In life you are either growing or you are shrinking. You are either moving or you are stuck.
When you grow, you feel wonderful, When you shrink, you feel horrible…
This article is about a method to to cause your own growth in a gentle easy way, little by little.
Below is my horoscope for the week.
In this article I will show you some thinking, constructive thinking moves that you could start practicing, so you can become closer to being a Human Being than you are now… mostly just having thoughts, automatic thoughts that drive you crazy, drive you to hiding, drive you to insomnia, drive you to drinking, eating, surfing, Facebook, and other activities that don’t serve you.
Here is the horoscope:
In the English-speaking world, a sundae is a luxurious dessert that features ice cream topped with sweet treats like syrup, sprinkles, and fruits. In Korea, a sundae is something very different. It consists of a cow’s or pig’s intestines crammed with noodles, barley, and pig’s blood. I expect that in the coming week you will be faced with a decision that has metaphorical similarities to the choice between a sundae and a sundae. Make sure you are quite clear about the true nature of each option.
The first thing to get is that language has a tendency to always trigger the same visual imagery, the same emotional response, and that it’s automatic.
Experiment 1
Close your eyes and say: sundae with sprinkles, and syrup and maybe walnuts… Now observe your emotions, your bodily reaction to it. Your mouth, your face, your stomach…
If you are experiencing a mixture of delight, mouth watering so much you need to swallow, and at the same time tension in your chest and upper arms… your stomach tightening up, you are experiencing the fundamental reason why humans are continually suffering pain, bad emotions, bad thoughts.
Seemingly unrelated thoughts and imagery pop up: on one hand enjoyment, indulging, delight, on the other hand guilt, bad, wrong, shouldn’t do it, bad for you…
Did you observe it? Your mind cannot observe, so if you didn’t feel it, didn’t observe it, you can be sure that you were trying to use the mind for observation: it’s the wrong tool for that.
The Observer is that never changing, never judging part of you that is outside of the body, outside of the mind, somewhat behind you…
Try it again… don’t hurry it, if you never accessed the “position” of the Observer, it will take some trial and error for a while.
If you succeeded, I want you to notice that even the nicest things have their “bad” aspects, and no matter what you do, your mind won’t tolerate you being happy, enjoy things, be joyful. This is the dark lining of every cloud… the opposite of silver lining.
Experiment 2
No, do the same thing with the Korean sundae, intestines, blood… what is your thought and emotional reaction to that? Does it have a silver lining? Don’t think about it, test it?
The silver lining cannot be forced: it is either there or not! Forced silver lining is an attempt to lie yourself out of reality! Doesn’t work, and will make you miserable.
The thinking part… constructive thinking
The third thing I’d like you to do is think this: life will offer me an opportunity to get in touch how language makes me happy or miserable… at the touch of a thought…
That my job is to see both the dark lining and the silver lining in the events, and have room for both: life is a series of experiences, and this is the theme of mine.
I can look at my work, my body, my conversations, my movies, my books, the weather through these glasses and have a ball of a week. A week of growth, a week of adventure, a week well used to become an Expanding Human Being.
Conclusion: you can have a unique growth experiment every week!
How could you have every week of your life a growth experience? Instead of trying to DO growth, instead of pretending that life is OK, instead of hiding: why don’t you come out of your head and play, every day of every week… first through mini-guidances, through spiritual exercises like this, until you build up enough security in yourself, enough courage in yourself, to actually come out and play on the big playground: life.
And here is another “experiment” where you’ll chose
And to close it: here is a story that will make you feel ashamed… but it could be, also, the kick in the butt, that will make you start doing the things that will cause you growing…, like the experiments I recommend above:
Milton Erickson had what can only be described as a disadvantaged life.
He was born color blind. And tone deaf. He also had a peculiar form of dyslexia.
It was strange because… Up until the age of 16, Erickson didn’t realize the dictionary was in alphabetical order. Crazy, I know.
So it’s not surprising that other kids would make fun of Erickson -calling him by the nickname of “Dictionary”.
If that wasn’t a hard enough start in life, Erickson’s life suddenly got worse. A LOT worse.
Because… At 17-years-of-age he contracted Polio.
The Polio got so bad Erickson was unable to move any part of his body, except his eyelids.
The doctor’s told Erickson’s mother that he was brain dead and he would die soon.
But Erickson heard what the doctor told his mother — and although he could not move nor speak – he summoned all his life energy and made a miraculous recovery.
Polio struck again later in Erickson’s life.
Nevertheless, a wheelchair bound Erickson carried on and became arguably THE most brilliant hypnotist the world has ever seen.
So what’s the point?
Well… If Milton Erickson can achieve so much with hypnosis after having to overcome so many setbacks and disabilities… what could YOU achieve?
