There's lots you can do to prevent and deal with Road Rage. If counting to 10 hasn't worked for you, pick your level below - choose from Beginner, Intermediate or Expert - and try one of the following techniques. Each one is designed for maximum satisfaction and earns karma points.
BEGINNER: HEART BOMBS
Technique Conjure up a bucketful of bombs and launch 'em at that guy who just cut you off… make sure the bombs you're using are shaped like full, red heart-shaped water balloons and imagine them bursting all over the guy's head as they land one satisfyingly whack after another.
Satisfaction Quotient Oh yeah… that's what I'm talking about!
Karma Points Quite a few, because while you're still indulging in your anger, you recognize that your anger shouldn't hurt or endanger anyone, including yourself. And love bombs, while still bombs, explode with love. So that's a start.
INTERMEDIATE: ONE BREATH BIG BELLY
Technique Through your nose, breath in as much air as you can. Make sure to fill your lungs from the bottom up. If you're doing this right, your belly should significantly expand (try to get your belly to look at least 15 months pregnant). Now hold it for bit, maybe 5 to 10 seconds. (Not until you pass out, please. Be sensible.) Then let your breath out through your mouth, bringing in your belly as you do to push out every last bit of air, and at the same time, imagine that your exhale is actually coming out of your chest. Rinse, repeat.
Satisfaction Quotient: Wow... that feels soooo much better!
Karma Points: Many, because you didn't engage at all with the guy who just cut you off, recognizing that allowing any situation or person to "make" you mad is just giving up your personal power. And why would anyone do that? Celebrate your masterful self!
ADVANCED: CALMING COMPASSION
Technique There isn't one; there's just you and the moment.
Satisfaction Level Complete.
Karma Points Infinite, because you are now beyond technique, beyond allowing external events and people to control how you feel and act. And that guy who just cut you off? You recognize that his bad driving isn't personal and has nothing to do with you at all. He's simply unaware, wrapped up in his own problems and needs, just like you used to be, so you can relate. You drive along calmly now, grateful that you have a car (lots of folks don't) and that you've figured this all out. And then, for old time's sake, you heart bomb the guy with love, because the way he's driving, he probably needs all the love he can get.
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About The Author CJ Kenna is a Founding Director at the nonprofit Rock The Path, a Hemi-Sync based Meditation & Retreat Center in Camden, Maine. She co-facilitates meditative retreats, including the popular Living From The Heart weekend workshop retreat.
Research has now shown that through thought, intentionality and heart centered techniques, we have the ability to change the very structure of our DNA.
Think DNA is the sole determinant of who you are? What you're capable of? Even what diseases you may get? Then here's some good news; while science has for decades touted the all-encompassing rule of DNA through the theory of genetic determinism, it turns out there's more - quite a bit more - determining our phisiologic fate.
Enter Epigenetics, which since the 1950s has studied the effects of our environment - including our emotions, intentions, and thoughts - on our DNA structure and expression. And what they've recently proven is astounding; we possess the ability to effect and change our very DNA.
Bruce Lipton, Ph.D., cell biologist and bestselling author of The Biology of Belief states the distinction between genetic determinism and epigenetics is vitally important. Says Lipton in the online magazine, Superconsciousness: "The difference between these two is significant because this fundamental belief called genetic determinism literally means that our… lives are being controlled by things outside of our ability to change them. This leads to victimization that the illnesses and diseases that run in families are propagated through the passing of genes associated with those attributes. Laboratory evidence shows this is not true."
Simply put, epigenetic research demonstrates that your positive (or negative) thoughts, emotions, and intentions can significantly effect your body and your health… all the way down to the cellular level. So while cancer may run in your family and be coded in your DNA, there's quite a lot you can do - and think about - to avoid it. And it may be the heart - not the brain - that delivers the most effective results.
Researchers at the Institute of Heartmath have found that individuals can intentionally change DNA through the generation of heart coherence, a beneficial state reached through specific breathing and meditative techniques. In one study, an individual, directed to enter the state of heart coherence while holding three DNA samples, was asked to intentionally unwind two of the DNA strands while leaving the third untouched. Amazingly, the individual succeeded, demonstrating that "individuals capable of generating high ratios of heart coherence were able to alter DNA conformation according to their intention" and that individuals who showed low ratios of heart coherence (which defined the study's control group), could not. (Modulation of DNA Conformation by Heart-Focused Intention: McCraty, Atkinson, Tomasino, 2003)
This is really is big news, folks, and I urge you to start using it to your advantage. So grab some food for thought and start munching, because you're not just what you eat, you're what you think, too.
Next Step: Use + Share This Important Info
1. Learn To Live From Your Heart
2. Review The Research
3. Read The Biology Belief by Bruce Liption, PhD
4. Watch 1 Minute Healing
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About The Author CJ Kenna is a Founding Director at the nonprofit Rock The Path, a Hemi-Sync based Meditation & Retreat Center in Camden, Maine. She co-facilitates meditative retreats, including the popular Living From The Heart weekend workshop retreat.
LOOK WITHIN TO LIVE IT UP!
Does your conscious awareness "live" in your head, behind your eyes? Is this the perch from which you view the world? It's where most people do, except for folks like Helen Keller who said: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart."
This might just be true.
When we were developing the weekend retreat, Living From The Heart, one of the most amazing things we included was a technique for moving one's awareness from the head, behind the eyes, to the heart. Sounds weird, right? Or impossible. Or both. Yet while it may be odd, it's very possible and it changes everything.
Moving your consciousness from your head to your heart isn't imagining that you are doing it (although when you first try it, faking it till you make it is a great first step), it's really and truly moving it.
Once you experience awareness from your heartspace, instead of your head-space, things "look" different, feel different… in fact when perceiving from this place of nonjudgmental acceptance, things actually may be different.
And isn't that amazing? There are so many little - yet pretty profound - things we can do to make our world, and even the world, a better place. And as Buddha said: "The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart."
Stop looking up, and instead look within.
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About The Author CJ Kenna is a Founding Director at the nonprofit Rock The Path, a Hemi-Sync Meditation & Retreat Center in Camden, Maine. She co-facilitates meditative retreats, including the popular Living From The Heart.
||| DO YOU YOI?
Is YOUR Christmas shopping complete? Have you on hand plenty of "Yardsticks of Impossibility" (also known as "YOIs") ready for use this holiday season? If you're human, you probably do.
They're really rather useful, and a snap to gift. You can use them to measure yourself (and your performance, your behavior, that thing you said a few minutes ago, what you look like, how much you weigh, etc.) quickly, easily and conveniently in pretty much any situation.
And what's more, once you've consistently applied YOIs to yourself, it's a cinch to effectively apply it to others (like your spouse, children, friends, that guy over there you've never met but you're darn sure he's a bozo).
Contrary to popular belief, and despite its widespread use and almost infinite adaptability, it's not actually beneficial; in fact it can be harmful to both the one being measured, and the one doing the measuring.
And here's why.
No matter what, YOIs will never measure fairly, or even realistically. Cleverly, they deceive by falsely making the "measurer" feel powerful, strong or like they've got it all together, while they destroy by consistently finding those they are applied to ineffective, inadequate, and "less-than." Fortunately, there's a better yardstick - available absolutely everywhere - but perhaps a tad harder to apply, at least at first: Acceptance.
This Christmas (not that getting a Kindle Fire wouldn't be cool), consider a rather radical, one-size-fits-all gift... Acceptance. Just for a day, or as the perfect stocking stuffer, pick someone you wish were different in some way, and get out and apply your "Yardstick of Acceptance" (YOA). With it, you'll be better able to see them clearly - not as you want them to be - but for who they actually are. And, like all really good presents, might just make them feel really good come Christmas morning.
It's an amazing gift, acceptance, and one most of us dearly want. So do make sure to apply it to yourself first, because once you've tried it, you'll be excited to share it. And then you'll know first hand that there are very few gifts (including the aforementioned Kindle), that can rival it.
Need more gift giving ideas? Consider compassion, love, and (all right, fine) the Kindle Fire.
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About The Author CJ Kenna holds degrees in psychology and business, thinks Radical Acceptance is a really useful idea, and is a founding director at the nonprofit Rock The Path, a Meditation & Retreat Center in Camden, Maine. She meditates a lot and co-facilitates residential self discovery workshops, including the popular Excursion Retreat.
The Healthy Mind Platter includes the essential activities that your brain needs to function at its best today and stave off serious health issues tomorrow.
Developed in conjunction with the NeuroLeadership Institute in Sydney, Australia and the University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine, the Healthy Mind Platter involves seven daily activities - or habits - to bolster both your brainpower and level of happiness.
Do you get enough of them? No? Then make time. You'll be happier and healthier.
1. Time In: Time for Meditation (Try it now), Yoga and Prayer.
Do this daily to build neuronal connections that may reduce your risk of dementia.
2. Play: Time to laugh and simply enjoy.
Playing, doing spontaneous things, ejoying the moment sparks new connections in the brain.
3. Focus: Time to freely focus on whatever you're doing
Paying close attention stimultaes brain cell connections, keeping them strong and growing.
4. Connection: Time to relate, visit, and connect with others.
Making personal connections releases stress reducing, mood enhancing brain chemicals, like oxytocin and serotonin.
5. Exercise: Time to get moving.
Exercise releases chemicals that help the brain produce new cells, to improve improve memory and learning.
6. Down Time: Time to do nothing but just be.
Giving your mind a break recharges your brain circuitry.
7. Sleep: Time to rest and recharge.
Not getting enough spikes cortisol, lowers immunity and dulls creativity.
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About The Author CJ Kenna is a Founding Director at the nonprofit Rock The Path, a Hemi-Sync Meditation & Retreat Center in Camden, Maine. She facilitates meditative retreats, including the popular Excursion Retreat.