Five Habits That Saved My Life - Meditation - Visualization - Actualization (physical follow-through) - Routine Adherence - Mindful Awareness by Ben Ahrens (2.0) Building a New Operating System

My story in short: Athlete, Trainer, Surf-camp Director Neuro-Lyme disease “Cured” but not Healed Exhaustion persists without a cause Search to uncover the discrepancy between perceived strength and actual strength. Re-synching perception and reality.

The Anatomy of Self-fulfilling Prophecy As it relates to a VCD Symptoms Adrenalin worry & resistance increased inflammation Creates a Negative Feedback Loop

The Anatomy of Self-fulfilling Prophecy As it relates to Pain & Suffering Pain Suffering resistance exacerbation

The Paradox Letting go of resisting the negative sensation will lead to it’s disappearance The trick is not to try and make the feeling go away, but to learn to be comfortable in its presence. - Norman Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.

How do you break the cycle? Tools & Techniques Meditation Visualization (potentiation) Physical follow-through (actualization) NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming Routine (to mitigate the unexpected) Mindful awareness throughout the day (for when the unexpected happens)

Put into Practice Visualize my morning routine Do it exactly as “seen” in my mind’s eye Meditate 20~30min. If any anxiety is present, then: Identify the source Identify the triggers Rewrite mental script with affirmative statement Use Gupta’s “Aygdala Retraining” NLP technique to “de-condition” physiological responses Divert attention & get absorbed in daily life Maintain mindful awareness throughout the day First thing upon waking I : “The human body cannot tell the difference between something real and that which is vividly imagined.” - Maxwell Maltz

The Results From 3+ years debilitated condition to full time work, social participation, and life in “the busy city”

Three Takeaways Awareness Being mindful is easy… remembering to be mindful is difficult. Resistance = Persistence Accept and divert toward the positive Or, employ the first rule of defensive driving: Never look at what you’re trying to avoid!

Related Articles Rewiring The Brain to Ease Pain, Wall Street Health Journal, Nov. 15th. Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?, NY Times, Aug. 17th. Ashok Gupta’s, “The Amygdala Hypothesis”, Medical Hypothesis Vol. 59, Experiment showing 22% muscle-strength increase using visualization ONLY!, The Power of Imagination, - Doidge excerpt from The Brain That Changes Itself My Blog