We women deal with a lot of emotions. The positive ones rejuvenate us. But what do we do with the negative ones? Sometimes women even carry the emotional baggage for the entire family. Now there is a field of medicine that recognizes the toll this takes on our health.

Jane F. Collen interviews Astrid Ramseier, a registered nurse in Switzerland who is pioneering a new alternative medicine by providing seminars to her fellow nurses in emotional health coaching.

Astrid Ramseier has been a registered nurse working in hospitals for over thirty years. After tending the sick and administering western medicine she began to be curious about the various eastern philosophies that guided alternative medicines. About a year or so ago she had an epiphany: people (especially those in the health care profession) needed to make the connection between emotions, energy and good health. She went to Germany to learn about the concept of Emotional Balance from Dr Roy Martina. When Hong Chi Xiao came to Switzerland, Astrid went to his workshop and began training Lajin-Paida. She now gives seminars and workshops to employees at healthcare institutions in Switzerland, and is just beginning to branch out to offer this training to everybody. (Check out Xiao’s concepts on YOUtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ColmTrUsFXI

ASTRID is determined to get the word out about the healing power which lies within each of us. I asked if she could distill her message into an IndexCard® Cure soundbite. Seven steps to reducing stress and re-balancing:

1. YOU HAVE THE POWER WITHIN YOU TO HEAL YOURSELF. We have heard it before — so much of our health depends on our attitude.But Astrid’s alternative medicine gives us a new understanding of this dynamic. In order to tap into that power we have, we have to deal with our worry and self doubt.

2. BRING THOSE TEARS TO THE SURFACE. Women have a lot of tears inside. We carry them around where no one else can see them and they are negatively impacting our health. When we are young, we have less emotional baggage AND we are more resilient – we can often survive not addressing the emotions which block our energy flow. The older we get, the more baggage we have and the more the un-addressed emotions tie up our energy and impede our immune system. Astrid compares the blocked energy to a traffic jam. If we do not accept our negative emotions and try to change them into positive thoughts, the negativity will snarl the flow of our energy faster than a three car accident impedes traffic.

3 YOU DON’T HAVE TO STAY STUCK in the jam!- We are all trained by our experiences. Remember learning how to drive a car? As a new driver, I had to think very hard and concentrate on how to turn on the engine, adjust the mirrors, learn how to put the car in gear, how to check all around me to back up, et cetera. Now? I jump in the car and go – thinking about a million other things–safely operating the car on automatic pilot. Our emotional paths can do the same thing. If every day for the last year your neighbor next door did something to anger you, now when you see that person you automatically get mad without even new provocation. We need the courage to jump out of that automatic response and train ourselves to forgive and react more positively. Or even change our response to one of courage and confidence. But how?

4. ACCEPTING THE EMOTION is the first step in changing it. Ever get stressed out? Well, remaining calm can be as simple as accepting that stress and then overriding that stress with positive statements of calm. Repressed negative emotions can cause our immune systems to malfunction, leaving us susceptible to diseases. Without a healthy energy system the delicate balance of the need for rejuvenation and healing that naturally occurs in our bodies gets out of kilter.

5. MAKE NEW SYNAPSES- you can redirect your brain away from the negative thoughts. Astrid has some very simple exercise that help us forge new pathways of positivity to eradicate the conditioned or automatic negative response. By re-setting our right brain left brain connection we can redirect the “I am angry” response to “I am patient” or “I am forgiving”.

6. A TEASER EXERCISE- realigning your right brain with your left brain.– Astrid is in the process of putting up an English translation of her website, so for now the German Speakers in our audience have the advantage. http://www.gesundheitscoaching-ramseier.ch/ But her pictures speak a thousand words in any language. She shows us where some of the meridians are located, and what tapping into them can do for our health.

In the meantime, make a fist with your right hand, and put it on top of your out-stretched left hand. Tap your right fist into your out-stretched left hand three times and then switch your hands to do it the other way. While you are physically moving your hands you can try to move your anger, by saying “I accept that I am angry, but now I am patient. I am so patient. I am forgiving.” while envisioning yourself being patient and forgiving instead of automatically responding in anger as before.

7. KEEP THE MERIDIANS (EMOTIONAL AND ENERGETIC HIGHWAYS IN OUR BODIES) CLEAN – Astrid’s exercises then help you maintain good traffic flow. They arm us with a new weapon against disease and help us keep our muscles and the energy pathways stretched and limber.

We owe it to ourselves and to our families to stay healthy. Let’s avoid automatic negative responses by consciously trying to redirect our emotions positively. Just raising our consciousness about these negative habits makes a big difference. I know it does for me — I automatically started worrying the moment I woke up this morning. But now, thanks to Astrid and some fist tapping, I am going to have a great day!