What’s your relationship to your breath? Do you have one?

There are days that go by when I take about two full breaths. Sound familiar? I have a magnet on my vision board that reminds me to BREATHE and a huge Inhale, Exhale card obviously doing the same. But it’s still not enough. I mean, how many reminders do we need?

We’re basically lazy when it comes to breathing, don’t you think? We are so used to the breath always being with us, that we unequivocally take it for granted. Additionally, we’re often so checked out of our bodies that we actually believe we breathe with our brains.

More than 7 years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, this was made abundantly clear. I had a random and terrifying panic attack. I literally couldn’t find my breath—it was so shallow and constricted—and my mind went crazy searching for it. Only when I dropped out of my head, and re-inhabited my body, did breathing kick in and my lungs soften to receive it.

Seriously, we shouldn’t have to wait around for something acute like this to happen to get us to pay attention to our breathing. If you’re not convinced, here are five of my favorite reasons, and things we can do, to be more conscious of the breath:

1. CLEANSE—Inhale the fresh and the vibrant. Exhale the toxic and the un-necessary.

2. CONDUCT—Send healing breath into sore parts of your body, and help to alleviate physical pain.

3. CALM—Take slow attentive breaths to quiet you down when you are aggravated and on edge.

4. CENTER—With each inhale and exhale, draw inwards and awaken deeper awareness of you.

5. CONNECT—Synchronize body and mind, and link with spirit.

In meditation, we are often encouraged to count our breath. Maybe this sounds incredibly dull to you, like counting sheep to put you to sleep. Yet in my son’s bedtime book, Russell the Sheep, Russell is a sheep who tries desperately hard to fall asleep but he just can’t settle down. He tries counting everything, until he finally decides to count sheep or essentially count on himself. Guess what? It works. Finally, relaxed enough, he dozes off.

Breathing is like this too. When we count our breath, we count on our breath. We discover it is the ticket back to ourselves. The breath both coaches and coaxes us into self-reliance, not only for relaxation into sleeping states, but also for profound letting go in superlatively chaotic and awake states. What a tool!

The beauty of breath is that it is, for most of us, always available. It is after all what makes living in these blessed and temperamental bodies possible, right? So please, if nothing else, honor your breathing. Believe in it. Really value it. Consciously BREATHE.

In sweetness,

Maggie

David Lynch gives some background on how he got involved in transcendental meditation and how it informs his consciousness and creativity.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There is a factor in your health which is often left out of the healthcare picture: your mind.  Once you realize that your thoughts cause biochemical shifts in your brain, which in turn cause reactions throughout your entire physiology, your mind becomes a health practice.

There is nothing new in this fact.  What is new is the greater degree to which we understand the thought-brain-body interaction.  The most significant interaction is around fearful thoughts which lead to a fearful body.

Fearful thoughts cause your body to go into the instinctual fight/flight/freeze reaction.  Depending upon your emotional style, you react to fear by becoming angry and aggressive (fight), trying to avoid and escape (flight) or by disconnecting and going numb (freeze).   Typically, we go in and out of these reactions several times a day, with their negative effects on our heart, blood pressure, gut, hormones, and neck and back muscles.  If fight/flight/freeze reactivity becomes an unchecked pattern, we show up one day at our doctor’s office with what’s been euphemistically called a stress-related disorder.  In truth, we are showing up with a fear-related disorder.

What’s the answer to fearful thoughts?  Learning how to become skillful with them.

The skill has two aspects.  The first is to cultivate a new attitude toward fear itself.

Fear is natural and normal.  It is a hard-wired warning system in your brain ready to signal you that danger is present.  Brain imaging researchers locate this fear center in the amygdala region of the brain.  The problem is that the warning system is acutely sensitive and most of  the time tells you (in the form of fearful thoughts) about dangers that in fact aren’t real.  The pain in my shoulder turns out not to be bone cancer.   My heaviness and mental fog turns out not to be early Alzheimer’s but instead sadness over a 9/11 anniversary.

You can’t prevent such fearful thoughts.  They come on their own.  They are generated by the plain fact that we are all vulnerable beings in this world.  Our vulnerability is easily stimulated, our warning system is easily triggered, and fearful thoughts come easily into our mind.  With this information, you can cultivate a new attitude toward your fearful thoughts – you can turn toward them with understanding and empathy.

At first, that may sound odd.  Empathy toward your fears?  Wouldn’t you prefer that they just go away and never come back?  Yes, of course, and the quickest way to make them calm down and go away is to treat them with empathy.  Think about a frightened child.  Yelling at the child or ignoring him or her only makes things worse.  Turn toward the child with empathy, and everything is better.

What is the realistic basis for this attitude of empathy toward your own fears?  Your brain is working so hard to protect you, it wants you to survive and thrive, and it’s only sending you fearful thoughts as part of its hard-wired survival job.  In an odd twist, your fearful thoughts actually show how much you love life and how much you want to protect it from harm.

The second aspect of your new skill is the empathic response itself.  What does that actually look like in your inner experience?  You become aware that your mind is filled with a worry which leads to a greater fear, and you realize that your warning system has been triggered.  In that moment of awareness, you literally speak in your mind (self-talk) to the fears, kindly thanking them for trying to help you and empathizing with the tough job they have of trying to protect you from the dangers in life.

This isn’t just a quick self-help technique.  The latest brain research tells us that the executive center of the brain – responsible for calming down the amygdala (the fear center) – is the region of awareness and empathy.  By turning toward your fearful thoughts with awareness and empathy, you are actually activating and strengthening the executive center of your brain.  And every time you do this, you literally, physiologically grow new neurons in the executive center, making it even stronger in its abilities to calm down the triggered fears.

In other words, you will now be noticing and responding to your fearful thoughts without being dragged into them.  You probably already do this naturally, to some degree, but go the next step and make it a deliberate health practice.  Your body will reward you by feeling calmer and balanced more often, and your intelligence will be better able to focus on your positive purpose in this life.

Earlier this year, I introduced our “Get It Done!” issue of Experience Life magazine (March 2011), with a letter warning against the dangers of doing too much. A bit counterintuitive, perhaps, but as a person prone to overdoing, I feel it was, um — the right thing to do.

Indeed, while I follow most of our magazine’s excellent advice most of the time, the piece that poses the biggest challenge for me personally is not the healthy eating, nor the regular exercise. It’s that pesky life-balance bit: setting boundaries around work, making time for play and relaxation, and recognizing that I can’t possibly get absolutely everything done all the time — certainly not to my own satisfaction.

Hello. My name is Pilar, and I am a chronic over-doer. I’m in recovery now, but I often open a talk I give on “How to Stay Healthy Through Stressful Times” with the story of how, before I got a little smarter about all of this, I suffered from rashes, hormonal imbalances and even a broken foot (long story — you can read it in “The High Cost of Being Hurried”).

This was all the result of chronic overdoing. And when I relate my story, I always see a lot of heads in the audience nodding, like, “Wow, yeah, we can relate.”

I think this particular area of challenge helps keep me, and the magazine, honest. Because I know how hard it can be to get it all done — the wholesome cooking, the conscious eating, the regular activity, the time with family and friends, the yoga and meditation, the daily supplements — and to do so in a healthy, non-frantic way while balancing a super-intense workload.

I also know how tempting it can be to just pour on the adrenaline and start rushing around like a lunatic whenever our schedules seem to demand more than our bodies and minds can possibly deliver. But that approach is neither sustainable, nor particularly satisfying.

That’s why I appreciate point No. 6 in our article, “As Good as Done”: Accept Your Limitations. To me, that acceptance is an essential first step in developing the serenity and skills to accomplish the things that really matter, the faith and courage to let go of the things that don’t, and, perhaps above all, the wisdom to know the difference.

With that in mind, here are the top three lessons I’ve learned from personal experience over the past 10 years:

1. Take breaks. Interrupting a relentless workload with breaks — whether for daydreaming, naps, activity, deep breathing, social interaction or even trips to the bathroom — allows your brain and body to recharge and come back focused and reenergized. Scientific research definitively shows that we get more done, and experience far fewer negative effects, if we take a 10- to 20-minute break every hour and a half to two hours. So take breaks, even if you don’t feel like it.

2. Train for intense times. Healthy eating, exercise and adequate sleep are always important. But they’re even more important when you are putting major demands on your body, as stress always does. The more stress you’re under, the better you need to treat yourself. The more stress you can thrive under, the more you can accomplish with grace.

3. Ask for help. This has never been my strong suit, but I’ve noticed that the better I get at inviting others to do the things I’m not great at, or don’t have enough time to do well myself, the better my work and my life go, and the more gratitude, ease and abundance I experience.

Here’s to all of us doing more of what lights us up — and less of what doesn’t!

Herbert Benson, MD, a brilliant Harvard Medical School professor, has been studying the science of meditation for decades. His pioneering book, Relaxation Revolution (Scribner, 2011), is packed with scientific research studies, practical tips, and guided meditations and visualizations on how to deal with a range of specific life challenges.

I’m excited to share a few of my favorite Big Ideas from this mind-blowing book. So let’s dive in!

A Solution to Stress

The relaxation response, writes Benson, is the opposite of the fight-or-flight stress response. “It is characterized by the following: decreased metabolism, heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing; a decrease or ‘calming’ in brain activity; an increase in attention and decision-making functions of the brain; and changes in gene activity that are the opposite of those associated with stress.”

Our bodies are brilliantly designed in such a way that, when faced with a life-threatening danger (or a perceived life-threatening danger), our hearts pump blood to our legs so we can make a quick exit, and adrenaline floods our system so we’re as strong as possible for a potential fight. Unfortunately, our bodies’ evolution hasn’t quite kept up with our minds’ evolution, and now a sideways glance from our boss or someone cutting us off in traffic often elicits the same response. All. Day. Long.

But researchers have discovered that we possess the ability to induce the relaxation response in a relatively short period of time. And there’s more good news: The benefits of doing so are huge.

The Power to Change Your Genes

Benson and his team of researchers wanted to see if mind-body practices influence our genetics. They studied 19 seasoned mind-body practitioners and 19 people without any experience in mind-body practices. The participants were married and unmarried men and women in their mid-30s to early 40s. Their findings were significant: 2,209 genes were expressed differently — and more healthfully — in the mind-body practitioners.

The researchers didn’t stop there. “We continued our investigation by posing these questions: ‘What would happen if the participants . . . with no experience with the relaxation response were instructed in appropriate mind-body techniques and then applied them in their daily lives for a few weeks? In that short time period, would they show any of the same positive, anti-stress gene-expression changes that the highly experienced mind-body practitioners had shown?’”

The answer is yes. After eight weeks of doing mind-body practices, the second group exhibited healthful changes in genetic expression on 1,561 genes.

“The probability of this being due to chance was less than five in 100,” writes Benson. “Even more striking, when we compared [the nonpracticing] group after their training with the experienced mind-body group [with an average of 9.4 years of mind-body practice], we found that 433 gene-expression signatures were similar in both groups.” Just eight weeks of training had induced a genetic relaxation response similar to the one in long-time practitioners.

“The significance of these results came home to us dramatically when we considered how likely (or unlikely) it would be for these changes to have happened by chance in both parts of the experiment. We determined that the probability of the same gene signatures being involved accidentally in both groups in both experiments was less than one in 10 billion,” he adds.

Wow! It’s incredibly inspiring that we can significantly alter our genes by engaging in simple mind-body practices for as little as eight weeks.

Triggering the Mindy-Body Response

One of the key findings Benson emphasizes throughout the book is this: It doesn’t really matter what techniques you employ to relax; what matters is that those techniques successfully induce the mind-body response for you.

“The participants in the genetics study used a number of different meditative, relaxation, and prayer-based techniques. These included repeating a mantra, mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation, Vipassana meditation, breath focus, Kripalu or Kundalini yoga, and repetitive prayer. Despite the variety, all techniques yielded the same gene expression,” he says.

Whatever technique you choose, Benson offers these tips for success:

Brush Your Brain. When someone experiences performance anxiety about how well they’re inducing the relaxation response, Benson tells them: “Don’t worry about how well you’re doing! Don’t worry about whether the relaxation response is really working. . . . Just do it!”

He likens it to brushing your teeth. “Most of us are concerned to one extent or another with dental hygiene,” he explains, “but we don’t dwell on the tooth-cleaning process. Almost no one evaluates the brushing to say, ‘That was a good brush!’ or, ‘Too bad — that was a bad brush.’ We simply do it.”

Now imagine taking the same approach with our meditation. It’s not about doing it perfectly; it’s about doing it consistently.

And, of course, the same rule holds for any activity in our lives where we may hold back for fear of not doing it perfectly — whether that’s writing or performing or teaching, or whatever. The fact is, the greatest risk is simply not showing up.

Just say, “Oh, well.” During the genetics study, participants would pose questions to the researchers. The most common question was some variation on this: “I keep having these outside thoughts that interfere with my concentration — what can I do to avoid them?” Their stock answer? “Just say, ‘Oh well,’ and return to the exercise.”

A Powerful Key to Health

According to Benson, “Any condition that is caused or exacerbated by stress can be helped by a well-designed mind-body approach. Further-more, because all health conditions have some stress component, it is no overstatement to say that virtually every single health problem and disease can be improved with a mind-body approach.”

Plato once said: “The greatest mistake physicians make is that they attempt to cure the body without attempting to cure the mind; yet the mind and the body are one and should not be treated separately!”

Now, 2,500 years later, science has finally proven Plato right!

Reprinted with permission from Experience Life Magazine.

Experience Life magazine is an award-winning health and fitness publication that aims to empower people to live their best, most authentic lives, and challenges the conventions of hype, gimmicks and superficiality in favor of a discerning, whole-person perspective. Visit www.experiencelife.com to learn more, to sign up for Experience Life newsletters, or to subscribe to the print or digital version.

Think about how you’d feel right now if you were resting on a soft blanket, under the stars in a meadow of beautiful flowers, with a soft breeze …

That’s the feeling you want to have when you go to sleep each night.

And now you can.

With flower essences: aqueous infusions of specific flowers that help relax you during the day and sleep more deeply at night.

When we look at the latest sleep statistics, it’s perfect timing to take advantage of this little known but age-old remedy.

Sleep Statistics

-  One third of Americans have insomnia sometime during their lives

-  30 million people in the U.S. are currently affected by insomnia

-  More than 10 million Americans use prescription medications to sleep

-  2 million children have insomnia; 30-40% of children are not getting enough sleep

-  Sleeping pill prescriptions for children ages 10-18 has increased 85% in the last 3 years

-  As a culture we sleep 20% less than 100 years ago

-  The root cause of most sleep problems is stress and anxiety

Whereas the medical system regards insomnia as a disorder, it is merely a symptom of our ever busier lifestyles; we find ourselves overwhelmed and overstimulated during the day, making it more difficult to relax when it’s time to sleep at night.

And while some people have turned to natural sleep supports like herbs and aromatherapy, most have not yet heard of one of the gentlest forms of natural medicine–flower essences–that work via the acupuncture meridians of the body. They do not have a scent and are traditionally taken internally.

Here’s the good news:

They work.

Flower essences are effective and fast-acting, targeting the root causes of insomnia, so that even chronic sufferers notice a remarkable difference in sleep quality within several nights.

Done. In less than a second.

As beneficial as meditation, yoga, and a good workout are for our overall health and sleep patterns, sometimes we just don’t make time for them. Using flower essences requires no major time commitment. It’s easy and convenient: take 5 drops sublingually 5 times a day, or put a dropperful into your water bottle each time you fill it up and drink it throughout the day. Taken regularly, they greatly benefit any health and wellness regimen (including meditation, yoga, and your workout).

Flower essences have no side effects.

They are safe for adults, pregnant and nursing moms, children, and the elderly, with no contraindications. This is revolutionary, because the side effects of sleeping pills can include dizziness, uncontrollable shaking, grogginess, stomach pain–the list goes on and on. Some are habit-forming and yet others cause parasomnia, which includes engaging in activities like driving and eating while fully asleep.

Statistics show an increasing number of adolescents being prescribed sleeping pills. We don’t yet know the long-term consequences of these medications on their bodies, at a time when their neurological and endocrine systems are not yet fully developed.

On the other hand, the short-term effects of flower essences are a greater sense of peace, strength, clarity, and happiness. When used regularly over time, they eliminate non-constructive patterns, accelerate personal growth and help you operate from your best self all the time.

They address root causes of sleep issues, which can be different for each person.

For example, if you wake up in the middle of the night and you can’t get back to sleep because your mind is racing or thinking about your to-do list, Bird of Paradise flower essence helps to quiet the mind making it easier to fall back asleep.

If you find that you cannot get to sleep very easily because it’s hard to wind down from of all activities of  the day, Passionflower essence helps you let go and take a break–and when you wake up, everything you were previously busy trying to ‘figure out’ seems to have natural solution.

If you have insomnia due to extremely high levels of stress or intense emotions, then Red Hibiscus will help you get relief and see the light at the end of the tunnel.

And if you find that you wake up in the morning with tension in your body, Dandelion essence will relax all your muscles, and help you have more awareness of how and where you store stress in your body, so that you can ultimately release it.

Being aware of the way we experience stress is the key to knowing how to get deep sleep every night. Once establishing that, we have access to an abundance of gentle, natural remedies from flowers to help us solve any problem we could dream up, including sleepless nights. And those same remedies not only help us sleep better, but make us happier and more fulfilled in life.

***

Founder of Lotus Wei, Katie Hess has conducted 12 years of empirical research with flower essences through private consultations with clients. She hand-collects flower essences worldwide, seeking out the flowers that benefit people most today. Curious to know more? Click here for more details.

Music, one of life’s greatest pleasures, has power – the power to ignite a sprint on the treadmill, bring a tear to the eye or quiet a racing mind. Music also has the power to help heal, which is why I often use it as a relaxation aid for my patients, while they are getting acupuncture. By playing music that pulses at about 60 beats per minute, my patients can get a well-deserved break from the daily stress merry-go-round and start to stimulate their body’s own healing response, more deeply and in less time than it might take them to achieve such states on their own.

The key to achieving this relaxed, healing state is to have patients listen to music with fewer beats per minute than their average resting heart rates, which usually runs at about 75 bpm for women and 70 bpm for men. For most patients, the 60-bpm speed is ideal for helping to induce alpha states, the same relaxed state that’s induced by meditation.

Among my favorite “alpha albums” or cd’s that I use in my practice, are those by Jonathan Goldman, a musician and author who has spent much of his career studying the use of sound as a healing force and then creating therapeutic music based on his explorations. After I have put the acupuncture needles in, I put on one of these cd’s on and let patients listen with headphones. My favorites albums are Reiki Chants, Chakra Chants, The Lost Chord, and De-Stress. They are all beautiful, meditative albums of transformational sounds, available on Goldman’s Healing Sounds website or at Amazon or ITunes. If you want to explore these first, I suggest you try Frequencies, which is a sample collection of 13 different Goldman cd’s.

For those looking to create a personal relaxation plan to help set the stage for healing in their lives, I highly recommend these cd’s. They a far cry from the much-maligned “New Age” music of the 80’s and 90’s, Goldman’s compositions weave together sonic elements from multi-cultural musical traditions, ancient religions, harmonics, entrainment, toning and mantras. The result? Pure bliss at your fingertips—just press play!

Massage is important for many powerful reasons, including detoxification and stress relief. But, when people ask me why to get massage or why it’s important the answer that resonates with most “type A” New Yorker’s is that it helps you get into good shape faster with less stiffness and soreness, allowing you to push your body harder. Perhaps most important is that massage helps prevent the injuries that will set you back.

We all know the enormous benefits of exercise and moving the body. Anyone who routinely pushes their physical limits through any movement, sports, strength training and aerobics can benefit from a massage. Whether you are a weekend warrior that fits in workouts between work and family or a serious athlete, massage in an important part of any sports regimen. Sports medicine clinics and both professional and college athletic teams use massage to heal and prevent the wear-and-tear and minor injuries that naturally occur with strenuous movement. The added physiological and psychological benefits of massage also
add to the reasons to do it.

Heavily exercised muscles may also lose their capacity to relax, causing chronically tight (hypertonic) muscles, and loss of flexibility. Lack of flexibility is often linked to muscle soreness, and predisposes you to injuries, especially muscle pulls and tears. Blood flow through tight muscles is poor (ischemia), which also causes pain. Some benefits of massage for exercise and injury prevention:

1. Reduced chance of injury by improving range of motion and muscle flexibility.
2. Performance enhancing results with improved power and performance.
3. Shortened recovery time between workouts.
4. Maximizes the supply of nutrients and oxygen through increased blood flow and the elimination of lactic acid in the muscle (a by-products of exercise).

Massage helps the body recover from the stresses of strenuous exercise, and facilitates the rebuilding phase of conditioning. The physiological benefits of massage include improved blood and lymph circulation and muscle and general relaxation. These, in turn, lead to removal of waste products and better cell nutrition, normalization and greater elasticity of tissues, deactivation of trigger points, and faster healing of injuries. It all adds up to relief from soreness and stiffness, better flexibility, and less potential for future injury.

With regular massage for maintenance the therapist can zero in on particular muscle groups and work specific tissues, they can help maintain or improve range of motion and muscle flexibility. The overall objective of a maintenance program is to help you reach optimal performance through injury-free training. Regular massage also gives a therapist a chance to find your unique trouble spots, perhaps from past injuries. They can pay special attention to these areas, monitor them for developing problems, and help keep them in good condition. An experienced massage therapist can also compliment treatment received from other health care professionals for various injuries. Massage for injuries can speed healing and reduce discomfort during the rehabilitation process. Deep tissue and trigger point massage breaks up the tissues in the muscle to speed recovery.

So to sum it up, make massage part of your wellness and fitness routine. You’ll get all the benefits of relaxation and if you’re that more intense personality, remember, you can push yourself a little harder with less injuries and get in shape a little faster.

Nancy Shaw
In Touch Bodywork
133 East 58th Street
15th floor
New York, NY 10022
(212) 751-8300
nancy@intouchbodyworknyc.com

I’m regularly scared these days, and I have clients who are scared, too. We all have good reasons: before a really important presentation, after a fight, before taking a big risk, or just not knowing how something you care about is going to turn out.

I don’t know about you, but I actually wish I could control the universe, and often times feel like I can. When I get the occasional wake up call that I can’t control everything, it’s a rude one for me. I’m sure you’ve experienced this too, but it doesn’t mean you should stay stuck in a feeling of powerlessness. So what should you DO about fear? I’ve gathered the most helpful coaching on the subject so we all can benefit.

1) Write it out. Write down every last fear and crazy projection about the matter. Getting it out of your head and onto paper often de-mystifies what you are upset about and crystallizes or clarifies it. It also calms you down and can help with an emotional release.

2) Have your emotions, but don’t let them have you. Emotions are real, but the thoughts they are based on are often erroneous. Do have your feelings, and endeavor to have them flow freely, even exaggeratedly, in a safe place so that they can release. Holding them in doesn’t help, but that doesn’t mean you should believe all your thoughts or stay in the drama either.

3) Take action. Do your research, ask your questions, have the hard conversations, make your preparations. Do the things you know you should do. If you avoid this step, you’d better get used to the discomfort of fear.

4) Name fear and call it your friend. You remember what I always say? Fear is a sign you care a lot, and/or you are up to something new and risky for you. That’s exciting and a good sign, so don’t be afraid of having and feeling fear.

5) Design your outcome. Write out how you want what you’re dealing with to go. Take the time to really think and feel about this. It’s really important. Whatever is big enough to cause you anxiety, deserves your loving attention in a positive way. Write out the most beautiful, moving outcome that your imagination can come up with and that you can get yourself to believe in.

6) Beware of “trains.” Know there is a distinction between fear and a thought pattern – we call this a “train.” If you are addicted to climbing aboard an anxiety train and you know it’s a habitual pattern and you can’t imagine stopping, you could be experiencing what we call a “bad trait.” This takes bold and serious efforts to control; I suggest a promise with a really annoying consequence. As an example, here’s my promise and consequence to correct my vacation anxiety: if I am anxiously snippy to anyone, I lose my chocolate on one day of vacation. This whips my attitude and even my emotions right into shape!

If your Personal Integrity® muscle is too weak to enforce such a rule, please email for 20 minutes of free coaching (coach@handelgroup.com) or get your coach on the crackdown! Show your fears who’s boss!

This has helped me feel powerful despite not controlling the universe. Please share with me how these coaching tips help you, too.

Much Love,

Laurie

Book Review

Safe In The Arms Of Love

For the over four million babies that are born in the United States each year, nothing is more important than creating a strong bond with their parent.  Yet with demands of modern life, many of today’s parents are not sure just how to create that bond.  Safe in the Arms of Love combines beautiful, intentionally designed music, heartwarming lyrics, and an accompanying book full of essential and easy to understand information on the importance of how healthy attachment builds a secure emotional foundation for a child’s entire life.

Endorsed by leading authorities such as Deepak Chopra, M.D., Christiane Northrup, M.D. and Dean Ornish, M.D., the music and book package is the first release from producers Resonant Sounds, LLC, which creates products utilizing Positive Intention Music™ to help parents experience healthy bonding with their baby.

Developed by sound healer and songwriter Lisa Rafel, Emmy-winning composer Gary Malkin, and clinical psychologist Dr. David Surrenda, the book and CD are designed to relax both parent and child, allowing them to form the deep heart connection that is the essence of the bonding experience.

“The music is intended for use during pregnancy and after the baby is born, while nursing, putting the baby to sleep, or to create a moment in the day that is just between the parent and the child,” says Lisa Rafel, songwriter and founder of Resonant Sounds, LLC.  “The lyrics were written from a place of deep love and connection, and are meant to evoke those emotions within the parent as she or he interacts with their infant.”

Dr. David Surrenda, whose deep knowledge of the parent-child relationship informs much of the book, says, “Bonding is one of the most important steps in a child’s development, helping him or her to build strong and meaningful relationships in the future.  We wanted to create a clear reference point for parents to learn this natural and universal experience.”

The music in Safe in the Arms of Love was intentionally composed to facilitate bonding using Positive Intention Music™.  “By utilizing psychoacoustics and sound healing principles, we are helping to create a peaceful, attentive, heart filled atmosphere where both parent and baby can become emotionally connected,” says Gary Malkin.

Safe in the Arms of Love discusses:

• How to create a heartfelt and intimate connection with baby
• What the bonding experience physically feels like – and helps parents come into that state through visualization and breathwork
• The power of Positive Intention Music™, which utilizes the principles of tempo, pitch and intention to scientifically calm a mother’s heart and increase the connection between mother and child

The intent is to provide as many expectant and new moms as possible with a wonderful resource of support for those precious months before and after birth which is so crucial in a child’s healthy emotional development. Here is a link to the website and the music samples – http://www.resonantsounds.com/safe-in-the-arms/