Bye-Bye Self-Sabotage!

Do you believe that thoughts affect your life? Let’s try a little exercise. Pick a day… how about yesterday. Think about it and review the day in your mind from start to finish. What was going on? Was it a usual day for you? What were you doing? Did you find the day hard? Were you living in your ego or in your heart? Was it joyful? Did you flow through your day in joy and wonder? Or were you fearful, stressed and angry? Where were your thoughts? Were they contributing to your well-being? Or did they contribute to fear and anxiety? Did they cause you to feel depressed or drained? Did you feel vital energy – physically, mentally, emotionally? Have you been stressed a great deal lately? Is your cortisol level high? What does that mean? Are you living in high beta? What does high beta mean? Or were you in alpha, theta or gamma? What are we talking about? Are you living in Survival Mode and wondering why you can’t change your life? Was the body the servant of the mind? Or was the body influencing the decisions of the mind based on its habitual emotions and patterns? When you live the same way, have the same thoughts, the same beliefs, perform the same patterns of behaviors, and have the same perception of life day in and day out, how is change possible? According to modern neuroscience, we are wired in our brain with circuits of neurons that correspond to our thought patterns. A neuron is a brain cell that electrochemically produces charges to stimulate other neurons or nerve endings in our emotional centers of our brain as well as having neural connections to every organ system and ultimately every cell in our body. Our neurotransmitters (the chemicals produced by nerve cells) can have profound effects on our mental and emotional state as well as affecting our endocrine system. The endocrine system then releases other neuropeptides into the bloodstream and thus has powerful immediate effects on our whole body – our heart, gut, muscle tension and emotions. Thus the mind is not contained in the brain; ancient wisdom is being rediscovered by modern neuroscientists. Thoughts trigger emotions and emotions trigger release of neurochemicals in the body (serotonin to boost joy, GABA to create a sense of calm and decrease pain, dopamine to boost motivation/drive, norepinephrine and cortisol to activate fight or flight response when needed, etc.). When you choose to be mindful, you can become the master of your thoughts and in effect begin to exert some control over the level of some of your own neuropeptides. Your thoughts fueled with intention can become as powerful as a pharmaceutical drug. Thus every thought we have (conscious or subconscious) has effects in our physical body whether we realize it or not. Ultimately, the body is the subconscious mind made manifest. The Ancient Wisdom schools taught initiates that “Our body is our greatest spiritual teacher” – if we pay attention to our body, it will give us clues as to what we need to address. You might picture neural net wiring patterns better based on the following simple scenario: Picture that you are standing in a park with a great lawn filled with green well-maintained grass. Every day you come to this park with a busload of children; each child represents one of the 60,000 to 70,000 thoughts that you think a day. When the door of the bus opens, the children have 20 minutes to explore the park and they can each choose one of 2 directions in which to explore. To the right they will find a beautiful garden with a playground and pond with reclining chairs as well as a space where they can create anything their heart desires. To the left they may discover an iron cage containing hard benches where they can sit and reflect on their anxiety, anger, resentment, guilt, shame, unworthiness and all their other fears. Now imagine there were actually 60,000-70,000 children that suddenly did down one of the two paths trampling on the grass as they scampered on their way. When time is up and everyone has to come back up the same path to return to the bus, imagine that you turn around to look back at the lush grass. Look closely to observe both of the paths that have been trodden by the thousands of children representing your thoughts. Is the path of love and joy more worn and trodden than the path of lack and futility? This should give you an indication of your thought pattern if you are honest about where your thoughts wander day to day. What would happen if the pattern changed and you decided to go in the other direction? The grass would eventually grow back into the previously worn areas and you would create new paths. This is how your brain actually works. Your brain re-patterns when you create new thoughts and new memories. When you think new thoughts, create new beliefs, and create new memories, the effects are reflected and stored not only in your brain but also throughout your entire body. The purpose of this book is to assist you in becoming aware of the paths you take with your thoughts and beliefs; give you tools to change your brain waves, thoughts and beliefs about your self or your life; and then teach you how to create your life or your self anew.