Do We Think too Much ?

So you are lying in bed, ruminating over something that you have gone over again and again.

Is there something in your subconscious that makes you think you will solve it or come up with a whole new way of looking at it?

Do we actually think that going over it for the 99th time will lead to some closure on it? Or that the 100th time is the charm?

I don’t know, and I end up doing it , time and time again. But lately I am thinking that the thinking itself might be counterproductive sometimes.

I heard Ajahn Brahm (a Buddhist monk) say that something is only a problem if it can be solved. You know.  ..like a math problem that you can come up with a solution for.

So, if it isn’t something that you can come up with a solution for, then it’s not a problem, by the definition of the word.

So why do we spend our precious time, that could be put to better use (like sleeping) trying to solve the unsolveable?  Are we looking for a way to change the nature of that situation or event,  into a solveable situation ?

If something is not a problem, then what it is?

It’s just the way something is.

It is how things are, even if we don’t like it.

It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances.

It’s something bad that happened

It’s somebody else being who they are, whether we like it or not.

Some things we have no control over, and other things we wish we had control over.

We can’t change other people, or the nature of another person. We can’t change what another person wants, or how they behave.

We can’t change the past, including things we wish we hadn’t done, and things we wish someone else hadn’t done to us.

There are plenty of things that we have no control over, and cannot change. Yet, we go over these things, trying to generate better feelings about them, by trying to find ways to control them.

Then, there is that urge to figure out other people.

Why did they say that?

Why would they do that to me?

What did I ever do to them?

How can they behave that way, or think that way?

Again ….things we have no say in.

We desire to make reality fit into our own paradym. We want things to make some kind of sense and to have an explanation we can live with.

We want other people to behave in a logical manner. We want other people to behave in an ethical manner and valued manner.

That could be why we go over and over the same things, and let the same thoughts play out in a loop, over abd over again.

I think that we need to look at it and ask ourselves, “Can I solve this? Is there a reasonable possibility of a solution?

Or is this a non – problem, and rather a difficulty that just exists with no action needed from me?”

If you have gone over and over it, and no solution you can think of will actually work, then it might need to be tossed into the non – problem pile. And we can move on to actual problems that we have the power to fix and solve…..or better yet we can simply let it go, and sleep.

Ask yourself  “what is more productive?”

Is it to keep repeating this loop of thoughts that I have repeated 100 times? Or to assign this particular loop to its proper box on our mental shelf ?

Then we can use the time in a way that supports us better overall.

After all ww are somewhat logical beings, even though emotion tends to drive our behavior, including our thinking behavior. 

At the very least, we can decide that the thing isn’t going to go anyplace , if we do something more productive or more self supportive right now.

So, since it’s not going to go anywhere, and we can’t come up with any new thoughts about it, what harm will happen if we just set it on that shelf?

Goodnight all ….and pleasant dreams.

Annie ⚘

 

Spiritual Message of Empowerment

While we are all connected as humans, we are also individuals. Each one of us a unique spiritual being with our own abilities to perceive reality the way it reveals itself to us.

Everyone may not see things the way you do, or understand the messages that you have to offer.

Don’t let that stop you from believing in yourself and your unique ability to share your light and your message with those around you. For every person that is not ready for what you have to share, there is another person who is seeking the knowledge and perspective you have.

Be uniquely you. Don’t get locked into a big of only perceiving what society tells you is there.

Reach within as you expand your awareness beyond your mind/ body form.

Your existence extends way beyond your skin and your limbs. Listen. Breathe in what is around you. Allow for the unlikely or the unexpected to be there.

Someone is awaiting your very perspective. Never cease to believe in your worth and your value on this planet.

As your consciousness expands, there is a butterfly affect that travels to the four corners of the earth. Just because you cannot always see your influence on the planet dies not mean it does not happen daily.

Namaste,

Annie – gentlekindness coaching

gentlekindnesscoaching.com

 

If it Walks like a Duck….

Watching the tv series “Grimm” tonight, reminded me that we all have a frame of reality that we were taught long ago.

As children we were conditioned to perceive things in a certain way.  We were taught by our families, our culture, our friends, and our particular religion, to accept certain realities and to reject others.

Any reality which we were conditioned to reject, was programmed into our subconscious as basically invisible.

We were conditioned to create certain associations about types of people. The brain can sum up a stranger in a manner of seconds based on the way they are dressed, their body language, and the way they speak.

This subconscious categorizing of people can protect you from danger and guide you towards the right person to ask for help. But not all of the things we were taught were correct.

Some lessons were taught to us by misguided, though well meaning, family members,  friends and teachers. People tend to hold onto whatever they were taught growing up. Therefore they pass the same biases and inaccuracies down to the next generation.

Each generation then tried to assess and rearrange their own thoughts and beliefs to fit their own situations, but there is often a lot of bleeding over of false beliefs from one generation to the next.

While grouping certain types of people into “safe” and “unsafe” categories can serve us to a great degree, it can also lead us right into danger.  It can also  lead  us away from people that would benefit our lives if we got to know them.

Your intuition is always your best and first line of defense. It also can suggest to you to go in a certain direction, even when you’ve been conditioned not to.

But typically we are taught to ignore our intuition…our gut feelings…and lean towards whatever biases we were brought up with.

Depending on what kind of parents you had growing up, you might have been given a feeling of independence and  confidence in your own judgement. But that’s not always the case.

You may have had parents that were controlling and manipulative. They may have intentionally crushed down your confidence, as well as your faith  in your intuition. They may have programmed you to believe that their opinions were somehow superior to your own senses.

You may have even been intentionally mislead about how to assess the people that you meet, as far as who to trust and who to run from.

Whether it was intentional or not, the things you learned as a child were taken in by your brain and processed at the age level that they were given to you.  Then those beliefs were reinforced,  or even contradicted to confuse you, at various ages growing up.

No matter what,  the things you learned about your world as a child, must be re-evaluated as an adult.

We cannot rely on what we were taught as children.

We cannot rely on what parents with a hidden agenda, or even good – intentioned parents conditioned us to believe.

We most certainly cannot rely on our own interpretation as a child, on those same things that were taught to us.

As adults, we must identify what beliefs are being held in our subconscious. Then we need to evaluate the truth of those beliefs. We also need to decide which of those beliefs are serving us well, and which ones might actually be harming us.

Our brain will find simple ways of making judgements because it’s faster and takes up less energy and time. If we don’t consciously think about things, we will go right to the associations that were conditioned into us as children.

No one ever told us to re-check these associations as adults. The people that wanted certain beliefs and biases programmed into you will probably  not come forward and tell you to re-evaluate them for yourselves now.

The end result is a tendency to change the facts right in front of you, in order to make them fit your beliefs.

The better option is to look at the facts realistically,  and then to re – evaluate your beliefs to fit the facts.

When you alter the facts, reframe the facts, disregard what you see to be true, or generalize things to fit what you were taught, you are in danger of more brainwashing,  and mind control.

You are in danger of letting that “perfect stranger” right into your house, because you were taught to categorize them as safe, when they may be exactly to opposite. Even if your gut is telling you to keep away, your subconscious belief system is pushing  you to make quick associations.

You can miss opportunities that might be really good for your future, because you were taught to be suspicious of certain things, or you were told time and time again that “someone like you” can’t achieve certain things.

Maybe you were taught that “someone like you” can’t attract certain kinds of people. Maybe you were covertly conditioned that certain types of friends or jobs are out of your reach.

Possibly,  someone was trying to protect you from disappointment, because they were infused with the same beliefs …. that they could not have certain things, or attract certain kinds of people who are “better” than they are.

Or maybe someone conditioned you to deny yourself opportunities because they actually had some hidden agenda for keeping you sheltered from knowing what you can actually do in your life. Maybe they wanted to keep your self esteem low, so they could wield a certain degree of control over you.

It could be that a teacher you had was the one that taught you to “stay in your place” to the degree that you are still holding a subconscious belief that you actually have a “place” or a status that you were born to stay in.

As adults, we need to re-teach ourselves. We need to re – train our brains to see what we see, and to believe things based on what we discover to be true.

As creative beings, we have the right to our passion and our personal inspiration.

You have a right to your dreams, your visions and to realize any talents that you think you might have.

Also remember that your intuition is there to serve you. If someone or something doesn’t feel right, then it probably isn’t.

If something feels like its calling you, then don’t give up and run the other way just because someone once told you that those kinds of dreams are for some other kind of person.

Protect yourself and prioritize your needs and desires, rather than always strive to fit within whatever box you were told was yours to fit into.

Let yourself let go of  whatever mental chains were placed on you at a young age.

Love others who deserve your love. Help others when you can, but not to the point where you are being used and exploited.

If it’s walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck.

Mindfulness about Pain and Sickness

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Itching

Fatigue

Skin rashes

Arthritis

Back pain

Joint pain

Insomnia

Hang nails

Infections

Pink eye

Vomiting

Hair loss

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image from Pinterest

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No wonder we become distracted, redirected and forgetful about being in touch with our higher consciousness level selves.

We can’t even call them on the cell phone, never mind ask them to relate to what we go through.

Getting into a higher level state requires detaching from our  physical selves. It is like ignoring the squeakiest wheel. ….and as we know, the squeaky wheel gets the attention.

We can have wonderful intentions of growing towards a higher consciousness level and then we develop some new pain or disorder…whether mental or physical.

We are subjected to all manner of mind control and persuasion techniques by society and the manipulators within it. And our bodies take more and more of a beating as we age.

Beating yourself up over not being able to do certain things is unproductive. It might be that you don’t do certain things well, because those are not the things you were meant to be doing. If you were meant to be doing something, you would feel passionate about it. 

It is effectually beating up yourself with the ideas that someone else put into you. The thoughts you have about not being good enough are programs that were hacked into your brain by others. 

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As far as your body goes…it is always trying to help you. Your body wants to protect you, as well as itself. It is the house for the soul and the mind. Your body works hard all the time to repair itself, but it needs your help to do the right things to care for it.

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The idea that some people might give you that your body is working against you, is not true. And this very thought will cause a battle between the mind and the body. This will cause disease and sickness.

 Repressing your feelings about things will cause a physical response, because those feelings want to be paid attention to. You may have been conditioned that you have to shut down your feelings.

You may have been taught that it is weak to express your feelings. At the same time, you know that repressing feelings will cause your body to weaken. 

So we have to accept the inner child in order to heal…accept suffering as part of existing in the physical realm….sit with our pain to comfort it to ease it….

walk through painful experiences to get to the light on the other side…

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…believe in your own resilience to be able to experience your feelings and care for them…

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…and detach from the ego and identifying with our identity in order to achieve a higher consciousness…..

Yet in detaching from our ego we are acknowledging our identity with it…..so we first have to recognize the ego as a construct that is heavily influenced by brainwashing, false beliefs programmed into us, and manipulative people with their own agendas to serve..

We then can understand that many of our automatic  thoughts and attachments come out of this programming. …making the majority of the tapes running in our subconscious mind basically bad viruses…..and our conscious negative thoughts results of the viruses…..

Then we can begin to understand that We Are Not Our Thoughts….

Once we begin to accept that we are not our thoughts, we can open the subconcious mind to new formatting….better programming….we can alter and add new beliefs…and delete contaminated beliefs…..

A new understanding begins to arise at the back of our brains where those core beliefs are housed….that if our thoughts are not us, then we can observe our thoughts and evaluate their validity….

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Holding onto beliefs that no longer serve us is not necessary. In fact it is important to rid yourself of false beliefs that you are holding in your subconscious.

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You need to evaluate what beliefs are driving your emotions. Then see which ones are actually your own, and which ones were programmed into you.

 It is the attachment to those addictive beliefs and thought patterns that keeps us controlled by others….and keeps us in learned helplessness….

We are not the sum of our thoughts.

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If you think of your thoughts as furniture occupying your brain, you can see how you have the power to arrange it however you wish.  

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Rearrange that furniture.  Throw out old pieces that are no longer needed. Add some select new pieces that support you better. You can even re-frame some memories that are keeping you trapped in the picture that you imagine you are trapped in.

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The house remains, even when the things inside are altered. Your higher self can guide you to know what thoughts fit you, and what ones are destructive. 

So who is doing the altering and rearranging? It is not our physical selves….It is not our thoughts that are observing themselves….

Once we begin to realize this, then we catch a glimpse of what is doing the observing….It is not within the brain or the physical body….

It is that higher self…the higher consciousness….that can be awakened to observe and repair the subconscious …where suffering is at its roots….

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Thoughts about suffering seem to create more suffering…and fear that the suffering will get worse….or continue to last is the root of the most painful mental and physical suffering.

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Yet somehow you are beginning to suspect the most curious thing of all….that by entering this kind of trance….that very trance you have allowed your mind to enter while reading this….you were able to detach from your physical suffering for a few minutes…..

And so we took the journey together….just you and I….in a higher realm of consciousness….

Namaste..

Annie – gentlekindness coaching

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Be What You Imagine You Could Be

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As you are walking along your path, you can be who you are at any time, even as you discover new things about your true self. You are not consigned to have to be imprisoned by your past, or the story of your life. It does not have to define you. 

Just think of the story as events that happen to have occurred, and things you have been in the midst of at various times. The choices you made in different circumstances were based on your programming and the beliefs you were holding in your subconscious at the time. 

Many of the beliefs you hold in your subconscious brain, are things that were programmed in by other people you have interacted with, by your family of origin, and by society. Any toxic shame you are carrying was brainwashed into you. Self doubt and ;earned helplessness are other things that come from believing that “you are your story.”

You are not your conditioned thoughts. You are not your story. You are not your past. 

You are infinitely more that anything that has happened to you, and anything you have ever done. You are expansive and go beyond this illusion that you have been told is the only reality that matters. 

There is more to reality than you see. There is more to you than other people tell you. Your feelings and intuition can guide you. You must re-train yourself to feel your feelings without self judgement. Your feelings are not your enemy, and they never mean that there is something wrong with you. 

The more you shove down your true feelings and your true thoughts, the more the illusion draws you in. Who says that your inner thoughts about how your reality should be are wrong, or that they have to be approved by society?

What visions and dreams would you have, if you did not fear your own judgement of yourself? What possibilities are there that you tend to shut down, because you fear the judgement of others? What things have you denied in yourself,  because someone else told you there was something wrong with it? 

You are in this life to explore the dreams and possibilities. You can expand beyond the role you are playing.

This pattern of feeling obligated to repeat the same kinds of behaviors day after day is like a self imposed prison. You can be who you are, even if that does not match what people expect from you.

As a child you had imagination and played out roles and situations in a way that allowed you to explore your ideas and your feelings. Society and the people in your life may have crushed your imagination down, and discounted it as childishness. 

Imagination is one of your greatest gifts. It allows you to explore possibilities and come up with creative solutions for problems. Imagination can take you outside of the box you have been restricted to and to mentally explore your own expansion.

Dream and allow your visions to be free. Imagine and create as you desire. Be who you dream of being. Follow your passions and part the veil that has been limiting your potential to be your true amazing self.

Your Unconscious Mind and Hypnosis

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Despite the way it may seem to you, most people do not make decisions based on rational arguments and logic from the conscious brain. 

You make decisions that are driven by the beliefs and emotions of the subconscious parts of the brain. 

The limbic system is the emotional brain.  It is one of the three brains described by the Triune Brain Theory, developed by Paul MacLean. This theory was conceived of by research and experience in order to develop a model based on the study of evolutionary development of the human brain. Over time the different parts of the brain developed as a natural evolution in response to the survival needs of humans. 

According to this theory, the three brains are as follows:

The Reptilian Brain is the primal brain. It was the first part of the brain that developed. The early people used this brain for protection, survival and procreation of the species. The drives from this part of the brain are very strong, and they are at the root of many decisions to make on a daily basis. 

This reptilian part of your brain scans for danger and seeks safety and also pleasure. It encourages you away from pain or any threats in your environment. This part of the brain is very active in people with PTSD from trauma. It also gives you sexual drives and is at the root of impulses.

The Limbic System is the second part of the brain that was developed. The limbic system contains the emotions and deals with behavior in response to emotions. It also processes memories and associations you have between experiences and feelings. This part of the brain consists of the  hippocampus, the amygdala, and the hypothalamus.

If you have ever made a decision that did not seem rational to you, and you can’t figure out why you did it, then it may have been driven by a combination of the reptilian brain and the emotions from the limbic system.

The conscious brain is made of two hemispheres and it is called the  hippocampus, the Neocortex. 

These hemispheres have been responsible for the development of human language, abstract thought, imagination, and consciousness. The neocortex is flexible and has almost infinite learning capabilities

The Brain Box – Triune Brain Theory

 

Learning ways to access and understand what is happening in your subconscious brain, is a valuable tool to understanding your emotions and behaviors. Hypnosis is one tool that can help you to access your subconscious and heal certain emotional wounds that you may be carrying.

Old emotional wounds can affect your feelings and behavior in ways that may no longer be supporting you. 

There are a variety if things that can be done while under various levels of hypnosis. If you are working with an ethical hypnotherapist, you will have control over any and all alterations in the neural pathways of your brain. You can create positive changes that will allow you to live your life in ways that allow you to experience things in that way that you would like to.

In addition to accessing and healing old emotional wounds, you can identify any false beliefs that you may be holding in your subconscious about yourself. Many of our perceptions were programmed into us while we were young. Some of these beliefs may be untrue and have a negative effect on our emotions and ability to achieve the things we want. 

If you are interested in finding out more about how hypnotherapy can benefit you…

If you have negative self talk that you know is holding you back from things you know you can do….

If you are curious about the possibilities of realizing ways you can create amazing changes in the way you frame your reality…

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Then please visit my new web site GentleAwakening.com and send me  a contact message. I will respond yo you via email, and talk with you more about what hypnotherapy can do for you. Or you can reach me by email at michelemimimish@gmail.com

And we can schedule a 15 dollar discounted first time session, so you can try it out and discover what you can realize about yourself that you didn’t even know that you knew, because that information has been driving your unconscious brain, and your conscious brain was not aware of it.

 

Annie Mimi Hall YouTube channel 

Gentlekindness Facebook Page 

 

 

 

Gentlekindness Gentle Awakening Blog Tumblr

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I set up a new Tumblr blog GentleAwakening

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Topics – yoga, meditation, mindfulness, empowerment, hypnosis, holistic reflexology. spiritual awakening

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