Emotional Regulation: Mindful Action, Breathing, and Centering

Centering is an ancient visualization technique that is popular in Aikido -- the Japanese defensive martial art of "spiritual harmony." It teaches you to focus on the here and now, taking power away from outside concerns and negative thoughts, and helping you remain stable and grounded.

Aikido trains your mind to control your body's reactions using the concept of "ki." This holds that all physical and mental power comes from the flow of energy around your body. Energy is lost when you are tense or stressed, but Centering redirects negative energy in a beneficial way.

Think back to a time when you were feeling stressed or afraid. What physical reactions did you experience? Tense muscles, rapid breathing, sweating palms, and a racing heart are all common reactions to a stressful situation.

Now, imagine that all of these feelings are the result of energy flowing through your body. Centering uses your mind to redirect this energy to the center of your body, giving you a sense of inner calm.

The technique was adopted as a power-enhancing tool by sport psychologist Dr. Robert Nideffer in the mid-1970s, and he outlined it in his 1992 book, "Psyched to Win." It was also championed by performance coach Dr. Don Greene in his 2002 book, "Fight Your Fear and Win."

When Centering Is Useful

You can use Centering to improve your focus and manage stress before a speech, musical recital, exam, job interview, negotiation, or sporting event -- whenever you need to keep a clear head in difficult circumstances.

Centering can also be useful in more common situations. If you need to gather your thoughts before a difficult conversation, or if you have to deliver bad news, use Centering to channel your nerves so that you can communicate clearly, compassionately and effectively.

Seven Ways to Escape Negative Thinking

by Dawn Gluskin

If you are finding yourself trapped in negative thinking patterns and want out, here are some tips to help break the cycle:

1. Embrace a willingness to change. Be open to a different way of thinking. This is a must and can only come from within. "No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path." -- Buddha

2. Be able to face the truth. Nobody likes coming to terms with their own fears and negativity, but the only way to chase out darkness is to shine light on it. Free writing is a good way to get to the heart of these blocks. Be open and honest. Ask yourself: What is the negative story I've created for myself? How have I abused myself with my own thoughts? In your writing, you will find that, in our own minds, we can be downright nasty to ourselves sometimes!

3. Forgive yourself and others. Beating yourself up about past negative thoughts and behavior is a negative thought and behavior, and a counter-productive one at that. The same goes for holding grudges against others -- you are only hurting yourself by holding onto that negative energy. It's never too late to start again. Focus on letting go and being joyful in this present moment while embracing the endless possibilities of the future that lies ahead.

4. Choose an attitude of gratitude. We all have so much to be grateful for if we just take the time to look around and soak it all in. From the sun that rises each morning, to the ability to get out of bed and breathe in the air another day, and to being fortunate enough to have all of our basic needs met, we are surrounded by miracles. We, ourselves, are one. Appreciate!

5. Practice mindfulness. Become aware of your negative thoughts as they come. A meditation practice will help greatly in mindfulness training. You can also try this: Wear a special bracelet on your wrist. Each time you notice yourself having a negative thought, switch the bracelet to the other arm. At first, you might find yourself constantly switching the bracelet back and forth throughout the day. Those little negative buggers creep in constantly, from being stuck in traffic to experiencing a business deal that doesn't go as expected. But, over time, you will switch the bracelet less and less as you develop an increased awareness. By noticing these negative thoughts as they come, you can stop them from occurring as often and adopt a more positive mindset.

6. Be of service to others. Being able to help someone else in need is rewarding in itself, but it's also an incredibly humbling way to shift our own perceptions on life. We are more blessed than we know, and helping others who are struggling helps to put things into perspective.

7. Accept. There is only so much we can control in our daily lives. The act of accepting reality as it is dealt to us is completely liberating. Save your energy for what you actually have control over.
The good news: Those who are open to it and willing to put in the work can change negative thinking patterns and have a life beyond their wildest dreams! Just work on it one day at a time and you will begin to see the beautiful shift.

Ben Thomas Blog; How to Stick to Your Resolutions by Hacking Your Brain

When former U.S. Marine Jason Scott Johnson set out to write a book on everyday fitness, he faced an unusual challenge. Not only would he have to boil down his intensive workout regimen into widely accessible tips, but he'd also have to translate his sense of discipline into words that would motivate ordinary readers to set clear health goals and stick with them.

Johnson arrived at a set of motivational tactics that, interestingly enough, have been used by psychologists for decades and studied by neuroscientists for nearly as long. The wide range of personal problems to which psychotherapists have applied concepts like these, and the level of detail at which brain researchers have explored them, can help us pinpoint some of the subtle tricks that our minds play on us every day. These "trade secrets" of the brain can also provide us some clues about how to hack our mental processes and get them working on our side.

Take, for instance, Johnson's suggestion of keeping a "Win Journal" for noting small successes on a daily basis. Psychotherapists have a long history of advising patients to keep a journal like this, for purposes such as sticking to new year's resolutions and overcoming chronic depression. And that's because these two problems -- bad habits and poor self-esteem -- often share a common and surprisingly simple cause: We're wired, on the whole, to relive negative memories more vividly than positive ones.



We've found evidence that even animals like mice share this tendency of ours, and scientists have a pretty good idea of why natural selection tends to preserve it. For a mouse (or an ape), preserving a vivid memory of a sweet-smelling flower or a cool swim doesn't offer any particular survival benefit, but if a certain shape of shadow means a predator lurks nearby, quick recognition and reaction are all that separate survival from death. In fact, as I've talked about in a previous blog post, traumatic experiences can work like drugs, activating unique sensory and emotional pathways that cement vivid memories in long-term storage.
Of course, that's not to say that you can't form vivid long-term memories of your first kiss or your latest roller-coaster plunge, nor does this evolutionary adaptation lessen the importance of recognizing when your bad habits and memories turn into destructive obsessions. In fact, that's one crucial trait that separates you from your mammalian relatives: You can choose to keep a record of happy memories to counteract an overactive survival mentality.
Whether you keep a "Win Journal" or just a photo album, your story will serve as a constant reminder of what you're capable of -- and inspire you to shoot even higher in the future. And psychologists suggest coupling this technique with a related one: giving yourself little rewards, like a dinner out or a drive in the countryside, every time you meet a milestone or step outside your comfort zone. The more you reshape your expectations of yourself and reward yourself when you defy those old limits, the more you'll find yourself sticking to your goals.
The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, whether we're conscious that we're telling them or not, exert quite a pull on our will power and self-control. From birth until death, our brains never stop looking for ways to perform common tasks more efficiently, and that means it's not easy to reshape neural pathways that have gotten comfortable playing out the same old habits. But the good news is that dread of change is nowhere near as powerful as expectation of rewards, once you get into the habit of expecting them.

So what kind of story do you want to tell yourself this year?