Consciousness — What are you thinking about anyway?
“Every thought you have makes up some segment of the world you see. It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work, if your perception of the world is to be changed. Nothing but your own thoughts can hamper your progress.”
Many of us seem to know that our thoughts are one of the strongest determinants of the reality we experience, yet somehow we often appear to simply know this rather than practicing it. We must take the time to examine our thoughts and search for unconscious beliefs so that we’ll know if they’re serving or sabotaging us. Let me offer an example from my own life. (more…)
Consciousness — One of Our First Steps Toward a Better Future
I’m reading the book Spiritual Capital by Danah Zohar & Ian Marshall and was very taken with the following passage in the preface:
“The trouble is that most of us don’t think. We just avoid choice and let things unfold, content to go through our lives as sleepwalkers, or as bits of flotsam in the stream of events. In the cours of this we allow a lot of harm to be done and leave a lot of good undone. We avert our glance when we see someone in trouble, we let others take the blame for things we have done, we don’t confront painful truths about ourselves, our motives, and our actions, or we exclude whole groups of people from the arena of our moral concern. Yet this avoidance of choice is a deeper denial of our humanity than actively to choose the bad. our humanity is defined by our ability to choose between right and wrong. Not to choose at all is to deny this essence.”
I heartily agree that we are often wandering through life, unconsciously bouncing off choices like a pinball bouncing from bumper to bumper. (more…)
Change Your Language, Change Your Life (part 3)
Here’s my final installment of tips for making your words work for you.
- Limit your use of “always” and “never”
- Use “I” before “you”
- Watch out for “yes, but…”
- Say it like you mean it
To read through tips #1-6 (which includes Stop “trying.” Replace “can” with “will.” Silence the critic. Drop should.) visit these posts — part 1 and part 2.
Limit your use of “always” and “never.”
Though these two words seem harmless, they can distort your view of reality. Sometimes, for instance, after a rough day at work, you might think, “My boss never shows appreciation for my work,” or, “She always expects me to deal with customer complaints.” While these statements might be true some or even most of the time, chances are there has been at least one exception to them. Holding onto this “always” and “never” attitude prevents you from seeing the truth as it really is. Statements that include “all the time” and “none of the time” have a similar reality-altering effect because they imply the same absolutes as “always” and “never.” Other words that can distort reality are “no one” and “everyone” and “nobody” and “everybody.” Your mind might spring these on you when you’re feeling discouraged or sad—“Nobody loves me” or “Everyone thinks I’m stupid.” Again, if there has ever been an exception to these statements, they are simply not true, and believing them doesn’t serve you.
Change Your Language, Change Your Life (part 2)
On June 27, I published the first part of my list of tips for using your language to increase your confidence and radically improve your life. Suggestions #4-6 are:
- Replace “can” with “will”
- Omit negative self-talk
- Silence the critic
Read on for specific details about each tip. (more…)
Experience More Personal Freedom — Happy Independence Day!
In honor of the U.S. Independence Day Holiday (July 4), I’m posting Chapter Four from my book (Live the Life You’ve Imagined). The chapter is titled Experience More Personal Freedom. May these ideas inspire you to claim your freedom and live in the independent, liberated way you were meant to.
For many people, freedom is something they yearn for, expect, and champion as a basic human right. Yet frequently, people abdicate their own power and wait for outside forces or other people to free them. You recognize the stories. A woman waits for the “right” man to come along and make her life perfect. An overweight man keeps searching for the diet that will vaporize those extra pounds. A person blames her boss, her “ex,” or her parents for the life she’s created.
What we forget is that freedom is our choice, our individual decision. Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor, psychotherapist, and author of Man’s Search for Meaning, and Nelson Mandela, South African civil rights leader, former president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, both demonstrated this fact when they chose to be spiritually and mentally liberated despite being physically imprisoned (Frankl in Nazi concentration camps and Mandela in apartheid-era South African prisons). The ideas in this chapter are ways you can bring more personal freedom into your life. If you’re ready to take responsibility for who you are, how you act, and what you have, read on and start experiencing more freedom than you’ve felt in years.
