Holistic Bonfire

Suruchi Saini, MA, LPC, CCTP, TMHP, CYT

Holistic Living

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~Using Sense of Sound to De-Stress~

Suruchi Saini, MA, LPC, NCC, CCTP

Continuing from last week, sharing a little about our five senses and how to use them as tools in our daily life. Today I am writing about the sense of Sound.

As part of human evolution, our ancestors have relied on the sense of sound to protect themselves from the multitude of dangers. Today, we can use the sense of sound to protect ourselves from the epidemic of 21st century – Stress.

Music helps but not always:

Most of us enjoy music but not all of us are aware how music affect us. We may think that our favorite music always helps us, but not necessarily. It might stimulate us when we need to calm down, or it might slow us down when we need to be active.

A quick trick for you:

While listening to a song, pay attention to the lyrics and the feelings they bring. Then move your attention to the instruments being played in the background. Once you begin to hear the instruments distinctly, follow any one of the instruments for next few minutes. This simple trick will reduce your immediate stress, relax your mind, and help you focus on the matter at hand. It’ll be like a quick meditation. Sounds fair?

Brain imaging shows that music stimulates parts of the brain (2011 Drexel University study) and helps in reducing anxiety and stress!

Few more ways of using sense of Sound to de-stress, take time out to:

  • Listen to the birds in the morning or evening hours
  • Listen to music with various sounds of water (rain, waves, waterfalls, fountains etc.)
  • Listen wind-chimes playing in soft breeze
  • Play an instrument

Music has been an important part of our history, and is equally important in our present. However it is very important to understand how we are feeling and the kind of music that will help at any particular moment.

Some of my personal favorites for different purposes:

  • Om meditation – for deep connection
  • Before I go by Yanni – for relaxation
  • Tibetan bowls – for self-reflection
  • Requiem by Mozart – for creativity
  • Santoor by Shiv K. Sharma – for pleasure
  • Gayatri Mantra chants – for empowerment

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain”- Bob Marley

Next week I’ll share about our sense of smell (Olfactory) to de-stress.

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Happiness & Craving for Love

Bliss

Craving for love could be a long journey, at times painful, especially if we don’t know how to love ourselves. But we still want to feel loved. In the process, we forget that each one of us have our own journey to complete, our own feelings; struggles; actions; thoughts; behaviors; choices and a very individualized way of connecting with the world.

In our daily lives, we look for love from family; friends and people in general in different ways and at different places. Few examples – appreciation at work; recognition in community; respect at home; a smile/nod from a stranger; a hug from a child; a kiss from a partner; a warm welcome from a pet after a workday; and the feeling of peace when surrounded with trees/water/stars and so on.

All of us have this simple need of love to be happy whether we openly accept it or not. We go through various stages in life where we test and try our beliefs which we have gathered through our life experiences so far. Sometimes we get accepted/rejected by ourselves and others. Instead of getting upset/happy, do we stop and think that why we are being accepted/rejected?

We fluctuate in our need for love and happiness on daily basis as well as throughout our lifetimes. Yes others can help us to feel good at times. However the ongoing feeling of love and happiness got to come from within us. To find that spot, we need to be aware of ourselves inside-out and self-reflection is a great tool to achieve that. If we are not aware of our own needs or should I say mood swings then how can we take care of ourselves? And if we can’t take care of ourselves then how can we be genuinely there for others whether it’s co-workers/teams; Family; friends; community? When we continue to ask questions like these and constantly look for answers, we take an additional steps towards accessing our great wisdom.

When we live mindfully, we refine our thoughts; behaviors and actions. We continue to work towards the ultimate goal of being happy, feeling it at the cellular level. When we reach this stage of being happy, we become pure; unattached and full of compassion! And then the real loving and giving begins. The more we give the more we become happier. “You want to be immediately happy, make someone happy” without any expectations – Dr. Deepak Chopra. Try it!!

After achieving the happiness stage, being happy becomes our nature. We become pure; our vibrations change; we attract more happy people around us and the happiness multiplies.

Originally happiness was not dependent on anything or anyone. We just need to go back to our original nature. Happiness is like that free floating particle/atom, for which we might not have a complete explanation but we know it’s there ~

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SAMHAJ’s Annual Picnic

SAMHAJ_Picnic

SAMHAJ is the South Asian Mental Health Association of New Jersey. Under the gracious leadership of Ms. Aruna Rao, for last 15 years it has been actively providing support, education and advocacy for South Asians affected by serious mental illness.

SAMHAJ provides:

  • “Support for families and individuals affected by mental illness through support groups, and referrals to bilingual and culturally competent mental health services. We offer a supportive environment to help you and your family to learn to navigate the often complicated mental health system. Our South Asian staff and volunteers speak Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati, Konkani, and Marathi.
  • Professional guest speakers are invited to speak at educational workshops and lectures on issues that are important to your family’s journey towards recovery. Workshops cover subjects such as psychiatric medication, social security disability, rehabilitation and vocational training, coping with caregiver stress and anxiety, children’s mental health and many more topics.
  • Workshops for mental health providers, other social service agencies and schools seeking to learn more about the rapidly growing South Asian community in New Jersey in order to provide culturally competent services.”

Annual Picnic

SAMHAJ celebrates many events throughout the year. During the weekend of 8/2/15, SAMHAJ members came together to participate in the annual picnic in a serene park in East Brunswick. It was a beautiful day with the Sun shining; subtle wind blowing; trees dancing to the wind; birds chirping; and all of us catching up with each other under the clear blue sky and fresh air.

During the picnic we enjoyed Indo-American food; songs; quiz; games; jokes; mental health related information; and few wonderful experiences of members so far for the year 2015. Many new talented members joined us as well!

The whole group was a healthy combination of people in various age groups; members in recovery; care takers; professionals and well-wishers. The common denominator was the feeling of one big family in which all members are motivated to work towards the common cause to the best of their abilities.

I can’t help to think about the event in context of my favorite Yoga Philosophy and Neuroscience. I bet the vibrations (Yoga Philosophy) that were being released by everyone under the blue sky were powerful, positive and full of compassion! Going by the Neuroscience, I believe everybody was releasing the “happy chemicals” like Dopamine and Serotonin during those hours!!

Overall another stimulating and satisfying experience with SAMHAJ group. I am already looking forward to the SAMHAJ Holiday Party in October/November!!

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The Independence

Suruchi Saini, MA, LPC, NCC, CCTP

~Remembering the history; working in the present; hoping for the future~

 

Our independent collective-soul acquires a structure; our body

With our Karmas and thoughts; completes life journey

Goes through ups and downs, yet stands up again and again

Craves for perfection, yet accepts imperfection again and again

We make mistakes but learn to forgive ourselves too

We move on but remember the fondness of memories too

Sometimes the mind grieves but the soul strives

Sometimes the words hurt but the thought revives

When injured, we know how to look within

When ecstatic, we know how to let others join in

To rejuvenate the soul again

We need to connect our hearts and minds again

Connected minds illuminate the soul

Whether the soul is of a person, a nation or the universe as a whole!!

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Mindfulness at DBSA

Suruchi Saini, MA, LPC, NCC, CCTP

One more time, I presented “Mindfulness with Neuroscience and Yoga Philosophy” at Depression and Bipolar support Alliance (DBSA), Morristown, NJ. A group 35 people/enthusiasts got together to learn and share about Mindfulness/Meditation practices and their benefits on multiple aspects of life.

Soul Connections

During the workshop, I spoke about how being Mindful daily we develop a pure connection with ourselves; our near and dear ones; and eventually with the whole Universe. Yes this sequence is very important. If we are unable to listen to our own mind, body and soul, how can we perceive messages from other peoples’ mind, body and soul to have the soul connection? “The soul connection”, “the frequency” or “the limbic system connection” you call it by any name according to your orientation.

Today when we look around, high percentage of people are lacking the soul connections. The most shocking and painful are the connections between parents and children. In general due to lack of soul connections, we are increasingly unable to build healthy relationships. Result – misunderstandings; inability to express; feelings of loneliness even when surrounded with family/friends/co-workers; Stress; Anxiety; Depression; mistrust; disrespect towards ourselves, our near and dear ones and eventually the universe.

Also, due to lack of healthy connections, we are becoming like exhausted machines which are functioning somehow due to our past programming but have no idea about how our other parts and our surrounding are doing. Yes you can say that machines are not supposed to know that and of course they can run nonstop anyways, but we can’t. We are supposed to be aware. That awareness comes from mindfulness, by paying attention on ourselves first and then on people and everything else in our surroundings

Yoga Philosophy

During the presentation, we also briefly practiced three “Mudras” to reduce anxiety; increase focus and overall healing. I call them “quick fixes” which can be used anytime in a day, especially during and after the stressful moments.

However nothing beats the daily meditation for 10-20 minutes though. Meditation gives our mind the clarity and stability that we all need, the same stability that we were once born with. Once our minds are stable, the triggers won’t affect us that much, and for some reason if they do, our recovery will be faster!

In the end, as usual we discussed about the basic needs of our body like – 8/8 rule and of course healthy diet. According to the Yoga Philosophy, our GI track has to be in excellent order for our mind and body to stay healthy. Yoga helps us to connect our mind with the body which is needed to achieve the state of Homeostasis/Equilibrium.

Collective Consciousness

I believe when more and more people are in the state of Homeostasis, the collective consciousness increases. That’s exactly what we need today more than ever. Like we are personally responsible for ourselves and collectively for our family, same way we are also responsible for our collective/world hemostasis. Each one of us matter, let’s begin to make soul connections with ourselves; our near and dear ones and the universe. ~ Peace ~