Here's A Quick Way To Improve Health and Your Life Direction
In 5 to 20 Minutes a Day

© Anna Miller-Tiedeman, 2011

Permission granted for educational use

Let's start with mindset, something most people see as empty and useless. However, recent research suggests that changing your mind can change your gene expression, which in turn changes your health. Easy? Well, not so fast. Changing your mind isn't as easy as changing shirts, but it’s worth taking a run at.

Dr. Herbert Benson, M. D., and director of the Mind/Body Institute, at Harvard University, and author of The Relaxation Response, and the new The Relaxation Revolution, says that "we now have scientific proof that the mind can heal the body." This means we do have a say in both prevention and healing of our bodies. This could reduce health costs, offer a greater sense of happiness and make us more productive. More importantly, the procedure is free. No travel to workshops or seminars required.

The nature of the relaxation response is the opposite of the fight or flight response. People who get the most out of this approach understand that mind/body healing is now rooted in scientific fact. We have known for a long time that the placebo effect (often a sugar pill) helps produce healing because the individual believes it will work. This conviction changes the physiology like any other general expectation or certainty. We know that beliefs affect political outcomes as well. Whether it is true or false, beliefs drive the decision.

^{It also happens in career development. If you think that career is only about job or profession, then connecting health to life direction doesn’t work, because your paradigm (belief) doesn’t include it. You could think about this as a complementarity approach: when you focus on one thing, you miss everything else, and this introduces both uncertainty and limited information. Driving is a great illustration.  When we're preoccupied, we often miss an intended exit; and, in career development, we miss opportunities for the same reason.}

Now to the nuts-and-bolts of how you can start moving more toward a relaxed stance in life, which can produce many rewards. Think of relaxation/meditation as your Rewards Card, one that keeps on giving.

1. Break the train of your everyday thinking by words like love, peace, God, or words from the Lord’s prayer, shalom, ohm, hail Mary, or interrupt your day with a run, or whatever you do. Some people prefer to sit for 5 minutes each day and clear their mind. Others find this meditative state in gardening. If you start thinking during your time out, just say, “Next,” or whatever word will send the thought on.
2. Optimum time is 15 to 20 minutes, but five minutes will do.
3. You can practice this meditative state anywhere: an airport, supermarket, hair dresser, and even more creative places.
4. Daily practice for at least 8 weeks will change your physiology (Scientific proof on this).

I will conclude with this principle: Explanation never convinced anyone of anything.

But as a gardener, I always have hope a seed will grow. Someday, when you’re ready to stop your life for a few minutes a day, I hope you remember having read this article. .

I'm Dr. Anna Miller-Tiedeman, Director of the New Careering Institute, Inc., and I welcome your comments and questions. anna@life-is-career.com.