Ganeshas Invitation

We invite you on a journey to remove your obstacles

V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 1 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1

UPCOMING EVENTS

Living Your Truth

How many times have we caused unnecessary complications and pain in our lives by not being clear and honest in our communications? when expressed as open, honest and clear communication. When we speak our truth we are coming from a place of love and respect for ourselves and others. When we dont live our truth we dont feel complete, we have fragmented ourselves, selling a part of our selves out, that we forever look for somewhere else. It is the source of so much suffering, yet the whole planet actively engages in playing games such as trying to please others, manipulations or insensitive remarks usually born from fear and anger. Whatever end of the spectrum we play at, when we arent speaking our truth and actively putting this into action we are not forming deeper relationships. We are not connecting with people at a core level, intimacy is missing and so too are all the treasures of being able to express ourselves genuinely and openly. Our truth is the coming together of our heart and mind, We are all tempted to compromise our truth at some point. It may be that we want someones acceptance so we passively agree to their opinions or actions. Or perhaps we react in anger and say things that we dont really mean.too late the damage is done. Either way we have disempowered ourselves and others. Both decisions come from a place of fear. The words and (re) actions are our attempts to mask our vulnerabilities we are afraid of having exposed. However comfortable this makes us feel at the time, the longer term effects of these protective patterns causes us much stress, tension and ultimately suffering. If we are passively giving away our power to others we will become resentful, always. People lose respect for us when we are not speaking up, not being who we truly are. Continued page 3

India Tour 07 April 2012

Bali Retreat 18 August 2012

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Whos Killing Our Babies? Intuition V.S analysis 2 Analysis India Video

3 4

Dialogue - The Art Of Communication

How do you feel when someone talks at you for half an hour or more? Can feel your energy levels depleting? Everyone needs to be heard. When we are troubled or excited about a new idea that needs grounding, being able to express this to someone is healing. However, when we keep going over the past, we become stuck in our stories. We become boring with our well worn monologues because we are not connecting with the other person. Its a difficult task to engage someone that is so caught up in what they want to say next, they can barely wait for us to finish our response, let alone digest our meaning. Another form of communication is discussion where both parties hold firmly to their opinions gaining nothing. Conversely, when you engage in a lively dialogue there is a free flow of ideas. By creating new concepts you feel energized and inspired. Continued Page 5

Why Change Is Expensive The Divided Brain Human Touch Phenomena Massage V.S Touch

6 7 9

www.ganeshasinvitation.com.au

P AGE

Intuition Versus Analysis

Our feelings mirror back to us in an instant the big picture view of any situation. As one picture says a thousand words........so to one feeling conveys a thousand thoughts. The right half of our brain is designed to sum up events very quickly, though it wont be able to interpret them eloquently or even decipher quite why. The left brain is much slower to catch on, but will be able to make sense of it all, interpret, make judgments of the final outcome......once it finally sorts through all the data. So should we trust our Gut feel before we have a chance to sift through all the data and do the analysis? Lets look at the evidence. The Iowa Card Experiment.............And What Sweaty Palms Tell Us In the last couple of decades, researchers devised an easy experiment to measure intuition verses analysis. (which is in effect right brain verses left). The first big study was at the University of Iowa in 1994.....and became known as the Iowa Card Experiment. Basically subjects were presented with two decks of cards one red and one blue and $2000. The object was to make as much money as they could in the time given. This was done simply by selecting a card from either deck and turning it over to find a win or a loss. What the gamblers didnt know was that the red deck was stacked against them with large losses and gains. The only way to win was to pick from the slow steady gains of the blue deck. After about 50 picks most people develop a hunch that the blue deck was the winning strategy, though they cant quite explain why. It took around 80 picks for people to get it figured out and be able to explain the process. There is nothing too startling about that, this is the usual way we would try and deduce a new situation with lots of new data to sort. It starts getting more interesting when the Iowa team hooked each gambler up to a polygraph. The machine measures the electrical resistance of the palms of our hands. The sweat glands in this part of the body hook directly into our autonomic nervous system (our automatic fight or flight response mechanism that bypasses our conscious thinking). Which means when we get nervous we sweat.......which means the machines measures the stress we are feeling at a given moment as our body alerts us to danger. After about the 10th pick a storm broke out on the machine when the gambler went for the red pack! That's 40 picks before they could verbalise their hunch that something was wrong on this deck. Even more importantly their behaviour started to change, they began to choose less cards from the red deck. They knew unconsciously which option was yielding the better results. The brain is working two systems simultaneously to solve the problem. One requires a lot of information and sequential processing (left brain) and can give a detailed account of the process. The other is much faster and transmits its information in the form of feelings which can be felt as physical sensations.

One feeling conveys a thousand thoughts

Continued on page 6...

Whos Killing Our Babies!?

By the late 80s, as the dictatorial controls of Eastern European were beginning to wane, some horror stories from the state run orphanages began to emerge. One case particularly caught the eyes of investigators. Babies at this orphanage were dying at an alarming rate. What so perplexed investigators was that it was always the babies at the ends of the ward that were dying. What was causing such a strange phenomena? Was it some strange disease? Was it foul play? Autopsies revealed nothing. So surveillance cameras were installed. From this it was determined the culprit was the cleaner! However not in any malicious way. The cleaner would end her duties by mopping the floor and ending up in the middle of the dorm. Once finished she would cuddle the babies closest to her. The unlucky babies at the ends of the dorm would not receive this touch.

Continued page 7..

www.ganeshasinvitation.com.au

V OLUME

1,

ISSUE

P AGE

Living Your Truth..contd (from page 1)

Our truth slips away when we are un-happy with our self image
Now we are caught in a cycle, resentment builds until it starts to drain our energy, manifesting as physical symptoms. muscular tension, headaches, insomnia or even worse. Conversely, if we are constantly over-reacting, speaking and acting from anger or abruptness we will be turning people against us. For inherent in our truth is compassion. If our emotions are running high, often it is best to wait, sit with what we feel, what we want to say and when we are in a clear space then speak our truth. This is not about scoring points with emotionally charged arrows, nor judgments in who is right or wrong. The truth sets us free when we are talking facts about what we require and accepting others for where they are at this point in time. Similarly if we use manipulation as the means to get our way, people eventually find out and will not trust us, even though they may not say it. All this manifests as bad feelings, usually ending up in the form of GUILT. We may not even be aware of these restrictive feelings, but human relationships are fundamental, it is hardwired into our brains. Even the most solitary of people need to make connectionsso when we create unhealthy connections we will store the consequences in our body. Our truth slips away when we are unhappy with our self image. When we feel insecure in who we are we are prone to make up stories to protect ourselves. Rather than express freely what we are feeling we restrict our expression with a lie. That may sound harsh and in the strict definition we may not be lying to others, but we have lied to ourselves. In the end as we go around the cycle, we end up BLAMING others. We blame our boss because we are too scared to stand up to him. We blame our co-worker because we dont want them to see our weakness at not feeling adequate..maybe we react with sarcasm, perhaps gossip, or outright hate. Blame takes us further from our truth because we dont see that it is OUR truth we are compromising.we get sucked into other peoples truth, their dramas, and trying to make them wrong. We become more sensitive and the limiting emotions of resentment, anger, guilt become stronger so we feel more vulnerable, needing to control the situation with more complicated stories, getting caught up with more blame. How exhausting! So how do we break these patterns, patterns we have probably been practicing since childhood. How do we make life simpler for ourselves? (continued next page)

India ...a journey of the heart and spirit. Click here for you tube video

V OLUME

1,

ISSUE

P AGE

Living Your Truth...contd (from page 3)

sume responsibility for them. We must also be willing to feel the pain of all the stored emotions that we have decided no longer serve us. Once we have accepted all this on a mind, body, emotional level we can take responsibility for our stuff. We can begin to see our truth. Once we have acknowledged, felt and expressed these blocked emotions, stagnant energy in the body, we can detach ourselves from the situation. We now look at the bigger picture, the lessons we had to learn from all these experiences, in essence the spiritual version of the situation. So we are now able to reframe our story, seeing clearly what we need to change, are able to make better choices. Now we can decide on responses and feelings we would like to make to create better situations for ourselves. Living your truth sets you free, because you never have to worry about the consequences living your of the stories you have made up or the things truth gives you you should have said but didnt. You are free from immunity form emotional disturbances that create continual your own loops of bad feelings in yourself and others. Livpatterns of ing your truth gives you immunity from your behavior and own patterns of behavior that limit you and also from also from other peoples dramas- in a nutshell that is the power of other peoples TRUTH.

dramas

The first step is acceptance. In order to remove these limiting patterns, these obstacles from our path, we must as-

Living your truth is a major philosophy and component of the Ganeshas Invitation course work. We offer retreats to sacred energy centres in Australia and around the world ranging from 1 day intensives, 3 day work shops through to 13 day tours. To find out more on how you can remove any obstacles in your path to living a more fulfilled, purposeful life go to www.ganeshasinvitation.com.au or call 07 3254 0963 or 07 380 111 80.

Why Change Is Expensive

There are 24 visual processing centres in the back of our brain, to deal with all that our eyes see in the world. Recent discoveries in neuro-science has revealed a cunning trick that the brain uses to conserve energy. There is as much information coming into these processing areas from the memory parts of our brain as there are from new visual information. This allows us to process large volumes of visual information without having to spend lots of time and energy sifting through the detail. Basically we make up a lot of the present based on memory of similar experiences that have happened in our past. Thats why magicians stay employed. They take full advantage of the brain seeing what it expects to see rather than what is actually happening. Thats also why when asked to give a description of an event, 10 people will give 10 completely different versions. Our reality is often based more on our past patterns than on what is flowing in the present. This is why it takes it takes so much energy to change.

V OLUME

1,

ISSUE

P AGE

Dialogue The Art Of Communication..contd (From pg 2)

of the dialogue. Really most of societies ills are a symptom of our rigid belief systems and the inabilities of countries, cultures and individuals to move away from confrontation in which compromise and avoidance only delays. As history has proved in many examples , there is always a better way than moving between and along polarities of viewpoints. Next time you feel your we cant solve defenses rising up to stick to your opinion or problems by the need to push your using the same goals, try the following; 1. Take a deep breath The term dialogue is derived from the Greek words dia, which means through and logos which translates into the meaning behind words. So in its true sense dialogue is a free flowing form of communication where everyones meaning is heard and understood. Most discussions revolve around fixed points of view and the art of persuasion. Often a compromise becomes the main aim, or an avoidance of the issues altogether. This is the antipathy of creativity, nothing new comes from this style of conversations. As Einstein once remarked We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Dialogue requires the suspension of judgment so the conversation may generate new forms that may not have previously been considered. It doesnt mean each person has to agree with the other. It merely allows for a state of free play to exist where each person conversing focuses their attention on understanding the meaning behind the others words. It requires each person to release their attachment to the rigid structures we have built up in our minds (and practiced with our actions) allowing the flow of the dialogue to become more important than any fixed opinions. This is especially difficult in the corporate world where structure and goals tend to dominate. This becomes particularly so as companies grow bigger and older. Thats why big pharmaceutical companies buy small biotech start ups. The culture of big organizations doesnt allow for creativity, new ideas and innovation to flow through the dams of their organizational structure. Compartmentalisation often breeds rivalry, competition and suspicion between departments. The opposite of trust, compassion and harmony, which are all essential ingredients for dialogue. Dialogue needs the collective imagination of the group to take on a life of its own. Imagination requires a sense of play to ignite into creativity. Play requires trust and the ability to be open. All goals and aims, personal and collective, must be suspended for the period

kind of thinking

2. Make the decision to we used to understand exactly what the other person is say- create them ing and feeling. Give 100% of your attention to that person. 3. Make the decision to completely suspend all your normal thought patterns and beliefs about the issue(s) being discussed 4. Look into the persons eyes and be them for a moment. Try to feel compassion for their position. 5. State your intent to let go of any pre conceived ideas and fixed position and invite the other person to do the same for the sake of exploring some more interesting alternatives. 6. Ask lots of questions and make supportive suggestions until you get into a state of free flow where ideas are starting to evolve spontaneously. It will be easier to try it with a friend or a colleague you trust first. If nothing else comes of it at least you have built a stronger rapport and trust with that other person.which could be priceless down the track.

Click here for

Ganeshas Invitation Thailand video

V OLUME

1,

ISSUE

P AGE

Intuition Verses Analysis.contd (from page 2)

tional centres and connections into the higher reasoning sections of the frontal cortex......it weighs everything up and decides what action we will take. They paid particular attention to people that had scored high on intelligence tests and appeared to function quite normally. What surprised the experimenters was that when picking from the red deck, there was no response on the polygraph.......ever! And they never experience that hunch that the bad deck was a loser....no matter how many picks they did. And it gets more intriguing, even when they had intellectually figured out the game (at around 80 picks) they still choose from the losing red deck. They were unable to show any emotional anticipation and therefore showed no risk associated with the red deck. Now, where it really gets interesting is when they hooked up people with damage to the ventromedial sector of the frontal cortex- the part of the brain that makes executive decisions. Basically this part of the brain has big neural cables coming in from the emoEmotions are the driving force for our decisions. Every thought we have is tagged with an emotion. The thought with the most emotional punch dominates. Fear overrides pleasure as a natural protection mechanism, we will avoid the saber tooth tiger stalking in the bushes before we are tempted to pull the ripe mango from the tree. Thats why in todays world negative thoughts can easily dominate. E-Motions....Expansion Or Contraction......Our Decision As we have seen emotions galvanise us into action, it is no accident how the word itself is constructed.......Emotion. They are the foundation for how successfully we will navigate through lifes obstacles and opportunities. Feelings based on fear contract and restrict our energies. Those based on Joy enliven and expand our energies. Joy can only be felt if we are totally engaged in the present moment. Fear is great for warning us of immediate, impending danger. It is not so good if we continually create stories around it. Creative thought is only possible in a state of joy. In fact, truly inspirational thoughts can only come from a play like state of mind.

The Divided Brain

The right brain hemisphere is mainly devoted to synthesis, looking at the whole and matching patterns. It works like a parallel processor simultaneously synthesizing all our sensory inputs like a giant collage of each moment, rich in emotional sensations. It is timeless. It is akin to a vortex in the swirling current of a river.....where does its identity as the vortex end and the vastness of the river begin? The vortex is a unique expression in the flow of the river, however there are no set boundaries...............everything is related to everything else. Because of this absence of rules and limitations the right hemisphere is free to creatively explore new possibilities. It is designed to let thoughts flow spontaneously without inhibition or judgments. It looks for similarities and sees everything connected to everything else. The left side is primarily geared for analysis. Breaking information into pieces and sorting it one bit at a time. It compares the present with sequences from the past and projects out into possible scenarios for the future. It manifests the concept of time. Thriving on detail it classifies and categorizes each new experience helping to form the repetitive patterns of our behavior. Defining what we like, what is good or bad. It sees the world as separate and our self as unique. The left sees itself more like the prized painting hanging in an art gallery, a separate expression or identity with firm fixed boundaries. The right is in the present, it is in synch with the flow of events that are happening now. It goes with the flow of the river of life, it may get bumped against the rocks, but because it doesn't try and resist the ride is much easier. To get the best out of our brain we have to use both sides evenly. The right gives us the intuitive feel for a situation, sets the tone for our best choices. Whilst the left creates the structure around the action we will need to take to become successful.

V OLUME

1,

ISSUE

P AGE

Whos Killing Our Babies.contd from page 2

done by Harry Harlow in the 1950s. Harlow convinced the University of Wisconsin to allow him to build a primate laboratory. It was here that he performed his now infamous maternal separation and isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys. The results were that lack of physical touch caused depression, illness and premature death. Apart from probably doing more to foster the animal rights movement than any other event, Harlows work resulted in steady flow of research on human connectivity and touch that continues today. Simply by being massaged, stroked or just held, stress levels decrease dramatically. Research done recently at Duke University shows that stress hormones cortisol, nor epinephrine, and dopamine were significantly reduced after massage therapy. Whilst hormones that create a sense of calm and relaxation such as oxytocin and serotonin were elevated. Countless studies have shown that premature babies given daily touch therapy (gentle massage) gain weight by 50% and more per day, cry less and show more signs of relaxed pulse, respiration rate and muscle tension. Lack of Children will instinctively seek out touch. Indeed, it is the physical absence of this desire that touch causes warns of potential neurological damage or perhaps a history of depression, abuse. As we grow into adolescence (especially in the An- illness and glo / Saxon world) the acceptpremature ability of touch begins to diminish. This is not because our death bodies need less (though we are less susceptible to the effects). At some point in history our societies became conditioned with the thoughts touch equates to sexuality or weakness. Interestingly women touch significantly more than men and on average live longer. Continued page 8..

The real issue was that the babies were getting very little human touch during the day. This is what was killing them. Within a couple of decades virtually all orphanages in Eastern Europe were closed down in favour of foster care. It was considered that the prospect of bad foster homes were better than an a orphanage on balance. This echoed back to the highly controversial and ground breaking work

The Human Touch Phenomena

The short coming of being born a human is that we all exit the womb prematurely. Having developed an enormously large frontal cortex our heads have become too big to allow further gestation time. Most likely the added complexity of our nervous system requires so much more developmental time., compared to other primates. So we are born before we are physiologically ready. Most other mammals can move around, in some fashion as soon as they are birthed. We can barely see, nor differentiate sounds .so our primary communication with the world is through our skin. There are five million receptor cells on our skin when we are born, if not activated enough by touch, babies will grow up severely compromised, socially incapacitated or physically defective. A women will develop skin that is at least 10 times more sensitive than a mans. Thats why in the western world women are 6 times more likely to touch an other woman in social conversation than a man will touch a man.

V OLUME

1,

ISSUE

P AGE

Whos Killing Our Babies.contd from page 7

As many of us grow up with this conditioning, we rationalize that it isn't important, even train ourselves to feel threatened by it. In the video Touch: The Forgotten Sense produced by Max Films, a study was filmed where researchers asked people, who had spent no longer than 15 minutes in a library to rate their experience in the library. Group A reported a far greater positive feeling about themselves, the library and the librarians than Group B. The only difference between the two groups was that Group A had been touch by the librarians as they handed back their library cards and Group B had not been touched. Similar follow up studies were done with waitresses, with similar results. And of course the ones that touched more (with a gracious manner) received better tips. Just as we all have to be understood and heard, perhaps even more fundamentally we all need to touch and be touched. It is our most basic form of communication, the part of us that feels the sense of connection at the most instinctual level. Feelings of loneliness, isolation and depression, which have become pandemic in the Western World are in a large part due to the lack of connection and community within our social structures. Nurturing touch needs to be done from a space where it is neither manipulative nor coercive. Simply affectionate touch is appropriate where it does not impose greater intimacy than is desired, nor does it impose any power play. How do you give and receive touch? How do you give and receive hugs? How comforting is the classic Anglo Saxon Aframe hug where you pat the other person on the back repeatedly, thinking more about getting away than connecting with the other person. Compare this to other cultures that embrace whole body hugs. Why do Latino cultures have the lowest suicide rates in the world?

Children

will instinctively seek out touch.adults often grow to avoid it..Yet we need it just as much.

Depression Statistics
Depression, Bi-polar and other anxiety based disorders effect 1 in 5 adults now in the U.S and other developed countries. A 10 fold increase since 1950. Over 90% of suicide victims have diagnosable mental disorders. In the last 45 years suicide rates have increased world wide by 60%. Suicide is now in the top 3 causes of death among those aged 15-44 Suicide rates among young people have increased at such a rate in the last 2 decades that youths are now the group at highest risk in one third of all countries Males are 4 times more likely to die from suicide than females. However females are more likely to attempt suicide. Source: World Health Organization 2009

V OLUME

1,

ISSUE

P AGE

Is Massage Better Than Light Touch?

Professor Mark Rapaport, MD and Chairman of the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Ceders Sinai Medical Centre admitted to being an incredible skeptic when it came to the often promoted benefits of therapeutic massage. always wondered, what does it do that so many people claim feel better afterwards. So he set up a study with 53 healthy adults between 18 and 45 and divided them into two groups; One received a traditional Swedish massage (all performed by certified therapists), and the other received a session of light touch, which intended to simulate a massage, without using any massage techniques. Each participant was inserted with an IV for the duration of the massage and for several hours afterwards. Blood was to be drawn at regular intervals to measure hormone levels and immune system levels. The assumption was that massage would elevate the level of oxytocin higher than simple touch. Oxytocin is often referred to as the love hormone. It creates tolerance in parents to babies screams and odors. It also bonds couples. However the opposite proved true. The light touch group showed higher levels of oxytocin???? However the massage group showed a significant reduction in levels of stress hormones and an increase in the levels of markers that would indicate a heightened immune response. Dr Rapaport said after the results I'm really intrigued by the findings..were finding that biological changes do occur as a result of even a single session of massage, and that these changes may benefit even a healthy individual.

The massage

group showed a significant reduction in the levels of stress hormones

Results published in the Journal of Complimentary and Alternative Medicine Adapted from article by Emily MainRodale.com

Ganeshas Invitation
Phone: +61 7 -3254 0963/ 3801 1180 Mobile: +61 401 4989 44 E-mail: scott@ganeshainvitation.com.au E-mail: dawn@ganeshasinvitation.com.au
ABN: 148 828 577

Ganeshas Invitation provides a range of retreats, tours and workshops to help people find a deeper connection to themselves, their lives and others. These vary from half day corporate workshops through to 2 week tours to exotic destinations through out the world. All the work shop material is based around experiential learning, as we feel this is the best way to recognize old patterns that limit us and then en-act new behaviours that will enhance the quality of our lives.

For anyone not familiar with Hindu gods (there are over 200,000 of them!) Lord Ganesh or Ganesha is the Remover Of Obstacles. Also he is the patron of arts & sciences and deva of intellectual wisdom. He/She is one of the most popular and revered Gods in Hindu culture.

Caption describing picture or graphic.

www.ganeshasinvitation.com.au