Your Brain On God

We are all storytellers ... when we pray or even think, we are telling the Law our story

What story do you want to tell?

A Cherokee elder is teaching his grandchildren about life and says, "a fight is going on inside of me it is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves.

One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, pride and superiority … lies, lies, lies.

The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion,faith and Truth.

This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too," the elder said to the wide-eyed kids. The grandkids thought about it for a while and then one of them asked "which wolf will win?"

"The one I feed," the old Cherokee answered, “the one I feed.”

What are you feeding your mind?

My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to bathe my head in atmospheres unknown to my feet is perennial and constant. The highest that we can attain to is not Knowledge, but Sympathy with Intelligence. ~Thoreau

Sympathy with Intelligence? That's with God, Spirit....

In the book, HOW GOD CHANGES YOUR BRAIN, Andrew Newberg MD and Mark Robert Waldman talk about the science of faith. Using our brain's plasticity, we can change our lives through faith, meditation, prayer and other spiritual practices. The reasons for this change come through our desire, focus, conscious regulation of breath, and posture/body movements. The mechanism for change is faith. It is a practice that stops you from ruminating or focusing on fear and/or anger. Meditation or prayer and other spiritual practices are the opposite of rumination and cause your brain to change.

You may say, "hey, Jay, I don't always have time to meditate or pray and my mind is tired from a full and busy morning at work." Or you may not have any spiritual practice at all. Then just take a moment and Breathe; breath replenishes neural energy and gives you a coffee-like boost.

I'm sure most of you have heard of Jill Bolte Taylor. Ms. Taylor is a Harvard-trained neuro-anatomist who experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain in 1996, at the age of 37. She lost judgment, critical analysis, sense of past and future and was finding herself existing just in now, using her right hemisphere. She wrote"

...and for me it was a total experience of peacefulness and euphoria. ... "The Blue Sky is Always There", and to me the blue sky is the consciousness of the right hemisphere. And then the clouds come in, which is the consciousness of the left hemisphere and the verbiage and it blocks our ability to see the blue sky, but the blue sky is always still there. And to me that's what going on with our consciousness. We always have that blue sky, that right hemisphere experience of euphoria is at the essence of what we are. You always have the option, moment, by moment, of saying in this moment, I'm going to sit back, I'm going to look at the world around me. I'm going to escape all the things that I'm thinking about. And I am just going to pay attention to how the air feels, the temperature of the air, my breath... Look at the colors in the field around me, stop thinking and analyzing everything that is going on in your left hemisphere; all the jargon. ...consciously choose to have that experience at any moment. …. we are biologically designed to have this experience of feeling at one with all that is.

You can watch her TED Talk to learn more. And she has written a book on the experience, as well.

With your brain on God, the chemicals zapping around lowers anxiety and depression and relaxes you; it lights you up like the sun. I don't want to get into the electro-chemical descriptions of it all, but suffice it to say, different hormones and the like are excreted on a moment-by-moment basis, when you daily use spiritual practices. And I don't mean just prayer or meditative modalities. What lights you up in positive way? What music, reading, affirmations, walking the beach or the mountains, etc. are you including in your life on a daily basis? And if not on a daily basis, why not? There's enough junk floating around in your head that gets in your way, why do we not set ourselves up for greater success by setting a mental experience, along with goals and other success tools?

Some of you might ask, "Do you need God to do all this?" "God," it's just a term/name for the energy that surrounds us. But most importantly, it is an energy or frequency or vibration that we surround ourselves with. The breath, the music, the animal friend we hang out with, enjoying he company of our children, reading inspiring words, sitting on the porch and watching the sunset, etc. It is the consciousness of Universe being allowed to step in and refresh the brain and thus the body, spirit, et al. Call it what you will, the name is irrelevant. But if you are okay with the term 'God,' realize that that word is a noun....and a verb....and an adjective.

In the book, How God Changes Your Brain, they list five fundamental neurological truths that coincide with New Thought:
1-Your thoughts clearly affect the neurological functioning of your body
2-Optimism is essential for maintaining a healthy brain
3-Positive thoughts neurologically suppress negative thoughts (conscious optimal ones even more)
4-When you change the way you think , you begin to change your outward circumstances
5-Consciousness, reality, your mind, and your spiritual beliefs are profoundly interconnected and inseparable from the  functioning of your brain

Let's all get in the Zone everyday...the zone of Spirit in our lives. Stay interested, be in wonderment, use your imagination, have smiles at the ready, release anxiety in your mind and body with yawns, and increase your playfulness. You will see that when your perception changes...reality bends! Yes, negative experiences may occur, but how you deal with it will change; gratitude will step in quicker, your neutrality to the negative condition will rise up and free you from emotional blockages in wisdom and action . You will still have compassion for yourself and others' plights in the moment, but you will react from strength not weakness and love not fear.

Affirmation
I AM IN  UNITY WITH THE DIVINE!
Peace surrounds me. Peace upholds me.  Peace is what I surrender to, with which I inhale, and from which I begin and end my day. Peace is where I flow from and what I travel with.  In me is embedded an attitude of peace, a bias of peace, a philosophy of peace, and a mind set in peace.                       
LOVE, ACCORD, AND FRIENDSHIP ARE MINE!

Driving With Your Headlights Always On

Congrats...you made it through one of the two Friday the 13th's in 2019.

The term for the fear of Friday the 13th is Paraskevidekatriaphobia. Interestingly, this fear has no reference to itself or Friday the 13th being unlucky before the 19th century. There isn't a lot of information of where this fear started or became popular. It's possible it started with a fear of the number 13 first. That is called Triskaideka-phobia. It's origons have to do with the idea that Judas Iscariot sat in 13th place at the Last Supper, which occured on the 13th day of Nissan on Maundy Thurs, the night before Jesus' death...Good Friday. That ties it in with the Friday phobia, I guess.

Other occurrences adding to these phobias:

• 1888 - Jack the Ripper's final victim and disappearance
• 1914 - Rasputin became Russia's ruler-in-fact
• 1942 - Hitler began major attacks on Soviet Union, Poland, Netherlands, Austria, Greece and Yugoslavia
• 1956 - Bela Lugosi died and buried in Dracula cloak
• 1970 - Beatles disbanded (probably the most horrible of them all)

It is mostly an American and British phobia. The Italians are far more concerned about Friday the 17th, the Spanish-speaking countries fear Tuesdays more, as well as the Greeks (influenced by Ares, the God of War). Dutch researchers found F13 a day one would be less likely to be injured, supposedly because people are more careful.

Mark Twain was once invited to be 13th guest at a dinner party. Several of his superstitious friends warned him not to do it, to decline the invitation, but he went anyway, not believing in such things. Twain later commented, "It was bad luck. They only had food for 12."

In 1882, a Capt. William Fowler founded The Thirteen Club of New York, a place where skeptics defied superstitions by hosting dinner parties on Friday the 13th. It usually comprised of 13 members performing a series of "unlucky feats." such as passing under a ladder, having a 13 course meal, lighting the evening with 13 candles, and tipping over salt shakers and not tossing any over shoulders. It later evolved into a national organization with such luminaries as Presidents Grover Cleveland and Teddy Roosevelt.

The Stress Management Center and Phobia Institute estimates that more than 17M people are affected by this fear of the number 13 and especially the Friday the 13ths. But it's all a learned fear, like most not based on reality. Now I am not talking about a logical fear, such walking down a dark urban alley or putting our hand in a fire. Those actually aren't fears as much as logically learned things you just don't do. 

False Evidence Appearing Real

The above is the usual anagram for the term, fear. And keeping with our theme this month, fear is something that bends reality. But all those fears are not true, they are merely a story choice we accept. Fear is a closed energy that exists when we do not trust our connection to the infinite part of who we are and buy into some story about what usually will not unfold.

Fear is the opposite of faith.  ~Bishop Carlton Pearson

I believe it is time to detach from fear. To leave behind that something from the past that we allow in the present and prepare with for the future. All that is required is a simple shift in perspective, a surrender to the Universe - to who you are.

I ask you to turn on your brights and illuminate it all....be a witness in present time to what it is, what this kooky idea is that is getting in your way. Here's a couple of ways to do that:

1) Become an observer of your thoughts, ask questions about them, and write it down. Write down all the reasons your fear is irrational and kooky. It is in this practice that you start to re-organize and re-frame that story that has been whirling in your head about the fear or phobia.

2) Get your hand on your heart, breath, and perform this mindful Buddhist practice. Imagine a stone being thrown into a pond. Observe in your mind the ripples it creates. Allow this vision  to distract your mind's eye. This process opens you up to get centered and grounded so that you can then unfold, without doubt or self-sabotage, the story; attack it with heart and logic and rid yourself of the fear. I do it all the time. My brain comes up with some crazy ideas about things sometimes through some dumb fear and, when that occurs, I use one or both of these techniques to sift through the fear, laugh at it, give it a big "so what" that it showed up, challenge it and remove its power. Only your conscious mind can interfere and dismantle these fears. Use affirmations, tell the fear to take a hike, and open up to allow the Universe to inform you of the new story, the True story.

The secret of prayer and its power in the outward life depends upon an unconditional faith in, and reliance upon this inner Presence. ~ Ernest Holmes

BE YOUR SPIRITUAL VISION
Is achieving your goals the only thing that gives life meaning? That's a big NO! Your state of mind and state of being awakens you to a life of purpose. A purpose of revealing the Divinity in you and vibrating at the speed of Divine Intelligence.

RE-DISCOVER YOUR INNER TRUTH
Is your default mood one of irritation or dissatisfaction? When you reboot your perceptions by bringing peaceful attention to your authentic self, a calm starts to guide you away from unhappiness and self-obsession in connecting with your purpose through love and joy.

AWAKEN TO THE UNIVERSAL INTELLIGENCE AROUND AND WITHIN YOU
You trust your strategies and the clever hacks you've learned to find solutions to your problems, yes? Consider tapping into the miraculous power of universal intelligence with meditation, contemplation, visioning, visualizing, using deep and thoughtful heart-felt affirmations and affirmative prayer. 

PRACTICE SPIRITUAL RIGHT ACTION
Know spiritual right action is always there. The Universe is here to serve you through the spiritual Law of Cause and Effect. Remembering this and embodying this into the very cells of your being will give you the courage and clarity to find your way out of any of life’s conflicts.

Trust is what we learn when we want to overcome our fears. It’s called “taking a leap of faith” and trusting in the Power within that’s connected to Universal Intelligence. Remember, the Power that supplies our breath is the same Power that created the Universe.    ~Louise Hay

The opposite of fear is love. Affirm the power of your thought to overcome any fear. We have to drive this life with our headlights always on; making ourselves visible means we're less likely to have another dumb idea of a limiting or lack nature or a fear to drift into our lane. Have our headlights always on reduces and eventually eliminates the  risk of daytime rear-enders of these limiting idea.

Fortunately, Friday the 13th is days past. This Wednesday, September 18th is National Rice Krispies Treats Day...make some, enjoy some. And this Thursday, September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day...one of my favorites.

I will leave you with this affirmation/affirmative prayer:

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, I Am that I AM, the Kingdom of Heaven is within, between God and me, there is no between...these words, biblical and philosophical are the Truth I live by.

I am reminded of my gift of the wisdom of Divine Intelligence that flows within me and the sacrament of volition, the ability of choice. So I now choose to look beyond appearances to see the wholeness of every being in every situation, and from there act with love, compassion, respect, and wisdom. False evidence appearing real is null and void in my life. I live my life only through, with, for and as my individualized expression of the One Spirit, God, the energy of the Big Bang, the Living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute and self-existent Cause. And I do so intentionally, joyfully, consciously and with the full embodiment of a life of vitality, prosperity, love, peace and creativity. 

I remember my faith and love surrounds me. The Divine Presence is here and my headlights are always on to see, know and reveal the Divinity within me. With deep gratitude, knowing the Universe says yes to my Word, I release this revelation....and so it is!

Affirmation
The Lights Are On And I AM Home
I see my greatness, it shines in the Light. I listen for my greatness, I hear It's Call. I feel my greatness, a texture just right. I smell this greatness, a rose of perfection. I taste my greatness, a perfect blended bite. I sing the Light in all I do and power this luminescence into all my words,  thoughts, and feelings.                                                                                                                     
I Am Home...Home In The Light!

Stress Is Our Friend

Stress Is Our Friend....Whaaaat?

Watching some TED Talks last week and came across one with psychologist Kelly McGonical. In it she taught showed the participants how stress can be our friend. We've been told, I've told you, that stress makes you sick anywhere from the common cold to cardiovascular disease. The release of cortisol makes the heart rate goes up and the blood vessels constrict.  Something quite unhealthy in a prolonged state...usually. But what if you changed your perspective on stress? What if you chose to think and feel differently about stress? Could your body react to your belief and thus make stress be your friend? The answer is yes.

In 2011, the Health Psychology magazine published an 8 year study by Dr. Lauren Wisk and her colleagues that tracked 30K US adults. They asked the group, “How much stress have you experienced in the last year?” And, “Do you believe that stress is harmful to your health?" Then they tracked these people using the public death records to discover who died. Those who reported a lot of stress and believed stress greatly impacted their health, had a 43% increased risk of premature death. I took a look at the study and their conclusion was that when you change your mind about stress, you can change your body’s response to stress. As Hans Selye, a well-known endocrinologist and stress research expert, said, "It's not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it."

What happens to the body when there is stress? Well, it lowers dopamine levels, a chemical that signals the brain for motivation, feelings of pleasure, and happiness and increases cortisol levels, a chemical that triggers the body to produce epinephrine which affects cognitive performance. And this is very interesting:  in the brain, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical  axis (HPA), which regulates the release of cortisol, cannot distinguish the difference between a physical or psychological stressor; thus a psychological stressor can produce a physiological response as much as a physical stressor. So the belief (psychology) that stress creates illness or death, prolongs and worsens the physiological aspects. But the belief (psychology) of stress as a clue to take action, decreases or eliminates the negative physiological aspects of the condition.

You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. ~Christopher Robin

How does my belief change the physiological conditions of stress. Well, your belief in stress as a help to a situation vs. a hindrance and danger to your health, will bend the reality of the ravages of cortisol, etc. by knowing and informing the brain that it is time for another hormonal release to occur …. oxytocin, the cuddle hormone.

Here's an experiment Kelly McGonigal did with the TEDX audience. It is a Social Stress Test. Imagine you are giving a five-minute impromptu speech on your personal weaknesses and that there's a panel of expert evaluators in the audience. Remember, you are on a stage with bright lights and a camera in your face. All the audience have been trained to give you discouraging, non-verbal feedback...hemming and hawing, sighing, moving around in their seats, etc. What would that be like for you...telling your deepest, darkest secrets onstage, lights a-blaring and a camera filming you, while an audience does practically everything to show their boredom and disappoint, but boo and heckle you. Pretty demoralizing, yes?

Now how about taking a math test? We're going to all do this together and it's going to be fun...but not for you. I want you to count backwards from 996 in increments of seven. Do this out loud and as fast as you can...starting with 996.....Go! Come on, go faster. Faster please. You're going too slow!!
Stop. Stop, stop, stop. You made a mistake. We are going to have to start all over again. Imagine that scenario. Feel a little stressed out...heart pounding., breathing faster, maybe breaking out into a sweat? Normally that would equal anxiety, signs we aren't coping with the pressure.

But what if you viewed them as signs that body was being energized, preparing you to meet the challenge at hand? Well, that's what participants were told in study at Harvard University. Before they took the social stress test above, they were taught to think the usual stress response as helpful to them. That the pounding heart was the body prepping for action. That your breathing faster meant more oxygen was going to the brain. The participants who learned to view the stress response as helpful were less stressed out, less anxious, and more confident. The usual physical stress response of constricted blood vessels stayed relaxed and the heart pounding became like the hearts response while in joy or courage. It was the oxytocin.

Oxytocin is a stress hormone. The pituitary gland pumps this stuff out as part of the stress response and, like adrenaline, it makes your heart pound. Interestingly, this stress hormone, when released, motivates you to seek support. It's biology nudging you to tell someone how you feel. When life is difficult, this hormone wants you to be surrounded by people who care about you, primes you to do things that strengthen close relationships, and makes you become more compassionate and caring. Oxytocin acts on the body, too. It protect your cardiovascular system from the effects of stress, is a natural anti-inflammatory, helps your blood vessels stay relaxed during stress, helps the heart cells regenerate and heal from any stress-induced damage, and actually strengthens your heart muscle.

Here are a few activities (not including sex and childbirth) that naturally raise oxytocin levels:
1.  10 Hugs a day
2.  Playing with animals
3.  Playing games
4.  Guided meditation
5.  Getting a massage
6.  Dancing or Exercise
7.  Sharing a meal
8.  Soaking in the tub
9.  Give gifts/notes of encouragement/appreciation
10.  Laughing
11.  Karaoke
12.  Talk with positive people
13.  Holding Hands / Love

Your choice in how you perceive the stress equals how you receive the stress

Winston Churchill tells the story of an old man who, on his deathbed, said that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened. I think of stress as a message from the Universe, through your hormonal response in stressful situations or lifestyles, to get in touch with your heart. After all, a compassionate heart creates social connection and more oxytocin release.

We don't want cortisol streaming through our bodies, unless we need to lift a car or are being chased by a lion or tiger or bear. But we do want to bend the reality of stress and cortisol to not mean death, illness or destruction of our immune system, and to mean the reality of stress and oxytocin equals motivation and courage, and choosing love and compassion.

Make stress your friend. Take a breath, take a moment and take back your stress response. It's your decision!



Affirmation
I AM OPENING
My heart is ready to receive the insight I require with ease and love. From this moment on, I transform all my thoughts, feelings and beliefs into a powerful prosperous party. I celebrate my ability to bend reality for my greatest good, best life and optimized fabulousness. I am open to any inspiration, suggestion, revelation, influence, genius and vision that reveals how to bust through, soar and zoom.
I AM OPEN AND ATTENTION IS PAID

What Are You Forgetting?

Last month our theme was...
We learned that, again and again, we should treat our mind with mind candy, knowing we are the ones starting the healing process, in co-creation with the Universe, by going back to our factory settings, especially when faced with chaos or trauma.


This month's theme is...
We bend reality all the time, using our perceptions on life. For example, some people feel unloved. It probably started with some stupid thing and hurtful thing our parents said. And no matter how much we are show or told how wrong we are, this idea continues to bend reality through that dumb learned belief of being unlovable. It became a subconscious habit, a core belief...an inner dialogue etching. We all have similar triggers. Do our perceived “truths” eliminate the Truth?  Or have we just forgotten? 

Faria Sana, psychology professor at Athabasca University wrote:

The information flowing in actually doesn’t stick unless you put effort into it and concentrate and engage in certain strategies that will help you remember.

There is something call the forgetting curve. It is described as the timely decline of memory retention, if no attempt to retain it. It happens within 24 hours. And, after a few days, you usually can only recall one fourth of what you read; a few days after that, you're pretty much a goner, retention-wise.
We must use our brains and minds on purpose, if we want to retain the tools and tenets of this philosophy. We want to do more than learn, we want to transform.

Massive change requires some form of transformation. Professor Emeritus Robert Boyd, a Psychologist, and the Director of the Laboratory of Group Dynamics at Univ of Wisconsin-Madison tells us:

Transformation involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. It is a shift in consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world

Transformation allows us to irreversibly see the world in a fundamentally different way. It is an expansion and evolution that takes place in our brain and throughout our entire Divine Matrix of heart, mind and gut.

Here's a couple of examples of transformational learning:
     You start a business, it fails, you lose a ton of money, it’s painful, but you look back at what may have gone wrong and learn what to do and what not to do the next time you attempt your next business.

     You may be extremely ambitious at work, stress takes its toll and you fall ill...it’s painful, but once you recover, you make a commitment to take better care of your health.

This type of transformation comes from satori learning . Satori is a Japanese Buddhist term for awakening, comprehension; understanding.














Another type is a gradual accumulation of experiences that shifts the way we understand how we fit into the world through insight. It is a type of transformation from kensho learning, a Japanese term from the Zen tradition. Ken means "seeing," and shō means "nature, essence;" "seeing one's (true) nature." One is usually chock with painful experiences – satori, the second (evolving over time) is usually more slow in the download – kensho.




So how do you shift from just learning to transforming? Here's a few ways to lock in learning and turn it into transformation:

Critical Reflection Sometimes it is advantageous to assess your fundamental assumptions and beliefs honestly through a critical reflective practice, whether as a voluntary process or taking advantage of some dilemma you just experienced. Through meditation, contemplation, using spiritual mind treatment or affirmative prayer to unlock insights from the Universe on what's going on in that belief system of yours.

Think of a belief that limits how you experience life right now. We all have one or some. We bend reality by thinking these beliefs are 'truth:'  “I’m not smart enough” or “People just don’t respect me.”
Ask yourself, "What was the stacking of ideas, beliefs and learning from childhood to now that makes me arrive at this particular form of identity? Did I create these beliefs based on my own experiences? Or did I inherit them from fathers, mothers, preachers, teachers or the news media?

Once identified, find a specific example how you came to this belief. Maybe recall an embarrassing, shameful, or traumatic moment in which this 'truth' took hold. For example, maybe in elementary or junior high school, you raised your hand in class to ask a question, and everyone laughed at your question. After that, you decided to never risk that kind of exposure again. Now you play it safe and wait before you speak. It has happened to a lot of us. Okay, then picture yourself back in that specific moment, but then imagine yourself finding your voice. Tell those involved how you feel about what just happened or what they said or 'did' to you. Reflect on how different your beliefs about yourself would be if this event never happened. Many times these beliefs stick because we haven't expressed ourselves on purpose about them.

In another situation, you might remind yourself that these beliefs are a product of your experience. Then, you might imagine yourself being raised in a loving and supportive family.  Notice how differently you feel about yourself? Once you choose to reclaim your potential, you cease being a victim of damaging circumstances. Remind yourself, over and over again (re-treat) that “I don’t need to be imprisoned by my past if I choose to free myself from my limiting beliefs.”  You may want to do this kind of shadow work with a professional, but the transformation you will feel and have as you take control and command of these limiting beliefs will be exponential in living your greatest life.

Contemplative Study & Writing Using my talks, other talks, classes, the weekly affirmation cards (see this week's below), and integration of SOM principle like you would in a class with a test. Not to memorize facts and figures, as such, but to comprehend and integrate the information. This will commonly lead, over time, to the accumulation of what is called, changed meaning-schemes. Not schemes, as in something nefarious, but in an conglomeration of ideas from various deep learning experiences that you work on and allow to stick.

Sharing Talk with like-minded friends or start a small group at your home. These gatherings develop new frames of reference, integrating learning into practice. Like a movie or book discussion club, this type of conclave of friends, works the brain to integrate these concepts on a deeper level.

Application Like riding a bike, learning an instrument or new skill, you gotta work this stuff. Through spiritual practice, you work your new or remembered knowledge. It is essential that this not be just an intellectual process, though it may start that way. The application of this information requires it to be worked logically, scientifically, whole-heartedly, spiritually, and holistically - it is a full body experience!

Steven Kotler, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author, wrote:

We need to start moving from a mono-phasic state of existence to a poly-phasic state of existence.

Though we may start there, to effectively transform, we need to go from doing (mono-phasiic) to being (poly-phasic). Mindfulness meditation or other contemplative practices create a lasting transformation. You are more than your experiences! There is an infinite potential of possibility awaiting you. And it matters not your age, gender, height, weight, schooling, culture, etc. Once you learn to see how your beliefs are informing you and do the work of transformation, you are free to bust through, soar...zoom into your greatest life.

Witness your thoughts and recognize the story they are telling you. Don’t confuse them with the truth. You can always rewrite your story. Immersion leads to inspiration, which leads to transformation. See and experience “painful” moments in a different light. Go ahead and allow to experience the initial pain of the experience of change, but quickly then turn that pain or shame, blame, guilt or embarrassment into something that doesn't pull you down, but informs you. It is an indicator you are on the cusp of new growth, a course-correction of the direction of your life. Use to expand and evolve, then life becomes an ever-growing unfolding of new ideas, insights, and awakenings into those Aha moments. I know life can suck sometimes, but using the concepts I talked about last month (see top of blog or previous blogs at this site), you will go from victim to victor. 

Memory must be the storehouse of all ideas that have passed through my mind. Memory is active, for my thoughts come back to me. My thought is conscious of my body; my body is operated upon by my thought, and it must be operated upon by my memory, since memory is active; but since memory is the result of conscious thought, memory of itself is an unconscious operation of what was once a conscious thought. This is one of the most important conclusions which the mind of [humankind] has ever made.   ~Dr. Ernest Holmes

So, don't just learn the Truth, become the Truth! You know, an acorn doesn't learn to be an oak tree, it becomes one and a caterpillar doesn't learn to be a butterfly, it transforms into one.

By changing [their] thought, [one] could re-mold [their] affairs; and by right thinking [one] could bring new conditions into [their] life.  ~Holmes

Next time you experience a painful moment, as we all do in life, ask yourself this:  “What have I learned from this and how can I grow?”  And when you do, you’ll quickly realize that pain is nothing more than the Universe’s way of directing you to take the next step. It is a time you are in that liminal space (see previous blog), at choice. It is a time to choose to remember your heritage, your factory settings and transform your core beliefs.

What are you forgetting? Nothing! It is there in your memory, waiting to come out .... grab it, learn it, absorb it, and transform yourself into constantly and consistently Being It. The power in you is always at the ready to transform your life so you can bust through, soar and zoom into your best self.

Affirmation 
I Am Evolving
I move through the world around me with confidence, kindness, compassion and grace. Today I calmly challenge the status quo of my life, enriching it with thoughts of joyous prosperity and feelings of gratitude.

The Evolution Is In Full Swing
I live in the world I choose, experiencing the abundance I choose; confident my awakened consciousness points True.

MIND CANDY

Four questions:  What are you believing?

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Who are you believing?

We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.  ~Hildegard of Bingen

Do you fear to use your Light....that unseen power?

Don't be intimidated by what you don't know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.                                                                                      ~Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx

When anything gets in our way of our greatest life, it is time for some Mind Candy. 
Where do you get mind candy? You, of course...your thoughts, feeling, beliefs, spiritual practice, your Bible (see Emerson quote above).

Where do you put it?

If you do not run your subconscious mind yourself, someone will run it for you.    ~Francis Scovel Shinn

Which leads me to the fourth question:  what are you feeding your subconscious? 

The subconscious mind has these eleven characteristics:  
1) It is awake, alert and listening 24/7/365+. It is not bound by time, space, mood, hairline, weight, intellect.

2) Thinks in the form of images. Your words turn into images in your subconscious and all are real to it

3) Communicates with you via emotions. Your emotions, appropriate or not, positive or negative are signals from your subconscious of your beliefs and perspective of any situation. It also speaks to you in dream state. See Freud about that.

4) Stores yours memories. I understand that the temporal lobe is the storage unit for the memories, but the subconscious is where they live. Sometimes it represses them for your protection and then, later,  sometimes it releases them for resolution. Fortunately or unfortunately that happens at the darndest times

5) Does not process negative words. Don't think about the elephant standing next to you. Did you see the elephant? It, like the Universe, computes what you are focusing on, so do that clearly, specifically and distinctly...what do you want!?!

6) Structures the perception of your reality. Every reaction you or interpretation you have its based on your beliefs in your subconscious mind. And sometimes it twists reality, based on your perceptions of a situation.

7) Generates, stores, distributes and transmits energy throughout your body. Have you ever felt tired after a meeting or even a lazy Sunday? That's because you mentally burned energy and that's tiring. Yet, when you burn energy exercising, though your muscles might ache, you feel energized. Your still burning energy, but the chemical reaction is different.

8) Deletes, distorts, and generalizes. Your subconscious mind will delete every bit of information it thinks is not necessary for you to pay attention to and a particular moment. When you selectively pay attention to something (focus), other sensory information is deleted. It also distorts information presented to your conscious mind in order to make it easy to understand, allowing you to make shifts experiencing the sensory data by making misrepresentations of reality. And it generalizes information presented to your conscious mind for ease in paying attention. For example, if you enter room, looking for a chair,  in-stead of presenting you “wood, brown, leg, leg, big, leather” your subconscious will generalize to “chair.”

9) Takes everything personally. Did you ever notice that the way you think about someone else is a reflection of how you think of yourself? You see and attract persons into your life that reflect your biases, perspectives and even some character traits. That's your subconscious mind at work. In it lies the basis for your communication with others. Of course, your conscious mind can override these traits, but, remember, everything you think and say can be used against you or for you in the law of cause and effect.

10) Controls your habits, but wants to follow orders. The subconscious mind has a structure, a code that, though is consistent and habitual, can be changed. It's like a record album. Your copy of Led Zeppelin IV (with "Stairway to Heaven") or Pierre Boulez and The Cleveland Orchestra performing "La Mer, Nocturnes, Jeux, Rhapsodie pour clarinette et orchestre" create the same sounds consistently, because of the pattern imprinted on the vinyl. The grooves are a code that the needle reads. Now, if I take a sharp object and scratch the record, the grooves (the pattern / code) will be interrupted and the record will never play the same way again. In a similar way, our habits and mental patterns can be broken or interrupted and new ones created by using tools, such as:  slapping an elastic band around your wrist (called a thought stop) or saying a certain word out loud when a negative thought pops up (“no, negate, stop”) or splashing water on your face or performing a power pose (which awakens all kinds of great chemical reactions - see Amy Cuddy's TED talk) or even doing 5 reps of an exercise. Tony Robbins is a master at this, though sometimes controversial in its execution, he shocks clients with provocative questions and other intimidation tactics to get them out of their story (a habitual comfort zone we all sometimes get stuck in), thus creating a thought stop in their subconscious and conscious minds for learning, evolution, clarity and healing.

11) Always wants more input! The subconscious mind is hunger for more, but it requires quality questions to answer for your best outcome and evolution. Ask questions like, “What’s my next best step?” You will find that the answer will be more solution-driven, enhancing the neural pathways with positive feelings, ideas and thoughts. With the Universe, as with the subconscious mind, be conscious and specific in the ask. Don't worry about the hows, just the whats. The hows will be taken care of by the Universe and you will be informed or intuited with your part in the hows....it will be in the answer.
Remember...

Emotions aren't permanent, memories are not your master, beliefs are changeable, habits breakable, values can be revisited, and imagination / intuition can be re-ignited.

Busy your mind with the concepts of harmony, health, peace, and good will, and wonders will happen in you life.  ~Dr. Joseph Murphy

Always ensure that you put beautiful images in your mind that will guide you through all you do. This will make you mind the gardener of good things, your subconscious mind the fertile soil. ~Felicia Pizzonia

Use affirmations, be vocally grateful for the littlest things, Breathe (not take a breath - that's involuntary [thank you subconscious mind]), get your butt in nature...all of these and more spiritual practices serve to wrangle the negative habits of your subconscious mind, in order for the conscious mind (more powerful, by the way) to change your beliefs. You know, energy flows where attention flows!

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.  ~ Carl Sagan

This is not just spirituality, this is science:  see information of epigentics and neuroplasticity in my previous blogs or in the expanse of Google.

Look around less, imagine more. ~Esther Hicks

Like a bucket you fill, drop by drop, clear your mind, heal your heart and fill your soul (Subconscious Of Unconditional Love); drop by drop choose delicious words that create delicious images for your subconscious mind's craving for input....it's fuel for the brain.

Let your spirituality and science merge with your best mind candy....everyday!

Affirmation
I am fearless!
I am bold!

I dance like nobody is watching.
I sing like I'm showering in the woods.

With the lusciousness of candy, I treat my mind to only authentic, empowering,  and grateful thoughts that sweeten the  deal for a prosperous, loving, and vibrant life which is abundant in vitality,  wisdom, humor, and beauty.

I am fearless and bold!

When Going Backward Is Going Forward

In the Spirit of starting from the back to go forward, here is how the blog ends:

You Are Powerful, Capable, Always at Choice, Open and Ready, 

Operating at the Speed of the Divine

Why the paradox of going backward to go forward?

There is a psychotherapy concept, asreculer pour mieux sauter:  going backward to be able to leap forward better. It is the process of going backward to your beginnings, whether you do it on your own, in a support group, or with the help of a psychotherapist, practitioner, healer, etc. which can, in effect, give you a running start when you turn around to go forward again.

When do we do that successfully?
1) With palindromes – backwards & forwards are same like with racecar, civic, deified, kayak, level, madam, noon, radar, refer, sagas, solos, tenet, and wow.
2)  In grief, like through a memorial or life celebration. They are full of memories which, in there reminiscence, assist in healing the grief.
3)  Living a life full of gratitude. Gratitude is the knowing and acceptance of past experience in the now.

In this process, asreculer pour mieux sauter,  you step into what Friar Richard Rohr calls, liminal space. From Living on the Edge, his Center for Action and Contemplation meditation blog, he tells us:

Liminal space (from the Latin limen for "threshold") is an inner state and sometimes an outer situation where we can begin to think and act in genuinely new ways. It is when we are betwixt and between, having left one room or stage of life but not yet entered the next. We often enter liminal space when our former way of being is challenged or changed--perhaps when we lose a job or a loved one, during illness, engagement, or at the birth of a child. During this graced time we are not certain or in control. This openness allows room for something genuinely new to happen. We are empty and receptive--an erased tablet waiting for new words. Liminal space is where we are most teachable.

An example in literature and popular culture is like the time between the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents and his becoming Batman. Or in Star Wars, during Luke Skywalker’s apprenticeship with Yoda in the swamps of Dagobah. Or in the classics like PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, the time between Elizabeth Bennet’s realization she likes Mr. Darcy and the moment she agrees to marry him.

Liminal space is where we transform, sometimes radically, and reveal and reorganize our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about things, thus our actions and experiences. Rites of passage are liminal spaces. Examples are going off to college, a bar mitzvah, a marriage, getting fired or laid off or death. My move in with Patte was a liminal space time. The decisions of her stuff, my stuff...what stays, what goes to the trash, recycling, storage. And closet space...I lost on that one.

Some are daunting challenges, destructive & chaotic; a time when we feel heartbroken and lost, must start over, or have that fearful "NOW WHAT?" in our heads. You ever feel like life is making you go backwards...in heels. An extra difficult position for most men. That phrase, "backwards in heels," originated in a 1982 Frank and Ernest cartoon by Robert Thaves. It was talking about Fred Astaire when one of the characters said, "Sure he was great, but don't forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did...backwards and in high heels." Have you ever felt that way? We probably all have been in that space and most of the time we don't do it with the grace and ease of Ginger Rogers.

Backwards is not necessarily a negative! I read a story about a Yoga teacher who said to her class one afternoon during a downward facing dog asana:

Sometimes, you feel as though you are riding the bicycle backwards. You feel like you are backtracking and heading in the wrong direction, but really what’s happening is contraction and release. The universe is preparing you for something much greater and like a sling shot, it’s going to shoot you forward - you just have to move backwards for a little bit.

Let's remember what Friar Rohr said:

...we often enter liminal space when our former way of being is challenged or changed...

Transformation is about decision. A decision to stay in the dark or step into the light. Again, Rohr:

During this graced time we are not certain or in control. This openness allows room for something genuinely new to happen. We are empty and receptive--an erased tablet waiting for new words. Liminal space is where we are most teachable.

Sometimes, we sit in resistant to the yuckiness. Don't! Go ahead and be sad, disappointed, angry, etc. Let's say 45 seconds. Then take action ... inward!

Decide:  Do I want to experience a woe is me life or a wow is me life?

Decide:  Do I want to do it the hard way or the natural/organic way … the factory settings way?

Decide...per Ralph Waldo Emerson:

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

What is "to be yourself" mean?

There's a story about caterpillar crawling to a wall. He looked each way, seeing what seemed like infinity. He looked up the wall, it was never-ending. Frustrated and angry, the caterpillar didn't know how to get over wall. He could try to crawl up the wall like some Navy Seal, but that would take a strength he did not possess. What was the caterpillar to do? Finally, in this liminal space, it decides to be patient, using the strategy of allowing its true self to emerge. He crawled up a nearby tree to contemplate. Two weeks later, the caterpillar true self emerged and just flew over the wall. It transformed by transcending through its true and authentic nature.

The trick, when you are in that liminal space -that graced time...the most teachable moment- is to stop and listen, stop working on the solution, the fix, or the how and commit to the what; and remember who you are...get back to the basics, the factory settings I wrote about last time.

Estelle Frankel, Berkeley psychotherapist & teacher of Jewish mysticism:

...if I take the time….to sit down, close my eyes, say a prayer, open myself to Spirit, then my identity begins to expand, and I remember that I’m not just Estelle, the personality, that I’m a soul, that I’m an embodiment of the Divine, and I move from what Jewish mystics say is ‘small mind’ to ‘big mind’ (also, the Buddha said that). And in that other state, the bonds of the self, the small identity that limits us and dictates who we think we are, it frees up – it’s sort of like a zooming out that you would do with a camera, but it’s zooming out all the way to infinity, all the way to eternity, beyond time, beyond space. And in that moment of deep meditation, or prayer, anything becomes possible, because you are rising above the workings of time.

You are allowing Self to re-emerge! A new you? Maybe...probably, but through the oldest of you … the eternal you … the Divine YOU!

The answer or treat may hide in so and so's books, but all are saying so much of the same thing in a new vernacular. Ideas like Thoughts are things, change your thinking/change your life, the Universe has your back, or by using the countdown method of Mel Robbins or the take dynamic/bold action ideas of Tony Robbins (no relation), through affirmative prayer and other spiritual practices; all are really ancient wisdom from all sorts of cultures, theologies, philosophies, ideas, etc. re-packaged.

There is a vibration, an energy that is always there to tap into; it's first step in these liminal space moments, in these times of transformation. It is there we can move any story of woe / chaos / indecision / loss of control / being off balance; any feelings of “what the hell am I doing and how the heck did I get here?” or the “What now???” to the state of wow:

There's a living Presence within and I recognize It as the One and Only Power in the Universe and I unify with It.

You are of IT and that cannot be taken away from you!!! So stop and listen! The Universe, it has the hows and the strategy you require to transcend the transformation, to allow the new you to emerge from the original you … to reanimate the Divine Intelligence that is seemingly lying dormant.

In that liminal space where you are the most teachable, go back to basics. Transform into who you already are! And that is:

You Are Powerful, Capable, Always at Choice, Open and Ready
Operating at the Speed of the Divine

At the Speed of Love!

...even backwards...in heels

Affirmation
Think, feel, believe and pray....that is what I am doing today.
Think, feel, believe and pray....deciding that this is a fabulous day.
I think, feel, believe and know my life shines bright through the thoughts I sow. 
Within, I declare and reveal my best, optimized from this day forward, from now to the rest.
Dancing into a life so full, I surround myself with love, kindness, wisdom, creativity and vitality....nurturing my body, mind and soul with goodness, laughter, and gratitude.
Hallelujah!

Who's Healing Who?

Do you believe your thoughts and feelings influence your experiences?

How many of you have a clear vision of yourself?

We go to the doctor....prescribed pills, etc. for healing. We go to a therapist or life coach - talk out our feelings and then given tools and practices to put into our daily lives for healing. We go to a financial adviser, get ideas or suggestions for investments and habits to heal our money life. We take classes to gain insight and knowledge...healing. But who is healing who?

All pills, procedures, advice, tools and education are hindered without consistent and intentional mental work. Studies have shown that you are using your 60k to 70k thoughts everyday to create your reality. And 90% of them lead you to the same choices and behaviors .... which lead you to the same experiences. They are reflections of your thoughts and feelings, which lead you to more of same and the circle continues. In a way, this sequence of thought events becomes your personality and your personality creates your personal reality. It creates the energy of you that the Universe uses as information to manifest the experiences of you.

Everything is energy; that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want & you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.   ~Albert Einstein

There's a neuroscience principle that tells us that nerve cells that fire together, wire together. So, thinking the same thoughts, with the same feelings about those thoughts, produces same neurons sparking in brain and flooding your belief system with those same thoughts and feelings. They create a hard-wiring into a signature, an energy, a code that the Universe reads and converts into the experiences you are having. As you fire and wire those circuits the same way every day, they create a consciousness that pervades your thoughts, attitudes, emotions and perspectives. And once they get into your subconscious, they become habits of thinking...habits of belief; they become memorized and unconscious, working like a computer program day in and day out.

It is a chemical reaction in your brain that conditions the body to react in certain ways to continue this circle. The body doesn't know the difference between an actual experience and the chemicals created from the feelings you have about that or similar experiences, so then this idea/belief shows up in your relationships, at work, in your pocketbook and in your body temple. Your feelings about something becomes a mood, which becomes a temperament and these temperaments becomes a personality trait. The synapses are firing and the circuits are opening, so that this personality trait becomes a belief, and a belief flavors, colors and your experiences.

When you think of your first kiss, what feelings rush in?

When you think of a vacation or when you got your diploma, 

do you get flushed with feeling?

When you get the mortgage bill, do you get a rush with a feeling?

Positive, negative, good, bad or indifferent (no indifferent feelings), these feelings drive specific thoughts and these specific thoughts, consistently fire the synapses in your brain, become beliefs and those beliefs inform the Universe what to manifest into your life experiences.

The goods news is neuroplasticity. That is the brain's ability to form and reorganize synaptic connections. There was a time when it was thought the brain became somewhat static, but later scientists realized the brain electro-chemical reactions could be modified, enhanced, evolved, and reorganized. Reorganizing synaptic connections is accomplished by getting in there, rebooting and re-treating those attitudes, perspectives, thoughts, ideas, feelings and beliefs through learning and spiritual practice. Every time you learn, hear these principles, treat, etc., you double the connections in your brain. Yes, double. A gentlemen won a Nobel Prize for a discovery similar to that statement. By flushing out old destructive ideas, habits, energy and frequencies with the constructive ones, you clean, clear and heal the destructive ones. It's like when you have a dirty glass of water. If you continually fill it with clean water, eventually you will have a clean glass of water, overwhelming and cleaning the dirty water in the glass.

Now, you instinctively know this stuff. That is why you are here, why you do the affirmations I or others write...to learn, step up, re-treat your mind, bust through, soar and zoom. But without the clear vision, even if not realized yet, of your life, you will stay hard-wired in the consciousness of where you are now thinking/feeling/experiencing that you don't like or does not serve you anymore.

Can you believe in a future that is not fully able to be experienced

 by your senses?

Can you have a vision of your life even when no evidence is in 

the factual world?

I have a vision of 1000 people every week, communing, gathering, fellow-shipping, loving their New Thought Spiritual Center family, community and organization. This vision must be more powerful and more consistent than what I see on Sunday's right now. And not just in my mind, but in my body; it must be a holistic, whole body experience.

Epigentics tells us that the chemical tags on DNA, called telemeres, have the ability to turn genes on or off. These chemical tags can be influenced by environment, metabolism, lifestyle choices, diet, and stress; all chemical reactions in the body. So too, research is thinking, from the chemical effects from your thoughts and feelings through the mind-body connection.

Opening your heart with spiritual practice, getting back to the factory settings (see Factory Settings blog), slows down, stops and even reverses the damage, the trauma, the PTSD of any situation being held in your emotions/feelings. Dr. Joe Dispenza and Mind Heart Institute studies concluded that when we exchange hopes, wishes, resentment, frustration and fear for gratitude, appreciation and thankfulness, we stop emitting the survival emotional stress hormone that exacerbates the condition, cortisol, and the telomeres in your DNA lengthen, the immunoglobulin increases, genes in your immune system switch on, neurogenesis kicks in, anti-aging and anti-inflammation genes switch on, and this can all begin to happen, some studies say, within four days. Four days and you begin to have healings!

Is it a panacea for all healing? It can be. It is however not an excuse for avoiding medication, education, nutrition, physical therapy, physical fitness, eating nourishing foods, etc. It is an enhancement, assurance, and supplement to whatever is being used or done. When you think new thoughts about the “what if's” of your relationships, career, health, finances, etc.; you turn on the frontal lobe of your brain, firing new connections, selecting different networks of neurons; putting them together, which then fires new sequences, patterns and combinations and synapses.

The healing begins and ends with you. You may have assistance from a professional or expert, a pill, therapy, procedure, practitioner or prayer partner, but it begins and ends with you. When you release the idea that you are a victim and believe you are the victor...you have a healing. You are the creator, the cause of the effect and when you live that, you have a healing. The more you communicate your vision to your mind... you have a healing.

So....who's healing who? You are healing you! Bust through the thoughts and feelings that you 'aren't this' or 'have to do that' to be well, then watch your life soar and zoom with ease, grace, abundance, prosperity, creativity, and love.

Affirmation
My body is the temple of the Spirit in me. I fill it with nourishing food, nourishing thoughts, and feelings that uplift the heart.

Within me is not just parts. Within me is the great power of the I Am. I Am vibrant in energy and exquisite of sense, I Am clear in breath and nimble of foot....I Am boldly Lit with the power and radiance of the Sun. I sing the body electric...of wonderful vigor and beauty of person, tempered in mood, but fierce in my passion and bliss.

I Am a poem, revealing the Divine in me.