Penny Cohen, LCSW

Hi, I'm Penny Cohen and I'm a transformational psychotherapist, life coach, and trainer. And this workshop was the first lesson on a three-part series is about authenticity.

 

What does it mean to be authentic?

Well, authenticity is about being true to your higher self. What that means is the highest potential of love, wisdom and inspiration. It's almost having a God like quality, so what we think of is God like qualities. Being loving, kind, non-judgmental, non-critical, non-controlling. Being forgiving and appreciating. That's what our authentic self is.

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Now, what are we going to be covering in this session is the first few steps on how to be authentic. The first step is loving yourself enough to take care of yourself, to take implicit care of yourself. And what that includes is eating in the right amounts with the right nutrition for your perfect body image and health. Exercising, that's a big, big resource for letting go of tension. Even it's good for depression. Cleaning out the clutter is the next one. If you have a cluttered mind, then it's like an air conditioner motor on all the time. Like always having something in the background. It might be procrastinating over banging a nail down on a wood floor that's right outside your bathroom and you walk into the bathroom and see the nail sticking out and you keep saying to yourself I better knock it down or I'm going to gash my foot. When the reality is you could walk to the basement, will walk to the tools wherever you choose or get a hammer and knock it down. Then you're no longer thinking about it. Or even more simply, you walk into an office with papers all over your desk. You can't find anything, and you keep telling yourself. I really gotta clean this office. That's the background noise always going on. That's going to impinge on your reality, on your goodness on your being present. Another part of that is when you walk into a cluttered room. It's all this energy impacting your energy. When it's clean your mind is clearer, so it's really important to have a clean room, a clean environment, a clean car, a clean garage. You feel so much better. Even during the pandemic. Well, I made my bed every day, because I felt like I accomplished something and when I walked into the room to go to the bathroom, I didn't tell myself well what a mess I should make the bed. So that's important.

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How do we actually live authentically?

We really have to come from our higher self. Which means it helps to connect with our higher self and that happens through meditation. The benefit of meditation and relaxation is that we let go of any external thoughts and impingement and open to the internal silence. When we're silent. We can hear the universe talking. We can hear our higher self that inner still voice.

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MEDITATION

So let's do a meditation just to relax, and first take an inventory of your body and write the level of tension or stress on a scale of zero to 10. With 10 being the highest. So just sit ideally in a straight back chair or in the Lotus position. Whatever you're most comfortable in. And just search your body and rate the level of tension or stress on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the highest. And now we're going to do my basic relaxation.

Close your eyes and set the intention to relax totally but to stay very aware and alert. And now focus all your attention on your head, eyes, the muscles behind your eyes, your eyelids and the muscles in your eyelids. And just imagine being free of muscular tension. And now focus on your nose, cheeks, temples, jar, lips, chin, neck and again imagine being free of muscular tension. And now focus on the top of your spine, shoulders, chest, heart, lungs, rib cage, the middle of your spine, lower part of your spine, stomach and waist, and again, imagine being free of muscular tension. And now focus on your buttocks, genital area, thighs, knees, calves, ankles, feet and again, imagine being free of muscular tension. And now imagine growing deep roots into the ground. Deeper and deeper and wider and wider. Being surrounded and fully tap down by the good earth. This helps ground you to the earth. And now imagine a brilliant light above your head radiating a channel of light around your entire body engulfing you like a blanket of warmth. And now imagine a smaller light coming into your head, and now expanding into your heart, and now expanding into your stomach, and all the way down to your feet. And just notice what you're experiencing. When some people feel the light around them sometimes, they experience pins and needles like soft massage around their skin. Sometimes they see lights and colors coming in and out. Sometimes people hear voices. And most times it's just silence. Notice what you're experiencing. And now rate your level of tension or stress while being in this state. Rated on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the highest. And then give thanks for any insights, revelations and whenever you're ready open your eyes and sit with this feeling with your eyes open. Hopefully it was a good relaxing feeling for you. And the beginning of living in the present.

 

Now as far as eating nutritionally.

If you want to lose weight, then actually keep a calendar and chart throughout the day of what you've been eating. And how much of it you have been eating. And Mark down what you'd like to change. Letting go with snacks. Eating smaller portions. Most people, even when you go out to dinner, will eat the entire portions on the plate only because they're busy socializing and eating. And most of the time you can cut those portions in half. So the first step is knowledge and clarity about how much you are eating all day long. And what you would benefit you the most, cutting down portions, cutting out snacks, cutting out carbs? And there are many different diets or I prefer to use the word lifestyle that you could follow.

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Now as far as exercise is concerned,

notice how much exercise you have every day. Most people today have cell phones that actually can record the amount of steps you take or the amount of miles you might walk. Or again chart it. Do you do stretching exercises? Do you do aerobic exercises? Just make a note of it. And see what you can expand on if you're not doing enough. Now, one of the things I recommend is being out in nature. Connecting with nature is connecting with beauty. And that means when you take a walk, smell the roses. Notice the veins on leaves. Notice the air. Take deep, deep breaths. Notice you're walking or jogging or running. Feel the air on your body. And this is connecting with nature. Feel the earth or cement under your feet. Again, connecting with nature. When you see a rainbow. Just enjoy the all of it. It's like God talking to you. Sending you colors to embrace your day or evening. Relishing the awe of it all. The other thing is to connect with the animal Kingdom. With pets, with dogs, cats and whatever other animals you enjoy. And then connect with the human race by perhaps joining clubs of interests of yours. People of the same interests being with the people you enjoy being with, where you feel, nurtured as much as you nurture them.

 

And the last is cleaning out the clutter

and this is the homework. Until the next lesson. Again, you can make a list or a visual list of everything that's out of place in your environment. In your closet, in your kitchen, and your car in your garage. And then make a commitment and to start doing. The cleaning of the clutter. If you do it quickly, like in one weekend, you feel like you've accomplished a lot. Sometimes it's impossible to do in one weekend, then maybe commit to doing 15 minutes to 1/2 hour every evening or during the day. You will feel so much better when the clutter is gone.

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Now also practice doing this relaxation meditation every day. You can either listen to this recording or record it in your own voice. It's good to get used to hearing it in your own voice, and eventually you'll be able to do it on your own. Good luck with this and I look forward to seeing you at the second part of this series. By now. 

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