http://www.bodymindintegration.com/english.html

http://www.bodymindintegration.com/nederlands.html

(books on body-mind connection)

What about:

http://www.amazon.com/Reinvent...Create/dp/0307452336

Did anyone read it?

fred

Fred, I'm not an expert on Deepak Chopra's ideas, but it looks like he mixes a few good ideas in with some pseudo-science that is harmful in the long run. I think there are better authors and therapists around.

Can you give your current therapist more time? He sounds fairly helpful, even if it's not everything you need. Speaking for myself, I know learning to deeply trust a few people helps me extend that sense of staying real and more fully present and open to other people.

Thanks Ariel, you are always there!!!
Yesterday I went to a Russian girl friend for a meal (this Russian soup Borcsh and other good food). She asked me before but I isolated myself at the time and said that I had too much pain.
Now I went and we had a wonderful time together and I didnt' have pain!
Ostend near the North Sea where I live is this year culural city of belgium and there were last week-end also a lot of happenings, that I somehow enjoyed, but alone and... with pain...
So somehow it is all between the ears and it is important to fill my week-ends in a good way with a lot of variation (sports, home work, painting, walking, volunteer work...)

Who would you recommend instead of Chopra? I didn't like his 'The Third Jesus' at all!!!
And he is so expensive, rather kind of a guru...

I think Pierrakos is very good. He was also a nice and warm man!

Thanks again,

Fred

quote:

Originally posted by Fred:
Thanks Ariel, you are always there!!!

I know (sheepishly)... I deny being an internet addict; really I'm reading through some of the older threads in the morning--there's so much to read here, who needs Purgatory?

I don't know who to recommend rather than Chopra; I'm learning myself.

Good for you, Fred, for seeing your friend yesterday when you initially didn't feel like it! In spite of some depression from delayed grief that I've experienced, I've dragged myself out to spend time with caring friends when I didn't want to at first (no borscht, though ), and it always helps.

Fred, that was an interesting article--thanks. I'm going to look into that author more later in my day.

Amen haha

Dear Katy,

I am in such a pain!
The repetitions of the play confront me enormously with my perfectionism and fear to fail! I feel this hole in my soul/heart and tesnion inside me. It is never enough and for the most part I don’t think affirmations work after all. I try this and I try that and don't find rest! I really don't know.
Everything you use is like something external and it has to come from inside. But how to relax?
Fred

PS I put this on SPC

What a confusion again!

The Brain Is the Soul's Fragile Dwelling Place
Excerpted from Healing the Hardware of the Soul
By Daniel G. Amen, M.D.

Dr. Daniel Amen's breakthrough brain-healing program has helped hundreds of thousands to overcome depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and attention deficit disorder. The maverick author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Life and Healing ADD now presents his proven program for repairing and strengthening our relationships, child-rearing practices, work and study routines, and, ultimately, our soulful connections, in the deepest ways possible. Guided by this book, each of us can learn to balance and optimize the parts of the brain responsible for inner growth, intimacy, and spiritual health.

Drawing upon his experience with over fourteen thousand brain-imaging studies of patients from all walks of life, Dr. Amen has developed an essential tool called the Amen Brain System Checklist, a 101-question self-test used to evaluate the five brain systems that are key to achieving and maintaining a healthy brain-soul connection. The questionnaire identifies the problem brain areas readers may need to work on, offers insight into the degree to which these imbalances affect their lives, and provides targeted strategies for each area of the brain involved with spiritual issues.

These are just a few of the many "brain prescriptions" to be found in Healing the Hardware of the Soul:

Develop focus and improve decision-making with the One-Page Miracle for the Soul

Use prayer, meditation, and diaphragmatic breathing exercises for superior emotional and spiritual flexibility

Heal painful deep soul memories through thought and behavior exercises

Learn how forming strong, positive new bonds actually controls impulsive behavior and stabilizes mood swings

Dr. Amen's recommendations include cutting-edge advice on diet, nutritional supplements, and the judicious use of medication when needed. He also explains which medications can unbalance the brain when used improperly. Dramatic before-and-after pictures of the brain demonstrate the medical effectiveness of these clinically based healing techniques.

Whether we learn the self-help strategies of cognitive reprogramming, self-hypnosis, or nutraceutical therapy, seek out psychotherapy, or rely on prescription antidepressants and antianxiety medications, Dr. Amen's sage advice and comprehensive treatment programs give us all the tools we need to optimize our work, relationships, and spiritual connections to become the people we want to be.

Chapter 1

The Feedback Loop Between the Brain and the Soul Offers New Answers

The brain is the violin and the soul is the violinist. They both need to work together in order to make beautiful music.

— Father Charles Ara, Catholic Priest

Josey experienced a living hell. Not as a far-off place where people burn for unforgiven sins, but in her everyday life. Josey suffered from panic disorder, the most common psychiatric disorder in the United States. It began in her early twenties. She worried constantly, saw the future as negative and frightening, and endured many anxiety attacks. The attacks, which came on suddenly, were associated with crushing chest pain, her heart pounding hard against her chest wall; she also had trouble catching her breath, and she felt that something terrible was about to happen. The attacks made her hide from the world. They came in waves, eight to ten in a month, and then months with none at all. They were unpredictable. Her life started to revolve around the fear of attacks. She dropped out of college after her sophomore year, stopped driving, stopped seeing her boyfriend, and worked at home doing transcription so that she would not have to go out unaccompanied. She did not seek help for years for fear of being labeled crazy.

Josey prayed to God for deliverance from the anxiety attacks. As a child she had felt close to God and prayed every night before bed. Like many young adults, she had drifted away from her prayers but had still believed in a loving, present God, as her parents had taught her. When the attacks first occurred, she prayed many times a day that God would take this curse from her. Over time, as the anxiety attacks persisted, she prayed less and finally stopped. She became angry at God, and wondered why He was punishing her with the attacks. On several occasions the attacks were so bad that she contemplated suicide. When her parents heard about her suicidal ideas, they forced her to see me because I had helped her cousin with similar problems.

The day I met Josey I thought this young woman was in hell — years of torture and torment from her anxiety disorder and disconnection from her friends, her work, her future, and even her God. Many theologians believe that hell is disconnection from God. The illness had caused Josey to lose herself, her relationship with God, and nearly her life.

As part of Josey's evaluation, I ordered a brain SPECT study — an amazing test that examines how the brain works. Josey's scan showed a number of "hot spots," overactive areas, in the part of the brain that generates fear and anxiety. Seeing the physiological problem in her brain for herself was the first step in the healing process that would unfold over the next several months. Rather than thinking that she had a moral, character, or personality problem, she now accepted the fact that she had a medical illness needing treatment. The treatment involved medication, prayer and meditation, and targeted mental exercises. Over time, she successfully rebuilt her life. She was able to travel unaccompanied to work; she fell in love, married, had children, and made peace with God. Josey's brain, the hardware of her soul, all that she was inside, had been ill, a fact that caused everything else in her life to suffer. Helping her brain allowed her to once again have access to her soul, her real self, and even her God.

Josey's SPECT Study

The white color indicates the areas of greatest brain activity. A healthy scan shows white in the back of the brain only (cerebellum). Josey's brain shows white or hot areas in the emotional and anxiety centers of her brain.

The word "soul" as translated from Old Testament Hebrew means "all of your thoughts, feelings, personality characteristics, self, desires, and passions." The soul is who we are inside, from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. The soul is felt and translated into action through the day-to-day function of the brain. William Shakespeare said, "The brain is the soul's fragile dwelling place." We can now see actual evidence of this brain-soul connection through the latest brain-imaging techniques. These studies have so clearly taught me that when the brain is healthy we are compassionate, thoughtful, loving, relaxed, and goal directed, and when the brain is sick or damaged we are unfeeling, impulsive, angry, tense, and unfocused, and it is very hard for our souls and our relationship with God to be at peace.

In my previous books Change Your Brain, Change Your Life and Healing ADD, I use my work with the latest brain-imaging science to teach readers about brain-behavioral problems like anxiety, depression, impulsiveness, obsession, anger, and attention deficit disorder. Through images of the brain the books show that behavioral problems are often related to brain dysfunction and are not the result of a weak will or a character defect. Healing the Hardware of the Soul builds upon these books by helping you understand and enhance the connection between brain function and your innermost being, your soul.

Brain-Soul Feedback Loop

This book will teach you how to harness the positive energy at work in the powerful feedback loop between brain function and the condition of your soul. A healthy soul actually enhances brain function, and a healthy brain is essential to a healthy soul.

Like the hardware of a computer, the brain must function at an optimal level in order to run the software programs of life (daily activities like child rearing, teaching and learning, going through adolescence, training for a career, intimate relationships, navigating midlife crises). When a computer does not have enough RAM (random-access memory), speed, or storage space, it cannot run its software programs efficiently. Similarly, a brain that isn't running at optimal efficiency will have trouble keeping a life and soul on track.

As with computers, you need more than hardware to live a full and authentic life. The hardware of a computer is powerless without an efficient operating system or proper software. So too in our lives, we need effective programming — good parenting, optimal nutrition, positive relationships, freedom from chronic stress, clear goals, positive thoughts, and an attitude of gratefulness — in order for the brain to work right. A dynamic feedback loop exists between the brain and the events of our lives. The brain impacts our behavior, and how we behave impacts actual brain function. Our latest research has shown that thoughts, feelings, and social interactions all impact brain function in potentially positive and negative ways.

The brain-soul connection is involved in everything we do. Understanding it will lead to a deeper knowledge of our most intimate selves and help us to explain human triumphs and failures. This connection will help us understand:

good (it is likely that Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi had optimal brain function),

evil (it is also likely that Adolf Hitler and other brutal dictators had faulty brain wiring, despite being able to rise to power),

sin (in the New Testament the Greek word for sin is hermatia, or quite simply, "missing the mark," which is quite easy to do with poor brain function),

love (couples who thrive likely have more optimal brain patterns than those who struggle),

hate (in my clinical experience, many racists have abnormal brain patterns), and

child abuse (often at the hands of people with brain problems).

I have seen firsthand at the Amen Clinics how many people are searching desperately for a more fulfilling, meaningful, peaceful, hopeful, positive life, who want to live, love, and feel connected to something. Instead, many feel depressed, angry, lonely, unhappy, and disconnected. The clinically based brain-soul healing techniques included in this book will help you optimize your brain and improve your relationships, work, and spiritual connections in the deepest ways possible.

But what do I know about the soul? Isn't soul work off target for a brain scientist? Let me put these ideas into the context of my own life. I grew up in a very religious Roman Catholic Lebanese home, with five sisters and a brother. I attended Catholic school until the end of ninth grade, and was an altar boy for many years. I was taught very clear ideas of right and wrong, good and evil, heaven and hell, and the judgment day. These beliefs followed me into my adult life.

During the Vietnam War, I had a very low draft number and went into the U.S. Army, where I was trained to be a combat medic. I was fortunate enough to be sent to Germany rather than Vietnam. In Germany, as a lonely soldier, I met Christine, a pretty, petite company clerk. She asked me to go to a church service with her. It turned out to be an Assembly of God Pentecostal Church service, with shouting, praying in tongues, and long, intense healing sessions. At first I felt strange, especially with all of the noise in church. As a Roman Catholic, I was used to church being a quiet place. Not this church! There was a lot of intense emotional expression, but also a lot of fellowship and worship. I met some wonderful people and became actively involved with Teen Challenge, a Christian group that worked with drug addicts, which was one of the factors leading to my interest in psychiatry. Many of the addicts had failed traditional drug-treatment programs but were able to rid themselves of their addictions when they developed a deep faith and a connection with God. It was a fascinating process to watch.

After three years in Germany, I was discharged from the military and attended Orange Coast College for a year and then Vanguard University, an Assembly of God Bible college in Southern California. I studied biology and the Bible. I wanted to be a doctor, but I also wanted a solid spiritual foundation for my life. Nothing in the Bible dissuaded me from medicine, and nothing in my biological studies challenged my faith. In 1978, I had the good fortune to be accepted into the charter class of Oral Roberts University (ORU) School of Medicine. Minister and faith healer Oral Roberts had worked hard to bring together spiritual healing and medical healing, a concept that I felt could be extremely powerful. I was suspicious that they accepted me because of my last name: The first graduate from their medical school would be Dr. "Amen."

versus

The Spirituality of the Body by Alexander Lowen, M.D.
by Will Jones, LPC
Alexander Lowen is the founder of bioenergetic therapy and the author of twelve books relating to that subject. He defines bioenergetics as, "a therapeutic technique to help a person get back together with his body and to help him enjoy, to the fullest degree possible, the life of the body." In this his latest book he attempts to define the spiritual aspects of the body and how they relate to our health. To Lowen, health is a feeling of aliveness and pleasure in the body that leads to joyfulness. In such a state we feel a connectedness with all living creatures and the world. This kind of health is manifested by a gracefulness of the body.

According to Dr. Lowen, a part of our cultural heritage is the belief that the mind is superior to the body. This leads to the intellectualization of spirituality and the reduction of the body to a machine. Such a division of mind and body is not natural, and leads to a fall from grace. Lowen feels grace unites spirit and matter because grace is the divine spirit acting within the body. He believes we are born into a state of grace from which we fall as we are forced to conform to external expectations that are most often delivered by our parents.

The body reacts to this fall from grace with chronic muscular tension because its natural impulses are unconsciously blocked. To restore this grace we must undergo analysis and discover how it was lost; but such analysis must be accompanied by confrontation on a bodily level. Bioenergetics does that. It "uses the power of the mind to understand the tensions that bind the body . . . , while it mobilizes the body's energy to eliminate these tensions."

Throughout the book are exercises that are suggested as ways to help us be more aware of our bodily feelings. The author says, "Feelings are the life of the body just as thinking is the life of the mind." These exercises may seem both strange and/or enlightening. Lowen persists in his belief that if we do them consistently, they will help us get in touch with some of our feelings. In his own therapy with Wilhelm Reich, whom he generously credits in all of his books, Lowen reports that he screamed out loudly without being conscious of what the scream was about. Something touched an unconscious memory as he underwent a similar type of therapy on which he based bioenergetics.

One cannot help but be impressed by the thoroughness of this author's work and his conviction. He is obviously a skilled analyst, a knowledgeable medical doctor, and a pioneer in this new therapy. He includes chapters on sexuality, the structural dynamics of the body, and grounding, which he calls the connection to reality. One can also see similarities to other theories like gestalt. However, Lowen's contribution is unique.

Lowen is grounded in his faith and it's impact on illness. He says that tension is inherent in the human, and it is a tension between the knowing mind and the instinctual body, between control and faith. Lowen believes: "When someone establishes a connection with the universal, which is the same as feeling the love of God, his energy becomes so heightened that it floods his body, radiating outward in a state of joyous excitation . . . And since this excitation or energy is the source of life, it can sometimes overcome the destructive effects of illness." Faith allows us to be open to the healing process.

We might all agree with Lowen that the Western World has grown increasingly secularized, that religion has been reduced to a set of beliefs and is a mental process only. Thus the body falls into the category of the secular, the profane, and the material. For Lowen it is this split between mind and body which is at the root of man's emotional distress . . . ". . . In my view, it is the mind, with its emphasis on knowledge and reason, that is secular and the body that is sacred."

quote:

I am in such a pain!
The repetitions of the play confront me enormously with my perfectionism and fear to fail! I feel this hole in my soul/heart and tesnion inside me. It is never enough and for the most part I don’t think affirmations work after all. I try this and I try that and don't find rest! I really don't know.
Everything you use is like something external and it has to come from inside. But how to relax?

Fred, can you just "be" before God, pain and all? Let your pain be your prayer, and simply accept yourself just as you are, in your wounded state, in God's presence. No techniques, no methods, no effort to "fix" anything. Just to be present to God, open to God's love, allowing God to do "whatever," even if it only reassurance that God is with you in your pain.

- - -

Re. your post above -- I intend to delete it soon as you're quoting far beyond what's permissible under copyright understandings. Could you link to these articles instead, and tell us what you find so vexing about them instead of requiring us to read all that and respond to it for you? I don't know about the others, here, but I don't have time to do all that.

quote:

Originally posted by Fred:
Dear Katy,

I am in such a pain!
The repetitions of the play confront me enormously with my perfectionism and fear to fail! I feel this hole in my soul/heart and tesnion inside me. It is never enough and for the most part I don’t think affirmations work after all. I try this and I try that and don't find rest! I really don't know.
Everything you use is like something external and it has to come from inside. But how to relax?
Fred

PS I put this on SPC

Affirmation, positive thinking, etc. can help, but I believe much of it is of a physical origin. My breath therapist told me one can do all the "positive thinking" you want, but one needs to feel the pain.. allow yourself to feel it, breathe through it, and it will pass. Of course, like I said, I don't really know all what is going on with you.

Maybe you have OCD or bipolar? You seem obsessed with things, ideas, searching etc. and it sounds like you have a "racing mind".
Try the "Stop" method when you have all these thoughts. Practice quieting your mind , practice being present. I wrote more to you in a P.M.


Katy

Fred:

I've done some more reading about Dr. Amen, and I'm comfortable reserving judgement on his ideas: staying in a "I don't know" state about him, in other words.
I do have a number of concerns, though--I'm skeptical, but possibly open, about the usefulness of the SPECT scans he advocates, but I agree with those who criticise him for over-selling their usefulness without more proof. His 4-day program is expensive. I'm no-where near convinced it's more effective than other, more tested, longer term therapies.

That "over-selling" is one of my criticisms of of things in the Lowen article as well. There are some good points, but they promise too much. "When someone establishes a connection with the universal, which is the same as feeling the love of God..."? That's just not true. Way too much self-promotion here, IMO.

Likewise with the Hoffman Institute...far too much over-promising.

One thing from Dr. Amen that I thought was very good is the emphasis on connection, as being brave and trusting resurfaces as a weak point for me. But I don't need a brain scan to work with that!

What happens when you allow yourself to have a "come as you are" approach to God, as described by Phil above? What actually happens with you? Can you talk about it?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Fred:

I am in such a pain!
The repetitions of the play confront me enormously with my perfectionism and fear to fail! I feel this hole in my soul/heart and tesnion inside me. It is never enough and for the most part I don’t think affirmations work after all. I try this and I try that and don't find rest! I really don't know.


Hi Fred,

Fellow struggler here, I'm also in a lot of pain, feelings of worthlessness, loss, and fear of failure have been my constant companions...Not that those are your issues, but when you put words to your pain... I feel less alone, and I pray for you almost every night because your raw & real posts touch my heart.
I just finished a book by Tim Farrington, A Hell of a Mercy, and I wonder if you have read it? (Quote) "The dark night is about realizing the absolute poverty of our spiritual efforts, the inevitable element of self in even the best of our goodness and striving for the light; it is about being broken by God, stripped naked of all accomplishment and all we have taken for "meaning." It is about trusting God, not because it is the right thing or the good thing or the thing that will advance us spiritually, but because it is the only thing we can do.

The truth is, we are nothing. That is not abject humility, it's not a failure of self esteem, it's not masochism or even a triumph of willful Christian self-mortification in the service of getting better a better deal in heaven. It's just realism. But getting real is harder than we've been led to believe. The real gift, the real grace, is surrender and surrender almost always feels like a defeat and a failure."
I'm depressed and I wouldn't claim that I am in a dark night, however depression or dark night, A Hell of a Mercy was a balm & a hope! There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Dear dear friends,

Thank you!

I understand you Phil about this quote: TOO MUCH! Let me finally rest LORD in the UNKNOWN!

When all is said and done, with all our intellectual work and isms, philosophies, psychologies, therapies, forum discussions, we are back at the beginning and end of everything: SURRENDER, ACCEPTANCE, ABANDONMENT

I have sit down for so many hours waiting for a silent God!!!

You, Gail are also touching my heart with your words! WE ARE NOT ALONE!
Vicarious suffering is real8
Let us try to THANK for everything and adore and praise GOD in the midst of these tribulations

In the meantuime I had 2 play performances (of my second play) and was playing so good they thought I was an actor since many years!
The play is very raw, I am a drunkard with a good heart but it touched people's hearts!
My soul is in all this, in beauty... and not as much in social work...

PAX,
Fred

Fred, this is much delayed, but I wanted to say it's good to hear your play went well.

I'm not sure if I understand your last sentence as you mean it, but I wanted to say, as well, that I've come to believe in the goodness--even necessity-- of the arts.

Dear Ariel,

After my therapy session last Tuesday, on Wednesday and this morning I had so much pain I thought I couldn't bear it anymore.
The session on the body was quite intense. I think it is not bad (although very hard to bear) what happened afterwards. It is a very slow process of incarnation.

Greetings,
Fred

quote:

Originally posted by Fred:
...In the meantuime I had 2 play performances (of my second play) and was playing so good they thought I was an actor since many years!
The play is very raw, I am a drunkard with a good heart but it touched people's hearts!
My soul is in all this, in beauty... and not as much in social work...

PAX,
Fred

Freddy,

It’s good to hear your report of experiencing something very life-giving and nourishing to you in the midst of your on-going pain. Through theatre and art, one can be so deeply gratified in their needs for being *seen*, admired, and adored, to know you've touch others in a positive way through your offerings of yourself.

One of the earliest ways of developing a cohesive sense of self, as a matter of face, is by being mirrored as love-able through praise and admiration—which can be joyfully accomplished on stage. So fundamental is this need to be mirrored in the development of healthy self-love that a whole school of psychotherapy has emerged called Self Psychology. And so primary is this need that not receiving it properly thwarts the person’s capacity to venture confidently into the world of relationships.

Christ’s peace and rest,
Shasha

Some people here in Ostend adviced me to go to an excellent unitarian homeopathist.
I had a very interesting and deep conversation with him.
Interestingly, apart from Hahnemann, another teacher of him is http://vsu.homeobel.com/, who discovered that Hahnemann said about the same things as... yes Thomas Aquinas!
I went to another homeopathist before without any change.
I had to take http://www.vithoulkas.com/content/view/107/9/lang,en/ and I feel things are changing after only a few days...
I didn't know homeopathy could have such an impact.

http://homeopathyworks.wordpre...pathy-for-catholics/

http://www.minimum.com/b.asp?a=christian-guide-crook

http://www.minimum.com/reviews/christian's-guide.htm

http://www.homeopathycapetown....christ/homchrist.php

Fred

http://www.homeoint.org/photo/m/masi.htm

I meant this name

Hey Fred,

I wonder what you think of this website: http://www.avoidantpersonality.com

At the bottom of the page the second last link describes Avoidant Personality Disorder, saying also that it runs on a continuum from "avoidant style" at one end and the personality disorder at the other end. I would say I at times feel almost overtaken by a sort of high speed, runaway "avoidant style", but don't have the disorder. It's interesting reading, anyway, and I wondered if you might be able to relate to some of it.

http://hpathy.com/homeopathy-p...ogy-kindred-spirits/

Homeopathy and Jungian psychology

I'm just about to enter grad school to become a clinical social worker. I'm all about the right psychotherapy.
I recommend schema therapy and experiential-emotional therapies, such as AEP, AEDP, and EFT.