Author: Gary

How Long Will It Take

“How long will it take?” they ask.

That’s often the question as one is working through their issues of limiting beliefs, fears, emotional reactions, or sabotaging behaviors.  Always the question, “How long will it take?”

It will take a certain number of hours.  You can put those hours in early and be done sooner, or you can do just a few minutes a day of change work and have it take many years.

It’s like learning to read, dance, fly an airplane, or play a musical instrument.  All of these things will take a certain number of hours before you reach a level.  If you want to go further and master more emotional skills and more of your beliefs, it will take more hours.  The critical way to measure how long it will take is by how many hours you spend practicing, not the days or weeks of the process.  If it takes 100 hours to break through a set of limiting beliefs you can do it in 5 weeks, or you can do it in 5 years.   Either way it will take you the same number of hours.

So to answer the question about, “How long will it take before I see the changes I want?”

The answer is a certain number of hours.

This is an excerpt.  Full post at How long will it take? 

 

 

Love as a Change Agent

Love is a great change agent.  When you are exposed to, and experience great love, your life has a tremendous chance to change.   In the experience of love your unhappiness from a limited perspective, and beliefs in fear and lies can not survive.

One of the challenges is that when you exposed to love, your ego will fight back. It will try to deny,  diminish, and distract you from what you feel.   Such is the nature of stories in the mind.  They don’t feed well on unconditional love and fear starving to death.

Love and Fear,,,, this is the battle ground within for the Spiritual Warrior.  It is a battle over one’s attention.  On one side is Love and all the expressions of Love.  On the other, is fear, and all the expressions of  fear.

Self awareness is a necessary trait of a warrior.  Being aware of his expressions  is how he recognizes which side he is on in each moment.

for practical steps and exercises on finding your way try the free sessions of the Self Mastery program. 

 

Controlling Your Attention

We don’t learn to control our attention when we are young. We have to learn to control our attention when we are adults.

When we are young we were told where to put our attention, who to put it on, and how long to keep it there. We learned to put our attention on what other people told us to. Since adults taught us to put our attention on them, or on what they wanted to put our attention on, (school work, chores, minding our manners, following the rules, etc) by default we learned not to put our attention on our self.   We became automated to have others control our attention.

Indirectly we learned not to pay attention to our emotions, what we were feeling,  or what we wanted.

When you become an adult, and you realize that your attention is still governed by all those rules you collected, or that your mind is looking for other people to direct your attention.  You might even feel uncomfortable if it is your own hands with no one telling you what to do. You may find your self trapped with your thoughts and beliefs controlling your attention.   Realizing that you are trapped, and don’t have control over your attention is one of the first steps towards freedom.

It is only as adults that we have the opportunity to take control over our own attention, notice how we feel, and direct our life in a way we want. This is something of an opportunity not typically available to us when we were children.

Oh,,, and it will take work, and many attempts to free your attention from limiting beliefs and fears.

Such is a spiritual warriors training ground.

Specific exercises for gaining control over your own attention can be found at my Self Mastery Course at  Pathway to Happiness. 

 

 

Near Enemy

A good tool, technique, practice, or philosophy, can help you out of suffering and into greater happiness and love. And when that tool, technique, practice, or philosophy is taken too far, it can become it’s own dogmatic trap that create unhappiness and suffering. That applies to the tools, techniques, and practices I teach as well.

For a more detailed explanation and understanding of  the Near Enemy issue.

How Does A Spiritual Warrior Fight

How does a Spiritual Warrior fight Lies?  You fight lies with Truth.

How does a Spiritual Warrior fight Fear?  You fight fear with Love.

How does a Spiritual Warrior fight injustice?  You fight injustice with Forgiveness.

Winning the war going on in your own mind is easier as you develop your skills with Truth, Love, and Forgiveness.

These tools may not always work when dealing with the outside world, but they are the best tools for fighting  the fear, lies, and injustice in your own mind.

More practical steps for winning the war in your mind in the Self Mastery course on my other site.

 

The Secret For Mending A Broken Heart

What is the Secret for Mending  a Broken Heart?

A person’s heart never breaks. However beliefs do,,, and when they do,,, it can be emotionally painful.   When a partner cheats on us, or breaks up with us, our beliefs about who they are, what they mean to us, and beliefs about our future break. We call it heart break but it is really a disillusionment of beliefs.

From the perspective I see things from now,,, I am very grateful to the people in my life that broke my heart.   Those were the periods of my greatest awakenings from illusions.

More on this in the Relationship Course at Pathway To Happiness.com 

Finding Peace

As you become aware you see things with clarity.  When you have clarity you will see the world is chaotic, filled with, inequities, and uncertainty.    With clarity you are aware without a doubt that your future, and the future of the world around you is completely unknown.

The temptation is to try to make sense of the world, or put order to it, or control your world, so that you feel safe.   This is to chase the illusion of safety for a single human can not control all circumstances and changes of life.

The real challenge is to remain completely aware that the world and future is unknown to you, and to be accepting of this fact.  Acceptance of this fact will make your mind quiet and your heart peaceful.

To find, or in another sense create, a quiet mind and peaceful heart in the midst of a chaotic world with an unknown future is more challenging, and yet clarity reveals it is the only choice we have in the matter of how we will live our lives.

 

 

What is wrong with me? A Different Perspective

My perspective is basically this. You are fine. There is nothing wrong with who you are. You may not feel that way about your self and that’s usually due to lots of beliefs we have about our self. It’s these false beliefs that are the problem. They are stories about what is wrong with us. But it is the beliefs that are false. When those clear up we will feel fine about our self again.

The key is having the awareness to perceive the difference between what you are, and what the beliefs in your mind “say” you are.

Free Audio podcast covering the question “What is wrong with me?”    It is a very clear explanation about the beliefs and negative thoughts in our mind that cause us to feel terrible about our self.

Practical steps to developing this awareness and using it for change can be found in my Self Mastery course. 

 

Waking from the Dream of Your Life

While heading off to sleep I was reviewing my day and concluded the following. I am perfectly crazy. I live in a perfectly crazy world. The perfectly crazy world perfectly reflects my inner craziness where ever I look and go. I am trying to become less crazy. I am not sure I can go so far as to use the word sane. But less crazy seems to fit. I have a very tenuous hold on the less crazy potential. It is just an idea or thought but it has something more to it that isn’t familiar and somewhat odd. It is hard to differentiate the perfectly crazy normal to this very subtle less crazy notion. Yet there is a difference. I am still crazy but I am going to sleep comfortable with this entire story.

………………… and somewhere there is a ripple in the matrix.


Difficulty Making a Choice

Sometimes we struggle making a choice.  We know we have to, but we don’t know the right thing to do.  Maybe they are difficult because each outcome results in someone getting hurt.  Or each choice is good so we want them all.

Sometimes, when we can’t see clearly what to do, it’s because it’s not time to make a choice.  Sometimes, not all the time, it’s best to wait, and watch.  Observe more closely.  Take the time to look more closely at what you really want.  Take more time to develop clarity about the nuances of the situation and possibilities.

Sometimes by patiently waiting you can watch the people around you react, fidget, and do their drama in the way they do it.  If you sit still, you can see their drama for what it is.  This gives you an extra level of clarity to make a better choice.   When you develop clarity you don’t struggle to make a choice.  You don’t struggle at all.  You just see it.

Of course,,, you have to be able to sit still long enough to get the clarity.   You could say that making wise choices is a developed skill.   Good luck with your practice.