THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEDITATION AND HYPNOSIS

Meditation and hypnosis are not the same thing, although there is overlap and they are related. The similarities include: a focused state of awareness and feelings of relaxation in the mind and body.

The primary difference is that hypnosis includes a hypnotic suggestion. The hypnotic suggestion is something specific that you want in your life. A desire or goal you hope to achieve. For example, a hypnotic suggestion for this course would be "at the end of the day, you easily relax and unwind just by listening to this recording." The hypnotic suggestion is an intention that is expressed in a variety of ways during the hypnosis session including verbally, through imagery, and other sensory experiences.

Meditation, in comparison, does not include a hypnotic suggestion. The intent is primarily to clear the mind or focus the mind.

Both are highly valuable and restorative states of mind.

Hypnosis fits into the process by enabling you to harn...

This article discusses the issues and coparenting conflicts that arise when coparenting children ages 18 months through preschool, the typical factors that are considered to resolve conflicts between coparents, as well as the factors that typically allow for deviation from generally accepted practice when negotiating conflicts.

Co-parenting conflicts arise in conjunction with the developmental stage of the child. Knowing the issues that may arise as your child hits each developmental stage and careful advance planning can help you to set a foundation for avoiding those conflicts.

Each child is unique.

Each family is unique.

Despite being unique, the developmental stage of the child and the life cycle stage of the family will influence parenting and the relationship between coparents.

What do courts consider at the toddler stage when deciding on what is in the best interest of the child?

Children who are 18 months old through their toddler years have unique temperaments and

...

Co-parenting conflicts arise in conjunction with the developmental stage of the child. Knowing the issues that may arise as your child hits each developmental stage and careful advance planning can help you to set a foundation for avoiding those conflicts.

Each child is unique.

Each family is unique.

Despite being unique, the developmental stage of the child and the life cycle stage of the family will influence parenting and the relationship between coparents. 

In this article I will describe the issues that typically arise between coparents at the developmental stage of infancy,  the typical factors that are considered to resolve the conflict, as well as the factors that typically allow for deviation from generally accepted practices when negotiating conflicts about infants.

Examples of the relationship between the infant developmental stage and possible co-parenting conflicts:

• When is a one week on and one week off schedule okay for the child?
• How should nursing impact pa
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He is 26 now. She still sees him when he was 4, picking tomatoes as soon as they turned red in the garden.

Taking a big bite as if into an apple. The big smile that came afterward.

She started him early in first grade. She will come back to this, blame herself for wanting him busy. Was this the decision that snowballed into his later addiction? An unanswerable question she poses to herself weekly, sometimes daily.

She sees him jumping on the beige fabric sofa with the bleached wood frame at six. She had just come home with a new baby, a little sister. He was so excited and so he jumped and jumped. She tried calling to him to stop the jumping. Warning him he would be hurt. One morning she heard the jumping and then the thud. He had fallen.  He had been hurt. He broke a toe. His spirit remained intact.

Until it didn't. He became addicted to drugs. The glass sharp memories. Visiting him in "Juvy," then visiting  him in "county", then in the "state pen". He wasn't a bad kid. It was alw...

I have asked many of my clients to trust that all of the work they are doing is opening up more choices for them to live their best lives.

Our brains and nervous system are comprised of neurons. The connections between neurons are strengthened or eliminated based upon the patterns and experiences that make up our lives. During times of significant intentional change our brain is reengaged in a way that opens up new connections.

Neuroplasticity refers to your  brain's ability to change and adapt with experience. Your brain has the ability to change structurally, to change, reorganize, and grow new neural networks as you practice new ways of thinking and new behaviors.Your brain never stops changing in response to your learning. 

If you have become mindful of the way past adaptive behaviors may no longer be serving you and you have replaced those thoughts and behaviors with new ways of thinking and behaving that fit the environment you are living in right now and facilitate the life y...

You just pulled an official looking manilla envelope from your mailbox, opened it and found your signed and sealed divorce decree.  "Is it really over?" you wonder.  The married part is but if you have children there is still work ahead.

Or, maybe, you were divorced six years . Everything went pretty smoothly until your oldest hit 15. Your coparent has completely different views on your child learning to drive, receiving a car, going to college on the opposite coast .....cooperative coparenting has become a mystery or a misery.

There is a minute chance that you and your coparent are each other's favorite person, although such coparent teams do exist. You don't have to adore each other to coparent in a way that is healthy for you and your kids.

The following quotes are drawn from my files of coparents with whom I worked. These are quotes from regular people who do not consider their coparent a great friend but do believe they have a healthy coparening relationship. I asked each of th...

Will you give yourself permission to  experience not just the sorrow of divorce but the opportunities for transformation?

Divorce As Catalyst For Transformation

Feeling hopeful about change, even painful change, and the opportunities it will bring, is an aspect of resilience and provides strength to move through the hard times successfully. 

There are many factors which keep us mired in the bog of what happened, in the mud of what we lost and in the fear of what is to come. If you are willing to go step-by-step, I believe you will move beyond your divorce into the life you want and deserve. Divorce is heartbreaking and challenging but it should not be punishing, or a good life ending experience.

The Life Quake of Divorce

Divorce uniquely positions you square in the flow of a changing life. The waves are sometimes tumultuous. 

Some of my clients become skeptical when I share that they can look at their life right now as an opportunity. They say that this is the worst time in their...

I want you to remember:

inherently you have strength, goodness, intelligence, unique talents and so much potential. In addition to your wealth of inherent qualities, you have all the wisdom that you've gained over the years.

Divorce is traumatic. It is a life-quake that impacts every area of our lives.

One of the most insidious effects of divorce is the way it interferes with our ability to feel confident and capable. The way its sound drowns out the basic sense of self that is our truth,

Divorce cannot change what is fundamentally good and true about you. Change is hard but if we have a sense of hope that we can work incrementally to recover, no matter how small our daily changes are, our confidence follows.

If you have the conviction to always keep learning, there is no end to what you can accomplish.

People Pleasing and Approval Seeking and Self Care.

If you are in the midst of divorce or other drastic personal event, it is likely to have been ages since you took the tim...

Every time Bob's ex posted something on Instagram he immediately reported the posting to his buddy Jim. What did the post mean? Did Jim think Bob's ex wanted to get back together? Did she miss him or was she moving on? How did the post relate to Bob and his ex's last conversation which led to their break-up? At first, Jim felt Bob was feeling the usual pangs after a break-up but when Bob's behavior continued for more than a year, he began to wonder if his friend was obsessed with his former girl-friend. The couple had been broken up longer than they had ever been together and Bob seemed to be right where he was after the break-up the year before. 

Bob may not have an actual disorder but he may be stuck in his obsessive compulsive cycle of behaviors. Obsessive compulsive disorder involves a low tolerance for uncertainty. For some people the discomfort with uncertainty leads to ruminating, circular thinking and the feeling of an inability to release certain thoughts (obsessions),...

Coparenting research supports the tenet that coparenting influences the adjustment and well-being of  all members of the family both parents and children, and the parenting relationship.  

Coparenting refers to shared responsibilities in caring for a child. Approximately 50 percent of American children will see their parents' divorce or separate, and 16 percent of children live in a home with a step-parent, step-sibling, or half-sibling. Coparenting in these situations requires a great deal of cooperation, communication, and planning. It requires acting with intention and care in favor of the child's development.

CParenting involves three different systems:

• The co parent to co parent relationship, the parent to child relationship and our relationship with ourselves.

• Each of these elements are interconnected, they influence each other