I Believe I Can Fly

I believe I can fly, just not like Superman does, although I have to wonder if my belief was true and strong, could I? I know that the only limits we have are those we place on ourselves so my answer is; probably. But flying is not my subject today, belief is & the title of this post was just for fun.

Long time readers know that my theory for creation is; belief + expectation = actions + results. Every aspect of your life is your creation and has come from your beliefs because belief is the starting point for everything. You expect what you believe will happen then you take whatever action you take based on that expectation and the results you get come from the actions that you take.

Why is understanding this important? Because if you want to achieve a goal but your belief in your ability to achieve that goal is weak then you have little or no real expectation of realizing that goal so your actions will be, at best, half-hearted and you have little chance of success.

It has been my experience that when a person lacks confidence in their ability to achieve a goal it is because they feel inadequate, Oh sure, it may be disguised as something else but when you peel back all the layers, all that is left is that mistaken notion of inadequacy.

The good news is that is hard slap upside the head will fix that. No, I do not mean a literal slap I mean a metaphorical slap. Thinking it through and realizing that we are human and equal. Study history and success and you will see that smart people, not so smart people and not at all smart people have succeeded so its not intelligence that predicates success. same with luck, family connections or whatever. People that succeed do so because they believe that they can and because they believe they start moving in the direction of their goal fully expecting to reach it. And so can you.

How’d Ya Do?

The challenge on my last post was to not complain about anything so the question now is; how did you do on that? Yeah, me too, but I am not discouraged because I get a little bit better at it every day. It helps that the little voice in my head has already developed the habit of saying ‘are you complaining?’ because that is like a splash of cold water in my face and I can then make an immediate about face and start appreciating.

I am very grateful for this practice of not complaining because I find myself laughing at some of the things my mind comes up with to turn the complaint around. Like that comment I made about new shoes in my last post, I could have complained that my new shoes made my feet hurt but I thought about it for a second and realized that I am grateful to have feet and feeling in my feet which is something some diabetics don’t have. That I have feet at all, that I have new shoes, that I can walk, run, hop, skip and jump so who cares if those dogs are barking? That’s just a reminder of a blessing!

The result of letting go of complaints is that I see so many more things to be grateful for and a serious reduction of things to complain about and I know that you will too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Wednesday Warm- up

If you live in the USA then you know that Thanksgiving is this Thursday and we all know that Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks. At least it is supposed to be, even if for many it means lots of food, family and football and often all this activity distracts us from spending much time giving thanks. I want to share a simple way of being that makes giving thanks automatic.

Now notice that I wrote simple and not easy. Simple & easy are not synonymous and therefore not interchangeable. All the same, this is a simple exercise that with regular practice, can become your habitual way of being.

So if you are up for the challenge, it starts on Wednesday and all you have to do is not complain about anything, and I do mean anything. If your food is cold, burned, bland or whatever don’t complain about it be grateful that you have food (and maybe especially grateful that you have other food options more to your liking in the fridge). If you come home from a long day of work and the house is a mess, resist complaining about having to clean it up and be grateful to have a home to clean & the ability to clean it. My personal favorite this week is being grateful that I have feet and those feet will take me wherever I want to go (new shoes can really make you remember that you have feet can’t they?) And while you are at it be grateful to have a job to come home from.

When you truly embrace this exercise then you quickly find that thoughts of complaint lead to insight about what in that situation is something to be grateful for (because that little voice in your head will point out that you are complaining and urge you to turn it around) and when you do that you start to make a shift. You become happier because you see that there is a lot of great things in and about your life. When you complain about anything you are focused on what you don’t like, what is not good, and that blocks your ability to see what is good and this steals your joy for life. You don’t arrive at happiness, you find it all along the way but not if you are spending all your time trying to find the complaint department.

So give it a go; don’t complain about anything on Wednesday and see for yourself that you will enjoy the day much more. Then go for another 24 hours of no complaining and repeat until…..

Sugar Pills

So last post I talked about mental viruses & how things that people say, things that you read & things that you see often end up influencing beliefs and actions.

I think that just about everyone that reads this blog has heard about cultures & people, not only in the past but even today, that believe in shamans, healers or witchdoctors. And you might think that the people that believe in these practitioners are from primitive societies or third world countries and that their believers are deluded however, the placebo effect is well documented in every area of the world. I read about people who were, with the permission of their families, given ‘sham’ surgery for knee problems. Since this was a real study, they had several groups, one that had the surgery & some that one thought they had gotten it but had not (though incisions were made in the skin the make it look like they had gotten the operation) and one that the surgeon actually ‘spoke’ the procedure over the sedated patient, with accompanying sounds that would have occurred had the operation actually happened. They followed up with all of the patient’s after one year. An overwhelming number of the the subjects in the study reported a vast improvement in their condition as a result of the surgery. And this is just one example of the placebo effect, you know there  are many more.

The bottom line here is that when someone that has authority, that has ‘expertise’, that has stature says a thing is so, people tend to believe that person, or that news program, that article, that expert. And it is that belief that controls the result. Now, that is a good thing if what you are being told is beneficial to you but is it always? We live in a world that is on information overload and we rely on ‘experts’ to tell us so much. Then we believe just about everything they tell us without giving it much thought.

Am I saying don’t believe anything you hear? Not at all, but you have been told all of your life to take everything with a ‘grain of salt’ which means that information should be examined before being adopted or that it should not be blindly accepted and believed without any doubts or reservations.

So, now you have read two posts on this subject and you may be wondering why I chose it. You are inundated by information and misinformation every day so I want you to be clear that what you choose to allow yourself to be exposed to, through the news, ‘experts’, your next door neighbor and even me, is your choice so make that choice wisely and with a grain of salt. Although I could just be saying that if results follow belief then what do you believe and why do you believe that?

Mind Control

Interesting title eh? Bet you are wondering what this post could possibly be about-a conspiracy theory perhaps? But no, and yet what would you say if I told you that your actions, your health, your whole life even is being and always has been affected by the things that others have told you?

Sure you might admit that on a superficial level you are persuaded to buy that certain car, house, clothes, gadget or whatever but some of you are probably thinking to yourself that you have never been a conformist and you do your own thinking. Hmmm, got bad news for you; we ALL have our fair share of programming, of mind control, of mental viruses.

What is a mental virus you say? Why, its a belief or attitude planted in your mind by someone else. We all have them but we do not all realize that we have them. I was reminded of this today when I was talking to someone about Botox. She said that she had read a book by a woman that said that all efforts to fight off an aging appearance led to a person living an inauthentic life. When I heard that I remembered a friend (that apparently read the same book) telling me that coloring your hair to get rid of grey hair is inauthentic. She did not say if she planned to never color her hair but I believe that if she did the authors words would echo in her head every time she looked in a mirror.

To me the interesting thing about this is that someone postulates an argument or theory and explains their reasoning and some people adopt that belief without thorough examination of that argument or theory. What both women said was that fighting the appearance of aging was not only fighting nature but leads to a person feeling not good enough to be themselves. Really? Well, like most arguments there is a certain logic there but is it more than superficial? I have no idea because I did not, and likely will not, read her book. And I am not here to knock her, I am just using this as an example of how a person can be and is affected by what others say. For me, if one chooses to use Botox, color their hair or any number of other things to look better, then I say why not? I don’t see those things as any different than wearing makeup, jewelry, dressing well, exercising to maintain health and figure or having your hair styled, just to name a few.  How you look on the outside is reflective of how you feel about yourself on the inside. A good example of that would be Michael Jackson and Phyllis Diller. What was on the inside of each showed best when ‘enhancements’ were made.

So have I explained mental viruses well enough yet? NO. So I will continue this on my next post.

Dwell On This

 

“True abundance has nothing to do with anything that I am having & everything to do with what I am being. And when I share my abundance of beingness abundantly with all those whose lives I touch, everything I sought to have came to me automatically without my even trying to have them.” Neale Donald Walsh

I am sure that if you ponder that quote for a bit you will find the meaning that is right for you. For me, what Neale is saying is that it is all about feeling good; about yourself and about what is possible for us all and then sharing that feeling of good with the world. I do know that when you feel great good things seem to happen and that helping others is a great way to feel good and to share your abundance of being-just ask Mother Theresa-yeah okay, she is no longer available for interviews but I think you still get my point.

I’m Back!

Yeah, I know it’s not like me to miss a post and for sure not two of them but I decided to give myself a vacation-even though it was technically a 'staycation'. It was interesting to me that I ended up spending more time thinking about blogging than I would have had I just done my usual posts. I think that is because several things happened that I felt could only be the work of the universe-and yes by universe I mean God-and I have to say that I am very grateful.

I wish I could show a video of the one that struck me the most (not because it was the most beneficial but because it was the most unique) alas, I have no video. Words may not be adequate to explain but will have to suffice. We were driving down a rural road, one with lots of little hills, open fields, a creek to cross and patches of trees. We were traveling about thirty-five miles an hour and a deer came running out toward the truck. Because of the terrain we could not see the deer until it was already in the road and it was clearly headed full speed right at the side of the truck and then, in a motion I can only describe as looking like a character in a cartoon performing on stage and the ‘hook’ coming out and grabbing the character by the neck to jerk him offstage, the deer turned. And I hope that I have painted a vivid enough picture for you because I have never seen a deer move like that, especially not one running one way and then changing direction in such an odd fashion-it’s head didn’t lead, it’s body didn’t but it’s neck-that is what turned first, as if pulled by an unseen hand. I was gobsmacked.

So you are sitting there thinking what does this have to do with self growth? We follow the laws of the universe including the law of gratitude; when we go anywhere we give thanks that we always have safe journeys-before we go anywhere. We give thanks after we receive favor but we give praise in advance, not just in expectation but also of appreciation and the results of that have shown up for us in too many ways and numbers to even keep count of. Conversely, when we do not take the time (rare as that is sometimes we get in a hurry, are preoccupied or whatever) to follow the law our results have not been as positive.

So that’s my belief and I’m sticking to it & I highly recommend you give it a try.