At the summer solstice, our gardens are in full creation mode. They are producing and growing in leaps and bounds, capitalizing on the vital energy available to it this time of year. Such a beautiful sight to see. The climbing and organizing oneself around cages and wires to position itself in the most productive light to be found by plants #1 best friend, pollinators.

Such an accomplishment to witness, and notice, how the outer workings of a garden are reflected in us humans as well. Feeling a push to move out and expand into the terrain of my life, mowing down anything in my path to freedom, limitless, unending creativity and productivity are just some of the signs of summers growth I feel. And yet something tells me now is also the time to pay attention to my inner state of beingness.

To the I AM, the flow that breathes me in and breathes me out, unfettered by the external yang energy. Moving my focus to that place in the midst of both the expansive and rising energy, brings the concentration needed to perform the smallest task in order to complete each moment, followed by the next. Moving into Awareness, moving into Beauty, moving into Wisdom, moving into the Intellect. Folding this pile of laundry to completion, putting the folded laundry away to completion, putting the laundry basket back where it belongs, completion. Acknowledging and feeling good about the task being done. Completion.

This inner flow feels right and proper to move from as summer gets its stride on. Taking the time to tune in and ask “Is there anything I have been meaning to tend to that I keep putting off, that I can handle right now?” Knowing that the practice of moving into the no-thingness can be an opportunity to meet the all knowingness of the now.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Just as easily as one can get caught up in the moment of have nots, in the next breath is the capacity to wish oneself well. Judgement and the minds’ agenda can be a really tricky construct when trying to stay organized. It leads us to the next “right” decision that can bring us freedom and expansion or sometimes lack, worry & overwhelm.

Witnessing, is the most powerful first step to getting out of the patterns that keep us feeling powerless over our piles. The second is giving our cyclical minds something constructive, rather than destructive, to do. Stepping outside of the realm of papers for a minute, my best example of how to explain getting unstuck from repetitive loops of the mind is centered horseback riding.

One of the key lessons I received from my riding lessons back in Vermont years ago, was to keep my eyes out in front of me and with soft eyes and to see 360 degrees around me. I learned to take in my surroundings as I rode. The second part of my training was to know where I wanted to end up. Wether it was at the end of the lane or the corner of the next field, my destination was essential in learning how to steer the horse and I successfully. How I wanted to feel at the end of my trip was equally as important. How did I see myself feeling at the end of the ride? Refreshed? Satisfied with myself? Proud of my steps? Joyful? At that time in my life I was very focused on getting it “right” so those two exercises were more important for me, then knowing how to handle the reins.

I see staying organized in the same way. We can all get tunnel vision, leaning to heavily on our own constraints, of how to manage our to do lists correctly, or judging ourselves for not being able to ever find anything we need. Catching oneself reflection in the act, followed by wishing oneself well, whatever the destination looks and feels like for you, will work wonders in bringing greener pastures.

  Have you ever routinely rounded a corner in your home only to catch yourself pausing with labored breath as your peripheral vision targets a dust collecting pile of books or papers? Overcoming or dealing with feelings of anxiety in relation to one’s clutter can tie us up in knots for sure. An alarm is going off inside our mind and body. If you can, watch yourself. Where does that knot go? Does it travel up the length of your spine and burrow its nose in between your shoulder blades? Is it accompanied by panic? A hot flash? Sudden irritability.

  All signs that anxiety is running the show. Your electrical circuit is saying you better “hold on tight” or “run!”. There is a great article I happened upon last year summarizing how stress effects the brain and the body from The Franklin Institute. Learning to observe one’s reactions from a neutral distance is all we sometimes need to release and relax into a more prepared even stance when approaching our piles.

The third and final part of this series concerns the Reticular Activating System(RAS),the amygdalae and the adrenals. The RAS is a dense network of nerve cells that extend from the top of the brain stem through the spinal cord to the level of the heart that filters out or in what is or isn’t important to our survival or our desires. This system receives input from the nerve endings of the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin and internal organs. From there the information goes on to the cortex, or thinking part of our brain. The data that manages to get through the RAS hub moves on to our limbic system, the hippocampus and amygdala in particular, so that the new sensory information can be processed to determine what is of value on an emotional level (amygdalae) and how it fits into our past experiences (hippocampus).

It’s important to have both the RAS and the amygdalae on the same page in terms of less overreacting and more staying power, so that when one starts to feel anxiety about facing a pile of overdue bills, he or she can support their brain in taking the higher reflective road rather than the reactive one.

In the last exercise we finished with balancing the amygdalae with the hippocampus. Next we want to place one hand behind our head, cupping the indentations on either side of the trapezius muscle, at the base of the skull. Allow your head to sink into your hand for a minute or two. Then send calming energy upwards and towards the front of your skull, in alignment with the location of your hippos and amygdalae. You can even suggest to the RAS, which lies in the center of the dark purple below, that it doesn’t need to be on all the time. It could be at a 20 out of 100 vs 80 out of 100. If you can, palpate the quality of the nerve cells that make up the RAS. Do they feel spongy, hard, or soft? Do they feel excited or calm? Are they running hot or cold?

Notice how your body is already starting to relax. Next, while keeping your one hand behind your neck, put the other palm of your hand on your forehead, cupping your temples. Begin to imagine a flow, a continuity between the frontal cortex, the limbic and the RAS. It is quite amazing to feel a unification start to happen. A more communicative conversation between the thinking part of our brain and the more reactive parts. With the one hand still behind the neck, supporting the brain stem and spinal cord, put the other hand on the adrenals, which you can access just below the ribcage. You can talk the adrenals down as well, just by imagining them being more relaxed and not needing to charge at the first sign of overwhelm. This portion of the entire exercise I find to be really profound. The adrenals, our fight or flight glands, releases up to 30 hormones to deal with a potential threat. The hypothalamus is responsible for giving the ok to release the stress response for both the adrenals and the sympathetic nervous system, creating a tightening of the body and a surge of energy to flee or beat oneself up over the unruly paper scene.

The final portion of this exercise, after toning down the level of the fight or flight in the adrenals is to imagine all of the pieces we have worked with calmer, more in sync, and productive as a team. We want the frontal cortex, the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdalae, RAS and adrenals to feel steady, balanced and flexible and most importantly supportive of our efforts to stay focused and present in our bodies with the day to day tasks that aren’t always pleasant to deal with. Wether it is a 2 hour traffic jam, discarding old magazines that are just sitting around collecting dust, or going through photos for a deceased family member, staying grounded and anxiety free is the key.

Finally I have emerged from winter’s slumber with a renewed sense of hope and brain clarity. Part 2 of this series is a tale of two hippos (hippocampus) and the hypothalamus; both beautiful intricate webs of nuclei. The latter remind me of the antennae of butterflies, partly because of the stems connecting the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland, which sits behind the bridge of the nose, but mainly because of its external and internal sensory ability. It guides our bodies by shifting gears, both sensing, then regulating the comings and goings of neurohormones. To name a few, it controls the release of hormones by the pituitary gland, body temperature, the control of sexual behavior and reproduction, the intake of nutrition, and the cycles of ones circadian rhythm. I imagine the hypothalamus as the queue for proper uploading and downloading of our bodies blueprint for inherent health.

The other relics of the brain, the hippocampus, are sea horse shaped, shown in purple above. These stalwarts work round the clock turning short-term memory into long-term memory. They are also part of the limbic system, and are responsible for linking long term memories to our emotions. One step further down the road, those solidified links can then influence the amygdala and its response to outside stimuli- After that, oh what an emotional ride one might find themselves on. I recently learned that the hippocampus are involved in our navigation system as well.

In Part 1, the amygdalae, shown in red above, were brought to a calmer state by first tuning into them with conscious awareness, then bringing their agitation levels down with either value numbers or lowering the flame. The next step is having a conversation between the hypothalamus and the amygdalae. To start, your index fingers should be where you left off in the first exercise, in the small indentation in front of the ears and level with your eyes. Your awareness should be about 2 inches behind each eye and about an inch inward from the fingers position. The intersection of the two is where the amygdalae are located.

After restoring a more balanced equilibrium to each amygdala, it is time to move your ring fingers to where your index fingers are and while still holding that position, place your middle fingers just above the front lip of your external ears. Imagine moving inward toward the center of the brain where the hypothalamus are located. Once you locate them, notice how they feel and like the exercise with the amygdalae, bring them down to a more manageable level…let’s say a 30 or 40 out of 100.

Next, lay the tips of your index fingers down next to the middle fingers across the top of the ears. You are now in contact with your temporal lobes. The hippocampus and the amygdala are in line with one another, so one can sort of imagine your fingers getting longer energetically, cupping both the amygdalae and the hippocampus together. With intention, ask for a softening, balance and connectivity between all three nuclei, as your fingers continue to support this process. You can do this if you are a visual person by seeing them all connected by energy lines running at the same frequency, or if you are more of a feeler, by imbibing a certain tone to the tissue, a soft yet flexible quality to all three components.

I often find a stillness that happens when making the connections to each part, followed by a deep intake of air or sigh accompanied by a feeling of expansion or release of tension. Congratulations! You have successfully helped yourself in beginning to retrain a habitual response that affects your fight or flight (amygdala), memory (hippocampus), and hormonal fear response (hypothalamus), in relation to a trigger. Doing this two or three times repeatedly, depending on the level of activation, can be so helpful to our ability to concentrate longer on a paper or organizing project, and create new pathways in the brain that contain less fear and more clarity.

If you want to learn more, check out Sue Hoveland’s work and her article “Releasing Trauma from the Brain.“