Over the past 30 years, I’ve studied mind-body health with many teachers and learned many things. Today’s blog is a tribute to all my teachers whether I studied with them in person or not. They include Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Dr. Joan Borysenko, Dr. Alice Doemar, Dr. Ronald Siegel, Dr. David Burns, Leonie Wolff, RN, WHNP., Slyvia Weber, RN, Clinical Nurse Specialist in Psychiatry, and Carolyn Myss, Here are their words of wisdom that have stuck with me over the years, influencing me in the way I provide care as a psychologist and the way I lead my life. They are my heroes.
- Dr. Deepak Chopra: “What we think about expands; What we stop thinking about contracts.” Although I understand this completely now, it took me a while. When you start thinking about what you want instead of what you don’t want, life gets easier and you enjoy your life more. My clients are always surprised when they discover that when they stop their automatic negative thinking about their life and what’s going to go wrong, they feel less depressed and anxious.
- Dr. Wayne Dyer: “The past is like a wake that a boat leaves behind” when it’s moving forward. I may not have said that exactly, but I was spellbound when I first heard it. So, many of us make ourselves miserable dwelling on the past and what could have been. In fact, the more we dwell on regrets we have about the past, we feel more depressed, hopeless and lack the motivation and energy to change. When we worry about the future, we feel anxious and overwhelmed. Research indicates that meditation and mindfulness which focus on paying attention to the moment we’re in reduce anxiety, depression and the release of stress hormones.
- Dr. Ronald Siegel: “The mind is like an unruly puppy that wanders aimlessly and we have to learn to tame it” or we’re at its mercy. This is how I truly began to understand mindfulness and how I could teach it. Ron brings these ideas down to earth and his book “The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices to Everyday Problems” is golden. Like the first 2 tips, we learn to intentionally put our attention on what’s occurring in the present moment instead of dwelling on unpleasant thoughts, feelings or experiences from our past or imagined unpleasant thoughts, feelings and sensations about future events. With time and practice, you can do it!
So, you’ve learned some words of wisdom from a few of my teachers. Now, take their words and put them into practice in real life to stress less and live better.
I’m also dedicating this post to my daughter Rachel who’s been my whole social media staff and IT person. I couldn’t do it without you! Love-mom
Here’s a few more life lessons from Zen the cat (https://www.instagram.com/thezenkitty/)
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