heart disease. One noted contributor to heart disease is stress. A lot of times, we increase the amount of stress in our lives by following negative patterns. This month’s newsletter has your heart in mind with some insight on how women respond to negative expectations and ways you can overcome negative self-conditioning.
Women and Negative Expectations
A recent study conducted at Smith College shows a significant link between negative expectations and women's performance. Associate Professor of Psychology Maryjane Wraga documents, for the first time, how certain regions of women's brains react to positive and negative stereotypes.
"The results demonstrate the remarkable power of culture in determining performance," said Wraga, lead author on the study, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. (For more information about the study, go to: http://www.smith.edu/newsoffice/releases/06-038.html)
This tells us is that cultural power is at play when you tell a woman, "you can't." Didn’t we already know that?!
The Snap Out Of It Now! Method is about finding in yourself the negative patterns—expectations, judgments, self-talk, feelings, and reactions—that you’ve grown accustomed to recognizing that they are holding you back.
Start expecting more out of life! You can become more than your cultural conditioning has set up for you. You can have everything you ever wanted—but in order to initiate change you must first acknowledge the affect your cultural conditioning has over your identity.
Finding your Pathway to Great Expectations
Conditioning is a state of mind: you respond to the expectations and judgments given to you from birth, and unknowingly develop emotional roadblocks when you feel unsatisfactory, uncertain, or deficient.
Without identifying these roadblocks, you have no control over the negative stereotypes that have become entrenched within your thinking and, thus, you are at their mercy when they are activated.
Your pathway to success may be experienced through the following steps, which are the way to move beyond the negative patterning within you.
1. Embrace awareness of your culturally conditioned feelings, thoughts, and reactions—especially if they are negative.
2. Identify the problem. Only you can decide:
· Am I happy and content with life as is?
Or:
· Do I want to be free to create the life I deserve—filled with joy, love, and abundance?
3. Focus on what you want. Allow yourself time to find your center—your core being, where mind meets body.
4. Recognize that others may disagree. But, you are the one who has to live with yourself.
5. Create a focused intention for yourself. Visualize what you want and create a plan.
6. Stick with it! Change doesn’t happen overnight.
When you find yourself feeling defeated, try these six steps and snap out of it. Learning to identify and overcome negative thoughts, feelings, and conditioning not only start you on the pathway to peak performance, but help ease stress than could be damaging to your heart and your health.
I’ll end this issue with a favorite quote that has kept me from giving up in the mental game of life!
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, never give up then, for that is just the time that the tide will turn.
--Harriet Beecher Stowe
1811-1896, Writer and Abolitionist
With an open heart,
Adrianne Ahern, Ph.D.
Remember…Snap Out Of It Now! will be available in May wherever books are sold, including Amazon and other online booksellers, and from the publisher at 866-588-9846 (toll-free) or www.sentientpublications.com.
