Marian Buck Murray

EFT and IFS for Sensitive, Creative People. Empower yourself self-compassion and deep understanding.

Exit the Mind Loop

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In our society we’re trained to give the brain most of, if not all, the credit.  Many of us believe that the brain is the only place to go when we want to solve a problem.  We say things like:  I’m wracking my brain.  Let me think about it.  And, I’m trying to wrap my head around it…

When left unchecked, all of this brain activity takes an enormous amount of energy. Especially when we’re worried.  It’s easy to overthink and overanalyze our circumstances. And, sometimes, often without realizing it, we can get trapped in a punishing mind loop. 

The brain, of course, with its myriad functions, is an amazingly intricate and powerful organ. However, when we rely solely on the brain to help us, we miss out on the treasure chest of wisdom residing in the rest of the body.  A mind loop, after all, rarely resolves itself with thinking alone. 

And when it comes to accessing creative or intuitive flow, it’s the thinking brain that presents the biggest hurdles.  Typically, the more we think about being creative or intuitive, the more we doubt and second-guess ourselves.  A self-doubting, second-guessing mind blocks intuition, and cripples creative flow.  The longer we engage with the mind loop, the further we take ourselves from the luscious experience of flow. 

So, while recognizing and respecting the power of the brain, it’s important to consult the body and heart, in order to facilitate flow.   

Here are some ways to help yourself drop out of a busy mind loop:

Breath Deeply – Deep breath will help activate the relaxation response.  In addition, by focusing on your breath, you take your focus off of your busy mind. 

Move your Body Parts– Mindfully move different parts of your body.  Pay attention to your hand, your leg, your foot, etc.  Notice any sensations with that arise with each part of your body.  Notice any information or metaphors your body might be expressing. Observe what happens with your thoughts when you  purposefully steer them to your body.

Get up and Dance!  —  Dancing, especially to music you love, will help you break out of a troubling mind set.  Get silly and exaggerate your moves.  If you’re up for it, shake your body from top to toe.  Shaking will help release anxiety and loosen your body and mind.

Chant —  Chanting a simple mantra, such as Om, for 10 -20 minutes is an effective way to exit a mind loop. By focusing on a simple phrase, chanting will help you transcend the mind.  In addition, chanting helps activate the vagus nerve,  thereby relaxing the nervous system.   If you’re new to chanting, start with a few minutes, and work up to longer periods of time.

Use the Heart Breath —  The heart breath will help you relax a busy brain.  According to experts,  the heart’s electromagnetic energy field  is as much as 5000 times greater than the brain’s.  This means that we can use the heart to entrain the brain into a calmer brain wave state. This will help boost effective brain function.  Click here to access my Heart Breath Meditation on Insight Timer. 

Use EFT tapping –  An anxious mind can trigger a spike in cortisol.   EFT Tapping has been clinically proven to be one of the most effective techniques for reducing cortisol.  By reducing cortisol and calming the nervous system, we help ourselves drop out of the mind loop.  This enables us to think more clearly, in a solution-based way.  Contact me to learn more about EFT Tapping.

Here’s to giving your busy mind a well deserved break!

Peace,
Marian

Contact me to learn how EFT Tapping can help you exit a painful mind loop.

Finding Flow

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When we’re in flow, we’re in the zone, that beautiful place of creative expression. It’s typically accompanied with ease, grace, and a lost sense of time.  Flow is place where new ideas sprout and grow.  It’s where we feel energized and engaged in creative pursuit.  In short, flow feels great.

Who doesn’t want flow?

But where do we find flow?  And how do we move into it when we’re reeling from the world around us?

The past year has been triggering, disruptive, distracting, overwhelming, and for some of us, downright traumatizing.  It has left so many of us feeling completely and utterly exhausted. It’s been easy, even necessary, to revert to old coping habits that allow us to escape, tune out, and numb down our feelings.  

And, it’s exceedingly hard to flow when we’re experiencing any of the above.

So, if this is where you find yourself, know that you have my compassion and deep understanding.  And, along with my compassion, I bring you some tips to find your flow again. Tips I use all the time to get back into my own flow.

Stay with your feelings —   Feelings, when embraced, will begin to dissipate, and feel more manageable.  This will allow you to stay in the moment, and it’s in the moment where we find flow.

Get your energy moving — Don’t wait for motivation.  Move your body on a daily basis.  Yoga, walks, workouts, dance.  Movement will break up stagnant energy, helping you move into flow.

Take one step ––  Get started.  Jumpstart momentum by doing one small thing at a time.  We strangle our flow by focusing only on the massive work we have to get done.  Focus instead on one thing at a time and you will get it done.  This helps you stay present, in the moment, and will increase feelings of accomplishment, and flow.

Let go of stagnating habits — Easier said than done, right? Yes, definitely, but here’s a way to start.

First, get clear about the habits which keep you stagnated. Notice which feelings trigger the desire to indulge in a habit.  Stay with these feelings. When you do indulge in your habit, notice what happens to your sense of flow.  No judgement here — just mindfulness.  Remember — limiting habits start as coping strategies.  The key is to stay with the feelings that we’re trying to avoid.  Again, staying with your feelings will them process and become more manageable.  This in itself will facilitate flow.

Acknowledge your shadows – Shadows are those disowned places within us.  These shadows are often activated more acutely during times of stress.   Learning to recognize them as they arise helps us form a new relationship with ourselves.  Click here for my video on working with your shadows.

Use energy work —  The goal of energy work is to help stuck energy move into a healthy flow. Recurring habits, reactions, and emotions signal that energy flow has been disrupted.  Practices such as EFT Tapping, Matrix Reimprinting, Acupuncture, along with other energy modalities, are effective for clearing disruptions to flow. 

Wishing you abundant flow,

Marian

For more information on using EFT Tapping to help let go of stagnation, and move into flow, click here.

 

 

Awaken The Sloth: How To Build Momentum and Motivation

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I’ll admit it.  Sometimes I feel as slow as a sloth.  Sometimes I move as slow as a sloth. It’s been hot this summer, humid, and sticky too.  Add to that the drag of Covid, and the seemingly endless barrage of distressing news.  All of this was a seductive invitation for me to step back, slow down, and sit quietly for a while to process.  Not knowing quite what to do, I surrendered to stillness.  So, apart from the daily necessities, lots of reading, and my work with my clients, I’ve been somewhat off the grid.

Now, as Autumn approaches, a refreshing breeze reaches beyond the gathering inertia of my mind.  And I’m clear. 

It’s time to awaken the sloth.

What I know, is that even when it feels impossible to move forward, there are things we can do get the proverbial ball rolling again.

What I’ve noticed with myself, and my clients, is that getting stuck often starts with resistance.  Resistance to change.  Resistance to uncertainty.  Resistance to discomfort.  And the longer we stay in resistance, the more likely we will lapse into inertia.  We can get used to it, it’s comfortable. And, after a while, it’s easy to forget what we’re resisting in the first place.

Resistance is like a big fat bundle of thoughts that scares us into staying stuck.  A thought bundle that gets bigger and more forceful as time goes on.  Because this thought bundle seems so big and unwieldly, it feels too hard to tackle. So, it’s much easier to just to stay stuck.  And then wait, and wait, and wait…for motivation.

And, more times than I’d like to admit, I realize that motivation rarely, if ever, drops into my lap.  In fact, waiting for motivation usually creates far more frustration than actual motivation.

This said,  motivation is actually not incredibly difficult to find.  That’s because it’s often found on the other side of action.  Sometimes just one step will help build the momentum of yet another, and another step. This momentum leads to the motivation to keep on going.  These steps can include anything from a plan of action, a paragraph on a page, the outline of a project, or a preliminary sketch.  The goal here, is to start something, even when you don’t feel motivated, to gradually build momentum, and motivation.

This might not be new news.  But sometimes we (I) need to hear it again, and again.

Here are some tips to build momentum, and motivation.  During times like this, I like to keep this list handy:

Change up hypnotic routines. Include new, or rarely eaten, foods in your diet.  Take a walk in a completely different direction.  Add ritual and variety to your evening routines.  Make a new social connection.  By doing new things, you will help reduce resistance to uncertainty and unfamiliarity.  In addition, this will help activate your brain, making it easier to generate new ideas.

Awaken hidden talents.  Engage in enjoyable activities which will awaken aspects of yourself that may have fallen asleep. Think back to what you loved to do as a child, and would love to do again.  Begin with small, manageable actions to access this place within you.  Experiment with activities within music, art, literature, physical pursuits, or spirituality to spark your creative flow.  Awakening your hidden talents, with patience, and acceptance, will help you feel more alive, eager, inspired, and motivated to move forward.

Break goals into very small tasks, and write them down. This will help you break out of built-up resistance to big, impossible-feeling goals. Enjoy a sense of accomplishment as you check things off your list.  This sense of accomplishment will help you build momentum and motivation to do more.

Get comfortable with discomfort. Moving out of your comfort zone simply means you’ll feel uncomfortable.  And that’s okay.  We can all handle discomfort. It’s temporary.  Plus, moving through to the other side of discomfort feels GREAT!

Acknowledge your accomplishments, no matter how ‘small.’ When we only celebrate our biggest accomplishments, we devalue what it takes to get there.  Stay motivated by acknowledging your progress, step by step, along your way to reaching your goal.  When we’re aware of our progress, our goals feel much more accessible.

Give yourself enough structure. Structure will help you contain and focus your efforts. Finding the right structure, especially if you’re resistant to structure, is essential.  This might mean a schedule that fits your style, or some type of creative set-up for your workspace.  Organization and structure will help you clarify what works, and what you want.  And, clarity feeds motivation 

Show up. Have faith in your own creative process to help bring you forward. The creative process requires your commitment to take action, and show up, again, and again and again.

Though I didn’t include it on the list, EFT Tapping is a powerful way to release the fear and resistance that keeps us stuck.  In addition, tapping facilitates effective brain function, improved mood, and enhanced creative flow.  All of these, of course, are essential for forward movement. Contact me to learn more.

WIshing You Peace and Wellbeing,

Marian

Tap Into Your Creative Flow

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If there was ever a time to be creative, it’s now.

And, yet at a time when things feel so uncertain, so fragile, so challenging, and so painful, it might feel hard to do anything at all, let alone something creative.

What’s important to remember, is that no matter what, no matter how scary things feel, creative flow is always here.  Always.

It just takes a shift to a more relaxed, creative space within you. Perhaps that doesn’t feel easy right now.  In this video I will help you get there more easily with tips, and EFT Tapping.

I originally created this video for my friend Angela Alfieri’s Spring Self-Care Journey.  Today, I am happy to share it with you.  Enjoy!

 

Be Well,

Marian

Learn more about my newest services to help strengthen your creative flow:

Creative Block Solution Session

Create and Thrive Program

5 Tips to Clear Creative Blocks

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Just imagine a world free of creative blocks.

Free of the fear that keeps us hiding.

Free from the judgements that keep us frozen.

Free from the frustration of a song not sung. A poem not written. A painting never hung.

Or the despair of a heart’s desires never fulfilled.

Imagine what we could create.

Imagine what you could create if you moved beyond your creative blocks.

Or maybe, it truly is impossible to imagine what we might create.

For when it comes down to it, we have to show up in order for the creative process to reveal itself.

It’s when we venture into the unknown, that this delicious mystery unfolds us into our creations.

Here’s to a world free of creative blocks.

If you’re struggling with your own creative blocks, here are some tips to help you move beyond them.  Enjoy.

 

Enjoy the Process,

Marian

 

Click here for details on my new Creative Block Solution Session.

CREATIVE BLOCK SOLUTION SESSION BIRTHDAY SPECIAL NOW THROUGH MARCH 7 2020