Posts Tagged ‘happiness’

18 Sep

Healing spiritually

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

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A decade of therapy helped me but did not stop the demon from doing damage. My spiritual healing offers me hope, calming what therapy could not.


The online kundalini group is doing a 40-day meditation on positivity (love).

Ten minutes of breath work: Inhaling for five seconds, a short pause, exhaling for five seconds followed by a 15 second pause, then repeat.

Thoughts subside with intense focus on the breath like this.

Next, we chant for ten minutes. Chanting is new for me.

We rarely chanted at the zen center, silence was cherished.

We finish with ten minutes of deep breathing.

Instructions are to think of ourselves in the most positive, healthy, and happy way.

This is a task for us. No negativity, no gossiping all day.

I am working on opening my heart and trying to heal more spiritually.

Our job is to continually find new ways to improve, then take action.

The act of trying, and never giving up sustains us during the rough times.
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31 Aug

PTSD: High Anxiety

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , , , .

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My body feels paralyzed from the level of anxiety and unrest in my solar plexus and gut regions.

At this intensity, my mind races, and it is hard to think level-headed.

It is almost overwhelming.

Funny, how we always try to escape intense anxiety.

I find myself pacing, trying to distance myself from anxiety.

Being on edge has always been close to me.

As a kid, my anxiety was so intense I would freeze up, finding it hard to speak.

My dad brutalized me, it made me an anxious mess, and I felt helpless to protect myself.

All this followed me into adulthood.

Hard for joy or happiness to exist inside intense anxiety and fear.

I fight for my security and sanity, happiness seems a pipe dream.
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10 Jul

Felt Sense from the Deep Heart

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , .

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“When we drop a question into the heart area and don’t go to the ordinary mind for an answer, we are opening to this felt sense.

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The response may first come as a subtle sensation — a vibration, for example — or it may come as a faint feeling or sensation somewhere in the body.

If we are wired visually, our response may arise as an image that may or may not also be accompanied by sensations, feelings, or words.

Ordinarily distinct modes of sensing and thinking tend to blend. Our best poets and writers have access to this multidimensional level, weaving their magic with surprising words and images.

Sometimes a wordless knowing arises — a vibrant silence.

For instance, when we explore the truth of our core limiting beliefs, we often come in touch with a wordless knowing of their irrelevance.

If we inquire into who we really are, we will quickly come to a “don’t know.”

This is not a mistake.

It signals that we have gone as far as the ordinary mind can go.

We have made a critically important discovery — the limit of the mind’s ability to know that which is not an object.

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The mind is designed to grasp ideas just as our hands are designed to grasp objects, but the mind is incapable of grasping the infinite.

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This realization brings a letting go and a new kind of openness — an openness to being open.”

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16 May

Matthew Ricard: Aversion

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

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“Aversion is the negative side of attachment; we may have aversion to failure, loss, instability, or discomfort; and we usually believe that if the things toward which we feel aversion happen, we’ll surely be unhappy.

It can’t be emphasized enough that to experience genuine happiness we first have to recognize what blocks it.

This includes seeing our attachments, the things we believe will bring us happiness, but which actually do just the opposite.

We will continue to pursue the conditioned strategies of behavior that we hope will bring us happiness as long as we believe they are working.

And because they sometimes do bring us some degree of personal happiness, these behaviors can get reinforced for a long time.

That’s how people get caught on the treadmill of their attachments and routines for a lifetime without making any effort to change.

Paradoxically, we’re actually fortunate if life occasionally serves us a big dose of disappointment, because it forces us to question whether our attachments and strategies really serve us.”
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4 May

Many more stressors are happening

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , .

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I wonder how PTSDers navigated life during the Civil War or the great depression.

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It seems as if the world and America have come unglued.

Covid has changed everything, our political upheaval has such vitriol, and now Roe v. Wade will bring fervent protests and violence.

If you have a dedicated meditation practice, you realize we are on this journey in harmony not competition, our path is to give and help others less fortunate.

It’s inclusion, we are all equal human beings. What a novel concept we have forgotten. Let’s clear out the homeless, they are not real people.

The intensity of hate, racism, and violence saddens me.

Where are the peacemakers and true leaders?

One side hates the other side and vice versa, as an eye for an eye leaves us all blind and lost.

Do you see more happiness, kindness or more healing in this current climate?

If you have PTSD, this turmoil heightens your distrust and fear, life becomes narrower.
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22 Apr

Happiness versus Meaning

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , .


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“Still, some people are high in one and low in the other, and there are traits that are related to happiness but not to meaning, and vice versa.

Here are four differences.

  1. Health, feeling good, and making money are all related to happiness but have little or no relationship to meaning.
  2. The more people report thinking about the past and the future, the more meaning they say they have in their lives—and the less happy they are.
  3. Finding your life to be relatively easy is related to more happiness; finding your life to be difficult is related to less happiness and, though it is a small effect, more meaning. Do you consider your life a struggle? You’re likely to be less happy but more likely to see your life as more meaningful. Are you under stress? More meaning and less happiness. What about worrying? Again, more meaning and less happiness. These findings mesh with a study we’ll discuss in more detail later, in which those who reported the greatest amount of meaning in their jobs included social workers and members of the clergy—difficult jobs that don’t make much money and that involve dealing with complicated and stressful situations.
  4. The researchers asked, without any elaboration, this simple question: “Are you a giver or a taker?” The effects are small here, but there is a pattern: Givers have more meaning in their lives; takers have less. Takers have more happiness; givers have less.”
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17 Apr

Happy Easter: A Kindness Post

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

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Photo by Adam Nemeroff on Unsplash

Kindness strengthens the brain: Study shows it helps boost the entire family’s cognitive health

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Doing an act of kindness can make you feel good about yourself, and a new study suggests it also benefits the brains of everyone living under one roof. Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas report that teaching and practicing kindness at home improved parents’ resilience and children’s empathy.

Because both resilience and empathy use different cognitive skills such as responding well to stressors or considering different perspectives, the researchers suggest kindness can improve a person’s cognition.

The Children’s Kindness Network is an online kindness training program that enrolled 38 mothers and their 3- to 5- year old children. The program included “Kind Minds With Moozie” with five modules featuring a digital cow who explained creative exercises parents can use with their kids to learn about kindness.

“We aim to encourage parents to engage in practical, brain-healthy interactions with their children that aid in a better understanding of one another, especially during times of stress,” says Maria Johnson, MA, director of Youth & Family Innovations and coauthor of the study in a media release. “Research shows that kindness is a strong potentiator of vibrant social engagement, which in turn is a critical component of overall brain health.”

The team studied the impact on the program and children’s empathy. Parents filled out a survey on their own resilience and their kids’ empathy before and after the training program. Results showed that after the program, parents reported being more resilient and preschool-aged children were more empathetic. 

One surprising finding was that children’s empathy levels were below average despite showing improvements after training. The team explains this is likely because of COVID-19 restrictions and lockdowns that limited children’s social and emotional development.

“In times of stress, taking a moment to practice kindness for yourself and model it for your children can boost your own resilience and improve your child’s prosocial behaviors,” says Julie Fratantoni, PhD, cognitive neuroscientist and head of operations for The BrainHealth Project. “Do not underestimate the power of kindness, because it can ultimately change and shape brain health.”

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12 Apr

Observing: no judgments

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

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Matthew Ricard from “Happiness”

“Observe what arises in your experience without imposing anything on it, without letting yourself be either drawn to it or put off by it.”

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https://pixabay.com/users/johnhain-352999/

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My two cents: We would be healed if thoughts were treated as neutral, harmless appendages.

Oh yes, appendages, thoughts and emotions are not part of our core, our true self, they are appendages, attached to the periphery of our being.

Emotions are ephemeral, fleeting, and ever-changing, thoughts are invisible unless grasped firmly.

PYSD would die if we did not impose judgment on our thoughts and emotions!

Think of that.

As Ricard says, “Feel the freshness of this present moment.”
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11 Apr

It takes action, practice, hard work and guts to heal

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

https://www.boredpanda.com/titanic

First class menu

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“Meditation is a matter not of theory but of practice, just as it does not satisfy your hunger to read a restaurant menu if you are not going to eat something from it.”

Matthew Ricard from “Happiness”

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https://www.boredpanda.com/titanic

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My two cents: Healing is not a spectators sport, reading heals nothing, it takes daily action.

We PTSDers avoid and isolate, go numb and sedentary.

Taking action in the face of fear and anxiety is a necessity.

It takes great desire, focus and persistence, besides courage to heal.

It is a moment-to-moment battle with our thoughts, anxiety, and fear.

Know the playing field, be prepared, have an attack plan, and finally develop your tools.

Healing is not for the faint of heart, victims find it difficult if not nearly impossible to take action.

We must prepare and accept PTSD’s suffering, then take healing action in the face of this fear.

We start with small actions and small incremental gains with daily work.

Sedentary is closer to death, action closer to life.

Your decision, your life.

happy Healing!


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Third class menu not so elegant!

https://www.boredpanda.com/titanic

10 Apr

Sunday: Week in Review

Posted by Marty in Assorted. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , .

https://unsplash.com/@itfeelslikefilm

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It has been a stellar week, PTSD has receded back into the cracks of darkness.

Less symptom activity, more letting go is happening, a big break in the action with neutral and positive emotions flowing.

I am still guarded but optimistic.

Mornings are happier, life has opportunities and some joy at times.

I see this more as PTSD receding, opportunity is always there just covered up by active trauma.

PTSD is a dark cloud that follows us, our personal bad weather machine.

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https://unsplash.com/@alex_andrews

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PTSD is abstract, confusing but powerfully charged with partial control of our nervous system (defense mechanism).

Healing happens at optimum rates when we can stay calm over longer periods.

Being triggered, full of cortisol and adrenaline, this upset confuses and damages our chances of well-being.

The ability to dissipate cortisol and adrenaline becomes a soothing skill for recovery.

Learn to use your breath to calm the nervous system.

I hope this period of relief holds.

Happy Healing!
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