Hello, everyone.  

Well, the bodacious Traci Stein’s new audio on Creating Positive Change is now available as a download.  The hard copies will be ready in a couple more weeks.

Do check it out if you’re feeling stuck in a habituated response or behavior that you seriously want to kiss goodbye. This is a really wonderful recording, and it can make all the difference in your quest for self-improvement and change.  

It’s got three tracks.  The Awake Track is straight-up self-hypnosis and imagery that encourages change through profound relaxation, imagining completed goals, and a heart-felt sense of well-being.  The Sleep Track fosters lasting change during deep, restorative sleep. And there’s a third bonus track that delivers potent Affirmations to bolster the entire process.  

You can check out a sound sample here.

On another note, I was really happy to see a lead article by Sylvia Foley in the online version of the American Journal of Nursing – it was on how guided imagery can be used to help kids with sickle cell disease cope with pain. 

Compared to, say, even 15 years ago, this is a sea change in attitude about guided imagery from the nursing establishment. And even though a big percentage of the early champions for imagery were in fact nurses, the profession as a whole, as represented by the traditional leadership, has mostly seen it as pretty soft and gooey, science-wise.  I guess all the research that’s been published over the past 2 decades is making a dent, and hooray for that.

The article goes on to describe how sickle cell pain can be either acute or chronic, and is often as severe as it is unpredictable. It’s usually managed at home (as opposed to in the hospital or emergency room).  

Little is known about how kids deal best with pain at home, actually. So two nurses, Cassandra Elaine Dobson and Mary Woods Byrne decided to test the effectiveness of guided imagery for helping kids manage it.

They looked at the effects on pain perception, analgesic use, sense of self-efficacy, and imaging ability, from the month before to the month after training.

Their study found that after the guided imagery training, the kids reported significant increases in self-efficacy and large reductions in pain intensity. They used fewer analgesics as well. They conclude that guided imagery is an effective technique for managing and limiting sickle cell disease-related pain in a pediatric population.

So there you have it.  Not surprising – several recent studies have shown guided imagery helping kids with fear over emergency room procedures and pain from various kinds of GI distress…. but affirming, nonetheless.
 
Don’t forget that there’s an upcoming Nutrition and Health Conference in Dallas, on May 5-7, sponsored by the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine with stellar, cutting edge content, terrifically engaged participants on the forefront of this exploding field, and really expert speakers.  For more info, click here.

Okay, take care and be well.
All best,