Who here absolutely loves staying at their parents home during the holidays?
(... crickets chirping)
Okay so I'm sure there's a few of you out there who truly enjoy staying at your parents place, and that is such a wonderful and beautiful experience to have.
On the other hand...
I'm sure there are a fair portion of us that would much prefer to be in our own personal space.
I silently giggle at the quote,
Think you're strong? Try spending a week at your parents house.
It's a sadistic quote (I know) but for some of us, like myself, sometimes it's far too accurate...
Heading Home For The Holidays
Over the past few days I've been staying at my parent’s home.
This was my childhood home and it's where I experienced a fair amount of growing pains.
To give you a better perspective, over the past 10 years my family has experienced a tremendous amount of financial struggle.
And we are losing our home within the coming months.
Ben White @benwhitephotography
This has been a long journey for us, and interestingly enough, the fact that we are losing the house is much easier to handle since we all have accepted this reality.
Living here has been pretty interesting because the environment is quite different than I’m used to.
If you were to walk into a living room here, you would see that the entire ceiling is ripped off due to water damage.
Walking through the house you will likely see clothes scattered all over the floors, random boxes stacked in random places, broken and flipped furniture in the middle of the hallways, dog stained carpets, faulty appliances, random holes in walls, etc, etc.
On top of this, the dynamics between my mother, father, and brother can seem to be quite challenging at times as they experience frequent conflicts with each other.
In this context, it looks and feels like a home that is dying and being left behind.
A Dive Into The Darkness
Living here this week has been a phenomenal experience from me because in the past my experience was tremendously different...
In the past, I would immediately become overwhelmed with severe depression and anxiety.
When I would initially come to visit, typically I would be in a positive state of mind.
However, over a period of a few hours I would begin to feel very heavy, slow, and lethargic.
Within two days I would be so overwhelmed that I would literally spend most of my time in a bed under the blankets.
ANDRIK LANGFIELD PETRIDES 
I didn't know what to do with myself.
I was absolutely overwhelmed in emotion and I felt like my only option was to hide from it within myself.
During that time I was also going to medical school.
My school operated in trimesters and thus in the three week breaks in between trimesters I would come to visit with the intention of getting some much needed rest and recuperation.
Unfortunately, after my break was over, I would come back to school feeling completely drained and ultimately, worse off than I was when I had finished a grueling round of exams!
This was something I experienced for years on end.
It was one of the most difficult experiences of my life.
And this painful experience didn't end until I began to change how I interpreted my reality.
Finding Choice In Every Circumstance
Today, the environment is far worse than it is ever been in the past.
The level of uncertainty is at an all time high for my family and the house we are residing in is a constant reminder of that.
Yet... interestingly enough... I feel uplifted, empowered, and energized.
...How could this be?
How could I just ignore all of this and still feel great?
How could I possibly be consistently writing uplifting blog posts in an environment like this?
The truth here is that I'm not ignoring anything.
I'm aware that the energy feels more dense.
I'm aware that there are emotional conflicts at play.
I'm aware that the feng shui in my house is very “off”.
BUT the difference lies in the fact that I also realize that I have options.
I realize that I can focus in any way that I choose to focus.
I know that when I choose to focus on a specific concept, it will naturally grow and expand.
When I experience my reality in this house, I see the many options that are available to me.
I see, hear and feel that I have an option to mimic the energy of the house and begin to experience a sense of dying, decay, and loss.
I also see, hear, and feel that I have an option to experience gratitude and appreciation for the foundation which taught me so much about who I am and provided experiences and profound learning lessons that will last for a lifetime.
As I confront the energy that I'm experiencing in this house, I feel that sense of density and I choose to just play with it.
Just a few minutes ago I was feeling into that heaviness that is always prevalent here.
If you focus onto it enough you can start to feel lethargic and you'll likely want to take a nap.
I immediately proved to myself that I have a choice by standing up, and joyfully jumping and dancing yelling,
“I love this fucking house! I love this FUCKING beautiful, dank-ass house!”
(Excuse my french, but I was really accessing how awesome it was lol.)
Immediately a sense of lightness and pure excitement coursed through my mind and body.
Within a matter of a seconds, I had completely shifted my state of being and now I felt great, uplifted, energized, and fully capable of operating in whichever way I chose to operate.
Instead of letting the energy around me take control of me, I was taking control of it.
I literally told the house what it was.
I assumed its reality, and thus, my reality shifted to match that perspective.
The difference from me in the past to the me now, is that in the past I would observe what I was seeing, hearing, and feeling, and then accept that for what it was.
I limited my options. I said,
"This is the only way because it is what I am experiencing right now and what I am experiencing right now is the truth of my reality."
The fact is, my friends, that this was a significant error in my perception.
The fact is that your current situations do not dictate how you experience any situation.
The fact is that you are in complete control of how you experience the world around you.
Exploring Your Wealth Of Options
The more choices you have, the more whole you will feel.
Oftentimes we feel cut off and limited because we are literally cutting ourselves off and limiting our options as to what we can experience.
Someone may tell us a story about what reality is for them, and we have the choice to accept that story as the absolute truth for ourselves.
Have you ever chosen to not do something simply because someone shared a story with you about their terrible experience?
Much of our mainstream media and education systems work in this way.
Kayla Velasquez @km_mixedloev
How often do we trust secondhand experiences as though they are the absolute truth?
How often do we say, I don't want to experience that because someone experienced that before me and said that it wasn't an experience that was worth having.
By buying into someone else's experience, you are buying into the perspective that they chose to have in that very moment.
That's basically like someone taking a bunch of bites out of a sandwich, dropping it on the ground, smothering it in mud, then giving it to you and saying “hey so this sandwich wasn't that great, I wouldn't recommend it.”
All you're getting is a very small bite of what that experience could be.
In this context, you would be buying into a filtered experience.
On the news we see this all the time, where we are only seeing and experiencing what is shown on the frame of the camera.
What's behind the frame may tell an entirely different story.
The words on the frame ("breaking news" headline) direct our attention to look and perceive the frame in a particular way.
The newscaster presents the story in a way that leads our mind to create a story about what is actually happening, when in reality, there is a wealth of other perspectives at play... which are not being presented to you.
Do you realize that there are more options available to you at all times?
What do you think would happen if you stepped into any situation and ask yourself, what are my options here?
Do you think your experience would be different?
For me, it has changed everything.
How To Explore Your Perceptual Options
In my day-to-day life I have a few states of being that I prefer to experience.
Having these go to emotional states is useful to me because when I'm experiencing something that I would prefer to not experience (such as heaviness or lethargy), I can immediately shift my energy to filter out that experience with the emotional state that I prefer.
Think of it like augmented reality:
You are putting on a pair of goggles that allow you to have a multi-media experience within the confines of a particular environment.
The reality changes based off of your choices for enhancing or altering the experience.
When I step into my childhood home, I prefer to step into a place of appreciation.
Appreciation feels good to me, for when I'm grateful for things, I feel energized, uplifted, and alive.
Appreciation allows me to step more fully into a state of joy, which is also very useful for me because when I'm in a state of joy I am very light hearted and creative.
In order to access these alternate options, you simply need to ask yourself a few simple questions.
If I want to experience appreciation, I will ask myself,
"What am I grateful for right now?
Then I will list off 10 to 20 things that I really do appreciate in my life in that very moment regardless of how big or small they are.
Sometimes I'll ask myself,
"What's the last time that I experienced Joy?"
Then I tune into the memories that come to me.
I'll seek to re-experience the sights, sounds, and feelings that were present at that time.
By simply placing my focus on a memory that feels joyous, I suddenly start to feel joyous, and as I put more of my focus on that feeling, it expands and begins to affect my physiology.
Other times I will ask questions like,
"What if a miracle happened?"
Then I'll just let my imagination flow and I'll begin to see the highest versions of my reality play out in my mind's eye.
Suddenly I'll start to feel inspired, excited, and truly empowered!
Again, I'll begin to focus on the new feelings that start to arise and suddenly my entire physiology changes.
Now, within a matter of seconds...
I'm a completely different person.
We are Shape Shifters
We have a myriad of possibilities available to us at each and every moment.
This means that we have an ability to change and transform in any way that we wish.
Did you ever watch or read the show Animorphs?
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It was a 90s series that focused on a group of kids who could shape-shift into different types of animals.
For whatever reason, this analogy comes to my mind...
Although we may not be able to change into different physical species, we can significantly alter our emotional state which has a huge impact on our physiology.
We can experience immediate neuro-physiological changes through our conscious choices.
So in a sense, we do shape-shift every moment of the day and when we begin to take control over this power, we can shape-shift in a way that we would choose.
The Expansive Future Ahead Of Us
The future of humanity is a future of many possibilities and choices.
Technology is a great reflection of that...
With significant advances in technology we are beginning to experience a plethora of choices and possibilities available to us in our physical space that we never had access to in the past.
This is merely a reflection of our consciousness.
As we become more and more aware of how our thoughts influence our emotional state, and how those influences affect our physiology, suddenly our entire reality begins to change because there is an incredible wealth of perceptual options for us to experience.
It no longer matters what is happening outside of us because we are able to augment our reality in a way that is of our highest good.
How exciting is it that we literally get to choose how we want to experience this life?
How empowering is it to know that just because you are experiencing something right now does not mean that you have to experience it in the next moment?
How profoundly useful would it be to gain complete control over your mind to the point where you no longer experience anything that you would not choose to experience?
How secure do you feel knowing that no matter what happens outside of you, you will only experience what you choose to focus on?
What is that like for you?
For me...
It's true Freedom.
It is absolute liberation.
It is, in my opinion, the road to the evolution and expansion of human consciousness.
For as we embrace these concepts we become powerful creators that create from a place of conscious awareness.
When we choose the options that are expansive, freeing, sustainable, and uplifting on an individual level, these experiences begin to reflect themselves on a collective and unconscious level.
And this is what it truly means to be the change...
...you wish to see in the world.
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