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I did not know about the healing power of song when I was healing from state of loving someone with life-threatening addiction. The life of what I call a "Second Hand Addict" (www.secondhandaddiction.blogspot.com) was a madhouse- a roller coaster of conflicting emotions and powerlessness, with no ability to get off the ride.

In some of my worst moments I would lock the door to my bedroom and put on my Shaina Noll tapes- the ones I had heard of from my women's group,. My favorite was a tape of lullabyes called SONGS FOR THE INNER CHILD, and you can hear about it at her website http://www.shainanoll.com/ .The songs were soft and sweet and comforting. Immediately I would revert back to the state of being a little girl. I was being hugged, loved, comforted. Soon those songs would take me out of that personal hell that I then lived in and brought back to a place of love.

We often forget the power of music to affect the human brain in a positive or negative direction. It is an important thing to remember- the brain being comprised of electrical circuits and impulses, and musical vibrations being converted to electrical impulse in the brain. So there is a strong connection. If you have never seen it, it is fascinating to watch a video of music's affect on the cells of the human body- realigning them and literally changing their physical shape. After this respite, I could then go back the real world again, able to function. The music had worked its magic on the very cells in my body- in much the same way that mind entrainment works.

Later as I began the move to escape that life, I would sing those same lullabies to my children. In this way I passed on the peace and healing in their life of turmoil with a disintegrating family. Once I even sang the Shaina Noll songs to a group of adults at a retreat. To sing them as a singer had become even more healing than to listen. If that is possible.

Today as a budding teenager my son still asks me to sing him a Shaina Noll lullaby once in a while. The one he loves is called You can be Anybody That You Want to Be, and it sets the tone for him to have a great life- I believe.

Because to tell the truth, lullabies are not only for children.

When I was in Alanon dealing with the chaos of living with another person's addiction, I learned a slogan "Easy Does It. Just three small words, but so meaningful. I began to train my mind to remember to use them in the right context. I would sit in a meeting and hear people talk about it. I would make note of how people were able to make use of the slogan when the chaos of their mind became overwhelming. I heard many victories over self, and it was inspiring.

So I began to use the slogan 'Easy does it' to bring my mind to the present. In the midst of chaos I would just think or say "easy does it." Then I'd take a deep breath. Then I would go about the business of the one small thing that I was doing at that moment. Some call this 'being in the present.' Eckart Tolle calls it "Living in the Now." I found it was a powerful place to live, which slowly began to shift and change my life.

So make a practice of saying Easy does it, coming back to the present, and training your mind to live in the Now. Do it over time and see what this one small step does for your world and your life.

Below is an excerpt from my latest article on my squidoo lensOn Spirituality, Religion, and Creating Our World. I invite you to visit and read it.

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmaster/new_workshop/howtomanifestanythingyouwant

So let us take a better look at Jesus, since he was our role model as Christians. Jesus said that we, like him, are sons of GOD, and children of GOD. With this in mind, consider that Jesus was not teaching people that HE was special, and made in the image of and likeness God (which he was, of course)... but rather that we ALL are special, and made in the likeness of GOD. Consider that Jesus was saying that there is God in each of us. Now if that is true it follows that if Jesus can perform miracles, walk on water, feed the masses, etc, so can we all.

When you talk about how to increase mental power, you can get a vision of your mind, working fast and furious, at warp speed- solving issues and problems left and right.

But in reality, does increasing mental power happen some other way?

In point of fact it is being noted in our age of enlightenment that we really don't want to speed the mind up, but rather slow it down. We are beginning to learn that when we quiet this great computer called our mind, it actually works better. As I'm sure famed philosopher Ekhart Tolle would say, compulsive thinking is a 'disease', and when we follow the mind's obsessive agenda- we become very sick.

How many of you, for instance, have gone through a time of tribulation in your life and have felt the stifling sensation of not being able to escape thinking about the problem. You try a hot bath- still the thoughts continue. You put the TV on- the thoughts sit in the background. You take a jog- your mind continues to churn. You try to sleep- but cannot. Finally desperate, you may seek peace through a sleeping pill- only to wake up still tired and with the same thoughts present. The mind in this sense could be seen as some out-of-control computer. You keep hitting the off button, but it won't turn off. And it doesn't solve the problem you want it to. It just churns away at the problem it wants to focus on- with very little success.

It is at times like this that we can feel that we have an enemy in our camp, and it is our very own brain. This is especially true since the mind loves to tell us disparaging and discouraging things about ourselves- thinking, I suppose, that this will help to solve the problem.

So what the mind really needs in order to increase mental power is some down and dirty, Drill-Sargent training. It needs to be trained to say 'yes sir!' to when we want it on or off, and what we want it to think about. And this is not an easy task.

But I can give personal testimony that yes, this can be done. For instance, right now I am facing what could occur to others as insurmountable obstacles in my personal life. To name a few, my beloved father is passing away and I cannot be there with him. My back is healing from an injury, and the instability of a new business has me living in the question mark in life. But because I have trained my mind, and it does not run me, I live a stable, peaceful life, one day at a time.

I have many methods that I use to train my mind and increase mental power. Today I have been focusing on things that can be done while lying down for my back. I have utilized a brain entrainment CD, a hypnosis CD, and a meditation CD- all of which I highly recommend. I have also taken a nice walk in nature. This is inherently meditational, as long as you keep recalling the mind to ‘think of nothing.' By the way, when you do this, you should also thank it for sharing. Remember that your mind, however misguided, is only trying to help you.

For some powerful mind tools, and some good blogs, see my links above.

Can we truly increase mental power in our day to day lives?

In this day and age of information, we struggle to cram our brains with all the information that we can. Still we often can't seem to unlock the more than 70% of our brain's capacity that we don't use. And people are making fantastic claims every day- claims that we can have wealth, happiness, fulfilling love, and abundance. And we can have this just by choosing that we want it, and using our brains more effectively.

I have been around the block a bit when it comes to tools to work with my mind. I have done yoga, meditations, and body-mind-spirit practices where I go in the body to access the mind. I have read Louise Haye Affirmation books and cards daily. I have attended 12-step programs and read wonderful books to instill new and positive ideas and thoughts into my brain. I have attempted, with some good success through all of these methods, to reframe the very thoughts in my head.

It is the age of enlightenment. People speak all of the time about mind over matter and ways to increase your mental power. A lot of us believe in that. I know I do. But many of us also ask ourselves... "How do I actually do that?" Or even more to the point, "Can I actually do that?" And a lot of us have been working on just that skill for a lot of years. And we seem so far from our goals- even despite the fact that we human beings have a hard time acknowledging our successes.

You could think of your mind like a 'answers machine.' You could consider that when you put information in, an answer comes out. Now the answer is not always a pleasant one. In fact very often what goes in the machine to form the mind's answer is flawed material. The mind picks out the traumas, painful occurrences, and scarred experiences of life to form an answer for. In essence, the mind does not choose the day-to-day grind to worry about. It only picks the incidents that stand out- hence the answer is based on only one incident out of many- and so flawed. The mind then makes note of what should be done to address this problem. This is quite often in the form of a negative thought such as "Don't trust anyone." Some of these thoughts become such a part of us, we can't even see them.

One has to wonder if the mind truly can speak to the very cells in your body. One has to wonder if the claims people make about the mind's power to cure all manner of diseases are really true. Can the mind cause you to lose weight effortlessly? Can you become a master at some unknown task overnight. Is it perhaps true that faith- your faith in your mind's ability- can move mountains. If we believe, can we accomplish a miracle? And truly, this level of believing itself seems to be a miracle.

There is a lot of speculation that you can skip over the hard work of 'mind over matter.' They say that you can give up your daily affirmations and bathroom books and simply train the brain in any direction you want- while you lay there and relax, and listen to a CD or tape. What a wonderful idea? They call this method brain entrainment, and I am told there are no subliminal methods to worry about. Personally I am inclined to give this method a try, and stop working so hard.

If you are adventurous, you can take a life-changing course called The Landmark Forum. Here you will get to look at "mind over matter' from a very different perspective. You will delve into the question "What does it mean to be human?" You will look at yourself as a human being and see how your very 'self' was created. You can then dissect the process if you so desire to shift the very way you are, and become all that you want to be. During the process you will certainly look at how your brain operates, and when it empowers you, and when it (very frequently) dis-empowers you.

Brain entrainment is one powerful tool to increase mental power and access the power of my mind. The other tool is to do it every day until it sinks in. This may well be the true test of training my brain. And one that many of us need to pass- no matter which methods we choose.

If you like the idea of increasing the power of your mind, check out these tools.

For some powerful tools for your mind, and also good blogs please see my links above.