Change your mind, and you will change the world: not "might", but "will"! How would that work... it sounds so simple?! In the big picture, there is a whole lot of world to change... how could one mind truly make a difference?
The "average" person has somewhere in the neighborhood of 65, 000 thoughts on each and every day... again, the "average" person has a plethora of negative, destructive and addictive, thoughts... every mental curse, every mental judgment, every mental declaration of anger or of hate, every mental self-devaluation, and every mental submission to someone else's negative speech and / or actions is the architect of our days... Patterns of thought become our lived reality. Like working a garden, you can't turn the soil, plant tomato seeds, "water" them with gasoline, and then expect a beautiful harvest a few months down the road! The "gasoline" of negativity will destroy your possibilities for radiance -- for the beauty, harmony, and bliss that is in truth your birthright! Now add to this, everyone else's collection of personal negativity -- everyone on this precious blue Planet -- and, well, you should be able to see that there is some work to do! (It shouldn't surprise you that so much of this Planet is burning -- gasoline is everywhere!)
For anyone who has ever acknowledged an addiction of any sort whatsoever, you know how hard it is to change! It is hard because all of those negative thoughts -- and the habitual behaviors that follow after them -- form "channels" in your mind... you might have a morning thought such as, "I am not going to curse today." And then you drop your Mr. Coffee pot on your kitchen floor, it shatters, you have no time to clean it up, you're going to be late for work, your boss expects this or that and you know that you can't deliver, you might lose your job... surely all of this can justify a good, hearty, "goddamn it all!" Thoughts just kind of, sort of, find their way into the "channels" that have been dug by a lifetime of negativity: and the curse will come, the drink will come, the "whatever" will be manifested and repeated... Into this mix, add up every time someone has put you down, boxed you up, made you feel small, violated your safety, convinced you of your unworthiness or ugliness... and, well, here are the hallmarks of depression, unsparing grief, and deep personal rage...
If all of this were the whole story -- pass the heroin around! Addictions are easy to understand -- and very possible to change! Drop the references to heroin -- let's focus on negativity. Here's a beginning exercise for changing your mind: declare your intention today -- for one day -- to give attention to as many of your thoughts as possible... not in a counting sort of way... but: here comes a "goddamn" in your mind... okay, there it is, now let it go with a follow-up of anything positive: like, "when I love I feel good", or "the sun is sure gorgeous", or best of all, "One Love Blessing"... Work on this for one day... and then again... and then make conscious awareness of the positive and the "One Love Blessing" your daily mental exercise... aim, at first, for a 50 / 50 split between the positive and the negative... then move it up to 60 /40...
When you begin to see a difference in your daily life: when someone else notices (your changing attitudes will be reflected) and mentions something in passing... decide to amp it up with a daily practice of affirmations: fill up minutes of your day with your chosen list of positives, such as: I am stong... I am good... I am beautiful right now as I am... I am worthy of love... I am worthy of the very best... I will be kindness and compassion... I am radiant. You will now be able to fire your old architect and put yourself in charge of building your day! Here's the thing: our brains are not "distant relatives", we now know so very much about how they work so we have both the right and the capability of claiming a fully functional ownership!
So, quickly, how will this change the world? None of us lives in a total vacuum -- we are all profoundly connected: our cultures, politics, economics, and religions are each and all reflections of our minds. Think about it! Every personal sense of ugliness, unworthiness, depression, rage, and hopelessness, etc. is shared and amplified by a network of others with similar thoughts and life experiences. This amplification becomes "identification"... which inevitably becomes action... which inevitably becomes history... And there are those who feed off of all of this: they can loosely be named the "manipulators"... they cultivate crowds of rage, policies of division and oppression, economics of exploitation and greed, and religions of guilt, shame, and unworthiness... Freedom from these manipulators requires a little "Light on the Path"... [Read the page "Light on the Path... Mindfulness Trainings for Transformation" on this website for the next step in "Changing Your Mind... Changing the World"] Light on the Path will open the door to transformation by first cultivating the power of our personal intentions and commitments, and then by the formation of "sacred circles" or networks, or intentional communities, who will together manifest creative possibilities for Kindness, Beauty, Justice, Equality, and Peace: the kind of world that will be worthy of our children and for each precious life and thing upon this Planet!
So: you can drop the negative, pick up the radiant, and change your mind / change the world! Let's do it!
The "average" person has somewhere in the neighborhood of 65, 000 thoughts on each and every day... again, the "average" person has a plethora of negative, destructive and addictive, thoughts... every mental curse, every mental judgment, every mental declaration of anger or of hate, every mental self-devaluation, and every mental submission to someone else's negative speech and / or actions is the architect of our days... Patterns of thought become our lived reality. Like working a garden, you can't turn the soil, plant tomato seeds, "water" them with gasoline, and then expect a beautiful harvest a few months down the road! The "gasoline" of negativity will destroy your possibilities for radiance -- for the beauty, harmony, and bliss that is in truth your birthright! Now add to this, everyone else's collection of personal negativity -- everyone on this precious blue Planet -- and, well, you should be able to see that there is some work to do! (It shouldn't surprise you that so much of this Planet is burning -- gasoline is everywhere!)
For anyone who has ever acknowledged an addiction of any sort whatsoever, you know how hard it is to change! It is hard because all of those negative thoughts -- and the habitual behaviors that follow after them -- form "channels" in your mind... you might have a morning thought such as, "I am not going to curse today." And then you drop your Mr. Coffee pot on your kitchen floor, it shatters, you have no time to clean it up, you're going to be late for work, your boss expects this or that and you know that you can't deliver, you might lose your job... surely all of this can justify a good, hearty, "goddamn it all!" Thoughts just kind of, sort of, find their way into the "channels" that have been dug by a lifetime of negativity: and the curse will come, the drink will come, the "whatever" will be manifested and repeated... Into this mix, add up every time someone has put you down, boxed you up, made you feel small, violated your safety, convinced you of your unworthiness or ugliness... and, well, here are the hallmarks of depression, unsparing grief, and deep personal rage...
If all of this were the whole story -- pass the heroin around! Addictions are easy to understand -- and very possible to change! Drop the references to heroin -- let's focus on negativity. Here's a beginning exercise for changing your mind: declare your intention today -- for one day -- to give attention to as many of your thoughts as possible... not in a counting sort of way... but: here comes a "goddamn" in your mind... okay, there it is, now let it go with a follow-up of anything positive: like, "when I love I feel good", or "the sun is sure gorgeous", or best of all, "One Love Blessing"... Work on this for one day... and then again... and then make conscious awareness of the positive and the "One Love Blessing" your daily mental exercise... aim, at first, for a 50 / 50 split between the positive and the negative... then move it up to 60 /40...
When you begin to see a difference in your daily life: when someone else notices (your changing attitudes will be reflected) and mentions something in passing... decide to amp it up with a daily practice of affirmations: fill up minutes of your day with your chosen list of positives, such as: I am stong... I am good... I am beautiful right now as I am... I am worthy of love... I am worthy of the very best... I will be kindness and compassion... I am radiant. You will now be able to fire your old architect and put yourself in charge of building your day! Here's the thing: our brains are not "distant relatives", we now know so very much about how they work so we have both the right and the capability of claiming a fully functional ownership!
So, quickly, how will this change the world? None of us lives in a total vacuum -- we are all profoundly connected: our cultures, politics, economics, and religions are each and all reflections of our minds. Think about it! Every personal sense of ugliness, unworthiness, depression, rage, and hopelessness, etc. is shared and amplified by a network of others with similar thoughts and life experiences. This amplification becomes "identification"... which inevitably becomes action... which inevitably becomes history... And there are those who feed off of all of this: they can loosely be named the "manipulators"... they cultivate crowds of rage, policies of division and oppression, economics of exploitation and greed, and religions of guilt, shame, and unworthiness... Freedom from these manipulators requires a little "Light on the Path"... [Read the page "Light on the Path... Mindfulness Trainings for Transformation" on this website for the next step in "Changing Your Mind... Changing the World"] Light on the Path will open the door to transformation by first cultivating the power of our personal intentions and commitments, and then by the formation of "sacred circles" or networks, or intentional communities, who will together manifest creative possibilities for Kindness, Beauty, Justice, Equality, and Peace: the kind of world that will be worthy of our children and for each precious life and thing upon this Planet!
So: you can drop the negative, pick up the radiant, and change your mind / change the world! Let's do it!
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