Getting to the Heart of Stress: with the Heartnicity Method
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About this ebook
It was a simple experiment. I asked clients and friends how they felt about getting up in the morning. People’s orientation toward their lives seems to be related to how they respond to stress. Disempowering stress generally preceded an aversion to the day, while well managed or an absence of stress paved the way to a much more enthusiastic greeting to the morning sun.
This book is about creating a positive response to the question and living with an understanding that enables you to get out of bed each day with a sense of meaning, purpose and profound joy. Secure in the knowledge that whatever happens - good or bad, you’ll feel good about yourself and be confident in your ability to create your life.
It’s about how to make sense of the demands of everyday living and how to alleviate the often associated and distressing states of mind that can overwhelm and undermine your efforts to find meaning, joy and peace.
Getting to the Heart of Stress with The Heartnicity Method has been written to help you to transform the stress in your life so it can give you renewed energy for living.
It’s about understanding stress and using a tried and tested method to not only alleviate its negative consequences but also to transform your experience and perception of stress as the means to bring great meaning and purpose to your life.
In Getting to the Heart of Stress I have called on all latest scientific research into neuroplasticity, the physiological and psychological theory and understanding of the human autonomic, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
In addition to presenting the latest concepts, I have also drawn inspiration from the experiences of the many clients and course participants I have met and served along the way as a therapist / counsellor and as a facilitator in personal growth and life skills education. Ordinary people who have transformed their lives using the practices outlined in this book. Their names and identifying details have been changed, where appropriate, to maintain privacy.
So what is Heartnicity? When I was looking for a word to describe my work, I couldn’t find one that meant bringing love and meaning together, so I made a word up that combined heart (love, emotion, strength) with synchronicity (making meaning from coincidences). Heartnicity is about making meaning through the intelligence of the heart.
The Heartnicity Method provides a practical guide using everyday stories from my own life experiences as a woman, wife, mother, public speaker, personal development teacher and psychotherapist. The Heartnicity Method introduces AWARENESS, ACCEPTANCE and ACTION as foundation skills that underpin a conscious and joyful way of living life to the full.
The practices in this book are aimed at assisting you to understand, recognise, reduce and manage the symptoms of harmful stress while mobilising the energy available from dynamic tension to act in line with what lights you up and gives you energy and meaning in your life.
I recognise that we can often be faced with a loss of meaning and overwhelming stress and I believe passionately that we can learn how to create meaning, manage harmful stress, enjoy the benefits of good stress and learn to lead more peaceful and fulfilling lives. These words are offered with love and compassion for all of humanity as we head down the path toward global consciousness and personal inner peace.
Before you start on this journey with me, take a moment and ask yourself this question. "What gets me out of bed in the mornings? “What is the first thought that arises in my awareness each day?”
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Getting to the Heart of Stress - Margie Braunstein
Getting to the Heart of Stress with the Heartnicity Method
Written by Margie Braunstein
Edited & Published by David Braunstein
www.Heartnicity.com
mailto:Margie@Heartnicity.com
The Heartnicity Method
Copyright 2016© Margie Braunstein
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-9945467-0-8
LICENSE NOTES
This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you want to share the information within this book, then please purchase an additional copy for each person you’d like to share it with. If you did not buy this copy, then please use your integrity and pay for the item. I thank you for respecting the work of this author.
DISCLAIMER
This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of physicians. The reader should regularly consult a physician in matters relating to his/her physical or mental health and particularly with respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.
Contents
Dedication
About the author
About the book
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: THE STRESS HUMP
Chapter 2: AWARENESS
AWARENESS EXERCISES
Chapter 3: ACCEPTANCE
ACCEPTANCE EXERCISES
Chapter 4: ACTION
ACTION EXERCISES
Conclusion
Useful links
Acknowledgments
Dedication
For Gai Stephanie Roper
Who taught me how to teach
with love.
About the Author
Margie Braunstein is a passionate teacher, speaker, facilitator, coach and psychotherapist and has been a professional therapist for over 25 years. She is also a registered somatic psychotherapist who works with people to enhance conscious awareness and, by extension, improve the quality of their day to day lives.
Margie is a Clinical Member of the Psychotherapy & Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA). She has worked in the field of transformational learning for over 25 years and is currently a public speaker and committed teacher of The Heartnicity Method.
Margie is both curious and passionate about how amazing and unique we all are as human beings and offers people a healing experience which ultimately serves them to transform their perceptions about life and realise greater peace and joy.
As a dedicated meditation teacher and practitioner, she supports people to develop self awareness as a foundation skill for making life enhancing choices, rather than the more common knee jerk reactions that consistently compel most of us.
Margie’s extensive experience skilfully guides people to explore the beliefs and habits that get in the way of experiencing deep levels of peace. She believes that when people practice relaxation and meditation, the nervous system is given a chance to relax.
A relaxed nervous system leads to a sense of relaxed aliveness, where people may rediscover the simple beauty of their true nature and experience intensely peaceful states of being.
Margie is committed to her own personal purpose in life which is to teach love and to know love from an inner foundation of compassion, generosity and gratitude and through the practices of awareness, acceptance and heart based action.
Margie has been a constant source of inspiration to me. Her wit, humour, honesty and humility are apparent in Getting to the Heart of Stress. It captures the essence of her teaching style. Her down to earth wisdom and conversational style make this a must-read for anyone seeking a more conscious and peaceful life.
Margie offers her readers an opportunity to discover previously undeveloped aspects of themselves and to experience a fresh perspective on life that opens them up to greater depths of meaning and joy.
David Braunstein
Editor & Life partner for twenty-five years
About the Book
I saw a Facebook post the other day that said 14 Awesome Reasons to get out of bed this morning
I clicked the link and it took me through to Oprah’s website and the first reason was,
"# 1. Because the Brisket Waits for No Woman
You can't buy a McDonald's Egg McMuffin after 10:30 a.m."
After looking up what brisket meant (beef flank), I thought, Wow really! That’s the number one reason for some people to get out of bed? On the flip side I really liked number #11: Because Your Dulcimer Isn't Going to Play Itself. After looking up what a Dulcimer was (weird shaped string instrument), I thought some people have some very strange reasons for getting up each day...
For myself, these days I rarely have any trouble getting up and generally look forward to what life brings each day. There are a million and one things I want to get done but I can remember days when I’ve been awake all night thinking about those million and one things and feeling stressed and worried and worn-out by the sleepless night and getting out of bed was a physical stretch.
There have been other periods in my life when I was much less enthusiastic and the prospect of facing each day seemed like a hopeless task more akin to walking through setting concrete.
So, with my curiosity peaked, I starting asking people, what gets you out of bed every day?
and generally the answers fell between two broad camps.
One of my clients, who was having a really hard time said they often woke up feeling unrelenting pressure to make ends meet which left them feeling resigned to the daily grind as they pushed themselves to perform. Another said they woke up every morning hoping that that life would one day magically improve, while deep down believing that would probably never happen.
Others said they bounced out of bed with enthusiasm ready to meet whatever the coming day presented: a life they look forward to living with a sense of spirit and joy.
I realised that the difference in people’s orientation toward their life seemed to be related to how stressed they felt. Disempowering stress generally preceded an aversion to the day, while well managed or an absence of stress paved the way to a much more enthusiastic greeting to the morning sun.
This is a book about creating a positive response to the question and living with an understanding that enables you to get out of bed each day with a sense of meaning, purpose and profound joy. Secure in the knowledge that whatever happens - good or bad, you’ll feel good about yourself and be confident in your ability to create your life.
It’s about how to make sense of the demands of everyday living and how to alleviate the often associated and distressing states of mind that can overwhelm and undermine your efforts to find meaning, joy and peace.
Getting to the Heart of Stress with The Heartnicity Method has been written to help you to transform the stress in your life so it can give you renewed energy for living.
It’s about understanding stress and using a tried and tested method to not only alleviate its negative consequences but also to transform your experience and perception of stress as the means to bring great meaning and purpose to your life.
In Getting to the Heart of Stress I have called on all latest scientific research into neuroplasticity, the physiological and psychological theory and understanding of the human autonomic, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system.
In addition to presenting the latest concepts, I have also drawn inspiration from the experiences of the many clients and course participants I have met and served along the way as a therapist / counsellor and as a facilitator in personal growth and life skills education. Ordinary people who have transformed their lives using the practices outlined in this book. Their names and identifying details have been changed, where appropriate, to maintain privacy.
So what is Heartnicity? When I was looking for a word to describe my work, I couldn’t find one that meant bringing love and meaning together, so I made a word up that combined heart (love, emotion, strength) with synchronicity (making meaning from coincidences). Heartnicity is about making meaning through the intelligence of the heart.
The Heartnicity Method provides a practical guide using everyday stories from my own life experiences as a woman, wife, mother, public speaker, personal development teacher and psychotherapist. The Heartnicity Method introduces AWARENESS, ACCEPTANCE and ACTION as foundation skills that underpin a conscious and joyful way of living life to the full.
The practices in this book are aimed at assisting you to understand, recognise, reduce and manage the symptoms of harmful stress while mobilising the energy available from dynamic tension to act in line with what lights you up and gives you energy and meaning in your life.
I recognise that we can often be faced with a loss of meaning and overwhelming stress and I believe passionately that we can learn how to create meaning, manage harmful stress, enjoy the benefits of good stress and learn to lead more peaceful and fulfilling lives. These words are offered with love and compassion for all of humanity as we head down the path toward global consciousness and personal inner peace.
Before you start on this journey with me, I'd like you to take a moment and ask yourself this question. What gets me out of bed in the mornings?
What is the first thought that arises in my awareness each day?"
Foreword
There are oodles of self-help books and their numbers grow every day as people clamour to have more understanding of themselves and control over their lives and how they live them. So what is different about this book?
I’ve known Margie for over a decade as both a friend and a trusted and experienced facilitator of retreats and workshops for the organisation I established almost 30 years ago, the Quest for Life Foundation.
There’s a difference between someone who may have a thorough understanding of the theory of something but who hasn’t necessarily put it into practice in their own lives, and people who live what they have learned. I was speaking to a respected lecturer on anxiety at a mental