Holding The Space - The Power of Positive Mantra to Change

I went to this acting workshop once and the guys running it were real guys of faith. All of them working actors. They spoke of having a positive attitude among many other concepts for being successful in such an erratic profession as acting. I noticed one guy, whenever you asked him how he was, he'd say: "I'm blessed, brother." However, the look in his eyes was fear, like he didn't believe it, but rather he was hoping somehow it would be true as soon as possible. Even with his apparent success, he was there with his partners giving this workshop to remind himself of all the things that were working in his life. You could tell he believed them all, but the look in his eyes was fear-- as though he didn't actually feel it. What he was doing was holding the space with his mantra: "I'm blessed, brother."

"In the beginning was the word and the word was with god and the word was god." [John, 1:1]

The word starts with you. Everything is a vibration. Go back to elementary science: all matter is energy and energy is neither created nor destroyed, it simply changes into and out of form by virtue of its vibrational frequency. You don't have to be a mad philosopher or astrophysicist to get this stuff either, you just have to look around you, closely. It's everywhere in nature. So it is, so it shall be. When you speak The Word you vibrate that word's symbolic meaning within your being, in the present moment. So staying positive and saying ""I'm blessed" is certainly better than saying, "I'm screwed, I'm gonna die a fiery death."

Unfortunately if you're in the habit of being negative, the latter might seem more true and easier to resonate with in the moment and that's what people generally do. Being negative then becomes a habit. Talking about failure, especially joking about failure is a way of hedging one's bets and avoiding the pain of defeat. If you expect hard knocks and you joke about it, when it comes you're not as hurt by having had faith and hoped for better. It's a real half-assed way to go and it invites the failure in because you're giving power to failure by being self-deprecating. It's that law of attraction that's become so popular with the movie, The Secret that's all the rage now. What you put your attention on grows: what you focus your thoughts on is what you will magnetically attract into your life.

The thing is, the creative energy is neutral. You and the creative potential of the universe are one. You can call it God or whatever you need to call it to grab on to it. It's there for you to do what you will with it. You've got this mind, given as a gift to you, to direct the light of your soul. You've got free will to create the habits that will attract to you success and prosperity and more importantly a sense of inner peace and it is all begins created with The Word. When the thousands of thoughts that flick through your mind at the blink of an eye flutter by your inner lens you can choose to grab on to any one, or several of those passing thoughts. As soon as you grab on to a thought and you react to it with emotion you start a chain reaction of creation. Backed by emotion thought moves one to speak The Word and hence your reality is created.

Let's say you have to give a speech and you're terrified of public speaking. Your mind is racing, your negative mind is feeding you worst case scenarios and what you grab onto the worst of them and become emotional about it. Then you likely express that fear. You speak some words in relation to it-- expressing your fears to those close to you. All the while your giving more and more power to what you don't want-- to get up and bomb in front of an audience. Thus you keep your reality in place by the habit of your thoughts. Hopefully, you have the balance of the positive mind, telling you that it's going to be okay, telling you how prepared you are or that you're doing it for a higher purpose, driving you to then create a more positive stream of thoughts to act on. Want to see this type of "space holding" in action? Watch professional sports. The athletes pump themselves up for game day and seal their minds as best they can against defeat. What they're doing is holding the space for the win.

So let's go back a moment. Millions of thoughts, you grab one or a chain of them and project these thoughts backed by emotion. Then you speak The Word. These are the elements of how you project your reality. Remember, the mind projects the light of your soul. Human broken down into it's roots, "Hue" and "Man" are as follows: Hue meaning light, Man meaning mind-- light-mind. A human is the light (of the soul) projected with the help of the mind in the present moment. So "holding the space" simply means maintaining the present moment by virtue of your thoughts and words and deeds. Very simply it is how you are projecting in each moment. We all do it , constantly. Mothers and Fathers hold the space for their families. Friends hold the space for each other. It's whatever you're doing to keep your present reality in place. Think of a mother watching silently over her children as they play. She might go about the house, working unnoticed, making the home peaceful and perfect. All the while, her thoughts and intentions are on her children's safety and well-being. With her sixth sense, she's listening for sounds that might indicate the children are in need of something or facing danger. This is holding the space.

I first heard this term "holding the space" in the kundalini yoga community. It's a natural progression when you understand how yogi's work. They discipline themselves through yoga and meditation until their power over the mind gives them the control of their reality. Not bad for the price of admission, I'd say. So everywhere I went these yogis were talking about holding the space and quite honestly it annoyed me. It seemed like hippy buzzwords to me and very often, like my aforementioned acting friend, we can sometimes use buzzwords in a knee-jerk fashion. After hearing the term "holding the space" enough times, I realized it really meant something more than its apparent buzz. It means controlling your present reality by first holding the mental space and then choosing which thoughts you will project, and then back with emotion and ultimately by speaking the word, sparking the process of manifestation.

You can't control time but you can affect the space which you occupy within that time continuum. That is how we are on this earth in a nutshell. We're occupying space within time. When I was growing up, if someone was a real mope, we'd call them "a waste of space." It comes down to how you occupy or "hold the space" in each moment. Since everything comes down to a vibration, a frequency, you have a choice with that vibration: whether to go higher or lower.

What my acting friend knew was that by using a mantra he was seeding his mind with the vibration he wished to create: living a blessed life. The more you repeat a mantra the more it vibrates within you and changes your mind's vibration--The Word in action within the mind. Yogi Bhajan has often been quoted as saying, "fake it until you make it." Essentially that means hold the space in your mind by first by believing it even if the outer picture is in conflict with what you yet desire to create. Mantra helps with this tremendously. In the practice of kundalini yoga we use many sacred mantras whose mere vibrations are like a telephone numbers to many different sacred elements of the universe. These high powered vibrations serve to clear all the subconscious crap that gets in the way of what you wish to project and thus create. Any mantra spoken from the gut, backed with belief and emotion will do the trick. The idea is to seed the mind for change.

"We must become the change we wish to see." --Mahatma Ghandi

When your mind changes, you change. When you change, what you project changes. When what you project changes, what you experience changes-- and this becomes what you see in front of you.

Holding the space means keeping your focus on your intention until the picture outside created, maintained and then held to your satisfaction. Many people feel out of control because they don't have the strength of mind to hold the space that they want to experience. Everything is everything. Keeping the physical body strong and the mind clear, strengthening the mind with disciplined meditation and using mantras to reinforce positive affirmations are all tools one can use to hold the space they desire in their lives.

What kind of space are you holding in your life?

Patrick Lacho is an IKYTA certified Yoga instructor and writer based in Los angeles. He teaches a yoga bootcamp http://www.ybc40.com, which takes students through a forty day transformation using yoga, meditation and sound. More articles and discussion about yoga, philosophy, spirituality and more can be found on the website.

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Halo 3 Could Put XBox in Front of the Console Wars

Everywhere you turn, the news of xbox 360's Halo 3 release is out there. The game is garnering such attention because the franchise has been so successful and this is the latest and greatest. Halo 3's release is one of the biggest video game events to date. part of the reason for this is the coverage the game is receiving. You don't have to be a gamer to run across Halo 3 everywhere you turn. Many news programs are constantly running stories about this new game.

The original Halo game came out with the launch of the original xbox, and it has been a popular gaming franchise ever since. Expert gamers claim that it is the best first person shooter franchise in gaming history. These fans call themselves "Halo Nation" which is to Halo what "Trekkies" is to Star Trek. Halo Nation members camped out for the release of the game, hoping to be the first to get their hands on Halo 3.

There was so much attention surrounding this release that stores like EB Games held release day parties at midnight so that customers would not have to wait to receive the game until normal opening hours. With such devoted fans, microsoft pulled in a cool 170 million dollars on the very first day!

Predictions have microsoft making about 560 million dollars from Halo 3! This is not bad considering they spent only 55 million dollars to design the game. They may even collect some money from those buying the xbox 360 console just to play the game. The timing is perfect with the holiday season right around the corner. Many children and teens will have this on their wish-list for sure!

Still not sure what Halo is? The franchise is based on a setting in the future where people must battle against aliens. The weapons are all futuristic and very cool! You play as Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan-117. Master Chief has all the tools he needs to battle the aliens. The game is very "pretty" and well done as microsoft had top employees developing the game for over 3 years. You can expect the world to be massive and full of interactivity. This definitely isn't a game they threw together just to keep the franchise going. They seem very committed to producing a top of the line game for Halo fans.

microsoft needed this boost, as the nintendo Wii is still the top selling console. We'll have to see what happens with the battle of the consoles this holiday season.

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Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Simple Self-Help Tips

If you have been diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), you will know how difficult it is to treat. Doctors can be dismissive of IBS symptoms such as diarrhea, constipation and bloating, and when treatment is offered it may only help for a short while before the distressing symptoms return.

Sufferers often find that they have to deal with the symptoms themselves, through self-help methods and supplements, rather than by using conventional medicines. However, this does not mean that there is no hope of improvement. By sharing their experiences, sufferers can learn a lot about what really helps to ease IBS.

All the self-help tips in this article have come from IBS sufferers who have found a way to control their irritable bowels. Before trying any form of self-help, please make sure that you have your doctors approval, and do check that anything you try will not interfere with any medication you are taking.

Calcium tablets

Linda, who suffers from severe diarrhea, says: What has helped me for more than two years is calcium carbonate, an over-the-counter supplement. I take three tablets a day, one at each meal. The most success has come from using any formula of calcium supplement that is like Caltrate 600 Plus with vitamin D and minerals. The only side effect is at the beginning of taking the calcium you may have some gas or indigestion, but this usually goes away after taking a regular dose for a few days.

If you suffer from constipation rather than diarrhea, you could try magnesium supplements instead, as these can have a slight laxative effect.

Digestive enzymes and probiotics

Kim, who also suffers from bad diarrhea, says: I tried taking digestive enzymes with acidophilus and found significant relief within three days. I am not afraid to eat now, but find that I still cannot eat very much refined sugar or high fibre vegetables. I have also added a cup or two per day of peppermint and chamomile tea. When I do have an episode it occurs late in the day and by the next morning I am feeling back to normal.

Looking at your diet

Laura describes how a close examination of her diet helped her IBS: I was placed on every kind of medication, and sometimes they worked in the short term, sometimes they didn't work at all. The doctor finally suggested trying to alter my diet in cycles, and we discovered that eating meat was my problem. I became a vegetarian and no longer have constant problems. Sometimes I even go years without any pain at all. It's worth all the effort you put into it when you finally feel better.

Mina also found that dietary change helped control her symptoms, alongside traditional medication: I've made a number of changes to my diet. I've eliminated milk and mostly any dairy, fried foods, sugar for the most part, pop, alcohol, potato chips, spicy food, rice, pasta and bread. Most recently I'm eliminating flour. But my best friend for the last couple of years has been Imodium Quick Dissolve tablets. I don't ever leave home without them. I just have to make sure I don't overdo it. If I ever become immune to the wonder drug I am gonna be a real mess!

Flaxseed

Watching your diet is sometimes not enough to completely control the symptoms, and natural or herbal supplements can help, as Marion discovered: After about six months of a horrendously restrictive diet (ultra low-fat vegan with no raw veggies or fruit except banana) and a lot of Metamucil, I managed to get it sort of under control. But if I deviated from the diet, the chronic diarrhea would come back. Someone I met told me that she had helped her IBS by taking a tablespoon of freshly ground flaxseed with a glass of water or juice every morning.

I thought it was another crackpot cure, but eventually I decided to try it. She had told me that pre-ground flaxseed didn't work because flax seed starts to oxidize as soon as you grind it and that whole flax seeds are no good either, because they cannot be digested properly. After years of IBS, in about two weeks it just went away. I cannot believe that I now have perfectly normal, regular bowel movements.

Fiber, water and yoga

Pam, who struggles with constipation, has developed a combination of things which work for her: I drink Metamucil (psyllium fibre) every day and try to relax, pray or meditate, even do a little yoga. The more I make myself relax and take time to de-stress the better I can manage my problem. I know time for yourself is very hard to come by sometimes but I have to if I'm going to manage this. I try to drink at least three bottles of water a day. This is also hard sometimes but I have to take care of me the best I can. I also take a mild anti-depressant. This has helped a bunch in my stress department and in turn has helped my IBS.

stress and IBS

Daniel believes that his symptoms are related to his emotions and stress: I thought that when I was stuck on the toilet, experiencing the most severe cramps, thinking I was about to pass out from the pain, feeling like I was about to throw up, I was the only one. I'm still trying to work it out but I believe it has a lot to do with my psychological state. I say this because although I don't get too stressed out at any one moment, I do have general worries about money and life. I tend to find when I'm not worrying about these things I don't get the pain as much, if at all.

It's easier said than done of course, I can't just stop worrying about money or my future, but being aware of these things seems to help - being optimistic and knowing that everything is only temporary. I have been taking Colpermin (peppermint capsules) as a preventative which often helps and for a while I took painkillers which I think helped.

Soluble versus insoluble fiber

Some nutritionists believe that IBS sufferers intestines react differently to soluble and insoluble fiber, and this has been Stus experience: After trying all kinds of drugs and healthy eating, my pains were still there. I found by accident that it wasn't so much what I ate but whether I ate it on a full stomach or not. My failsafe is pasta on an empty stomach, I get no reaction - it is soluble fibre that settles the colon apparently. I quickly searched on the internet for recipes high in soluble fibre and I have improved.

Most significantly though I am on no medication and this puts me in control of the IBS, not the other way around. I think this is important as stress certainly can trigger the symptoms off. I don't avoid insoluble fibre as it is essential for the body, but I recommend that you eat it on a full stomach.

Sophie Lee has suffered from IBS for more than 15 years. She runs the IBS Tales website at http://www.ibstales.com where you can read hundreds of personal experiences of IBS and self-help tips.

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