Dear One,
With the continued intention to help you with mindset ideas that support Lyme healing, I offer you ‘Encouraging.’
How’s it feel when you overly criticize yourself or regularly – even habitually – find fault with your actions, words and thoughts?
Defeating and, if relentlessly done, maybe even depressing.
Alternatively, receiving or offering “expression(s) of affirmation through language or other symbolic representations to instill courage, perseverance, confidence, inspiration, or hope in a person(s) within the context of addressing a challenging situation or realizing a potential?” Y-e-s, Y. Joel Wong, Ph.D.
Encouraging works better than critical diatribes. Per research. And my life experience. Sigh…
Your fab brain’s prefrontal area lights up when positive emotions are present.
This “enhances mental abilities such as ‘creative thinking, cognitive flexibility, and the processing of information’” per Belle Beth Cooper’s buffer. com and Daniel Goleman’s Social Intelligence; the New Science of Human Relationships. Woot!
With emotions like Encouraging, our brain handles demanding tasks better; meanwhile stress, anger, fear, or anxiety narrow focus, diminishes concentration, and decreases cognitive ability per Cooper. Ugh.
This isn’t a toxic positivity endorsement… It’s just FYI.
When negativity reigns, like when habitually rehashing Lyme treatment options or Lyme symptoms, our brain’s amygdala takes over hollering to our bodies – ‘there’s a crisis!’
Clarity of thought, coordinating with others and taking in new info heads for the hills. “The more intense the pressure, the more our performance and thinking will suffer” per Goleman.
What might happen if we leaned – even just a little – in the direction of Sidney Madwed’s suggestion?
“If everyone received the Encouragement they need to grow, the genius in most everyone would blossom, and the world would produce abundance beyond our wildest dreams.”
Wondering if this is … achievable? To help with mindset shifting for potentially receiving Encouraging’s bounty:
• Consider tone. Internally, to your dear self. And to others. Warm – or biting – has more impact than the actual words per Daniel Goleman’s experiment in Social Intelligence; the New Science of Human Relationships,
• Interested in being more Encouraging? Consider just paying attention to discouraging, droning self-dialogue then journaling what floats and/or talking with a therapist. Increased awareness and witnessing opens up space to accept it and, make changes to, in time, reduce discouraging and up Encouraging. By saying something to yourself like – “I hear you. I gather you’re trying to protect me. I’m not banishing you. I am going to choose a bit differently. So how about if you just sit there, on my sidelines, while I keep on going towards my dream of full healing.’ To allow more space for Encouraging like,
• A 2 Step Encouraging idea – 1. Place hand where Lyme symptoms occur while saying ‘I bless and release this.’ Gently brush away at the area and imagine the release – aiming to feel this. Closed eyes, gentle nodding, and soft smiles may assist. FYI – this may initially seem odd or feel strange or bogus. Perhaps give it a shot. You’re saying ‘I bless’ because as Paul Selig says in The Book of Knowing and Worth, “You do not heal something by going into combat with it.” Then, place hand back in the same spot saying ‘Thank You that I am healed.’ Consider adding ‘- because of God and 500,000,000 stem cells.’ For specificity for cells within you that can do and become anything plus adding in God with whom anything is possible,
• Seek out Encouraging role models. In the human, book, virtual, Divine, or other forms. To listen or read how they model Encouraging. Then experiment doing similar – in a way that feels yummy
to you,
• Effective Encouraging per Dr. Wong involves a trustworthy Encourager – often well known to the recipient – as in you to your body! Plus it is a credible, sincere message per quotesanthology.wordpress.com. Feel free to tweak the Encouragements that fit you. That’s what matters,
• Encouraging yourself can focus on progress like ‘You have healed 60% of Lyme; if you made it this far, it is possible to keep healing more.’
• Aim for authenticity and leaning towards believable as opposed to what sounds preposterous right now such as ‘I can heal anything! ‘While I believe this is the case, little by little incremental steps of increasing encouragement will be more believable to the noggin,
• Write Encouragements on post-its placed on the bathroom mirror, bedside table, wherever you look every day – multiple times,
• Include you-ness in Encouraging – like made-up words if that’s your vibe. Whatever’s you is Divine.
• Encouraging – sees potential and delights in growth and healing. It can “bridge the gap between our potential and our self-imposed limitations” per Dinkmeyer and Eckstein’s research,
More of that on your healing Lyme journey = yessiree.
May Encouraging yourself abundantly bless treasured you and create wee waves of healing that ripples through you.
Judy