The Inner Critic

An important part of our Happiness Quotiant (HQ) is recognizing and working with the inner commentator. Mental chatter while often random can also act as an inner hypnotist. What's worse is that many times this inner hynotist has been programmed negatively by an early authority figure. The net result is an inner critic that judges everything that occurs, often casting experience and perceptions in a negative light. "You're not good enough" is the ultimate trance that is created by the inner critic. Recognizing the voice for what is (basically just neurochemistry, neuronal quantum flux) and then using it to program positive activity can change our experience of life for the better. Try talking to your "self" kindly, patiently and gently as you would to a child you were teaching. Try it now. How does it feel? Now, practice talking to your "self' that way on a daily basis. Do it until that voice becomes The Voice inside your head.

What You Know And What You Do

Physicist and philosopher Thomas Campbell says “the quality of your being expresses the correctness of your understanding”. Are you perceived as kind, good, generous, trustworthy etc. If not, than this is a reflection of your understanding the nature of reality. Are you occasionally grumpy, nasty, self-centered dishonest etc? Well, then this expresses the correctness (or incorrectness) of your understanding as well. You say you’re only occasionally a jerk? Doesn’t matter. It means that your understanding of eternal verities is incomplete. Don’t work on the behaviors. Work on your understanding of the highest truth about the you-niverse and the quality of your being will improve accordingly.

Lipstick On The Mirror

Life shows up in consciousness first, awareness second. Whatever you are aware of in your physical reality was birthed in consciousness (thought) first. The physical reality is thus like the reflection of your face in the mirror. Now, if you look at your reflection in the mirror and you see your face is dirty, do you wash the mirror or your face? Would you put lipstick on your mirror?Well, it's the same with the reflection we call our physical reality. If what shows up is dirty, you need to “clean” it’s face. If you see a zit on your reflection in the mirror, THE ZIT IS NOT ON THE MIRROR!!! You take care of the zit on your face. And what represents the “face”? As opposed to the mirror-reflection of a face? Consciousness. Which is the Source of everything we perceive. If lack shows up in your life, it’s first consciousness of lack. If anger shows up in your life, it's first consciousness of anger. If disease shows up in your life, it’s first the consciousness of disease. Change your consciousness and the appearance (reflection) has to change too.

Mental Flexibility

Understanding that we don't live in the world, but rather we live in our world is one of the keys to well-being. If we are not aware of the neurophysiological processes of meaning-making and perception, it is easy to make the critical error of assuming that the way we perceive "it" is the way "it" is. We can never know, as first pointed out by Immanuel Kant in the 18th century, the way "it" is. We are marooned on an island of meaning, our own meaning and the best we can hope for is to understand this built-in facet of the human experience and operate accordingly. This means: don't assume that you know the truth about anything. Always be prepared to maintain flexibility. That is flexibility of mind-set. In fact, perhaps the most important markers of mental health and happiness is the ability to absorb and integrate new information and allow the mental nature to morph in response.

No More Fatigue

Notice the relationship between fatigue and resistance. Notice how being tired is the inevitable result of resisting experience, sensation, feeling, perception AND identity. That is, what and/or who you are identifying with. Whenever fatigue hits, release the name and label associated with what is being identified with. What will be left is pure energy. DISSOLVE into the pure experience/felt-sense of this energy, going through the middle sensory space (this will be perceived as a tingling sensation), and all fatigue or tiredness will be dissolved as well.

Spiritual Seduction

Life can be a breeze, if there is no resistance. Let all thoughts and feelings flow through you, by releasing them as they arise. This may require practice(s) as our conditioned response is to hold on, to grip and not let go. This is a result of fear and the focus on survival. It takes great trust and courage to let go, and unfortunately this bravery is not encouraged by our fear-based culture. All suffering is caused by resisting what shows up, i.e. “no”. All suffering really is, is a dramatic example of “this isn’t it” or “this isn’t OK”. Conversely, peace is release and bliss is “yes”. In fact, you might consider the philosopher’s stone that that turns the lead of suffering into the gold of joy, to be nothing more than saying yes to life, saying yes to whatever shows up. If seduction can be described as turning a no to a yes, then you can consider this a type of spiritual seduction.

Peak Experiences

All it takes to have a peak experience is knowing about them. In other words, knowing what they are, and that they, in fact, exist. This knowledge alone will allow you, with a mental "flick of the wrist" to switch on to a highly organized and energized mental state that will be subjectively experienced as relaxation, peace of mind, optimism and even existential bliss. Peak experiences as first described by Abraham Maslow are moments of overwhelming joy that can be experienced at will. What's more amazing and important, is that Maslow discovered that when his students began discussing these peak experiences, they would have them more often. It seems that seeing the possibility of these peak experiences inside, internally (i.e. the "in-sight" of peak experiences) increased the liklihood of having peak experiences.