Motivation Problems

This Meditation Cools Down Summer Stress

Posted on July 7, 2016 Written by Allison Spitzer Leave a Comment

It’s HOT! When tempers flare, the thermostat’s at 90, your patience is gone, and anxiety, stress and depression put you over the edge, try this (quick), easy exercise to calm your mind. Either have someone read this to you, or record it yourself into your phone, then play it back. Speak slowly and put on soft, gentle background music if you’d like.

1. Close your eyes. Take deep breaths in and out. Imagine a summer breeze filling your lungs and on the out-breath, see any toxins within leaving your body. Continue until you feel brighter inside.

2. Fall into a gentle breathing pattern. See the summer sun high in the sky. Imagine its golden rays beaming down into the top of your head, continuing over your face, neck, chest, your heart and back, continuing down your arms, sides, down through your belly, around your hips, down through your seat, your thighs and knees, your shins and out the bottoms of your feet — sending sunshine deep into the earth. Let the warmth relax each muscle, melting all tensions away. When every cell is vibrating, tune into your sacred body energy (chakra) centers.

3. Allow the crown chakra (top of your head) to see and open to a small, golden circle that is rotating clockwise. Do the same with your third eye chakra, (mid-forehead), your throat chakra, your heart chakra, and your solar plexus chakra, your sacral chakra, and finally your root chakra. Take your time.

4. Straighten your spine, creating a straight line from your crown all the way down to your tailbone (“root” chakra).

5. Then, see a water pitcher pouring cool water into your crown. This flowing water is filled with the light of a thousands stars. This starlit water feels cool, and as you receive it, the clockwise rotation slows down a bit. The ripples seem like a summer lake at sunset. They calm you.

6. Lower the water pitcher to your mid forehead. As the starlit water flows here, let the motion slow down further, and see the ripples bringing you peace.

7. The water pitcher pours starlight right into your throat chakra, cooling and relaxing our tired voice. As the clockwise motion slows and the ripples form, take a moment to listen to your thoughts.

8. Then pour starlight water into your heart (chakra). When this chakra feels relaxed, send this tranquility inwards & outwards to a friend, relative or neighbor.

9. Repeat with your solar plexus chakra, and know that when we calm this area, we can become more grounded and centered.

10. As we move this celestial water pitcher down to our sacral chakra, pouring starlight into this chakra and allowing the clockwise motion to slow, imagine the ripples of this chakra glowing with all colors of the rainbow. See the reflection of this chakra’s rainbow lake and gaze into it asking for a vision of the future. Take your time receiving this vision and message.

11. Now take three new deep breaths. This time bring the star filled water pitcher down to your “root” chakra (tailbone). As you pour the cooling water into your root chakra, know that this water is healing your entire body and immune system. Let the water flow down your legs to your feet. Let the healing water flow onto the ground and be absorbed by Mother Earth.

12. See yourself as whole and complete and healthy. Take time to have a vision of yourself engaging in an activity that adds health to your lifestyle. Notice that you are strong and joyful.

13. Come back and imagine yourself back in your meditative space. You are relaxed and calm. You feel balanced and at rest. You have stopped the world from spinning so fast and spent these moments receiving healing. You have remained open to the universe and all of the wonderful gifts it has for you. When you are ready open your eyes.

Edited from © Heather Estara (via Adam Bernstein, @ BetweenTheWorlds.com)

WCBS NY Radio, Allison Spitzer of Spitzer Health Comments on Greenwich School Debate 6/14/1

Posted on June 16, 2016 Written by Allison Spitzer Leave a Comment

Do teens really need to “sleep in?” Though the Greenwich , CT Public Schools think so, the issue should be much more than the daily school starting time.

What has wreaked havoc on our teenagers’ bodies and emotional well being creating stress, anxiety and depression is the overloading of extracurriculars, academic study, volunteer, fitness, and social demands placed on our kids by both parents and educators. Some want their numbers to look good (How many graduates went on to college? How many Ivies?) and parents who want their children to succeed beyond everyone’s comfort level.

I say ENOUGH. Starting later is great but won’t have any effect unless we examine the demands we make on teens to perform and produce like superstars.

In Fairfield County, CT, we’ve created the emotional and physical exhaustion high school students feel. If the evening’s pressures, and the endless texting and FB postings aren’t under control at midnight, it really doesn’t matter what time school starts in the morning. Everyone’s in trouble. We need to manage our expectations of what we see as reasonable for our children to accomplish and engage in. It may be less than we hope, less than what we believe they are capable of, or less than needed for the colleges families aspire to have their child attend.

The good news, though, is our kids may be happier, have good memories of this time in their lives, and less conflict at home. They’ll also have to learn to self regulate their impulses, set better boundaries on what they take on and hence be better prepared for the independence of adulthood which lies just ahead. Just talk to the families of kids with serious emotional issues–stress, depression, anxiety, panic, self harm, or addiction. They’d give anything just to see their kid smile. The pressure just isn’t worth it. Sleep’s only a part of the picture.

Getting Psyched

Posted on June 15, 2015 Written by Allison Spitzer Leave a Comment

So what’s stopping you? Allergies? Depression? The kids? Money?

Just look at this lady! She’s jumping for joy. Wouldn’t that just be great?! When did you outgrow blowing bubbles, watching the faces in the clouds, or setting your goals high, dreaming about them and moving towards them?

Last week I swam naked. Yup. I played with an adult coloring book. I called some friends. I loved my work. I helped an old lady. I wore crazy bling. I cried with my husband. I giggled with a girlfriend. I started a house project I’ve put off for a while. I went to a kids’ waterpark, got soaked in my clothes while hot grownups sat on the sidelines.

I only get one shot at happy. One shot at fun. One shot at connection. One shot at my life–and I’m gonna grab it. Why not you?

Don’t give up! My clients tell me they are “stuck,” or hopeless…..The “homework” I give is “FUN,” self soothing, a pass from the pressure to perform. And, it works.

Helping Kids Before There’s “Real” Trouble

Posted on March 7, 2013 Written by Allison Spitzer Leave a Comment

ctpost-3613 As schools and mental health providers struggle to improve identification and delivery of services to children and adolescents with mental health issues, let’s not overlook the vital role of preventative care available to families whose struggles are “normal,” whose children may not need psychiatric help but may need assistance dealing with issues life presents.

The article in Sunday’s Connecticut Post, (“How to identify, help kids with mental health disorders), does not address those with normal struggles — struggles that if left unaddressed might very well develop into something more debilitating.

The first-grader who is shy becomes the third-grader a bit lonely. By seventh grade, is he isolated, and by ninth, bullied? What happens in senior year? Is she cutting herself? Is he aggressive? Are there drugs, academic troubles, and risky behavior which might have been averted if families had reached out before there was “trouble”? For children, teens and families stressed by today’s social and environmental factors, those without “mental health disorders,” it can be all too short a jump to labels and “problems.”

As a life skills therapist and communications coach who deals with stress management, I urge parents who wonder about their children, “Is something wrong?” not to wait. Take action. Better to take a pre-emptive strike on the difficulties our kids bury, even if they don’t seem monumental at the time. Like the homeland security ad on TV, “If you see something, say something” — if you think something’s off with your child, there probably is. Check it out. Make it right before there’s a crisis, diagnosis, file, label or doctor needed. It’s not “making a mountain out of a molehill”; it’s preventing that mountain down the road from spewing lava.

Allison B. Spitzer