The Art and Science of Being Still
Using the Power of Silence for Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Health and Healing.
by
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Whether your thoughts are predominantly good and positive or predominantly destructive and negative, the thoughts that you think rule your present life and are developing the life you will have going forward into your future. Your own thoughts that you think every day and moment to moment are developing and influencing everything in your life and everything in your life experience. Your thoughts are in most ways the only real influence because no matter what happens to you, it is how you perceive and think about it that is the real influence. That seemingly weak and ineffectual thought that is fluttering through your head at this moment in time is a powerful force in building you or damaging you and every single thing going on in your life. It is also the sole reason that you are prosperous or broke, emotionally and psychologically stable or a basket case, a great person to be around or a person to avoid. It is only because of your thoughts that you are happy or miserable. Every single thought you have is another brick in the wall of the life you are building, whether it be a castle or a miserable little shack. It is all the thoughts that you are thinking day to day and moment to moment that is the entire cause of your condition. Whether that condition is extreme happiness, success, and a life worth living or depression, failure and dissatisfaction of where and what you and your life has become. All of it, everything, depends on your thoughts and it is only your thoughts. The reality is that it is not some unconscious memory or situation going on far below the surface in what people call your subconscious that is causing your depression or any of the other conditions associated with depression. It is not some unconscious or buried memories or long forgotten thing that you haven’t dealt with yet that is causing the problems either. Even the things going on around you or happening to you may seem to be the cause of some of the problems you are having, but it is more because of the way that you think about those things that is the major issue. The problem lies in the thoughts you have about those things that affect you more than anything else. It is very simply the thoughts that you keep thinking every day that continues to exacerbate and escalate the problem. It is not because you got beat up every day in the first grade or you were molested at the age of nine or your mother didn’t breast feed you long enough. Many of us have been through serious and overwhelmingly traumatic experiences and still have gone on to a happy and productive life. You have to realize that the overwhelming cause of your depression and misery is the thoughts that you are constantly thinking. Thoughts that contain things you refuse to or can’t let go of. It is the thoughts that bring with them or contain the pain and stress you are experiencing. You have to let go of and refuse the thoughts a place in your mind to relieve that stress and pain. To move on you must come to the understanding and to know that the thoughts that are passing through your mind right now at this moment in time is the cause of your depression, your unhappiness and every fear and doubt that you have about yourself and what you are experiencing in life. That is the truth of what is going on, that is the reality that you need to understand and accept in order to move on. To move on you must know that counter to what many practice and believe, you will not change your thoughts or the situation they cause in your life by thinking and talking about them. In fact, the more you think the thoughts or talk about them the worse it will get. Sanity, mental stability and underlying happiness in life depend almost entirely on your conscious thoughts. All that you aspire to be, all that you seek in life in regards to happiness, peace of mind and emotional stability depends upon your conscious, everyday thoughts. Just as in goal setting, you are in essence, thinking the things that you want into being, your depression or other conditions you experience come about because of the thoughts that you have. In depression you are litterally thinking the things that you don't want into being because you can't stop thinking or talking about them. Your happiness depends upon you having good thoughts that you think without effort, every day, day in and day out. Your happiness depends upon having good, healthy, positive thoughts about yourself, the world around you and your place within it. Healthy thoughts need to dominate your thinking every day in order for you to be happy. Our happiness depends very little upon our circumstances or the things that are happening to us and around us. We are happy only if we chose to be happy and it is essential to our happiness that we have control of what we allow ourselves to think. Even when “stuff” happens which it inevitably does, we have to control our thinking and what we allow to pass through our mind. We need to be confident in our thoughts and feelings, to know that they are true and real and normal. When the thoughts that we have and our thinking is right, everything else in our life tends to fall into place. That doesn’t mean our life becomes perfect, it just means that we become able to deal confidently with everything life throws at us and still have a degree of happiness and peace of mind in spite of our troubles!
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About the Book
Why should you read this book? Being Still is not another psychological theory or way to cope with depression. Quite the opposite, as a mental health and healing method it runs counter to the psychologies and therapies now being used in treating stress and depression. Whether you are just down and in a stressed out place in your life or you are dealing with deep and chronic depression, this book has been written for you. In this book there is healing information that you may never have considered. For instance, it explains why you will never think, talk, therapy, medicate or meditate away depression. It will demonstrate the mental dynamics that prove that the more you think and talk about those intrusive thoughts the worse they will get. It explains how and why thinking and talking about them only magnifies the problems. The things taught here will help you to understand what is really going on in your head. You will also learn how and why simply stilling your thoughts is the way to overcome stress and depression. The reason for the success in healing for so many of those that practice this method can be summed up by quoting a Vietnam Veteran that had been dealing with depression and PTSD for over 40 years. After attending Mr. Zaccanelli’s class at a VA facility and practicing Being Still for a few weeks he was heard to say, “I can’t believe it was that simple.
About the Author
Doug Zaccanelli is married; he and his wife Carol have three grown children together. They live in an old farmhouse beside a lake in Michigan. Doug has been practicing and teaching a discipline called Raja Yoga since the early 1970’s. He came upon it while searching for a way out of the deep depression and post traumatic stress he was in after his time as a combat infantryman in Vietnam. Raja Yoga involves training the mind, using progressive and sometimes intense breathing exercises together with concentration techniques that are designed to help calm and still the mind. From the mental training and the intense discipline, Raja Yoga also becomes a study of consciousness, mind and thoughts and their processes. In the course of his studies he discovered some simple realities of mind and thought that are not obvious and many have overlooked. The most important discovery he has found is that there is healing power in holding the mental processes still. Holding the mind and mental processes still and stopping thought is the purpose of practicing Raja Yoga. The activity of stopping thoughts and the thought processes affects the thoughts that cause depression. The process quickly and effectively breaks down the intrusive and overwhelming thoughts and thought patterns that depressed people find themselves in. Being still is based on the broader discipline of Raja Yoga, but with the central focus on a simple mental exercise of holding the mental processes still. While teaching Being Still he has continued to perfect the exercise. In the end, what he teaches has become a very short and simple mental exercise. This system is so simple that it will enable almost anyone to use it successfully. It has been proven successful for everyone who practices it. Since 2008 Mr. Zaccanelli has been teaching his Being Still exercise to military veterans at the Battle Creek Veterans Hospital. Some of what is covered in this book is based on the things he teaches at the VA Hospital. Mr. Zaccanelli has spent many years counseling, teaching and researching the causes and cures for depression and PTSD. As he explains in this work, depression and PTSD is because of the conscious thoughts and not some subconscious or unconscious thing, as many believe. His extensive research and personal experience makes him able to explain how and why that is. He is able to explain what is really going on in the mind and how it works. His knowledge and experience make him uniquely qualified and able to teach these correct principles in a way that most people can understand and will make them better able to free themselves from their condition. dougzaccanelli@gmail.com www.stopthethoughts.org