We are not the ones in charge of our own evolution. If we were, we would all be enlightened by now! Yet beginning to Live in Symmetry by using whatever upsets us as a call to action, where each trigger brings us the invitation to evolve by caring where we hurt, and take charge of questioning the lower-level thinking that is separating us from ourselves and reality.
AN EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE PATH TO SELF-EVOLUTION
Using the HeartMinding process to harness our conscious mind as a tool to expose the errors in its own logic and witness the consequences of believing those “False Images Appearing Real” (FEAR) is an incredibly effective, efficient, and pro-active form of SELF-EVOLUTION. I see folks transforming before my eyes each day, each month or retreat, and especially each year of the mastermind group, where we recently celebrated how far each of the members had come.
However, with each celebration we could find areas where they haven’t yet consciously expanded themselves and their lives into the more open-hearted container they are creating. Maybe they haven’t taken real tangible ACTION to live at least one of the turn-arounds that was revealed to to them as their path to peace.
I’ve begun to notice that if we don’t at least ‘act as-if’ once we have seen a new way (or help ourselves with whatever story would keep us from moving in a new direction), the inertia of our old programming will send us right back into the old patterned pain. That expansion into our new level of evolution comes in part from slowing down and starting to live from this new place….which is mostly about getting used to feeling GOOD! It is part of a sacred responsibility to ourselves and others to not just get the Ah-ha’s but to start living out of them, and that is what Pivotal Shift 6 is all about.
PUSHING UP YOUR INTIMACY, ENERGY, AND HAPPINESS CEILINGS
Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks talk about pushing up our energy and intimacy ceilings so that we get used to living from this new unfamiliar happier or more connected place. Our sessions can result in almost a high from seeing through the only thing that was tamping us down–OUR STORY–we have so much fun and laughter and lightness–and yet, in order to not hit our old familiar ceiling and crash to the floor, we need to ground the changes in action.
This Pivot is about each taking conscious responsibility pushing up our HAPPINESS CEILING–sustaining that happier, calmer, more connected capacity you find when we drop into deep self-inquiry long enough that we create a new SET POINT for our lives. HOW DO WE DO THIS? Through Shift 6…living into a practice of simply ENJOYING when we feel good! Catching the mind scanning for more problems, quickly giving it a bit of help with a quick turn-around to release it from the old spell, and let the freedom you’ve found be enough. And when you can’t; that indicates another deeper belief or hidden payoff that is keeping the old ways in place.
FEAR (False Images Appearing Real)
Not long ago, I has a session with someone who tackled the very specific vision she had of a future that was scaring her–a future that would likely get created out of that vision because that would be the only way she would be able to see her situation. I asked her to tell me her ‘WORST CASE,” since I have found that freedom and peace come from going there–mining the stories our mind would tell–then letting it see the ways that they aren’t true and that in fact the polar opposite story could be as likely or even likelier to happen. (What we are doing has been called the most powerful form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by two Swedish scientists.)
In working through each one and turning it around, she found INCREDIBLE freedom and lightness and hope and fun… I could just feel the shift in her body and mind. We had so much fun finding very real exampled for how the happy projection onto this near-future risk she was going to take was actually so much more likely than the scary one–unless her monkey-mind was allowed to run wild and promote the scary one into a self-fulfilling prophecy. She was like a new woman when she hung up the phone. And that often translates into very tangible change in her life and relationships, as she is someone who works hard to see through the thinking and takes action on the prescriptions for happiness that her pain reveals to her when she turns it around.
TEACH PEACE INSTEAD OF PREACHING FEAR
Yet, not too much later, she told me that she became fearful of stepping into the happy role she had found, where she could set the tone for her whole family of holding the vision (for herself and them) that was just as happy and hopeful as the old one had been sad and scary–and had been totally believable to her. The old thoughts can rush back in if we don’t take space to stay with ourselves and help out the old fears as they arise.
- To slow down and hold a patient, loving, highly-aware space for ourselves to get used to this new place.
- To stay with our vision and shore it up within ourselves before we involve others.
- To help out the old warning voices that will rush back in and preach fear.
- To TEACH PEACE instead of PREACHING FEAR to those littlest parts of you, by living your happy visions. (See my Win-Win Solution Matrix for how to find your own happy vision, which ends up being he best for all concerned as well).
Changing our thoughts has the power to change our actions, but we also need to change our actions as a way to REAL-IZE that change in thought. Pivotal shift 6 is about the Art and Science of ENJOYING the EXACT level of evolution you’re at (even if it’s one that is taking you back into the old ways and stealing the freedom you’ve found.)
There are no WRONG ways to show up, but you will know the more and less painful ways, because you will feel it in your life–your body and your reactions to what shows up will give you instant feedback. We are SO used to living in anxiety and annoyance and alienation from those we love that it feels unfamiliar to be OK with reality as it is, and our minds will try to convince us that we are missing something. Free-falling into Life and letting Love catch you–the Fearless Faith theme of our last newsletter, is a practice.
Enjoying your Evolution is a practice. A SACRED practice. It’s you coming back to who you really are; to growing your light and growing your life; to being big enough to hold yourself and to pay it forward by holding others in a way that doesn’t hurt you… an open heart that has room for all.
ENJOYING YOUR EVOLUTION AS A LIVING MEDITATION
People always say, ‘All I need to do is get back to my regular practice of morning meditations.” But for me, the meditation is a living one. Life will bring you EXACTLY what you want to expand into next. And Enjoying your Evolution doesn’t meant only Expanding into the good places–it also means holding yourself in the ‘bad places’–which I call Embracing the EDGE of your Evolution, and which is the theme of next month’s newsletter. It’s my living meditation, and it looks like this:
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe and notice and question the thinking that would trigger a cascade of uncomfortable emotions in any situation. That includes the thought that tells you its not OR to just relax into life. “It’s not OK to feel this safe and free. To trust the moment. I have to worry about X and second-guess Y and control Z.” Can I absolutely know that’s true? How do I react when I react when I believe that? Who am I going back to the moment before I thought it? Can I Seek the Symmetry in that thought? Here it is: “I don’t have to worry about X, Y, and Z.”
“Consider the lilies… ” They neither toil nor spin…
The re-kindled archived post Emily chose for this month’s newsletter would be my ‘failed journey’ in not being able to ‘get’ Christianity all those years It’s about the journey that ultimately gave me the kind of faith in life I could never access through that dogma, and let trust in reality blossom. See the post below, , which I read to you as an AUDIO. Here’s the link to listen!
🙂 Much Love, Shawn