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Category: Mindfulness

Mindfulness provides access to powerful inner resources so we can change the way we see and ultimately experience difficult situations. We’re empowered to participate in these situations – and interact with the world at large – as we work with what arises instead of trying to escape.

How Trauma Survivors’ Hypervigilance Can Be Eased Through Mindful Noticing

Trauma survivors hypervigilance occurs when the brain works overtime to keep you safe after a traumatic event but you can calm it through mindfulness.Because many of my clients have experienced trauma survivors’ hypervigilance, a question often comes up: “Maria, how do I distinguish between a deliberate and mindful noticing that you encourage and the hyper-alert response that I’m having from my trauma? Can a practice of mindfulness help me calm my hypervigilance? I mean I’m already noticing every little thing! How can mindfully noticing more help me?” 

These are great questions! I hope this article gives you some answers and strategies you can start using today to calm hypervigilance.

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Become The Observer of Your Life, Then Lasting Change Will Follow

Like an artist, you can become The Observer in your life, to mindfully acknowledge each “brush stroke” as it transforms your “canvas”, your life.

A practice of mindfulness is priceless. Without it, we can go through life only experiencing things superficially, missing the things that bring lasting enrichment. However, when you become The Observer, taking in information without judgment, you’ll see what you want more of or less of, in your life. 

For example… how observant are you? If I asked you to identify the colors in a picture of a forest, no doubt you would say green, brown, and maybe some yellow. But an artist closely inspects each area for color or hue; she also sees the variances of shade (black added to the hue), tone (gray added to the hue), and tint (white added to the hue). Not only that, she detects the differences in intensity and value. Before the painting is done, the artist will have mixed hundreds of different combinations of paint, each one intentionally performing a specific function on the canvas. Why is this so important? Jon Kabat-Zinn explains “The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness.”

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End Sleepless Nights to Improve Your Health, Longevity and Happiness

The first step to ending sleepless nights is to understand our sleep cycle, learn why we need sleep and how we can support our body’s attempts to sleep.  “Sleep is that golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.” ~ Thomas Dekker

Humans NEED to spend a lot of time sleeping. According to some statistics, the average person spends about 26 years sleeping, over a lifespan of 79 years. However, we also spend 7 years trying to get to sleep. That’s a lot of lost sleep!  It’s not uncommon to have a few sleepless nights, now and then. And you’ll be able to function still. But a cycle of sleepless nights will adversely impact your life! The secret we all want to know is how to easily get to sleep and stay asleep, so we perform at our best.

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How to Find YOUR Inner Voice and Quiet the Noise

Learn how to mindfully, and joyfully, find your inner voice, by assessing and controlling your thoughts, while quieting the unhelpful voices of others.“Somewhere in there, among the worries, questions, advice and advertising jingles, lives your intuition, your true ‘inner voice.’ You can hear it to the extent that you give it your attention.” ~ Martha Beck

There are times when I still hear my mother’s voice in my head. That’s not surprising since she’s been there my whole life. Sometimes I find her voice helpful; sometimes that voice is trying to keep me safe and not take risks. Over the years, the voices of authority — parents, teachers, mentors — became part of my inner voice, and they weren’t always speaking MY truth. This illustrates why it’s so important to know how to find YOUR inner voice — and learn to listen to it and trust it. Then you’ll be able to quiet the noise from everyone else.

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How to Set Mindful Intentions — Make Your Goals Successful and Achievable

Setting goals isn’t as effective as learning how to set mindful intentions that help you tune into your innate superpowers for guaranteed success!We all know that every year people set goals, yet relatively few of them actually make significant changes in their lives. Why is that? I’ll let you in on a secret…when you’re setting goals you’re not fully engaging your power. Learning how to set mindful intentions instead allows you to tune into your innate superpower! And here are the reasons why I say that…

Goal setting is often based on a negative premise…”I’m not skinny enough,” “I’m not rich enough,” or “I’m not organized enough”. Do you see how each of these thoughts tells you that you’re “not enough”? How could something that says you’re a failure result in anything good? It just can’t.

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