Nurturing Greatness

Just imagine how the world would be if we all were alive in our own greatness. Working on purpose, living in love and goodness, waking in the morning refreshed, joyful, eager to start our day full of health and happiness. Imagine spending your time doing things you love to do, with people you love to be around; learning, teaching, creating, enjoying.

And did you notice I said “greatness”? Not pretty-good-ness, or okay-ness, but greatness.

It’s one of the scariest things, the contemplation of our own potential greatness. Isn’t that strange? You’d think that we’d be champing at the bit to get there, but here we are instead, struggling to push the envelope of our okay-ness, or not-too-sucky-ness.

How do I know I am good enough? What makes me shine? How could I be great?

It’s so scary, we often can’t even imagine what it might look like. It’s so scary, we can barely figure out what we like, what we want.  Linus, in the Peanuts cartoon by Charles Schultz put it nicely, “There is no heavier burden than a great potential.”

Well, we have Creative Questions. That makes a huge difference. We can start by asking “Why am I good enough?” and then we can ask “How am I amazing? What makes me live on purpose?” And then we can ask, “How could I be great? Why would I be great? What makes me so great?”

How do you feel, asking those questions? Excited? Neutral? Bad?

When we remember that our emotions are our GPS pointing us to our path, we know what our Questions will be. If I feel neutral or even bad when I ponder my greatness, I may want to start asking some good Questions, reprogramming my unconscious mind with supportive, empowering questions.

I may want to ask Questions like, “How do I feel when I am great? What makes me great? How do I know what I want?”

Oh, yeah. How do I know what I want?  That is a question we start out asking. As infants, we know what we want, we just can’t articulate it very well. For many of us, as we get older, we learn to ignore what we want beyond material stuff. We may be told we are ridiculous for wanting that, or that we would only fail at it. Some of us decide we will show them, some of us give up, some of us decide to clean that stuff up, and just get on with growing up.

Sometimes, when we ask Questions like these, we find big resistance. We may get mad, or frustrated, and act that out by being dramatic. We may get depressed, and shut down, taking it out on ourselves. Sometimes we feel stuck or helpless, and that directs us to our power questions, Why am I strong? Why am I competent? What makes me capable?

I had the experience when I was young of being punished for being successful, so that’s one I have to be aware of. It’s much less strong now, and I like to think about it disappearing altogether. We often have stuff like that, hidden back in our youth. Resolving it will make stuff so much easier.

How have I changed from fearing my potential to nurturing my greatness?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2014 all rights reserved 03292014

What did you like in today's contemplation? The idea of letting your greatness grow? Yeah, I like that, too. Would you be so kind as to + or share this? Thanks. Why are you amazing?

Mapping Happiness

Mapping Happiness

A lot of things have changed over the years. Cell phones are amazing and freeing. GMOs maybe not so much. One of the changes I’ve had is to go from being an emotions hater to an emotions lover.

I know I’ve used this analogy before, but I like it. Emotions are our system’s GPS. They let us know where we are with our thinking, with our beliefs, with our behavior, with our view of the world.

One of the beliefs I have adopted is the notion that we can, here on earth, transcend suffering and choose happiness. Not McMansion-hot-cars-jewels-and-furs happiness, but a profound soul happiness. I believe that we all have that soul happiness deep within us, and that we all have access to the tools and resources we need to uncover it. I believe that our emotions let us know when we are on course, or off course.

How do my emotions support me? What makes me own my feelings? Why do I know what I like?

Something I’ve noticed about me is that I like stuff, and I don’t like stuff. That changes, like oil on water on a breezy day, all flowing and glowing. Knowing that my preferences change really helped me with this whole thinking about happiness and emotions.

So here are some ideas I’ve had. I am just knocking them around in my head to see what comes out. If you have opinions about them, I would love to hear them.

I feel sad when I feel I have lost something I like. Or when I feel I have acquired something I don’t like.

I feel scared when I feel I may lose something I like. Or when I feel I may acquire something I don’t like.

I feel angry when I feel I am losing something I like. Or when I feel I am acquiring something I don’t like.

So, when I am feeling clear and centered and present, I usually own where I am at, and feel happy. Sometimes I even feel joyful or blissed out.

When I am feeling one of the basic seven emotions, I look at my likes and dislikes, and, if I can own them, I can often get back to feeling clear and centered and present. Sometimes, I have feelings, what I think of as complex sets of thoughts and emotions. Sorting out my feelings can take longer, still going to my current likes and dislikes really helps.

Sometimes I feel crazy.

That feeling used to scare me (I felt like I might lose my mind.) What really helped me with that feeling was remembering that my conscious thought is about 12% of all my thought, and that sometimes, I have big stuff bouncing around in my unconscious mind. When that happened in the old days, I would get anxious and stressed, and feel like I was crazy. Now, I relax, get meditative, and often the unconscious material will pop up and the crazy feeling will go away.

I love this Leonard Cohen line: Only one thing made him happy, and now that it was gone, everything made him happy.

How have I changed from suffering to being soul-happy?

(c) Pam Guthrie all rights reserved 03062014

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Emotions 101

Emotions 101

Emotions are amazing things. They are the bridge from our virtual world of thoughts to the real world of our physical bodies. This is the beginning of how thoughts become things. We can see it happening now with brain scans, and it’s astonishing.

Every single thought we have produces an emotion. Every single one. Mostly, they are tiny emotions, and we can’t even feel them. Emotions are a simple way of saying that we have a complex set of physiological responses; things dilate or contract, go faster or slower, secrete stuff or stop secreting, to name a few.

Thoughts becoming things.

So when I have a scary thought, my pupils dilate, my heart and respiration rates go up, my adrenals start pumping out adrenaline. Over time, I learn to call that set of responses “fear.”

And when I have a peaceful thought, my body creates a very different set, with different heart rates, hormones and neurochemicals, and I learn to call that set of responses “calm.”

This is useful information when, for example, you are having your blood pressure taken.

Meanwhile, our brains are thinking thoughts at a mile a minute, most of which don’t even show up on our radar, that is, in our conscious mind.

When my brain is thinking scary thoughts a lot of the time, I end up with feelings. and call the set stress or worry. If I don’t change it, modify it by doing stuff to make other feelings happen, I can end up with physical symptoms. For example, lots of scary thoughts can make my adrenal glands work too hard, and I end up with a set of symptoms that  wrecks my sleep, makes me achy, messing with my stomach, and so on.

Emotions just happen, as a result of thought. Feelings are something we cobble together based on how we interpret what is going on around us, our long-term experiences, our beliefs. Is there a current events thing that, just the mention of it, you have giant feelings about? Or thinking of the smiling and happy face that belongs to someone you love, you get a woosh of feeling of another kind.

We have emotions to act as a kind of life-GPS, to let us know how we are doing, where we are at, and what we might want to do.

Our natural life is kind of like a fabulous candy bar, with nutty fun, and a peaceful nougat center. We can have a ball, and still have that centered stillness.

When we don’t feel that centered stillness, regardless of what is happening, our feelings let us know we have strayed. That wiggly feeling in our gut, the tightness in our shoulders or neck, the squinched up toes; these act as markers to let us know that we need to regroup, to calm down, to notice what we are thinking and change it.

Worry devours your well being and sleep, anxiety is a painful habit, anger can be so destructive. When we shift our thoughts, even just a little bit, it can make such a difference.

How have I changed from ignoring my thoughts and feelings to respecting their value to me?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 09282013