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December, 2010
IN THIS ISSUE
Need to Sleep on it?
Wired to rise above rejection? Yes
QUICK LINKS




Lights On! Illuminator:  

Lights On! is all about Path-finding! It is about helping individuals find the personal and professional paths each has been seeking. It is also about teams, groups and organizations working together with clarity, coherence and respect. Lights On!...Especially for Women: Coaching, Consulting, Facilitation, Presentations, Retreats.

Need to sleep on it?  Will clarity come forth in the morning?

...by Claire Knowles, Lights On! Workshop

  

      The Associated Press reported a bit ago of a study showing that "Sleep is essential for creative thinking."  German researchers have discovered that creativity and problem-solving are directly linked to the transfer of memories during deep sleep. Scientists believe memories start in an area of the brain called the hippocampus, and are eventually pushed outward to the neocortex to be consolidated and catalogued. This means that our sleeping brains continue working on problems that baffle us during the day, and the right answer may come more easily after a good night's sleep. 

 

Hmmmm!  Intuitively, I knew that!  

 

Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,

Smiles awake you when you rise.

~Thomas Dekker, c.1641


                       

Wired to be able to rise above rejection?  Brain scans say, Yes!

  

  

     Ever been picked last for the team?  Do you know the pain of exclusion? Rejection?  Been passed over for something you really wanted?  In a past issue of Health Magazine (Mind-Body segment) it was noted that everyone knows rejection hurts but now science knows why.  The same brain centers that are activated by physical pain also light up when you experience that social rejection, that "dump".  In their article, "Headache, Heartache:  The pain's the same", it notes that we seem to be hardwired to be hurt by rejection.  Even our language connects the physical and the emotional pain, as in "that hurt me so deeply."  Ahhh....yet the good news is that once the part of the brain that responds to emotional distress is activated, another part tends to jump in and come to the rescue.  It soothes that hurt---and this easing-of-the-pain part is interestingly connected to emotional language patterns.

 

     The article surmised that this may very well be the best reason yet for writing down your feelings--to help you (using words) deal with your pain.  (The power of the personal diary!  The power of the gratitude journal!) 

 

Bottom line:  That "pain" we feel from social rejections is very real; so are our ways for dealing with it and bouncing back!  We've got an internal safeguard (piggy-backed) and helping us to rise above the emotional hurts.  Who says we need to reach for a chocolate bar?

February.....the month our attention turns to our hearts!


     I
f you think that something's wrong, you're probably right. Dr. Robin Miller, a Medford, OR internist, urges women to listen to the little voice---or loud one---that tells them something is not quite right with their bodies. Intuition---the ability to know things without conscious reasoning---is a hot topic.  Dozens of books, workshops and courses tout its power and promise to hone consumers' intuition to a razor-sharp edge.  (All along, our subconscious knows and is trying to nudge our conscious part---but are we listening?)

 

    Women often take care of everyone else but themselves, ignoring their own needs.  The truth is, "You can't take care of everyone else if you don't take care of yourself," Miller says.  "If you think something is wrong, listen to that message and take care of it.  Women wait way too long with heart attacks and heart disease when they can feel that something is wrong".

 

     The key is to balance the little voice inside with hard facts. (See your doctor regularly).  In order to tune in to our own intuition, we have to find a kind of stillness within ourselves.  Meditation, being in nature, listening to calming music--are wonderful ways to strengthen intuition.

 

Underscore:  It is important to pay attention to that inner sense of knowing!




 

At times our own light goes out, and we are renewed by the spark from another!

Here's to turning your lights on!

Claire  Knowles - Lights On! Workshop