Secret Saboteurs
What May be Preventing You from Enjoying Life
A powerful philosophy regarding happiness is being developed and promoted around the world. Proponents of positive thinking such as Reverend Norman Vincent Peale describe a new way of being that focuses on the choices people can make about how to achieve and maintain a state of happiness.
Other authors who contribute to this philosophy include Neale Donald Walsch, Melody Beattie, Marianne Williamson, and Deepak Chopra.
Conscious Versus Subconscious Mind
Even with access to these helpful teachings, the conscious choice to live life as a happier person may still elude the most determined and committed of individuals. What could be causing the block?
Bruce H. Lipton, in his book The Biology of Belief, quite rightly points out that using positive thinking alone may not be enough to change your life. Lipton points to the subconscious mind as the locus of sabotaging memory tapes that interfere with the newer behaviours being chosen.
Triggers from the Past
Triggers from the past can be identified most readily by the explosions of anger, panic, or other painful emotion that seem out of proportion with what is actually happening.
Examples of such disproportionate reactions can include:
- Blowing up because someone left the toothpaste tube uncapped;
- Exploding at your loved one for a comment that was mistaken as criticism;
- Yelling at a child for accidentally knocking over a glass of milk at the dinner table, and;
- Becoming unduly panicked after locking your keys in the car.
Past Experience Can Control Your Present
The experiences you had in your past may represent the programming that continues to run your life; these past experiences can inhibit your ability to choose new ways of being in the present.
Left unexamined, this subconscious programming will sabotage your best efforts to change. A perfect illustration of this is the inconsistent success seen in people who are attempting to fulfill their New Year's resolutions.
Unhooking from the Past
Lipton proposes that the pre-programmed behaviour is stored in the body’s cell memories. Modern energy work and mind-body healing modalities are helpful in bringing awareness to the pain of the past. Psychology is also turning in this direction and proving highly effective. And yet, how can these past memories be released once and for all?
Spiritual teachers and religious masters consider the way to freedom is through letting go of blame and shame, and finding the way to pardon those who have hurt you. If an individual can be guided to access the cell memory where the past experience is stored, they will experience the extraordinary release that letting go of this memory brings.
Forgiveness is Powerful Medicine
Lipton points out that an essential part of consciousness includes the understanding that humans are all interconnected. He proposes that new awareness of the shared history of humanity will lead to unconditional acceptance that everyone has done things they wish they had not done, everyone has needed forgiveness at some time.
At the heart of forgiveness is the recognition that compassion is more liberating than blame, and that forgiveness of the past is the key to finding freedom and health in the present.
Overcome Programmed Behavior With Consciousness
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