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Mindfulness: 3 Ways to Reduce Stress and Anxiety

Mindfulness: 3 ways to reduce stress and create a life of health and wellness
Mindfulness: 3 ways to reduce stress and create a life of health and wellness
Mindfulness: 3 ways to reduce stress and create a life of health and wellness

Who has stress? Who has anxiety? Who is living with stress and anxiety and may not be aware of it? May seem like a ridiculous question. When I was first told of my, pass high general anxiety, I was in denial. I thought it was my life. I thought everyone felt this way? Not everyone feels this way and you don’t have to anymore either. I first began using mindfulness for anxiety, although mindfulness is so much more.  When I first learned about mindfulness, I would get so stressed that I just couldn’t think.  I knew I needed to do something and nothing would come to mind or so many things came to mind; I couldn’t determine which thing to do first.  Can you relate? In that moment, I would think, I should meditate on this, NO; I don’t have the time for that and continue to circle and freeze into the abyss of Fret and Over-thinking Ville . What if, in just a moment, you could escape from fret land and slide into and area of calmness and peace? what would that feel like?

What is mindfulness

Let’s take a moment to define Mindfulness

Mindfulness is: Our basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing. It is already inside you. You have access anytime and my favorite part…anywhere.

Oxford dictionary definition is: mind·ful·ness:

1.the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something:

2.a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

Mindfulness is just that, being mindful, which means, that the mind is fully aware to what’s happening and what you are doing at that moment. That might seem easy to be fully aware, accept for when our mind naturally thinks thousands of thoughts per minute or so it seems. When that happens, we are now off in ‘what if’ land thinking about some imaginary scenario that most likely will not happen, but seems so real, we are now in full anxiousness and fret.

But have no fear, mindfulness is here.  Mindfulness is wherever you are.  It just requires a little awareness and practice. 

Why should I care about mindfulness? What’s in it for me?

There are so many benefits to mindfulness. I wrote my 3 favorite benefits. You can read it here: (see link below)…..After practicing mindfulness…I wonder what your favorite benefits will be?

3 Benefits to Mindfulness
My 3 Benefits to Mindfulness

My 3 Benefits of Mindfulness Practice:

Here are the three things that I benefit from a mindful practice and they are not listed in any order of importance.

1.Reduction of Stress and Anxiety – I feel myself entering the fret-land and I take a breath and then go to my breath awareness in mindfulness

2. Mental Clarity – being in a mindful moment brings clarity and creativity. Even now, I will be experiencing a little anxiety of how I should be use my day and I will doubt the effectiveness of just a few minutes of mindfulness. Then, I set my 10 min timer and enter the calming, creative world of mindfulness where all the answers magically appear. I am now calm, confident and have my agenda set.  It’s amazing!

3. Peace and Balance – when I have that feeling that I am just overwhelmed or torn in too many directions, mindfulness just brings me peace.

What can I say; I am now addicted to feeling peaceful and balanced.

What is mindful awareness?

I mentioned before that practicing mindfulness just requires awareness and practice.

Once you catch yourself in fret land, that’s Awareness,….STOP and remember. You can restore peacefulness to yourself.  This is your basic human right and you have the power to be at peace.  You deserve this!

Now…enter into mindfulness. 

Here are 3 basic ways to practice mindfulness:

Take a stroll – Take a walk anywhere safe. Sure nature is awesome, beautiful and relaxing but it doesn’t have to be that to receive the benefits. A walk in your safe neighborhood will work. While on your walk, take in the experience with all your senses.  As you are strolling, be aware of what you see and how it makes you feel. What do you hear and how does that make you feel? What do you smell and what are you feeling now, etc.

Notice everything is about what is going on inside, your experience. When you focus on the inside, it is very difficult to be anxious about what is happening on the outside.

Mindfulness can be practiced with your first cup of coffee, tea or beverage. As you sit down with your morning beverage, be with it for a moment. What do you notice first and how does that make you feel?  What do you notice second and what are you feeling?  If it hot, perhaps you can feel the heat and observe the steam and smell the flavor. Then take a sip and again what do you notice and what are you feeling?

I wonder how your day would change for the better when starting it with mindfulness?

Mindful Breathing Meditation – My favorite mindful practice. It literally change my life.  This is where I am being aware of my breath.  Not trying to change it in anyway, just being aware of how I breathe.  Perhaps, I am noticing the muscles used, or the sound, frequency or rhythm or what do you notice? Doesn’t matter what you notice, it only matters that you are being aware and how it makes you feel.

Want to practice mindfulness, but don’t have time for a walk or a beverage handy?  You always have your breath and it only takes a moment. 

Mindful Breathing Meditation can be a meditation on its own of a starter for self-hypnosis, goal centered or manifesting meditation or ??? The possibilities are endless. 

Mindfulness: who has time for it?  Well, we can stay in fret and over-thinking land and be anxious and stressed out or take a moment, and it is only a moment, to be mindful.  In that moment, peace, clarity and confidence will return.  Who has time for it?

I Do!    Do You?

Is hypnotherapy right for you? call or text me for a free 20 min consultation. (805) 242-1649 or use the CONTACT ME form at the bottom of the post

Interested to learn mindful breathing moment/meditation? check out my Mindful Breathing Meditation audio here:

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Hi, let me share a bit about myself. Around 13 years ago, I discovered the incredible potential of the mind, body and spirit. I was introduced to Reiki, a powerful energy healing system. My initial experience with hypnosis occurred when I was sitting in an office chair, casually leaning against the wall with the intent of removing a lifelong fear.  In this 20 minute session my lifelong fear, panic really, of floating on my back in a pool disappeared. In one session, my fear was gone.

That led me to become certified in hypnotherapy through HMI (Hypnosis Motivation Institute) an accredited college of hypnotherapy. Now, as a Reiki master and hypnotherapist,  I am excited to offer Reiki infused hypnotherapy for your ultimate success.

I am dedicated to empowering my clients by assisting them in uncovering and harnessing their innate healing abilities. By tapping into this source of power, they can lead a purposeful, mindful, and harmonious life. Through the powerful combination of Reiki and hypnosis, my clients are able to establish an intuitive connection and experience holistic healing.

Want more peace and confidence in your life? Ready to learn more about how easy mindfulness can create this life? Use the form below and schedule your free consultation call now!

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Procrastination is Good???

Procrastination is Good???

You heard me right…Procrastination is Good!

We have been told and taught that procrastination is bad.  You have most likely heard these famous quotes, ‘Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today’.  ‘You may delay but time will not’ and on and on

Here is one for us procrastinators: ‘Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time’ and ‘you can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet’.

Now you might be interested to know that there are two types of procrastination, Active and Passive. I sense your surprise. Would you like to learn more?

Active Procrastination is delaying working on the task while mentally mulling it over in your mind.  You have a task or project you need to work on maybe it daunting or difficult.  It’s on the daily list but you put it off; however, not completely.  You are mentally working on it. Allowing yourself time to sleep on it and think on it. This is Active Procrastination

Passive Procrastination is not acting or thinking on it and you find yourself wasting time instead of working on the task.

Active Procrastination is good and Passive Procrastination is bad

I will tell you that I find myself in both camps and until I began researching this, I thought all procrastination was bad.  I, now, know the truth and so do you.  I found this knowledge gave me relief and comfort to be me. To solve problems and complete tasks my way. I can be an active procrastinator and that is OKAY.

Here are some examples of good procrastination:

Sometimes procrastinating on a task really identifies if it is important to you.   IF it is really important to you, you would be you be all over it, getting it done, right?  Sure you would.  But if it isn’t really important then let’s just sit on it and see what happens. Take a day or two to assess the energy of the idea or task…let it marinate so to speak. In the mean time, think about how it can be accomplished or even improved upon. Speaking on improving the task….

Active Procrastination can allow you to become more creative

I really love using active procrastination for this and it has helped me to be more effective.  I love to think about and use creative sleep to form ideas and strategies to complete a daunting task.  It is amazing how creative the mind can be when we allow a difficult task to restfully sit for a day or two. 

Now you have made time and space to create new strategies and ideas to complete the task easier.  This leads to better decisions and successful completions.

So these are a few reasons why active procrastination is good, you might have a few of your own.

So what do we do about the bad procrastination?

If you find yourself on the couch looking at Social Media instead of working on the task, say HI!

Yup that is me when I am struggling with bad procrastination; sitting on the couch scrolling through Instagram. This would be a sign of bad procrastination. Funny thing is, I am not aware that I am procrastinating. Being aware of the procrastination action is very important to develop self-awareness.

First, to recognize the procrastination behavior and secondly, why?  What is it about THIS task that so distasteful or fearful?  I find that most bad procrastination is fear based.  There is something about the task that scares you.   The fear can be so subtle and familiar, it goes without recognition. 

Is it a fear of being judged?  I am not sure I can do this well so, if I mess it up, I will be embarrassed.  Solution, do some research on the task and make a decision.  Can I do this or should I ask for help.  Often at first glance, tasks seem harder than they really are.  After a little research, on, YouTube, for example, you will learn if the task is in your skill set or not. Now you have the information needed to make a decision.  And it is off the list.

Or the project is HUGE OMG, I need a month off to complete this task.

Is the task just to overwhelming to even think about?  And there I am scrolling on the couch.  The solution is to just break it down into smaller bites. Sounds easy doesn’t it? NO! I used to say no too. Now I ask myself, “what small thing could I do today that would help with this task”. I like mind maps.  

Mind Maps are relaxing, Just Saying…

An example of Mind Map: Last Christmas, Teri (my wife) tells me every bedroom will be occupied with kids and their spouses and a grandchild, so we need to get the house in order.  I found this to be Overwhelming.  This project had a lot of moving parts with closets being cleared and stuff needing to be taken to good will and garage needing to be organized to handle more stuff being moved from bedrooms and on and on.  It was a nightmare.  So I took a day and created a mind map.  I don’t work well with lists. I broke everything down into little tasks with dates.  And it all got done. Just having the mind map gave me relief. I wasn’t overwhelmed anymore. Instead, I was excited and focused to complete each task and cross it off.  By the way, at the top of the plan, I wrote “The Kuhns Family Christmas”. Some will get the reference.  Haha.  Yes, Christmas Vacation is one of my favorite Christmas movies.

In closing, there you have it, The Good and Bad of Procrastination. If there was an Ugly of Procrastination, it would be to continue scrolling on the couch.  Instead use this information, face the issue and make a decision. Self awareness is all you need to decide if it is Active Good or Passive bad.

Happy Active Procrastinating

Is hypnotherapy right for you? call or text me for a free 20 min consultation. (805) 242-1649 or use the CONTACT ME form at the bottom of the post

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Why is Self-Love Important

In the last 6 years, working with clients for a number of issues from quit smoking, anxiety, weight-loss and others, I have found there is an underlying issue, a thread of commonality in all and that is self-love or the lack thereof. This one tiny thing isn’t so tiny at all.  It is the foundation to creating lasting change in many if not all areas of our lives.

Let me ask you, do you really love yourself? If I asked you that, you might quickly answer, “of course I do” But do you really?  Do you treat yourself and talk to yourself with love and respect?

My upbringing 

I was born into a family with English and German heritage. My home life, love was rarely shown and acceptance was quickly removed when I wasn’t behaving according to my parent’s standard.  I learned quickly to keep my awareness on what others thought of me.  To not upset the applecart, so to speak, because, then they would not love me anymore or so I feared. This insecurity was easily carried over to all my relationships and my boundaries became pretty thin.

I was afraid to say no. I was always thinking, What if I said no?  Would they still like me?  What if my opinion up set them, what would they tell others about me. Would my Mom still love me? So I grew up learning that my self-love was second or even last to others.

Self-Love is the foundation to accepting yourself, respecting yourself and taking responsibility for yourself

In my work with clients I began to recognize the power of self love to create lasting change and I began working with my clients to increase their self-love. At the Hypno-Thoughts Live 2021 Conference, I attended Martin Caster post conference, 3 day practitioner certification training for Addiction Behavioral Modification.   one of the techniques is developing self love. This ‘self love exercise’ was powerful for me for two reasons: One, my own observation of the importance of self love was confirmed and validated and second, Martin created a very effective way to connect and reinforce self-love, respect and responsibility. When we practiced the technique on each other, it had a profound and life changing effect on me.  I no longer look at food the same anymore, which was my intention during the exercise, and it made changes in many ways throughout my daily life.

Are you ready for a quick exercise? Ok! Here is the quick exercise:

Close your eyes and take a deep relaxing breath and let your whole body relax.  Now imagine, picture or pretend that you are looking at yourself in the mirror as you are getting ready for the day.  Look yourself in the eye in the mirror and say I Love Myself.  I love myself…….

Now take a deep breath in and open your eyes

How did you do? Did you find it uncomfortable? Yes?  I did as well. It is much more comfortable now than before the conference.  Self love is connected in so many ways in our lives.  Our appearance to others is huge, isn’t it? When we see our bodies in the mirror, is our thoughts loving or hateful?  Mine used to be hateful.

Many believe, as I did, that hating our bodies would be motivational to improve their body image.  Wrong!!!

If you do not like yourself then you have no respect for yourself and will continue to regularly disrespect yourself with wrong foods and life choices.    

Who can relate to these thoughts: I don’t like me so who cares.  I want it now because it will make me feel better.  And on and on and on

Actually, when we love our selves, we will experience that self-love leads to self-acceptance and self-respect.  When you are in this state of self love and self respect, you will find yourself saying, “I love myself where I am now and I take responsibility to change it moving forward!”  Now that is power to change, wouldn’t you agree?

No longer seeking the approval of others

WOW when you love and respect yourself in your own uniqueness and value, it has power.  You can find the courage to stand firm with yourself and say This is who I am, love me or move on!  Imagine the power in that!

We talked about boundaries and saying NO.  Self-love is huge here.

Imagine how strong your boundaries are now.

The power in self-love and respect could be referred to as a super power couldn’t?

When you have self-love and respect, you have the power to take action for yourself and build stronger boundaries. I wonder what other super powers will begin to emerge.

 Perhaps: Open, caring and honest communication with others would come forward or how about putting you first or this one, Self Forgiveness.  Let us have that superpower as well.  It is okay to forgive yourself from the past, present and the future.  We are going to make mistakes. That is the path to growth.  It happens; so let it go.

Are there’s more? I wonder how many other super powers you will you find when you begin to love yourself for who you are.

Super Powers I want some!

Self-love, self-respect, superpowers, I want them all!  How do I get some of that?  One way is to see me for a session and there are lots of other ways to build self love into your daily routine.

Take a walk anywhere or in your favorite nature spot. Take that nap you need.  Treat yourself to healthy foods and snacks. Drink plenty of water

Meditate, yoga, mindfulness, journaling, arts or crafts and practice gratitude.

Allow yourself to be you – Respect & love your uniqueness

Want to experience a personal Self Love Journey? I created an audio recording that will release your self love blockages and empower your love for yourself. As a special gift attached to this blog, use the link below and receive $10 dollars off the regular audio price. The audios normally sell for $25 dollars but you can have it for $15. click the link below for the audio and use the discount code SLJ-10-off at check out to receive your discount.

For a personalized Self-Love Journey experience, contact me for a self love hypnosis session. Call or text me at (805) 242-1649 or use the CONTACT ME form below

Art Kuhns Certified Hypnotherapist and Reiki Master/Teacher

Art is a certified hypnotherapist and Reiki master teacher.  He received his hypnotherapy certification from Hypnosis Motivation Institute.

 Art’s passion is to empower others to find and unlock their own healer and personal power.  Once this power is unleashed, a life of intention and balance in mind /body/spirit can unfold.   He uses Reiki infused hypnosis during his session work to enable clients to connect intuitively and heal holistically.

He holds additional certifications in PTSD, Smoking Cessation, Inner Child Healing, Addition & Behavior Modification and Spiritual Hypnosis.