Change Your Future with a Paradigm-Shifting Meditation Exercise

In the last?article, I talked about how to shift your mindset and begin creating new paradigms in your mind. Did you try the exercise I put at the end of the post? If so, share your results below. For those who missed it, here it is again:

Paradigm Shifting Exercise:

Think about something you want to change. Maybe it’s attending your kids’ recitals or keeping in touch with friends or getting to the gym. Write that situation down and write a couple of paragraphs about why you want that for yourself. For example, let’s use:?I want to get up early in the morning, do my workout, and feel clear and excited about the day.

Maybe right now, you hit snooze when the alarm goes off. You take your time and lollygag getting ready. Then feel guilty about not having enough time to work out. You grab a coffee and an Egg McMuffin and run out the door to work, frustrated before you’ve barely started your day.

Write down what normally happens and underline the verbs and actions. This is not to make you feel bad about yourself, not at all. It’s to help you see where the inner dialogue is working against you. I?hit snooze. I?take my time. I?feel guilty. I?run late. I?threw away that time.

Now write down the opposite of that. I?set my alarm, it goes off, and I?get up on time. I?get dressed?right away. I?get to the gym. I?make myself a priority. I?feel great.

You are building affirmations that are the opposite of what you’re currently doing. This is how you start the process of reprogramming your subconscious mind so that you can change your paradigm. You might have a lot of things you want to work on, but just pick one at a time

Read these positive?affirmations?every day, recite them in your head. When the alarm goes off, think through those positive affirmations. I’ve heard everything from twenty-one to sixty-seven days to make a new habit, but whatever it is, keep doing it until you have created new habits.

I know that so many of you are caught in the rat race because you are trying to build a better life for yourself and your loved ones. The irony is that we are often working so hard and caught on such a fast-moving hamster wheel that we miss out on the very life we are working to achieve.

If you are struggling to implement those paradigm shifts, I encourage you to go to my?website and download the?Six Mindset-Changing Techniques?handout(I'll post the link in the comments). When you do that, you’ll receive an email from me. A simple reply to that email will get you a bonus handout on persistence, and how to stick to this new goal of yours.

Once you have begun shifting your paradigms, you need to take inspired actions. Go back to that ideal life/goal/future you created in the last blog post. Or maybe you’re craving something different like having more confidence, better relationships, increased fitness, more ease and flow in the work you’re doing, more joy, bigger societal contributions, a powerful legacy—whatever it is, just imagine that. Now we’re going to use that for a quick three-minute meditation. Everyone has three minutes to create the future of their dreams, right?

Sit with your feet firmly planted on the floor and take a deep inhale through your nose, and exhale fully and completely. Take another deep inhale, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Now take one more deep inhale, releasing any signs of tension, and then exhale fully and completely.

Imagine that future in your mind’s eye. Think about how it would feel to achieve this goal. Think of it in the present tense, as if you’re already there. This is meant for you; it’s already yours. Maybe you can sharpen the image in your mind’s eye. Add details like who is sharing in this moment with you, who is surrounding you in this new future. Use your will to hold that vision on the screen of your mind.

Now ask yourself:?How can I effectively get there with less effort? How can I be more effective and in less time? How can I create more freedom in my life? How can I serve?

You might not have those answers right away, and that’s okay. Just sit quietly for a couple of moments, holding onto that image but not stressing about it or letting the old negative talk into your mind. Ask your higher self, God, your Universe source energy, or whatever higher power you believe in, for guidance.

Write down any inspirational downloads you receive, but again, don’t stress here if you don’t have any right away. This meditation is for you to let your mind go, let it imagine, see, and believe, and be open to the inspired actions that will help you reach that goal.

Napoleon Hill, the author of?Think and Grow Rich,?talks about how inspiration and ideas from your intuition will come to the screen of your mind when you do this. You may be just starting to tap into that power, and you might receive some inspiration right now. But if you leave your mind open, that inspiration might come while you’re driving or brushing your teeth.

Take action on those inspirational thoughts. Failure to act will be the death of that idea. I want you to take this seriously because doing this will get you out of busy-busy-busy mode, and into leveraging the right things at the right time. When you do that, you are in harmony with what you want.

Write down whatever occurs to you, even if it doesn’t make 100% sense right now. Steve Jobs says, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” Trust in yourself as he did, and in that universal energy source inside us all.

When you are done writing down any ideas that come to mind, simply come back to breathing. Undoubtedly you will feel refreshed and energized. I make this meditation a daily, non-negotiable habit. It grounds me, helps me connect with my goals, and helps me be more effective in less time. Try it, and share your results below.