My mind is constantly choosing my reality through how it focuses my attention. Mystics say there is an infinity of parallel Earths that we are constantly accessing with our Consciousness. You may consider this a bit outrageous, but it is verifiable. Conduct a series of experiments using Self-Observation as feedback. Self-Observation is mind watching. As you go through your day, be aware of your mental focus, where you ‘choose’ to put your attention. I put choose in quotes because frequently our choices are not made consciously, but are the consequence of distraction and programming. We often run on autopilot. As you watch, notice how your choices affect your personal, perceptual, emotional reality. This is step one of the experiment, the baseline measure .
After a few days of watching you will begin to have an awareness of your mind’s choices and how they affect you emotionally. Thoughts produce emotions, emotions drive behavior. This is basic cognitive-behavioral psychology. We have potential choice over what we are feeling, but we must become aware of the process and how it works for us in order to consciously choose.
Once you have a body of observations, the second step is to begin making conscious decisions about what is worthy of your attention, and what will facilitate and maintain Presence. Most will have observations of thoughts that draw attention into the past, frequently to events that are negative or painful. Replaying past traumas re-traumatizes us, causing us to re-experience the original feeling produced by the event. This may occur as spontaneous flashbacks, requiring us to re-assert our intention to be present-moment focused. Or there may be observations of fearful projections into the future, causing anxiety or panic reactions. Try it! Focus on a painful past circumstance and note the emotional reaction. Perform the same exercise with a future orientation and note the feeling fallout.
As you grow in this work you will begin to verify the value of choosing a conscious reality in The Now. The emotional consequence of Here/Now focus is always positive and uplifting. The moment is a portal into a different reality. Tribes of Aborigines in Australia, who call themselves The Real People, speak about alive and non-alive time. They say people are non-living when angry, depressed, or are experiencing fear. So, the question really is: are you alive or non-alive in this moment?
Excellent observations, James! I like the way you approached this theme.
I would like to comment on a recent experience relating to this topic. I have been wanting to go deeper with my artistic expression for quite some time now. I have been feeling stuck. Recently, the last few days, I was struck with a series of thoughts that were filled with resentment and anger. One could say I was choosing this for I could not seem to stop the onslaught. At a certain point I allowed a catharsis of energy to move through my body, vibrating my being thoroughly till I felt calm. I felt peace, gone were the thoughts of resentment and anger. As time unfolds I am filled with creative inspiration that is expressing itself in my work. An ease I have not felt in a long time. I am inspired. To be inspired is to breathe life in. We are life. True presence is the witness at the center of whatever storm is going on around. Unconscious emotion or emotion that is unilluminated is often equated with mental perceptions and judgements of the feelings we’ve had or are having. In it’s purest sense, we as humans can percieve the vibrational quality of our experience. Without mind, our feelings are. They are not good or bad. When we are aware and present in our whole being, our feelings are messengers that help guide us.
Our feelings are indeed messengers that help guide us. Feelings are our guide posts telling us how much in or out of alignment we are with our deepest intentions. Negative emotions are generated when our thought patterns stray our highest intentions. They also teach us how to release attachments to or identifications with the Illusion, with what is not real.
I agree. I also experience that aside from feelings being an indication relating to the alignment of this form with my deepest core and its intent, that my felings, or vbrational perception as I would like to include now, are an antennae relating to my energy body. The clearer I become energtically, and by this I mean the release of old energetic configuations relating to the pain body, the more I come into synergistic relationship with this aspect allowing its integration into all of my life experience. I thus allow myself to go even deeper into the multi-dumensional nature of now.
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