Mental Rehearsal

Mental Rehearsal and Changing Your DNA

As a cognitive behavioral psychologist - mental and behavioral rehearsal was a staple of good therapy. I was always fascinated by the studies demonstrating how mental rehearsal works and I read many studies by psychologists, research scientists, Olympic trainers and athletes demonstrating how and why mental rehearsal works in our body-mind.

What is Mental Rehearsal?

Mental rehearsal is the process of imprinting images of your goals and expectations in your mind and DNA. You practice seeing and feeling the positive outcomes and achievements that you want to manifest in your conscious reality. Kinesthetic memory and visualization increase your likelihood of success. You can use mental rehearsal for any area of your life, health, wealth, happiness, relationships, sports, business, whatever you desire in your life.

While teaching psychology at the University of Hawaii - I worked with a local basketball team - they won their first ever championship that year.

The New Use for Mental Rehearsal - Change at the Spiritual Level

The simple 6-steps of The One Command is one highly successful approach to using mental rehearsal to change your DNA. Meditation is a wonderful method as well alone or better yet in partnership with The One Command, and I have learned some new meditations from one of my teachers, Dr. Joe Dispenza, from his terrific new book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. Dr. Joe uses mental rehearsal as a core process in changing your DNA and I use it as a core process in my coaching sessions in partnership with The One Command.

Hugs, Katie

For a continuation and expansion of this discussion on the phenomenon and value of Mental Rehearsal - and just how you can use it - check out Dr. Katie on www.evolutionezine.com in March.

My Journey of Gratitude - Day 25

The more time I spend in gratitude, the less I have to say. After a while it is the state of being in gratitude that becomes the norm and words seem to pale in comparison.

The holiday season is in full swing now and my journey with gratitude has changed how I feel about this time of year and how I plan to celebrate it. This year I hold a deeper send of joy and peace within myself than in years past. It is a peace and joy that no longer needs the frenzy of shopping or trying to find just the right gift for someone to make their Christmas special.

That is an old trap that keeps me focused on being perfect and feeds the erroneous belief that I am personally responsible for the joy of the season. And that is a path that robs me of the joy, peace and magic that is meant to be part of this year.

This year, using the state of gratitude, I am opening the doors to expect and experience magic and miracles to show up in my life in wonderful new ways. My focus for this season is different. I will be spending more time in joy-filled activities with those I love and very little time out in the crazy chaos of shopping.

Instead, I will take pleasure in making gifts for loved ones as I used to do many years ago. To create, bake, simmer, sew and knit for others has always brought me great pleasure. Thinking of the person as I create something just for them keeps me in that state of gratitude; I can pour my love and best wishes into everything I make.

This time in gratitude has rearranged my priorities and shown me what is truly important in my life--and 'things' aren't it. Spending time with those I love, creating new memories and new traditions and engaging in activities that make us laugh and appreciate life more--that is where the magic of the season is.

In each other.

As my 30 day journey of gratitude draws to a close this week, I feel the shift from "I" more and more into 'we' and 'us'. My sense of 'I' is so filled with gratitude as a way of living that it can't help but spill over to others. This journey really is not just about me; it is about 'all'.

As I prepare to re-enter my life differently, I am grateful for each new understanding and each new event that comes my way.

In gratitude for all,
Bonnie

My Journey of Gratitude - Day 23

Today is Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S. and we are spending today with family. Any day I spend with my children and grandchildren is a day to be grateful, but this day most of all.

I began my meditation with an open heart filling with thoughts of each family member. There is a new grandbaby on her way, so extra special gratitude for a new life among us. One daughter has found 'the one' and he is being introduced to the whole clan today. I am grateful for her newfound happiness and also that this family so easily opens its arms and heart to embrace new life and new love as we continue to grow.

As I continued to sit in my state of gratitude, allowing my mind to take me to new places, my physical body responded to me. Not in the warm glow of gratitude way that I normally experience, but something different. It immediately got my attention.

There was a response to the gratitude--a living response as my body flowed it back to me. It was like standing at a top of a canyon yelling "Hello. I love you' and expecting those words to be echoed back. Instead I heard "I love you too." A surprise as I realized for the first time that gratitude is a 2-way communication!

All this time I've sent thanks and love to my body for all it does for me, yet had never considered the possibility that my body would respond in kind.

As a medical intuitive who works with the physical body and health all the time you'd think I wouldn't have been surprised, but there I sat in amazement as this deeper communication between us continued--as equals and co-creators of my life.

My body does more than just reflect my thoughts; it responds with its own as well. And isn't that really how it should be--my body as more than a reflection of me, but an active co-creator? Isn't that how it is supposed to be for each of us?

After all, doesn't my body house my Essence? Why wouldn't we consciously co-create not only my health, but my life? Why wouldn't we work in cooperation and harmony with each other?

This morning the meaning of being 'present in my body' took on a whole new depth of understanding and experience. Gratitude is not just a feeling, not just a state of being--it is also a 2-way communication. Whether that be between body-mind or two people, gratitude is a divine method of communication.

I am grateful today for the body I live in and it is grateful for my presence and my acknowledgement.

New doors have just opened.

I welcome your comments and experiences!

In gratitude,
Bonnie

My Journey of Gratitude - Day 20

The joy of gratitude!  Yesterday I experienced my body taking over and releasing past painful events.  There was beauty and grace in that experience and I felt much lighter afterwards.  Releasing old stuff is always a good thing.

This morning's journey took me on a very different path--the path of joy in living.  Because my childhood was full of chaos and pain, my focus for years was healing and creating a fresh start, and so I did.

What I often forget along the way--I think we all often forget--is that joy, love and fun are also part of living.

Flashes of happy times flowed through me, increasing and deepening my sense of gratitude and unleashing the joy that had been forgotten.  The years and events flew by like watching a movie in fast forward as I remembered the good times and the people who loved and supported me.

The memory of joy that stood out the brightest was holding my first born daughter in my arms.  I was a teenage mom and there had been plenty of drama around that.  But when I looked at her and she looked at me all that faded away.  For the first time in my life I knew what it felt like to truly love another without reservation.  Until that moment I had no idea that I was capable of such love.

My memories then flowed to the birth of my 3 other babies and how each time I wasn't sure I could be any more open to love, blessings and joy--I was.

Life has a way of getting in the way of gratitude and love if we stop paying attention.  To have this experience today--to feel joy released and to remember how truly blessed I am is wonderful.  It is a good reminder that the good and the difficult all exist around me and it is my focus that determines my experience and my reality now.

Today I am grateful for the journey of my life.  A corner has been turned on this 20th day of gratitude and a new adventure awaits.  So today my Inner Chicken and I will ride the waves of this new grand adventure, feeling blessed to be alive.

In gratitude,
Bonnie

My Journey of Gratitude - Day 19

Gratitude leads to inner peace and that is how I awoke this morning, with this deepest sense of inner peace as my first awareness. So instead of getting up to do my 10 minutes of gratitude meditation in my usual spot, I allowed myself to shift into gratitude right there, lying in bed all snuggled under the blankets on a dark, cold morning and had a very different experience of gratitude.

Usually it is my mind that guides me through the meditation; my mind that consciously takes me into gratitude. This time, maybe because I was so relaxed, it was my physical body that took over the reins, guiding me ever deeper into what happens to me physically when I am in a state of gratitude. An odd experience certainly and I'm not quite sure if I can describe the difference.

Always before my mind told me what my body was feeling; whether it was about gratitude or anything else, the understanding came through my mind. This morning, however, the knowing came directly from my body--and I understood it. Instead of gratitude flowing from my thoughts down into my physical being, it was my body that flowed gratitude to my thoughts. My body was reflecting back to me its new state of being now--a state of physical being that carried, held and flowed gratitude. No longer was my body being fed gratitude, it had become the state of gratitude. Something had shifted within the physical and it all feels different.

Curious now to see what was next, I relaxed into this new experience and allowed it to unfold. At first I thought my mind was wandering and I'd try to bring it back to the present. But then I realized that my mind wasn't wandering because my mind was not controlling this experience--my body was. Old memories would pop up--what use to be very painful memories from childhood. Instead of the feeling of pain and woundedness that always accompanied these memories, a feeling of warmth--that new state of gratitude I have--flowed through each memory, dissolving it.

It took a few minutes to realize that the intelligence of my body--and make no mistake our bodies have an intelligence of their own--was using gratitude to heal the pain in my past. So I lay there, open and allowing this process to unfold as memory after memory was released from my cells and healed. Past memories and future worries, all healed in the same way--with gratitude.

As a medical intuitive I am use to entering the body and taking a look around, but that is my mind controlling the process. This experience was entirely different. I could actually feel my body healing itself and it was doing it consciously, wanting me to know and understand what was happening. Gratitude has become so much more than a feeling I flow through my body 10 minutes a day. It is now a state of being that I live in and that my body responds to.

As the body is a reflection of the mind, I saw a new reflection of myself this morning. And I am grateful for who I am and who I am becoming.

In gratitude,

Bonnie

Before I begin talking about my experience this morning with gratitude I'd like to answer a couple of questions that I've received from people following my journey.

How do I get started and what do I do once I've started?

I always start my 10 minute mediation by closing my eyes and taking a few deep breaths. Then I begin with my gratitude prayers--thank you for my life, thank you for my ability to breathe, and then I move through gratefulness for my husband, children, grandchildren, friends and opportunities. After that I take another deep breath and quiet my mind and allow myself to feel the gratitude for all those things. Some days it flows smoothly and other days it's more challenging.

 
Just like today--I had a few false starts and had to start over again. It's a journey, not a destination I have to remind myself. Simply a journey.

OK. On to my experience this morning. And an interesting one it was as I mark the mid-way point of this 30 day journey. A bit of a challenge to settle down into gratitude. My conscious mind was running wild with thoughts of today's 'to do' list and I even found myself worrying about getting my Christmas shopping done. Lots of resistance for some reason.

At first I tried reining the thoughts in, which of course did not work. So I allowed them to scurry across my inner vision unhindered, like clouds being blown across the sky by a strong wind.

Then it happened--I felt a sudden, subtle shift and my mind went completely still and time seemed to stop. All sounds silenced and my outer world ceased to exist.

I sat in this profound silence and felt myself floating in what felt like a primordial soup of everything and nothing. Of course, the moment I was aware I popped out of it, but then would fall right back into it again. So there I sate, blinking in and out from what felt like existence to non-existence, from particle to wave to particle again. Back and forth, in and out, feeling gratitude in both states of being. But gratitude in a very different way that is difficult to describe.

 

I've had this experience before when in deep meditation, but this was the first time I blinked back and forth, bringing gratitude with me.

Instead of experiencing the feeling of gratitude, I believe I experienced the knowing of it--the true state of it. I believe I tapped into that place where all things manifest--the unified field that exists all around us and I felt a presence of something very wonderful.

And for that I am most grateful today.

In gratitude,

Bonnie

My Journey of Gratitude - Day 13

A funny thing about opening to feelings--you can't just pick and choose which feelings you allow. It's not possible to say "I will only feel the 'good' feelings today." That's because feelings are neither good nor bad, right nor wrong. They are just feelings brought on by your thoughts.

So the other day when the dam burst open and everything that was backed up came pouring forth, I understood that would mean that all my feelings were free to express themselves. And they certainly have!

Yesterday was my impatience and today my sadness made its appearance. Not the profound sadness of years past, but the sadness of unanswered prayers, missed opportunities and things I have done or left undone.

Earlier this morning I read a passage that fit perfectly for this moment. "Bask in the luxury of feeling fully understood and unconditionally loved." So I did. As I stepped more fully into that state of gratitude feeling fully understood and unconditionally loved, I allowed the sadness to flow through me, freeing it from the prison of my body. A sweet gentleness flowed in to fill the empty spaces where sadness had previously lived.

The more I let go of what no longer serves me and what I have imprisoned in my body, the more free I am to fully live the life I love. I begin my day in a place of serenity and knowingness.

Today I am grateful for my ability to fully experience all my emotions and to bask in the luxury of being fully understood and unconditionally loved.

In gratitude,
Bonnie

My Journey of Gratitude - Day 12

Gratitude was a bit harder to come by this morning. Lack of patience though showed up in abundance. That great yummy feeling that I normally slip into, that fullness of the heart, was a no show today. I stuck with it though because this is, after all, a journey not a destination. Just because I'm not feeling the gratitude in any given moment doesn't mean that I'm not grateful, just that I'm not in the feeling of it.

I'm imperfect. Oh no--was that my outdoor voice!? Parts of me were horrified at that admission while other parts relieved that I finally got it. It really shouldn't have been such a big surprise--because we all know that no one is perfect. But it was that sudden 'knowing' that took me by surprise. You know that moment when you really get it--and once you truly know something you can never again unknow it. Obviously some part of me thought my imperfections were a well kept secret, though I'm sure if you ask my husband or my kids they'd just roll their eyes and snort.

So I sat in gratitude with my imperfect self. I sat with the shame that came bursting forth from that admission and continued to give thanks for this journey of getting to know myself in deeper ways. I was really clueless that parts of me were still trying to be perfect--and successfully failing. Trying to be perfect is just an old survival strategy from childhood that was waiting for an opportunity to be healed.

And like a dam bursting as the seams, the shame, blame and guilt bottled up inside came flooding out in a torrent. Instead of being met with resistance or denial though, I allowed those feelings to flow up and out in a state of gratitude. Because, really--who needs to keep those 3 feelings as a constant companion?

To be honest--today was really uncomfortable for me; not the happy love-fest I experienced at the beginning. But it was real, it was honest and it quickly passed, because I stayed in gratitude for the experience.

Every journey has its wonders and its trials. There are days of ease and days of effort. Yet with each step on this journey I move forward and each day holds something to be grateful for. That is what I hold on to when gratitude is not so easy to find.

I am grateful for the gift of my imperfections for they remind me to love myself even more and they remind me that we are all just doing the best we can with what we've got. Embracing my imperfections allows me to let go of who I think I'm suppose to be and appreciate the fullness of who I actually am.

And that, my friends, was worth the 10 minutes of uncomfortable gratitude this morning.

In gratitude,
Bonnie

Gratitude Experiment--Day 4

Here's what I experienced from my 10 minutes in gratitude this morning.

Being grateful for your life in this moment, no matter what your current circumstances, does not mean that you are content or ok with where you are. By saying thank you for what is now is not the same as being satisfied for what is. You are not saying "I'm grateful for this debt. I'm grateful for this illness." Or whatever is happening in your life now. That is a common misunderstanding--or fear we often have about saying thank you for what is.

By saying thank you for the money that I DO have expands you beyond the fear of not enough. Thank you for the love I DO have in my life opens you to even more.

Everything is energy. What you think, feel and do is energy. And energy either expands or contracts. Gratitude is an expansive energy and when you take the time to be grateful for even one thing in your life--your energy expands and flows in ways you may not notice. But it does.

Gratitude is more than a feeling. It is a state of being. The more time you spend in this state of being, the more it becomes part of your true nature.
Gratitude is the energy of 'even more'. And you can certainly add that in your thank yous.

Thank you for the business I DO have. I am so grateful. And I open to having even more. Thank you.

Today is 9/11

Over the years of doing my heart-work from psychology to coaching to seminars - I am often prompted in what I offer from the experiences of my own life and challenges or joys - and I also watch for what is showing up for those in my tribe (my friends, family, colleague, clients) - and focus on what is coming up for them.

I am watching the 9/11 tribute in Shanksville right now and thinking about the heroism of 'just people', people rising to an unprecedented situation - who found out what was happening on other planes and acted without question - out of the fullness of their hearts.

We all have that brave selves inside, the one that jumps to do what is needed in the moment. If we are looking for a way to change our world - jumping in to help build a school somewhere (by contribution or participation), to participate in Random Acts of Kindness like the ones going on in Seattle today, to deciding to elect people who actually care at least as much about all the people of our country as they do about their own ambitions, to being our own hero and the hero of our children.

This cannot help but be a day of reflection no matter where we live, and when we live from our spirit - we can't go wrong.

Love and Blessings, Katie

Waiting to Exhale

I’ve been doing a lot of meditating the past 2 months in order to open the space to learn more about what programs and patterns might still be holding me back.  Sometimes just sitting for 20 minutes or so, simply being present in my body & in the moment, opens me to deeper awareness of myself.

The other day as I was sitting in that beautiful silence within, I became aware of a continuing pattern from childhood that I still seem to play out—'Waiting to Exhale' I call it.  I’m a middle child, so some of that can be explained by birth order.  Middle children often look to the older siblings to see what is happening and then go from there.

But I knew it was deeper than that, so I sat, present in the moment, and opened myself even more to what might be revealed. And there it was…training on how to be a ‘good’ wife, mother, woman.  Growing up in the 50s and the 60s in the conservative Midwest, I was trained not only by my mother, but by the culture at the time to ‘wait’ for and upon others—particularly the males in the family.  I remember playing baseball with my brothers and their friends and being called inside to iron my brothers’ shirts.  When I protested the unfairness of having to give up doing something fun in order to iron shirts, my mother explained that that is just ‘how it is.’  Girls take care of the boys. 

My mother was also depressed much of my childhood, so I also learned to wait to see how she was feeling.  Was she happy that day?  Then I could be happy too.  Was she feeling down again?  Then I knew to be more quiet, stay out of the way and wait for things to change.

My training also included things like:  'Don’t be better than, don’t know more than, don’t succeed more than and certainly don’t have more than'…you guessed it…the boys.  Wait for the boy to ask you out.  Wait for the boy to talk.  Wait for the boy to buy you something.  Wait…wait…wait. 

A woman’s place is to hold back and sacrifice herself for the good of the family.  I learned that from my parents, my grandmother, at school, at church. Everywhere I turned it was taught that my place was to wait—and to sacrifice.  It was not a choice, but a duty.  Anything less made you a bad wife, a terrible mother and an unattractive, unlovable woman.

  

I got really good at waiting!  So much so that I spent most of my life unconsciously waiting for something or someone to happen.

So there I sat—watching all that waiting play out in my memories, feeling all those emotions of frustration and resentment and hearing those thoughts run through my mind.

Oh my gosh!  I’ve been energetically holding my breath—waiting to exhale for decades!

Darn it if that old pattern was still alive and kicking!  Ragged around the edges from changing beliefs, healing and plenty of experiences in life proving that old pattern to be outdated and no longer useful.  But still influencing my life.

I can’t be happy until my husband is happy.  I can only allow myself a limited amount of success so that I’m never more successful than my husband.  I must continually bolster and support my adult children so that they are more successful.  Their success is my success.  Their happiness is my happiness.

Sure I can have a life and run a business and create income—but only during the hours that my husband or grown children don’t ‘need’ me.  My job was to keep the ‘home fires burning’ and to make sure everyone else is taken care of before getting back to my life.

I sat there in amazement at the breadth and depth of that pattern and looked at every area of my life that it affected.  How you do anything is how you do everything—so that pattern influenced everything…until I changed it.

Now you might think that it was upsetting to find myself still running an old, outdated pattern, but it wasn’t.  It was exciting!  Why?  Because it’s not my reality any more than I allow it to be.  It’s not me and it’s definitely not my husband or my children.  They don’t hold those expectations of me.  It is only a small part of me holding me to an old standard that no longer applies.  And I have the resources and the technique to easily change my beliefs and patterns.

So I CHANGED IT!

I love my life.  I love my husband, my children and my grandchildren.  Being a mother has always been a high value of mine.  Family is a high value.

Faith and family—they are my compass for living and that didn’t change.

What did change was HOW I live out my values and HOW I make decisions about my life.

And for the first time in many years—I EXHALED.

Be The Change

All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of earth. Man did not weave the wave of life, he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. Chief Seattle

Our world, our existence is intrinsically intertwined. We are inseparable, all parts of one great whole that is the unified field. The very energies of compassion that bring us together in difficulty and tragedy exist always and we are expanding those energies to more of our daily lives, to more of our first thoughts when in relationship with others.

It is this current shift in sensibility that is bringing us into the fold of our evolution, our bond and our expansion into cooperation and compassion. Our lives are shifting consciously and unconsciously at higher and higher frequencies as we move toward our new normal.

It would seem that any change historically has often found increases in energy fields in two directions, a pulling apart and polarization. There often seems to be more of what was as more of what is to be builds its energy base.

Have you been experiencing a feeling of being out of balance? Have you been feeling a little 'spacy'? Have you had a sense of things being off kilter, not normal, as if the earth were shifting under your feet?

We know from our science that we are all a part of a unified field of energy, a unified field of all that is, was, and will be. And since quantum physics tells us that there is no time, except as we create it in our minds, then the unified field is simply all that is, and that includes each of us and who we believe we are.

Who do you believe you are? Who do you want to be? How do you want to be in the world? What do you want to have? How do you want to be your better you?

Ask yourself better questions and you will create that better you. The parts of you that no longer serve you have a higher probability of falling away and being replaced by what you want instead, when you know what those things that you want are.

All things are connected, look at what you want as a model of what you want, and then become that. Put your energy toward clarity for yourself and who you are at your core level, at your spiritual DNA level.

Be the change you want to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi

Love and blessings, Katie