Monthly Archives: May 2016
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Read more »We got this email just as Father’s Day was approaching. Our hearts go out to this man, whose life is forever changed by an automobile accident that left his daughter in a coma, and his wife in a deep depression. But we do have some suggestions for him.
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Posted: May 30, 2016Categories: Update from Health Journeys
Read more »Well, chances are, if you’re a Dad, you’re a more engaged, involved, expressive and consequential presence in the life of your kids than your own father was. For this and everything else you do to support your family, we applaud you!
I’ve been a very lucky dame to have known a lot of great fathers, starting with my own. He did a ton for us, but I swear, the thing that stays with me most about him, and that gave us all what I can only call steady, emotional ballast for going forward into adulthood with a modicum of confidence and comfort, was the look he used to give us kids.
Sometimes, when we were all dressed up to go somewhere, he’d just look at the three of us with an expression saturated with admiration and wonder. I’m not exaggerating. One time, forever seared into my memory, he actually turned to my mother and said, “I can’t believe I sired these three!” Isn’t that something for a father to say? How lucky we were to have him!
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Read more »In keeping with Blood Pressure Awareness Month, we went snooping around the reviews posted on Amazon to see what people had to say about their journey using guided imagery for their blood pressure and related issues. We happily spotted these comments.
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Posted: May 26, 2016Categories: Hot Research
Read more »In Japan, they actually call this “Forest Medicine”, and they build forest parks on the rooftops of hospitals.
In this pilot study, researchers from Chiba University and Nippon Medical School in Japan studied the impact of brief forest walking on middle-aged, hypertensive adults, seeking some hard evidence of positive effects.
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Posted: May 24, 2016Categories: Ask Belleruth
Read more »Boy oh boy, do I relate to this question. It’s from a new intern in Marriage and Family Therapy, working to complete her full accreditation.
She reports that, seemingly out of nowhere, she began having episodes of anxiety and panic, without any apparent triggers that she can identify. She loves her work.
Fortunately, she responds really well to guided imagery, and hopefully some of the suggestions I make here will resonate with her. I think it’s easy to lose sight of how hard it is to be new at this work, especially if you’re a responsible sort who wants to do right by the people in your care who are suffering. Please read on!
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Posted: May 23, 2016Categories: Update from Health Journeys
Read more »So, I bet you didn’t know May was National High Blood Pressure Education Month, eh? Very important, this blood pressure business. It’s nicknamed “the silent killer” for good reason: you can have it and not know it’s there, while it gets busy wreaking havoc on your arteries. If you know you’ve got hypertension, you can remediate it or reduce it by making simple lifestyle changes.
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Posted: May 20, 2016Categories: Inspiring Stories
Read more »Depression is like a Catch-22, because you need a certain amount of energy to overcome it. At the same time, one of the signature symptoms of depression is a lack of energy.
Some people describe it as feeling like a heavy fog is surrounding them and weighing them down, resulting in limbs that feel like lead and a bone-deep inertia and weariness.
That’s why guided imagery can be so helpful to people suffering from serious depression. It can do some of the initial work for you – all you need to do is find the energy to press “Play”, and it can jump start you enough for your own engine to take over.
This brief but heartening note makes this very case. We got it a couple of weeks ago and wanted to share it.
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Posted: May 19, 2016Categories: Hot Research
Read more »This study represents a real advance in the way we think about meditation, away from our former, simplistic, stereotypic thinking about what it is and what it can do. It’s been a long time in coming.
These researchers make it clear that, contrary to the notion that meditation is always relaxing, resulting in reduced stress and physiological arousal, the reality is sometimes yes, and sometimes no - it depends on what kind of meditation we’re talking about.
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Read more »Question
Hi Belleruth,
I'm 47 and I thought I was steadily going crazy, as in insane. I found a therapist and came across your book in a prison library by immense good fortune at the same time. I'm doing so much better.
My therapist - who's not a fan of labels, but is working with me on complex PTSD, social anxiety and stress - is helping so much. But I can't seem to stop with the over-eating, bingeing and making myself sick. I'm steadily putting weight on and it's interfering with my recovery.
So my question! What would you recommend for me to listen to? I believe if I gain control of my diet, then I've won my battle to gain control of my life.
What I learned reading Invisible Heroes was life changing.
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Posted: May 16, 2016Categories: Update from Health Journeys
Read more »I’m delighted to tell you that the new Traci Stein CDs are in the warehouse and ready to ship! So if you’ve pre-ordered any of these hard copies, they’re on their way.
We’re very proud to have these beautiful guided meditations in our Health Journeys collection. I’d been looking for some fresh mindfulness resources for some time. We were after superior writing, psychologically sophisticated content and gentle but compelling narration, and Traci really delivered the goods with Mindfulness Meditations: Finding Peace & Perspective in the Present Moment.
