Uncomfortable feelings can be good

It is important to understand that any process of change involves discomfort.

The thoughts and ideas impressed upon your subconscious mind determine your vibration or feelings. When you entertain new thoughts and ideas about what you really want, they will not be in harmony with your old conditioning or habitual way of thinking. These opposing vibrations will cause uncomfortable feelings (feelings are conscious awareness of vibration) and will generate self-doubt and fear.

The normal temptation is to step back into your comfort zone, or usual way of thinking, to avoid the discomfort. While the comfort zone may not hurt, it holds you back from realising your true potential.

As Abraham Maslow observed:

You will either step forward into GROWTH,
or you will step back into safety.

Stepping back into the comfort zone is to permit your conditioning (a composite of the habitual way of thinking of your peers) to prevent YOU from being all you can be.

Your Higher Self (spiritual side of your personality) is always for growth and expansion; your old conditioning is holding you back. The self-talk is relentless: “Who do you think you are? You can’t do this. You’ve tried this before and failed. You don’t deserve success“ and on and on.

These uncomfortable feelings are a reflection of your conditioning, not your potential. They are the body’s natural response to the different vibrations of opposing thoughts and ideas. A good question to ask is “Does the belief I currently hold, which is in opposition to my new thoughts and ideas, move me closer in the direction of my goals?” If the answer is “No”, consider the matter carefully.

Although there is a risk to stepping outside the comfort zone, there is a risk to playing it safe. It means you never get what you really want.

John Winston Lennon (1940 – 1980)

Twenty-nine years ago today, on 8th December 1980 we heard the devastating news that John Lennon, one of the brilliantly gifted singer/songwriter’s from the famous Beatle’s had been shot dead by Mark Chapman.

IMAGINE was John Lennon‘s second solo album and is considered the most popular of his solo works. Recorded and released in 1971.

We would like to share this very poignant song with you today and we hope, like us, that you spread his message for PEACE IN THE WORLD …

John Lennon had amazing inner vision and if you haven’t already, you may want to read the post … IMAGINATION

Cathie draws the short straw and experiences the Magnetic Lifestyle!

If you have read the WELCOME page, you will realize that this blog is slightly different in that we are using the acronym MAGNETIC LIFESTYLE to present some ideas and insights which we hope will help you attract the lifestyle you choose.

The first 8 posts for the acronym MAGNETIC are foundational and are intended as a ‘map’ to help you apply the subsequent 9 posts for LIFESTYLE in a fun, effortless and enjoyable way.

In the post  IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT it was explained that when you describe what you see in the world ‘out there’, you are not describing true reality, but a dramatically filtered version of reality created through your own personal beliefs. This is a key understanding because it means that as well as looking at the world you see, you have to look at the lens through which you see the world, your belief system or your own internal ‘map of reality’.

The following analogy may help. In celebration of the publishing of the MAGNETIC posts, ‘techie queen’ Cathie and her husband Dave are jetting off to Thailand for 22 days stopping at Bangkok, Phi Phi & Krabi Islands & Phuket.

Now imagine that the travel agent sends Cathie a street map marked ‘Bangkok’ but due to a printing error it’s actually a map of Nonthaburi (2nd largest city in Thailand). When Cathie arrives in Bangkok she gets the street map out and is immediately confused. So she calls up the travel agent and explains that she can’t make sense of any of the street names. The travel agent representative, who has been brought up to believe in the importance of diligence and perseverance, politely tells Cathie to ‘try harder’. So Cathie, who is renowned for never giving up, sets off with Dave with a quickness in their step, determined to find their hotel. The result – they now get lost twice as fast!

Feeling worse than ever, Cathie rings the travel agent again. Realising Cathie’s attitude and spirit are very low, the travel representative tells Cathie not to get disheartened and to think more positively and asks her where she is. Cathie says she’s outside a bookshop and the travel agent tells her to go in and pick up all the books she can on Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). So Cathie goes in, purchases a couple of books and reviews them with Dave. Now they’re both so psyched up and feeling so positive that you can’t stop them. They set off again and because of their new positive attitude, they don’t even mind that they’re lost and can’t find their hotel! They smile and accept the reality of the situation.

Although this may seem a silly analogy, how many times do we try to change our behaviour and attitude without questioning the accuracy of the ‘map’ from which our behaviour and attitude automatically flow? This is not to say that a good positive attitude is not important. It most certainly is, but you still need a correct map if you are to successfully navigate your way in life and achieve the changes you desire.

Cathie takes up the story by sharing her own personal insights on the importance of a correct map….

For over 50 years I’ve lived with the belief that to be successful, I had to work hard and that nothing came easy. Although my family and friends know me as a very positive, determined and hardworking person, I was continuously being asked why I wasn’t getting anywhere, even though I believed I would ‘someday’. Being a very passionate person, I’ve always given 100% to everything I attempt, yet I couldn’t put my finger on what was missing that would get me to my ‘destination’.

Like many people, my life has been a mixture of good and bad experiences. But the significant and big changes in my life only began when I took the time to really examine my own map of reality. I had always had a positive attitude and yet I was still not achieving the results I wanted. Why? It was because I had an inaccurate map. It was only when I started to challenge my current thoughts and beliefs about who I was and what I was capable of, that I realised that my ‘map’ or the lens through which I saw the world and myself was completely untrue.

As I began to create a more accurate map, based on the truth of who I am and what I can achieve, my new behaviour, attitude, actions and results changed automatically. It is the best investment of time I’ve ever made.

For more information read About Cathie

In order to allow YOU sufficient time to really examine your own map or the lens or beliefs through which you see the world, we have decided to defer publishing the 9 posts on LIFESTYLE until Cathie’s return. This will give you the opportunity to complete all the ACTION Steps and Belief Study Workbook published so far.

The next post is … LIVE YOUR LIFE ON PURPOSE

An attitude of gratitude

If the only prayer you say in your life is “thank you,” that would suffice

Meister Eckhart

So what does gratitude have to do with success? In short, everything! We live in a Universe that operates by laws; predictable and repeatable laws. The good things you currently possess have come to you as a result of these laws. One of the most important of these laws is the Law of Attraction. This law states you will attract into your experience people, circumstances and events that are in exact vibrational resonance or alignment with your most dominant thoughts and feelings.

By expressing gratitude for what you already have, you send out a high, fast vibrational frequency which will attract more of what you desire into your life.

As Plato once remarked 

“A grateful mind is a great mind which eventually attracts to itself great things. The grateful heart draws to itself great things, the ungrateful heart draws to itself limited things”.

When reflecting on gratitude, many people focus their attention on what they don’t have and this feeling of lack and insufficiency is the consciousness they project and attract more of. Instead of counting their blessings, they count their envies based on what others have and they don’t.

Theodore Roosevelt said

“Do what you can with what you have right where you are”.

So the starting point is not to focus on what you don’t have, but to count your blessings for what you DO have. In the western world, we take many things for granted and fail to appreciate the many blessings we have.

The following statistics serve as a timely reminder:

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the worlds’ wealthy.

If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed  than the million who will not survive this week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

If you can read this message you are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world who cannot read at all.

The wonderful thing about gratitude is that you can express your appreciation immediately. In addition to being grateful for the basic necessities of life such as food, shelter and running water, you can also be grateful for the smaller things in life. Expressing genuine gratitude for the first cup of coffee in the morning or the convenient parking space is as effective as showing gratitude for the bigger things in life. This is because it is the feeling or vibration that counts. If you cannot give money, give of yourself spiritually and intellectually and watch how the Law of Attraction will respond to your needs.

In his book Life’s Greatest Lessons, Hal Urban describes how he would assign his students a simple exercise – to go the next twenty-four hours without complaining.

Their first response was usually a complaint about the assignment! It took twenty-three years before he finally found a student who could do it. After challenging more than 70,000 people of all ages, he only found four who didn’t complain. Try the exercise for yourself. If you are like many others, you may be surprised by both the frequency and pettiness of complaints.

The second part of the assignment was just as illuminating. He gave the students a piece of paper that read: ‘I’m thankful for….’ across the top. It had three columns below labelled ‘Things,’ ‘People,’ and ‘Other’. The students were asked to list the material things they were glad they had, the people they appreciated and the things they were thankful for that didn’t fit into the first two columns such as freedom, health, opportunities, faith, and love.

On completion of the list and during the next twenty-four hours, they were asked to read the list four times: after lunch, after dinner, before going to sleep and the next morning before school or work. The results for the students – then later with adults – were astounding.

All participants felt much happier and it clearly showed in their body language, broader smiles and wider open eyes. Appreciation and gratitude does this. If you focus your thoughts on what’s right, and not on what’s wrong, you have to feel better. Feelings follow thought.

In their book ‘Ask and It Is Given’, Abraham-Hicks says:

“Every time you appreciate something, every time you praise something, every time you feel good about something, you are telling the Universe: “More of this, please.” You need never make another verbal statement of this intent, and if you are mostly in a state of appreciation, all good things will flow to you.”

What could be more powerful than that?

ACTION

Step One

Read the ‘blessings’ shared in this post on a daily basis. You may want to copy them out and carry them around with you.

Step Two

Complete the two-part assignment set by Hal Urban.

FIRST  –  go the next twenty-four hours without complaining and see how you get on.

SECOND  -  on a piece of paper write the heading ‘I’m thankful for….’ and underneath have three columns labelled ‘THINGS’ ‘PEOPLE’ and ‘OTHER’.

List the material things you are glad you have, the people you appreciate and the things you are thankful for that don’t fit into the first two columns, such as freedom, health, opportunities, faith, and love.

Step Three

Begin a GRATITUDE JOURNAL. The concept behind a gratitude journal is simple: Write down three things (or more) that you are grateful for every day and watch your life change.

As Oprah Winfrey remarked

“To keep a Gratitude Journal is the single most powerful thing I have done to change my life”.

Step Four

Practice random acts of kindness and tell no-one. There are many opportunities every day where you can add a little touch of kindness. Your actions can range from giving the cashier eye-contact and genuinely saying thank you, to anonymously paying a road toll for the car behind.

Don’t wait until next week before you take these action steps because when next week arrives it will be ‘Now’.

Confused ….then read the post … NOW IS ALL THERE IS