True empowerment comes when we look at our beliefs. They may be founded in the conditioning of religion, culture, society, education, family and the media and even our genes. Thereafter we need to weigh those old paradigms against something that may serve us better. We are in a current sea of change, old models of reality are breaking down and it is time for something new to emerge. Across the board our models for politics, economics, religion, science, education, medicine and our relationship with the environment are all showing a different landscape than a decade ago.
Much of what we learned though is not so easy to change because we wear it like a garment.. It has been incorporated into our sense of self, even our biological self. But we know that what we hold as true today might not be so tomorrow. For example look at our understanding of matter itself, of atoms, which we now know are made up largely of empty space. Our perception of matter itself is changing. And so too are our beliefs and ideas of what is possible. It’s not easy to shift our old habits, especially while simultaneously being ridiculed, marginalized or opposed by those less able to change. Sometimes it is the heretics and fools who turn out to be the masters, geniuses or saints of tomorrow.
Even though we are forever in a state of flux or change, still it is not easy to change as humans. However, we are constantly dynamic and not static, we are born to evolve in our understanding and to mature within this lifetime, yet conscious change is still an effort, even though it is better than forced change. It is uncomfortable and sometimes only arises due to an emergency or crisis of some sort, like our current global situation under the alleged pandemic. If we can get used to the idea that change may have a degree of discomfort in it, we can prepare ourselves and decide to go about it with joy rather than reluctance. Even now, with our planet still in lockdown in places and the economy in limbo, we are at a place of uncertainty and even facing an unknown future ahead. Our leaders have given us no timeline as to when life will return to normal, if ever. And it is in situations like this that we can harness the moment as a catalyst of change, within our own minds as well as outside in society and the world. However, the main change should happen within. The rest will follow naturally as a by-product.
Change begins with knowing there is a need, then knowing how to make the change, and then actually applying the knowledge of how to change. And there is profound knowledge, which I will discuss here regarding how we can make the shift in perception regarding ourselves, and by repetition we can rewire our brain itself with new neural networks based on our new ideal of ourselves, while no longer falling under the old limiting habits picked up in childhood. We have more potential than we realize, and our own self-limiting beliefs are holding us back from our amazing potential.
And we can realize this when we find out what the latest research has uncovered about ourselves and the material world we are living in. To begin with the field of quantum physics has revealed that our subjective mind has an influence on our objective reality around us. The effect of the observer on the experiment has been measured. Where you place your attention determines where you direct your energy. You affect the world around you by your focus of attention. So by focussing on what you want, instead of what you don’t want, for example, you are already influencing the direction or outcome of things around you. The first step, or the primary focus is to shift from allowing your environment to affect your state of consciousness, to becoming greater than merely the physical conditions of your life. Otherwise we are bound to only create more of the same without the ability to change or improve. (overcome your environment)
Generally we unconsciously live by a set of memorised behaviours, thoughts and emotional reactions, all running like computer programmes in the background. We need to enter into that operating system within the mind to rewrite the unwanted programmes and make permanent positive changes. (overcoming the body).
Now overcoming time implies that we either live in the anticipation of the future (hankering) or repeatedly revisit past memories (lamenting), so that the system thinks it is living in a time somewhere other than the present moment. And the secret to transforming our consciousness is acquiring the ability to enter into the present moment by the use of attention, and there redesign the thoughts and thereby change who you literally are to such a degree that you change the neural networks in the brain which means changing who you are right down to the bodily level and ultimately even the genetic level. You can bring out the talents in your genes and end the disease inherited by those very same genes. That is what is meant by neuro-plasticity. The mind and genes are not hard-wired, they are changeable. You can rewrite them. That is the revolutionary breakthrough discovery now known by scientific research.(overcoming time)
There is a difference between living in survival mode and living in creation. One is stressful and under the influence of the material world, or believing that the outer world is more powerful than the inner world. It leads to fight-or-flight nervous system reaction. It focuses on the body and the environment, and the limitations or obsessions of time. The brain and body may be out of balance, and life is predictable. The other is beyond the body, environment or time and involves being pure consciousness, which even goes as far as not identifying with the body.
In part 2, I will discuss how one can understand the brain, the mind and how to get the best out of them, so stay tuned for the second half coming soon.
(image pixabay)