William Michael Forbes
Our personality...who we think we are, is a fraction of ourselves constricted by our environmental conditioning or liberated by the greater you that knows you are whatever you think.wmf
A Well Known Fact:
Since the beginning of bio-feedback research in the sixties, western psychology has known that our thoughts affect our form and forty years later it is finally becoming a staple in the healing arts...
I sit here with my coffee in my hand watching the still waters of Lake Ontario to my left and to my right a thick vein of cars moving eastward, along the QEW highway, into Toronto. I can feel the contrasts between nature on one side and the harried human activity on the other...each its own level of consciousness...each functioning with the same animating life-principle, yet expressing it very differently. Nature is governed exclusively by instinct, an awareness that spontaneously knows what to do in most circumstances in order to survive and continue...with our humanity we have a dichotomy to deal with of both instinct –which is built into our physicality- and reason –the capacity to choose over and above the natural survival impulses of our bodies survival imperative.
Instinct keeps our attention almost exclusively outside of the body, whereas reason enables our awareness to be focused inwardly where thought, emotion, feeling and abstract perception occurs.Through reason we can alter our experience and perception of time and space...and yet the question arises...who is directing our reasoning faculty? The obvious answer is... I AM. We use those two words, I am, a lot...but who is this I am that you are? How are we able to step out of our thoughts and emotions? This is a question that seers, saints, sages and mystics have thought to articulate to themselves and others for eons and the answer is actually very simple; We are awareness, the unbroken consciousness that unites all things as one and yet is able to also articulate itself as the individuals that we perceive ourselves to be...a resolvable paradox of perception that is as simple as a light switch being flicked rapidly on and off. We experience both the cause and the effect of how we are and how we are not...which brings us to today’s activity for How to be happy in fifteen minutes or less, which will require up to two minutes of your time per hour to complete.
Whatever you are doing at this moment, if it is safe to do so, notice what is going on around you...notice things, people, activities and name them in your mind i.e. I’m noticing the phone ringing, I’m aware of the cars around me, I’m looking at that person over there, I’m aware of footsteps...just notice what is going on for about thirty seconds...then notice your thoughts about what you are noticing for another thirty seconds...then take three slow deep breaths and let your mind become quiet as you notice your body exhaling and as your mind gets quieter with each exhale...just gently think the following words into your mind for about thirty seconds “Thank you, I am. Thank you, I am, Thank you, I am.” Now look around again at what you were noticing before and recognize the difference in how you feel noticing those events, circumstances or people again...then repeat the process at least one more time once again notice the difference and...
Have a great day!
William
Copyright © 2010 by William Michael Forbes. All rights reserved
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