lallous’ lab

Greetings,

Probably the best thing you can do in your life is taking good care of yourself.

I can almost hear you protesting: “But I am already taking good care of myself….”

We are constantly talking this into ourselves while in reality we are barely taking care of ourselves.

A simple list of questions that help you see where you are:

• Do you manage your time well?
• Do you frequently set goals and reach them, or just drop the goal after few days or so?
• Do you love your body image? Do you take care of your shape / exercise?
• Are you educating yourself and giving yourself food for your brain?
• How’s your social life? Are you stuck with the same friends for years and have difficulty approaching new people in social situations?
• Do you love your work?
• Do you get to do much of what you love rather of what you have to do due to circumstances (peer pressure, fear of embarrassment, …)
• Do you fear of losing your possessions / constantly worry about your newly purchased goods (gadgets, your car, …)?
• Are you too much jealous and needy in your relationship with your partner?
• Are you procrastinating most of the time and finding excuses for not doing stuff you always wanted to do?
• Have you lost trust in yourself and fear to get involved in new projects because you may not be able to continue to the end?

The list can go one for ever, and its sole purpose is to draw your attention towards yourself and allow you to question the quality if your life and how you’re taking care of yourself.

So how to take care of yourself, you ask me?

I have experienced that some of the things listed below really allow you to be happy and gives you a sense of control and sense of care to your being.

• Have a Purpose: Set a short term goal and a plan to achieve it. Stick to the plan, use a calendar and mark your progress on it. Feel happy as you write down your accomplishment as you spend day after day till the goal is reached.
• Your goal may be as simple as wanting to read 10 pages everyday in your favorite book, or it may be as simple as doing say two pushups every morning. The most important thing is to tell your mind that you are capable to do it. Let the success stack upon success, and notice that no matter how simple the achievement may look to you, but your mind and being will feel more encouraged, motivated and happy
• Good Companionship: We all know what is good and what is bad. We can easily get fooled by following the trend thinking that majority is always right. Acknowledge your uniqueness and accept yourself as you are. Find likeminded people that you love to be with, and most important to be with naturally without efforts or imitation
• Love: Find time to practice and experience love. First start by loving yourself. Generate the feeling of love to all your body and organs. Adopt the unconditional love attitude. Love is an internal state learn how to enrich this state within you, realize that love cannot be acquired from the outside. Don’t beg for it, it is for free, just acknowledge it
• Thankfulness and Gratitude: Adopt the “thank you” attitude. Be grateful for everything around you. We may take it for granted that the sun is always available, the air we breath, the availability of food, the service of your fellow human. Always say thank you from your heart.
• The law of cause and effect: Always remember that what you project to the exterior world is what you will receive back in return. If you project love, charity, forgiveness, generosity you will find yourself encircled by people like you. Whereas if you project hatred, selfishness, ill-will, this is what you will receive in return.

Hope this small post was inspirational for you. If you like to read some books and some online prayers, I suggest the following:

• “I Come As a Brother”: A Remembrance of Illusions
• Prayer of St. Francis Assiss
• MindPower News

Only a month ago I relaxed my “no to smoking” attitude; From a complete no, fear of addiction, fear of health loss, and other pre-programmed unconscious fears, I decided to give it a shot.

By writing this experience, I am also thinking and asking myself: “I am reinforcing this new practice?”
If I speak about this experience in a good way, will my subconscious mind and my body start craving for more nicotine?

Where I work, lots of employees take breaks and go for a cigarette, so one day I said “what the heck, let me experience what they experience and see how would I look at this matter after I have had my own taste of it”

I’ve smoked so far around a pack during the past month and today I smoked two cigarettes, so how does it feel?

I can say it is something different, for me it gave me a feeling of rush, enthusiasm, a sort of mental push and increased confidence.
It also made me feel hyper and at the same time relaxed, impulsive and at the same time reserved, guilty and a little bit daring.

I wonder and ask myself: “Will I get hooked to it?”, “Will there be a next time when I will crave for a cigarette when I see others smoking?”

The thing is that now I am not buying my own pack, thus decreasing the possibility of reaching a cigarette when a small craving occurs.

I am still uneducated regarding the science and the how/why of nicotine, but nonetheless my research has started.

One thing for sure has changed in me and that is before smoking I used to look at smokers and say to myself and sometimes say out loud: “Hey smoking is not good”, or “…those poor addicts…” and what now has changed is simply that my mind has learned to mind its own business (pun intended).

It is easy to look and judge others but it is not easy to put ourselves in the shoes of others and feel as they feel and realize the craving they have.

Whether I smoke yet another pack or not, I think I will be writing more about nicotine and cigarette experience.

Elias

Last week I received a used 2 channel EEG biofeedback (Pocket A1) device from Pocket Neurobics / Minder Labs company.

So what is EEG biofeedback (BFB) and why do we need such things?

For me, having learned about meditation techniques, hypnosis, relaxation techniques and all other related stuff, I realized that there is one thing in common: “The ability to rest the mind and to have its waves go down to what we call Alpha frequency”.
Alpha (8-12hz) frequency is not a goal by itself, however it appears whenever we are in a certain mind state, call it trance if you may.

While awake, we spend our time in what we call Beta brain waves frequency, basically above 12hz. Beta is usually associated with physical and mental alertness, and if frequencies are much higher than 12hz we may become anxious, angry and agitated.

So why an EEG device anyway?

I am the type of persons that likes to see the results of their actions, so when my meditation teacher told me to sit and meditate for 15 minutes twice a day and to detach myself from all outcomes and expectations, I become more curious and more attached to the outcomes and to what is a possible experience after meditation. A simple question that kept occuring was: “Was I really meditating? Did I just waste 15 minutes in vain?”

I was never consistent in my meditation, I get excited one day and practice it and then keep it aside for a week or even a month…and it went on and off like that for like 3 years.

I figured that since meditative state is characterized by Alpha brainwaves frequencies, so why not get my brain hooked to a measurement device and then sit for meditation and see whether I have performed well or not!?
That’s exactly the role of what we call biofeedback training: the ability to tell where we are and to train ourselves to reach that state with practice and will.

So for those who are curious, goal oriented, impatient, then an EEG BFB device is a good thing to play and experiment with.
I tell you such devices are not very practical yet (need to place electrodes, conductive gels, …) operating wise and cost wise. To get a decent personal EEG device you need to put at least 500$.

If I got you curious, then look up on the net for keywords like “EEG, Biofeedback, alpha training, ….”

Good luck,
Elias