Mind Shift # 3

We see everything but we do not see ourselves

If the world we see in our head is not the real world but an image of the world formed – and most probably deformed – by our brain; and if those images are our ‘maps’ of reality, then it may be a good idea to conduct some basic reality checks about those maps.

The first one is asking ourselves whether we do not miss out on vital parts of reality and checking if what we include in our field of awareness really covers everything there is to see.

Let’s do that right now.

Mind Shift #2

We do not really love or dislike external circumstances but we fall in love or are disturbed by the images we create in our mind as a response to those circumstances.

If the world that we experience is primarily an image in our mind, then the most direct and obvious consequence is that it is not in what happens to us that problems and their solutions lie: it is what we ‘do’, in our own mind, with what happens to us.

Are all of us really like divine artists crafting stories in the theaters of our consciousness and enjoying or suffering their dramas? Are we truly birthing our own realities in the cradle of our mind? Do we really have the power to make ourselves happy or miserable?

The answer seems to be a definite ‘yes’.

MIND SHIFTS

Seven shift YOU need to make if you want to be at peace with yourself and live a life you love.

Your effectiveness, the degree of happiness you experience and the amount of control you have over your life relies on seven principles.

We have called them mind shifts because they are shifts of perception – changes of mind. Have you ever changed your mind? I assume you have. And what happened when you did? You brought change.

Here is a good opportunity to do it again – for good.

Mind Shift 1 – The reality that we ‘see’ is not real: it is an image created by the brain that fills the field of our consciousness and that we usually confuse for reality.

We all fall in the trap of believing that the way we see ourselves and the world around us is what the world and ourselves are. But this is an illusion. Like all illusions, it may frighten us or make us wonder but ultimately, it is deceptive.

The deeper life

When you look at what makes your life beyond the obvious reality of earning, spending, coming into relationship, setting goals, solving problems, watching TV, sleeping or going through physical routines, you become aware of another realm of activity, more subtle and less noisy than the physical one, but one that is underlying and shaping your entire physical existence: the endless incidence of thoughts, mental images, feelings, emotions and motives that arises and moves in the space of your consciousness.

You Are

.

.

.

If you have not found that which is timeless or formless in yourself, then nothing that you manifest will satisfy yourself. ~ Eckhart Tolle

.

Sit still and do nothing for a few moments.

Temporarily let go of responsibilities, interests and concerns … relax into being.

Ask … who am I?

Watch the answers changing … let go

Let go

Answers are non important – your question is.

Ask … who is the questioner?

The self that we are is something complex, deep, mysterious and … confusing at times. There are so many thought forms living inside our head; so many people sharing the space of our heart; so many reflections of past and future glories or dreads agitating the substance of our minds; so many possibilities to our soul.

Beating the fortune teller

.

.

You are always free to change your mind and choose a different future, or a different past. ~ Richard Bach

My first spiritual teacher was a Chilean filmmaker, writer, healer and expert in Tarot, a Western equivalent to the Chinese book of wisdom under the appearance of a cards pack that people use to predict the future. I was 21 and would attend his weekly talks – the ‘mystic cabaret’ – in Paris. They were a delightful blend of inspired improvisations, thought provoking and reality-altering insights on applied spirituality, free dive explorations of the nature of consciousness and its relationship with life, body, matter and other dimensions of being – above all, it was great fun.

Self Mastery

.

.

.

“There is a gap or a space between stimulus and response, and the key to both our growth and happiness is how we use that space.” ~ Stephen R. Covey

We all know the contrast that exists between what we are and what we aspire to become; between the self we know when we are alone and connected with our own soul and the self we manage to express in our daily interactions with an unruly and challenging world. All the problems we experience at a personal level, from stress to interpersonal conflict, arise from that difference.