Issue Number 3 - May 2001

In this months issue of "Naturally Happy"

• NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) the stars swear by it!
• Meditation made simple: its easier than you thought!
• Kidneys: How to keep them in tip top shape
• Short and Sweet recipe: Apple & Raspberry Custard Crumble
• Laughter is the best medicine
  

Neuro Linguistic Programming - the Science of Life Mastery

What do the following people have in common: Greg Norman, Lisa Curry-Kenny, Chad Meeks [World Cup Gold Medallist], Mikhael Gorbachev, Bill and Hilary Clinton, Anthony Robbins, Andre Agassi, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna?

They have all benefited in some way through the application of NLP in their lives whether personally or professionally.

If you could understand how you're getting the results you don't want and could therefore understand how to get the results you do want - would that be appealing to you?

What difference would it make to your life if you knew that you had the tools at your disposal to transform almost any and every area of your life and bring it into alignment with who you are capable of being?

NLP works with whole-body thinking - it is the science of human performance. As with the people above, it can help us all to achieve human excellence.

It has been said that if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, if you teach him how to fish he will eat forever - but what if they are vegetarian?!

NLP when applied artfully and well is the difference between just knowing what to do and feeling motivated, happy and comfortable enough to get up and do it.

NLP can be applied personally in the spheres of coaching and counselling - helping to eliminate unwanted results and strengthen desired ones - as well as in a more intimate therapeutic context. NLP can also be applied professionally as a tool for clarifying communication - between colleagues and organisations, in the areas of human resources and training, and also structurally - in organisational change and development.

In fact - there is nowhere in your life where NLP cannot be of benefit - it is, after all, the study of who you are and what you already do and how you can, always, do it better.

If there was something in your life you wanted to change or experience more consistently, what would you be willing to do now to have this?

Samadhi Aum

For further information contact Mind Matters

Meditation Made Simple "Holosync"

As meditation became popular in the West, beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s, and many different meditation approaches were introduced to the West, a lot of misinformation was spread.

At Centerpointe Research Institute, we talk to a lot of people everyday interested in meditation -
some of whom have been meditating off and on for years (unfortunately, a lot of times with little to show for it). The mish-mash of beliefs about meditation, what it is, how it works, and how to identify when you are doing it properly is amazing. Hopefully this article will clear up some of
the misconceptions and simplify something that has been overly complicated over the last 30 years.

Meditation is a tool used to gain self-awareness, to help get the mind out of the way so you can more clearly see who you really are. Those who have succeeded in this quest tell us the resulting peace, happiness, and connection to (God, the One, your Self, the Infinite - pick one) is
immeasurably better than the stressed-out and often hopeless existence many people are experiencing.

From research done in the 1970s, we learned that all forms of meditation involve the slowing of the electrical brain wave patterns from the normal, everyday beta brain wave pattern to the slower alpha rhythms. Very experienced meditators enjoy short excursions, lasting a few moments at a
time, into the even slower trance-like theta brain wave pattern.This slowing of the electrical brain wave patterns in every case is accomplished - in traditional meditation - by some kind of focusing, the most popular points of focus being the breath, or a mantra or prayer. Any
kind of focusing causes the brain wave patterns to slow.

[Now I know this "brain wave pattern" approach to understanding doesn't sound as romantic as some of the more metaphorical Eastern explanations, but I believe it is more useful (and I don't think it negates the Eastern explanations, either).

So what does slowing the brain wave patterns accomplish? Several things. First, it creates an altered state. You become more relaxed. The brain makes endorphins, DHEA (a hormone related to health and well-being and a buffer against stress), human growth hormone, serotonin, and a number of other hormones and neurochemicals related to relaxation, stress release, and well-being. While in this altered state, you may partially or even totally lose contact with the outside world for moments at a time.

Second, the slower brain wave patterns create electrical fluctuations the brain cannot handle - the way it is currently structured. To deal with this, the brain creates a new structure that can handle these fluctuations. The two sides of the brain begin to communicate more, leading to whole brain functioning, which includes greater mental abilities, and greater self awareness, resolution of emotional problems, greater balance in the brain, and what most people describe as a greater feeling of connection to everything around them.

Now, you may have meditated, even meditated quite a lot, and had very little of this happen to you. Why is that? It's because it isn't that easy to create the focus required to slow the brain wave patterns and then to hold them at the point where the brain must create the required changes. Most people require several years of practice to get the technique down - and most people are too impatient to really work at it long enough to do so. Then, it requires practicing this focus for a few hours a day to really create deep changes. So, at best, people experience some relaxation (which is good) but little real transformation.

Then there is the issue of what many people call the "monkey mind." As you focus on your breath or your mantra, you periodically realise you're thinking about something else: what happened before, what will happen later, the noise you just heard, the pain in your leg - anything but what you intended to focus on. Your mind fights you. It wants to do anything other than focus. It flits from thought to thought, like a monkey swinging from branch to branch. This causes people to think they are failing at meditation, and there is probably more misconception around this "problem" than any other aspect of meditation.

Here's what's happening: when you focus and the brain slows down, you make contact with deeper parts of your mind. There are stresses stored in the nervous system at this level, and when your awareness reaches the level where these stresses live, they are activated, in a sense, and bubble up to the surface of your awareness. As they break the surface of your awareness,
they take the form of random thoughts, old memories, muscle twitches, flashes of light in your visual field, inner auditory sensations, and even odd physical or kinesthetic sensations.

In the Eastern meditation schools these are called "kriyas" and represent the burning off of stresses in the nervous system - a good thing. As long as you gently return to the point of focus as soon as you realise your attention has wandered, you are still meditating. If you let your mind go off on the thought or other distraction, you are just sitting there thinking. In a typical meditation you might be distracted hundreds of times, each representing a stress in the nervous system coming to the surface and being released.

Most people in the West think they are having a terrible meditation when this happens because they think meditation means a quiet mind, but the opposite is true. While these kinds of meditations are not necessarily peaceful, they are very productive (and pave the way for a generally quieter mind, both in and out of meditation). Meditation is often - especially in the first several years - an upheaval of all the "stuff" needing release. When you have these meditations you should say "All right! I'm making progress!"

Meditation, then, is really very simple. You pay attention to whatever is your chosen point of focus, and whenever you realise you have been distracted, you re-focus. If you are immediately distracted again, so what? You just say good-by to more stress and re-focus again - as often as it takes.

Mediation with Holosync® (Centerpointe's audio based meditation technology) happens in an entirely different league, however. When you meditate with Holosync®, the same mechanism is at work, except you don't need to focus. Instead, Holosync® is creating the slowing of the brain wave patterns, ordinarily created through focusing, for you, effortlessly. In fact, much
larger fluctuations in electrical brain wave patterns can easily be created, leading to faster and deeper results. You don't have to spend years perfecting a technique, and you immediately begin experiencing the kinds of deep, core-level changes generally only experienced by long-time
yogis.

Holosync® meditation is more precise, it is more consistent, it's deeper, and it skips the long years of perfecting the technique. It's like going from a bicycle to a jet plane.

Occasionally people think we're saying this is the "easy way" to meditate - and in terms of not having to work so hard to get into the states where changes happen, that's true. However, by playing around in light alpha states reached by most traditional meditators, you don't have to face
yourself in the same way you would if you could really meditate deeply, as with Holosync®. (Of course, that means little or no results.)

Meditating with Holosync® really does put you face to face with what is keeping you from being happy and peaceful and knowing who you really are. Sometimes this is difficult, because it puts you face to face with those parts of you that you think are not okay and have therefore repressed
(where though they may be out of awareness, they can be big troublemakers in your life). That's why we teach you, in the support materials, how to deal with this stuff (which is easy if you follow the instructions we give, and it can be very difficult if you don't and instead resist it).

Meditation truly can change you life, if you do it. Most people don't, because traditional editation is a lot of work, and takes so long to see real results. Luckily, now that the world has Holosync®, the investment in time and there is no reason to live in fear, anger, anxiety, or depression any longer. The tool is available. It works, and we invite you to join us in taking advantage of it. For a FREE Holosync® demo tape and report, worth $19.95, call Freecall 1800 70 70 47 or click here.

Keeping your Kidneys happy and Healthy!

Over 500,000 Australians a year see their doctor about kidney disorders and urinary tract infections. What do the kidneys do ? And how can we look after them? Click here to find out more

• What do the kidneys do?
• The kidneys act like filters to skim waste products from the blood.
• They remove water from our body.
• They keep a proper balance of acids and salts in our bodies.
• They produce hormones essential to control blood pressure.
• Produce red blood cells for healthy teeth and bones.

How is kidney disease treated?

• Deterioration in kidney function is not usually reversible but if diagnosed early, it can be slowed.
• If kidney function is reduced to less than 10% of normal, regular dialysis treatment or a transplant may be necessary.

How can I look after my kidneys?

• Drink your recommended water intake which is your weight (kg) divided by 8 = no of glasses of water per day.
• Maintain your ideal weight with a well balanced diet, which includes fibre, fresh fruit and water regularly through out the day.
• Exercise regularly
• Do not smoke
• Check blood pressure regularly

When to drink water

• Kick start you day: A couple of glasses in the morning quickly replaces overnight water loss, primes your digestive juices for breakfast and detoxifies your body.
• Between meals: Always drink your water between meals and not with them. Drinking water during a meal will inhibit the breakdown of your foods and the natural absorption.

For further information on keeping your kidneys in top shape visit the Kidney Foundation website http://www.kidney.org.au and if you have yet to start drinking clean purified water click on to Healthy H20. to get your free starter pack!

Short and Sweet:

Apple & Raspberry Custard Crumble

Nutrient analysis per serve:
Energy: 828kj Protein: 4 g Fat: 1g Carbohydrate: 44 g Calcium: 107 mg Total Sugars: 41 g

Serves 4

300 g fresh or frozen raspberries
1 x 425 can pie apple
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon custard powder
1 tablespoon castor sugar
1 cup australian skim milk
½ cup untoasted meusli
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon, extra

Combine raspberries, apple and cinnamon together and spoon into a large gratin dish. In a small saucepan combine custard and castor sugar with a little of the milk, to form a paste. Add milk and heat stirring until thickening. Pour custard over fruit and top with combined remaining ingredients. Bake at 18- degrees C for 45 minutes.

Allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving

The Difference Between Dogs and Cats

A dog thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me ... They must be gods!

A cat thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me ... I must be a god!

And the winner is:

Congratulations to Ruth from Springwood who won April's great Yakult pack! This months giveaway is a basket full of great organic goodies thanks to the great people at Sun and Earth Whole Foods. DON"T FORGET if you subscribe to this e-mag you automatically go in the draw to win every month!

Don't forget Mothers Day!

If your stuck for what to buy mum this year please consider giving the GIFT OF HEALTH and save with www.myhealthspecials.com.au. Gift vouchers are available from the majority of our 450 businesses and whether it's a D-stress massage, a relaxing facial or a indulging day spa your mum will love you for it.

"NURTURE YOUR MIND WITH GREAT THOUGHTS. TO BELIEVE IN THE HERIOC MAKES HEROES"
Benjamin Disraeli

In the next issue of "Naturally Happy"

Oxygen Therapy: Whats the fuss all about!
Pilates: It's not just for the stars
Natural Fertility: It's more than you think.
Bi Com Therapy: Effective individualised Therapy