Freedom Blog

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Is Seeing Believing?


No Limits | The Freedom Blog


Is Seeing Believing?

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“Seeing is believing. I will believe in God only if I see him: but are all things seen or heard or tasted, as real as they seem?”
Sri Sathva Sai Baba

“You must understand that seeing is believing but also know that believing is seeing.”
Denis Waitley

Did you know that we can only see about 10% of the matter (luminous matter) that exists in our world?  That means that the other 90% of what is out there is invisible to us (dark matter).
Did you also know that our eyes really aren't “seeing” ? Of course are eyes are seeing but it isn't that simple.
Our brain is decoding the information sent to it by the eyes and in some instances it is making up what it thinks it sees based upon prior information and expectations or assumptions.
In other words there is a lot of interpreting going on.  It is not always a direct translation of what you are looking at. Sometimes there is an incomplete picture being transmitted and our brain must fill in the blanks.
Our brain decides what we are seeing.
It is estimated that the brain makes up or creates 30-40% of the information that it uses to fill in the blanks.
Another interesting insight is that our brain is not actually analyzing the picture it receives from the eyes. It is analyzing the light it is receiving.
This is called the Visible Spectrum and it is the only band of electromagnetic spectrum (light) visible to the human eye.
The only colors we can see are the 7 colors of the rainbow and each has its own frequency, ranging from 390 nanometers to 700 nm. This Visible Spectrum falls in between ultraviolet and infrared. Some animals such as bees can see infra-red.
So our mind is detecting and analyzing the electromagnetic radiation frequencies of the colors it is seeing.  This information is transmitted through the eye into the retina where the chemical rhodopsin converts it into electrical impulses. These impulses are then analyzed and interpreted by the brain.
The reason I am explaining this is because in all this translation and interpretation our brains can sometimes get it wrong.

What you think you are seeing may not be exactly what is there.

In fact research has shown that a person may see things differently depending upon their state of mind and their emotional support network.

Dr. Kent D. Harber, associate professor of psychology at Rutgers University at Newark has a theory he calls ‘The Resources and Perception Model (RPM)”. 

According to Dr. Harber:

“People who have fewer social resources, such as friends and family, literally see challenging objects and events in a more exaggerated way than do people who feel emotionally supported."

“Those with fewer friends, with lower self-esteem and with less opportunity to disclose their emotions tend to visually amplify threats," Dr. Harber said. "Their perceptions are exaggerated, and disturbing things appear higher, closer, of greater duration or more intense than they actually are.” (my emphasis)

“Those who are isolated, who often lack self-worth, or who are in other ways bereft of resources might live in a more threatening world where mole hills look like mountains.” (my emphasis)

Knowing this, can you look back and see times when your outlook might have been affected by your situation? Maybe when you were going through a rough patch…..?

I know I can relate to this phenomenon. During certain periods of my life when I was going through emotional or personal challenges I think I saw and felt the effects of this.

To see if this negative viewpoint was real or imagined I used to check on myself by thinking of something I really loved, something that was a constant thing I always responded positively to.

If IT felt bad then I knew the feelings I was having had to be temporary, they weren't real. 

So I would let it go and not buy into it.

The next time things seem to be a little darker or a little bigger and maybe a bit scarier, remember that your mind may be influenced by your current situation.

What you are believing may not really be what you are seeing.

Is Seeing Believing?


www.stevengriggs.com



Friday, January 18, 2013

Getting Clear On What You Really Want


No Limits | The Freedom Blog


Getting Clear On What You Really Want


Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

 “When things feel murky and unsure, fine tuning our hearing so as to distinguish the voice of our Innermost Self brings clarity.” 
Kristi Bowman

“Humans tend to cling on to a picture that was painted in front of their eyes, instead of opening up their mind to the painting that was already there...” 
Lionel Suggs

One of the hardest questions I ask my clients is: “What do you really want for your life?”

It seems pretty straight forward- “What do you want?”

But try it, can you answer that question? I mean aside from the obvious, vague answers like health, win the lottery, love etc.

What do you really want? Be really specific.

If your mind goes blank, or defaults to “I don’t know,” or “I've never really thought about it” or you keep drawing a blank, then a better question might be: “What don’t I want?”

Some say that this is a negative approach but I don’t agree. It’s like clearing away the weeds, it helps you dig down to get a bit clearer.

Seeing what you don’t want makes room to see what you do want.

If you don’t know what you want, how can you change anything?

Be wary and don't get sidetracked by asking too many questions. Try to stay focused on the main question: "What do I really want?"

A key aspect to this question asking is to imagine how you feel about the answers you are giving.

You really get the insight when you pay attention to the feeling. Does your voice rise a little and do you feel your pulse and energy quicken when you talk about it or visualize yourself doing it? These are sure signs that you are in alignment with a true passion.

Another interesting way to gain an insight into what you really want, is to ask: “If I could be doing anything in the world right now, with no chance of failure, what would it be?”

Another question is: “If you had unlimited wealth, what would you do with your time every day?”

Be careful when you are asking these questions and thinking about what you want. Don’t let any limiting thoughts creep in such as “I don’t know anything about that” or “I wouldn't know where to start”.

If you watch your self talk you may notice how these little critical questions slip in….

Trust me, when the time comes to start the new action the way forward will show itself.

Just get the “what”, don’t worry about the how, when or where right now, the information will show up at the appropriate time.

Just tell yourself that you’re not going to worry about that right now, all is well.

So be totally open with yourself and visualize what you really want.

As you go through these exercises you will get clearer and clearer.

And as you do, you will start moving toward the new you.

You may not notice it at first but just having the thought of what you want and visualizing it in your mind begins the process and you’re on your way!




Sunday, January 13, 2013

Do You Know Your Limiting Beliefs?


No Limits | The Freedom Blog


Do Know Your Limiting Beliefs?

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

"If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him a landlord to a ghost."
Lloyd C. Douglas  

“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind”
Elly Roselle

“Beliefs are the determinant of what one experiences. There are no external causes.”
David Hawkins

Many writers talk about Limiting Beliefs and tell you of ways to eliminate them.

But to do that don’t you have to be able to recognize them? And is it really that easy to recognize them?

Limiting beliefs are very subtle and difficult to recognize because they exist underneath our conscious thoughts, beneath our everyday mind. A certain belief becomes embedded in your mind and thereafter becomes a part of your filter, your belief system.

Over a lifetime they create the filter through which you see and interact with the world, your Under Programming.

Limiting Beliefs all originate in our childhood. They come through some event or comment that we took to heart. For whatever reason we applied an emotional charge to the event and it became embedded in our mind. We "believed" it.

As children we were constantly learning about this world, seeking to understand and fill in the gaps in our understanding.

To feel solid we sought answers. Sometimes the lessons or answers we received came from these emotionally charged events and became our Limiting Beliefs.

For example, being yelled at by a parent or ignored when you had something really important to share could create the belief that “I’m not important” or “No one wants to hear what I have to say”

Another belief could be created from hearing your parents or others talking negatively about money or wealth.

“Money doesn't grow on trees!” “Money isn't everything!” “Do you think I’m made of money?” You may therefore hold a negative opinion of money, a belief that money is bad.

Our parents can’t be blamed for any of this. They were the result of their programing and their parents were the result of their programing…. . It’s a vicious cycle.

But the final result is a compilation of all our limiting beliefs to form what I call our “Comfort Band”.

This is a band or range of comfort that we each live within. It is much like a thermostat setting, you have a high and a low and we operate within that range.

Sometimes you will range down towards the lower setting and sometimes bump up against the higher setting but you will always stay within the range. Not higher, not lower.

Have you ever noticed how many lottery winners seem to lose it all and end up right back where they started?

That’s why some people have more money than others. Their Comfort Bands allow for greater financial success, while some of us don’t feel comfortable being that successful.

It’s not based on intelligence, luck, education, connections or anything else for that matter. It is all based on our Under Programing and that sets the limits of our “Comfort Band”.

How do you uncover a limiting belief?

First, you need to listen to your self-talk and pay attention to those quiet little comments you make to yourself.

Listen for anything you say to yourself that is a negative statement, a justification or rationalization.

“I don’t know enough about (fill in the blank) to be successful”. “I can’t do that because (fill in the blank)”. “I’ve always been unlucky”. “I don’t know what I’d do with that kind of money.” It goes on and on.

These are all the symptoms of your underlying Limiting Beliefs.

There are many, many variations of Limiting Beliefs but basically they all boil down to having low self-esteem.

You can also look at your current circumstances to get a picture of your comfort settings.

How does your life feel? Are you where you want to be? Are you comfortable?

Do you day dream of having more? Do you fear having less?

How would it feel to drive a Maserati or a Lamborghini? How would it feel to live in an apartment in Trump Tower?

What feelings came up as you read those lines? Did you say to yourself, “Yeah! I want those!”

Or did some other thoughts come up?

These are clues.

I’m not saying that you necessarily want a Maserati or Lamborghini, or a Trump Tower apartment, I know my Comfort Band doesn't want those, it’s just not me.

The point is, by paying attention to yourself you can begin to see when you bump up against your band settings. And by learning your settings you can begin to understand who you are.

By continuing to understand who you are you can begin the process of uncovering the underlying beliefs that you created many years ago, the Limiting Beliefs that form your “Comfort Band”.

The next step: Getting clear on what you really want.




Thursday, January 3, 2013

Nature


No Limits | The Freedom Blog

Nature

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.” 
-Albert Einstein

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” 
-John Muir

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” 
-Henry David Thoreau

Since our earliest ancestors first roamed the earth approximately 7 million years ago, we have been here.  After discovering fire approximately 1.9 million years ago we began our dominance of the planet.

But when we look at the artifacts and archaeology of our ancient ancestors we are only going back maybe 10-20 thousand years. This is a drop in the sea compared to the millions of years we have been here!

Millions…. that’s hard to fathom or even put into context.

The point I am making here is that we, as a species, have been here living with the other animals and plants, co-existing with the life forms that exist on this planet for millions of years. Not as something separate. We didn't just show up here. We all evolved here, all  plants, animals, and humans originated from single cell life forms that lived in the primordial ooze.

So what is nature? Aren't ALL the plants, animals and life forms that live on this planet nature?

Yes. We are nature. We are not separate from it.

Yes, we have put our stamp on the planet and tried our best to modify it and bend it to our will, as only humans do.  But it has only been a short time, relatively speaking, since we lost our intimacy and direct connection with the ecosystem.

Over time we have become more and more separated and insulated from our connection with the planet. We began to live in tight, protected structures, spending time driving in machines, or flying in machines across the planet, eating food that no longer has any obvious connection to its source. Insulated from everything.

We have become separated from the planet.

A part of this disconnection I think has come from a collective push by our culture over the past twenty or thirty years to look at nature as if it was something apart from us, something separate. Almost like it is something to worship, like it was our mother…..

Remember the commercials- “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature…”?

We are the naughty children abusing the earth, creating global warming, pollution, wasting the resources of this planet by killing the animals and depleting the oceans.

And we are.

We are terribly efficient at killing, extracting, processing and utilizing the bounty of this planet.

But we are not separate from it. Its future and ours are inextricably intertwined.

We will not control it. Thinking we can always modify and control nature is an example of the arrogance of man.

But it may seem that we can control it…. on the surface…..but for how long? There are too many humans, with too many weapons and rigid ideologies, growing at too fast a rate, with limited water and food sources……

In another few hundred thousand years, the planet will have evolved again. It will be what it will be and we may not be a part of that evolution…..

But whatever it is, we can’t control it.

So in the meantime, instead of feeling separate or apart from “Nature”, try to look at everything in a more inclusive way, try to affirm your connection to all things on this planet.

The next time you are out for a walk or hike or when you are camping in the woods, pay more attention. Look for the feelings that may pop up.

As you walk into the woods or wherever you are outdoors, sometimes doesn't it feel just a little bit like…..home?

Doesn't the smell of wood smoke make you feel good….. and safe?

Doesn't the feeling you get sitting around the campfire with your friends and family feel good….. and right?

Doesn't it remind you of something?

The memories of millions of years of living naturally, outside in small groups, around open fires don't go away in a few thousand years.

And that’s who we really are.

 “The mountains are calling and I must go.” -John Muir