beyond-mindfulness-awareness-detachment

How Meditation Affects Your Brain

by Nicole's Blog

More people than ever are turning to meditation for a wide variety of reasons. The habitual process of training your mind’s ability to retain attention and awareness as well as achieving a more clear, calm and stable emotional states has been a practice used for centuries. Today’s scientific research, however, is showing exactly what it does to us, more specifically, how it changes your most important organ.

Here’s a look at 6 ways Meditation affects your brain.

Reduces Brain Aging
Promising research conducted by the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine suggest regular meditation increases the anti-inflammatory glucocorticoid receptor which can help lessen age stress in the brain. Looking at meditators vs non-mediators also suggested that meditation can improve voluntary regulation of mental activity, shifting focus and attention, as well as a reduction in rumination. In addition, when examining the brains of meditators versus non-meditators, those who meditated had brains that appeared several years younger than those who didn’t.

Eases Addiction Receptibility
1 in 7 people ages twelve and older reportedly have a substance abuse problem. Commonly prescribed in addiction recovery programs, meditation alters the way the brain functions by changing thought patterns. Studies show that just eight weeks of meditation decreases amygdala response to upsetting stimuli even people aren’t currently meditating which is a key competent in drug addiction. Meditation also strengthens a person’s awareness of cravings and allows them to address them more effectively.

Rewires for Outward Thinking
The brain’s default mode seems to be a mind-wandering state which is correlated with unhappiness along with self-referential processing. A 2011 investigation looking at the brain activity of meditators found that main nodes in the medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortices (the me-center) were less active than non-meditators. Furthermore, stronger coupling between the posterior cingulate, dorsal anterior cingulate, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices were found which is the region of your brain that deals with self-monitoring and cognitive control – giving meditators a stronger ability to understand and navigate situations outside themselves.

Reduces Depression, Anxiety and Pain
Like in addiction plans, meditation is regularly part of treatment plans for numerous mental and physical stressors. “Anxiety, depression, and stress/distress are different components of negative affect. When we combined each component of negative affect, we saw a small and consistent signal that any domain of negative affect is improved in mindfulness programs,” writes Madhav Goyal, MD, MPH of the Department of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University. The active training of the mind has been shown to have powerful effects in managing the unpleasant symptoms associated with depression, anxiety and even pain.

Improves Attention Span
Paying attention can be something everyone struggles with at some point in their daily life. A clinical study looking at sixty participants sent thirty people on a three-month meditation retreat while the other thirty acted as the control group and waited for the other group to finish. At three points participants on the retreat had their visual attention tested as well as their ability to make fine visual distinctions. Participants on the retreat showed continued improvement in perception that led to a longer sustained attention span – which was retained a whopping 5 months after the meditation retreat had concluded.

Children Can Benefit Even More
The incredible neuroplasticity of a young developing brain could benefit even more with daily meditation. The brain is quicker to rewire itself making it easier to improve different thought processes. Studies suggest utilizing mindfulness programs may be an effective way of building resilience and could be used in the treatment of disorders in clinical populations. Further studies looking to bring mediation in Elementary school classrooms found that adding a regular mindfulness program as part of the curriculum improved attention and may improve overall classroom behavior and academic performance.

Meditation is something anyone can do to improve their emotional and mental health. With a great variety of styles that can be done almost anywhere and with so much known benefits – meditation daily just might be one of the best things you can do for your brain.

By Guest Blogger: Alex Schaffer

domestic

How to Survive Domestic Abuse

by Nicole's Blog

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that women account for 95% of victims of assault by an intimate partner. This unsafe situation is devastating and dangerous. If you are facing this crisis, how can you find help to get free?

How To Get Help

First and foremost, you should remember that this abuse is not your fault. Your abuser most likely wants you to think that, but you are not the cause of his violence.

Second, remember that you are not alone but you do need support. Who can you contact that you trust? If family and friends are not available, talk to your doctor or therapist for help. You can also call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-SAFE, where trained staff can help you plan your next steps.

In addition to seeking support and assistance from doctors, mental health professionals, and your local domestic violence agency, reach out to friends, family members, and co-workers for psychological support and encouragement. Ask them to lend a non-judgemental ear and listen to what you are saying.

You may find that some simply can’t comprehend what you are experiencing, and that’s okay. Aside from being your confidants, your loved ones and friends can provide you with a temporary safe place to stay, offer rides to a safe place, or help you connect with the appropriate resources if you are unable to do so due to your living situation. You don’t have to go through this alone, so lean on others.

How To Leave

There are several things to consider when you are leaving to ensure your safety. It’s important to remember that this process may take time. Here are important things to plan for:

● Temporary Relocation
 – The first step in your research is to find where you can temporarily relocate until you can make long-term plans. This can be with a supportive friend or a family member. Otherwise, you can find a domestic abuse shelter or a temporary residential center as a transitional home. For more information on what to do and specific questions about staying at a shelter, read this article from WomensHealth.gov.
● Long-Term Relocation – 
Next, you want to think about where you want to live. Are you staying local or do you want to move farther away and start fresh? You’ll need to find areas that are safe, have affordable housing, and where you can find a job that fits your skills and experience. If you have children, you’ll need to research school districts too.
● Domestic Abuse Advocacy Groups
 – Many support and advocacy groups exist that can provide you help, advice, and possibly even funding. Find local organizations from a hotline, your doctor, or your therapist.
● Finances – Many women feel stuck because they don’t have access to their own money. Do you know what’s in your bank account or whose name is on the mortgage? As you begin researching how to extricate yourself, be sure to get a copy of your credit report, establish a new credit card under your name only, make copies of birth certificates, your marriage certificate and statements on shared assets.
● Children – 
If you have children with your abuser, you need to provide for their safety first. Remember that he can use your children as a way to control you. Make sure they have trusted friends or family they can stay with in an emergency. So that you know your rights and what you’re up against, it’s a good idea to talk to a lawyer if you are planning to leave. Your lawyer can also help you connect with local programs and support groups.

Relocation and Moving

When planning where to relocate, avoid secluded locations. Try to move to a busy area, with safe resources nearby like a police station or hospital.

Once you’ve settled on a neighborhood and home, it’s time to research moving companies. You want to make sure you’re getting reliable and reasonable service that fits your budget and timeline. If you can’t get a recommendation from someone you know, find out if your mover has a good reputation, especially if you’re moving across state lines.

As you get settled into your new home, look into installing an alarm system for added security, and connect with the local police so they understand that situation. It’s also important to make sure you have an unlisted address and phone number as another layer of protection.

Finding your way after such a traumatic experience can take time. Stay vigilant in protecting yourself and be sure to boost your support system as much as possible.

It may take time to regain your confidence, but you can feel good about starting your life over safely.

Guest Editor: Jackie Waters

Photo credit by Pixabay

Energy Healing with Nicole Doherty

Healing Benefits of Shamanic Journeying

by Nicole's Blog

I’ve been studying shamanic journeying since 2011, really since I began my medicine path with Ayahuasca in 2009.  When I was participating in ceremonies in the jungles of Peru, I began to understand the various worlds that we navigate and how powerful it is to part the veils between the seen and unseen worlds to heal and access information that can help us reclaim our power and bring us back into wholeness.

You definitely don’t have to take plant medicines to practice Shamanic journeying and benefit from it, it just happened to enter my reality around the same time as Ayahuasca almost as continuing education for the plant medicine work.  The plant medicines opened up some visualization portals for me and now the journeying that I do personally and with Clients either uses the drum or a rattle only.

Around the same time I began working with Reiki energy healing, also awakened through the medicines.  Reiki and Shamanic Journeying pair very well together to access spiritual energies and realms that can heal aspects of your illness, retrieve lost parts of your soul, help you download information and awaken to your gifts.  These days, I’ve even added medicine songs, sound baths and breathwork as part of the experiences to deepen them to the level of the medicine work.

Through these practices you can learn how to communicate not only with your Higher Self,  but with the Spirits of ancestors, your inner child, the animal and plant kingdom and really anything that has the basic elements of which we and the Earth are comprised, since we are a part of Nature.  This is a way to commune with messages that your supportive forces are offering you daily if you are listening.

Another benefit of working with Shamanic journeying for healing is being able to re-write the narratives that you have about certain people, events or circumstances so that you can see with a new perspective.

For example, when you visualize an traumatic event you bring up not only the visual, but all the senses that are associated with it, including the tension that the body experienced.  Our bodies trap the associated tensions, creating blocks in our system that remain there until re-visited and healed.  This leads to illness both spiritually, energetically, emotionally and physically.

If you can visualize the event and bring all this up again, you have an opportunity in that moment to choose a new action, ending or event that can change the whole emotional experience and remove the blocks. Sometimes literally one session could change the whole pattern.

For example, a lover shouts profanities at you, slams the door and takes off. Your body is tense and the event feels unfinished so the mind has not completed the action that it would like to take to be in its power.  You hold on to that event as unresolved and swallow it, which diminishes your power.

Now, you hold this in your body and its slowly eats away at you until you can re-visit this not only through talking about it, but letting your body re-enact the event and complete it in your visualization. Maybe you stomp your feet, maybe you throw a pillow, maybe you say something back that brings you to a place of resolution.  The body needs the somatic experiencing paired with the visualization to work the energy through its body. I also find that the voice is critical in this as well.  So much is healed through hearing the power of our own voice.

Another important benefit, especially today with over 80% of women being sexually abused in their lifetime, is using this practice to find safety within yourself.  To imagine a place of safety, warmth, support, compassion and ultimate love.  Usually this place (I like to call the Secret Garden) is an imagined or a place in Nature you have been before that you absolutely find to be your happy place of peace.  When we are in this place, All Is Well. We are connected to ourselves and Source.

As you start to practice Shamanic Journeying, visualization, and being in this place of safety, you reclaim your intuition and internal power.   This helps you more deeply connect with your spiritual allies in crystal, plant, animal, and teacher form.  When you have this connection you can restore balance in your life because you are receiving the help you need to make the changes that you need to make.

If you are new to the practice of journeying, reach out and experience some energy work, guided imagery and Shamanic Journeying please feel free to reach out. I have some additional information on my website.

When you first start a practice generally you will be brought into the Lower realm to speak to what’s considered a power animal spirit.  However, if you know that you wish to connect with an ancestor or a specific experience that needs healing now, you can certainly be guided to do that right away and create the change that you are seeking.

Blessings,
Nicole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sleep image for Can't Sleep

Can’t Sleep? Try This for the Best Sleep

by Nicole's Blog

Sleep is essential to feel good physically, mentally and emotionally. Insufficient rest can have a profound and even dangerous effect on our bodies and minds. Besides affecting our mood and ability to think clearly, consistent sleep deprivation can lead to serious heart problems. Because restorative sleep is essential to our health, effectively treating any bouts of insomnia, no matter how brief, is crucial for optimal health.

Quality Time in the Sun

Time in the morning sun is simple way to insure good sleep at night. Serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain is released by exposure to the sun. It’s also the precursor to the “sleep hormone,” melatonin. It takes about 12 hours for serotonin to convert to melatonin. To get enough light exposure, it’s recommended to walk for 30-45 minutes in the morning sunlight. Avoid wearing anything that blocks light from your eyes as they need to be exposed to direct sunlight for your brain to register the light. Thus, no sunglasses, visors or hats, but feel free to wear sunscreen. Don’t be discouraged even if it’s gray and cloudy outside. Even on overcast days, we can get the light our brain needs through the cloud cover.

Complete darkness

The sleep hormone, melatonin is also known as the “darkness hormone” as it is produced when our eyes experience darkness and can be affected by even the smallest amount of light. Light exposure also increases cortisol, the stress hormone that tells us to wake up and stay alert. Melatonin and cortisol work against each other but for our benefit. We need cortisol to wake up and melatonin to go asleep. Manipulating when and how much light you are exposed to can help you control your hormones.

Thus to encourage melatonin production, begin to reduce your light consumption in the early evening. Besides using less light at night, avoid the blue light emissions from electronic screens and wear eye masks to block any extraneous light that you can not be turned off or cover. When we reduce and then eliminate our light exposure at night, we are telling our bodies that it’s time to sleep.

Go to bed early

From controlling weight to improving skin appearance, it’s best to go to bed by 10pm. When we sleep, our brains experiences both non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) and rapid eye movement (REM). Non-REM sleep happens in the early part of the night while REM sleep occurs closer to sunrise. Both types of sleep are important and necessary but non-REM sleep tends to be more restorative. By going to bed between 9am-11pm and waking 5am-7am, we are honoring our natural circadian rhythms and will wake up feeling more refreshed and rejuvenated.

Sleep Aids to the Rescue!

Occasionally, our sleep patterns are disturbed. Whether it’s jetlag, stress or sickness, you don’t need to suffer. Instead of taking pharmaceutical chemicals like allergy meds and cough syrup to knock you out, try taking some melatonin, valerian root and magnesium. These tried and true sleep aids are backed by science and easy on the body.

Finally from time-to-time, stress can make it hard for our brains to shut off and go to sleep. First, try meditation by focusing on your breathing and letting your thoughts pass by without attachment. Then if you still have trouble with an overactive mind, consider taking CBD oil for anxiety as it is a natural remedy that has a calming effect as well as the ability to bring balance to our hormones.

 

 

Article by guest writer:  Erica Long

Erika Long loves corgis, curry and comedy. Always searching for the next great snuggle, flavor or laugh, she inspires people to live their best life now. When not writing, Erika can be found at her local brewery dominating Harry Potter trivia night.

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9 Tools to Free Your Voice

by Nicole's Blog

What does it mean to free your voice?

It means feeling safe and grounded.

Freeing your voice is a deep dive into your childhood wounding to discover where you lost it in the first place.

It is to release the pain of our past ancestors, traumas, suppression and circumstances.

It’s about getting comfortable in your own skin and being honest with yourself.

Freeing your voice is liberating yourself from squelching your emotions and letting the rivers flow.

Freeing your voice is releasing projections, victim nature, martyrdom, blame, shame, guilt, gossip and lower frequencies.

Freeing your voice is a result of reclaiming your power.

It is being in right relationship with your heart and offering compassion to others.

Freeing your voice is to surrender to the Divine and love yourself.

It is having fine-tuned listening skills.

To free your voice is to be vulnerable enough to hear all the feedback and own what you are responsible for.

It is learning to speak your authentic truth.

Freeing your voice is creating healthy boundaries that protect you with a sensibility to uphold them with kindness versus defensiveness.

Freeing your voice is learning to communicate consciously and effectively which is truly is an art.

I’d say, at this moment, I am an artist that’s learning to develop her craft to live a more full heart-centered life.

Here are 9 tools along my path that have aided me in the art of communication and helped me free my voice.

1-  Getting Grounded, Breathing and Relaxing

When you are grounded, breathing and relaxed you heal.  When you heal, you have the space to turn inward and bring mindfulness and heart-centeredness to your communication.  Your tension is released and your voice is more powerful. Try this earthing meditation to get you started.

2 – Core Wound/Inner Child Healing Work

Your core wounds and the inner child within are holding your past.  As you hear her, listen to her, and love her you will regain your power and begin to learn that you are creating your life and everything in it.  That will change where you speak from, how you speak and will liberate you. Learn more about this deep journey work.

3 – Sacred Plant Medicines

The sacred plants speak through the human voice.  The medicinal songs of the plants have great power for healing. I personally have completely cured my vocal chords and received many spiritual surgeries in the mentorship of the plants and reclaimed my voice. I now sing ceremonially and transmit these songs in honor of this great gift. Check out MAPS for more information.

4 – Singing Kirtan/Yoga Chanting

Kirtan is a devotional singing and chanting practice that chants the names of the Divine to raise your vibration to the frequency of pure LOVE. It’s a beautiful practice that is a direct line to Source.  Check out my favorite studio, Bhakti Yoga Shala in Santa Monica.

5 – Creative Writing + Play

Being a beginner in life, in play, and innocence will connect you to the pure creative light within. Discovery and curiosity is where creativity lies. As you heal your sacral chakra and open up these energies it has a direct influence on your voice. After all, have you seen a picture of the Yoni and Vocal Chords? They align with what we create and express. One of my favorite books for accessing the inner creative is The Artist’s Way.

6 – Relationships – Those that trigger you the most!

Relationships are your mirror.  And the ones that trigger you the most will reveal your subconscious patterns, behaviors and past that is remain unhealed. This is a teaching relationship. What is beautiful about these teaching relationships is that they teach you what is important to you, your core values, and how to be a better communicator of healthy boundaries, desires and needs.  Practice the art of conscious communication.

7 – Amazing Coaches

Coaching and mentorship has been profound for me in my own shadow work which is why I now offer this gift to women. To have someone who can point out your deeper work in a safe and loving container catalyzes real change. It is priceless to liberating your voice.  Discover what you can work on now.

8 – Being in Community

When you have the opportunity to meet in sacred, safe space with other like-minded individuals it is so healing!  This is great practice for revealing your personal story and deep inner truths.  Circles provide great insight. It’s helpful to know that you are not alone in what you are going through.  Check out this coaching + healing women’s empowerment group.  And this Women’s Facebook group.

9-  Surrendering to Divine Love

The ultimate goal is surrendering and opening fully to Divine Love. It’s the pure ecstasy that we seek to return to. When we relax, surrender, and let go of our egoic nature that keeps us in suffering there is so much love to receive.

Could you imagine letting go of all the projections and stories and living in your authentic truth, speaking from your heart and revealing your whole being?

Freeing your voice is a lifetime practice of healing, surrender, sharing and loving yourself.

Freeing your voice is the conscious and truthful path of awakening.

Here is are two albums I’d love you to hear – Amrita and God’s Breath of Life – I’ve created these in a time when I was very much freeing my voice!!!

xo,

Nicole

Photos from my workshops at Oregon Eclipse Festival.