This “I’ll be happy when” trap also applies to our own inner work. We may be having a difficult time with various issues and feel that once we have resolved them or made them go away everything will be plain sailing. But that is not necessarily the case because all the other issues that surround just engaging in life are still going to be there. So realistically, yes, life is most likely to be a lot easier when we are not in a constant state of anxiety or depression but everyday life does not go away and we will experience the ups and we will experience the downs. The important thing is how we connect, cope and engage with the natural cycle of our everyday lives in a meaningful and positive way. So why not try this mantra -  “I’ll be happy now.”

Simple meditation techniques done on a regular basis are a very valuable way to allow one to disengage from our inner treadmill and reconnect with ourselves. Try the link below for a wonderful selection of interesting guided meditations.

http://www.fragrantheart.com/

However in a lot of cases taking drugs long term is never going to solve the underlying issues of why a person has feelings or behaviour patterns that they would rather be without. I subscribe to regular newsletters from Dr Mercola in America and they always make very interesting and entertaining reading. This article  from Dr Mercola talks about how he feels that there is an over medicating in America of people suffering from depression and is well worth a read. Although there seems still to be a prevalent view that depression is something that one perhaps just has to live with or at best may take years to overcome in my experience that is not always the case and I have first hand experience, as have many of my colleagues, of being able to help clients make significant changes in their emotional wellbeing in as little as just a few sessions.

As an update to the above this is a recent article on the BBC (health) website  by Dr Joanna Moncrieff where she talks about how putting patients on medication for pschological issues can be just a case of putting them into a “drug induced state” without ever addressing the real issues behind the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFm9_6BTCHM and see how it is done. Some fans say that if you drink one a day for a month you could lose your taste for sweet foods. I will keep you posted!

Here is the recipe I used today:

2 Lettuce leaves – 1/2 a Banana- Stick of celery – a carrot – piece of cucumber – four strawberries and a couple of cups of orange juice all blended together.

If you want to help bring stress levels down breathing is the perfect place to start.

The only substitute I am personally not too keen on is swapping sugar for sweeteners such as Apartame.

So what did Sir Simon Rattle mean by this “metamorphosis” he talks about undergoing, and how can we achieve it in our professional and competitive challenges? A lot of my clients come to improve their presentation and self confidence in sport, music, and business but to get the best results we often have to leave behind the everyday person that our friends and relatives know and take on the persona that will get the job done. This persona has no room for doubts and worries about our abilities and has to be completely focused and at the very least give an appearance of confidence on the outside. This does not mean one has to completey leave behind the real you but it does mean that to get results you need to develop a strong degree of focus, determination and self confidence to really achieve your true potential. There are many ways to develop this and one is to find someone in your field that you admire and can relate to and “take on the mask” of that person when you are in your performance situation. Ask yourself what would they think, feel, hear and see in this situation? How would they react to enable them to get the best results?  Then start to bring these attributes into your own performance situations.  Just be sure to choose a role model that uses their skills in an empowering and structured way then you will begin to develop extra skills and techniques that will give your that extra performance edge.

“One of my teachers had each one of us bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes. For every person we’d refuse to forgive in our life, we were told to choose a potato, write on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag. Some of our bags, as you can imagine, were quite heavy.

We were then told to carry this bag with us everywhere for one week, putting it beside our bed at night, on the car seat when driving, next to our desk at work.

The hassle of lugging this around with us made it clear what a weight we were carrying spiritually, and how we had to pay attention to it all the time to not forget, and keep leaving it in embarrassing places.

Naturally, the condition of the potatoes deteriorated to a nasty slime. This was a great metaphor for the price we pay for keeping our pain and heavy negativity!

Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person, and while that’s true, it clearly is also a gift for ourselves!

So the next time you decide you can’t forgive someone, ask yourself… Isn’t MY bag heavy enough?”

- from www.pravsworld.com