local insights

Brett Cotter on Overcoming Stress, Anxiety and Trauma

Brett Cotter is an author, founder of Stress Is Gone and a retreat facilitator with more than 20 years of experience helping people heal trauma and overcome stress and anxiety. Cotter recently took time out from his busy schedule to talk with Natural Awakenings.

How did you get into the stress/ anxiety/trauma-relief field?

In 1999, I was 27 years old and seeking new ways to fix my problem with jealously. It ruined relationships repeatedly. One night, three separate sources guided me towards meditation, so I listened to the universe. Brett Cotter My first solo meditation rocked my world, forever opening my mind—like it was waiting to happen for lifetimes. Then, a highly referred psychic helped me see there’s a divine intelligence all around me. I was captivated by it and wanted to learn how to access it. She referred me to a healer who helped me transcend the fear that was fueling my jealously. He also helped me remember my true strength is in my vulnerability and every answer to every question lives inside me. The next year, I was volunteering in a Chinese energetic medicine clinic in Marina Del Rey, California. One night, there were about 30 people and the group leader couldn’t make it. I was asked to facilitate. Immediately after that session, my colleagues came to me and said they want me to run the group from now on. I was shocked, but took on the responsibility and haven’t looked back since.

What has made the biggest shift in your life from stress to happiness?

When I first got into this work, I went gangbusters with healing my own heart. My burning desire was to transform my heart; this was the catalyst that drove me to experience healing in many one-on-one sessions and group workshops with my first teacher. My goal was to return my heart, and my ability to give and receive unconditional love, to the state it was in when I was born. My quest was to heal all the major scars on my heart from this lifetime. At a certain point on that journey, it felt like a critical mass was healed within me—like I turned a corner into a new life and was reconnected to an ocean of innocence, happiness and spirit.

What factor would you say makes the biggest difference for your clients?

The transformation that happens in our coaching calls and the retreats. People say they experience an emotional heaviness lift off their body that is replaced with a strong sense of self. Their stressors no longer affect them in the same way because the trauma the stress triggered is gone. It’s like imaging your stressor doing the same thing it always does but your body has zero reaction. Once the emotions are out of the way, I usually coach people to cultivate a new response— sometimes a gentle inner chuckle by imagining a small bowl of salad at their center. Every time they jiggle the bowl, the salad laughs like the plants on the old TV show The Magic Garden. That little inner chuckle is followed by unconditional love for yourself and the stressor.

What is the most important thing you’d like to share with our readers?

Kindness is the key for humanity and unconditional self-love is the doorway to living a kind life. Energetically, unconditional love is expansion and our universe is expanding. That’s why love will always prevail; it’s in alignment with the universe, and like a moth to the flame, we all seek it because innately we are one with it. Love helps us remember the divine when we feel lonely, kindness when we get frustrated and safety when we feel afraid. People will get to experience Cotter and the Stress Is Gone Method at his upcoming transformational weekend retreat—Break Free from Anxiety and Heal Trauma Naturally—in Honor’s Haven, in Ellenville, from December 2 through 4.

For more information, visit StressIsGone.com. See ad, inside back cover.

Your Inspiring Immune System

Submitted by Energy USA, Inc.

Your immune system has been with you since the very beginning. And, like you, it continuously learns how to be better and more efficient. It knows you exceptionally well—it can remember all your previous colds, flus, stomach aches and temperatures. Your immune system never rests. This ever flexible and resourceful body system is constantly solving problems you don’t even know you have. Most importantly—you can’t survive without it.

Your Body’s Security System

The job demands of the immune system are highly technical and complex. It sends various cell units into action every day with a broad range of weapons. These security system units circulate in your blood system and monitor what’s going on around them. They constantly patrol your bloodstream to ensure hostile strains of viruses, bacteria or fungi aren’t multiplying in your body. The cell units follow a very strict protocol with high demands—even on your own body’s cells. If any of them don’t work well, they are eliminated.

Immune System Helpers

There’s a civilization of alien organisms in your body; but the immune system won’t attack them because they’re on your side. These organisms are the bacteria living in your large intestine, and the cell units literally depend on them. The bacteria are like sutlers. And like sutlers—those civilian merchants who sold goods from their wagons to the armies of old—so do these bacteria supply your patrolling units with the necessary resources. Your mental health would collapse without them. It’s crucial to care for the bacteria by refraining from antibiotics, hormonal contraceptives, unhealthy food, excessive alcohol use, and stress. On the contrary, you can help them—and yourself too—if you pamper your bacteria in the intestine and supplement their numbers. Probiosan, an Energy USA probiotic supplement, is an ideal solution.

Boost Your Immune System

If you really want to help boost your immune system, increase your intake of vitamins D and C along with immune boosting minerals such as zinc, and herbs that are well-known for being beneficial to immunity—including echinacea and common sage. Energy USA has multiple products aimed at offering immune system support. When it comes to what’s on your plate, be sure to include plenty of green vegetables. It’s also important to take care of your body, mind and spirit by making time for things that really matter—like fitness, meditation, healthy relationships, rest and relaxation, and finding ways to add more happiness into your life. A healthier, happier, more fulfilled you is more likely to have a stronger immune system.

Give Your Immune System a Workout

Your cell units need challenges. They grow stronger as they systematically overcome obstacles, and if they’re idle, they grow lazy and can even run wild and start attacking one another. A healthy and strong immune system is an immune system that is well-trained. Therefore, it’s crucial for your immune system to encounter pathogens regularly. Short-term stress strengthens it. For example, when you run up the stairs fast, jump into cold water, or find yourself in an unknown place.

Energy USA Inc. is the creator of innovative nutraceuticals, therapeutic and care cosmetics, and veterinary products for the body and mind as a whole, using the principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine. For more information, visit product.energy. See ad, page 10.

Move Your Business to the Next Level

by Nanci Deutsch

Your heart is calling you to move forward and take steps, but fear may be stopping you from taking those actions. Or you may be taking the actions, but your business is not succeeding in the ways you desire. Here are three keys to move your business to the next level:

1. Achieve Clarity on your Vision and Goals

Having a clear vision of your business and why you want to create this enterprise can guide you even when you are feeling challenged. Breaking down your goals into daily, weekly and monthly steps can help you organize yourself, so you keep moving forward.

2. Clear the Limiting Beliefs and Emotions Blocking You from Moving Forward

When you are ready to move to another level it’s common for old issues to resurface. Your business can only grow as much as your consciousness does. Who do you need to become to move forward and achieve the next levels of your business? Focus on releasing the limiting beliefs and emotions that keep you from going to your next levels. It’s an essential process to receive accurate impressions and guidance from your intuition.

3. Take Inspired Action by First Tuning into and Listening to Your Intuition.

Your intuition can guide you every step of the way to creating a business that you envision and love. Before you can tune in, you need to quiet your mind, ask for guidance, and then allow yourself to receive the answers. This will help you make more aligned business decisions. Tools such as meditation, prayer, yoga and journaling can all be ways to clear your energy so you can connect more deeply to yourself and receive the information that wants to come through. Once you receive the guidance, you can feel more certain about your decisions and the actions that will move you to your next level.

Nanci Deutsch is a licensed clinical social worker, a certified hypnotherapist and an intuitive breakthrough expert. She is the host of a TV show, Inspired & Empowered Living, which streams live every Tuesday at 11 a.m., on W4WN. com and is a podcast on iHeart.com. To receive her Intuitive Decision-Making Meditation, visit InspiredAndEmpoweredLiving.com/meditation. Learn how to better access your intuition and how it can guide you to success by attending the 3 Keys to Move Your Business to the Next Level with the Intuition Business Advantage Masterclass. For more information, call 1-877-HiNanci, email Nanci@NanciDeutsch.com or visit NanciDeutsch.com. See ad, page 26.

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