Tag Archives for " intention "

Why Is It So Easy To Get Stuck In Complaining Mode

Group TalkingHave you ever noticed how easy it is to get stuck in a mode of complaining about things even though that’s not you conscious intention? Why is this, even when we basically don’t want to be doing it? In personal growth work, understanding your thinking can be a great help with managing what you may think you are stuck with and not have any control of.

What I’m talking about comes out in a glaring way at times when we are in a group of people that gets going on complaining or criticizing another person. Have you witnessed how the group seems to get on a roll, with each person adding another and another related comment? If we are not careful about our presence of mind we can get pulled right into it.

Now, the reason complaining starts in the first place is a different matter, here I want to address what happens in our mind to keep feeding it. Once we start it is so easy to keep on with it and even enhance it even when it may not be in our normal character.

It has to do with the way your brain works, your brain is a seeking, answering mechanism. It wants to solve or satisfy what you are telling it through your conscious thought. Essentially everything you are thinking is a question to your brain. A question your brain is programmed to either answer by finding proof or find more of the same to validate your conscious thinking. Your brain wants to support and please you! It will quickly show you that what you are thinking is ‘correct’.

So, when you either start complaining yourself or you are listening to others complain, the brain goes to work finding more related content for you to back up your current thoughts. This validates your thinking, and yes what another person is saying, you are thinking about. If you agree or go along with what they are saying, you are thinking it yourself, thus asking for more of the same, or validation.

This is how you get a related thought popping up which leads to your statement about it. If you had complained, this new thought will likely be another related complaint. If you are making negative comments about another person, your brain will help you find more, and even bring up other people to criticize in a similar way.
 
Inside The MindOf course this works for all thinking, so it if very beneficial to you when your thoughts are happy and positive. Your brain will seek more of the same for you. The key in this is thought command. All of this brain activity is instigated by your conscious thought. Your conscious thought, which you can choose all of, is ultimately the director of your mind. If you are in command of your conscious and subconscious thinking.

However, the subconscious mind might be doing some things that it thought you wanted at an earlier time. This is where thought habits and beliefs are stored as programs to be turned on when a new related thought comes from your conscious mind. This is a topic for another article, but briefly, this is why you may have behavior that you are not sure why you have.

Even though these programs turn on automatically and direct your thinking and behavior, you are still ultimately in command consciously. You just need to recognize what is going on so that you can redirect or reprogram them as you now want.

In regards to complaining, in order to not have our mind help us complain, it is necessary to take command of our thinking. This means that you must first notice what you are thinking, then you can make a choice to keep on with it or change it. This is where the ‘master switch’ of your thinking is, in your conscious choice of thought. You don’t need to stay with a complaining though, or agree with others as they complain.

Just because something did happen, it does not mean you must let it continue. Because others are having a complaining session, or that you have noticed that you complained, you can choose to change that pattern of thought. You must specifically put in new thoughts, there can be no voids in thought, thee must be some thought. Choose a line of thought that is based more on being happy and loving.

Choosing your intentions and watching to keep your thoughts aligned with them is where you power is. Like anything with regards to managing your thinking, it can take some practice to get efficient at it. But doing what you can right now is better than waiting for some perfection, the doing will bring about more ability to assert your command of your thoughts.

Validation Brings The World To Life

Have you considered how much affect you can have on the happiness of others by how you treat them?

Have you ever wondered how much affect your apprecition towards another affects them?

Have you thought about actually making an intention to validate others?

Watch this short movie . . . it has a very powerful message!

. . . Imagine the effect you can have on others!

Make it an intention to validate people and assist them with feeling happy!

December 14, 2009

Are You Trying To Force Your Desires Into Being?

So you have burning desires and you set goals and intentions for what you want, that’s a good thing.

And you visualize them, along with allowing yourself to feel the emotions of how it will feel to realize them. Then, you get on with figuring out how you will accomplish them! And . . . then there is stress, anxiety, doubt and worry . . . and mostly undesirable results!

The Intelligent Universe, God, is designed to answer your requests, which is also a good thing – a very good thing. However, are you trying to force or micro-manage the universe, God? Are you taking on the responsibility of working on how exactly you will accomplish your desire?

OK, now I have not said that there are not things that you will end up needing to do in order to contribute to the physical manifestation of what you want, I have said that you are trying to figure out how it will all work in exact detail and what you need to do yourself.

You will, in many cases but not all, have to take some action. The question is, who or what decides what these actions are? Who decides what exact actions will fit in with all the pieces of the puzzle so you get the results you want? Are you capable of that? No, you and I are not. There is a power far greater than you and I that has vastly more knowledge about what is possible and how to put it all together in the result you want. Now this isn’t that we don’t play any part of the process, because we do, we are key to it.

Our thoughts, like seeds, are what put the universe in specific action. And then our alignment with the desires results and our purposeful actions contribute to our actual physical experience of the desire. But it is not our job to figure it all out, or to make it all happen, or to even decide the exact outcome.

Our job is to plant the seed and nurture it while knowing it will develop into something very close to our vision. Just like with a flower seed, we don’t know how it actually changes from a seed to a full grown plant, we don’t have to know this – the universe take care of this.

Briefly, the short version of how our desires come to be:

*You ask for what you want to be, do or have with your thoughts and feelings. This becomes a new point of creation – the idea.

*You have complete faith that the universe will bring this to be, so you relax in confidence – feeling happy.
 
*The universe acts on this request, bringing together whatever is needed.

*You are given guidance as to what you ought to do to fulfill your role in the realization.

*You then take the appropriate actions as directed, knowing with full confidence that you have all the ability and resources needed to follow through.

*You keep your predominate attention on being happy now and on the thoughts and feelings of what you intend to experience, not on what you don’t have or want.

There are some places in this process where we can get essentially muck it up! And one of the most common is with our thinking that we need to figure out everything required to get the result we want.  This is like thinking we need to figure out how to make a seed develop into a plant.

So, as the result of anxiousness, fear, uncertainty, the need for control or several other possible reasons, we are driven to plow our limited abilities into figuring it all out. Consider this, our perspectives, beliefs and knowledge are based on where we have been in our life experience, and we now want them to yield something new. Sure, we have abilities which allow us to come to new and different ideas, but do we know what the Intelligent Universe knows?

Yes, we can get a certain amount of progress and good results by mentally and physically powering our way through, but it becomes far more fluid and easy to allow Spirit to figure it all out and learn to listen for the inner guidance as to what we should be doing. A small preception change can have a huge difference in what and how much you realize of what you want.

In our struggles to figure it all out, we can become anxious and stressed. Scientists have now proven that the level of brainwave vibration during stress almost totally shuts down our ability to receive intuitive messages from our inner self, which is our conduit to Spirit. So, the more we attempt to figure it all out, and having multiple undesirable outcomes to our actions, we are becoming stressed and are no longer able to receive the directions about the actions that would be the most appropriate to take.

Most spiritual teachings indicate in some way that our role, once we have thought of and stated what we want, is to trust that it will be provided. That the universe will work out all the details. Then relax, and follow along with the purposeful actions which we are guided to do, keeping the end result in mind. And in taking those actions, we know that we are intended to take them, and that we are fully capable of carrying them through.

Just because you can think of what you want does not mean you know how to get it to happen, but the universe does – choose to trust it!

Dislike Is The The Impetus To Change

It’s so easy to identify what you don’t like or want, we all do this very well. But there is trouble in dwelling on it. Everything in our reality is energy, including our thought, so where it is focused is important. Our thoughts and feelings are the steering mechanism for our energy. When we focus on what we don’t want, we are giving it our energy.

In recent years science has been proving this age old wisdom that everything is energy vibrating at different rates. This is everything, from solid rock, to flesh and bone, to our thoughts. This is how a plant can be registered as responding in a way that could be described as fear when a person in another location thinks about doing specific harm to the plant. All of the energy we are all a part of is interconnected.

Our thoughts are like seeds, there are predictable results based on the energy focus. The intention of an onion seed is to express as an onion plant, the onion cannot change this energy focus. The Universal Spirit ( whatever term you use for the intelligence and power that we are a part of, commonly God.) responds by fulfilling the ‘request’ of the seed, as intended.

We, on the other hand create seeds with our thoughts, which can be changed. Our thought seeds are acted upon in the very same way by Universal Spirit. What we think and feel is a request for something which is fulfilled. We may not be able to see this directly in many cases in our lives because we are not usually clear about what we are requesting. Spirit puts the pieces together and provides an appropriate response or outcome.

When we harbor the negative thoughts and feelings about something that someone did that we dislike, we are actually perpetuating this. Have you ever noticed how a person acts that is stuck on how awful it was that something happened to them. Through their actions, many times they are acting out being a victim, or they may have some kind of retaliatory attitudes and behaviors.

When you feel bad about something, I’m sure you have noticed how it affects your attitude and behavior. One very common way that we perpetuate things is by continuing to talk about them. Griping, complaining, expressing resentment, cutting down the ‘responsible’ party or group are all just the extension of the original occurrence.

So, this makes it sound like we are doomed to be stuck in a continuous mire of expanding negativity and unwanted experiences in our lives, but that is not the case. It is actually very important to notice what you don’t like, not for the purpose of carrying on with it, but as a way leading to noticing what you do like. In fact you should recognize and accept something undesirable as what is, trying to ignore it can also just perpetuate it.

Once noticed we should release our focus on it and bring our attention to our true spiritual self which is calm and of good feeling. This is the point where what you want, that is different, is energized. You may not be consciously aware of the exact details. Now you can develop specific thoughts about what you want, which then is what you should be focusing on.

Now this doesn’t mean that the only way to get to what you want is that you must experience something unwanted, but it is one common way. We can see what we want in what others have experiences, or in ideas on how something can just be even better than it is. But, generally it requires a point of notice, I’ll call it, where we become aware of something.

The pivotal point is in accepting what is, becoming at one with your true self and noticing what you do want. Then, keeping your thoughts away from the dislike and more on to your true self and what you do want, is important to guide your energy more to the experiences you would like. I know how it is so easy to continue to dwell on something, but if in this very moment you can’t do anything about it, you don’t need to be thinking about it.

Think of the seed analogy, and that every thought and feeling you have is a request to Spirit, God. Now, what do you want to think about? If you treat your thoughts as if they are seeds, just like a physical plant seed, you can come to realize their affect on your life. They are acted upon just as any seed is, it gets what it says it wants.

In fact, by dwelling on something undesirable and allowing your fear, doubt and worry thoughts to become most prevalent, you are closing off your connection to Spirit. Negative thoughts actually cause your brain to shut off the intuitive, creative, receptive faculties, it puts you into ‘fight or flight’ mode.   So you are less likely to get an inspired idea on how to best deal with an ongoing undesirable situation.

Our power is in our command of our thoughts and feelings, which is why paying attention to your thoughts is so important. Setting aside time each day to consciously analyze your thinking and how you feel allows you to discover more about yourself and allows you to then notice how you ‘do’ want to think. Just as you can notice how you would like society to be different in some way, you can notice what you would rather experience in your life, then how your thoughts can be more in alignment with this.

Noticing what you don’t want is the impetus to change. Your feelings about something are meant as a signal to you to notice it, but not to continue to experience long term. It’s like a fire alarm, it’s no longer needed once you know there is a fire. Harboring negative or low level emotions is very destructive to you mentally, spiritually and physically, choose to step away from then as soon as you can. Replace them with a higher level emotional feeling as much as possible.

Are You In Command of Your Life’s Priorities?

Are you focusing your time and attention to the right things? Are you placing importance on the right thoughts, feelings and behaviors?

 

 Did you know that for most people, much of what they do in life was not consciously chosen by them? And many times we have done these things for so long they now do seem important to us, but deep down they really are not. At least not as important as what truly is deeply important. This is because doing so requires us to take command of our thinking and analyze the state of our life. But letting our minds just run things is easier, efficient and more comfortable. Most people have not taken the time to discover what is truly important to them, life just kind of goes along with many seemingly important activities going on all the time. Your brain will ‘take care’ of you in it’s own way and understanding this is very helpful if you want any kind of change in your life.

 

 When you put your attention to something you will see and experience more of it, you will think about it more and even expound on it. Have you ever become interested in a certain model of car from reading and pictures, and then in the next few days you all of a sudden see lots of them on the road as you are driving around, and you hadn’t really noticed many before? Now that you have placed some of your attention, and maybe with some heightened emotional feeling, into the car you want your mind will help you experience more of the same. Your mind is just doing it’s job, to help keep you as comfortable as possible, and make your life easier with patterns, habits and easily repeated behaviors.

 

 When you understand the way your brain works you can better work with it to get and experience what you want. In this case, it is valuable to be aware of what your mind will tend to do automatically so that you understand that you must be purposefully proactive with your thought and attention. Your mind gets programmed through repetition to see and pay attention to what you have already paid attention to. So if you don’t consciously otherwise direct your thinking, your mind will normally keep replaying the same things you have already done and have experience with. This is makes life easier, you don’t have to ‘think’ about a lot of things.

 

 This is why we can feel as though our life has just been going on by itself, because it is. Until you step in, taking command of your thought, and direct your thinking – it will remain as it was. Well actually not exactly the same, your mind will continue to help you expand and develop on the theme – good or bad! In addition, whatever your mind focuses on becomes more important to you. This importance does not differentiate between good or bad.

 

When you place your attention on anything, this is a command to your brain telling it what you want. So, your brain works to fulfill this. Now this can be anything, even what you don’t want, or a bad experience, or a fear – anything you have focused conscious attention on your brain will help you experience more of it. This is one reason why habits are so hard to break, you keep falling into routines and have the same reactions and feelings over and over.

 

 What can be done about this? Your brain is performing as intended but you are stuck repeating many experiences you would rather not have anymore or you want something new and different. You need to consciously take command of your thinking and override the automatic aspects of your brain. This is where your true power resides, in your conscious command of your thoughts. Just because your brain throws out thought and defense of it does not mean you must follow this – your conscious thought is ultimately in control. It may not seem this way because you have become accustomed to allowing the brain to keep things going automatically, but you can step in and take command anytime you choose.

 

 You may not even know your deepest desires even though they have likely popped up once in a while. You will need to take some time and give attention to discovering what is deeply most important to you, it may not be what you have thought is important. There are different ways to go about this, with most consisting of quieting your chattering mind talk and learning to be receptive to inner information coming up to the conscious level. Doing things like asking yourself questions about yourself and becoming receptive to answers may not be something you are accustomed to doing, so it may take time, patience and persistence realizing that you are really in charge of your thinking. Even adding this kind of activity into your day means that you will need to make time by replacing something already present.

 

 There are a few factors to be aware of that can hamper your progress:

  •  Realize that new and different are not usually the easiest, most comfortable routes. Understand that your brain will certainly let you know this.

 

  • You will need to exert more authority than the automatic thoughts your brain wants to continue with. Exert your true power here, take conscious command of your thought.

 

  • Your brain will attempt to defend the repeating thoughts, throwing out ‘mind chatter’ to dissuade you from your new thinking and actions.

 

  • There is more short term comfort in what you already know, even if it is very bad for you. Keep your vision on the long term intention and satisfaction, as a way to get by the desire for feeling good now.

 

  • You must remain persistent, more persistent than the brains need to protect what you are trying to displace. Utilize whatever tools and techniques you can to help yourself stay on track. Persistence reveals the winner!

 

 When you begin to see what is truly most important, you will then want to start to change what you focus some of your time and attention to. In order for the new desired experience to come to fruition you will need to continuously give it attention and time in your day. It is like a seed that needs to be nurtured. As you do this your brain will help expound on this and gradually have it become part of the automatic norm for your life just as it has with what you experience now.

 

 Remaining in focus with what you have now or with what you don’t want will only tell your brain to perpetuate it. The first and necessary step for anything to change is your taking command of your thought and choosing what you do want based on what is important to you, then focus on it even if your brain throws up resistance. It’s up to you to choose your priorities and tell your brain what you want to focus on, not the other way around. Your brain will follow your lead once you’ve established your athority over your thinking. Take charge of your life, utilize your true power, choose your thought and your priorities. 

 

Our Gratitude Journal

Our Gratitude Journal
I would like this to be a place where you can post what you are thankful and grateful for. This allows you to release these thoughts and feelings out to the world, which helps solidify your intention about being grateful. As with anything that you are willing to express openly, there is a power flow attached to it, which intensifies your commitment and creates a flow of positive energy through you. It’s a lot like making a formal commitment to someone about something you intend to do – there is more power behind the intent, a higher level of commitment and faith on your part. You can feel as though you have released a pressure, something you have been blocking or holding in.

In addition, reading what others have listed that they are thankful and grateful for, as well as how they feel because of doing this, can be a huge learning opportunity for you. When we see the experience of others it tends to be easier to relate it to ourselves. This is why modeling other people can be so powerful. You will realize two things; how they feel much like you do, and if they can do it so can I.

Feel free to post your ‘Gratefuls’ and any experience you have had with focusing on what you are grateful for.

Here we can create an open dialog of self expression and assist one another to enhance how grateful we are.

As usual please keep it nice, supportive and helpful.
John