Today I stumbled across Dr. Beverly Potter’s little book, The Worrywart’s Companion, Twenty-one Ways To Soothe Yourself and Worry Smart. How many of us would be a more balanced woman, if we could only worry smarter? The author points out that “Worrywarts worry themselves sick”, and like a mantra, silently chant their fears. However, it doesn’t bring serenity, it only generates anxiety and we know the emotional mind can trigger disease.
Healthy coping requires a balance of different thinking styles. Creativity expert Edward DeBono in, The Six Thinking Hats, identified six basic styles of thinking: objective, emotive, supportive, possibility, critical, and strategic. Negative worrying habits can be replaced when practicing any of the following different thinking styles to provide a constructive mental approach dealing with worrisome situations. For each style of thinking there is a corresponding question. Asking this question will automatically set the corresponding thinking style in motion.
Practice Flexible Thinking
Objective Thinking: Ask yourself “What are the facts?” Practicing objective thinking helps bring you back into balance. It reminds you that the actual facts are not the same as the disastrous scenarios envisioned when worrywarting.
Emotive Thinking: Ask yourself ”What am I feeling?” Look at all of your feelings, whether or not they seem justified, make sense, and even contradict each other. Physical sensations can be linked to emotions. It also is important to consider your preferences of likes, dislikes, values and desires, which are ways of looking at what you want or don’t want out of a situation.
Supportive Thinking: Ask yourself “What is working?” Supportive thinking looks at the positive aspects of a situation and focuses on ways to enhance them. Supportive thinking often feels unnatural to worrywarts who tend to focus on weaknesses, what’s wrong, what’s not working. Engaging in supportive thinking brings you back to a more balanced view of the situation.
Possibility Thinking: Ask yourself “What’s possible here?” When engaged in possibility thinking, let your creativity run. Don’t try to be logical or realistic. The key is to allow your mind the unfettered imaginative freedom of a child at play. Avoid critiquing your ideas. Even the most unrealistic or implausible scenarios often contain seeds of valuable new ideas which in the end turn out to have practical applications.
Critical Thinking: Ask yourself “What’s wrong? What could go wrong?” Critical thinking is where worrywarts get stuck. It looks for what is wrong and is linear and logical. However, critical thinking is an important skill. Without the ability to make an accurate assessment of the real risks in a worrisome situation, you are likely to encounter many avoidable difficulties. In order for critical thinking to be helpful, it must occur within the context of a full range of thinking skills.
Strategic Thinking; Ask yourself “What’s the next step?” Once you have engaged each of the preceding five thinking styles, you will have identified the facts of the worrisome situation. Hopefully you have determined how you feel about it, what you want and what you don’t want to happen. Final step is to view the worrisome situation from a detached perspective. Chances are your next step will be some combination of the six thinking styles. Keep practicing Flexible Thinking, it will become easier.
The Lover Archetype represents passion and selfless devotion to another person. It also extends to the things that make our hearts sing, like music art or nature.
“Nothing accesses the inner world of feelings, sensations, memories, and associations as directly as music does,” says Diane Austin, adjunct associate professor of music therapy at New York University and executive director of the Music Psychotherapy Center in New York. “The voice is like a bridge from your heart to your head. Singing freely releases what’s locked up in your body.”
First Chakra (Root) – Tone 7 times with the deepest “UH” (as in cup) low guttural sound gently riding on the breath. Stay comfortable with the sound – don’t force it. (Red).
During an MRI test the author needed, to make sure her brain tumor had not recurred, found the banging noise of the test made it difficult to chant, meditate or pray. She started using an affirmation in step with the noisy rhythmic beat of the machine, (more like chanting inwardly). She repeated over and over “Relaxed and happy from head to toe”, saying one word for each beat. This helped to keep her mind focused and calm, preventing thoughts like, “I can’t stand this”. Thoughts which were waiting to emerge. She reported how much it helped when the test was completed. I am sad that I hadn’t remembered this before a loved one of mine had to experience the noise of a MRI test.
1. Use at lease three stones or crystals to form a triangle on the ground large enough for you to sit within it cross-legged. Hold a small drum, rattle or other percussion instrument, which represents woman’s connection to the rythyms of life.
Chanting benefits every aspect of life, including physical issues, emotional imbalances, mental imbalances, spiritual blockages, relationship challenges, financial challenges, and more. Chanting mantras works because they carry soul frequency and vibration with love, forgiveness, compassion, and light. Chanting is Sound Power. You become what you chant.
Sit in easy pose with your legs crossed and spine straight, or sit in a chair with feet flat on the floor. Eyes are closed and focused at the third-eye point. Mantra: Ra Ma Da Sa, Sa Say So Hung should be sung in one complete exhalation.
