That’s Einstein when asked what question would he like to see answered. A profound question disguised as a simple one. Early in my career as a trainer, I ran a workshop for new managers and as part of them learning Human Resource management, we ran a behavior skills section using the DISC behavior assessment. The model segregated each personality type based on two sets of umbrella questions:
Of course, it is not a perfect behavior model but it was always interesting to see how the perception of the environment and one’s ability to impact it determined so many behaviors and preferences in these individuals. ‘How do I view the universe? Or more importantly, how do I view the world and my immediate environment?’ Do you think of your immediate environment as a friendly, favorable and abundant place? Do you see yourself as someone who has the ability to impact and change your environment? Or do you see yourself pushed and pulled by it without any say in the matter? How you choose to answer those questions almost entirely determines the life you experience. It determines how you interact with others, how motivated you are, where you spend your time and energy, what challenges you take on, what you value and how you view happiness and success. Einstein’s question is Law of Attraction 101.
Any leadership trainer / behavior guru will tell you, personality or behavior assessments show you a snapshot of your preferences right now. That we display different sets of preferences for different settings. They will also tell you that we are capable of developing new behaviors and are not stuck with the ones we have now. So when you come across someone saying, ‘you can have anything you want’ or ‘you can be anyone you want to’; it’s a 100% true. It ALL starts with your perception of not only the world; but also the perception of your place in it. So, is the universe a friendly place?
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Yesterday, I was thinking if Masters and Yogis ever feel upset, get angry or frustrated? If they don’t, when did they stop feeling those things and how did they manage to get there? In the last two weeks, the world has seen an increased disturbance in the collective consciousness, with violence at its core. I was determined to find an explanation to the RIGHT way to feel the feelings in such circumstances. Should we pay attention to these world events? Do we need to be informed and pay a price of feeling like cr*p? And if we choose to, what should we do when it causes a physical, emotional and mental disturbance? How much should we let ourselves feel? Firstly, whatever your answer, whichever path you choose, however, you handle those questions; it’s the path meant for you, it is the experience to be had – for you. Let’s break down the question about feeling disturbed; physically, emotionally or mentally. (Maybe you stayed in bed longer, maybe you cried, maybe you were angry) Disturbance in self is caused because there is a conflict within you. The root of it is that you identify with certain ideas (ideologies) or you have preferences (likes / dislikes) and when you see something that is not in line with that, it triggers an imbalance in your state of being. And when you try to exercise control over the situation and find that there are limitations; you feel the emotions which are lower energy. If each person on the planet had no internal conflict and was in harmony, the world at large wouldn’t have any conflict, of any kind. Having said that, we all find ourselves living in a reality that’s seems less than ideal right now.
In times like these, we have to remind ourselves, we are ALL work in progress. It is OK to be swayed off balance. Our existence is a complex amalgamation of everything and nothing; of the ugliest and the most beautiful. Grief, sadness, anger are part of this complex spectrum and are important fires to transcend. And transcendence is not a onetime activity, a check in the box. You don’t say, ‘Yup, got angry and got over it. Being there. Done that. Thanks for the experience!’. There are different levels of transcendence and sometimes we find ourselves moving through different kind of fires, multiple times before it sticks. Whatever your spiritual path, with continued practice we learn ways of not spiraling out of control when we find ourselves off balance. We recognize ways to not let our actions stem from lower energies. And that’s the best thing we can do for the collective consciousness. Not feel guilty or be hard on yourself for manifesting and allowing lower energies into your experience. The world has enough of the ‘guilt’ and ‘judgmental-ness’ going around. Be gentle with yourself, be kind and find a way to love yourself back to better energy. We need that now, more than ever. Generally, when we think of wealth or capital, we think money or material things that can be valued in financial terms. Last week I watched a TED talk that was recommended by a dear friend titled Unlocking Multiple Forms of Wealth. What I loved about the talk was that it articulated being in service to others in a unique way. The speaker provided us with a framework to think about things that we normally don’t consider as forms of wealth and how each of us can build that wealth for ourselves. During the talk, the use of the words ‘Alternative Capital’ resonated with me. It's a simple idea for looking at resources, other than money, and thinking of them as wealth that can be built or re-directed for the common good. Time, Physical space (land), Skills, Community, Attention, Knowledge, Nature, Environment, Culture, Empathy, Compassion, Love… These are all forms of wealth, which normally aren't talked about as being part of individual wealth and sadly enough our society desperately needs more of it. Can each of these be monetized? Yes, they can and are monetized; but anyone withholding these from someone in need till it gets monetized, in my mind, is going against the natural flow of the universe. This is not to say that none of it should be monetized, to each it's own. The imbalance and folly would be not to value it as wealth or worth doing unless it provides the monetary value in exchange. I have started a personal practice of building my ‘Alternative Capital’. The aim is for me to look at what alternative forms of capital I have in abundance and find ways to provide that to someone in need. The Thursday Circle is the first formal action towards building that alternative capital. I have time, space and skills to organize a gift gathering every Thursday for people who need company and space to meditate. The truth is most people I interact with regularly already build alternative capital in some shape or form. The TED talk just gave a tangible name to the actions I have seen around me.
I know of a couple that converted their entire house and land into a service space for others to use for workshops and yoga related activities, then there is this coach that runs free coaching groups online, or this person who is converting her land into a sanctuary for animals, or the company that provides clean suits for the homeless that have to go for job interviews, folks that provide foster homes for animals, the gurudwaras and individuals that cook meals and feed the hungry, the skilled individuals that blog for free providing tools and support to millions, friends that organize their communities to help families in need, or how about the friend who organizes signature campaigns to change laws… All done on gift or donation basis, and each of them accumulating or re-directing this Alternative Wealth. Over the next couple of months, I am going to talk about Alternative Capital to every person I interact with, find opportunities to learn ways others are doing this or even join in a community conversation about this concept . Who knows? So, as part of my practice to be mindful about building Alternative capital, I’d like to hear from you. How can we do more or more specifically what can I do to further the practice? I love Deliberate Creation. I love the practice of manifesting and attracting selected experiences into my life. Like Attracts Like. Match my vibration, draw from inspiration and allow it to unfold. Easy. Simple. I have multiple tools for when I need support raising my vibration or to gather information so as to make the most of my feel good action. Music, Videos, Books, Podcasts, Vlogs, Blogs, and Support Groups [insert whatever is your ‘go-to’ tool]. All these are awesome tools that help further and support the practice of personal vibration management. Finding the inspiration and a feel good action is at the core of staying in the vortex and connected to the source. Inspiration is everywhere and I know The Source is always guiding me. My success comes down to me being a vibrational match to that frequency so that I am able to pick up on that guidance. There is, however, another side to these ‘go-to’ tools that sometimes don’t have the same intended effect. On a few occasions in the past when I found myself unusually restless, feeling emotional or anxious; I’d reach out to my ‘go-to’ tools to raise my vibrations. Innocent right? Yes, until on a couple of occasions I caught myself being in an irritable mood because I had consumed ALL of the new content for ALL the blogs, podcasts, and vlogs I subscribe to. The irritability did take me by surprise. These were the tools that are supposed to help me right? The more I thought about this behavior, I knew that I had just experienced the phrase ‘any strength overused becomes a weakness’. And I was using these tools as an escape to dealing with my thoughts and feelings; to a point where they became distractions that blocked my ability to listen in to my inner guidance. It became all about the external input. I think it can be ease to get trapped in that cycle of continuous external stimulation, move from one tool to another; because these external inputs provide immediate relief from the restlessness, anxiety or troubling emotions. At some point, however, we have to get down to doing the work with our thoughts. That means letting those ‘not so good’ thoughts and feelings have their day in the sun. What we don’t want to do is sedate the ‘how I am feeling’ by drowning in external distractions; or rush to find a solution, or suppress the energy in the hopes that it will go away. After all, we know better than to stick our heads in the sand to avoid being seen! As humans we all experience dip in our vibrations, it’s perfectly normal if we get angry or hurt or feel anxious. The more we try to avoid feeling these feelings or get into action to get rid of them because that’s what is expected or maybe attempt to ignore its existence by external distractions; the more we will find that it doesn’t hold for long. They always find a way to re-emerge.
Have you found yourself reaching for these innocent external choices to escape your emotions? Or do you know where to draw the line? It’s worth remembering that these well-meaning tools if overused can become the new age intellectual sedation's that block our connection to the source and distract us to a point were we are no longer able to listen to our inner guidance. |
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