Guest Blogger Michael E. Goldberg is a Reiki Master, Life and Health Coach and Author of The Road to Healing, Good Health and Wellness (available at amazon.com, kindle and barnes and noble.com), End of Mood Disorders (available at amazon.com and barnes and noble.com) and The Road to Happiness, available for free at http://www.theroad2happiness.com  His Facebook page is entitled “The Road to Happiness” and additional articles on holistic health and happiness are available for free at Ezine.com.

Post traumatic stress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder caused by serious trauma. Post traumatic stress disorder causes flashbacks and nightmares and ongoing negative thoughts and emotions and a negative inner voice. PTSD often results in an inability to sleep or stay asleep. It negatively affects behavior, relationships and job performance.

Many military personnel who return from war experience PTSD. Its symptoms are often quite severe and continuous. Conventional medical intervention can help stabilize and reduce symptoms. But, conventional treatment alone is not enough to end PTSD.

To end PTSD, integrated holistic therapy is also needed.

The holistic approach seeks to end the emotional grip of the trauma that caused the PTSD and help move the person toward happiness – an ongoing feeling of inner peace, peace of mind and joy. This requires a combination of Reiki and other forms of energy healing (such as acupuncture and integrated energy therapy), mindfulness and positive thinking exercises, meditation and visualization exercises and heart-centered, spiritual prayer.

The holistic approach also relies on diet, exercise and natural supplements to help reduce anxiety and depression, common symptoms of PTSD.

The holistic approach is intended to provide the patient with the tools needed to achieve, maintain and get back to inner peace, peace of mind and joy and get back to that state of being on command.

Most of us were born happy, full of wonder and positive energy. Then life hit. The traumas in life often change our beliefs from positive to negative, from “the world is a wonderful place” to “the world is a scary place.” These traumas cause us to hold onto painful memories and the related negative emotions. These traumas change our beliefs from positive to negative in the unconscious and conscious minds. These traumas create negative energy blockages in us that restrict the free flow of chi energy through us (i.e., the free flow of chi energy, positive life force energy, is required for good mental, physical and emotional health).

Negative energy blockages negatively impact brain chemistry and brain waves. They lead to a negative inner voice and negative thought patterns. We tend to live in our thoughts for protection – and not the moment. Uncontrolled thoughts tend to go negative because the intellect is tied to ego and ego operates from a place of fear –i.e., the world is a scary place and our intellect/thoughts will protect us.

Ego and thoughts are empowered by trauma.  Ego and thoughts tend to cut us off from the soul/higher self (all loving, holy and positive) and the inner child (full of wonder, fun-loving and happy). Ego focuses on self and tells the self that it is in danger and needs protection from ego. The thoughts and emotions generated by ego-oriented thought leads us to feelings of anxiety, anger and hate, being powerless and victims, blame, regret, resentment and guilt. While these emotions may tell us what to avoid, they are poison if we allow them to fester.  

Happiness is achieved and maintained when you feel ongoing peace in your heart and torso, sustain a peaceful mind and feel ongoing joy (high vibrations). To achieve and maintain this ongoing feeling, we need to (i) connect and integrate with our soul/higher self and inner child, (ii) heal our energy bodies and (iii) center ourselves and live in our hearts and senses (not our heads and thoughts) and remain connected through our hearts (or heart chakras) with the free flow of chi energy (life force energy) that is abundantly available to us from the Universe.

Negative energy is toxic. It creates blockages to the free flow of chi energy in our bodies and causes mental, emotional and physical illness. Most negative energy comes from our own negative thoughts, acts and speech of us and others. Negative acts and speech (i.e., acts and speech that generate negative energy) start with negative thoughts.

The negative thoughts come from negative and rigid beliefs in the conscious and unconscious mind. These beliefs come from the negative energy blockages and these blockages often come from traumas. The negative energy blockages cause us to hold the painful past at the cellular level and to anger about the past and worry about the future.

These blockages compel negative thoughts. Negative thoughts then lead to negative acts and speech. All this lowers our vibrations.

Happiness requires us to raise our vibrations and cultivate a peaceful spirit and mind – ongoing peace of mind, inner peace and joy. Happiness requires us to change our conscious and unconscious beliefs from negative to positive (this is done primarily through energy healing and positive affirmations).

For happiness, we must let go of most beliefs (and certainly all rigid and negative beliefs) and open our hearts and minds. We must change our beliefs through energy healing and positive affirmations and by opening our hearts and minds. When our beliefs change from negative to positive, our thoughts and inner voice will change from negative to positive. When our thoughts change from negative to positive our acts and speech will change from negative to positive.

While rigid and negative beliefs lead to negative thoughts, attached and embedded negative energy compel negative beliefs and thoughts. Negativity is held as negative energy within our cells. Negativity (held at the cellular level as low vibration energy) must be flushed out with positive energy (high vibration energy) to achieve and maintain happiness. So long as we consciously or unconsciously hold onto painful memories, this will compel negative beliefs and thoughts.

Positive energy/life force is the antidote to negative energy. Positive energy is high vibration energy. It counters and burns off negative, low vibration energy. It cleans out the negative energy blockages that come from trauma.

Energy healing is needed to end the emotional/energy grip of trauma. When the energy body is healed, the memory will still be there, but the emotional grip of the memory will fade. When your energy body is healed, it becomes a machine that effectively draws in, processes and distributes chi energy/life force energy throughout your body.

Reiki and other forms of energy healing are important. But, you need to play a role in healing your energy body. Your role is through daily meditation in the heart, prayer from the heart, visualization exercises and positive affirmations. With these daily exercises, coupled with Reiki and other forms of energy healing, your energy body will be healed.  

When you are filled with negative energy, you feel low and lack energy. When you are filled with positive energy, you feel happy, healthy and full of vitality. The only way to get rid of the low vibration negative energy is with high vibration positive energy or chi energy. Positive energy will automatically flow through you freely with energy body healing.

Live your life in a way that maximizes positive energy and minimizes negative energy. Build up positive energy (inner power, balance and love) within yourself through daily meditation and prayer exercises and by cultivating love and positive energy through your daily routine. Reduce stress in your life. Be kind, positive and patient. Focus on the positive. Keep focused on the moment and when negative thoughts come in shift out of your head and into your heart and just be in the moment without thoughts.

To be happy requires you to live in the moment with full awareness and engagement. To live in the moment with full awareness and engagement requires you to live in your heart and your senses and not in your thoughts. This requires you to be mindful of your thoughts and  to (a) stop (i) negative thoughts, (ii) thoughts that are in the past or future and (iii) thoughts that take you away from the moment and then (b) get back to the moment.

The path to happiness is self love, high self esteem and high self confidence. As you do the inner work, you will let go and flush out all fear, anger, anxiety, guilt, shame and blame and focus solely on achieving and maintaining an ongoing feeling of peace and joy. Happiness can only be achieved through inner work. Nothing on the outside can bring sustained happiness – not even money, possessions or relationships. They can help lift your spirits, but the feeling will not be sustainable without inner work. Happiness requires you to cultivate inner peace, peace of mind and joy, i.e., to  achieve and maintain a happy, peaceful and serene feeling inside, to feel whole, to feel empowered and to feel loved. This requires Reiki and energy healing and inner work.

To achieve and maintain peace of mind, inner peace and happiness, we need to substantially reduce stress in our lives. Stress and our negative reaction to it generate negative energy for us. To reduce stress in our lives, we must avoid conflict and drama, negative and toxic people and negative and toxic situations and environments. We must accept, forgive, detach and let go.

It is important to work with counselors and coaches to develop strategies to reduce stress factors and then learn specific strategies and techniques to cope with them. Coping skills involve positive thinking techniques, learning how to get back into mental and emotional balance and being able to put events and situations into perspective.

We can’t change the past and the future is unknown. We cannot control or change others. But, we can change our reactions and we can change our own energy through Reiki and other forms of energy healing and inner work.

Reiki and Energy Healing

Reiki is a method of stress reduction and relaxation and for healing that comes from Zen Buddhism in Japan. It is often used with other forms of energy healing such as integrated energy therapy, acupuncture and massage. The practitioner channels chi energy (Divine, life force energy) into the patient to promote healing. The practitioner can provide Reiki healing hands on or long distance. If provided hands on, the recipient can sit up or lie down, fully clothed.

Reiki and integrated energy therapy work on the energy body. Each of us has an energy body that is incorporated into the physical body. Each cell of our body is mostly energy. Reiki works to restore healthy energy in the cells.  A healthy energy body draws, processes and distributes chi energy through the body. If the energy body is blocked or damages by stress, trauma or negativity, chi energy is not properly drawn in, processed and delivered. Illness ensues.

Reiki is used to help get the energy body functioning properly again. The energy body is described as the soul or higher self, the aura, the chakras, the meridians and the nadis. The soul or higher self is Divine and is our source of chi energy (life force energy) from the Divine. The soul connects to the aura and heart chakra. When we are fully connected to our souls and our aura, chakras, meridians and nadis are cleansed and healed, chi energy flows freely into and through us. This keeps us healthy (mentally, emotionally and physically) and moves us to ongoing peace of mind and an ongoing feeling of inner peace and joy.

When healthy, the aura is an intact and vibrant energy field that surrounds our body. The body contains many chakras. These are whirling vortexes that break down chi energy and deliver it to the meridians and nadis. The main charkas are found on the torso, throat, forehead, and crown. The meridians and nadis are energy channels that correspond to the arteries, veins and nerves. These energy channels deliver chi energy to each of the cells and organs (including the brain).

If the flow of chi energy is blocked, this will result in illness. Blockages come from stress, negativity and trauma. They can be seen as negative or dark energy that is embedded in the cells and blocks chi energy (positive energy) from flowing properly.

Blockages from trauma lead to PTSD and brain disorders. The blockages can be seen as emotional blockages that hold the trauma and related negative emotions in the cells. The blockages can be removed through Reiki and other forms of energy healing including integrated energy therapy and acupuncture.

Trauma also causes rips and tears in the aura. Negative and dark energy fill the space and lead to a feeling of incompleteness, a negative inner voice and obsessive and running negative thoughts. Reiki and other forms of energy healing such as integrated energy therapy repair these cracks and fissures.

 

Reiki and other forms of energy therapy along with meditation and visualization exercises will help repair the energy body and this will lead to inner peace, peace of mind, happiness and feeling balanced and good again.    

 

Mindfulness and Positive Thinking Exercises 

Your thoughts have a direct impact on your emotions. Your emotions determine your well being. Your emotions determine whether you are happy or unhappy. Your thoughts determine whether you feel good about yourself, others and the world.

The people you think about become the most important people in your life. The events or things you think about become the most important events and things in your life. So, if these people, events or things make you feel unhappy, angry, hateful, worried or agitated, they are negative. If they make you feel happy, balanced and good, they are positive.

You can control your thoughts. But, first you need energy healing. This is because a damaged energy body and blockages will lead to negative thoughts, obsessive thoughts, a negative inner voice and ruminations. So, the first step is to get energy healing. Next, you will need to do daily, heart-centered meditation and spiritual prayer exercises along with visualizations. These exercises are set forth below.

To stop a negative inner voice and ongoing negative thoughts, you must assert control over your thoughts and your beliefs. You must adopt open and positive beliefs. Open and positive beliefs lead to positive thoughts. Negative and rigid beliefs lead to negative thoughts. Positive affirmations are a great way to change your beliefs from negative to positive. YouTube contains many positive affirmation exercises that you can do. In the beginning, you will need to do them a few times each day, especially in the morning and at night.

Also, take a few minutes each morning and evening to express gratitude for all you have. Focus on life, health, friends and family, food, shelter, clothing, all the body parts that work, etc.

You can change your beliefs and thoughts through application of your conscious will and intent to that task. As you consciously adopt positive and open beliefs and change your thoughts from negative to positive, you will feel more positive, balanced and happy.

Negative thoughts are thoughts that generate anger, fear, hate and jealousy. These emotions felt on an on an ongoing basis and related ongoing thoughts are toxic and lead to depression and anxiety. They also will drain your energy, the energy you need for life and happiness.

Positive thoughts are thoughts that make you feel happy and good inside. They are thoughts that make you feel balanced and peaceful. To change your thoughts and thought patterns, you must be mindful of your thoughts and emotions.

The key is mindfulness. Mindfulness is the process by which you become fully aware of your thoughts and change them from negative to positive. Through mindfulness, you consciously monitor your thoughts and emotions. Then, you consciously apply your will and change them from negative to positive. Through mindfulness, you quickly identify when you have negative emotions – i.e., anger, fear, worry, guilt, resentment, regrets, etc. Then you quickly identify the beliefs and thoughts that are causing these emotions and you change them from negative to positive.

Positive thoughts require open beliefs and an open mind. This requires you to let go of rigid and narrow beliefs and change them to positive and open ones (through positive affirmations). You then use your mind more for observation and tasks and less about judging and analyzing people.

Positive thinking requires you to forgive self and others and to let go of past wrongs and the grip of past traumas and injuries. Look at the painful past as lessons and nothing more. Then let go of it. To let go and detach from the painful past is forgiveness. This is important for positive thinking.

Rigid beliefs lead to negative thoughts. This is because rigid beliefs lead to opinion and judgment-oriented thoughts. These thoughts tend to generate negative energy/emotions and drain your life force energy. They tend to keep you in a state of agitation. This is especially true with respect to rigid opinions and beliefs about self and others.

So, for positive thoughts and positive thought patterns, it is essential to open your mind, let go of negative and rigid beliefs and stop ongoing opinion/judgment thoughts. Become more of an observer and suspend judgment and opinion to the extent possible.

Go with the flow. Avoid clash of wills and conflict. This leads to negative thoughts and negative thought patterns. Accept others for what and who they are and what they believe. Do not try to change them. Your efforts to change others will lead to negative thoughts. The only person you can change is yourself. So, focus your efforts on that task.

The conscious mind is affected by subconscious beliefs. So, for positive thinking and positive thought patterns, it is essential to change your deeply held beliefs from “negative and rigid” to “positive and open/flexible.” Likewise, it is essential for you to adopt positive and kind beliefs about yourself and purge conscious and subconscious memories of the painful past and past injuries. This will quiet the negative and critical inner voice and replace it with a kind and positive inner voice.

In order to change beliefs and open your mind, do the meditation and visualization exercises and positive affirmations described below.

Positive thinking requires you to open your heart and fill yourself with unconditional love. This leads to an ongoing feeling of inner peace and happiness and quiets the negative inner voice. It is difficult to have positive thoughts when you feel bad. So, it is important to cultivate an ongoing feeling of peace and happiness. These wonderful feelings you will experience in your heart and torso. This is done by the meditation and visualization exercises described below and by purging negative energy/emotions you may be holding onto – i.e., anger, fear, anxiety, sadness, resentment, regrets, guilt, etc…

Thoughts that make you feel agitated, angry, afraid, depressed, hateful or jealous are negative thoughts. If you feel agitated, then change your thoughts. Otherwise, stop your thoughts altogether and be in the moment, in your heart and in your senses. When you experience life in the moment, you will stop negative thoughts. When you experience life through your heart and senses and not through your thoughts, you will be more happy, balanced and peaceful.

Positive thoughts are thoughts that are focused on positive and productive activities such as work, errands, the daily routine, studies and enjoyable events. They are focused on details and process and not results. They are focused on positive plans. They are focused on loved ones and how to make loved ones happy.

Negative thoughts are often thoughts that are focused on the painful past, the anxious future or the people who hurt you. These negative thoughts crowd out thoughts about the positive, kind and loving people and pets in your life and happy memories.

Positive thoughts are focused thoughts. Negative thoughts tend to be unfocused thoughts. Negative thoughts tend to come from the side and back of the head. Positive thoughts come from the middle of the forehead. Thoughts become unfocused and then go negative if we do not control them. Unfocused thoughts often lead to a negative inner voice. This negative inner voice is often critical and judgmental toward self and others and it generates a lot of negative energy for us.

Negative thoughts are ego-oriented thoughts. The ego-oriented thoughts that are negative are self -oriented thoughts that make you feel unhappy or bad. These include thoughts in that judge self or others, thoughts that make you feel like a victim, feel self pity, fear, anxiety, anger, hate, etc.

To be a positive thinker, one must elevate heart and soul over ego and intellect in governance of self. Heart centered meditation, spiritual prayer and visualizations will help achieve this. Heart centered meditation, spiritual prayer and visualizations will help subdue ego, negative thoughts, negative thought patterns and a negative inner voice.

To have positive thoughts, positive thought patterns and a positive inner voice, you need to assert control of your thoughts through application of your will. The locus of your will is the middle of your forehead. The middle of your forehead is the place where you focus your thoughts. The middle of your forehead is the place where you control your thoughts. Focus on the positive and still the inner voice.

As mentioned above, what and who you focus on become the focus of your thoughts. Your thoughts then determine your emotional state. But, you have the power to control and focus your thoughts. You just need the tools to make it happen.

Here are some tools:

Heart-Melt Exercise

Negative thoughts, negative thought patters and a negative inner voice come from past traumas that we hold onto at the cellular level. Traumas often cause a hard energetic shell to form around the heart (or heart chakra). This is done to protect us from ongoing emotional injury in a “cruel world.” This then empowers our ego to govern self, leading to negativity. For positive thinking, we must melt the hard energetic shell around the heart. In meditation, close your eyes and visualize a hard gray shell around your heart. Visualize a white light orb above or in front of you. Visualize that this white light orb shoots out laser beams of pure white light that blast the hard gray shell around your heart. Visualize the hard gray shell melt and your heart become pink, open, soft and vital.

Now do some white light meditation. Sit comfortably or lie down. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Get relaxed. Shift from your head to your heart. Visualize a bright white sun where your heart is and later visualize this bright white sun in front of you. Visualize that this bright white sun radiates bright white light in your entire body and head. Visualize that the white light fills up your entire body and head and creates an intact white aura all around you.

Clasp your hands together and visualize this white light goes out three to six inches to a foot from you. Now hold the visualized white light there with the intention of raising your vibrations. Visualized white light cleanses and heals the energy body and raises your vibrations. Take a few seconds each day to visualize that you are filled up with white light and that an intact shell of white light surrounds you. This will help protect you from negative energy.

Over time, these exercises will work to connect you with soul and spirit. This will enable you to cultivate an ongoing feeling of love/peace, happiness and joy. This state of being will automatically cause your ego to be subordinated to your soul in governance of self. The result will be more positive thoughts. You will then substitute inner power, high self confidence and high self esteem for ego. White light meditation

White, green and blue light meditation

Sit comfortably close your eyes and focus on your breath. Get relaxed. Visualize a bright white, green and then light blue sun where your heart is. Visualize that this inner sun radiates bright white, green and then light blue light in your entire body and head. Visualize that these colors – white, green and light blue- fill up your entire body and head and create an intact color aura around you. White is for inner peace, happiness and joy along with healing. Green is for healing depression. Light blue is for healing anxiety. If you have trouble visualizing the colors white, green and light blue, then look at the colors and then close your eyes and imagine them. Look at the clouds for white, the grass and trees for green and the sky and water for light blue and then visualize them with your eyes closed.

Deep breathing exercises

Sit comfortably or lie down. Close your eyes and shift from your head into your heart. Get relaxed. Breathe deeply through your nose into your heart. Hold your breath there for five seconds then breathe out through your mouth. Focus only on your breaths as any thoughts that come in drift away. Visualize that you are breathing in bright white light as pure unconditional love on the in breaths and exhaling all negativity as black smoke on the out breaths. Let go of all negativity. Fill yourself with visualized white light and inner peace. Focus only on your breath Focus on your deep breaths anytime you get anxious or angry. The mind can only focus on one thing at a time. So, as you focus on your breath, the negative thoughts will drift away. Smile.

Chakra cleansing, healing, balancing and alignment

Close your eyes and sit comfortably or lie down. Focus on each of the major seven chakra points, one at the time and visualize that you bathe them in white light. Then visualize each of the chakra colors one at a time with your eyes closed. YouTube has good chakra cleansing, healing, balancing and alignment meditation videos. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Get relaxed. Hold your hands open in a position of receiving from the Universe. Visualize a violet flame in front of you, like a campfire flame. Invite that flame into your body and feel it fill your body up from your belly to your throat. Feel it raise your vibrations as it burns off low vibration negative energy in you. Put citrine (high vibration crystal) over your heart or hold citrine in your left hand when you do this exercise. Citrine will help raise your vibrations. This will help burn off subconscious memories. So, you do not even have to bring these memories to the surface to get rid of their negative effect on you. YouTube has good meditation videos on chakra cleansing, healing, balancing and alignment and the violet flame.

Higher self and inner child meditation/visualizations

In meditation, visualize a pure white angel that looks just like you (but is happy, peaceful and full of love and white light). See an energy cord connect you to that angel from your heart. Visualize that angel (your higher self) now merge with you. Visualize you as a child playing and having fun. Now visualize that you hug that child and tell him or her that he or she is safe and to just have fun. Take a pillow and visualize that pillow is you as a child and hug it. Tell the inner child you love him or her. Now, become the loving inner parent to our inner child. Indulge your inner child everyday by allowing yourself to have fun and do things that make you happy. Smile.

Meditation/visualizations to get rid of negativity

Here is an exercise to get rid of stored anger, fear, anxiety and painful and negative memories: visualize the image of the painful event from the past or the image that worries you about the future. Close your eyes and visualize this image in a glass ball that hovers a few feet in front of you. Put your hands on this visualized ball and push it with force deep into the ground. Hear and feel the energy cords that attach you to the image snap and fall away. Do this over and over until the image no longer has an energetic grip on you and all related anger and fear melt away. As you push the ball deep into the ground say the following to yourself: “Into the ground, into the core go away, melt away, gone.” In deep meditation, visualize positive scenes that make you feel happy. Focus on scenes from nature and celebrations. Smile.

Cut energy cords

The ego spins out energy attachments to people, things, substances and beliefs to fill the void inside us. These energy attachments lead to unbalanced thoughts, obsessions, ruminations, lusts and addictions. As we heal the void inside us (through energy body cleansing and healing), and as we build up the white light within, we will not spin out these energy cords very much. In order to substantially reduce ruminations, obsessions, lusts and addictions and establish balance, it is important to cut energy cords – especially energy cords with negative and toxic people and painful memories. Likewise, it is important to let go of anger and hate and fear. Detaching from and letting go of emotional pain is important for healing.

So, to cut energy cords, do the following: Sit down and close your eyes. Visualize the energy cords that attach you to people, things, substances, ideas and beliefs that cause unbalanced or obsessive thoughts. Visualize them as energy cords connected to your heart and torso. With your weak hand visualize that you grab the cords. Then with your strong hand visualize that you cut them and sever them from you with a visualized knife or scissors. Visualize that they fall away.

Alpha, Beta, Delta and Theta Brain Wave Entrainment

Alpha, beta, delta and theta brain wave exercises can be found on YouTube. They provide sound therapy that will help bring brain waves and brain chemistry back to normal. This will help when it comes to positive thinking, inner peace, peace of mind and joy.

Distract and Substitute

When negative thoughts or images come into your mind, identify it, distract and substitute. Monitor your mind for such thoughts and images. Your mind can only focus on one thing at a time. When it comes to negative thoughts, work with Substitution and Distraction. Substitution – Substitute positive thoughts and images for negative ones. Switch to thoughts about, or images of, positive, happy and loving people, pets and scenes that make you feel happy and good inside.

Distraction – Distract yourself by bringing your mind back to the moment – i.e., substantive aspects of work, process and details of things we encounter in the moment. Focus on the moment with full attention and awareness. Do not analyze or judge. Do not focus on results. Do not focus on the past or future. Do not focus on the negative image. Distract and substitute and return to the moment with full awareness and engagement. Shift out of your head and thoughts and back  into your heart and senses.

Observe and focus on details, process and substance. When in the moment, do not let thoughts take you somewhere else, whether it is the past, the future or another place. Each time they do, re-focus on what we are doing and where you are in the moment. Do not let thoughts rob you of the precious moments of life.

When negative thoughts come in, do the following: smile, close your eyes and do some deep breathing exercises. Breathe deeply into your heart or abdomen and focus only on your breath only. Alternatively, stop thinking altogether and just be focused on what you encounter in the moment… Put your hand over your heart and shift your energy there. Now, just be in the moment. Fully experience the moment in your body center and your senses and not in your thoughts. Become an observer. Suspend judgment or analysis of what you encounter in the moment. Just encounter it.

Distract the negative thoughts with music, prayer and mantras. Focus on lyrics, prayers and words. By focusing on music prayer and mantras, your mind will not be able to focus on the negative thoughts. Focus on others who you encounter with some positive words and conversation, some kind words and acts.

Center, ground and focus

Sit comfortably. Focus on an object or symbol with your eyes open. Now, close your eyes and visualize that symbol in the middle of the inner screen in your forehead. Whenever a thought comes into your head, re-focus more intensely on the object or symbol. Negative thoughts and a negative inner voice come from the back and sides of the head. This exercise helps you develop focus.

Focus comes from the middle of your forehead. The middle of your forehead is the seat of your will and intent. Positive thoughts are focused thoughts. They are thoughts related to the details of positive things such as errands, work, studies and process. Through centering, grounding and focus, you can stop the negative inner voice and negative thoughts, worried and angry thoughts and critical and judgmental thoughts about self and others. Through centering, grounding and focus, you can stop obsessive thoughts and ruminations. Distract and substitute or go to no thoughts. To do this, we must build up our abilities to be mindful and our will intent. We can then apply our will and intent to control our thoughts and to shift from negative to positive.

For grounding, sit comfortably with your eyes closed and your feet firmly planted on the ground. Take off your shoes. Visualize that roots or laser beams shoot out from your feet and into the earth, going all the way to the center of the earth. Visualize that they anchor you firmly to the earth.

Now, with your eyes closed, focus your attention on the middle of your forehead and sit straight. Posture is important. Negative thoughts and a negative inner voice come in when we are un-focused and slouching. So, when you walk or sit hold yourself erect and center yourself in the middle of your forehead and in your heart or body center.

Visualize a big white sun where your heart is located. Close your eyes and put your hand over your heart and shift your consciousness and energy to that spot. Alternatively, visualize an orb of white light above your head and below your feet and visualize that a beam of white light shoots out from the orbs and the light beams meet at the center of your body. With respect to centering in the middle of your forehead, put your fingers on your forehead and shift your energy and consciousness there. Center and focus. To fortify your ability to center and focus, do directed or seed mediation set forth above.

Negative thoughts and a negative inner voice come from the sides and back of the head. Therefore, centering your energy and consciousness in the middle of your forehead is important to still the negative thoughts and negative inner voice. Be mindful of negative thoughts and a negative inner voice. When they come, switch to positive thoughts and images, positive affirmations, deep breathing exercises, centering yourself and staying focused in the moment. Live in the moment and your senses and not in your thoughts. Thoughts tend to always go negative when we live in them. Stop angry thoughts about the painful past or worried thoughts about the future especially. Just Be.

Higher Self and Inner Child Meditation/Visualizations

Higher self and inner child visualization and meditation exercises will help build up your inner power, self confidence, self esteem and happiness. This is important to do to achieve a positive inner voice.

To do this, you must connect and integrate with your higher self (i.e., your soul) and inner child. Your higher self/soul is all loving, happy, holy and peaceful. Your inner child is full of happiness, wonder, energy and fun. When we are fully connected to, and integrated with, our higher self and inner child, we feel happy, peaceful, complete and confident. We have high self esteem, a lot of energy and we enjoy life.

In meditation, visualize a pure white angel that looks just like you (but is happy, peaceful and full of love and white light). See an energy cord connect you to that angel from your heart. Visualize that angel (your higher self) now merge with you. Visualize you as a child playing and having fun. See an energy cord connect you to that child from your heart. Visualize that child (your inner child) now merge with you. Visualize that you hug that child and tell him or her that he or she is safe and to just have fun. Take a pillow and visualize that pillow is you as a child and hug it. Tell the inner child you love him or her. Now, become the loving inner parent to our inner child. Indulge your inner child everyday by allowing yourself to have fun and do things that make you happy.

Spiritual Prayer

Pray from your heart daily with your eyes closed. Pray with complete focus on the substance of your prayers. Thank and praise the Divine, ask for forgiveness from the Divine and offer all negativity to the Divine. Ask the Divine to take all negativity from you. Visualize that the negativity is lifted from you, making you feel lighter. Forgive yourself and ask the Divine for healing, protection and blessings and know you are forgiven and will be blessed. This will generate positive energy for your health and happiness.

Additional Matters

Stay heart centered and in the moment as much as possible

Live in your heart and senses and not in your thoughts

Believe that life is a precious gift and meant to be enjoyed and that your birthright is to feel happy and peaceful inside

Begin to see life as a series of precious moments and then enjoy and fully experience each moment –make the moments positive and happy ones

Control your thoughts-use them for positive matters (positive plans and details of work, errands, day-to-day life and hobbies, etc.)

Get into nature often – breathe deeply when in nature (large bodies of water and running water help relieve anxiety and trees and woods help relieve depression). Get moderate sunlight often

Focus most of your positive attention on the precious loved ones and pets in your life

Focus on positive activities that bring you inner peace and joy

Do something fun, positive and enjoyable each day including nice walks, bicycle, exercise, yoga

Maximize the positive and minimize the negative in your daily routine

Smile and laugh – watch comedies 

Make your home peaceful, harmonious and orderly

Turn off the news and turn on melodic, joyful and harmonious music

Avoid conflict and drama and negative and toxic people and environments

Eat a high nutrient diet (primarily fresh vegetables, fruit, nuts, berries and seeds). Avoid processed foods, refined sugar and starches as much as possible. Exercise daily – cardio and light weights. Stretch and adopt good posture to enhance the flow of chi energy in your body

Holistic research indicates the benefits of the following natural supplements for anxiety and sleep disorders: B complex vitamin, valerian root, holy basil, kava kava, dark chocolate, melatonin, chamomile, passion flower, Gamma-aminobutyric Acid (GABA) and tryptophan (consult your physician)

Holistic research indicates the benefits of the following natural supplements for depression:  vitamins C, D3 and B complex, 5 htp, SAMe, Magnesium, St.John’s Wort, Colloidal Gold and Silver and Omega 3 Fatty Acids (flaxseed and fish oil supplements) (consult your physician) 

Crystals help with anxiety and depression because they interact positively with the energy body to calm and balance it and raise its vibrations; Carry crystals in your left pocket, hold them in your left hand when meditating and put them over your heart when you meditate lying down – angel light or light blue crystals are good for inner peace, green crystals such as green aventurine and jade are good for healing, rose quartz is good for healing the heart chakra and citrine, orgone and clear quartz will help raise your vibrations. Crystals interact positively with the energy body.  Gold will also help raise your vibrations and balance your energy. You can also hold gold in your left hand when meditating and put it over your heart when you meditate yying down.

Take salt baths with lavender essential oil to calm your energy and extract negative energy

Take showers to extract negative energy (visualize that the water from the shower that streams on your body washes away all negative energy

Smell essential oils that calm, raise and balance your energy; these essential oils include lavender, rose, floral, orange and citrus, bergamot, cypress, geranium, jasmine,  melissa, neroli, sandalwood, vanilla and ylang-ylang

Burn white sage in your to clear away negative energy

Eliminate caffeine  

Stop smoking

Focus on the following goal in your daily routine: to achieve and maintain an ongoing feeling in your heart and torso of inner peace and joy and peace of mind. Do not focus on negativity, loss, illness, worries about the future or what is lacking. Focus on feeling good. Avoid people, situations, environments and anything else that agitates you.