Color Breathing – a Relaxation Technique

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Breathing exercises are one of the many relaxation techniques we can use to manage stress, reduce blood pressure and increase our vibration daily. They are fantastic for health and wellbeing. Many people do not breath properly, meaning the oxygen does not circulate around the body as well as it could. Oxygen is nourishing and essential to the body, helping to fight free radicals and boost your immune system. It can also help you to feel alert.

So OXYGEN = GOOD.

And BREATHING PROPERLY = ESSENTIAL.

One of the ways we can improve our breathing is by using a breathing technique and one of our favorites is color breathing. The added benefit of this breathing exercise is the relaxation it brings. It is often used at the end of Yoga or Pilates classes.

Colors can also be used to help bring balance, with different colors said to evoke and promote different emotions. For example dark red is associated with passion and power, and a deep blue is thought of as calming and relaxing.

Color Breathing Relaxation Technique

  1. Find somewhere quiet where you won’t be disturbed and sit comfortably. Ideally you can sit as you would to meditate, however if this is not possible you can sit on a chair with your back straight and your feet planted firmly on the floor. The technique can also be done lying down if you prefer.
  2. Close your eyes and take a minute to go through each part of your body, making sure that your muscles are relaxed and you are not holding any tension. In particular release your shoulders, however check all of your body.
  3. Now bring your awareness to your breathing, just listening to the air flowing in and out, not trying to control the breathing at this stage, but just noticing the breath start to slow down as you relax. Stay at this stage until you feel fully relaxed.
  4. Next breath in slowly through the nose and exhale slowly through the mouth.
  5. Now with each ‘in’ breath imagine that you are breathing in a relaxing color. Just choose a color that you find relaxing. For most people it is usually a blue, a green or a purple. So with each breath you are breathing in that color. Feel it traveling all around your body, relaxing you as it goes.
  6. As you exhale imagine you are breathing out the color bright red. Feel this color red leave your body with each ‘out’ breath, and with it you are exhaling any stress or tension that you have built up during the day.
  7. Continue to do this for several minutes, keeping the eyes closed.
  8. When you are ready slowly bring your awareness back to your physical surroundings. Start by wiggling your fingers and toes, still with your eyes closed at this stage, and then when you are ready gently open your eyes. When you feel awake again you can stand up.

When you do this color breathing relaxation exercise it will leave you feeling calm, relaxed and ready for the day ahead. It can be done first thing in the morning to set you up for the day, last thing at night to help you relax and wind down, or at any time during the day if you need to de-stress.

NB: If you ever feel dizzy ever while doing the exercise you may have slowed your breathing too much, just go back to breathing normally until you feel better again.

Top 12 Ways To Raise Your Vibration

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We all talk a lot about ‘raising our vibration’ but how do we actually do this in practice?

First, it’s important to look at WHY you want to raise your vibration. If you are unclear about your big ‘why’ it is unlikely that you will be successful in doing it. For most people increasing your vibration is to improve your life. It is to create more and better energy so that you might attract in more opportunities and better circumstances which are more in alignment with your desires. This will only work if you know exactly what your desires are. Use the VIBE tools to get clear on this. Get crystal clear on your own big why.

So how do you know what level you are vibrating at anyway? Well our circumstances don’t lie. If you want to know how your vibration is take a look at your own circumstances, i.e. what you have already created in your life. Is it what you want? The law of attraction says we ALWAYS create in alignment with the vibration we are putting out. However don’t feel disheartened if your circumstances are not ideal. It is helpful to accept that some ‘contrast’ in the form of what we don’t want is really useful in helping us to get clear on what we do want. And our circumstances are always a snapshot of our previous thoughts, because thoughts become things. Meaning that there is a time delay between what we ‘think’ about and it manifesting. So what you are seeing today is a snapshot of your previous thoughts and feelings. This is GREAT NEWS because it means that if you think happy thoughts today you will get happy circumstances tomorrow (or sometime soon).

Therefore what you ‘think’ is important, and so too is what you ‘feel’. Your emotions have vibrations too, and this is what you put out into the world. What we put out we get back. And we here at Raised Vibration take thing a step further by using four key practices together (V.I.B.E. Visualization, Intending, Believing, Experiencing) to cause major reality shifts as swiftly as possible.

So all that said what can we do practically to raise our vibration and feel better on a daily basis? Here is a list of some of our favorite ways. Stay tuned for our “101 Ways to Raise Your Vibration” e-book that is almost ready for primetime. Signup Here to reserve a free copy.

  1. Dancing – Salsa, Zumba, Tap, La Roque or just dancing around your living room. Any kind of dancing that gets your energy flowing and makes you feel good will do it.
  2. Meditating – Meditating is essential for connecting to source and for inner peace/wellbeing. If practiced regularly it can help you to feel calmer, better connected and it will increase your vibe.
  3. Journaling – Journaling is a great way to process your thoughts, feelings and emotions. Even if some of what comes out seems ‘negative’, often just the process of getting it out and onto paper can make you feel better.
  4. Cuddling –  Cuddling your partner, your mother, your friend, your pet. Cuddling anyone really. Cuddling and touch release Oxytocin, a ‘feel good’ bonding hormone. The same affect can be achieved by stroking your dog or cat. In fact stroking your dog or cat has also been shown to have a calming affect and reduce blood pressure.
  5. Movement/Exercise – Moving your body releases the feel good hormone Seratonin and also boosts those lovely Endorphins. This can bring you a natural high. It is important to choose a type of exercise that you enjoy.
  6. Breathing – Breathing is vital to life and when we are stressed we do not breath properly – our breathing actually becomes shallow and so we don’t get the nourishing oxygen fully into our system. There is an age old saying which is simply ‘breath’ when things become overwhelming. There is wisdom behind this saying. Breathing properly can slow the heart rate, get oxygen around the system more effectively to the heart, muscles, lungs and brain, and help reduce the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. It can help us to feel more focused and energized. There are plenty of breathing exercises available to learn. Google it and see what comes up.
  7. Listening to your favorite music – a few minutes of your favorite uplifting tunes can do wonders to lift your vibe. Preferably something with a beat because it also appeals to our tribal roots and that primal part of the brain responsible for recognizing rhythms.
  8. Walking in nature – Nature has it’s own energy. It would be hard for anyone to walk in a beautiful, lush forest or climb a mountain and not feel energized. Having said that if you don’t have time to climb a mountain today a walk in the park will do!
  9. Listening to your favorite Self Help Guru – Sometimes despite all our efforts we still feel low energy. Often the thing that can pull us up out of our funk is listening to a  Self Help Guru whom we find inspiring. We like Abraham Hicks, however anyone who you find motivating will do the trick. You can use Youtube if you don’t have any of their stuff readily available.
  10. Preparing/eating a nourishing meal – For some people cooking is a way to unwind in itself. However even if you don’t enjoy cooking we can all benefit from a nourishing meal. Food has it’s own energy. Fresh, living food such as organic fruit and vegetables are the best for when you need some serious lifting. Although any food you enjoy has the potential to make you feel good. Try blessing the food before you eat it for an extra infusion of love and energy.
  11. A day at the spa – Who wouldn’t feel energized from a day at the spa? Choose treatments that appeal to you.
  12. A massage – Have a massage or any kind of bodywork that makes you feel uplifted. An aromatherapy massage can feel really good because you can choose oils whose properties are uplifting. You can either have a massage from a professional or ask your partner for a budget friendly option.

We would love to hear from you. Share your top ways in which you lift your own vibration.

Go Be You Because No One Else Can

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Get out there and BE YOU for all the world to see.

“There is a vitality, a life-force, and energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.” ~ Martha Graham

Talent! What’s yours?

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TALENT! What’s YOUR talent? What do you LOVE to do? What are you naturally good at? If we locked you in a closet all day, and you had to be DOING something that made your heart sing, what would that be? LIFE is such a gift. We all don’t have to be Billy Joel to REALIZE our gifts and let them shine on the world. In fact, there is only one Billy Joel. And there is DEFINITELY only ONE YOU! Go be YOU today and ROCK the WORLD!

Thank you Michael Pollack and Billy Joel for showing us your talents.

Field of Dreams

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Probably the most iconic line in Kevin Costner’s elegy to baseball, salvation and to magical manifestation is “Build it, and they will come.”

In fact, it’s become so iconic, it’s become ironic–an overused punchline that turns up mostly these days in stand-up routines and TV commercials.

But let’s try to see the belief anew, with fresh eyes and an open mind, as if we were seeing that movie and watching those ghostly baseball players emerge from the lush Iowa cornfields for the first time. Build it, and they will come. A gorgeous example of “acting as if”–behaving as if we already have what we want, and in doing so, raising our vibration until what we want is inevitably attracted to us.

The thing is, “act as if” runs both ways. Yes, grasshopper. You can use your powers for good–or evil.

Ever think or believe that if you wash your car, it will rain?  That if you take an umbrella, it won’t?  For years, one of us suffered from the absolute belief that if she washed and changed the sheets on the guestroom bed in expectation of company, that company wouldn’t materialize. You know what? That was the end result, more often than not.

So which came first?  The result or the belief?

This is where superstition comes from. If you see a black cat or walk under a ladder, you’ll have bad luck. The number 13 is evil, and the number 666 is satanic. Step on a crack and you’ll break your mother’s back.

True? Maybe. But only because of people who embrace these ideas believe they are.

If you believe in superstition, you believe you have the power to influence your reality with your thoughts and actions–yep, you’re a manifester in action!

So if your thoughts and actions are gonna turn up in your reality, why not choose the good ones instead?

Making money is easy.

Eating healthily comes naturally.

And, yes: build it, and they will come.

 

 

The Universe Is Not Your Fairy Godmother

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Are you waiting for a hero, in a line from another “Shrek” song?  Or are you, perhaps, waiting for a fairy godmother/aka the Universe to “make” your dreams and wishes come true?

Sweetheart. It’s not going to work, except perhaps by pure dumb accident.

Manifesting is about way more than having dreams and making wishes–although setting intention is key. Affirmations, mantras, vision boards (we call ’em V.I.B.E. Boards here at Raised Vibration) are powerful tools to help you bring what you want into your life.

But if you want to win the lottery, eventually you’re gonna have to buy a ticket.

And if you want to make a wish come true, it’s going to take a little more effort than blowing out some birthday candles, wishing on a star, letting a teardrop call on a fairy godmother’s business card, or chanting affirmations.

Let’s say the Universe isn’t like a Fairy Godmother (who really, after all, only grants wishes to whoever she pleases, and punishes those she dislikes–she’s more like the Puritans’ idea of a “vengeful and wrathful God”), but more like your car’s GPS.  The Universe–and your GPS–can get you pretty much wherever you want to go, but programming your destination in is only part of the magic.

First you have to get into your car, demonstrating your readiness and willingness to begin your journey.

Then you program your GPS, setting your intention for what you want.

http://youtu.be/SRfVkZW_4e0

And then?  Well, then, dear one, as long as you just sit in your car in your garage or your driveway, nothing much will happen.  The GPS/Universe can’t bring you what you want until you actually start driving, putting yourself on the path to finding your heart’s desire (or the nearest Starbucks, which may, in some cases, amount to the same thing).

So today? Go ahead and make those wishes and dream those dreams. They are the critical starting place.  But then, for goodness sake, start the car. Buy the ticket. Take a step in the direction of those dreams.

Now that’s what we call making magic.

Believe It or Not

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Overheard in a coffeehouse:

Woman:  I had all of these beliefs about what love was supposed to look like, and it took me years to get past that. I believe differently now.

Man:  But how did you change your beliefs?

Woman:  I just stopped believing them and decided to believe in something else.

The man looked shocked, as if the woman had just announced that she had woken up one day and decided to swap out her entire head for a new model.

For many of us, our beliefs seem not just integral to who we are, they appear to BE who we are:  I am a Christian, someone might say. I am a Democrat. I am a hopeless romantic.

The above aren’t who we are. They’re not even fact. They are beliefs, and beliefs can be picked up and put down, in any moment, at any given time.

Some of you may be challenged by reading this. You feel your faith is important to you, and perhaps even defines you. You may feel threatened by the suggestion that your beliefs—ANY belief–is optional.

So let’s take it to a less volatile level.  Ask a child what they believe, and you’ll get a host of fascinating answers. They believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. They believe they have the power to make their parents sick or well, or possibly, in the case of children who’ve lost a parent, the power to kill them entirely, just by being angry one day and wishing them dead. Depending on their age, children may believe that they can fly, that there are monsters under the bed, that chocolate milk comes from brown cows, that tiny people live inside the TV and make all the shows.

They believe these beliefs as fervently as you believe yours. Are they “wrong?” In the context of what they know and what works for them? Nnot really. They, like all of us, choose their beliefs based upon observation, their imagination, their past experiences, and, most importantly, based on what serves them. Most of them will eventually replace these beliefs with different ones. And they won’t think a thing of it.

So why do we grown-ups feel all wobbly and even angry at the thought of questioning our beliefs, no matter how gently? A belief is simply a story. It may or may not be factually, observably true. And whether or not it’s universally true isn’t really the point, anyway.

Here’s where the real gold is:

What do you believe about yourself, about others, about life, about the world?

Does it serve you to hold those beliefs?

If it doesn’t, isn’t it worth questioning those beliefs that aren’t working and considering finding different beliefs that do?

Henry Ford, a brilliant entrepreneur and apparently something of a jerk (brilliant people, sadly, often are), is famous for having said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Whatever you believe? Yep, you’re right.

But are you sure you want to be?

 

The Power of Allowing

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If you’re at all self-aware (or even if you just glance at magazine covers in waiting rooms), you’ve seen tons of articles about the power of positive thinking, the importance of acting as if you already have/are what you want, the science of happiness, and the Tao of Pooh. If you’re like us, you live it, mostly, and you believe in it, too. You’ve seen the magic that results from gratitude, intentional living, affirmations and remembering that your thoughts become things.

What doesn’t get talked about anywhere near as much, however–probably because it simply isn’t as much fun–is that no human being, no matter how evolved, goes around being positive 24/7. Bad stuff happens, from small annoyances and irritations to massive tragedy, and pretty much none of us reacts to it, at least initially, by jumping up and down and saying, “Yay! Death and illness and poverty and despair! What amazing learning opportunities!”

Even when they are. Learning opportunities, that is.

But let’s set that to one side, for a moment, because we’re not ready to talk about that. Let’s talk about the crap. The person or thing or job you lost. The scary diagnosis. The mean girls who hurt you. The intimate who betrayed you. The accident that cost you something important to you. The depression, the fear, the doubt.

What should you be feeling about all that?

Simple: exactly what you feel.

But won’t that screw everything up?  If “acting as if” you have the things you want works, then won’t acting as if your life sucks make your life, well, suck more?

No. Well, yes, a little. But mostly no.

Let’s pick an example. Let’s say your house and everything in it burns down tomorrow. Unless you’re scamming your insurance company (and you are among the half a dozen people on the planet who know how to set a fire that can’t be traced to the point of origin), there is no way you are going to feel happy or joyful or positive about this. It’s huge, this loss, even if no one was hurt and you’re all lucky to be alive. You just lost everything you own.

Whenever there’s loss, there’s grief. Because in every loss, big and small, there’s a small death of something, even if it’s the death of a dream or the death of how you thought your life was going to be. Maybe it’s the loss of the illusion of invulnerability. Maybe it’s the loss of your kids’ baby pictures. Maybe it’s the loss of an irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind artwork or antique.

When you can get to a place where you can feel the good that can come out of this tragedy, acknowledging that positivity will be powerful indeed. But for most of us, the only way to get to that point is through the muck and the yuck. The surreal disbelief and denial. The anger and feelings of unfairness. The self-pity and depression.

And an interesting thing happens, when you allow yourself to feel what you’re feeling, without judgment, without rushing it, without making things feel even worse by telling yourself that whatever it is you’re grieving “shouldn’t” matter.

You make it past the pain faster. That’s worth repeating: by allowing yourself to actually feel every inch and every minute of the pain that’s coming up for you, you create the space to honor those feelings and to make room for what comes next.

And what comes next is usually recovery, which will look as unique to you as your pain did. Maybe at first, you’ll find gratitude in all the things/people you didn’t lose. Maybe you’ll realize that some of that “stuff” wasn’t as important to you as you thought it was. Maybe you’ll realize that within this pit of sour pain is also opportunity: who will you be, what will you become, as a result of this tragedy? How can it serve you, better you, strengthen you, even allow you to serve others?

If you feel like you haven’t got time for the pain, I urge you, gently, to make some. Because pain denied is simply pain deferred, not pain avoided, and it will come squishing out at some future point when I absolutely guarantee you’re not expecting it, aren’t ready for it, and will likely splash your wounds all over innocent bystanders. It will last–and this is a very scientific calculation–about 15 billion times longer than if you had just allowed yourself to feel it and process it in the first place.

Allow all of your feelings, including the yucky uncomfortable ones. Because when we allow ourselves to feel all that we feel, we make room for the natural flow, for the tides to wax and wane, for the good times and feelings to come around and gently cradle us once again.
 

Under a Tuscan Moon

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Some of us stand at night looking up at the heavens and feel humbled and tiny and insignificant.

Some of us feel connected to all that is and feel a sense of expanded consciousness, as if there were literally more space between our cells.

None of us are “wrong.”

Being in vastness, whether that’s under a starry sky, standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon, or sitting on a pier jutting out into the ocean, has a way of putting things in perspective. But it’s important to remember that here, as everywhere, you choose your perspective. So how about choosing one that works for you and uplifts you instead of one that makes you feel frightened and small?

The writer Anne Lamott has a saying she likes to quote, which comes from her late father: “Every hundred years, all new people.” For her, this helps her put her day-to-day cares, struggles and emotions in perspective. She also finds it freeing: if in a hundred years everyone you know, including yourself, will be dead, when are you gonna carpe some diem, huh? What does wearing matching socks and playing by all the “rules” and trying desperately to fit in match up with a scenario in which, not so very long from now, no one will be around who cared?

So being in vastness and gaining a sense of “Wow, my problems really aren’t that big or that permanent” can be a great and freeing perspective. On the other hand, “Wow, I am really just a speck of meaningless dust and nothing I do matters” isn’t exactly a sentiment likely to make you want to jump up and down and execute a fist pump.  “Go, insignificant me!”

Then there’s the other way to go:  smiling up at the stars, or into the vast rocky crevasses, or out over the endless blue water, and taking a deep deep breath. You belong here, and you are blessed to be here, right at this time, right at this place. If you go very quiet and close your eyes, you may feel the energy of the vastness itself–does it really feel impersonal to you? Or does it feel like a great big hug from the Universe?

Another author, the late Michael Crichton, wrote about spending a night out in the desert and waking in the middle of the night to see that the stars above his sleeping bag had formed a peculiar formation, a message, even.  What was the big message?  “HI!”

Now, as Crichton himself observed, if he’s been lying the other direction, it’s possible the stars would have read “IH,” which is considerably less uplifting and magical. But he wasn’t, and they didn’t.

And so he smiled back at the Universe and whispered, from the cozy depths of his sleeping bag, “Hi back.”

When you are somewhere very big, does it make you feel very small, or does it help you expand to feel one with it all, part of some vast and wonderful design and creation?

Did you know you get to choose?

Back in the Saddle Again

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Summer is winding down. Cooler temps, crisp leaves and brand new boxes of crayons are just around the corner.

Some of us get excited about this time of year. It’s fresh-start territory, a chance to begin again with a cleared desk, a clean slate and all the possibilities of reinvention and renewal laid out like a banquet before us.

Others of us are wistfully looked backward, already missing summer, coming down hard from vacation highs, and, when we look ahead, doing so with a squint of dread. We don’t WANT to come back to what we call “reality.”

If you fall into the former category, cool beans! But if you find yourself tipping towards the latter? Consider: what are the elements that make up your daily “reality?” And if they do not fill you with hope, charge you with enthusiasm, light you up and make you dance in your chair even a little, why in the world are you still doing them?

But. . . .

You have to have a job, right? You have to take care of the kids and the house and the yard and the bills. Life isn’t all sunshine and swimming pools, after all, and your job isn’t supposed to be fun–that’s why they call it WORK.

If you’ll excuse the mild epithet: bullpucky.

Yes, most of us require an income. Yes, most of us wish to meet our responsibilities. But you, dear reader, get to choose what that looks like. Life can be sunshine and swimming pools and fun AND still also provide for you and yours in abundance. What you do with your life, how you choose to live it and express your best self, isn’t, thank goodness, a binary choice.

So as you get ready to ride in the next few weeks, take a good hard look at your mount. Is this the right horse for you, the one who will take you where you want to go? Do you know how to ride gently but masterfully, with YOU in charge instead of your steed?

Want to trade in your horse or your equipment for the ride of your lifetime, the one that takes you to your dreams? Visit us at https://raisedvibration.com for the visioning, planning and accountability tools that will make sure your trails are happy ones.

Time to saddle up, cowboys and cowgirls. What’s it going to be?