by Anne Milligan, LCSW

Have you ever taken yourself up on an invitation to take a walk in the woods, pressed your face up against the wind and stretched your body as far and wide as you possibly can, so that it seems to blow through you, and erase all that tension from too much thinking? Have you felt the freedom of a strong and swirly wind blowing your hair all to kingdom come, like Medusa double-daring the world to fence you in with seductive words and concepts? And have you then been opened up to the wonder of the moment, to be fully inspired from deep within?

Click to Enlarge

Over the past few years, the ongoing science and practice of "mindfulness" has yielded a rich cornucopia of insight which I am certain is restructuring "brain maps" for steady growth not just in my brain but in my relationships, responses, and life choices. I suppose there is a reason that so many of our guided imagery/hypnotherapy clients choose nature imagery for relaxation and inner healing. Trees, plants, the free flow of the wind, dirt, seeds, the scent of mother nature "doing her thing" – all of these awaken in us a sense of connection that cannot be broken despite a host of possible negative messages and interpretations which formed our brain circuitry in the first 26 months of life.

Even as I type these words on a clear morning in late October, the sunrise casts a glorious blanket of orange, reds, and greens over the trees in our yard. It is as if every cell and fiber of my being WAKES UP to the display and a song arises in my heart: "Morning has broken, like the first morning." And then, just then in a flash of awareness, I seem to remember from a deeper place of knowing, that I am ALIVE! I know in an instantaneous, free-flow of input from the Wellspring of all life, that every name was written into the Book of Life from the very beginning of time. Opening up that place of existential meaning in the "right brain," I see that we are all participants in the beautiful cycles of graciousness embedded within creation itself. Gratitude wells up, a great sense of joy envelopes the senses, and I know that I am alive and well. All is well. All will be well. All is well. Namaste to all creatures on earth. Peace to you.

For more information visit www.AnneMilligan.com

After further controversies, the definition of hypnosis is to be at the same time a modified state of consciousness and a particular intersubjective relation between a practitioner and his patient. In a synthetic way, we can say that mechanisms of hypnosis on acute pain are now well known, and its efficiency is particularly proved in the pain provoked by the care. On the other hand, the knowledge concerning the action of the hypnosis on chronic pain is much more complex to understand. If the hypnosis allows connoting differently pain and to decrease its implication in patient's life, otherWise the long-term reorganizations of hypnosis on chronic pain are still for the study. In practice, the field which his particularly in development is the analogical processes of the speech, because they are particularly present in pain medicine, and easy to use in hypnotic method.

Rev Med Suisse. 2012 Jun 27;8(347):1399-400, 1402-3. Bioy A. Centre de prise en charge des douleurs et des soins palliatifs du CHU Bicêtre, Institut français d'hypnose Centre de recherches et de formation, Paris. antoine.bioy@u-bourgogne.fr

Full title: Lead poisoning in pregnant women who used ayurvedic medications from India - new york city, 2011-2012.

Lead poisoning still occurs in the United States despite extensive prevention efforts and strict regulations. Exposure to lead can damage the brain, kidneys, and nervous and reproductive systems. Fetal exposure to lead can adversely affect neurodevelopment, decrease fetal growth, and increase the risk for premature birth and miscarriage. During 2011-2012, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) investigated six cases of lead poisoning associated with the use of 10 oral Ayurvedic medications made in India. All six cases were in foreign-born pregnant women assessed for lead exposure risk by health-care providers during prenatal visits, as required by New York state law. Their blood lead levels (BLLs) ranged from 16 to 64 µg/dL. Lead concentrations of the medications were as high as 2.4%; several medications also contained mercury or arsenic, which also can have adverse health effects. DOHMH distributed information about the medications to health-care providers, product manufacturers, and government agencies in the United States and abroad, via postal and electronic mail. DOHMH also ordered a local business selling contaminated products to cease sales. Health-care providers should ask patients, especially foreign-born or pregnant patients, about any use of foreign health products, supplements, and remedies such as Ayurvedic medications. Public health professionals should consider these types of products when investigating heavy metal exposures and raise awareness among health-care providers and the public regarding the health risks posed by such products.

MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2012 Aug 24;61:641-6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Full title: Motor Consciousness during Intention-Based and Stimulus-Based Actions: Modulating Attention Resources through Mindfulness Meditation.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction meditation (MBSR) may offer optimal performance through heightened attention for increased body consciousness. To test this hypothesis, MBSR effects were assessed on the simple task of lifting an object. A dual task paradigm was included to assess the opposite effect of a limited amount of attention on motor consciousness. In a stimulus-based condition, the subjects' task was to lift an object that was hefted with weights. In an intentional-based condition, subjects were required to lift a light object while imagining that the object was virtually heavier and thus, adjust their grip voluntarily. The degree of motor consciousness was evaluated by calculating correlation factors for each participant between the grip force level used during the lift trial ("lift the object") and that used during its associated reproduce trial ("without lifting, indicate the force you think you used in the previous trial"). Under dual task condition, motor consciousness decreased for intention- and stimulus-based actions, revealing the importance of top-down attention for building the motor representation that guides action planning. For MBSR-experts, heightened attention provided stronger levels of motor consciousness; this was true for both intention and stimulus-based actions. For controls, heightened attention decreased the capacity to reproduce force levels, suggesting that voluntary top-down attention interfered with the automatic bottom-up emergence of body sensations. Our results provide strong arguments for involvement of two types of attention for the emergence of motor consciousness. Bottom-up attention would serve as an amplifier of motor-sensory afferences; top-down attention would help transfer the motor-sensory content from a preconscious to a conscious state of processing. MBSR would be a specific state for which both types of attention are optimally combined to provide experts with total experiences of their body in movement.

Front Psychol. 2012;3:290. Epub 2012 Sep 11. Delevoye-Turrell YN, Bobineau C. URECA Laboratory, Université de Lille 3, Université Lille Nord de France Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.

The Namaste programme is a systematic method of treating people with advanced dementia. It uses sensory approaches - such as massage and aromatherapy - to reach people who are often overlooked at the end of their lives. Here, nurses in south London care homes explain how it has brought comfort and pleasure to the'silent residents' and made nursing more purposeful and rewarding.

Nurs Stand. 2012 Jun 27-Jul 3;26(43):20-2. Trueland J.

Research has shown that short-and long-term effects can result from stressful or invasive medical procedures performed on children in the radiology department. Short-term effects for the pediatric patient include pain, anxiety, crying, and lack of cooperation. The patient's parents also may experience short-term effects, including elevated anxiety and increased heart rate and blood pressure. Potential long-term effects include post-traumatic stress syndrome; fear; changes in pain perception and coping effectiveness; avoidance of medical care; and trypanophobia. To identify common sources of stress in pediatric radiology, investigate short-and long-term effects of stressful and invasive medical procedures in pediatric patients, and compare different strategies used in radiology departments to minimize stress in pediatric patients. Searches were conducted using specific databases to locate literature related to stress in pediatric radiology. Articles were included that addressed at least 1 of the following topics: common sources of stress in the pediatric radiology department, the short-or long-term effects of a stressful and invasive medical procedure, or a stress-minimizing strategy used in a pediatric medical environment. Consistency of care can be improved among the different radiology modalities by providing similar and effective strategies to minimize stress, including interventions such as parental involvement, preprocedural preparation, distraction, sedation, use of a child-life specialist, hypnosis, protecting the child's privacy, and positive reinforcement. Future research is needed to identify additional ways to improve the consistency for care of pediatric patients in the radiology department and to investigate stress management in areas such as pediatric vascular interventional radiology, cardiac catheterization, emergency/trauma imaging, and gastrointestinal procedures.

Radiol Technol. 2012 Jul-Aug;83(6):549-60. Alexander M. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Department, UNC Hospitals.