Blog | My Mind, My Health

Hope, Empowerment and Spirituality: Wellness through Recovery Pathways

On Tuesday, May 17, 2011, My Mind My Health hosted by Dr. Vernon Barksdale for Voice America satellite radio airs episode 8 entitled, “Hope, Empowerment and Spirituality: Wellness Through Recovery Pathways” with special guests from Recovery Innovations International

This week we turn our sights on mental health challenges and strategies to return wellness. We have been redefining the concept of wellness in this series, expanding its scope and strategies for achievement. Are you getting the message that we are wholly capable of wellness? Perhaps we should do a 180 and see ill health and many other challenges as imbalances in our “wellness” system. Is there a way to apply wellness concepts to other areas of our lives? It’s time to discuss how this works with people actively pursuing their personal recovery of wellness. Our guests are not professionals but everyday people living the process and finding success through the 5 Recovery Pathways to accomplish their goals, reconnect to themselves and others and develop a renewed sense of meaning and purpose in life.

About Recovery Innovations International
Peer support staff of Recovery Innovations International; “A community of people on their journey to wellness.” They ascribe to the 9 dimensions of wellness that include social, intellectual, spiritual and occupational dimensions. Meet Kathy, Yvette, Rebecca, Julie and Mary Jane on the show, and find their organization at www.recoveryinnovations.org

“A Power Greater Than Ourselves Could Restore Us …”

On Tuesday, May 10, 2011, My Mind My Health hosted by Dr. Vernon Barksdale for Voice America satellite radio airs episode 7 entitled, “A Power Greater Than Ourselves Could Restore Us …” with special guest Chana Carro.

That famous phrase from the 12-step program has been adapted to many different addictive or compulsive behaviors worldwide. So, how do you get that belief? And what makes it so ubiquitous that different cultures, people of no faith and those of deep religious belief get the connection to the Higher Power? Is there something within us all just waiting to be discovered? Is there a difference between religion and spirituality? Why is abuse of drugs and alcohol such a spiritual corruptor? If the mind is such a powerful interface between body and the higher self, why isn’t appropriate use of will enough to handle the problem? Dr. Barksdale’s listeners have been exploring some of the unique aspects of mind with healing and the role of access to the transcendent self to promote wellness. Dr. Barksdale now turn his sights to drug and alcohol abuse. The week’s guest expert, Chana Carro, will shed some light on how spirituality and mind must work together to restore wellness from abuse/addiction across different cultures.

About Ms. Carro
Chana Carro is a Diplomat in Clinical Social Work, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Licensed Independent Substance Abuse Counselor with 24 years’ experience in the treatment of addiction. Chana has a Masters degree in Social Work. She is the former Executive Director of Outpatient Services at Seafield Center in Westhampton Beach, NY. Chana’s post-graduate studies in the Anthropology Department at Arizona State University explored spirituality and addiction, with a special emphasis on addiction in the Jewish Community. Chana was Associate Faculty at ASU and ASU West and has taught in the Graduate School of Social Work where she developed a specialty course entitled Faith Based Intervention in Social Work Practice. She is particularly sensitive to the impact of addiction on the whole family system and her research has included work in the Religious Studies Department exploring spirituality as it is expressed in the Twelve Step model of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Understanding Hypnosis and the Mind: The Head Works the Body

On Tuesday, May 3, 2011, My Mind My Health hosted by Dr. Vernon Barksdale for Voice America satellite radio airs episode 6 entitled, Understanding Hypnosis and the Mind: The Head Works the Body with special guest William Stafford, PhD.

Dr. Barksdale’s listeners have been on a journey investigating the power of mind and its ability to benefit us in a manner that encompasses a holistic wellness of body, mind and spirit. They have heard from internationally known experts on the power of mind to affect the immune system or activate internal healing power. Science may just be catching up to understanding what so many have believed just by faith and experience.

What about hypnosis? You may have seen the stage acts and the read the print ads. It’s time to look under the hood and see just what makes hypnosis work. If there is a mind connection to other internal abilities, we want to know about it. Dr. Stafford started out as a business developer. What does a man who looks at the math behind business proposals find in the science of hypnosis? Can it benefit anyone? What’s the difference in stage vs. clinical hypnosis? These questions and more are the subject of episode 6.

About Dr. Stafford
William Stafford, PhD, is currently the Director and Chief of Therapy for New Dimensions Hypnosis Centers, specializing in alcohol, drug, eating disorders, stuttering and forgiveness. He wrote the protocol, Rapid Recovery Program using hypnosis for treating drug, alcohol and eating disorders used by many practitioners coast to coast. Dr. Stafford has been a student, teacher and/or practitioner of hypnosis/hypnotherapy for more than 30 years. He is a certified instructor and teacher of hypnosis/hypnotherapy for the National Guild of Hypnotists, American Board of Hypnotherapy, as well as the International Hypnosis Federation. His studies overseas have made him a proven lecturer on the mind, body, and spirit connection experience. Visit Dr. Stafford’s website: http://www.newdimensionshypnosis.com/

Guided Meditation Downloads Mean a Faster Start to Spiritual Well Being

When you recognize the need to choose more healthful activities, the urge to get started right away can be powerful. Following that instinct means that you will begin to create a new healthy habit immediately – while you are most ready and willing to undertake something new. Guided meditation downloads can have an immediate effect on your efforts to generate spiritual wellbeing.

The search for spiritual well being, recognizing our inner connection to the divine, is the first step to more positive outcomes in your life. Nurturing and exploring the divine connectedness can only benefit your spiritual well-being. Meditation is an excellent way to begin the exploration.

One of the wonders of our modern age is the ability to access information quickly and easily. First find a guided meditation program that speaks to your longing for connectedness, then download the program immediately to begin practice. There is a whole spectrum of meditation download or meditation MP3 files available to choose from. Here at 3 As 1, we have put our years of experience in the medical and meditation fields into our Successful Living Series, available in three titles. The Day Creator, the Blessed Union, and the Spiritual Mind Enhancer guided meditation programs are all available for immediate download and use.

Whichever guided meditation download program that you choose, the key is put forth sincere effort to practice and to learn to find that divine connection.

Benefits of Learning to Meditate

Learning to meditate is learning to calm your mind and control your thoughts. In the course of a normal day, most adults’ minds are like a snow globe that has been shaken. There are a myriad of thoughts just racing around, one on top of the next. Meditation allows us to set the snow globe down so that the thoughts settle down and our minds become as clear as the still water in the globe.

Once we understand that simple act of freeing the mind, meditation can be used for so much more. One of the most productive uses of meditation is to establish a spiritual relationship with God that has the side benefit of blessing our daily activities and keeping us focused on positive outcomes.

Day Creator, the first guided meditation CD in the Successful Living Series, includes training for two types of meditation activities that benefit our minds – universal consciousness at the beginning and ending of each day. In Universal Unity, you will create the spiritual consciousness that will set up the best outcomes for your day. In Relax and Review, you will release tension and negative energies from your day that will promote a healing and peace.

Meditation promotes powerful changes in your life. Learning to meditate and practicing meditation regularly will benefit your work, your health, and your peace of mind.