#58 - Brain Break

Have you ever caught yourself driving along in the car, windows down, hair blowing in the wind, belting out the song on the radio?  What about getting lost in thought as you walk down a path hearing only the sounds made when your feet hit the ground?  Take it even one step further, how about when sitting or walking on a beach, hearing nothing but the waves and maybe an occasional bird overhead?  Those are the moments that I love.  Those moments when you get absolutely lost in time, having not a care in the world.
 
I think that more of these moments are needed.  More time to just not think, to relax in the moment and just be.  I am hoping to find more of these moments in the coming week as I remove myself from my current situation, get away from the office and really just get back in touch with me again.  As I get older, I find that this to be more of a requirement.  My mind spins as such a crazy speed, with all the work and life events getting caught in the whirlwinds, ever intertwined making me feel exhausted a lot of the time.  Time to release those things which hold me down and soar.  Stop spinning and just blow through the trees, through the fields, stop spinning and just ride the wave of wind and see where it takes me.

To take flight like the seed of a dandelion flower, landing wherever the wind decides to slow and release me.  How wonderful a thought, a feeling of almost pure freedom, only being held by the wind.  Oh the things one could see and experience during a flight.

The nice thing is that if you learn the art of meditation or self hypnosis, you can experience these types of travels, of releases of energy, of brain breaks that really give you a sense of peace.  Personally I have been able to experience many of these in recent months, working on mastering them more and more as the effects on my body and mind are astounding.  A calming sensation that has begun to change who I am, how I react to situations, and what I truly care about.  The thought of don't sweat the small stuff come to mind often, not that I have read the book, but that the comment makes such sense in itself.  Through the use of meditation and hypnosis I see so much more as small stuff, things that don't seem to matter nearly as much to me as they have in the past.  Those things which are important held close, the rest left to float away in the wind.

Well, time to put this away for the day and go complete my last day of daily grind before a week of sheer bliss. 

Needing a beach recharge - day 42

Do you have a place that you go to recharge your battery?  Is it your childhood home with your parents?  Is it the mountains to get back to nature? Is it the desert? What about a field of corn or wheat?  Does the open prairies make you feel at home?  Trees, do you require lots of trees that block all view and give you a natural hug?

For me my happy place is the beach. I was born surrounded by water, ocean on one side and gulf on the other.  Spent most of my good days as a child on the beach or in the water or fishing with my grandfather out at sea.  So my current landlocked situation has got me out of sorts at least a couple times a year where I must go recharge my soul's battery, sitting on the beach, toes in the sand, birds squawking overhead, and the waves rolling onto the beach blanketing the sands with their warmth and then rolling back out again to allow another to take it's place.

When on the beach, time escapes me. I can sit for hours just meditating in the warm, soothing sounds, letting my mind free of all that clutters inside.  I think that finding that place where we can unwind and let go is something we must do to survive.  We have to be able to remove ourselves from the  hustle and bustle of the every day monotonous insanity that must be done to pay for all the this-n-that required to exist.

For many years due to financial constraints I could't make my trek back home where I could recharge.  As a single mother, my finances were bound to making sure that my children had a roof over their heads, food on the table, and some of the things they desired.  Not all, because that would give them nothing to strive for, but enough to make them want to work hard to get there.  During those years I found ways to get there without leaving my home.  I was introduced into the art of self-hypnosis.  Being able to focus the mind on the body, turning off the senses with simple countdowns, and finding the ability to all but mentally leave my body and travel to a beach where I could relax and recharge was what saved my sanity.  This was actually something I taught myself in my younger years when I was not in a safe place and needed to escape the pain.  I believe it actually saved my life.

Hypnosis is a very powerful tool.  Many have used it to avoid being put under anesthesia before surgery (not sure I will ever be that good at it), others have used it simply to turn off the mind and release.  Hypnosis also helped me quit smoking, something I did for many years.  I am now trying to use it to lose weight and well, that apparently is harder than quitting smoking. Still a work in progress.  The ability to self hypnotize is a true skill that I am blessed with.  I have used it in short bursts or for longer periods depending on the need at the time. I mostly use it to cure what ails me and allow my body and mind to heal when they get to a point of needing release from pain.  I have removed myself almost completely from any use of over the counter medications simply by first getting them out of my system, then finding more holistic remedies, but I will touch on that another day.

Finally being at a place in my life when I can just go to the beach and relax, recharge, and recover my sanity is such a blessing.  I know that all my worldly worries will be there when I return yet the escape is so amazing, almost like a recharging my soul.

The ocean is calling, I must answer.

Sensory Deprivation - Day 34

There is nothing more relaxing than being able to turn off the world.  To shut out all the noises and stresses around and become completely relaxed is something I have dreamed of but rarely ever achieved as it is just not that easy to do.  I have been able to achieve this in small instances by doing self hypnosis but today I was able to take it to another level.

Being able to not only turn off the world but also feel lighter than air, feeling like I was floating on a cloud was amazing.  Being weightless, completely sense deprived, allowed me to release all my thoughts and cares and just be.  What an amazing feeling.  I was able to experience this today and honestly I will do it again and again, as many times as I possibly can as it was so relieving.  

During my session I was able to do all those things.  The weightless was amazing.  Turning off the outside world was so relieving.  Being able to utilize my skills of self hypnosis really came in handy allowing me to feel I had left the room completely.  

Other bonuses of the salt float included my skin feeling so much softer, as if I had shed an outer layer and what was left was fresh and new.  I think that my mind was also able to do the same and now I feel so much lighter, clearer, and relaxed.

At first I couldn't turn off my brain, lying there fixated on the time I would be in the room.  As I feel I am never really 'still', how was I going to be in here an hour.  I was sure that I would make it barely 30 minutes.  Little did I know that once I allowed my mind to let go, I would be able to unfocus and turn off everything, I would be able to just be without thinking about it or focusing my mind on something.  My mind was no longer racing from thought to thought.  I had found true peace.

If you get a chance to experience this, I highly recommend it.