Mindfulness has been a buzz word for so long, it sounds almost like “customer service”, what does that even mean anymore? Can our very full minds tolerate any more information (i.e. stress and emotions)?! I gave mindfulness lots of lip service until I saw it’s powerful effects during a medical procedure several years after a cancer diagnosis.

Like most Austinites, I suffered from dreaded allergies which caused my eardrums to rupture not 1 or 2 (yes, I am an Optometrist, as well), but 3 times! I needed to have tubes and plugs inserted in my ears so I can jump from one body of water to the next = Summer in Texas! Normally it takes my ENT and a strong nurse or two to hold me down and often an anti-anxiety prescription drug to calm my fight-flight response to the pain of putting in or adjusting a tube.

I began doing yoga and Brainspotting for different reasons and my very next ENT appointment yielded a difference was amazing. My doctor wanted to know why I was not my jumpy-stressed out self. He had never seen such a change in a patient before. I was able to calm my nervous system and my fear was conquered with my mindful practices.

There are different levels of mindfulness and just like relationships, it can sometimes be a huge benefit to have a professional teach you the basics to save a lot of headaches and misfires. Even worse than mindfulness that does not work is mindfulness that is harmful. Read more here! In fact, knowing our minds better…the good, the bad and the ugly…is the best way to create mental, emotional and physical health. *Warning: how mindfulness can be harmful if not seen in a bigger picture by a competent mental health care practitioner.

I offer Brainspotting, a mindful visually based counseling over 1-3 sessions that requires little talking and lots of healing. It is a beautiful beginning to treating old trauma, new heartache, anxiety, depression, feeling stuck and grief from loss. Some clients qualify for “self-brainspotting” which is a mindful practice that can be done at home+work to calm an overly full limbic (your emotions) and cerebral (thinking) brain.

You may schedule Brainspotting in the few weeks before your next “puff of air” test at the eye doctor or to test drive a new type of counseling that is fast, effective and fascinating, as testified by the “[eye] doctor who heals thyself”!