stress busting – One Minute Retreats

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Overcome with Laughter

May 12, 2010 – 7:00 am

How often do you laugh in each day? As you are beginning to see a few wrinkles appearing on your face, are they laugh lines or scowl creases?

Laughter is good for us, according to several medical studies. Laughter has been demonstrated to reduce pain, relieve stress, restores hope, lowers blood pressure and is easily transmitted to others. Have you ever seen an argument come to an immediate halt when someone starts laughing or says something funny?

Our world is a difficult place to be living for many people. We are dealing with an economy that is struggling to turn around, with wars and rising violence, and with prices rising much faster than our raises in income. We can sit and feel sorry for ourselves and worry or we can learn to find humor in life and face the world with hope.

The next time you begin to feel overwhelmed or stressed out or frightened or in pain, find something to laugh about. Whether it is the antics of a child or a pet, a silly movie or television program, or even something totally inane, learn to laugh. Laughing helps us gather ourselves to cope with the bad times and heighten the joy of the good times.

If you can’t find anything else to laugh about, try laughing at yourself. Try to see yourself as others might see you over the course of the day. I can almost guarantee you will find a source of laughter.

“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs, jolted by every pebble in the road.”
– Henry Ward Beecher

Check out our upcoming Dream Big Live Big Event where you can really start putting your dreams into action www.dreambiglivebigevent.com

By Doctor Cynthia | Posted in 1-Minute Retreats | Also tagged dreams, laugh lines, laughter is good | Comments (0)

Try Your Hand at Creativity

July 10, 2009 – 10:48 am

Creative Hands

‘Conditions for creativity are to be puzzled, to concentrate, to accept conflict and tension, to be born every day, to feel a sense of self,’ says the social psychologist Erich Fromm.

‘To be born every day’ means to be constantly amazed by the things life has to offer, to not tire of watching the sunset, the moon peeking from the fleeting clouds, the crowd of stars on a clear cool night, the sunlight on the breakfast table.

Even the unpleasant twists and turns, the bad news and disappointments can become stimuli for better things, the way art also portrays the dark areas of the human psyche. Indeed, creativity’s best tool is its transformative quality.

True, life is uncertain. We can’t expect everything to run smoothly according to our wishes and aspirations. No matter how well we plan our course, sometimes things don’t turn out the way we want them. Problems do arise, and we can’t stop them from coming. But creativity – the mother of resilience – helps us get by. It’s what allows us to turn lemons into, well, a lemon meringue pie.

We don’t need to search for creativity. It’s not something we can only learn after a trip to Tibet or an apprenticeship with an acclaimed author. Human beings are born with creative qualities which just need to be nurtured.

So how do you develop your creativity? Meditation, first of all, can help you discover your creative potential. You don’t need to sign up at any center that might give you a whole new vocabulary of philosophical and mystical ideas. The purpose of meditation is to keep things simple so you’ll see what’s important, to see through the blur and marvel at the fine picture hidden by your worries and excesses.

As the actor Alan Alda puts it, ‘The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.’ Fromm calls it discovering a “sense of self.”

You can find several venues for your creativity. You can try writing, painting, drawing, sculpting, graphic design, and the like. It doesn’t have to be art-related. You can also use your creativity in improving your finances through entrepreneurial pursuits or technological creations. It may not even be that ambitious. Homemaking, gardening, cooking, parenting or engaging in a hobby all require creativity, too.

ll you need are some time to relax and to put things in order, some privacy to think things over, and the optimism and patience to carry on. You have to know, too, that you can’t reach your potential in a snap. But you have to pursue your creativity. Being creative means finding your true worth.

A Note From Doctor Cynthia

Hope you have been enjoying these one minute retreats.

If you feeling stressed out, overwhelmed and out of steam running through life at breakneck speed, unable to even take a breath? Consider my upcoming three day retreat to rediscover, rejuvenate, recharge Your Life

This retreat is the perfect opportunity to remove yourself from the stresses of life, to renew energy and gain clarity about the things you really want.
During the course of this one day retreat, you will learn how to:

Relax

Put yourself first

Do what matters most to you

Make self-care your top priority

By Doctor Cynthia | Posted in 1-Minute Retreats | Also tagged 1-Minute Retreats, get creative, meditation, relaxation | Comments (0)

The Morning Shower Meditation

July 3, 2009 – 12:11 pm

relaxing-shower1 For every new day, nutritionists and exercise gurus can suggest several things for your health: eating a hearty, balanced breakfast and doing stretches, cardio exercises and strengthening routines. But what about your soul?

Early morning must be a treat not only to the person’s ‘corpus’ but also to his ‘anima’ (call it inner self or soul). The Chinese usually go to the park or in their gardens to do tai-chi, which relaxes both body and mind. But you can do something simpler than that right inside your own home.

While it’s fine to meditate during your leisure time, it’s even better to start your day meditating. Having a fresh mind for another day of work and keeping yourself attuned to life’s essentials will keep the negativity at bay. Thus, you are better able to handle stress after several hours at work or school.

You may meditate right before, during, or after you take your shower. Nature and mankind are generally still, restful and peaceful at daybreak. Your mind is freshest at this moment, like a new canvas or a blank piece of paper waiting for the day’s masterpiece.

Before your daily grind begins, think clearly about the things that matter and immunize your thoughts and feelings from the excesses of your desires. Take a warm shower. Let the soothing heat and calming flow of water ease your mind. Let your worries come later; for a couple of minutes, free yourself from them.

Hindus call the hour before sunrise ‘Brahma muhurta’ (hour of ‘god’). Even devout Muslims, Christians and followers of other religions find morning prayers indispensable to their faith. Whatever your beliefs, the important thing is that you give yourself enough time to think positively about life before you step into life’s realities.

Morning shower meditation may sound odd if you consider what meditation usually requires: peace, concentration and calming environment to help you go smoothly through the process. How could you ever meditate when you are ‘disturbed’ by the water?

The proponents of this type of meditation believe that all of the worries, tensions, problems and any sort of bad thoughts retained in the mind can be washed away figuratively and even mystically by the flowing water. Such a notion somehow creates a great relevance of the natural healing and calming effects of water. Indeed, water’s characteristic as a ‘universal solvent’ extends beyond the laws of physics.

A Note From Doctor Cynthia

Hope you have been enjoying these one minute retreats.

Relax

Put yourself first

Do what matters most to you

Make self-care your top priority

By Doctor Cynthia | Posted in 1-Minute Retreats | Also tagged bath rituals, meditation, one-minute retreat, relaxation | Comments (1)

Find Wonder in Little Things

June 26, 2009 – 5:24 pm

wonder-in-small-things1 ‘Everything is extraordinarily clear. I see the whole landscape before me, I see my hands, my feet, my toes, and I smell the rich river mud. I feel a sense of tremendous strangeness and wonder at being alive.’ – Gautama Buddha

If ordinarily mortals like us saw life the way the Enlightened One did, there’d be no cause for suffering — for the negativity that consumes most of our passions. Perhaps heaven is not a place after all but a way of seeing things.

No matter how abundant their lives seem, some people tend to crave more or better things. Like a painting collector who’s always looking for the next Picasso or Rembrandt on auction, like a tycoon who can’t have enough business acquisitions.

It’s not unusual for humans to desire things, but becoming a slave to one’s desire is another thing. For some people satisfying a desire means replacing it with a higher one. They keep raising the ante and ultimately get frustrated.

It pays to keep things simple. We tend to dislike life because of unrealized goals, but we forget to be grateful for the little things that bring us happiness. The little conversations we have with our kids, the way your dog looks at you and wiggles its tail, or how your cat purrs and rubs against your legs. These little things can be uplifting.

You may be surrounded by beauty, but just keep looking past it. So the next time, look at the moonlight on your window pane, the gauzy curtain blown in by the breeze from an open window, the sun shining on a neighborhood covered by last night’s snow, someone gracefully walking, taking her time in a busy throng.

Sit back and enjoy the little things around you. You can appreciate your loved ones better that way. The way your life partner touches your shoulder after he or she gives you a mug of coffee should be the source of a little pleasure. The way he or she smiles when you say your goodbye, heading for work. Little things like these should all add up at the end of the day, so you’ll have something to feel grateful about and so you’ll welcome the next day more enthusiastically.

At one point in your busy day, you should spend one minute to think about the pleasant, little things that have happened. Life often gives its gift of pleasure to us in little installments. All you have to do is count them, think how they’ll positively affect your life in the long run, and they will.

A Note From Doctor Cynthia

Hope you have been enjoying these one minute retreats.

This retreat is the perfect opportunity to remove yourself from the stresses of life, to renew energy and gain clarity about the things you really want.

During the course of this one day retreat, you will learn how to:

Relax

Put yourself first

Do what matters most to you

Make self-care your top priority

By Doctor Cynthia | Posted in 1-Minute Retreats | Also tagged 1-Minute Retreats, meditation, relaxation, take time out | Comments (0)

Restorative Bath Rituals

May 29, 2009 – 11:10 am

bath-ritual Long time ago, the water is considered a perfect source of life-giving energy. Travelers kneel down before the creek or any stream they would come across and help themselves with the cool and healing wonders of the water. And many young people bathe on the flowing water because of the thought that it has a great connection to the Divine.

Such belief observed by many cultures from different parts of the world continues to live on. That is why, most of the ‘health-and-beauty’ establishments like salons, and spas are promoting the same theme to all types of weary people. Add to that, the majority of us are deeply engaged with these bathing rituals to give ourselves the best time to exude the beauties we are hiding within.

That’s actually what we know: that bathing rituals are only good for bringing out the beauty of each person, but there is more than that. And that is to feel back the weary spirit and energy once lost in the course of acting on each of our responsibilities.

So what are these bathing rituals that are believes to restore lost energies and vigor?

Unlike your customary way of bathing under the shower or soaking yourself in bubble bath, you can make it healthier and more relaxing if you infuse the soothing wonders of the aromatic oils, and the detoxifying effects of salt.

These oils, which are usually extracted from different plants, are proven best cures for ailments. Once inhaled, these stimulate the olfactory nerves that reset the emotions such as anger and anxiety. And apart from that, these are also great pain relievers when absorbed by the body.

The use of the flower petals too has the great effects when added to your bath. Cleopatra, the famous Egyptian queen, had her bathing made more rejuvenating with the help of the rose petals. This is due to the aphrodisiac qualities of the fragrance brought about by this universally known flower. But aside from arousing your sexual energy, the rose scent is also known for uplifting your spirit, and also giving you firmer, younger-looking skin.

Aside from rose, there are even more therapeutic aromas that you could incorporate in your baths. These are lavender, hibiscus, cadres, citrus, tangerine, orange, mint and pines. Each of these has a distinct effect in cleansing, purifying, warming, and invigorating your body.

Peppermint and spearmint, on the other hand, have cooling and revitalizing benefits that make it the popular choice among some Olympic athletes before they engage in their different events.

The aromas given out by these different herbs and flowers play an essential part in making your bath a restorative ritual. This is because our sense of smell is powerful enough in treating the ill thoughts that our mind harbors.

But you can also associate the colors, such as the ‘Japanese five elements,’ which deal on the choice of colors of the auspicious flowers. These colors are white for air, blue or violet for water, red for fire, yellow for earth, and deep reds for the energy of the woods.

Whatever your bathing ritual includes, what matters is that you should feel it’s the best way to indulge your senses and that you believe it works wonders.

A Note From Doctor Cynthia

Hope you have been enjoying these one minute retreats. Please consider taking a 15-30 minute self-guided Gratitude Retreat. The Retreat to Go Moments of Gratitude is filled with everything you’ll need to successfully complete your self-guided retreats. It includes:

- Gratitude Journal. Consisting of lined, dated pages where you list five things you are grateful for each day plus a collection of
- Inspirational quotes to inspire you throughout the year along with “Powerful Intentional” gratitude practices
- Step-by-step user-friendly instructions. The kit includes everything you need to start planning an hour, half-day, or full day retreat, on your own Candle Pen http://www.freestyleretreats.com/retreat-to-go.html

By Doctor Cynthia | Posted in 1-Minute Retreats | Also tagged 1-Minute Retreats, bath rituals, essential oils, invigorating, relaxation | Comments (1)

Take a Stroll

May 15, 2009 – 8:30 am

Take a Stroll

Boredom is a state of mind that sets in when you’ve forgotten simple pleasures or when you allow a sense of emptiness to dwell in your heart. It’s not something you can just ignore, considering how it can affect a person’s work, relationships and perception of life in general.

It seems ironic but you can learn a simple ‘cure’ to it by observing a child, who looks at ordinary things in amazement, laughs at funny gestures and enjoys ordinary treats. Perhaps it’s time to rediscover the child in you.

We often disregard the little things that can paint smiles on our faces and leave remarkable impressions in our lives: the flowers in bloom along your way, the hot, good-smelling cup of coffee on your table, the affectionate smiles of loved ones. These are life’s simple treats, but they add up to a bigger, happier picture.

The earth is blessed with riches. You don’t need to locate the remotest goldmines or buy a mansion on a hill amid a breathtaking landscape to know how to appreciate your stay. Simply take a stroll and be mindful of the beautiful things you see around you. And when you do, in a minute or two, you’ll feel you’ve come back to life.

There are plenty of wonderful things beyond your walls. Take a stroll through those long lanes flanked by colorful flowerbeds. At the park you can observe children playing, families enjoying their time together, young and old couples taking time with each other.

Observe the grass, the sky, sunlight on the pavement, sunlight on someone’s lovely face, the breeze blowing strands of hair away from a girl’s forehead, someone whistling a tune, the flight of pigeons, leaves of trees filtering the sun’s rays, the smell of bread from a bakery, glass windows and waterways glistening in the noonday sun.

Let your feet take you to scenic locations in your area or just in ordinary places. But this time, observe everything in childlike wonder. With your senses you’ll fill the emptiness in you. You’ll feel a lot better, readier for life.

A Note From Doctor Cynthia

- Gratitude Journal. Consisting of lined, dated pages where you list five things you are grateful for each day plus a collection of
- Inspirational quotes to inspire you throughout the year along with “Powerful Intentional” gratitude practices
- Step-by-step user-friendly instructions. The kit includes everything you need to start planning an hour, half-day, or full day retreat, on your own Candle Pen http://www.freestyleretreats.com/retreat-to-go.html

By Doctor Cynthia | Posted in 1-Minute Retreats | Also tagged 1-Minute Retreats, boredom, one-minute retreat, serenity, walk in the park | Comments (0)

Find Serenity in Nature

May 7, 2009 – 3:00 pm

Finding Serenity

City Life can be tormenting in so many ways. It could be the loud music from your the next-door neighbor or the general din of the busy streets. It could be the motorists that cut you in traffic or people who shove you in the subway station at rush hour.

The blurry pace of urban life and work-related anxiety can strain relationships, affecting your marriage, family life, circle of friends. Stress seems magnified in your jungle of glass, steel and concrete, and there’s hardly any time for letting your soul breathe.

We want to live our lives differently, reside in the suburbs perhaps, with white picket fences, oak trees and all, but we seem too engaged in the trappings of city life and, there are financial realities to consider. But as Pandora’s opened box introduced the worse things in life, what remained inside it is the ‘unique and undying hope.’

We all hope for serenity but it’s not something we get over the counter or at a hotel lobby or on the rooftop of a skyscraper. Yoga and other meditation techniques can only do so much, and not a lot of people want to find serenity with eyes closed and limbs stretched, mumbling a mantra.

Nature remains the best source of serenity. The sight, smell and sound of the natural environment can revitalize both body and soul and make you see things clearly. That was perhaps why Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane or why Thoreau sought wisdom in Walden Pond.

You can plan a trip outdoors. It doesn’t have to be far. The calming sight of Tahiti’s turquoise water and white-sand beaches won’t be as serene as you want it to be if you find yourself hobnobbing with other tourists. You can go to the nearest place in your state or province that has a magnificent natural view.

Nature offers a lot of breathtaking sights: a waterfall deep in the forest, a quiet creek, a misty mountain, rock formations in the desert, waves on a rocky shore, a veil of fine rain falling on grassland, autumn leaves in a lonely grove, a snowcapped peak, a frozen lake, an eagle flying in a clear sky.

It can even be nearer. All cities have parks – pockets of nature in an unnatural jungle – and some of them are not filled with too many people. They can be worth discovering. A bench in a quiet spot deep in the park can be a good place to hear the birds or see some squirrels or just feel the sunlight and the breeze on your face. Your one minute matters if you make it a daily habit.

By Doctor Cynthia | Posted in 1-Minute Retreats | Also tagged one-minute retreat, relaxation, serenity | Comments (0)

A Quiet Mind in a Busy World

April 30, 2009 – 6:39 am

quiet-mind Our mind can hold a lot of different thoughts in a day. In fact, these ‘noisy thoughts’ are what keep us busy day in and day out. We are driven by our thoughts and often they seem too big, too heavy for comfort.

Whatever we have today, pleasant or not, is the end result of previous actions triggered by the thoughts we entertain in our mind. Often, our thoughts even color certain circumstances. A bad fix gets even worse if we think quite negatively about it. So when we think of our lives being messy, if we focus on that, it’ll probably get messier.

It’s all in the mind, they say. But it’s not just a test of your outlook on life: of the bottle being half empty or half full. Whether you like it or not, your thoughts, including your insecurities and fears, attract more of the same, until they rule your life.

And let’s face it: we can’t keep happy thoughts for long. It’s a rare gift to be able keep thinking pleasant thoughts for long in this harried world, with mass media bombarding us with unpleasant images and texts. Indeed, if we were gifted enough to exclusively think happy thoughts despite the negativity, we’d all be flying to Never Land, wouldn’t we?

Thus, in this day and age, quietude has become a personal treasure we should nurture. Quiet thoughts – neither happy nor sad – in this noisy world may seem like a ripple-less area in the middle of a choppy sea, but they’re not impossible to achieve.

Let’s do this: lie comfortably in a quiet place for one minute. Let’s not think about work or family; about what we have or have not; about what should have, could have and would have; not even about the best days of our lives because they’ll just make us feel sad that they’re difficult to have again.

If nature provides the best cures for physical ailments, it works even better at clearing up our cluttered thoughts. Think of a rainbow trout in a clear stream, a golden field of barley combed by the breeze, a butterfly on a dewy bloom, the Sun mellowed by light clouds, white sand and turquoise shallows in the tropics.

Let your mind find a good retreat from the busy world. Nature offers countless quiet images to unburden the mind. They’re beautiful, unobtrusive, and demand nothing from us, except that we let them be.

The closest thing to any thought about nature that works just as well, is perhaps the image of a calm face in a busy crowd. Let that be your face, even just for a minute.

By Doctor Cynthia | Posted in 1-Minute Retreats | Also tagged meditation, one-minute retreat, quiet mind, take time out | Comments (1)

1 Minute Stress Buster

April 6, 2009 – 4:56 am

One Minute Retreat

Did you know, stress causes you to age faster?

You may not know it but it even adds up to that tummy bulge we often call “middle aged spread.” Blame it on leptin, the protein that’s depleted when you’re always beating deadlines and chasing after the subway train every day but, it’s the same protein that knocks off your appetite control, causing you to eat when you really didin’t want to or don’t need to.

Stress can lead to so many conditions and illnesses which is the reason it’s important to fight it off, and it doesn’t necessarily have to with long sessions in the gym or a two week vacation, though these things really do help! The problem is though, when you’re stressed, trying to add an exercise routine of 3 times per week or taking a vacation can actually induce more stress particularly when you’re struggling to find the time to fit these things in.

What I have discovered however is that taking short and consistent “time-out” sessions add up and really are great ways to refire your energy, clear your mind and prepare you for the task, or day ahead.

Just taking a short break to have a cup of cappuccino or treating yourself to a bouquet of white roses from the nearby flower shop can be enough to put your mind at ease and create a positive distraction from your current activities to enjoy some “me-time” or give you enough time to stop blowing off steam.

There are a number of little activities you can embark on when it comes to busting stress and, these are the things that you can do whether you’re sat on your sofa or at your hard mahogany office table. You’d be amazed at how relaxing it is just tapping your fingers on your desk while looking away at the office window and watching the world go by.

Maybe there are activities going on outside your office window that you’ve been too busy to notice before like, the new business complex they’re building across the highway and suddenly, it becomes interesting watching the heavy machinery transport large volumes of dirt from one side of the complex to the other or, watching with fascination, how they lower that steel girder that will support part of the new building.

This may sound a little too simple but taken into a psychological context, stress is caused by doing much more than what one can normally handle, whether emotionally, psychologically, or physically. Breaking away from the situation that is causing the stress is the best way to avoid getting more stressed.

So, if you’re reading this from your office, take look out the window and in less than a minute you will find something that diverts your attention. It could be a funny-looking outfit worn by an office executive or a poodle who tiptoes beside his owner wearing a polka-dot dress.

If you have the chance, what would be even more beneficial would be for you to open your office window, and feel the fresh breeze on your face. This has superb cooling effect, especially if you just came out from a boiler-room meeting!

Try doing this as you tap your fingers on your desk. It could be a good way of rechanneling your energy, positive or otherwise into an inanimate object. You’ll find yourself drowned out by the tapping sound, making your mind wander to far-flung places and happy thoughts.

So whatever it may be that bothers you, tap your fingers, look out the window, and enjoy it!

Dr Cynthia

By Doctor Cynthia | Posted in General | Also tagged ageing, meditation, stress | Comments (2)

Tag Archives: stress busting

Overcome with Laughter

Try Your Hand at Creativity

The Morning Shower Meditation

Find Wonder in Little Things

Restorative Bath Rituals

Take a Stroll

Find Serenity in Nature

A Quiet Mind in a Busy World

1 Minute Stress Buster

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