Massage, hypnotherapy, and many other forms of alternative healing enhances creativity. There are no ifs, and, or buts about it. The relaxation that occurs stimulates inspiration, because a relaxed mind in a relaxed body are more receptive to the impulses of creativity than their tense counterparts. Is there any surprise that so many of the world's great scientific insights and artistic conceptions occur in a restful state rather than a restless one? The famed "a ha" experience of eureka that can make you laugh in delightful "ha-ha," happens when you're most relaxed, not when you're most worried or irritable. While receiving an Indonesian massage on a luxury yacht off the coast of Thailand (I know...that sounds good to me while I read it, too, even a year after the fact), I gained inspiration for this column, as well as for one on tuning in to what your healing clients experience from your treatments. During other massages and coaching sessions that I've received in the past, I've gained ideas for other columns, for new workshops that I would eventually give, and for new books and mini-books that I would write.

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By Coach Cary Bayer

Recently, while doing a Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle, I was stumped by a clue for a four-letter word. The clue was "Grant." I ran through the Rolodex in my mind and came up with answers like award, prize, and so forth. None of them were four letters. Finally, I got the first letter; it was a "C." But that didn't help me either.

Eventually, the light bulb went off in my mind--Eureka. (No, not that endearing term of excitement--it's got six letters.) The answer wasn't a grant of money, it was a Grant of Cary. The irony in this story is that there were only two men who ever made my mother's heart race, and they were Cary Grant, and my father, Sam Bayer. And that's why she named me Cary Bayer.

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by Mark Gorkin, LICSW

Keys to Strengthening Buy-in, Trust and Team Coordination in a Generationally-Culturally Diverse (Military) Workforce -- Part II

Part I of this two-part series has delineated five of the "Top Ten Tools and Strategies for Strengthening Buy-in, Trust and Team Coordination among a Generationally-Culturally Diverse (Military) Workforce," including building communication bridges and fostering a team/systems concept that has application for both military and non-military work settings.

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by Mark Gorkin, LICSW

Full Title: Keys to Strengthening Buy-in, Trust and Team Coordination in a Generationally-Culturally Diverse (Military) Workforce - Part I

I'm preparing for a major offsite event with the Command Teams of the 1st Cavalry/Ft. Hood, TX. I've been asked to explore new (for me) conceptual territory -- Generational Diversity. More specifically, the Army wants me to provide some fresh ideas and exercises for "Communicating with the Younger Soldier." To oversimplify matters: how can the predominant generations in authority -- the Traditionals and Boomers -- connect with GenXers and Millennials. And in today's 24/7 always on world, rapidly cycling between constant upgrading and "doing more with less," creating communication and team coordination bridges among the military (and civilian) generations -- and among all its culturally diverse components -- is mission and morale critical.

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By Coach Cary Bayer

Norman Vincent Peale, one of the 20th century's great positive thinking gurus, once said: "Change your thoughts and you change your world." To that I would add the following idea; namely, that it's just as wise to change your speech. If you want to lose weight, it's obvious that you have to watch what you eat and change how you exercise. A veritable fortune has been made by Weight Watchers with such a formula. If you want to prosper as an alternative healer, then it's also important that you watch what you say. I call this article Word Watchers.

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by Lorraine Pirihi

What are you focussing on achieving in your business in the next 90 days?

Do you have any idea? If you don't then you better come up with a goal or outcome otherwise you may find that another 3 months has passed you by and you're no further ahead than where you are right now.

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by Michael Licenblat

When people produce their best results, they talk about being in a state known as 'the zone'.

Put simply, this is a highly productive state of mind and body where you are simultaneously intense and calm, able to focus on the specific whilst monitoring the big picture, all whilst appearing natural and effortless.

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By Coach Cary Bayer

My cat is a 10-pound Buddha named Ananda (Sanskrit for bliss) because she's the fastest purrer in the West. This calico has taught me volumes about how to succeed in the healing arts business. They can teach you, too.

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by Lorraine Pirihi

Many business owners try something once and if it doesn't work, they don't usually bother again. A great example of this is sending out a newsletter to your database.

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by Sam Slay

1. Stakeholder Surveys - You must determine a base line for your employees. You should conduct a series of surveys designed to find out what your employees know, what they don't know and what they think they know. First, do they understand the true mission of your organization? If you think so then think again, because making money is not the mission.

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By Coach Cary Bayer

"If you build it, he'll come."--The Voice, in A Field of Dreams

Recently, while communicating on my Facebook for massage therapists, an LMT in New York State asked me how to get more clients. I asked her how many more sessions she wanted to do each week, and how much time she had for them. She said she wanted 10 more weekly clients. A business coach for massage therapists and alternative healers, I proceeded to teach her a secret for manifesting that I teach in some of my continuing education courses that wasn't mentioned in The Secret, the best-selling video and book. In other words, you heard it here first.

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by Lorraine Pirihi

How are you progressing with the goals you set yourself this year? Have you made a start? Or are you still procrastinating or caught the very popular "I'm too busy" epidemic?

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by Louise LeBrun

Our world is not about to change, it already has changed! We can no longer simply presume that what was, still is; and that what we once held to be true can still be relied upon to continue to be true. From the more obvious effects in our physical world of global climate change to the more subtle changes in our thoughts - our beliefs about ourselves, our world and our ability to move effectively through that world - we know intuitively that something is moving and we're right in the middle of it all!

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by Coach Cary Bayer

Earlier this year, I was teaching a series of classes in our nation's capital and, wanting to get some fresh fruit for a post-seminar snack, I went into a Giant grocery store in Silver Spring, Maryland. Unlike just about every other supermarket and retail outlet that I've ever walked through throughout this vast nation of ours, it, surprisingly, did not have a customer relations department. But don't be shocked. That's because this Giant had already awakened its own inner giant: it has a Solutions Center. The difference is quite palpable. Customer relations is what stores offer; solutions are what customers desire. Going into a store that sports its own department for solving your problems is a fresh breeze that would make anyone a loyal and devoted customer.

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by Mark Gorkin, LICSW

Expanding the Stress Response through an Organic/Poetic Mindset: "Fight and Flight" and "Freeze and Flow"

According to the leaders of a two day conference on "alternative health," language frames the essence of health and illness. For example, the workshop leaders were uncomfortable with the use of the word "stress" regarding the human condition. Stress, of course, was first defined as a property of metals, specifically an ability to withstand tension. For the instructors, stress terminology turns the body into a machine, something that can then be operated upon and repaired. With a mechanical mindset, however, the essence of the individual (also from my perspective, the team) as a living and evolving (also devolving) organism is easily lost. The human capacity for natural growth and innate healing when mind-body-spirit and the relationship with nature are in harmony can too easily be bypassed or undervalued. Before the mid-20th century takeover by "stress" terminology, the much more human notion of "grief" captured the tensions, trials, and tribulations and "sadder yet wiser" triumphs or, at least, "growing pains" of everyday life.

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by Mark Gorkin, LICSW

Over lunch, my agent posed a provocative challenge: "Write an article on chutzpah." He believes the timing is right. In this difficult economy and uncertain times it's certainly tempting to withdraw into a shell. But a better strategy might be a contrary one, throwing off the shell and putting yourself out there. One "chutzpah" source involves productively tapping into what I call the "RAGE" in "Out-RAGE-ous." (And these days, there's plenty to be enraged about!) Try harnessing some aggressive energy and attitude – develop an "out of the box" presence if not an edgy essence. (Remember, if you're not living on the edge you are taking up way too much space!)

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by Coach Cary Bayer

There's nothing quite like getting a new client who looks like he might come in for a healing session once every month. It's the kind of good news that qualifies for the proverbial, "Something to write home about." With this in mind, let me ask you a simple question: Do you tell your husband/partner/significant other each time a monthly client decides to book a session in two weeks instead of the usual four? I didn't think so. And yet, the once-a-month client who shifts to twice a month is equivalent to getting a new client who comes in once a month. As far as the bottom line is concerned, it's an identical situation. But you probably don't relate to it that way.

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by Mark Gorkin, LICSW

One Man's Restless Journey into Creative and Cohesive Space-Time

Recently, an Internet colleague asked me to share how my mind works when it's in creative gear. The question has motivated this essay: an examination of how a second colleague's brainstorming request initially stirred those creative juices and, then, how a sci-fi cinema classic and a current mega-movie really got the electricity flowing...or jolted me over the creative edge. (I'll let you decide.)

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by Coach Cary Bayer

Restaurants, shoe stores, athletic stores, bookstores, you name it...these days it's hard not to find an ad for a "Buy one, get one free" offer. I can hardly walk down an aisle in my local Public supermarket in south Florida without seeing the word "FREE" in huge bold letters, while the "Buy one, get one..." piece of copy is in smaller font and without bold face. Oh, sure, you don't see it in the ads for medical practices, auto dealers, and healers. It's understandable why businesses that sell big-ticket items like cars aren't going to give away something as expensive as a $20,000 item just for purchasing another one. And it's understandable why MDs, uncomfortable about advertising in the first place, aren't running such specials. But massage therapists, hypnotherapists, chiropractors? There's no really good reason why they're not doing it.

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by Coach Cary Bayer

Whenever I teach my 6-CE workshop, "Build a $100,000 a Year Healing Arts Business in Just 1 Hour a Day," I take two hours to awaken prosperity and success thinking in the facilitators in my classroom. I do that because the overwhelming majority of healers I've come across-now numbering in the thousands-do not think this way naturally. I often say that a slowed down economy is not a problem for such therapists. The problem is how a healer thinks, speaks, and acts about it.

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by Coach Cary Bayer

More than half a century ago, Broadway's Tin Pan Alley offered the above advice to Americans who wanted to succeed in love and business. It's also true today for those today who want to succeed in life and the healing arts of massage, chiropractic, hypnotherapy, psychological counseling, medicine, energy medicine, nursing, social work, and other integrative healing modalities.

Most such healers think of their massage work as a "practice." If you want to "practice" massage, say, call me, and I'll be glad to let you practice on my back. If you want a massage business-or a business in any of the professions above--call me, but for a different reason: I'll show you how to change the attitudes about money and business kicking around in the cellar of your subconscious mind that hold you back from success in your chosen field.

A powerful way to accomplish this transformation is by rewiring your mind through affirmations. It's critical to release the negative thoughts preventing your success. In coaching more than150 licensed massage therapists, as well as dozens of healers in a variety of other fields, I've discovered four such common thoughts.

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by Joe Rubino, PhD

In our daily lives as well as in our businesses, we typically operate from the perspective of doing the best we know how to do in dealing with life's

challenges and opportunities. If we knew what it would take to be more effective in our relationships, more productive in our activities or more successful in reaching our goals, we would surely alter our behavior to correspond with these insights. The only access we ordinarily have to impact our lives comes from the areas of "what we know" and "what we don't know."

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