DAY 12 OF 100DAYS SELF-REINVENTION SERIES-Dealing with Seductive Thoughts - Conscious Consciousness

Dealing with Seductive Thoughts - Conscious Consciousness

“If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.” – Sydney Banks

From dreams to movies, none of us is immune from momentary psychological states of fear or helplessness. The American motivational speaker Les Brown narrates what happened to him after watching the horror movie “THE EXORCIST.” For two weeks, he slept with the lights in his room turned on. Is watching horror films bad? Not at all, but again, follow the admonition by Socrates: “Man Know thyself.” You should know yourself. Remember the thrust of this book: ALL PSYCHOLOGICAL LIFE IS INTERNALLY SELF-CREATED. We all create different meanings from what we see. If I am not creating good meanings from what I see, I think I want to see less of it.?

We are professional meaning-makers. We create our experience of life from the inside, not from the outside. Remember Damian Mark Smyth's book “Do Nothing”? I think that is one part of the answer to the night traveler who asked how to change her mind from those fearful thoughts. My first answer is to do nothing. When you realize that it is consciousness trying to frighten you, you just do NOTHING. If I may ask, does everyone travelling in the car have the same feelings of fear? I can bet you that some in the vehicle are fast asleep. Not everyone in the vehicle has read the same stories as this lady. So why they are sleeping, she is riddled with fear. She is relating with a consciousness that the other passengers don't have.

That is why we say that our experience of life is from the inside and not from the outside. All that is first required of us is just to RECOGNIZE that we are the ones making this meaning and our thoughts are not reality. Feel the fear and do what you want to do. I have not read Susan Jeffers book, but I think I just enjoy the title “Feel the fear and do it Anyway”. Many times, we cannot eliminate the feeling of fear. But we can use our understanding of life to feel the fear and be OK. To emphasize the quote above from Sydney Banks, “If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.”

“What you feel doesn't matter in the end; it's what you do that makes you brave.” -Andre Agassi

The American Kenneth Copeland also prescribes the second thing to do after recognition of the source of the fear. In a thought experiment, he asks his listeners to count 1 to 10 in their thinking and while they are doing the counting, he asks them to say their names. According to him, the act of saying your name breaks the act of counting numbers. He says in the same way that when fearful thoughts are hounding you, you just say what you know to be true rather than pay attention to the thoughts. In the case of the night traveller, start saying in a muted voice (meditative practice) what you will do when you get to your destination. As you say things like “when I get to London I will first eat rice, watch a good movie and take a cold shower…..” the weight of the fear will begin to disappear and your consciousness will begin to shift in the moment. Don't try to resist the other Consciousness; your mind will gradually start thinking about what you will do on arrival.

I like what Dr Judith Sedgeman has to say on the subject. “We take in information and then we create our own thoughts about it. We do not act on the information; we act on our own thoughts about it. The direction our thoughts go has a lot to do with our knowledge of what is going on in our minds, and the depth of our own recognition that when the train of thought is leading to anxiety, self-doubt, fear or darkness, we can change direction. The types of thoughts that continue to come to mind are defined by the state of mind in which we are thinking. If we are calm and confident, we'll continue to think of increasingly constructive things. If we are stressed and fearful, we'll think of increasingly less constructive things.

There is one and only one reason for thoughts of anxiety breeding thoughts of fear, breeding thoughts of panic, breeding hysteria. That reason is upsetting thoughts taken increasingly seriously. For those who understand that their rising levels of tension are being produced by their own thinking, not by events or circumstances, this doesn't happen. They know they have a choice, and one choice is to pause, let the flow of negative thoughts pass and allow their minds to quiet. A whole different quality of thinking will arise from a calmer state of mind”.

Today, the understanding that life is internally self-created is so important. The news media is in a frenzy about political happenings. There are many who interpret the happenings as meaning that there is trouble ahead. That trouble is just being created by people's thoughts. It is not reality. Once you catch yourself as the interpreter in chief of what you read, the information holds less value and meaning. We take in the news about what is happening and make our internal meanings out of it. There is not one reality about what you read concerning elections.

Everyone makes their own meaning from what they are reading, and no two meanings are the same. Some people are in such states of anger they are prepared for a fight, but if you have read my earlier write-up on the “Principle of Separate Realities,” there is nothing to fight about. We are all creating our reality from something that has no meaning. I can disagree and be OK if someone says the president has performed 100%; I can disagree also and be OK if another says his performance is zero percent. It is just separate realities playing out.

My reality doesn't have to be the same as that of my wife for us to live peacefully together. It is just a misunderstanding of how life is created that is playing on us. It is not wrong to make your own meaning; it is only wrong if you ignorantly think that your meaning is the reality.

Any thought engulfing you today is self-created. We are expert meaning-makers, but we are unaware that we are the ones making the meaning. You may be in a marriage today and say, “This is the worst spouse in the world,” but the reality check is that you came up with this assertion. It is not reality; it is something that you made up.

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We should all challenge ourselves to create the consciousness we want on purpose. Make friends with people who will help you move forward in life; life is challenging enough without any interference. I don't want to add a consciousness that I can avoid. I want to watch movies that keep me refreshed not ones that leave me fearful; I want to read books that make me want to live not those that make me want to die. I want occasions that will help me scream “LIFE IS GOOD”.

We cannot always control 100% of the experiences that our thoughts interact with, but within the conscious choices that we make, let's go for what will propel us forward. Every living person in this world has a challenge or what you call problem. If there is anyone without a problem, I can bet you that person is dead, not a living person. The difference among us is that while some consciously focus on the good, others focus on the problem.

It is a whole lot of difference when you begin to practice simple acts of gratitude. Count your blessings, name them one by one …… Become consciously conscious of the good happening in your life. If you did 10 things today and 9 did not go as you wanted, direct your attention to the only one that worked. What you focus on expands. As you focus on what worked, your life will be flooded with life. Some persons have nine things that work for them and one yet to unfold, and they sabotage their lives, focusing on the one that is still unfolding.

American businesswoman Mary Kay Ash says that “Aerodynamically speaking, the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that, so it goes to fly anyway”. Stop acquiring a consciousness that does not serve your aspirations. Not every information you are seeking for is helpful. Stop looking for negative information about people, and this includes your spouse, relatives, friends etc. Stop looking for statistical information to confirm your fears. Be like the bumblebee, FLY WHEN EVERYONE THINKS YOU SHOULDN'T because you are unaware of what they say about you.