In an earlier blog post, Anatomy of a Thought – Part 1, I defined the 5 types of thoughts every person experiences. To recap, those 5 types are:
Automotron – the mindless and mundane thoughts of base survival, bodily care, daily function, and repeated routines.
Daily Diatribe – The feedback loops that we allow to run on in our minds unchallenged. They may include many self-depreciating and defeatist intonations that become unconscious, but nevertheless causative in our actions/behaviors.
I have a life – Thoughts that we formulate to label, evaluate, and categorize our experiences. These are the thoughts that help to validate our sense of identity because they create a connection to the things we experience, based on our unique belief systems.
Head Thoughts – Thoughts that we formulate based on our experiences, beliefs, conditioning, etc. These are the thoughts that emerge based on analysis, conclusions, or judgments and so on. They are 100% made up in our head based on the information we think we have available to us.
Soulful Thoughts – These thoughts arise from a higher source of thinking, a largeness of consciousness. The may have seeds of relativity to your perceived identity but may also appear from unknown source. These thoughts usually happen when we are quiet, open-minded, unattached to any specific experience, or even when we are dreaming.
The reason we might want to think about our thoughts in an anatomical way, is by doing so, we de-mystify the thought process and begin to see how these structures can be changed and improved. Dissecting thought patterns gives us an opportunity to go to the deepest layer to facilitate changes. If you have ever tried to make major changes in your life in the past and have not understood why the changes have not been successful, it is likely because you were trying to change an outer behavior or belief, when in truth the thought behind it is still unconsciously persistent. You might equate this potential for change to the types of change we would need to make for any type of physical problem, like if you had a broken arm. Wrapping the arm up and taking some aspirin will not get the arm fixed in the long run, even though you may get some temporary relief. You must mend the bone by re-setting it or adjusting the alignment and THEN wrap the arm and take some aspirin. The surface issue is never usually the root cause of the issue.
Thought contemplation and awareness are a healing tonic for being stuck, repeated suffering, feeling lost, alone, diminished, or unworthy. When we take deeper looks at how pervasive our thought processes are, we learn that most of the thoughts that we think are not only made up in our own mind, but that many of them are not even originally ours. This realization opens up many opportunities for us to begin to eliminate or re-direct our thoughts to better serve us.
For example, many of the thoughts we think in the “I have a life” or “head thoughts” come from our life conditioning, like from our family, social memes, religious ideology, education and so on. We don’t question them because they started as small seedlings in a mind ripe for growth (primarily youth) and then grew as we chose to reinforce them to make them a part of our identity. Questioning our current beliefs to our deeper values may reveal that we thinking one thing but really feel another. You will find these types of internal conflicts in all areas of your life, but they are especially prevalent in our religious, political, and social views because we have a hard time shaking loose from our learned root systems.
You may have noticed after looking at these categories of thoughts that the thoughts that appear mostly unconscious can actually be the most destructive. Yes, those “daily diatribe” thoughts have created some deep groves in the neuro networks of our mind. While it’s true that many of these thoughts are benign and non-sensible, many of them are highly inflammatory, like a persistent muscle pull. These sneaky unconsciously 
driven thoughts can give birth to highly painful or destructive “I have a life” or “head thoughts”. And these thoughts are by far the most persistent because we have been thinking them for decades, or more. For instance, think about the way we view ourselves in the mirror in the morning. Most of us have these underlying subtle thoughts that persist every morning, like “Yep, still (fat/ugly/old)”, “Geez, I look bad/tired today”, “This is definitely going to be a bad hair day”. These criticisms go on and on, day after day, sometimes very quietly but still leaving us feeling defeated, unworthy, lacking. This pattern has been going on for a very long time, so be patient with yourself while you institute some new patterns to replace them. And replace them you must! Because they are not true! They are totally made up based on some standard you have also unconsciously made up on what makes you complete or lovable, and so on.
I think the most beneficial realization of breaking your thoughts down anatomically is the de-mystification it provides. Any problem broken down into the lowest common element appears much more manageable. When you see a thought is simply nothing more than a thought, not a metaphorical knife, or an earthquake, or a tragedy – then you see that your choice is what is causing the suffering. You may have a hard time letting go of that thought, but to see it clearly as just a thought begins to give us hope and clarity that changes are possible. So having said that, here is a mini 5 day plan to identify your own thought anatomy and then, if so desired, begin to implement some processes to make some life altering changes. Please keep in mind one important factor for change. You must have a strong intention for change or no process will ever be effective. The other thing is that your desired changes cannot ever be hurtful or diminishing to others, nor can they be purely for your own self-glorification (which usually equates in some subtle way to being diminishing to others). One final note on creating effective change with your thought processes – Behind/Within us all, there is a higher consciousness, a deep wisdom. For change to be effective and beneficial, we must include cultivating this part of ourselves to allow it come forward in almost everything we do and say. Connecting with this aspect of our being, the changes we implement in our lives not only touch our lives in magnificent ways, but they touch others in positive ways as well.
Mini 5 Day Plan for Thought Anatomization
- For 3 days, record every single thought you can in a written or digital journal. I KNOW this is hard, but do the very best that you can by recording your thoughts at the soonest possible time as you had them. Build mini-breaks into your routine through these days to go to the break room or your car to jot down as much as you can. If you see a lot of repetitive thoughts, you can refer to the prior thought by putting a label on it, like “A”. Look for ways to short hand words for your convenience. THIS IS A CRITICAL STEP IN THIS PLAN.
- After the 3 day period, take you journal and label your thoughts with one of the five types identified.
- Starting on Day 4, begin establishing new patterns of thought about your “daily diatribe” thoughts that are not serving you. If a thought is not loving, compassionate, invigorating, or nourishing – work on replacing right away. Break the physical pattern you perform when thinking these thoughts. For instance, going back to our look in the mirror every morning, a dramatic change would be to cover your mirrors, and a milder change might be to write in marker or use sticky notes to write a note to yourself like, “You are beautiful, inside and out”, or “You are Awesome!” Another common one in this daily diatribe area is road rage. Conquer this condition by adjusting your music, or being silent during your drive and try utilizing sticky notes or symbols hung on your rear view mirror that represent peace, lovingkindness to all, and serenity. The point is to break the pattern somehow – use your physical routines by changing them and the words you say while you go about them.
- Continue your journal with your ideas for change and your thoughts about how this change could benefit you.
- On Day 5 begin a new journey into more conscious thought (“I have a life” and “head thoughts”, by developing an acute sense of awareness to your thoughts. Use your feelings and emotions as your gauge to how your thoughts are making you feel. Non-serving thoughts make us feel bad, anxious, or uncertain. Label them when you notice them and implement plans to change them (affirmations, meditation, prayer, replacement). There are many methods, but by all means, do something.
- Finally, begin to cultivate your “soulful thoughts”. You can begin this on Day Again, there are many methods to do this, meditation is a fantastic tool for this, but exercise, developing awareness, nature, reading inspiring book/poems, and artistic expression are also great tools.
This is a mini plan, so expanding on this plan through your own research or by identifying things that are working in your journal is an excellent idea. Remember a couple of key points as you go through your plan and prepare for some amazing changes in your life:
It has taken you years to get your mind in this grooved up, almost brain-washed pattern of thinking, so please be patient, loving, and forgiving to yourself always. This is not to say that change cannot be immediate, but you should view any doubt and defeatist attitudes you may experience as a part of the “old” pattern of thought and march on. If a thought is not loving, compassionate, appreciative, expansive, unbiased and non-judgmental, accepting, joyful, and peaceful – it’s needs replacing. Negative or diminishing thoughts towards you or anyone will NEVER serve you, no matter how necessary or justified it may seem at the time.
Thoughts are just thoughts. They are not you or your loved ones, or your country, world, or your God. They can be tools or weapons, but they are not really much more than electrical impulses that if allowed, can control our life. Don’t give away any more of your power, divine or otherwise, to something you have total control over.
When you are told something enough times, you start to believe it
“You were born a sinner”, “Life is about making something of yourself”, “Life’s a bitch, and then you die”, “Once a screw up always a screw up”. What hogwash! These diminishing life idioms made up by people that have lost their way in the maze of social, cultural, and religious conditioning are downright laughable to the immutable human spirit. But the damage has been done, in that by promoting self-defeating and belittling memes in society and culture, perceptions about life and our infinite being are questioned, creating fear and doubt.
“We know life is futile. A man who considers that his life is of very wonderful importance is awfully close to a padded cell.”
– Clarence Darrow
The notion that your life is not meaningful and that you are not important in the overall scheme of things is a throwback from the serfdom and slavery cultures that go back thousands of years. It is difficult to convince people to conform to a feudal, class, or hierarchical system without pointing out their unworthiness to others. Our entire history is mired in one civilization after another succeeding in cultivating an attitude of shame and unworthiness on the masses in order to control and persuade.
Even analysis of biblical events can show us the pattern of this cyclical conditioning unfolding. It begins with one group of people oppressing another and then someone or some group manages to break the cycle, only to have that same group end up being later the oppressors. Jesus’ popularity came during one of those times in history and because his teachings were taught to the common man, as opposed to the privileged hierarchy of the church, he was followed and adored by the masses. Jesus was offering a new perspective on man, and his views were promoting ideals of hope, strength, and power for all, which is not a mentality that serves an oppressed society.
Jesus died because he was a fearless spiritual rebel that threatened a meticulously created oppressed society with his message, not because he had someone else’s sins to pay for. That message, (that we are all sinners that Jesus needed to sacrifice himself for), is just another continuation of the oppression where the church takes one line from scriptures of hope and personal salvation to grossly misinterpret to lead the masses back to collective guilt and shame. Because if you don’t bow down to Jesus sacrifice (the church), there will be hell to pay. Literally. What a sad and “obvious” turn of events from the otherwise sacred offerings given by this divinely enlightened teacher.
Fixed and didn’t even know I was broken
What if you woke up one day, and maybe because you have amnesia or for some other reason (ummm, like awakening or enlightenment), and you just were. You had no pre-conceived notions of how you should be and no historical reference to your past or the past in general. You just woke up and looked around and said something to yourself like, “Wow! This all looks pretty interesting. I feel great! I wonder what is in store for me today!” What if you had no notion of how you are supposed to look, or act? When you went to look at yourself in the mirror, you would simply say “Well – Hello there”, instead of the scathing self-critique of how inadequate you are. What if you didn’t know things like fear, doubt, lack, neediness, and judgment? What if we simply appreciated everything that came to us?
Without our years of conditioned learning, who would we be? Us, of course! It is not what we learn or absorb or listen to that makes us who we are, it’s the fact that we ARE is what makes us who we are. We are all the same, and yet thank goodness, we are all uniquely special. NO ONE is better than another. The idea of better, smarter, cuter, holier, gifted, etc., etc., are all just subjective perspectives and they are ALL made up. We do not start out by being broken and then spend our lives looking for ways to fix ourselves. This only serves the social norms that insist that being broken is the fairest way to look at each other. We are all broken, so let’s all work on fixing each other with our ideals and ideologies that make us either feel better by pointing out the deficiencies in others, or maybe we could hope that someday, perhaps in an afterlife, we will finally be better. Again, hogwash.
Looking to level the playing field by taking something from another someone or some group will never level the playing field. There is simply one way to do this and that is through love. Love of self and subsequently unconditional love of others. Love is the only fair, unbiased, and unassuming quality. To get to love you may have to experience deep forgiveness, non-judgment, acceptance, and extreme appreciation/gratitude, but Love is simply the answer to every human problem that there is.
Look around. Experience the wonder and magnificence of what you are seeing right now! The mind, body & soul are to be marveled at! There is nothing we cannot do if we set our intentions towards it. What magic awaits in each moment that is cherished and in each moment that is viewed from a perspective of love, freedom, acceptance, and peace? Let the sheeple figure out their own way and send them blessings and Godspeed. Their path is not your concern, is it? Stop feeding the beast by buying in to the idea that you are broken. You are whole now, always have been and always will be. The only inadequacy you have, are those you impose on yourself.
Today, I am asking you to give yourself permission to NOT believe everything you have been taught or everything that has been driven into your mind through media, education, culture, society, religion and so on. Be that person that “woke up” and saw through the layers on droning propaganda that enforce the ideas of limitation, lack, inferiority, prejudice, and disparity. Today, I am encouraging you to consider everything you think you know and question the origin of that belief. Does it make you feel good? Does it put you above others? Does it feel right? Does it serve you or others?
The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance — it is the illusion of knowledge. - Daniel Boorstin
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
- John F. Kennedy
Our life is comprised of the thoughts that we think. What we think is ultimately how we create action in our life, whether it is simply the action of brushing our teeth, or a more dramatic action of quitting our job. Without the thought behind them, all actions, beliefs, and behaviors that we call “ours”, could not occur.
It may surprise you to know that the average human being has between 60-70 thousand thoughts per day. Most of these thoughts are what I would call “automotron” thoughts because they are the many thoughts that propel us into the automatic functions of our day, like our morning routines, eating, bathroom, preparing for sleep. These thoughts are VERY ingrained in our brain and you will find that deviations from these thoughts, like when you are traveling or when you’re out of coffee in the morning can be quite disruptive.
It may also surprise you to learn that many of these 60-70 thoughts are extremely repetitive and 80% of them are negative. “I’m always running late”, “I can’t stand another meeting”, “I’d pay a million dollars to not have to make that drive to work again”, and so on. I call these thoughts our daily diatribe because they are almost as automated as automotron thoughts, but they have a much more significant impact on our beliefs and behaviors. The daily diatribe is mundane pre-recorded rehearsal of our day to day life. The effort to think these thoughts is minimal, but the effects of these thoughts can be extremely draining, diminishing, and often quite discouraging, especially over a long period of time.
Then we have the thoughts that arise from the experiences we are having. Besides the automotron thoughts that come from our experience, like thoughts about being cold, or uncomfortable, we also have thoughts that evaluate and analyze the current experience. These are the “I have a life” thoughts. For example, you are in a meeting or in line at the grocery store. While in the experience, you have probably judged and labeled the people around you, the environment itself, like the room or the physical items around you, and then you have related those judgments to how they affect you. You begin to label the experience as good or bad and then you begin to develop some type of reaction to the experience. You express your analysis with a behavior of some type, irritation, frustration, anger, or in the case of a positive experience, laughter, or physical contact, or smiling. Remarkably this all happens in less than a second, which is a testament to how amazing our brain works. While our automotron and daily diatribe thoughts are the most consistent in our day to day routines, they are also the least noticeable in our life because they are so automated into our brain. The “I have a life” thoughts are by far the more noticeable in our day because these are the thoughts that verify that we are living in the world by experiencing the world and participating in it. However, this process still goes on rather unconsciously.
The results of doing this analysis and labeling all our experiences then later results in the fourth type of thought that we experience and this is what I call “head thoughts.” These are the thoughts that come from our head BECAUSE of our past experiences. These thoughts might include our assessment of our identity or roles in life, our feelings about the world, our belief systems, our personality traits, and our reasons for why we do the things we do. These thoughts, although seeming to be based on fact, (because we have based them on our own personal experiences, conditioning, education, social memes), are the ones that are mostly pure fiction. And the reason they are fiction is because these thoughts are not based on true present moment experience but a derivative of experience, or in other words they are the thoughts we develop as a result of experience, and they are always based on the past or some unknown future. These are thoughts that create a paradigm or holographic image of who we are, who others are, and how we all play together in this big universe. These are generally the thoughts that we most dwell on and these are the thoughts that cause the greatest emotional responses from us.
Finally, there are thoughts that we know not where they came from. They have no relationship to any direct experience we may have had, and they can sometimes appear very randomly. Words to describe these types of thoughts are epiphany, revelation, vision, sign, manifestation, satori, awakening, enlightenment, discovery, or “ah-ha”. The reason these thoughts seem disassociated with the traditional brainiac thoughts we deal with on a day to day basis is because they are not of the brain but of the soul. We may use the brain to express and project the thought, but the origin of the thought comes from a much higher source.
So we have 5 basic types of thoughts that occur (there are many more at a much subtler or extreme levels too, but for the most part, these are the 5 most common). Automotron, daily diatribe, I have a life, head thoughts, and soulful thoughts.
“He who would be useful, strong, and happy must cease to be a passive receptacle for the negative, beggarly, and impure streams of thought; and as a wise householder commands his servants and invites his guests, so must he learn to command his desires and to say, with authority, what thoughts he shall admit into the mansion of his soul.”
- James Allen
Why is the anatomy of a thought important? Just like the study of the human anatomy helps us to see the inter-connectivity of the body to our movement, the anatomy of a thought gives us the understanding of thought so that we can see the inter-connectivity of thought and emotions/feelings and our behaviors/actions. And also like performing a deep study of the body, deep consideration of thought demystifies thought 
and allows us to open up new choices. Many think that the content of our mind is fixed and that we only have what is available to us to work with, but this is far from true. By using the process of dissecting the thought, we can study its origins and gain a higher sense of the self. Many new options become available to us on a thought that has been contemplated honestly. Frankly, if given a choice of what types of thoughts we would most like to be thinking, I think most of us would agree that the soulful thoughts are the ones that would provide us the fullest and most gratifying living experience.
In Part 2 of this article, let’s go deeper into the possibilities behind the anatomy of a thought. Can knowing the origin or category of our thoughts allow us to make significant changes in our lives? Can we put processes into place to help us eliminate thoughts that do not serve us? What sort of things can we expect to see as we go forward with our thought contemplation’s? If we want to focus more on the soulful thoughts, what can we do to do that? For now, take some time to consider the 5 main categories of thought and have some fun identifying some of your own thoughts in each of these categories.
“No! No different. Only different in your mind. You must unlearn what you have learned.” — Yoda
What we learned before
We spend our whole lives soaking up information and trying to learn everything we think will make us happier, wealthier, and more successful. Additionally, we learn how to avoid or eliminate things from our life that we think hurts us. The accumulation of the things that we learn, by attrition, conditioning, biased or unbiased education, assumption, or from experience becomes our manual for life, and using this manual, we move, act, re-act, think and behave.
People experience tremendous amount of stress and anxiety in their life because the results of their life is not living up to their expectations of what they have learned in the past. Here is a simple example – We learned throughout childhood that the early bird gets the worm, so we develop some very admirable qualities of being the first in class, or to the meeting and so on and we expect that this get noticed, because after all, it is an admirable quality. But we also learned from a couple of painful experiences that sharing ideas in a group may cause humiliation when you are not listened too or dismissed. You learned this quite well during 5th grade as your teacher consistently ignored questions and answers to questions if they were not correct. You parents taught this too, when at the dinner table, you were reprimanded repeatedly for interrupting while grown up’s were talking.
So, when you do not get recognized and promoted in your job after several years, even though you have fastidious and punctual habits, you learn some new lessons; that life is not fair and you have to cheat to get ahead because certainly that is what Mary, the most vocal in the group has done to get the promotion in your department.
This example can be re-framed in an infinite number of ways, but the point is that we learn conflicting or non-complementary information during the course of our lives and these conflicting thoughts create conflict in our lives. The technical word for this human behavior is called cognitive dissonance and it is extremely common for all of us to have conflicting beliefs about ourselves and those around us, thereby causing us a great deal of suffering.
The first step to unravel and create new options and possibilities in our lives is to unlearn the lessons that are not serving us. The first one being that we might be lacking in some way or that we need to be fixed in order to be happy and content. In our example above, I would contend that neither one of our example person’s beliefs are helpful to this person’s job performance or his/her self-esteem. I would add further (for this example), to consider if the notion that “value” of self means getting noticed at work or at school, and I would also add that the beliefs in this example are not even true.
If you honestly look at the many things you think about yourself, and consider your “self-speak”, additionally to the various ways you label or criticize others – you will find that most of these thoughts are not desirable, wanted, needed, or even truthful. They are simply conditioned. Repetitive loops of information that we have received or repeated about our lives or how others impact us.
Unlearning the past
To be empowered by more authentic and gratifying thoughts, these ingrained thoughts must be unlearned, debunked as unconscious mind propaganda. Think about how useless and damaging these thoughts can be to your personal self-image or to how you relate to others. If a thought, action, or behavior does not add to any situation or condition, what is its value? None! Don’t be afraid to let a thought go, you can always choose to get it back – but truly letting things go because they are not serving you today is freeing, exhilarating, and smart. Remember how we used to think the world was flat. Yeah, pretty hard to imagine we were that small minded, but this is an example of believing things because you think you’re supposed to and also a good example of how tough it is to let things go.
Today, consider some of the most persistent thoughts you entertain about yourself. How do you think about your skills, your level of intelligence, your body and personality, your value to others and to the world? Do you consider yourself lovable? Do you consider yourself valuable? If any of these thoughts are negative – debunk them. Unlearn them. These old negative thoughts are simply not true, so quit giving them your time and energy. Even if you consider they “might” have been true in the past, you are not that same person you were then and you must take on the new skill of understanding that at this moment, you are new and reinventing yourself every moment.
Unlearning sketchy and perfunctory thoughts that we allow to hang around unconsciously is like getting a new outfit or buying a new car. It’s revitalizing! The old is over, outdated, and useless. Study the patterns and begin to see clearly that these old belief are not serving you. Make some room in your mind and spirit for some new, more authentic beliefs about yourself, the relationships you hold dear, and the world in general. Below are a few tips to get started:
”Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.” – Meister Eckhart
- Take a thought every day that is diminishing to you or others and write it down. Now relish in the pleasure of crossing it out- boldly.
- Write down several thoughts and beliefs about yourself that do not make you feel good about yourself on small pieces of paper. Have a nice ceremony where you either burn your beliefs (paper) in a trash can or have some fun throwing them off a cliff, or in a trash compactor.
- Go way back, way, way back and remember a time that fostered one of the bad feelings you still hang on to about yourself. Now imagine this scene differently putting a comical or ridiculous frame around it. Put a dunce hat on the person saying something diminishing to you, or make that person have a really squeaky voice.
- Take any non-serving thought and pretend you are putting it on a plate and eat it.
Now it is time for YOU to choose what and how you want to learn about your authentic and true being and how you relate to others. Do not be driven by old made up thoughts about yourself or thoughts that really didn’t even come from you! Think instead about what truly inspires you and learn more about it. Why does it inspire you? What feelings does it invoke? What do you feel most passionate about? When do you feel most happy? Take these types of questions and experiences and discover the true essence of yourself. Don’t take the leftovers of yesteryears impressions to know who and what you are about today! Discover your essence and your authenticity today by unlearning all the old baggage of yesterday. You CANNOT lose anything! Everything you need is always with you, so unlearn the old messages so that you can be alert to new and inspiring ones.
What is limitless? Well, what about the Universe, that seems pretty limitless. How about our thoughts? They may appear limited, but I bet if you wanted to you could sit down with a piece of paper and start listing all your thoughts and you would eventually give up because it just can’t be done, because they are limitless. Also, what about possibilities? Like thoughts, they just cannot be contained. One possibility, leads to another, leads to another, and so on, infinitely. And what about music, harmony, love, compassion, imagination, energy, plus so much more. Oh, I almost forget one – you!
You are all of the things I already mentioned; they are a sub-set of you. So naturally, you are the recipient of unlimited potential.
Today, you may have had a thought or two that limited you, like about how you looked, or acted, or maybe you limited someone else in your thinking. But the thought is the limit, not you or your ability to redirect your thought to a limitless perspective. Thoughts are not even real until we decide we want to act on them. Until you act upon a thought, then your thoughts are just potential, an option to consider. Limitless actions are fun, freeing, effortless, and giving. Limited thoughts acted upon are anxiety ridden, restricting, compulsory, or dreaded. Use your emotion scale for guidance on whether you are acting from your limitless self or your limited idea of yourself. Experiment with it – have some fun.
Don’t forget, others around you have this same superpower too, so don’t limit yourself by seeing others as limited. When we honor the limitlessness in each other, there is no reason to every be concerned of having something taken away, because you know there is just so much more available – it’s limitless.
Things can be limited (in our minds). Things like money, relationships, space, time. But again, it is our ideas about these things that are limited, not the things themselves. For instance, do you concern yourself about the amount of air available to you? Of course not, because your mindset is that air is limitlessly available to you and everyone else – and of course it is.
Many think the idea of limitless is ridiculous and unrealistic, which of course is a limited idea itself. But don’t just think about it then, prove it in your own life. Really question your thoughts as they come up. Are they limiting you or someone else? Do you best to not only replace limiting thoughts with unlimited ones, but feel the truth to the idea, just like you do with truth about having an unlimited supply of air. If you become bogged down by the materialistic ideas of limit, begin listing thoughts that contradict a limited Universe until you just get plain exhausted from your limitless thinking.
Tasting a sip of the majestic wonder of a limitless Universe is the elixir of life. When you catch even a glimpse of this wonder of you, a shift will occur that stimulates your very soul to keep going. You will begin to sense the genesis of your spirit’s infinity. You are limitless.
Stop Acting Small – You are Limitless!
In the midst of turmoil in our lives, we are either given or giving this advice (This too shall pass) to help calm a troubled mind. In that moment, as we hear this message, it doesn’t seem possible. It hurts too much or the anger still seems too raw. But taking a pause in the disorder of our life to reflect on this wisdom saying can make a tremendous difference in how we continue to feel, and how we continue to respond to whatever is causing us pain or anger.
Let’s consider this saying deeply and see how we can apply it in our life to have immediate effects, especially when we need it most.
When we are experiencing acute mental suffering; it not because something happened to us, but it is because of our thoughts about what happened to us. Our mind conjures up all sorts of fears and anxieties from our past or dreads for the future because of the condition we find our self in. The pain we feel is an assumption that because of what just happened to us, that our life is now changed in a way that we don’t wish for, and yet we can’t know this for sure. The bad feeling and the continued focus on the bad feeling keeps the suffering alive. Just having the knowledge that we are getting upset because of thoughts instead of something or someone is very powerful, even if at that moment, we cannot see a way to let it go. At least it allows us to know – This too shall pass.
Even when we choose to hang on to the negative thoughts and feelings about an upsetting incident, eventually, they smolder out. This too shall pass. This saying is true in EVERY single case. We can bury that anger, grief, hurt and so on for many, many years – but we can’t keep the emotion going forever, eventually it will pass on until we either we let it go or we call it back to us. This is the cycle of life and this old wisdom saying cannot be anything but truth – for every moment, good or bad will pass. It’s what we do next that really causes the suffering, and even that will also pass either given enough time or if we take an action to help it out the door.
A moment is just a moment – in reality no matter what we think about or feel, we are still as we were the moment before. The only thing different is how we feel about the past moment. Each moment passes on in a linear world, so knowing that a moment will pass is a ridiculously obvious point. But from a human standpoint, a moment of grief, rage, or intense hurt, can linger on for a very long time if we keep our thoughts holding on to it. But, we also have the choice to help the moment pass on to allow us to embrace a new moment by accepting the moment as it is, not struggling with it and allowing it to simply move on. This moment WILL pass, the choice is do we hang onto it, or do we agree to accept that it was what it was, let it go and pass on by.
Why wait? It takes just as much energy to hang on to our suffering as it does to let it go, so why not drop the thoughts about the past moment and see if we can gain a different perspective by not allowing the past feelings and pain to direct our next steps. Responding from a past hurtful moment is not REAL – because that moment is gone and we are reacting to something that is already in the past. What happened IS – focusing on it over and over will not make it change – we can only agree to let it pass by, which allows us to see more clearly our options for responding.
Take comfort – This too shall pass – Either by default or by your own choosing the moment will pass and life will go on. Try not to attach yourself TO the moment and allow it to linger around reminding you over and over of the hurt you just suffered. That is done now, it is passed. You may not be ready to allow yourself total freedom from the upset, but if you can allow the moment to pass by, then you can embrace a new moment. Make it one of peace, compassion, and love.
The human being as a unit of energy is a fact that has profound and astounding possibilities. Furthermore, I find it baffling why more people do not consider the potential and daily implications of considering themselves as a body of energy. Everything about us, from the thoughts we think, to our movement, internal bodily functions, and even our sleep is a giving and taking of energy in many different forms. Furthermore, how we integrate within our environment is really just another example of a huge energy exchange between the environment and our being.
I think when we learn about the intricacies of the human body, anatomy, chemistry, and physiology in school, we are already so established in our patterns and habits, that our knowledge of the potential to utilize that energy is dismissed because it does not appear to fulfill any immediate need. Later on, many of us may feel the effects of not paying attention to our chemistry or anatomy class as we begin to the realize the imbalance of the energy we consume, by weight gain, or other maladies of energy imbalances, such as stress, sleeplessness, fatigue and so on.
The average person gives off about 65.14 watts of energy at rest. That is about the same level of energy as a standard light bulb. Isn’t this so amazing! Energy in motion is called kinetic energy and there are many products that have been developed that use a person’s kinetic energy to power the product. An example of this is a battery-size product called the M2E. This product uses kinetic energy, or normal physical movement, to generate power. Clipped onto a belt or carried in a knapsack, the entire generator is contained within a regular battery casing. The wearer’s walking or shaking moves magnets in the device. Those magnets infuse the wire coils with energy that can be used to power mobile devices. Pretty cool, huh!
Not considering our energy potential (or lack of it) within our daily life is a mistake, in my personal opinion. Furthermore, as a spiritualist, who believes that the physical energy of the human is magnified exponentially by spiritual energy, I think not monitoring our energy levels daily, we are shortchanging ourselves on several planes of living. Additionally, when we utilize spiritual energy within our thoughts and/or actions, we evoke staggering positive conditions into our lives. By not utilizing the energy available to us, both physical and spiritual, we generate a rather benign existence, meaning we regulate our lives on an automated sustainable level. This is like not putting caffeine in our coffee – what is the point of that?
Whether you believe in the potential of the omnipotent spiritual power available to you or not, you must surely see the magnificent potential that human energy vibration has to you. Clearly, by focusing our mindsets and physical activities within a framework of how we are utilizing this energy will be a benefit to us. Since one aspect of energy consumption is focused on more than others, which is the effects that food consumption, I will not go into the risks or benefits of healthy eating habits, but I would like to offer some easy and practical ways to harness more energy.
Increased energy can do a lot more for us that help us lose weight, and there are different areas of the human physiology that benefit from different types of increased energy consumption. Not to mention (again), the unlimited potential to increase all of these benefits with the power of spiritual and divine energy. Below are a few practical and beneficial ideas to increase your energy levels, in the mind, body, & spirit.
Develop a sense of awareness – First and foremost to maximizing your energy levels is becoming aware of the things in your life that add or subtract energy. This is really quite easy to do and measure. Do you feel good? Good energy vibrations. Do you feel bad? Negative energy vibrations. There are all types of scientific tools we can use to measure this as well, but this easy and simple method (awareness) works best and is very accurate. Ask yourself frequently where you are on the energy scale by assessing whether you feel good or bad. Notice patterns and develop small actions you can take to increase energy immediately (deep breathing, quick walks, stretching/bending, eat something high protein, or quick energizing meditation).
Increase Your Imagination, Dreams, Intentions and Aspirations – By focusing on these actions, you create more force of will (energy of the mind). Enhancing these with a spiritual aspect increases your energy levels even higher. Where your thoughts go, energy will follow. This idea is supported both in physics and spirituality. Having and acting on dreams, imagination, intentions, and aspirations supports an impetus for movement towards these things.
Maintain Positive Attitudes; Overcome Negative Ones – A positive attitude and outlook on life not only helps to maintain a high energy level, but it invariably attracts positive conditions. On the other hand, a negative attitude will have the opposite effect. Worry, anxiety, stress, fear, anger, depression, restlessness, blame, resistance, and so on, not only deplete one’s energies, but attracts negative circumstance from the world around us.
Avoid Energy Sappers – Avoid engagement in energy draining and wasting activities. You know what they are – they range from mildly energy wasting to significant energy suckers. Limit mind numbing activities such as TV, Internet, or Gaming. Avoid energy suicide such as excessive drinking, drugs, over indulgence of food, caffeine, gossiping, arguing, aggressive behavior and/or music.
Review your habits and mannerisms – Changing a habit (a habit by the very nature of its definition is an energy inhibitor); to something that includes a positive energy element can be a new, excellent source of energy. Something as simple as cutting out a calorie rich glass of milk before bed, to adding a meditation practice to your daily routine can create some significant positive benefits for you. Our mannerisms that lean towards negative energy vibrations, like biting fingernails, or speaking derogatorily towards self, should be considered and changed.
Develop stillness and promote peace – Reaching now to more of the spiritual approach to creating more energy, there are many practices that are positively life changing to increase not only energy, but benefit us in many other aspects of our lives in a dramatic way. Creating a mentality of calm and stillness by listening to your inner self, through prayer, contemplation, and mediation is extremely energizing and renewing. Practicing other life practices that have a spiritual quality to them like, non-reaction, compassion, forgiveness, altruism, service, faith, and joy can create energy that is off the charts. Become an advocate for peace through thoughtful action (people that shout about peace are not peaceful). The absence of chaos is not peace, just like the absence of negative energy is not positive energy, it is neutral energy. Chaos may subside, but that does not necessarily mean that there is peace. Peace is a form of energy itself. When you are peaceful, you will be promoting peace and developing strong energy vibrations.
Be constantly vigilant – Do not take your energy and how it can affect others lightly. Being aware, being involved, and being proactive towards you energy will play a major part in whether you live a life that is resistant and abrasive or flowing and freeing. Your energy has bearing on those around you too, so please be cognizant of this, especially when you are around children. Walking into a room with bad vibes can change the course of the whole situation. When you sense a negative energy spike, consider is seriously and determine what actions you can take to counteract this negative with positive.
This list is by no means exhaustive, in fact, ideas for creating positive and revitalizing energy in your life, both physically and spiritually, is practically infinite. Would you find any use in a light bulb that does not have enough energy to light the room? Of course not. Why then would we ever be satisfied with not utilizing your energy in the most effective and energizing way? I’m not sure, but I know I for one will be looking for more and more ways every day to literally “let my light shine.”
I resisted – I denied – but I finally gave in to the advise of many – I needed a FaceBook page for my blog and the book. Please hit LIKE on link below!!! Then, share with a friend(s).
We will be sharing great inspirational photos, videos, articles, and news about living your life’s fullest potential!!! It’s a new day! Let’s live it loudly together!!!
Joleen (Bridges Halloran) – Finding Home Breaking Free from Limits
Life hands us opportunities. For some, this means that everything we experience is something that must be “handled’, like a spilled glass of milk. When our life experiences feel like something has been taken away from what we assumed was a good day or a good life, this diminishes our peace. For others though, every experience is an opportunity to add something to an already full life. The spilled milk allows us demonstrate a new skill, a new attitude, or to view our world from a different perspective.
In the midst of a troubling event, it’s hard for us to conceive that this too is an opportunity for peace, love, or joy. And the reason we feel so disconnected from these (peace, love, joy), is that we have taken our eye off the ball, so to speak and allowed the situation to control us or distract us.
When you start your day and live each moment in fullness, meaning that right where you are this moment is exactly where you must be – then when opportunities arise, they become an addition to an already whole existence. Even in that moment you realize the horrible thing you just said, heard, or saw – when accepted, becomes the jumping off point for the next moments’ opportunity.
When we resist something we are experiencing with a, “Oh my – I can’t believe I just said that”, or “I hate when this happens”, or “I can’t put up with this” – then we give the experience more power. This immediate resistance to “what is” begins to create powerful feelings, which transpose into emotional reactions of fear, anger, sadness, or grief. But, by allowing the moment to unfold without judgment or reaction, we open ourselves to respond in authenticity, not from inflamed emotion.
Accepting EVERY moment as an opportunity without defining what the moment is (i.e. good, bad, horrible, exciting, scary), is not something we have a great deal of experience with and will take a little bit of practice. By giving this important life skill some attention, we can prepare ourselves towards any situation, no matter how we have defined it in the past. The key is acceptance, and allowing the flow of life to happen, and then observing and responding to the ebbs and flows of whatever it is we experience in that moment. And the beauty, power, and grace of restoring your peace is that you can do it at any moment, no matter how far you feel you feel you have dug your hole, it is always available to you. Here are 5 new practices to add to your day that can increase your capacity for inner peace and growth in every situation you encounter throughout the day.
“Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.”
—Eckhart Tolle
Set priorities – When setting your days intentions, make sure that growth, peace, joy, and abundance are part of that intention. Do not overcommit on tasks and make sure your spiritual well-being is a priority in every day. Don’t get distracted by the busyness of your day – keep your focus on being present and complete the tasks you intend to do. Take frequent breaks throughout the day and always include a few moments in those breaks for rejuvenating your peaceful demeanor by being very still and allowing each moment to lift you up.
Make a commitment – Commit yourself to peace, growth, freedom, and grace. You can only express these natural qualities if you feel them and accept them. While you go about your day, recognize the peace you are experiencing. Recognize the joy or abundance. Expansion in our lives occurs when we appreciate (by being aware of) the qualities of peace and joy in our lives right now! Be a person of peace. Commit to it! Live it!
Practice giving yourself presence – In this case, your gift to yourself is presence in the moment you are in. Frequently check in with yourself throughout the day to ask yourself if you are present. If not, just release to the present moment and relax. The more you practice this – the easier it gets. There is nothing outside of the present moment. The past is a collection of thoughts (it is no longer real) and the future is only thoughts as well – so just stay where you are. Practice, repeat, practice, repeat, and so on.
Do your exercises – Just like exercising our body to strengthen and tone our muscles and bone, we must have a few set of exercises we do each day to strengthen our spirit and expand our soul. Practices like meditation, yoga, or martial arts accomplish both, but some others to consider are deep contemplation, journaling, or doing short exercises to shift your thoughts from one object to another (brain training).
EMERGENCY – Pull the cord – When you want to get off the bus or the train everyone knows that to request this you must pull the emergency cord and the train/bus will stop. To get off the pity, anger, fear, or sorrow train, put something in your life that you can relate to (like pulling the cord) to trigger your intention to get off this bus. The moment can shift immediately if you allow yourself to let go of every single thought you have had about this experience and allow the moment to be new and OK right now. When you feel yourself stepping back onto the train – pull the cord again. Look for ways to pull your cord, like a special prayer or mantra, deep breathing, light a candle, go for a walk. Make your emergency exit something that is special and meaning for you.
In the midst of great progress in my spiritual journey, a storm has erupted. It is at times like these when our truths are challenged and we lose our way temporarily. I recently got into a huge altercation with someone that is very dear to me. Many people are affected by this and there is no shortage of suffering to go around about this situation. Since I spend most of my time writing and studying the concepts behind living a joyous and unlimited life, when you become crippled by hurt or anger, it is quite humbling and painful.
I am just beginning to start on my second book about spiritual awakening and using spiritual power to liberate ourselves from conditioned limitations. So, for several months I have been deeply studying and then writing about my first focus in the book, which is the spiritual power of Love. If you really think about it, there are only two ways of doing things – out of love and out of fear. Everything else is a subset of one of those qualities. When we truly act out of unconditional love, then nothing can stand in our way for peace, joy, abundance, and love.
When this incident erupted quite suddenly out of this peaceful and uplifting time of beginning this book, my first reaction was to think about how this situation could be a blessing incognito. That first night, I spent a good deal of time meditating/contemplating about the possible lesson in this situation. I felt calmed the next day, but not rooted. I couldn’t shake the uneasiness in my mind and body. Later, a new development evolved that crumbled what remaining calmness I had left. I could literally feel myself be consumed by an emotion that I very rarely felt these days – and that is raw anger.
A couple days later, although no resolution was made, time and more deep study eased some of the tension, but I knew that I had to face my loved one with my thoughts. I dived into my practices to regain my peace before this meeting and I gained many great insights but at the moment of the meeting, the only one attending for me, was the ego self. I began the meeting angry and forceful with my views. I felt justified, no doubt, and the meeting ended quite badly with new heights of anger and division. Although, my close loved ones were compassionate and supportive of my stance, my remorse and my hypocrisy of my spiritual “persona” stung. Where was the love that I just wrote about one short week ago in a book I hoped to inspire many regarding the enormous power of it?
I knew that rumination about the situation was not helpful to anyone, but small tidbits of information that kept coming to me were fanning the flame of this highly volatile situation. I felt a literal heaviness of heart that it had come to this, and that I had no immediate solution to the problem either. Years of a spiritual practice that I cherished and promote all of the sudden seemed very far away. After moments of deep meditation or study, I began to feel released, free, and inspired, and then bam, something new would be said and I could feel my whole being filled with liquid darkness. What was I hanging on to that kept this suffering alive? Intellectually I could see the path, but instinctively, from a human survival standpoint, I couldn’t walk in it.
Then during my studying I came across these passages from the Bible:
Matthew 13: 45 -46
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
For me, the pearl of great price was the very thing that was on my mind before this whole thing started in the first place – Love. Only Love is worth giving up everything to cherish. No one seeks and finds this precious pearl without working hard to pry open its’ outer casing. There are many ways to crack open the shell, but pain/suffering is definitely one of them, as well as deep meditation, service to others, compassion, and wisdom. The prize inside – Love – is the answer to every human problem. The Kingdom of Heaven that we seek is the Divine Love that is already present within and around us, in fact it is us. It became evident to me that if I am not acting out of Love, I must be in fear. It’s really that simple.
When I think and act from Love, then I can have 100% certainty of my path. The voice in my head that insists on getting the last word in, or making sure my point is understood and recognized by anyone, or seeking compensation for my pain, is the voice of fear. When I am filled with Love, there are no needs to fill, because I am whole now.
The process to turn this truth into a human reality is a work in progress, but I know that any work that I do to walk in the lighted path of Love cannot be diminished. I will be challenged, certainly, but years of living in a fearful and “small” mind will be slowly chipped away as light begins to pervade the darkest areas of my mind. These challenges are the growing contractions of becoming free.
I have a renewed sense of purpose now and I will be meeting the remaining challenges of this situation in Love. If I stumble, I will not dwell in ANY way upon the fall, but celebrate the rising up from it.
I wanted to share this personal experience with you to hopefully inspire you as well, and frankly, the writing of my thoughts and my newest intentions has helped me too. Life can throw us some mean hardballs sometimes, but blessings come from these challenges also, and the moment we see and experience the blessing within the suffering, then we too have found the pearl of great price. Blessings – Joleen
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