Showing posts with label Conscious Communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conscious Communication. Show all posts
Free To Love, Free To Heal
Free To Love, Free To Heal
Carlsbad, California | July 29–31, 2011
Carlsbad, California | November 11–13, 2011
“We are innately creative beings capable of writing a love story worth living, and we cannot afford to miss out on the opportunity to experience nourishing relationships.” ~ David Simon
Emotional pain takes many forms: the grief of loss, overwhelming stress and anxiety, major or chronic depression, job burnout, feeling stuck or trapped, heart break, lingering guilt, regret, fear of trusting again, pent-up anger, worry about the future, and shame from the past.
In the face of difficulty, most of us do our best to cope with the situation, hold it together, and keep going, but we often end up carrying emotional pain that we don’t know how to heal or release. The toxic residue of painful experiences gets stored in our emotional heart, limiting our ability to give and receive love.
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Click here for details!
The Perfect Health
Perfect Health is a 6- or 10-day healing immersion that combines a renowned medical staff, a time-tested detoxification and cleansing process known as panchakarma, and intimate, daily classes in meditation, Ayurveda, and yoga.
The Perfect Health program’s unique approach is based on the powerful principles of Ayurveda, India’s 5,000-year-old healing system. Ayurveda focuses on the whole person – the mind, body, and spirit – seeking to correct the imbalances that cause distress and, ultimately, disease. In contrast with conventional medicine, Ayurveda defines health not just as the absence of illness or symptoms, but as a state of higher consciousness that allow us to experience greater energy, creativity, wellbeing, and happiness in our daily lives.
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The Perfect Health is offered 2-3 times each month ever month here at The Chopra Center. For more information click here!
The Perfect Health program’s unique approach is based on the powerful principles of Ayurveda, India’s 5,000-year-old healing system. Ayurveda focuses on the whole person – the mind, body, and spirit – seeking to correct the imbalances that cause distress and, ultimately, disease. In contrast with conventional medicine, Ayurveda defines health not just as the absence of illness or symptoms, but as a state of higher consciousness that allow us to experience greater energy, creativity, wellbeing, and happiness in our daily lives.
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The Perfect Health is offered 2-3 times each month ever month here at The Chopra Center. For more information click here!
Journey Into Healing In Phoenix!!!
Journey Into Healing in Phoenix this week! Journey into Healing is the Chopra Center’s most profound mind-body healing workshop, a five-day immersion that integrates the Eastern healing arts with the latest advances in medical science.
Dates for this event:
February 17–21, 2010: The Biltmore Resort & Spa, Phoenix, Arizona
May 12–16: The Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
September 10–14: The Sheraton Resort & Spa, Carlsbad, California
Seduction of Spirit at La Costa!
Last week was so amazing! I was able to participate as a guest at our celebration of meditation event, Seduction of Spirit!! Me and 350 of my closest meditating friends ( most whom I met that weekend) danced, laughed, and meditated away all week! The meditations and sutras from Deepak were so profound. I was able to take my practice to a whole new level! Today I still feel so open and focused. What an amazing experience!!
Our next Seduction of Spirit is in Marco Island, Florida. Let me know if you have any questions about this event! nicolemarie@chopra.com
So Hum Meditation
The So Hum meditation is a simple but powerful technique that uses the breath and the repetition of a mantra to quiet the mind and relax the body. This meditation will help take your awareness from a state of constriction to a state of expanded consciousness.
1.Choose a place where you won’t be disturbed. Sit in a chair or on the floor, using blankets and pillows to make yourself as comfortable as possible.
2.Close your eyes and for a few minutes and take a few moments to observe the inflow and outflow of your breath.
3.Now take a slow, deep breath through your nose, while thinking or silently repeating the word So.
4.Then slowly exhale through your nose while silently repeating the word Hum. Continue to allow your breath to flow easily, silently repeating So . . . Hum . . . with each inflow and outflow of the breath. Whenever your attention drifts to thoughts in your mind, sounds in the environment, or sensations in your body, gently return to your breath, silently repeating So . . . Hum.
5.Whenever your attention drifts to thoughts in your mind, sounds in your environment, or sensations in your body, gently return to your breath, silently repeating, So . . . Hum.
6.Do this process for 20 to 30 minutes. Just breathe easily and effortlessly, without trying to concentrate. When the time is up, sit with your eyes gently closed, taking a moment to rest in the stillness and silence of your meditation. At the Chopra Center there is only one meditation rule: Never rush to or from meditation. Just allow the peace and calm to soak into your body, and you will carry a little bit of this peace and calm with you as you move into the activities of your day.
A Lesson in Conscious Communication
Emotional wellbeing flows from the ability to clearly communicate what you want in life. This isn’t an inborn gift but a learnable skill. If you are not currently adept at expressing your needs, it is because you learned from people who were not proficient.
The key principle of conscious communication is making it as easy as possible for another person to meet your need by asking for the specific behavior that will fulfill it. However, when people feel vulnerable, they commonly compensate by becoming demanding and threatening, believing that forcefulness will increase the likelihood of getting what they want. As often as not, this approach has the opposite effect. My demand of you implies that you are of lesser value than I am and that, therefore, I have the right to dictate to you.
Even if you give in to my demands, you will likely do so with resistance and resentment. Sooner or later, you will no longer be willing to acquiesce to my commands and will stop meeting my needs. This principle applies to all relationships, including those with our business partners, co-workers, friends, children, and parents.
Practicing Conscious Communication: Expanding on the insightful work of psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, here is a simple process that will help you become a master of conscious communication.
1. Identify the event that triggered your emotional upset. Describe what happened, being as objective as possible. Just outline the facts as if you were an outside observer. For example, saying, “My husband is never on time,” is less useful than saying “He agreed to meet at the movie theater at 7pm and didn’t show up until 7:30.”
2. Take responsibility for your feelings. When describing your feelings, choose words that express the sensations you are experiencing, such as "I feel sad, lonely, frustrated, or jealous." Avoid words that reinforce a sense of victimization: “I feel neglected, betrayed, or rejected.” When you take responsibility for your emotions, you are informing rather than blaming the people in your life.
3. Identify what you need that you are not receiving. As infants, we had caregivers trying to figure out what we needed because we could not identify our needs and communicate them ourselves. As adults, we subconsciously expect our loved ones to know what we need and spontaneously provide it. This rarely happens. You are much more likely to get your needs met if you can identify them yourself and communicate them clearly.
4. Ask for what you want.What specific behaviors or actions would fulfill your needs? For example, if you want more attention from your partner, do not ask him or her to just spend more time with you; ask to take a walk after dinner, or go to a movie on Saturday night. Express your need in the form of a request rather than a demand. We all have an inherent impulse to resist demands, whereas our self-esteem is raised when we are able to fulfill requests.
Although using this process doesn’t guarantee that you always get your needs met, it will substantially increase the likelihood that you will spend more time feeling comfortable and at ease and less time in emotional distress.
The skills of conscious communication and emotional awareness are a vital component of the Chopra Center's Perfect Health program. For more information about this process, feel free to give me a call at 760-494-1657.
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