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HYPNOSIS SHOWN TO HELP GUT HEALTH

This doesn’t mean that gut problems are all in your mind. Rather, the good news is that scientific research has now shown the your mind is powerful enough to remediate the painful symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). That’s the condition that multiple teams of investigators from The Menninger Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine, and several VA hospitals have been studying at different sites. 

The researchers weren’t just investigating the effectiveness of hypnosis and hypnotherapy but also of guided imagery, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based stress reduction, biofeedback, and what they call emotional awareness training. Turns out that all these integrative, mind-body medicine interventions work.

I learned about this from a recent Health Journeys newsletter from Belleruth Naparstek, a psychotherapist, award-winning author, and pioneer in the field of guided imagery. 

Belleruth added that those reviewing the studies “concluded that there was evidence for the effectiveness of [the] treatments, but more studies were needed” to figure out exactly what about them was producing the relief from symptoms. 

Learn more at https://tinyurl.com/preview.php?num=y3q4atmj

This links you to a preview containing the full link. This way you can be assured that clicking that full link will take you to Belleruth’s bonafide Health Journey’s site. 

May you and your belly be well!

Photo: ID 71088034 © Robert Kneschke | Dreamstime.com

[thenextyounow]

Back in the Beautiful SF Bay Area from May 12 - 23

Go to my EVENTS page at TheNextYou.net for details.

I’m excited about previewing in the Bay Area first my new THIRD ACT, BEST ACT Workshop. Because this is the pilot version, I’m offering it--this year only--at half-price in exchange for your feedback. I provided the “appetizer” version last spring. People liked what they “tasted,” and encouraged me to cook up the “main course.” 

And I will again be taking folks through THE PASSION TEST in an affordable small-group-workshop format. If you’re ready to up the joy and aliveness quotient in your life and come away with an exquisite and simple decision-making tool, check this out. Returnees receive a “tune-up” for half price.

I’m also now scheduling INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS for hypnotherapy, The Passion Test, and breakthrough life coaching. 

Not sure what’s the best choice for you? Take advantage of my FREE 30-min. CONSULTATION. I offer this to those who have not yet had an individual session with me.

For dates, places, and more, check out my EVENTS page and the rest of my TheNextYou.net site. 

In the SF Bay Area? I invite you to join me for these special “live and in the same room” workshops and sessions. Not in the Bay Area? Call or email me to schedule a live individual session by telephone, Skype, or Google Hangout.

[thenextyounow]

I’m Heading Back to the Big City--SF Bay Area--May 27

I just updated my EVENTS page at TheNextYou.net with the details. 

I’m launching my new Third Act Program with my new introductory workshop Make Your Life’s Third Act Your Best. I’m also facilitating another Passion Test Workshop. And scheduling one-to-one Passion Test and hypnotherapy sessions.

Take a look. If you’re going to be in the Bay Area between May 27 and June 3, please join me.

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Photo by Shoshana Alexander

Supporting Each Other's Enthusiasms

May 31, 2015, is the third anniversary of the death of my husband, Sypko. He died of leukemia. I will never forget how conscious and loving he was to the end. In the last hour in which he could speak, he told each of the four of us gathered around his bed how much he loved us. His last words were "I love you all."

On the previous two anniversaries I made a point of being home. Three or four of us here in Oregon who are family--by marriage or by choice--would gather to remember Sypko and honor him with a small ceremony.

This year on his "death day," I will be in California facilitating a Passion Test Workshop, part of my new program, Make Your Life's Third Act Your Best.

Is this sacrilegious? Am I too focused on creating my new phase of life? Am I not taking sufficient time to remember Sypko's and my life together on this milestone day?

Or is it sacramental? Each of the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church--the tradition in which I was raised--is an initiation into a new phase of life.

I am a solo, professional woman as of three years ago, a widow. And I’m now launching my own program for living with clarity, creativity and passion to the last day of our life. With this trip to the San Francisco Bay Area, I am taking my freshly minted show on the road. Yessiree, I'd say this qualifies as an initiation, a personal "sacrament."

In the past, one of my primary hypnotherapy specialities was helping pregnant moms and dads prepare for childbirth. (I still enjoy doing that.) Now I'm also wearing the hat of certified Passion Test facilitator and am gearing my work to a different demographic. I'm helping women and men age 60 and beyond to birth the third act of their life. I'm doing this while I'm giving birth to my own third act.

Far from dishonoring my husband's memory, my Bay Area trip honors it. From early in our courtship, Sypko and I committed ourselves to supporting each other's enthusiasms, whether these matched our own or not.

Creativity became the hallmark of our relationship. During the final year of our life together, we turned every challenge--from Sypko's awful first night of chemotherapy to our Mexican travel fiascos to the two of us planning his in-home wake--into a creative adventure. This month, he would not want me to stay home and revisit the past just because it's the anniversary of his death. Instead, as I overcome my fear of going-it-alone and stride into a new future of my own making, I can sense him somehow reaching across the dimensions to give me a high-five.

AHEAD: Soon I will be posting here brief excerpts from the memoir I'm writing titled A Death Well Lived: How My Husband and I Turned Our Last Year Together into Our Best.

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 Tunnel of Transformation near San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

I went here to be reborn, to become my "next you" as a memoir writer--deeper, more committed, and more savvy after 6 days at the annual San Miguel Writers Conference in San Miguel, in the geographical center of Mexico. My favorite feature at this nearby La Gruta spa is its womb-like, thermal-pool cave. The only way to enter is by swimming through the long tunnel pictured here. When I reached the center of the dimly, lit womb space, I found a vigorous “waterfall” pouring in through a large pipe on my left near the domed ceiling. After floating for a time in the soothing water, I stood under the fall and let it pound my back and neck. Yum. Almost better than a massage delivered by human hands. The magic became manifest on my way out, a story for another post.

A big thank you to Steve Perdue for letting me use his La Gruta photo. It captures the feel of the tunnel beautifully, and is posted on Flickr as San Miguel de Allende 170. 

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Katy Butler, author of “Knocking on Heaven’s Door.” Check out her excellent just-published memoir. The subtitle tells it all. Her book is about “The Path to a Better Death.” You can order it from Amazon.

If you’re as interested as I am about preparing yourself and your loved ones for a better end of life, you’ll find this an invaluable resource. Katy tells a heart-warming and heart-wrenching story about helping her parents at the end of their life. And being a great investigative reporter, she also opens our eyes to the pitfalls in the today’s medical system when it comes to this final life phase.

The kinds of things she’s talking about, plus my experience with my husband’s death, moved me to begin holding conversations about “A Death Well Lived.” I’ll be facilitating two free gatherings in Berkeley, Calif. One is on Sat., Oct. 26. The other is on Wed., Oct. 30. Register and receive directions at http://TheNextYou.Net/Events.

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Spending the Last of October in the SF Bay Area!

I've just posted a page here with events I've scheduled in Berkeley during the last weeks of October, 2013. 

Here's a link to the full schedule and you can also find it in the Nav Bar above under "Events."