“Authentic wisdom is the ability to monitor yourself at all times to determine your relative state of weakness or strength, and to shift out of those thoughts that weaken you.” Wayne Dyer, 10 Secrets for Success and Inner Peace
I was reflecting on authenticity and that as I am out and about or busy with my work that the love that I seek is not really Love… but that it is a state of consciousness in my mind and that it really is based on body sensations and notions, however subtle, that are not true and wholesome like the ideal of love. True love does not come and go and it cannot be found in the world and as I stayed with this, with the stillness, I knew love cannot be found one moment and then lost in another. This presence with Love is timeless, without objects and it might be characterized, although there are no properties in the stillness, I’m saying it is a Self-knowing, Self-recognizing peaceful and serene consciousness of I know this awareness.. a consciousness I recall the experience of as like I’d been in a deep sleep and it is refreshing like a deep object-less sleep.
John Wheeler demonstrated “the universe is a self-referential ‘strange loop’ in which physics gives rise to observers, then rise to information, which in turn gives rise to physics.” What we find here is something quite similar. We’ll discover that mirror relationships create a strange loop as well. An observation changes the perceiving when we focus upon the lessons, changes the information, changes the relationship, changes the information, changes the evolution, changes the observers, changes the physics.
Within, consciousness is fractal-holographic to the exact same awareness and health and state of mind in our every fiber as the mind is aligned. It is as though the past is healed when we heal an emotional wound in the present. THIS IS TRUE: When a pattern occurs in the present and it is healed, the pattern is healed throughout the past… everywhere.
David Bohm’s interpretation of quantum mechanics, overall worldview, and Special Relativity use what he referred to as the holomovement. Holomovement is “undivided wholeness” in process of becoming by “universal flux” not static oneness. By dynamic wholeness-in-motion, everything moves with an interconnectedness as though separared in space and time and yet is always every thing connected with everything else. Bohm expanded his ideas in his book, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, 1980. He included this in Special Relativity afterwards in 1981.
In this note (post), I include a course for you in holo-mirror, holo-movement. This is VERY POWERFUL work as this video demonstrates:
At 13:41 Gregg presents a graphic with a list of the seven mirrors:
1. Mirror of the Moment
2. Mirror of that which is Judged
3. Mirror of that which is Lost/Given Away/Taken Away
4. Mirror of Most Forgotten Love
5. Mirror of Father/Mother
6. Mirror of Your Quest into Darkness
7. Mirror of Self Perception
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— everyone is a mirror —
every important person is an important mirror
— this always applies —
every important person is an important mirror
— everyone is a mirror —
seven mirror patterns
The First Mirror is my presence in the now moment… what we reflect by others in the present… what we radiate in the moment.
The Second Mirror is only very subtlety different but it reflects back to us that which we judge. It is what we have been wounded by and have an emotional charge on. It can be something we have done in the past that we have not forgiven. It is good to discern however that when we condemn another with an emotional charge we are most likely judging ourselves. This mirror is more difficult to understand as most people find it difficult to see the deeply wounded emotions within. We often think we have forgiven people and situations, when in fact they weaved subtlety into the very fabric of our being.
The Third Mirror reflects back to us something we have lost, given away or had taken away. When we see something we love in another it is often something we have lost, given away or that has been stolen within our personal lives. Every relationship is a relationship with the self and often we try to reclaim what we lost, gave away or had taken away as a child. All of which can be reclaimed within self. When we give away our power to another person, we suffer a form of soul loss, without realizing we send out a subtle frequency that others can feel, if they are experiencing the same energy loss, you will attract the same pattern of behavior back to you.
The Fourth Mirror reflects back to us our most forgotten love. This could be a way of life, or a lost or unfinished relationship. Often it is a past life where a wrong conclusion from a prior experience was made. These will recreate themselves over and over and over again until the conclusion is registered in the soul as wisdom. This is the most difficult to come to terms with as we all have made these sort of choices in our life, to leave someone, a place or much loved home, the pain of such a decision will imprint upon the soul or body hologram, once the lesson has been recognized you no longer attract these circumstances to you.
The Fifth Mirror reflects back Father/Mother. It is frequently stated that we marry our father or mother. We may display both healthy and unhealthy patterns we learned as a child. Our father and mother are often like Gods to us and so we will often reflect aspects of our relationship with them onto our partners. We often choose our partners based on our relationship with our parents.
The Sixth Mirror reflects back to us the Quest for Darkness or what is often referred to as a dark night of the soul. This is where we meet our greatest challenges, our greatest fears, and have been gathering the tools from life to confront and deal with. The most important thing to remember is that our soul is giving us the opportunity to grow and evolve, this will help us remove the vibration of victim. If we see these as opportunities for spiritual growth and from a perspective of soul advancement, they do not have to be feared; it is just passing through our life, asking us to seek answers from within rather than relying on others for answers.
The Seventh Mirror reflects back to us our self-perception. Others will perceive and treat us according to how we perceive and treat ourselves. If we are under a low self-esteem and do not accept our wisdom and beauty, others will not acknowledge them. If we are angry, bitter and unloving to others, they in turn will often react in the same way towards us. If we find another perception of ourselves, we alter the world. Maybe it is time to be kind, loving and compassionate with ourselves and others.
Combine mirror work with asking yourself… “Am I playing a role?” If you can recognize that you or the other is playing a role as Victim, Rescuer, or Persecutor, you will be able to accomplish far easier use of the mirror lessons.
This Essene work is tremendously powerful but very subtle.
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Pay close attention to the training.
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The ancient Essene had a very sophisticated understanding of interpersonal human relationships and the role of emotion in those relationships. It’s the role of emotion that we have carefully sifted out of our Western experience up until very recently. Now, as we go back into these texts, we see that it is emotion that proves the power and, when coupled with logic, true magic and miracles occur.
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Qualities that we see in the people around us are directly related to our own traits that attract the mirroring others.
In the highest moments of human intensity, words become silent.
~ John O’donohue
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TODAY:
After a stormy wet start to the weekend, the days vacillated between sun and dark cloud…light and dark…Yet, today, I woke to glorious summer sunshine…a delight!
IN ONE WORD:
Humble
COLOUR OF THE DAY:
I can smell wonderful Green herbs from my little Courtyard garden…Thyme, Rosemary, Mint, Basil and more…
HOW I FEEL: I woke early then enjoyed reading the last 2 chapters of my book – the Biography of Fr. Bebe Griffiths…I found the end deeply moving, which set the tone for my day…reverent, silent, reflective – gently aware of inner changes taking place, appreciating all of life and its lessons. Learning, growing, blossoming. Opening to new ideas, ideals, ways of ‘being’ and realising that all of life’s possibilities are before me…
PHYSICALLY: Settled – moving slowly and gently into my day.
INSIGHTS:
Trust and know that your Soul understands, there is excitement and anticipation deep inside you. Stay safe, balanced and aware. This next phase is going to be the ride of our lives!
THE COLLECTIVE:
“Move forward we say, with a new ease, an ease that allows surrender towards joy and happiness…Keep your mind positive, work with forgiveness for this will take you further towards a new freedom. Expect days of heartfelt emotions – allowing time for self forgiveness and release.”
AFFIRMATION:
“I let go of the control of my mental mind. I connect to the love and wisdom of my heart.”
New Year’s Resolutions Being LOVE sending LOVE as best we are able…
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I always make a set of resolutions for a new year and I always keep them… I am quite sensitive to being sure that I can keep my resolutions by making progress, not by perfection. One part of my resolutions this year is to make better use of social media. I want to continue my personal growth and use what I discovered in these past years as a blogger as good experience for my own personal growth. I’ve learned a lot about myself through blogging. I use what is best for me and I move on in growth to process what you guys say I can do to improve me. I post what I discover and it may therefore be helpful to you. We need each other. [Note: I use Facebook more so also now because I am making faster progress there.]
In past years, going back to the first time I used social media to help me at making a resolution, I set out for a year to eliminate regrets; well, more specifically, to rid myself of discontented futile regrets… having no regrets seemed far too difficult. So, I set myself out to dismantle the regrets of my past. I hope to write about eliminating futile regrets in the future. It was quite a useful and positive resolution for me.
This morning, I read advice posted via Doug Christman. The blog post included a quotation that I loved.
“The fact is that those who do not see themselves but who see others, who fail to grasp of themselves but who grasp others, take possession of what others have but fail to possess themselves.”
~ Chuang Tzu
The blog post is linked below. I like the advice in this post as well. The advice relates to using social media and to self-discovery. I want to add some commentary. My hope is that I will complete my own making of yet another perfect resolution (for me) in time for 2015. I’m getting closer. . Here is some of what I think that the article may do for improving upon a solution. The post makes reference to social media as though using social media is a problem. Possibly it is a symptom of suffering. However, I think using social media is for me a tremendous blessing. Also, the post addresses suffering from relating with others – what I call ‘over relating’ with others.
First, problems themselves are not the source of suffering from over relating with others. Lack of a cohesive spiritual evolve-ment is the problem of mental suffering – over relating with others is a symptom. Using social media as an escape for interpersonal relating in the real world certainly is not solution. The suffering in the real world continues or changes but continues and it is likely to somehow also inject its pain into our social media use.
We tend to want to control others rather than our own reactions – however, relating requires giving of consideration and being understanding. Listing a set of prescriptive resolutions that are reactive isn’t a solution. We’d end up with New Year resolutions that crumble and fail in the first hours of 2015 if there isn’t a spiritual solution in the lessons. I’ll stick for this post to the advice as was listed in the blog post.
1. Spend less time on social media and get back to real life. This is probably not a solution for anyone that is feeling a lack of self-esteem and general good feeling about themselves. Instead, use daily interactions to improve relationships. The situations that cause upsets or low energy are symptoms of suffering that may be going unnoticed if we’d not have a reason for using our time more wisely. Perhaps use social media less. However, making use of social media to accomplish goals and to connect with experts and to learn about self-awareness is a better use of social media.
2. Stop worrying about how other people view you. Good advice! People that cook up dramatic representations – of their victim stories – of pain and suffering – of what (they say) is being done to them – believe they have a need to vent or get justice or to change the other guys. Meantime it may go unnoticed internally… they are the source of their own discontent… of their own irritability… and of their own restless complaining. They need help; and yet, they don’t know how to seek and receive the help that they desperately need. Getting in a mentoring program and recovery from processing themselves as the abused victim is a step into personal freedom from worrying about how others may be understood. Seek to understand more so than to be understood… find mentors that understand how this works.
3. Stop listening to other people’s views and advice on what you ought to be doing. I like the advice: “Just listen to your own inner voice and intuition.” However, we are not the masters of the universe. The advice included, as well, “Use your own divine “Global Positioning System (GPS)” for where you need to be and what you need to be doing. You will find that you will feel so much more connected and you will embrace your life with a positive and optimistic perspective.” I’ll add that if advice is a source for suffering, then perhaps the suffering really is internally generated by rebelliousness and instincts that are over working and undermining the relationships.
I like the fourth one, as is.
In fact, it really may be the key point of blog posted list.
4. Focus on your own goals, desires and wishes. Consider what you’re doing or what you should be doing, and then do that. Don’t worry about what other people are doing. Mind your own business. You need to stay focused and always know what is worth keeping in your mental toolbox and what would be worth pitching. Ask your Higher Self for guidance. Spend your time thinking and doing things that are helping you be happy, healthy and in harmony with your true authentic self.
Do you make New Year resolutions? Are they helpful and doable? What might you add to this topic on resolutions?
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Here is another source that I looked at;
helping me as I set out this year-end
to make a New Year’s resolution:
This Saturday morning (1/3/2015), I will be joining a mentoring the mentor group. It was my desire to form one this year and I was unable to do so. However, last week, a mentor asked me to mentor him and I felt inspired to ask him if we could do our work together with another mentor associate of our mutual acquaintance. He agreed and so did the other man… and so, it got set into motion. I am very happy about this development. I know we will all reap benefits from this work with each other.
My blogging here on WordPress is much less since August. In 2015, I probably will post here only 3-7 times each month and additionally, I will continue to also reblog posts that I love. My contact page is the best source for getting in touch with me if we haven’t already created a way that works for doing this..
Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the world’s leading spiritual teachers, is a man at great peace even as he predicts the possible collapse of civilisation within 100 years as a result of runaway climate change.
The 86-year-old Vietnamese monk, who has hundreds of thousands of followers around the world, believes the reason most people are not responding to the threat of global warming, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, is that they are unable to save themselves from their own personal suffering, never mind worry about the plight of Mother Earth.
Thay, as he is known, says it is possible to be at peace if you pierce through our false reality, which is based on the idea of life and death, to touch the ultimate dimension in Buddhist thinking, in which energy cannot be created or destroyed.
By recognising the inter-connectedness of all life, we can move beyond the…
The practice of living consciously is the first pillar of self-esteem.
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Look at the area where your life is working least satisfactorily. Self-esteem may increase in direct correlation to professionalism. That is, your ability to represent yourself appropriately, perform on the job and be a person with whom others can relate, is an indication of success in whatever you choose to do.
Upon honest self-examination, notice that you tend to be more conscious in some areas of our life than in others. According to Nathaniel Brandon, author of The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, “What determines the level of self-esteem is what the individual does.”
Branden continues by saying: “A ‘practice’ implies a discipline of acting in a certain way over and over again—consistently. It is not action by fits and starts, or even an appropriate response to a crisis. Rather, it is a way of operating day by day, in big issues and small, a way of behaving that is also a way of being.”
For improving self, try using a sentence stem like “Living consciously to me means…” and create 6-10 completions of that sentence.
The most widely accepted definition is that ofNathaniel Branden, who defines healthy self-esteem as “the disposition to experience oneself as competent to cope with life’s challenges and being worthy of happiness.” (1994) This definition implies not only being worthy of respect, but also as having the basic skills and competencies required to be successful in life. Studies show that people with low self-esteem have more poorly defined self-concepts (Baumeister, 1993). Also, we must like, respect, and love ourselves before we can maintain loving kindness for others or respect for property.
1. The Practice of Living Consciously 2. The Practice of Self-Acceptance 3. The Practice of Self-Responsibility 4. The Practice of Self-Assertiveness 5. The Practice of Living Purposefully 6. The Practice of Personal Integrity
1. The Practice of Living Consciously 2. The Practice of Self-Acceptance 3. The Practice of Self-Responsibility 4. The Practice of Self-Assertiveness 5. The Practice of Living Purposefully 6. The Practice of Personal Integrity
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Branden introduces the six pillars — six action-based practices for daily living — providing a foundation for self-esteem and explores the central importance of self-esteem in the five areas of the workplace, parenting, education, psychotherapy, and the culture at large.
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No one may be successful if bypassing their basic needs for self-esteem. The ego is not a thing to fight against. It is not even available for debate. The ego is a sense of needs that we may mistakenly believe is the self. However, by opening to greater self-awareness, we come to understand that the ego is just a function of temporary needs messages. I hope that this program and the related links are helpful. I know I attain growth by reviewing of these basic life skills.
“The garden of the world has no limits, except in your mind.” ~ Rumi
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Deepak Chopra is the source for this post – from his book – included with links and excerpts… I did not much more than organize this – my text is this lighter color. If you have some time, try the exercise and view both videos… there is really some terrific wisdom here from Dr. Chopra.
EXERCISE
Look at the palm of your hand. Feel it as you look. Now imagine that it is getting warmer. Keep looking and focus on it getting warmer; see the color becoming redder. If you maintain focus on this intention, your palm will in fact grow warm and red.
Tibetan Buddhist monks use this simple biofeedback loop (an advanced meditation technique known as tumo) to warm their entire bodies.
This technique is so effective that monks who use it can sit in freezing ice caves meditating overnight while wearing nothing more than their thin silk saffron robes. Now the simple feedback loop has become totally engrossing, because what we can induce merely by intending it may have no limit.
The same Buddhist monks reach states of compassion, for example, that depend on physical changes in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Their brains didn’t do this on their own; they were following orders from the mind. Thus we cross a frontier. When a feedback loop is maintaining normal heart rhythm, the mechanism is involuntary— it is using you. But if you change your heart rate intentionally (for example, by imagining a certain someone who excites you romantically), you are using it instead.
Let’s take this concept to the place where life can be miserable or happy. Consider stroke victims. Medical science has made huge advances in patient survival after even massive strokes, some of which can be attributed to better medications and to the upsurge of trauma units, since strokes are ideally dealt with as soon as possible. Quick treatment is saving countless lives, compared to the past. But survival isn’t the same as recovery.
No drugs show comparable success in allowing victims to recover from paralysis, the most common effect of a stroke. As with the discouraged children, with stroke patients everything seems to depend on feedback. In the past they mostly sat in a chair with medical attention, and their course of least resistance was to use the side of the body that was unaffected by their stroke. Now rehabilitation actively takes the course of most resistance. If a patient’s left hand is paralyzed, for example, the therapist will have her use only that hand to pick up a coffee cup or comb her hair. At first these tasks are physically impossible. Even barely raising a paralyzed hand causes pain and frustration. But if the patient repeats the intention to use the bad hand, over and over, new feedback loops develop. The brain adapts, and slowly there is new function.
We now see remarkable recoveries in patients who walk, talk, and use their limbs normally with intensive rehab. Even twenty years ago these functions would have languished or shown only minor improvements. And all we have done so far is to explore the implications of two words.
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Program Description “You don’t know what your brain can do until you test its limits…” The Super Brain Credo bridges two worlds, biology and experience. Biology is great at explaining physical processes, but it is totally inadequate at telling us about the meaning and purpose of our subjective experience. What does it feel like to be a discouraged child or a paralyzed stroke victim? The story begins with that question, and biology follows second. We need both worlds to understand ourselves. Otherwise, we fall into the biological fallacy, which holds that humans are controlled by their brains. Leaving aside countless arguments between various theories of mind and brain, the goal is clear: We want to use our brains, not have them use us. We’ll expand on these ten principles as the book unfolds. Major breakthroughs in neuroscience are all pointing in the same direction. The human brain can do far more than anyone ever thought. Contrary to outworn beliefs, its limitations are imposed by us, not by its physical shortcomings.
Special thanks toKim Saeed for a link to this superb video.
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Book Excerpt: Super Brain
by Deepak Chopra, MD and Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD
A Golden Age for the Brain What do we really know about the human brain? In the 1970s and 1980s, when the authors gained their training, the honest answer was “very little.” There was a saying circulating back then: Studying the brain was like putting a stethoscope on the outside of the Astrodome to learn the rules of football.
Your brain contains roughly 100 billion nerve cells forming anywhere from a trillion to perhaps even a quadrillion connections called synapses. These connections are in constant, dynamic state of remodeling in response to the world around you. As a marvel of nature, this one is minuscule and yet stupendous.
Everyone stood in awe of the brain, which was once dubbed “the three-pound universe.” And rightly so. Your brain not only interprets the world, it creates it. Everything you see, hear, touch, taste, and smell would have none of these qualities without the brain. Whatever you experience today—your morning coffee, the love you fee for your family, a brilliant idea at work—has been specifically customized solely for you.
Immediately we confront a crucial issue. If your world is unique and customized for you and you alone, who is behind such remarkable creativity, you or the brain itself? If the answer is you, then the door to greater creativity is flung open. If the answer is your brain, then there may be drastic physical limitations on what you are able to achieve. Maybe your genes are holding you back, or toxic memories, or low self esteem. Maybe you fall short because of limited expectations that have contracted your awareness, even though you don’t see it happening.
The facts of the case could easily tell both stories, of unlimited potential or physical limitation. Compared with the past, today science is amassing new facts with astonishing speed. We have entered a golden age of brain research. New breakthroughs emerge every month, but in the midst of such exciting advances, what about the individual, the person who depends upon the brain for everything?
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Take a moment and watch what is going on in a meditating brain:
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Is this a golden age for your brain?
We detect an enormous gap between brilliant research and everyday reality. Another medical school saying from the past comes to mind: Each person typically uses only 10 percent of their brain. Speaking literally, that’s not true. In a healthy adult, the brain’s neural networks operate at full capacity all the time. Even the most sophisticated brain scans available would show no detectable difference between Shakespeare writing a soliloquy from Hamlet and an aspiring poet writing his first sonnet. But the physical brain is not nearly the whole story.
To create a golden age for your brain, you need to use the gift nature has given you in a new way. It’s not the number of neurons or some magic inside your gray matter that makes life more vital, inspiring, and successful. Genes play their part, but your genes, like the rest of the brain, are also dynamic. Every day you step into the invisible firestorm of electrical and chemical activity that is the brain’s environment. You act as leader, inventor, teacher, and user of your brain, all at once.
As leader, you hand out the day’s orders to your brain.
As inventor, you create new pathways and connections inside your brain that didn’t exist yesterday.
As teacher, you train your brain to learn new skills.
As user, you are responsible for keeping your brain in good working order.
In these four roles lies the whole difference between the everyday brain—let’s dub it the baseline brain—and what we are calling super brain. The difference is immense. Even though you have not related to the brain by thinking What orders should I give today? or What new pathways do I want to create? that’s precisely what you are doing. The customized world that you live in needs a creator. The creator isn’t your brain; it’s you.
Super brain stands for a fully aware creator using the brain to maximum advantage. Your brain is endlessly adaptable, and you could be performing your fourfold role—leader, inventor, teacher, and user—with far more fulfilling results than you now achieve. ...more
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Thanks for visiting.
Eric
I assist spiritual authors, artists, and bloggers… free… just e-mail me: thehunt4truth@yahoo.com
When you allow Him to correct your mind,
the rest of your life will fall into place.
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People I know really need this message. I’ll invest time as Dr. Dyer’s suggesting to practice staying obscure. I see the wisdom of letting God direct this universe without me pushing my nose up front as though it has mostly to do with me. Do you see the wisdom of letting God direct the universe? Hmm… would it be possibly as beautiful a universe if we followed my or your directions? Humility… letting what we know is coming come to us.
The sea stays low, and because the sea
stays low, all of the rivers and all of the
streams empty into it.
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I want to share with you this inspiring poem. As you may reflect and resolve for yourself improvement for your life, I hope that this will be a help. I pray that you may be filled with joy, peace, and love.
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The Slow work of God…
Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability — and that it may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually — let them grow, — let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
Self-acceptance could be the key to a happier life,
yet it’s the happy habit many people practice the least…
March 7, 2014
Source: University of Hertfordshire
Happiness is more than just a feeling; it is something we can all practice on a daily basis. But people are better at some ‘happy habits’ than others. In fact, the one habit that corresponds most closely with us being satisfied with our lives overall — self-acceptance — is often the one we practice least.
5,000 people surveyed by the charity Action for Happiness, in collaboration with Do Something Different, rated themselves between 1 and 10 on ten habits identified from the latest scientific research as being key to happiness.
Giving was the top habit revealed by those who took the survey. When asked about Giving(How often do you make an effort to help or be kind to others?) people scored an average of 7.41 out of 10, with one in six (17%) topping 10 out of 10. Just over one in three (36%) people scored 8 or 9; slightly fewer (32%) scored 6 or 7; and less than one in six (15%) rated themselves at 5 or less.
The Relating habit came a close second. The question How often do you put effort into the relationships that matter most to you? produced an average score of 7.36 out of 10. And 15% of people scored the maximum 10 out of 10.
The survey also revealed which habits are most closely related to people’s overall satisfaction with life. All 10 habits were found to be strongly linked to life satisfaction, with Acceptance found to be the habit that predicts it most strongly. Yet Acceptance was also revealed as the habit that people tend to practice the least, generating the lowest average score from the 5,000 respondents.
When answering the Acceptance question, How often are you kind to yourself and think you’re fine as you are? people’s average rating was just 5.56 out of 10. Only 5% of people put themselves at a 10 on the Acceptance habit. Around one in five people (19%) scored an 8 or 9; Less than a third (30%) scored a 6 or 7; and almost half (46%) of people rated themselves at 5 or less.
Treating our bodies to regular physical activity is another proven happy habit. Yet the survey revealed that this is another habit that often gets overlooked. The average answer to How often do you spend at least half an hour a day being active? was just 5.88 out of 10, with 45% of people rating themselves 5 or less.
Professor Karen Pine, a psychologist from the University of Hertfordshire and co-founder of Do Something Different, said: “Practicing these habits really can boost our happiness. It’s great to see so many people regularly doing things to help others — and when we make others happy we tend to feel good ourselves too. This survey shows that practicing self-acceptance is one thing that could make the biggest difference to many people’s happiness. Exercise is also known to lift mood so if people want a simple, daily way to fee happier they should get into the habit of being more physically active too.”
Dr Mark Williamson, Director of Action for Happiness, said: “Our society puts huge pressure on us to be successful and to constantly compare ourselves with others. This causes a great deal of unhappiness and anxiety. These findings remind us that if we can learn to be more accepting of ourselves as we really are, we’re likely to be much happier. The results also confirm us that our day-to-day habits have a much bigger impact on our happiness than we might imagine.”
To support participants who want to boost their happy habits, Do Something Different and Action for Happiness have also created a new Do Happiness program, which sends people regular small positive actions (Do’s) to help them practice the habits that science shows tend to make people happy.
How can we practice the self-acceptance habit?
Here are three positive actions that people can take to increase their levels of self-acceptance:
Be as kind to yourself as you are to others. See your mistakes as opportunities to learn. Notice things you do well, however small
Ask a trusted friend or colleague to tell you what your strengths are or what they value about you
Spend some quiet time by yourself. Tune in to how you’re feeling inside and try to be at peace with who you are.
Where did the happy habits come from?
The happy habits included in the survey are based on the Ten Keys to Happier Living framework, developed by Action for Happiness based on an extensive review of the latest research about what really affects mental well-being.
Together the Ten Keys spell the acronym GREAT DREAM, as follows:
Giving: do things for others
Relating: connect with people
Exercising: take care of your body
Appreciating: notice the world around
Trying out: keep learning new things
Direction: have goals to look forward to
Resilience: find ways to bounce back
Emotion: take a positive approach
Acceptance: be comfortable with who you are
Meaning: be part of something bigger
Key Survey Question Average score
Giving How often do you make an effort to help or be kind to others? 7.41
Relating How often do you put effort into the relationships that matter most to you? 7.36
Exercising How often do you spend at least half an hour a day being active? 5.88
Appreciating How often do you take time to notice the good things in your life? 6.57
Trying out How often do you learn or try new things? 6.26
Direction How often do you do things that contribute to your most important life goals? 6.08
Resilience How often do you find ways to bounce back quickly from problems? 6.33
Emotion How often do you do things that make you feel good? 6.74
Acceptance How often are you kind to yourself and think you’re fine as you are? 5.56
Meaning How often do you do things that give you a sense of meaning or purpose? 6.38
A final question posed was: Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
The average score was 6.49, compared to a national average of 6.34 reported in the UK National Values survey 2013.
University of Hertfordshire. “Self-acceptance could be the key to a happier life, yet it’s the happy habit many people practice the least.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 7 March 2014.
Do you feel safe revealing any or all of your needs to someone? Think about that… because… most of us have some shame about having needs in the first place. If you didn’t know that… sure enough, it’s true. In fact, often, we need the shame to get up motivation. We too easily judge ourselves as needy and we need shame to get going.
So on goes the mask of self-reliance in a futile attempt to protect ourselves from any anticipated rejection or disagreement and thus, we isolate and this only weakens our spirit and bolsters self-will. The strategy is self-defeating, creating disassociation from ourselves and disconnection from others. Actually, that isn’t healthy.
Shame and guilt are painful… trust is freeing. Its a really good idea to have some compassionate people around. For example, to help get the road blocks to good mental health and meeting of needs flowing. Here is a list that puts into perspective what a healthy person may be getting and a shamed person is possibly missing.
Take a break from thinking and toughing it out alone; get together with a compassionate friend, spouse, relation, etc… you aren’t a robot. We all need to express our feelings. Solving problems when we have unmet needs is very much more unlikely because we just don’t perform well under stress of unmet needs. Inadequacy in one or more of the above mentioned needs is NORMAL — absolutely normal. Develop good friendships and trusting relationships and your health and well-being will improve. I know about this… I was a needy man with a self-sufficient mask over my feelings for too many years. Thankfully, I have good friends and I am much healthier as a result.
Wayne Dyer’s “10 Principles for Success and Inner Peace” work explores basic principles for changing one’s outlook on life. The principles for success and inner peace is a simple, honest guide to living happily.
I previously posted all ten principles on my blog. Here is a chance to discover them all from a single list that links to each of the posts. Originally, each post features Dr. Dyers video. Most were since removed from YouTube, but I replaced the missing video with quality, and suitable, other training videos.
We are all “works in progress” we may say. Sometime, we get caught up in the past only to feel there is too little or no energy to live in the present.
The series of lessons is designed to help us move away from the dominance of the past (problems) into opportunities for higher energy and creativity that stem from deepest wisdom and truth (solutions). Understanding of wisdom and truth then is expanding. Your truth is expanding… as you move into the flow of your higher-self truth (living in your solution).
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10 Principles for Success and Inner Peace ………………………………………………………………
Abridged audio book:
Breaking it down . . .
unfortunately, Wayne Dyer video content for my links is removed at YouTube... I did my best to insert suitable substitutes ...
#1Have a Mind That Is Open to Everything and Attached to Nothing An open mind allows you to explore and create and grow. In all of your relationships, if you can love someone enough to allow them to be exactly what they choose to be without any expectations or attachments from you, you’ll know true peace in your lifetime.
#2You can’t give away what you don’t have
Think of the people you know who give love in response to negative energy that’s directed their way. If what you give is self-respect and self-love, the universe will return the love and respect you’ve been radiating. It’s really so simple.
#3There Are No Justified Resentments Be willing to send the higher, faster energies of love, peace, joy, forgiveness, and kindness as your response to whatever comes your way… readily offering forgiveness.
#4Don’t die with your music still in you Find your passion and follow it even if it means marching to your own drumbeat when it’s different from what everyone else or society says you should be doing.
#5Embrace Silence There’s a momentary silence in the space between your thoughts that you can become aware of with practice. In this silent space, you’ll find the peace that you crave in your daily life.
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The Coming of the Kingdom – Luke 17:20-21, KJV
“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
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#6Give Up Your Personal History Your past is over! When you’re at peace, you radiate a different kind of energy than when you’re stressed or depressed. Your mediation practice keeps building immunity. The more you achieve peacefulness through meditation, the more your peaceful state impacts those around you.
#7You Can’t Solve a Problem with the Same Mind That Created It In order to solve relationship problems, you need to adopt a different mindset by questioning the negative thought(s) and replacing them with positive ones that are as or more true.
#8Treat Yourself As If You Already Were What You’d Like to Become The more you see yourself as what you’d like to become, the more inspired you are . . . you discover that you’re a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be . . . dormant forces that were dead or nonexistent, springing into being and collaborating with you as a result of your becoming inspired and acting as if what you want is already here!
#9Treasure Your Divinity There is no place that God is not. You are energized by the divine intelligence that supports everything and everyone on this planet.
10Wisdom Is Avoiding All Thoughts Which Weaken You Authentic wisdom is the ability to monitor yourself at all times to determine your relative state of weakness or strength, and to shift out of those thoughts that weaken you.
I’ll begin with a short story that Eckhart Tolle likes to tell:
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Two Zen monks, Tanzan and Ekido, were walking along a country road that had become extremely wet with mud and deep puddles after heavy rains. .
Near a village, they came upon a girl who was trying to cross the road, but the mud was so deep. it would have ruined the silk kimono she was wearing. Tanzan at once picked her up and carried her to the other side. .
The monks walked on in silence. Five hours later, as they were approaching the lodging temple, Ekido couldn’t restrain himself any longer. He finally snapped, “Tanzan, why did you carry that girl across the road? We monks are not supposed to hold girls like that.” .
“I put the girl down hours ago,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her Ekido?” . .
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Sometime I just go with what the expert says. In this case, I have a few clarifying paragraphs.
The story that Tolle relates is used to illustrate a point that we have a vulnerability protection system. He calls it the ego.
I just want to clarify what happened (in this story).
First, the mind is not who we/you are. However, the body believes whatever thoughts that mind allows. Thus as the information is processed in the body, it actually changes subtly the body; the brain and molecules, etc… we know there are chemicals and brain waves and signals being transmitted throughout the brain-heart-gut-body (form, aka. mind-body, un-awakened consciousness). The information, together with form, is ever changing. Thinking, therefore, requiring time, occurs in form (as interpretations of information / consciousness) … not in a/the single unchanging mind (divine mind).
This is confusing and difficult when there is an upset.
In the story, Ekido believes that Tanzan did wrong by carrying the girl. The monks have been walking for a long time when Ekido finally tires of his burden. Ekido has been carrying his belief of the wrongness for hours. He’s been feeling upset. Finally, he relieves himself of this upset by confronting Tanzan rather than himself. He might have said right away to Tanzan, “I got uncomfortable with what happened. What is bothering me is my thinking that it was wrong. We are not supposed to hold women. Still, no harm came of it. She clearly needed some help. I ought to get over this.”
Instead, Ekido allows the disturbance to grow into greater discomfort. He begins to believe that Tanzan is the cause of his discomfort.
Negative thinking about it may have seemed to be the best thing. However, negativity attracts more negativity and the mind then is left feeling badly and having a pressing urge to find some relief. Typically, a person acts out when under this sort of pressure. If there is someone else that can be blamed, that seems the right thing then to do. The upset gets taken over by the body’s pain management system — the source of the pain being out there, Ekido accuses his friend of doing a wrong.
Ekido unknowingly was maintaining a separation from the present moment while he was feeling disturbed. This gets tiring. The disturbance feeds into a delusion that Tanzan is responsible for the upset. His mind is unable to break free of the discomfort while ruminating about the past event. Finally his mind then convinced him that the problem can be fixed by blaming Tanzan. Fortunately Tanzan feels free to accept that Ekido is needlessly upset and his reply is matter-of-fact rather than defensive. If Ekido wants to think excessively, he may. The thinking was tiring his mind. Since the incident is past and Tanzan was free of it when he put the girl down, Ekido wasted his time carrying the upset for miles.
There are two parts to Ekido’s problem. First off, he is excessively thinking.
. Here is a training video by Eckhart Tolle… “How do we break the habit of excessive thinking?”
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Eckhart explores excessive (addiction to) thinking, offering a handful of ways to put the stop to thoughts and to choose presence of now instead. When body sends a signal, mind gets a thought. You may allow this or you may choose to diminish the thought by coming back to the presence of now.
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A second problem for Ekido is that he didn’t have any control to change what upset him since the upset is about Tanzan’s action. The inner dialog lead to excessive thinking about something that was beyond his control. Some of us spend our time when dealing with people trying to change circumstance that are beyond our control. This is, it turns out, usually just a waste of time and energy.
We may even threaten, scold, manipulate, coerce, bully, plead, beg, shout, pout, bribe or try anything to make a situation go the “right” way — often, only to see things getting progressively worse before they get better. Since negativity attracts more negativity this is quite stressful and the mind-body then is left feeling badly.
Peace is my goal and tolerance, acceptance, compassion, genuine concern and loving presence is my way to get this. Getting better at this began for me with reducing stress and finding inner peace. I began to understand that I was reactive to the content of my life situations and that I was sacrificing sanity this way. Self-will was inadequate. Controlling my surroundings by exercising self-will was not healthy. I began to look for solutions and I found that there are hundreds of great ways to reduce stress and gain personal freedom. Today’s second video may help you to gain some peace of mind for dealing with stress.
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“How to live without Stress in your day-to-day life”
by Eckhart Tolle
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Learning how to achieve peaceful living may be much eased by knowing how to live without reacting to the “content” of our lives. There may be realization that the form of thought need not make a home in me as a lasting identity.
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I hope you find this training useful. I added some more in the comments section and there are additional related articles listed too.
Need help or want to collaborate with me?
e-mail me at thehunt4truth@yahoo.com
Contemplative practices are counter-cultural. Broadly defined, contemplative practices, are more than the stereotype of prayer of a religious nature or meditation within an eastern tradition. Contemplative mind-body practices cultivate a focus on experiences, ideas or situations that act to remind us to connect to what we find most meaningful.
Contemplative practices are widely varied. I included an illustration below from the center for Contemplative Mind in Society that visually expands contemplative practices; for instance: various forms of meditation; focused thinking or brainstorming; time out in nature; writing; performing in the arts; contemplative movement in active, physical practices like yoga or tai chi; and silent practices like mindfulness and prayer of course.
Some people find that rituals rooted in a religious or cultural tradition sooth their soul. Not all practices are done in solitude. Groups and communities engage in practices that support reflection in a social context.
We may each benefit by a contemplative practice.
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The Tree of Contemplative Practices
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Click to enlarge: The Tree of Contemplative Practices
From the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society…
Historically, contemplative practice has been taught by the world’s spiritual traditions. However, in the last three decades, the fields of psychology, medicine, and education have recognized that contemplative practice can contribute to well-being and maturation. As a result, health professionals and educators have been teaching contemplative practices in ‘non-religious forms’ that can be used as a resource for resilience by agnostics and atheists, as well as by people with a spiritual or religious worldview.
There are two major types of contemplative practice:
Contemplation of behavior: When stressed out, angry, or afraid, we tend to become reactive. In such moments, we often act impulsively, in ways that harm ourselves or others. Contemplative practice teaches us to examine and change these destructive forms of behavior.
Elevation of awareness: The stress of daily life is like a sticky spider’s web. It ensnares us. It prevents us from experiencing the beauty that surrounds us, our capacity for love and compassion, and the presence of a transcendent dimension in life. Through meditation, prayer, the arts, and observation of the natural world (and many other techniques), contemplative practice can help us restore our ability to rise above our anxieties, and to perceive life’s mystery and beauty.
The links below offer some examples of contemplative practices:
Additionally… here is a short program of eastern contemplative Christian practices:
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Program Description An in depth dialogue on the teachings of early Christianity and the spirituality of eastern Orthodoxy, still little known in the West. A rare source of mystical wisdom.
Balance is what is central to serenity and a peaceful integration of the many identities that we perceive of ourselves to be when in reality, we’ve actually forgotten the higher-self that we are to be and thus, we must juggle in the identities to maintain a balance long enough that allows recalling that we are divine by nature.
Mind is expression of Energy originating from beyond the limits of space-time through the information layers of consciousness.
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Most of this post is from work
by Eckhart Tolle.
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Eckhart Tolle is asked, “Is the ego the source of our thoughts or are our thoughts generated elsewhere and pass through the ego?”
Tolle begins, “There is no ego apart from thoughts. The identification with thoughts is ego. But the thoughts that go through your mind, of course, are linked to the collective mind of the culture you live in, humanity as a whole, so they are not your thoughts as such, but you pick most of them up from the collective (most of them). And so, you identify with thinking and the identification with thinking becomes ego, which means simply that you believe in every thought that arises and you derive your sense of who you are from what your mind is telling you who you are. Opinions, viewpoints, ‘that’s me.’”
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Did the universe make a mistake with the ego?
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“The realm of consciousness is much vaster than thought can grasp. When you no longer believe everything you think, you step out of thought and see clearly that the thinker is not who you are.”
The ego arises out of the state of identification with thought. The moment of freedom arises when we realize that we are not our thoughts—rather, we are the awareness. .
Eckhart, Could you elaborate on ego versus healthy self-esteem? How do you know when higher consciousness guides you? How do we break the habit of excessive thinking? What is music and why is it so important to us?Why Does the ego put up such a fight? Do you ever regret what you say? Do we have a choice in suffering?
For two years, a small man sits quietly on a park bench. People walk by, lost in their thoughts. One day someone asks him a question. In the weeks that follow there are more people and more questions. Word spreads that the man is a “mystic,” and has discovered something that brings peace and meaning into our lives. It sounds like fiction, but today that man, Eckhart Tolle, is known worldwide for his teachings on spiritual enlightenment through the power of the present moment. Read more.
The ego has the benefit of beliefs that will sustain it until I am dead. How much power will we wrest from each other is in the balance each moment. My day-to-day life is where it seems that the match occurs. Yet, really this is a match of mind and consciousness. One is eternal and all powerful. The other is temporary and yet seems all powerful. The ego makes its points by turning away in fear from love. The mind makes its points by looking through the anxious devastation of fear to see an outcome that is beyond the space-time present; manifest in the design of this universe, yet largely unknown to me.
I know that I am changing and according to what I am reading, so is my brain and my body adapting too. I wanted to learn how mindfulness is aiding me; spiritually, and how mindfulness and meditation and praying stimulate physical changes, so, I’d been posting on this as I was learning more.
Often, I’m told that prayer is all that is necessary for spiritual growth. I cannot disagree. However, I need stillness away from the ego to be able to do this. I put my mind to learning to want meditation time and I began to know the God of my youth, in a relevant and deep Christian way, as I pursued the practices of meditation. Later I began to experience the stillness and being in the flow, in the present of now, for periods of connecting but in still, timeless, moments. These experiences brought me to want to be joy as well as being softening humility and compassion for others.
The ego that Tolle describes is cunning and powerful and this is the ego that I discovered that I am otherwise unable to escape. It runs by fear, primal instinct, and it is a cunning foe, this arcane chameleon foe of personality shifting identities.
I’ve taught in programs that serve people that dissociate. So, I’ve read about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Identity Disorders; always… have for years now. It may be, I am sure more than suspect, that mindfulness is a tremendous beneficial practice for people that suffer from PTSD and ego fragmenting dissociate disorders. The techniques are being researched and there is new hope for vets and abuse victims. The problems of PTSD and for others that dissociate are deeply attached to subconscious ego defense mechanisms that are hardly yet understood. With Tolle’s teachings and with mindfulness practices, there is great hope.
I already know from research and seeing people get well that these practices are greatly benefiting people that suffer from anxiety and depression.
I see that everyone is having so much to say over there at your blog Heather — the personality scoring and description systems have come a long way since my youth. Back in my day, even getting a PhD wouldn’t have been so much education about personalities as is now available in a few hours by applying the online tools — for free!
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F R E E ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!
Heather, that is so cool !
Hey, if I were you, I’d click below and visit Heather’s blogto find out how useful personality knowledge really is.
Click the image:
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Not convinced yet?
Watch this scientific (not scientism) evidence:
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a personality test that actually started as a way to get women into the workforce is now being taken by over 2.5 million American men, women and children each year. The test can help you become more aware of your flaws and strengths. Don’t stop here, that four letter code is like money in the bank.Take your four letter code to my friend Heather’s blog to find out how the code is your key to heightened success.
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Thanks for visiting. If you liked this, come back every day. I always have more to share with my WordPress friends.
Excerpts from
The 7 Spiritual Laws of Success
by Deepak Chopra
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Success in life could be defined as the continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals. Success is the ability to fulfill your desires with effortless ease. And yet success, including the creation of wealth, has always been considered to be a process that requires hard work, and it is often considered to be at the expense of others. We need a more spiritual approach to success and to affluence, which is the abundant flow of all good things to you. With the knowledge and practice of spiritual law, we put ourselves in harmony with nature and create with carefulness, joy, and love.
All of creation, everything that exists in the physical world, is the result of the unmanifest transforming itself into the manifest. Everything that we behold comes from the unknown. Our physical body, the physical universe — anything and everything that we can perceive through our senses — is the transformation of the unmanifest, unknown, and invisible into the manifest, known, and visible.
The physical universe is nothing other than the Self curving back within Itself to experience itself as spirit, mind, and physical matter. In other words, all processes of creation are processes through which the Self or divinity expresses Itself. Consciousness in motion expresses itself as the objects of the universe in the eternal dance of life.
The source of all creation is divinity (or the spirit); the process of creation is divinity in motion (or the mind); and the object of creation is the physical universe (which includes the physical body).
These three components of reality — spirit, mind, and body, or observer, the process of observing, and the observed — are essentially the same thing. They all come from the same place: the field of pure potentiality which is purely unmanifest.
The physical laws of the universe are actually this whole process of divinity in motion, or consciousness in motion. When we understand these laws and apply them in our lives, anything we want can be created, because the same laws that nature uses to create a forest, or a galaxy, or a star, or a human body can also bring about the fulfillment of our deepest desires.
Now let’s look over The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success and see how we can apply them in our lives.
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In the beginning there was neither existence nor non-existence.
All this world was unmanifest energy . . .
The One breathed, without breath, by Its own power.
Nothing else was there . . .
— Hymn of Creation, The Rig Veda
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Thanks for visiting.
Eric
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If you like this, you’ll love this: I previously published more detailed posts.
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Eric
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the Hunt for Truth 