?? Taking the Reins ??

Hello, my friends!

Today, I'm sharing another short section from the Pathways in Consciousness course.

Like the piece I shared a couple of days ago, this is from Week 13: Clearing the thought trails.

I hope you enjoy:

"The practice of right speech and the vigilance leading to right thought helps to bring precision into the mental space.

It helps you to let go of many old perspectives and process many emotions that no longer serve you.

It allows a constant review, moment to moment, of the top-of-mind things that enter our awareness.

In short, this practice of being impeccable with our word is one of the primary ways of overcoming our conditioning.

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It leads to a lifestyle of deep self-knowledge, understanding our perspectives, our triggers, how we process and where the information comes from, how we modify it internally.

How we take on influences from the world around us.

And suddenly, we find that we have taken on so many influences, so many stories from the world and internalized them so deeply.

And these have been the standards and models which have framed our own journey.

As we become aware of these unconscious choices, we suddenly have a say in things that used to just happen to us.

We shift from being a passenger in our own lives, a puppet to our programming, to being the one in the driver’s seat.

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Conditioning is a huge topic, and in order to understand this more deeply and in a very human way, I recommend for each of you to read The Mastery of Love, by Don Miguel Ruiz.

In this book, he explains very clearly how humans are conditioned – domesticated – emotionally by one another, and enculturated into the human dream.

This is important to understand, if you would like to live a life of clarity and freedom.

Our attention is hooked to particular stories, and these are linked to desire for reward, and fear of punishment, from very young.

Unintentionally, the dream of the world propagating itself through the unconscious.

And we learn to seek certain things and avoid others.

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Some of this is practical and functional.

We don’t need to go sticking our hand in the fire.

But we learn other lessons, like we will be judged if we speak our mind, with equal certainty as we learn that fire hurts.

These lessons form beliefs that become subconscious, and then become the dynamic of our interactions in life.

Our judgments, thoughts, and beliefs are our conditioning.

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And, when we learn to question our thoughts, judgments, and beliefs, we are in the act of breaking our conditioning.

We have to move through doubt, because in the place of false certainty, we have uncertainty.

And we have to learn to allow and trust the world, to let the uncertainty be.

Because in this uncertainty there is room for magic.

Room for growth, for something beautiful or True.

We learn to become as little children, alive to the world fully, rather than viewing it from within narrow, well-defined channels.

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In breaking our conditioning, we reconsider the ideas and meaning that we have borrowed from others.

We consider it fully, roll it around and view it from many angles.

And we renegotiate our relationship with that idea.

We craft new, personal meaning.

Meaning that we don’t need to memorize like we have to memorize a quote, because we have learned it personally, from within.

We know what that thing means to us, and each time we review this knowledge internally, this view becomes more familiar.

We lay out clear thought trails to each bit of knowledge regularly reviewed.

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When we understand, on a personal level, all our thoughts and beliefs, when we have chosen them consciously, from a place of clarity rather than fear...

...then we know exactly why we’re doing what we’re doing, regardless of the perspectives and opinions of others.

Strong and clear in purpose and values, even while remaining open to growth and new perspectives.

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Right thought clears out our unconscious assumptions, giving us space to consciously choose how to frame these new areas of awareness.

All of this practice is mental, in that it engages with the thoughts and concepts.

Words and the thoughts before they become words. Inner and outer dialogue.

But it doesn’t stop there! It will take you even further (beyond thought) as you begin to notice, more and more often:

The Spaces Between the Thoughts"

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This is just the tip of the iceberg. If you'd like to know more, feel free to reach out via DM or in the comments.

Thanks and blessings!