Mind Treasure

Mind Treasure

You know I believe I live a life of luxury that most of the kings in the history of the world would boggle at. My comfy home with climate control. Refrigerated food in an amazing variety. Electricity that brings me light, music, movies, instant communication, cool breezes on a hot day, warm breezes on a chilly day. Amazing friends around the world. Lovely clothes in all my favorite colors. Oh, and shoes that feel good to wear and that I think are cute.

But there is one luxury that I often take for granted. I bet many of us take it for granted, too. Do you wanna guess?

Each of us has the luxury of thought.

Why can I choose? How do I decide? Why would I choose happy?

Each of us can think whatever the heck we choose. Whenever we want. Great googly moogly. We can think beautiful thoughts, we can think dark thoughts. We can imagine whole worlds, make up relationships, imagine different lives.

We can use our thoughts to change our lives from the inside out, and that means lasting change.

While I can’t change you, and don’t have much control on the outside, I have a huge amount of control over what I think.

The people who do this sort of measuring say that 88% of our thought is unconscious. That means we have 12% that we can notice. And of that those same folks say that 90% of our conscious thought is habitual. I don’t know if those stats are true, but I do know that, once I started paying attention to my conscious thought, I found that I did run thought loops, and that many of them weren’t very nice.

So how to I start indulging in the luxury of thought?

My first step is to start noticing how I’m thinking. We have different ways of expressing our thoughts. Some of us see pictures, we visualize stuff. Some of us hear words or sounds. We prefer auditory thought. Some of us feel sensations of all sorts. We prefer kinesthetic thought.

Each of us using each modality, just to different degrees.

Now I can start paying attention to what I am thinking, and can assess the thought. Is it habitual? Do I always think this thought when I am driving in traffic, for example. Is this thought light or dark? How do I feel when I think this thought?

When we think dark thoughts, we get corresponding dark feelings. Dark thoughts can leave us feeling tired, scared, stuck, unmotivated, lonesome, and worse.

I can use my good Creative Questions to change those thoughts. And as I rehearse and practice my good Creative Questions, they get into my unconscious mind, and start making those wonderful changes that change my life.

Why would I be positive? What make me feel uplifted? How am I the boss of me?

How have I changed from being a prisoner of my thinking to luxuriating in my thoughts?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 06232014

Deflating Abuse

Deflating Abuse

One of my teachers used to say, “If you are feeling fat, ugly, and/or stupid, someone is abusing you.” It might be someone out there, it might be our own selves, but there is abuse there, and we are buying into it.

There are elements to that feeling, that fat-ugly-stupid feeling that go beyond the obvious. The big one is that I’ve decided you can make me feel something. I may have decided that a very long time ago. Maybe that’s some we all mislearn, and then have to unlearn, but there you go.

Fundament one -- I decide how I feel. Why do I trust my emotions? Why can I choose?

Fundament two -- I choose the present moment. Why am I aware? What makes me mindful?

Fundament three -- In this moment, I am perfection. How do I know I am a manifestation of the divine?

Ok, those are three big’uns. Let’s get in a little deeper. We’ve been talking about this a lot lately, how I decide how I feel. My feelings come from my thoughts, and, while I can’t control what thoughts flow through my mind, I can control what thoughts I will think on. In order to do that, I need to be aware of myself, my space and placement in the world, my thoughts, my beliefs, my emotions and feelings, and that is huge. What makes me mindful? Why am I aware?

I choose the present moment. That is the closest thing to real that we get. When I am worrying, I am living in the future. When I feel depressed, I’m living in the past. Over-simplified, but the point is that our purpose in life is to be happy. That means, I need to clean up my crap. When I choose to be present, I can stay afloat. It’s the worry and fear, the blame and guilt, anger and grief that weigh me down. In the 12 step programs, they talk about acting as if, as if we are happy, as if we feel secure, as if we are confident. The trick is, to be working on that while we are acting as if, and Creative Questions will go a long way to helping with that.

Why am I happy? Why do I feel secure? What makes me confident?

In this moment, I am perfect. I am the perfect manifestation of me right now. This doesn’t mean I don’t have plans and goals. I need plans and goals to shape my choices. We are all in process. When I don’t make plans or set goals for myself, I am sort of aimlessly drifting. The opposite of setting goals is complaining, feeling sorry for ourselves.

Sometimes I feel like I have the right, I am entitled, to feel crappy, like the toddler who enjoys throwing a tantrum to the point where the reason for it is lost. When I feel like that, sometimes it’s good for me to wallow in it for a while. Savor feeling rotten, in whatever guise it might be in. It often is a kind of pity party, where somehow I am feeling sorry for myself. What I’ve discovered is that, when I really give in to it, I’m only good for about 15 minutes before I get sick of it and want to go back to feeling good.

When I decide you can’t make me feel stuff, that I am not in competition, that my life is for me to live, a lot of nice things happen, including me feeling more attractive, more lovable, more desirable. I own my power, my wisdom, my creativity. I love for the sake of love, and keep my love for you and me in balance. I take care of me easily, and of you willingly.

How have I changed from feeling unlovable to feeling like a manifestation of divine purpose and being?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 03252014

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