Posted by linda on January 10, 2017February 15, 2017

A Timely Opportunity

We can radiate happiness around ourselves. Imagine when more and more of us do. it’s a good place to start.and we cam keep the following in mind – and in our hearts, of course! Did you know we have more neurotransmitters in our gut and hearts than we have in our brains? Ever have a gut feeling?

There’s where the powerhouse is and the brain is the pilot.

There is a way to gain access to the 90% of the brain, the mind/ body connection, that is unconscious. that is not part of our conscious awareness.

This 90% is where so many of our drives, likes and dislikes and habit patterns are located. This is where programming from other people, our childhood upbringing, cultural background, the criticisms and stories we have internalized are located. This is where our feelings of self-worth are located.

This is Where our Automatic Pilot is Located!

When the automatic pilot is in control, obsession, distraction, preoccupation, inability to focus, to pay attention or to take in information uses of vast amounts of our time, energy and focus.

Some people call this the monkey mind, endlessly chattering away. This creates, not a proactive stance in life, but a reactive stance that focuses on endlessly rehashing problems while it searches out justifications that explain our limitations in terms of this and that and so on and on and on. Whew. Talk about an energy drain!

Since Energy Follows Focus,

This Creates a Perpetual Cycle of More of the Same.

This squeezes out energy, time and the focus needed for creativity, productivity and the simple appreciation of life itself in all of its profusion and variety. This squeezes out even the energy required to create new stories, beliefs and habit patterns to replace the old, destructive programming that is interfering with our ability to create ease, grace and joy in our lives, our ability to create new skills, explore life, take good care of ourselves and create the energy to have fun.

When Our Brains are on Automatic Pilot They are Performing their Function of Being on the Lookout for Danger So they Can Keep Us Safe.

According to John Assaraf, the author of Unlock Your Brain’s Full Potential (and the Neuroscience behind It), our brains are hardwired to protect us from danger. When we are afraid, the part of the brain called the amygdala, fires right into the right prefrontal cortex and turns on the fight, flight or freeze mechanism, creating impulsive reaction without any thought. Handy, if you are being attacked by a lion, but not so good when it is going on all the time. It then rationalizes, tends to procrastinate, and anxiety and stress are created.

The neocortex, on the other hand, is the most newly-evolved part of the brain and is where solutions reside, where imagination (I’m-a-genie. I’m-a-genius) resides. The neocortex is the GPS, motivational, genius part of the brain.

So we don’t need to blame ourselves when reactive impulses automatically flash into our minds. This is just the brain doing its job. Mindfulness means noticing when that happens and then make a conscious decision to reframe that impulse and find a more appropriate response.

This replaces stress with harmony, ease and peacefulness so we can then take appropriate action.

The Motivational and Spiritual Circuits Dim Down

When the Fear Circuits Light Up

We can set that process aside, by becoming conscious of when we go into fear or anger or judgment or blame. We can reframe that reaction, decide if it is really getting us anywhere. Then we can step out of the comfort zone of familiarity and the rationalizations we have eventually come to all-too-habitually tell ourselves. We are then free to move out of self-sabotage and procrastination.

It is said that holding onto blame and resentment, in other words – holding onto unforgiveness, is like taking poison and expecting it to hurt the other person. We don’t need to condone hurtful actions or forget they happened. We can still work to make the world a better place. When we don’t dwell on resentment, hurt and anger we have so much more energy left over!

Neuroscience has now found that repetitive thoughts actually reinforce connections between brain cells and creates “ruts“, so to speak, in our thinking. Focusing on being creative actually creates new connections and the old grooves gradually diminish over time through disuse. Pretty cool!

Brain spec scans now actually show these circuits lighting up and dimming down in different areas of the brain!

And by the way, parsley and celery contain apigenin, which has been found to make your brain make more neural stem cells to make more neurons. Neurons transmit information and allow your body to function, enable you to think, etc. More neurons equals better memory. Technically, it’s the loss of synapses between the neurons that causes memory loss. But if you don’t have neurons you can’t have synapses.

One hundred grams (over 1/2 cup) of raw parsley has 302,000 mg, 100 grams of celery contains 4.61 mg and iceberg lettuce has a paltry .38 mg of apigenin.

Rabbit food indeed! Traditionally, they put that parsley on your plate not just to look pretty even if they didn’t know the technical reason why.

Next time, you can ask your friend, “Are you going to eat that parsley? Well, send it on over here then.” I like putting a huge handful of parsley, minced fine or blended, in my pesto sauce.

This protection-from-danger function of the brain is why it is so easy to always be looking for people and things to blame or criticize. Automatic pilot is very judgmental and prone to dismiss and denigrate. This is the source of hate, bigotry, self-justified anger and my-whatever-is-better-than-your-whatever, holier-than-thou attitudes.

Nationalism, war, bigotry, my-team-is better-than-your-team, only-a-fool-would-drink-Coke-when- they-could-drink-Pepsi, all stem from the same source.

We are indoctrinated with team and product programming from birth. This my-team-is-better-then-your-team indoctrination sets the pattern for manipulation into other forms of team identification on religious and national scales creating every abomination of exploitation, subterfuge and mass distraction, domination and war.

There are Many Techniques for Replacing These Destructive Stories, Programming and Habitual Behaviors.

Here is a Two-step Way

First Step…

One way involves focusing on a particular unwanted habit or behavior and really feeling it deeply, describing it in detail, bringing in all the five senses. This is done while all the time touching your arm in one spot to anchor that pattern there.

The subconscious feels things deeply, so to communicate with it, we need to speak its language. When we describe things in as much sensory detail as possible we want to feel those details as deeply as possible as well.

The same holds true when we imagine a desirable future situation. We need to feel deeply how we will feel when we have attained the result.

Then the subconscious will know what those feelings are so it can work to create those instead. Always remember that your subconscious is on automatic pilot and you can reprogram it when you speak its language of deep feelings.

Second Step…

The next step then is to imagine, visualize, and describe the new desired way of being that will replace the old one. This should also be described in as much sensory detail and enthusiasm as possible. Celebrate the applause you are receiving, for example. Feel the joy! Hear the happy sounds! Go ahead and wallow in it! Make your subconscious sit up and pay attention!

This should all be done while touching another place on the arm to anchor this in the mind/ body. That way, whenever reinforcement is required, that anchor spot can be touched.

This is a technique from Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP):

This is similar to meridian tapping. It differs in that it provides a handy anchor point that you can carry around with you all day.

This one-stop-solution is very effective since it is always available in the moment whenever you want it until the new behavior becomes so habitual you don’t need it anymore.

This is much quicker than Meridian tapping, which can be very time-consuming and seem like a chore. It works for some people but other people find they tend to gradually feel like they have less and less time for as they go about their busy days. This is whether they are busy being proactive and getting things done and enjoying life or being reactive, preoccupied, distracted, drained and just plain too tired or hopeless to bother.

Putting Oneself in Someone Else’s Shoes Is the Source of Compassion.

People’s perspective tends to be that of the people around them.

When we bring in information that creates grass-roots connection, this brings people out of their insular, isolated perspectives and their resultant judgmental blame-filled us-against-them attitudes and the actions that stem from that ranting and raving. Then new possibilities open up, on personal levels as well as national levels.

If someone turns out to be a jerk for whatever unfortunate reason one can ask oneself this:

Are you going to waste your time and energy going over to their house and arguing with them all day or even in your head, alone with yourself all day? There are billions of people in the world. This could use up a lot of time!

The question then becomes: is it better to continue to isolate oneself from other perspectives, knowledge and understanding and continue on and on, on the hamster wheel?

Or would it be better to open one’s focus, turn one’s focus to connection, to searching out the offerings of functional, proactive people who, themselves, are actively exploring the world on all of its levels? Where do you suppose it would be more fun to hang out?

Where To Go to Let Go

There is a real need for places where people can go to get their stuff together, where counseling is broken down into easily followed steps that will reach a wide proportion of the population. This is valuable and useful, for a while, so people don’t need to feel so alone and can see other people’s success stories and realize they, too, can have success.

This is only one step along the way. These places are not where the highly functional proactive, creative people hang out unless they are there as facilitators.

So Then What?

At some point, once we have faced the demons of our wounded-ness and have been able to let go of our reactive and automatic pilot acting-out behaviors, our addictive behaviors, we can move on. Whether they are on the emotional psychological level, such as depression or obsession or compulsive fits of anger, or whether they are on the physical and emotional level, such as alcoholism or eating disorders, then we are indeed free to move on.

It’s best to not allow our attention, time and energy to be hijacked into the endless rehashing of events, whether our own or someone else’s.

The world is finally served when we can move on as functional, proactive people who have the attention and ability to direct their focus.

Saying such things as. “You just have to be connected to Source (or be born again, etc.) and endlessly repeating a phrase over and over robs it of its power and is a dead-end because it does not expand. Saying things repetitively is the same old circular hamster wheel in action.

The Difference between To and From

Directing your focus to being connected to Source is not the same thing as acting from Source, Source flowing through you and on outward from you.

They say that those who create, do and those who don’t, teach.

Some people do both because, ultimately, people who can’t or don’t do are not quite qualified to teach.

Again, people take on the energies of the people with whom they surround themselves. As people work through their stuff, it is appropriate to be around people who are also working on their stuff.

Now I’m not saying that we should abandon people who have problems. For example, you will be able to be of a lot more help to someone who is depressed if you are not.. If you are depressed yourself you find it hard to function. In airline emergencies, they recommend that you put the oxygen mask on yourself first so that you stay conscious long enough to then put it on your child.

Graduation

The goal is to graduate from that school and move on to then act, be, do in the larger world, out exploring issues in a sober, sane, rational and good-hearted manner, creating harmony.

Exploring and discovering more and more of the amazing ideas, approaches, more beneficial-to-all-Life tools and discovering how to implement them can then become gloriously fascinating and energizing in one’s life. You will probably never be bored again!

This is what the world needs, more considerate people, living in the wide, wide “Sea of Awareness”. The world needs people to move the world forward into a sustainable, Beneficial-To-All-Life future, a future that is as balanced and as peaceful as possible and create it as fast as possible.

We can use our technologies such as the Internet to create the free flow of ideas, unrepressed by corporate exploitation and exploitative media. Why do you suppose TV is all about fear-mongering? People are easily manipulated when they are in a state of fear. Our brains are hijacked by fear but we don’t have to get sucked in. It’s interesting to consider how the health and energy drain from consuming the prepackaged food promoted there creates prepackaged thinking, feeling and lethargy.

Being in harmony with the ancient, timeless healing of nature allows the body to heal itself and there is an interrelationship between the mind and body. Regaining harmony is the key.

The Next Age of Enlightenment

This new level of the free flow of ideas has never happened in the history of the world. What an opportunity! This is even more powerful than the invention of the printing press, which put an end to the Middle Ages, an era of superstition, of repression and exploitation, such as in serfdom (the rich got richer and the poor got poorer). The printing press opened the doors to the Enlightenment era.

This is not to say the exploitation hasn’t just moved on to different forms these days.

Remember the parsley and celery. Our brains run on neurotransmitters. Plants contain neurotransmitters. We are part of nature. Plants are us. We literally are all one with nature.

Cooperation is Stewardship and harmony which creates balance.

Dominion over nature is exploitation and destroys balance, creating destruction and disharmony. We would not be here if we were not sustained by this Web of Life so why are we being so disrespectful of and to it?

Now, due to an even more enhanced free flow of information, we have an opportunity to move forward into a new and even more beneficial, more inclusive Enlightenment Era.

We have an opportunity to observe our thinking processes, examine our beliefs, then change them in the light of new information, new data and discoveries, and change them to create not only a better life for ourselves but for all the world. Then what flows to us and through us will be able to flow from us in all of its creativity, radiating blessing all around.

We can make our minds fresh every moment and feel the fullness of our own individual power.

Linda's House of Healthy Choices