Personal empowerment cannot occur if you keep doing the same thing and using the same information that got you where you are today. How are you ever going to expand into a bigger role in life if you keep closing your mind to new information?
Einstein is credited with saying that it is insanity to keep doing the same thing and expecting different results. How true!
If you want to stop struggling and feeling like life is one big survival of the fittest contest, you have to be willing to release your old beliefs and paradigms that no longer work for you. Why is this so hard?
There can be many reasons, but one is that from a science standpoint, once you wire into your nervous system what you believe to be true, you will only tend to notice what aligns with your “reality”. Reality is relative; my reality is not your reality.
Once you start to unconsciously believe what you do, your conscious choice shuts down and you “fall asleep”. If you are not aware or paying attention you will live your life on autopilot. If your life is working very well for you, this is fine, but if it is not, your suffering will tend to only increase with time, like a growing cancer.
There was an article written in Science Daily.com July 2, 2009, entitled “People Sometimes Seek the Truth, but Prefer Like-Minded Views”. In other words, birds of a feather flock together. In this article, done as a collaborative effort of several universities, it was shown that most people prefer to select information that supports their existing views.
Now while there is a neuroscience explanation for why this happens, you will not change your life by hanging on for dear life to being “right”. I used to argue like crazy for my point of view. I am much less likely to do this now, as I’ve come to understand that my point of view is just that – mine. It is the way I’ve come to perceive the world.
I no longer associate my identity or self-worth with my current worldview as I know thoughts can change and I am not my thought! This is why your sense of self needs to be grounded and separate from your external environment.
I am a Spiritual Being, and I come from Spirit, the Divine Source of all that is. As long as I believe that I am my thoughts or what others think I am, I am subject to the left-brained ego and its “autobiographical memory” created with the mind of the human experience. Most people look for others to agree with them so that they can feel “right”.
Also, it serves to reinforce what they are unconsciously seeking due to their own wiring of their nervous system over time. The nervous system is only doing its job and is the obedient servant. What you believe is what you get, or in perceptual jargon, what you believe is what you see! We’ve had it all backwards.
By the time you “see” something, it has already passed through the filters of your nervous system. This is why some people are seeing opportunities in our world right now, but most are going into fear, stress and outright panic!
Empowerment is about learning how your brain and mind work, it is about discovering who you really are as a spiritual Being. The human drama is about experiencing our five sensory world and it’s meaning for you. To the degree that you live consciously, you can live powerfully and make conscious choice.
Otherwise, you will be like a robot, sleep walking through life doing the same things over and over so that you can keep on being right about how “life is” and staying in your comfort zone. And, life will continue to stay as is, and you will be right! I personally, would rather be happy any day, so I am willing to take my power back and wake up to a better way of living as much as I can consciously choose to do so.
What about you?
Valencia Ray MD
The Confidence Doc
Dr. Ray, Happiness is one of my goal. Whether professional of personal. For me to say I would rather be Right than to be Happy I would say yes and no, I want to do what is right but knowing, not everyone will agree with me. But to be Happy is an essential, if I am not happy, I would make another person feel uncomfortable, as well as myself being around someone. Being happy is an attitude of feeling good about SELF. Reading your Post weekly has open my minds to many things. I am not a shallow person, I go by what I have experience in life some good and some not so good.
Sometime I can relax just by listening to jazz or smooth jazz. It is just who I am. Someone at times that enjoy being along to think and say how truly Blessed I am. Have a Good Week!
Beverly
Hi Beverly,
Thanks again for your comments. What I have learned, is that “right and wrong” are judgments that are relative and can keep us stuck. We can get stuck on our opinion or beliefs and it makes us closed minded to growth and new opportunities.
I’m learning more and more that beliefs are changeable and fluid, that is, if I’m willing to be open to change. So, what I’ve decided is that there is no shame in changing my mind and I do not connect what I believe at the moment with my sense of personal IDENTITY, as I am NOT my thoughts!
Thoughts change, my sense of BEING (which is not defined by passing thoughts) is rooted in my spiritual essence, my spirit. Beliefs are about my “human experience” which is always evolving and the more flexible I can be in letting go of old, limited thinking, the faster I become empowered to move forward with confidence and grace.
Have a great week Beverly!