Looking for Freedom?
By Ben | May 13, 2008
Do you ever get frustrated?
Ever feel trapped?
Much of the tension in the body exists in the head and shoulders… when we learn to experience deep relaxation in these areas, not only does it feel great, but it also allows you to train your awareness more fully on other aspects of life… much of the impression of ‘being trapped’ comes from this cage of muscular tension that most people keep around their head.
If you are looking for freedom, practicing some stress relief in the areas of the neck, shoulders, and head will be your first step out of your conceptual prison. Your head is the location of 4 of your 5 primary senses… unneeded tension is problematic anywhere in the body, but in the head, it tends to create a destructive loop… due to the tension, you can’t hear or see as well, which means you can’t think as well, and this usually leads to more tension.
How do you break the cycle?
Practice.
When you notice tension building, anywhere in the body, walk through the following process. As with anything else, it works better if you catch it early.
- Take a deep breath (deep into your belly), then release
- Take another deep breath and tighten the muscles of your body as you do (moderately tight is fine, although you can turn this into a dynamic tension workout if you like).
- As you release the breath, allow your body to completely relax…
- Continue breathing relaxed and naturally as you
- bring your attention to your scalp… notice any remaining tension, and let it go
- bring your attention to your forehead… notice any sensations in the forehead, and allow it to relax
- bring your attention to your eyes, and the muscles around your eyes… allow them to blink a few times quickly, then a few times lazily, now release any remaining tension from the area of the eyes (you might also notice any internal images that arise at this point)
- bring your attention to your ears… imagine your consciousness to extend out through your ears… notice any tension in or around the ears, then allow them to relax…
- bring your attentions to your face… allow the face to completely relax
- bring your attention to your tongue, and the roots of your tongue in your throat… allow the tongue and throat to relax
- bring your attention to the rest of your neck… lightly stretch it a bit, or roll it around, then release all tension from your neck
- and allow the relaxation to drift down into your shoulders, completely relieving any stress there, then let the pleasant sensations of deep breathing to flow through the rest of your body.
I could write a book explaining to you the various benefits of the above technique.
But it is much easier if you try it for yourself!
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: relaxation techniques | No Comments »
Understanding Duality…
By Ben | May 11, 2008
Can you reduce (expand) your consciousness to a singularity?
Experience the truth of unity…
and still appreciate all the individual uniqueness of every different thing in your world?
Can you allow your awareness to oscillate back and forth between the useful points of a given duality?
Apply what is useful when it is useful…
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: A bit of Zen | No Comments »
Enlightenment by Design…
By Ben | May 9, 2008
Anything in the way will be found within…
What exactly is enlightenment?
This question has been asked repeatedly of different people in different situations (for different reasons) throughout history. The responses have been numerous.
“What are you looking for?”/ “What is it that you seek?”
This response returns the questioner’s awareness to him/herself. When you ask yourself “Why” you are seeking enlightenment, or why you are curious about enlightenment, you have to look at your own motivation… what are you looking for, and how would you know if you had it?
“What is the difference between enlightened and unenlightened?”
Once again, the questioner has to look within to answer the counter question. How do you know you aren’t already there? What if you were to ask yourself “What qualities do the enlightened have that I do not?”
Great! Now we have more questions!
How about some working definitions…
I feel enlightenment is like anything else in life… it is an ongoing enterprise. I have never met a high level practitioner (even those who call themselves ‘Masters’) of any skill that didn’t feel that they had much more to learn in their area of expertise (but this also relates to the humility point, later).
Some consider enlightenment a phenomenon of mind-body congruence… there are exercises to develop this connection… and I’ll share some of them in future posts.
Some consider enlightenment a certain activity of energy and chakras… there are also exercises to develop and channel this energy, some have been covered already, and more will be covered in future posts. It is interesting to note that the mind-body exercises and energy exercises cross over at several points.
In my opinion, the skills/practices that are most important are those that develop deeper awareness and acceptance… there is literally no upper limit to these skills… you can always improve, and you can always take it that much further… however…
Enlightenment is not a finish line that we cross…
Putting questions and generalizations aside for the moment, there do seem to be some common landmarks on the many paths to ‘enlightenment’… knowing what to look for could be described as enlightenment by design…
Seeking to understand these points will be an excellent beginning for your journey…
- The Truth is a Lie: the ‘truth’ is typically thrown around by ‘hope salesmen’ and politicians… it’s all a matter of perspective… a cliche we have all heard… but this isn’t just true in an average ’self-help wisdom’ sense… but any experience you have takes place in your nervous system… seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling, thinking (seeing or hearing internally)… it’s all you… the external world is the great illusion, ultimately it’s all you… even that person you’re angry at … why do you dislike that part of you? Transcendence can come just from accepting the parts of yourself that you don’t want to admit are there… this is facing your shadow… this is not to say that there is nothing in your ‘external’ world that needs to be changed, this is just to say the most important change takes place within, and all changes start there.
- Many Dualities: Life is rarely one way or the other, though this is the way many issues are spoken of. Most discrepancies vary along a range. Often, the wisdom is somewhere in the middle. There are numerous examples of this within the realm of meditation, enlightenment, etc. There are those that view enlightenment as a grand quest, or journey. There are those that feel we are all completely enlightened already, we need only pay more attention to become aware of it. Entire traditions of meditation have sprung up around these two philosophies… but the most wise practitioners I have studied could appreciate both approaches, and tended to fall somewhere in the middle themselves. Enjoy the grand quest… and enjoy connecting with your deeper nature right now…
- Humility: If you have experienced something deeper (or ‘higher’ if you like… pick your metaphor), and it hasn’t given you a healthy dose of humility, then you haven’t experienced much. Good Luck!
- Depth and Breadth: I do want to achieve ever deeper experience, but I also want it to be universal in my life… I want access to deep awareness and acceptance wherever I go. There is much to be said for a ’sitting’ practice. In fact, I would recommend a little bit of seated, solo, silent meditation for everyone. But as you do that, it gets easier and easier to go deeper and deeper. The challenge at that point, is to take it into the rest of your life. Can you get peaceful at work? In traffic? During/after a fight with a loved one? Monasteries and retreats are great, but if the only place you have peace and power is at monasteries or during retreats, then it isn’t the peace and power that I’m interested in.
A few years ago I recognized that I could step into a deep, powerful state, at virtually anytime if I were in the right environment. I thought this was great (it was and still is)… I let myself get a bit egotistical about it… I was the ‘deep, spiritual guy’. I went for a while, operating in a very comfortable environment, with no real challenges, thinking that I had achieved quite a bit. All I did was work (pretty easy job), and go to a karate class (which I loved and still do), and occasionally hung out with friends. Life was easy. In some ways it was unfortunate when all of it collapsed around me, but I’m glad that it did. If it hadn’t, I might have cruised comfortably all the way to my grave in complete ignorance.
As a final thought, some people view enlightenment (and often any growth) as a puzzle. I prefer to view people as puzzles. The enlightenment (illumination, etc.) is already, there… the practitioner need only get the convoluted puzzle of self out of the way. It may take some time and persistence… and it may seem to be quite a quest at times to “get to the bottom” of the mystery that is you… but you’re well worth it… aren’t you?
Or in the words of Concrete Blonde:
“…give me some time to unlearn all I’ve learned, for the spring to unwind!”
Enjoy the unraveling!
And it might be useful to research how Alexander dealt with knots…
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: Neuro Linguistic Programming, A bit of Zen | No Comments »
Playing with breath…
By Ben | May 7, 2008
So once again, bring the attention back to the breath.
Smile.
Love yourself!
Deepen your smile as you exhale completely.
Love the feelings of breath filing your lungs. Allow your belly to expand out as you inhale.
Continue relaxing deeper and smiling as you exhale.
Now allow your belly to expand out and down as you inhale.
Now you can begin to smile with your whole body as you exhale.
Now you can start to let your chest expand as your belly expands out and down when you inhale.
… And allow depths of peace and power to fill you that you haven’t explored before… (we can always take it a little bit further)
Enjoy!
Repeat as necessary.
I know it can be really easy to lose your place of peace and power. Some people get so angry they want to say “Fuck You!” to all the challenging situations (shit happens), challenging people (there are jerks out there), and the shitty day they were a part of…. it can be hard to avoid (I might have had this challenge once or twice myself…), but this is a less-than-useful way of directing attention. The best way to say “Fuck You!” to a shitty day is to still be smiling at the end of it!
Inject some love and awareness into your day…
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: Law of Attraction, relaxation techniques | No Comments »
Stress Management and Workshops…
By Ben | May 5, 2008
There is much talk of techniques of stress management and workshops for learning these techniques. Both the techniques and the experience of the workshop can be incredibly useful, particularly if you know how the techniques work…
For those of you who have never taken one of these workshops, I’ll go ahead and give you a few of the techniques you might learn… and explain the principles by which they operate.
But first it is important to understand a little bit about the nature of stress, anger, and frustration. All of these feelings or experiences are states. States are mind-body environments. Anger is a state. Stressed out is a state. A given state can usually only exist within a given range of physiology and mental focus. There is almost always mind-body resistance associated with ‘negative’ states, or states of suffering. Physical relaxation is an excellent beginning for changing these states… but it works even better when you add in some awareness and acceptance (see A2).
Some of the most common techniques of stress management are:
- Counting to ten: this is a true classic, and it can work very well, too. The mechanism here is changing your focus… sometimes ten isn’t enough. This is working on the mind part of the mind-body formula… as you pay attention to something other than stressful thoughts, you have to let go of the thoughts that are causing (or associated with) the stress. You don’t have to jump right into to a super positive state… many times it is enough to simply let go of the negative state. Actually counting to ten might not be the best thing to change your focus to… but it is somewhere to start. Other options can be considering what you will be doing later in the day, an activity you enjoy, or just the feeling of your feet in your shoes (which can be very grounding).
- Go for a walk: another common recommendation for anger or stress, is going for a walk, or just exercise in general. This actually works on several levels… in a given instance, walking changes your physiology, or the body part of the mind-body formula… and thus it causes a change in your state. Much anger/frustration often comes when a person feels like they are not in control of their life. Exercise gives a simple method of setting and achieving goals… and achieving goals is the quickest way to help someone feel ‘back in charge’ of their life… in addition exercise is associated with better self image, more relaxed physiology, and higher satisfaction with life
- Take Some Deep Breaths: there is great power in breathing… but it does take some time to develop. When you change your physiology, you change your state, and when you alter your focus, you change your state… breathing can affect both of these… thus it is a very powerful method of quick state change. More specifics on working with the breath will be covered in future posts.
Use of any of these techniques is usually much more effective if you catch the state earlier. When you are just a little bit angry, it is much easier to change course than when you are furious. E.G. altering the course of a creek is much easier than altering the course of a river… and if you are trying to move the ocean… good luck!
As you practice any (or all) of these techniques, it changes the general focus and momentum in your life. Peace and prosperity become easier and easier as you get more and more comfortable with them! The early phases of learning something new can be challenging… but they can also be fun and exciting… it is up to you and how you look at new learning: is it frustrating, or do you find it challenging and feel powerful as you learn and grow?
Incidentally, deep relaxation learned from stress management techniques is the first step on the path of opening chakras… and having relaxed physiology, being aware and accepting, and being energetically open is the best starting place for using the Law of Attraction to bring whatever you like into your life.
The cool thing about the whole workshop/retreat/seminar experience, is that over several days you are living in a different reality. You are doing different things, thinking different thoughts, and you are surrounded by like minded people… this is a very powerful experience. A weekend seminar can be a strong enough experience to begin a significant change in your life. The challenge is returning to your old environment after the new experience… but more on this in future posts.
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: relaxation techniques | No Comments »
Achieving…
By Ben | May 3, 2008
Expansion can take place anywhere.
Can you enjoy it while it lasts, and let it go when it passes?
An object of meditation can be anything.
Are you willing to take some time to bring more into your life?
Are you willing to take the time to decide what more is?
Can you take this general feeling, vision, and direction and use it to generate a specific action plan that you can follow through on?
Will you see this through to its completion?
And how far past that?
- Lock in on what you want
- take action
- be aware and accepting on your path
- have fun!
Can you make it any simpler than that?
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: A bit of Zen, Law of Attraction | No Comments »
The Law of Attraction / How long does it take to see results… Part III
By Ben | May 2, 2008
In the first post in this series: The Law of Attraction / How long does it take to see results?
…We discussed the importance of feedback
In the second post… cleverly named The Law of Attraction / How long does it take to see results… Part II
…We talked about adding some positive feelings into the process.
In this post we will look at some categories to examine in order to continue improving your results.
Sometimes, feedback isn’t quite as obvious as a fuel indicator going off. Sometimes, you have to look a little bit deeper. For example, if you are a salesperson, and you cut your number of follow ups (or just your amount of time working) by half, and your commission drops by roughly half… the feedback here shouldn’t be too challenging to figure out. If you are a salesperson attempting to break a previous company record, and though you come close, you just can’t seem to get past it… then you might have to look a little bit deeper at feedback from multiple areas of your life.
To use the ‘energy’ metaphor again, you’ll have to begin to consider what energies are present in your life that aren’t consistent with what you wish to achieve.
How do you spend most of your time?
Let’s take a look at this on a few different levels.
A job will typically take up 8 hours or more 5 days (or more) a week. That’s a lot of time. What else do you spend this much time (40+ hours per week) on in your life? Usually the things we love the most… friends, family, hobbies, etc… take a distant second place to our job. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it does make your job a very powerful energy in your life.
So the big question is…
Does your job support your goals?
…I’ve had to look at this many times myself, and many times, the answer has been “No!”
It is obvious what must be done in this situation… change the job. On occasion, you can move to a more appropriate position in the same company… but there are also times when you will have to truly find another place or way to earn income… as one of my college professors would say… “I was looking for a job when I found this one!”
What about your hobbies? How do you spend your spare time? Is it supporting your direction?
There is nothing wrong with taking time to relax… in fact, it is crucial for you to take time to relax… your health (mental and physical) depends on it! Having said that, it is important to find a relaxing activity the helps move you toward your goals… very rarely does watching tv fall into this category. I don’t want to demonize watching tv (that would make me quite a hypocrite), but the average American watches more than 4 hours of tv everyday… I would say that is a bit excessive. On the other hand, I do find it humorous to see someone watching tv, and waiting for commercials to complain about all the things they wish were different in their life.
If your goal is to lose weight, learn to take relaxing walks (or rides on your bike, or swims, or whatever other activity suits you best). If your goal is to start your own business, learn to relax and enjoy researching your target markets.
Another category to consider:
Do the people in your life support your goals?
If you have ever read a book on building wealth, there is a truism that is repeated again and again. If you average the yearly incomes of your closest friends and family members, you will come up with roughly your own yearly income. Obviously, it is not impossible to overcome this, but the easiest way to overcome it is to invite some new energies/influences into your life. Make a friend who makes lots of money (or at least a lot more than you do). If your goal is weight loss, then start spending some time with people who eat healthier and/or exercise more. If you have spiritual goals, join a church or join a meditation group/class (as appropriate for your goals), and attend several times a week.
Fellowship is a concept we usually get from religion. Religions usually build this in to make it more difficult for people to “fall off the wagon”. If you spend 1-2 hours a week at church talking about changing your beliefs and behaviors so you can stop drinking… and then spend the rest of the week around drinking buddies in a house (or bar) full of booze… you’re gonna “fall off the wagon” … so churches usually offer functions or services throughout the week… and if the church (or whatever fellowship group) supports your goals, this may be the best thing for you. On the other hand, if you are promoting a night club, finding an ever increasing number of drinking buddies might be the best thing for the business ( I haven’t found a church that supports this behavior yet… but I’m still looking…;^).
Fellowship doesn’t necessarily involve a church… it is simply spending time with like minded people. Consider who you spend your time with, and how they think and behave (this includes spouse/significant other, family, friends, coworkers, etc.). If you are of a different mindset than most of those people that are close to you, your beliefs and behaviors will gradually become more and more like theirs… for better or for worse. It is wise to spend time in fellowship with people who are moving in the same direction you are.
The final question, which ultimately in some way influences all the others is:
Are your day to day thoughts and behaviors supporting your goals?
The only person you spend %100 of your time with is you. This makes you the most important influence in your life! All changes begin as thoughts, but unfortunately, life is not changed by thought alone. These thoughts must be carried over into behaviors (which will change the other ‘energies’ present in your life).
You can’t have an experience of anything (places, events, or other people) without “you” there. Everything in your life has been filtered through your senses and your perceptions (e.g. your ’sense’ of sight tells you the wall is red, but your ‘perception’ tells you whether it is a pleasing shade of red or not). Your perception will put a useful or less-than-useful spin on everything you encounter in life (internally or externally). This makes it very important to pay attention to how you ‘pay attention’.
The most powerful way to change your perception… to modify the way you look at life… is through a change in beliefs. Beliefs can be difficult to change, though, and usually only change over a period of time (more on quick-belief-change in future posts). How can we quickly change perception?
We change our mood!
Mood, state, attitude, etc. … will alter your perception of everything in your life (and your consistent attitude can gradually change your beliefs as well). As an example, I once worked with a guy who I considered to be a real asshole. Now most of the time (when I was in a relatively good mood), I just thought he was obnoxious and occasionally annoying, but someone it was okay to work with or have a drink with. When I was in a bad mood, though, I thought he was one of the biggest assholes I had ever met, and I couldn’t believe that I was spending any of my time around him, let alone working with him on a regular basis.
What was different? He hadn’t changed, he was still the same asshole he always was (I’m sure there is a different way for me to look at this man, other than as an ‘asshole’… but I’m not certain I’m that spiritually evolved, yet…;^). The only thing that had changed was my mood, and thus my perception.
Keep in mind that no one has ‘perfect thinking’ all the time. On occasion, everyone gets less-than-useful thoughts. What’s important, is that you accept the less-than-useful thoughts (let go of resistance), and then shift your awareness back to what serves you… this is a very powerful meditation!
In my next post, I’ll share some of my own experiences with the law of attraction… what I did differently in each case that got the results quickly or not so quickly.
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: Neuro Linguistic Programming, Law of Attraction | No Comments »
The Law of Attraction / How long does it take to see results… Part II
By Ben | April 28, 2008
In my last post, (The Law of Attraction / How long does it take to see results?) we spoke about some of the concepts that must be added into what is called The Law of Attraction in order to make it effective. But How long does it take? This partially depends on how closely you are paying attention to feedback.
The Universe is always talking to you… are you listening?
The Universe is always giving you potentially transformational experiences… do you feel it?
The Universe paints pictures and symbols in your life to help you unlock yourself and your desires… but can you see them?
We have to make a point to not only pay attention to the feedback we receive, but also correct our course appropriately. This is key! You can’t just take action, you have to
Take effective action based on the feedback you receive!
This is important information for any practice. Remember the land nav example… without frequent course corrections, you will never get where you are going.
Assuming that you are paying attention to feedback, though, what’s next?
Be sure to smile!
Feeling good about what you are doing is incredibly powerful! Consciously enjoying the process is its own reward, but it also makes you more likely to follow through with the process… we tend to seek pleasure and avoid pain… if you hate your exercise program, it doesn’t matter how well planned it is… it will be nearly impossible to follow through on. The best exercise program is the one you enjoy (or can learn to enjoy)… that is the one you will follow through on.
So how do we learn to enjoy it?
Well, if you haven’t read the posts on awareness and acceptance (A2 - Secrets of mindful relaxation & A2 again), now would be a good time.
Going into something we aren’t comfortable with has several challenges associated with it, but all of these can be lessened or eliminated with acceptance.
A general affirmation for this would be:
“I’m not yet comfortable with this, and that’s alright!”
or more specifically in terms of awareness…
“Even though I have these sensations in my body, I’m alright!”
(it is also useful to mention the specific sensations along with their location)
Saying either one of these affirmations internally or externally in the challenging situation will begin to point your neurology in the right direction.
Once you have become aware of the internal images, internal sounds, and sensations in/around the body, and once you begin to accept them… then you can start to change them. For more specifics on how to do this, consult the posts I mentioned earlier, or the meditations or self-hypnosis pages. A little bit of consistent practice is all it takes.
Bringing some pleasure into your process of growth can seriously change your life!
If you want to make the law of attraction work fast for you, add a little more pleasure in your day to day activity, and any learning process you are consciously participating in. Particularly matters that involve other people can be quickly transformed when they are done with a little more joy.
Just one more note, pleasure doesn’t need to be a one size fits all emotion. In fact I encourage you to diversify and deepen your pleasure as much as possible. Enjoy a general happiness, try out some side busting laughter or a light bit of humor or wit, play with deep connection, dabble with joy, mischief, and powerful relaxation. It is also worth your time to pay more attention and play with some ‘R’ rated pleasures, but please keep in mind your location when playing…;^)
Incidentally, adding more pleasure and acceptance (let go of judgment) into your life has incredible health benefits as well… you’ll live longer, and obviously, you’ll live a lot happier!
We have covered the feedback principle, and we have now added in the pleasure principle.
To give an example to sum up these first 2 principles… consider the experience of running low on gas… you’re driving along, having a good ole time (hopefully), when suddenly, you see the low fuel indicator light up (feedback from your car). If you pay attention to this feedback, and go fill up at a gas station, you will be able to continue driving. You don’t have to feel good about it… you can grumble and complain the whole way. As long as you pay attention to the feedback, you will get where you are going.
If you do choose to feel good about it, to do it with a smile, not only do you enjoy the experience (which makes you much more likely to continue doing it in the future), but that enjoyment will rub off on everyone you deal with during the process (build a network without trying). The gas station attendant might start greeting you as an old friend (”Hey buddy, if you come a little earlier the ground is still cold, and you get more gas!”), or you might get to chat with other people at the pumps and brighten their day (and you might as well mention what you do…).
There is also the possibility of what sometimes described as ‘non-local’ effects. Since you are putting out a certain energy or vibration, then similar individuals and experiences are drawn to you. This is hard to prove, but it does seem to happen. In our example, you might find yourself running into more people who are simply in a good mood, are also dedicated to learning (paying attention to feedback), or you might just find it is easier and easier to create momentum (through people and circumstances) to get where you want to go. Whether you recognize and appreciate the possibility of these non-local effects or not, just the obvious, measurable effects of these changes should be enough to help you motivate yourself to take up the practice!
In the next post, I’ll mention some specifics you should take into account when the feedback isn’t quite as obvious as the situation given above.
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: Neuro Linguistic Programming, Law of Attraction | No Comments »
Overcoming Overwhelm…
By Ben | April 27, 2008
How do you eat an elephant?
One bite at a time…
There is always so much to do…
There is always so much more!
How do you keep track in life?
How do you maintain your vision without being swept away?
How can you keep your clarity when chaos presses in?
How did you eat that elephant?
keep smiling,
ben
Topics: Neuro Linguistic Programming, A bit of Zen | No Comments »
The Law of Attraction / How long does it take to see results?
By Ben | April 24, 2008
So how long does it take to see results when I begin to apply the Law of Attraction in my life?
The simple answer: they can be immediate!
The more detailed answer: it really depends on quite a few things…
Considering the model of everything as energy… the most important thing to understand is the energy and attitude you bring into whatever aspect of your life you are working on is the most important component for your experience! That’s right:
Your energy and attitude will largely determine your experience of life!
That is very important to keep in mind, but there are a number of other factors that can influence your outcomes, and they can also influence your energy and your attitude.
There is a lot of wisdom along the line of “you can look at things however you want regardless of what happens in life…” and “success is based on 95% attitude and 5% events…” Ultimately, I would say these are useful generalizations, with a few footnotes.
- Getting to the place where you have near complete control over your state, energy, beliefs, etc. is a long and challenging road… understanding it as a possibility doesn’t make it happen any more than reading about a Karate school in the phone book makes you a black belt… you have to take up the practice.
- Keeping yourself in a given state with no attention to the circumstances in life is not always desirable (in fact, it is rarely desirable).
- The people who teach this way either haven’t really taken up the practice themselves, or they have forgotten what it was like when they began.
To address the first point, make the practice of these principles part of who you are. Take a few minutes everyday. Do some deep breathing, alter your state, do a countdown (see the self-hypnosis page), and visualize (see it, hear it, and feel it, as vividly as possible) yourself with these new beliefs as part of who you are (e.g. “I now draw to me the people, events, and energies that will allow me to have all the success I desire!“… very general, but you get the point), see yourself in the picture, then see it through your own eyes. Once you have developed this practice, it will be very easy to get yourself feeling very powerful and very motivated very quickly. It’s very useful to be able to step right back into this state in any place in your life.
For the second point, we always have to be aware of feedback. The Universe (call it God, Goddess, or higher power if you like) is constantly speaking to us. Many law of attraction products do not take this into account. They describe the system as a one-way conversation with the Universe. We say what we want, the Universe delivers it… everybody’s happy.
This doesn’t match my experience at all!
Typically, I decide that I would like something. I look into it. Sometimes it appears easy, sometimes it appears complex. This is feedback. If I start to practice to gain the new skills, beliefs, etc., sometimes they come rather easy, other times they are incredibly challenging. This is feedback. Sometimes it seems like I have success right away, other times it seems like I’m falling on my face. This is feedback. At any time I can change the methods used in my practice, I can make it more intense or a back off a little, or I can decide to take my life in a totally new direction… and I make these choices based off feedback.
Feedback is Priceless!
Whenever you change something in your life, the internal and external changes that come up are what I refer to as feedback. It does take sensory acuity (awareness) to become aware of the feedback you are receiving, but it is imperative that you pay close attention to it, and act on it!
As an example, when I did land navigation in the Army, you have to use a compass to get from point to point. You have to use the compass to find a point or terrain feature (shoot an azimuth) to move towards, and then you start walking to it. You have to remember to keep checking the compass to make adjustments on your path.
Without those adjustments, you will never get where you want go!
In land navigation, it is easy for the unaware to get lost. In life, also, it easy for the unaware to get lost… or to wonder why they don’t have what they want… or to blame others for their own lack of success… with just a little attention to feedback, all these issues can be easily resolved.
But all of this is a bit of an understatement… feedback is actually the Universe telling you what you need to know about the paths you are choosing for yourself! It might be a good idea to listen to what life tells you… it might know what its talking about!
So how long does it actually take…
In my next posts, I’ll explain a little more of this (how to quickly apply the law of attraction), and tell you a few stories from my own life.
keep smiling,
ben
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Topics: Neuro Linguistic Programming, Law of Attraction | 1 Comment »
