Kurt Swensen - Portland, Oregon Alcohol and Drug Addiction Counseling Treatment - Drug Addiction, Alcohol Addiction, Sex Addiction, Food, Nicotine, Shopping, Gambling

I read this again today as a part of my morning meditation and wanted to share it with you. It feels critically important for those of us trying to remember our ultimate Truth.

“You might want something with all your heart and soul, but without believing it is possible, you simply cannot maintain the thoughts necessary to bring it to fruition. This explains why it’s your hopes and fears you believe to be the most plausible that you usually manifest, because they’ve been “allowed” the most play in your mind. The thoughts that exist just outside how you define plausible, whether outrageously wonderful or diabolically awful, are generally not manifested because they’re far too difficult to believe in, and therefore too difficult to clearly imagine and feel.

Think about what you are thinking!! If you think “my life sucks,” don’t be surprised when it does. But if you believe (like my friend Rob does) that you will always find a parking space in the front row closest to the door, 9 times out of 10 it happens!! If you can do it with parking spaces you can do it with anything, don’t limit yourself. YOU are an amazingly powerful and creative being that is capable of great magic. Just remember, you really can have, exactly what you want. Check out Mike’s book at www.tut.com

Kurt

“We each have a perfect inner guidance system and an inherent capacity for love and expansion of consciousness. In truth, there is betrayal of self and Creator when one ignores or rebels against one’s internal intuition, instincts, common sense, and wisdom. From a more expanded perspective, the oversoul or Higher Self guides the heart’s purity of intent to be harmless, and assess the soul’s readiness for advanced levels of empowerment.”

What you just read was from the book  Anna, Grandmother of Jesus by Claire Heartsong http://www.claireheartsong.com. When I first read this, I thought about how I have struggled against my own inner sense of knowing and how that has always caused pain in my life. Whenever I feel pain, I know I am struggling against my own resistance and the opportunity to heal. When I am able to let go and feel the pain, or feelings, or step into whatever it is that scares me, I find the answer and the relief that I am seeking.

Kurt

Every year I look forward with great anticipation and excitement to watching “The Tour” on television. Seeing the images of the beautiful European countryside, the supportive communities, and the amazing athletes is always an inspiration to me. This year I was hopeful that Lance would pull of an another amazing victory but after three falls in one day and flat tire another day, it was not to be. But just like Lance’s book “It’s not about the Bike” is not so much about cycling, my reference to “The Tour” on this website is not about cycling. It’s about the amazing human Spirit. The ability to perform like they do while at the same time having families, financial obligations, and health issues just like us, is proof that we really are capable of accomplishing amazing feats.

The other day I was reading about beliefs and the difference between “successful” people and “ordinary” people. The author said the only difference was in their thinking. He said the difference was “successful” people believe that success can happen.

Check your belief system and ask yourself about what you believe to be true about you and your life. Challenge yourself and change your thinking. Do what Mike Dooley suggests and when you think thoughts, “choose the good ones.”  You are more powerful than you think you are, really!!

Kurt

A feeling is usually something we have after we think. We carefully (or sometimes not so carefully) think our way through something and then come to a decision so we can then have “our” feeling. What if we didn’t think so much and just allowed life to unfold around us without so much mental interference? How much simpler would our lives be?

Try this. Practice having your feelings without judgement or expectation. Allow yourself to completely and fully feel, then notice what happens. What changed? What’s different?  Not fighting your feelings, being fully present in your body, and allowing things to be exactly as they are, is the beginning of a profound healing experience.

Kurt

When a person thinks of post traumatic stress disorder, the first thing that comes to mind is the grizzled veteran, back from Vietnam. The truth of the matter is that women that have never even seen war are at a very high risk for post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. No less than half of the women in the United States of America will suffer from some type of traumatic event in their lifetimes. A significant portion of these women will then go on to suffer from post traumatic stress disorder as well.

Trauma presents itself differently in a woman’s life as a rule. While certainly the female soldiers that have fought in our military has suffered from the same type of PTSD as the male soldiers, civilian women are much more likely to suffer trauma at home. Some of the most common causes of post traumatic stress disorder in women include sexual abuse, rape, physical abuse, sexual assault, childhood abuse, childhood neglect and of course domestic violence. While many PTSD cases in women are brought on by violence, other things may cause the disorder as well. These things include the sudden unexpected death of a loved one, divorce, addiction problems and other major life changes.

While the reasons men and women experienced PTSD are commonly different, the symptoms are often very much the same. Some of these PTSD symptoms include jumpiness, lack of emotion, hyper emotion, avoidance behavior, anger and depression ranging from mild to extreme. Extreme anxiety and anxious disorders are also commonly developed in women who suffer from traumatic events. There are many other potential symptoms of PTSD, but these are the most common.

Treatment for PTSD in women has actually come quite a long ways. No longer is a woman, or anyone with PTSD for that matter, relegated to medicine alone in their attempts to get better.

Grief counseling is one of the most helpful ways of working through PTSD in a lasting and meaningful way. Just having someone to listen to your fears can help to alleviate them. Grief counselors can help you to recognize opportunities for healing and be wonderful listeners.

Cognitive therapy helps you look at your thoughts in a meaningful way and allows the therapist the opportunity to understand them. Cognitive therapy also allows you to see when your thinking is skewed. If you are having phobias that are unrealistic, then cognitive therapy can help you to see why. The best part of cognitive therapy is that it is logical and makes a lot of sense to most patients.

Exposure therapy is a more advanced form of PTSD treatment in which a professional therapist slowly brings back memories that are causing the disorder. By slowly exposing oneself to these memories, they are learning to cope with them without fear. Being there in the room with the therapist, the patient with PTSD can experience the full range of emotions in a “safe” setting and see them for what they are.

Some common medications that are also used in the treatment of PTSD include Zoloft and Paxil. While these medications are certainly helpful in treating PTSD, they should not be used as a band-aid for the needed counseling. The first and most important step is to get counseling, and then use the medicines as support for the situation.

Using some or all of the methods mentioned here, PTSD in women is very commonly cured. While the bad memories will never ever go away, the gripping fear that holds you hostage can be eliminated at best and minimized at the least.

If you feel that you may be experiencing PTSD, please contact your physician and get help as soon as possible. PTSD in women is very treatable and there is no reason for someone to suffer through it in silence.

Last night a client told me he felt ”powerful” and “larger” than he had ever felt before. He had these feelings along with a “deep sense of calm.” The reason? He had just completed a Journey to his Sacred Garden as referred to in episode 62 ( http://www.onlinerecoverysupport.com/?p=1355).  Along with this calm, he felt grounded and profoundly aware of the amazing connection that we all have to the Spirit world. As I mentioned in the broadcast, this type of exercise allows us to gain access to, and remember much of what we have forgotten about ourselves and our link to a magical and healing dimension of the Universe. In this space, incredible visions, feelings, and ideas can come to us that bring a light to the darkness. When we are busy with the “things of this world” we forget that we are magical and powerful. We forget all that we have to be grateful for. We forget that if we were to just stop and listen, we might discover that the very thing we have been looking for, for so long, was right there all the time.

When you close yourself off from new opportunities for personal growth and change, you may find yourself feeling overwhelmed and overloaded physically, emotionally, mentally, and Spiritually.”

Be open! Look at the possibilities! Step into the great adventure that we call life, and be open to a new way of looking at things. Remember, continuing to do the same thing brings the same result.

Be well,

Kurt

After signing up for tut.com and receiving the “Inspiration of the day” I decided to check out Mike’s book Infinite Possibilities. It is inspirational, comforting, helpful, and can bend your brain a little by challenging some old belief systems. Definitely worth reading.

Also, check out www.tut.com 

Kurt