posted on Aug, 21 2009 @ 07:16 PM
The Nine Principals of Conscious Living
1. The Principle of "Letting Whatever Happens Be Okay"
The amount a person suffers in their life is directly related to how much they
are resisting the fact that "things are the way they are." If there is suffering
or discomfort, there is resistance. Addictions or attachments to things being
different than they are need to be upgraded to preferences, so when "what is" is
not what you want it to be, you do not suffer over it and your happiness and
peace are therefore not controlled by forces outside of your control.
To the degree a person is willing and able to let whatever happens be okay, they
do not suffer. People with many rules about how things are suppose to be suffer
more because no matter how much care they take to protect their rules and see
that they and the world follow their rules, these rules are often going to be
violated. This does not mean a person cannot be goal oriented and work toward
making things they way they want; however, the emotionally healthy person prefers
the outcomes they seek rather than being addicted to them.
The key, then, to handling challenging situations, thoughts, and feelings is not
in resisting them, but rather becoming as fully accepting of them as possible.
Accept what happens to you and what you think and feel, even if it is
uncomfortable. Though it looks as if the discomfort is created by the thing we
are resisting, in actual fact the discomfort we feel is 98-99% from our
resistance to it and only 1-2% from the thing itself.
When we stop resisting, the discomfort stops also. Through acceptance, you
empower yourself to heal, transform, or release any unresolved mental or
emotional material. When you sense resistance, meet it with acceptance.
Ironically, once you stop resisting, you are much more effective in creating any
external change you may have a preference for (not an attachment to).
2. The Principle of Threshold
Every person has a personal threshold for what they can handle coming at them
from their environment, based on their personal map of reality. When a person's
map (their concept of who they are and how they relate to the rest of the
universe) cannot handle its environment, stress is created and the person begins
to deal with that stress by exhibiting various coping mechanisms learned during
childhood. These include anger, depression, anxiety, fear (and greater and lesser
degrees of these), substance abuse, overeating, plus a number of other coping
mechanisms considered more "healthy", such as exercising, talking with friends or
counsellors, isolation, and thousands of others.
All dysfunctional feelings and behaviors are really coping mechanisms designed to
deal with the stress of being pushed past this threshold, and therefore the
"cure" for dysfunctional feelings and behaviors is to raise that threshold, which
is what Holosync® does. Dysfunctional feelings and behaviors are not caused by
the environment or other people regardless of how it seems. People with a high
threshold for what they can handle coming at them from the world remain happy,
peaceful, and centered even when they are around difficult people or in difficult
situations.
When people suffer trauma in their childhood, this threshold does not mature in
the same way it would have had the trauma not happened. These people have a lower
threshold than "normal" people who did not experience any trauma, or who did not
have as much. This means interaction with their environment pushes them past
their threshold (which is lower) much more easily, and they are caught in
dysfunctional feelings and behaviors more often.
It is the raising of this threshold as a result of using the Centerpointe program
that causes dysfunctional feelings and behaviors to gradually disappear, because
the threshold eventually becomes so high very little can cause a person to be
pushed beyond the point where these feelings and behaviors are triggered.
3. The Principle of Chaos & Reorganization
Chaos always precedes growth. Therefore it is a GOOD thing.
The coping mechanisms mentioned above (dysfunctional feelings and behaviors) are
really an attempt to keep one's internal map of reality (which is really what is
being stressed when one's personal threshold is exceeded) from falling apart,
i.e., from going through the natural process that happens when our map of reality
cannot handle its environment.
This natural process, based on Nobel Prize-winning research, involves the map
going into temporary chaos in response to too much input, finally falling apart
when the chaos becomes so much the old map cannot hold itself together, and then
almost simultaneously reforming itself at a higher level that CAN handle the
environment that was previously too much for it. This reorganization is a natural
process, and always results in a new system/map that can handle what the old
system/map could not handle. It is helpful in this process to recognize when you
are in the initial chaos state, and to remind yourself that this is the prelude
to positive change -- if you know how to get out of the way and let it happen.
4. The "Map is NOT the Territory" Principle
There is a tendency to try to protect the old map (which is really a person's
concept of who they are and how they relate to the rest of the universe) when you
go into this initial chaos stage of growth. This attempt to hold the old map
together comes from the mistaken idea that this map is who we are - that "the map
is the territory" - rather than a convenient tool used to navigate through life.
This map is often called the ego by western psychology and is your concept of who
you are and what your relationship is to the rest of the universe. It is the
limitations of this map (its inability to adequately "map the territory" or
otherwise deal with the situation one is in - whether psychological, emotional,
relational, mental, or spiritual) that creates the "over-threshold" experience
and the resulting dysfunctional feelings and behaviors (i.e., suffering).
Therefore, letting the map go through the evolutionary process of going into
chaos temporarily and reorganizing at a higher level results in relieving the
problems and limitations of the old map and a new ability to deal with what was
previously stressful or overwhelming. It is very helpful to learn and recognize
your favorite methods of trying to save the old map, which again is based on the
mistaken idea that when the old map falls apart, you are falling apart, rather
than just getting a new and better map.
5. The Principle of Responsibility as Empowerment
You are responsible for every feeling or behavior you have, in the sense that it
is either your chosen response to something that happens, or an automatic
unconscious response based on the way your internal map of reality has been
structured.
This is very different from saying you are to blame for every feeling or behavior
you have. Taking personal responsibility is not about blame but rather about
personal power. If someone or something outside of you is the cause of how you
feel or behave, you are relatively powerless - a victim. If you, or at least your
unconscious processes are at cause, you have power and can do something to change
the situation to one that is happier and more peaceful. Things outside of you may
be a stimulus for you, but how you respond comes from you, either consciously or
unconsciously.
6. The Principle of Conscious Change
It is impossible to consciously do something that isn't good for you or is in
some way non-resourceful (destructive) to you. You can do something destructive
to yourself (feelings, beliefs, values, behaviors, etc.) over and over as long as
you do it unconsciously (without continuous conscious awareness), but once you
begin to do the non-resourceful feeling, behavior, belief, value, etc.
consciously, it will begin to fall away.
The trick is remaining conscious, and we have many ways of going unconscious so
as not to deal with what we are feeling or how we are behaving: eating, drugs and
alcohol, projection and blaming, spacing out, and countless other distractions.
To become conscious, it is necessary to identify our favorite ways of going
unconscious, be vigilant in noticing them, and be committed to gradually facing
ourselves by stepping outside ourselves and watching what we are doing, feeling,
etc. instead of allowing ourselves to be unconscious, automatic response
mechanisms. Use of Holosync® over time creates and increases the ability to
remain conscious and deal with things consciously. When this happens, many
non-resourceful feelings, behaviors, and approaches to life fall away and are
replaced by healthier approaches that bring happiness and peace to one's life.
7. The Principle of Witnessing
When faced with a feeling that is uncomfortable (and is therefore the result,
either consciously or unconsciously of not letting "what is" be okay), the best
course of action is to mentally step aside and, with great curiosity, watch
yourself have the feeling or behavior, perhaps saying to yourself: "There I am,
doing ___" or "There I am feeling ____". This stepping aside to watch helps make
you conscious of what is happening and, because it takes part of you out of the
feeling or behavior, makes it difficult to continue the suffering. This needs to
be done, however, without attachment to the outcome. In other words, you are
doing it to objectively and curiously watch what is happening, not to change
anything. The ability to step aside and watch yourself as you feel and act is an
acquired skill and takes time and practice to develop, but it will totally change
your life. Using Holosync® naturally develops your ability to do this.