Elephants In Captivity
Elephants born in captivity are restrained by a chain that attaches one leg to a metal spike driven into the ground. This prevents them from roaming. They become accustomed to the fact that, as long as the chain and spike are next to them, they are unable to move. As they grow older, their minds become programmed. When they see the spike and chain, they “believe” and accept that they will not be able to move. They become so conditioned that when their owners place a small rope and wooden peg next to them, they make no efforts to step away from it, because they “believe” they are unable to. In truth, their actual power as adults is so great that they could easily pull up a chain and spike of any size. Their programming or “belief,” however, allows this tiny rope and wooden peg to limit their movement.
Discovering Myself
As I string words together, sentence after sentence, my conscious mind slowly gains access to a storehouse of impressions, ideas, memories, and knowledge from my past. From brainstorming, to rough, working, and final drafts, I become aware of what other parts of me already know.
There is a gap between our thoughts…..a delay between the arrival of new thoughts (or feelings), and our conscious awareness of them. Before a thought/feeling becomes fully conscious, we may only sense it through elusive moods, or physical symptoms. If we don’t take the time to contemplate (sitting quietly, talking to a good listener, or journaling) the thought/feeling may never come to consciousness. We then can’t retrieve the information, and if the thoughts/feelings are a trigger for us, we may react without ever knowing why.
A Heart that is Loving is the Purest Wisdom
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in life – and one I wished I had learned in my twenties or thirties … Love is an emotion and Wisdom is a cerebral function, the antithesis of emotion. Whereas love can be foolish and blind, wisdom is intelligent, clear-eyed, and directed. Love simply happens; but wisdom is gained through experiences that lead us to deeper understandings.
Emotional Intelligence is guided by knowledge not led down blind alleys by emotion. (more…)
Neurons That Fire Together Wire Together
There’s an old saying in neuroscience: “neurons that fire together wire together.”
This means the more you run a neural-circuit in your brain, the stronger that circuit becomes. This is why, to quote another old saying, “practice makes perfect”. The more you practice piano, or speaking a language, or juggling, the stronger those circuits get.
Scientists have known this for years. However, nowadays researchers learn another part of the truth: In order to learn something, even more important than practicing is the ability to unlearn, or to break down the old neural connections. This is called “synaptic pruning”.
The Writing On Our Wall
WHAT WE BELIEVE creates our reality and just like Gandhi says, “Our beliefs become our thoughts, our thoughts become our words, our words become actions, our actions become habits, our habits become our values and our values become our destiny.” Our unconscious level is like an unfathomable ocean carrying the memories of our entire life and uses our inner voice as a surfing board to reach the shore of the conscious mind.
WE CAN SELDOM CONTROL what will happen in life, or how others will behave, or even the results of our efforts. But we can choose how to feel, react and respond towards those events and situations. This is actually the basis of our free will.
EVERY EVENT, EVERY OUTCOME is an expression of love from the Universe -giving us the opportunity to realize the truth or not .
We all have a free will.
Christina Reeves and Dimitrios Spanos
-Authors of the book
“The Mind Is The Map”
CHAPTER FOUR -THE WRITING ON OUR WALL
Awareness
The ultimate value of life depends upon Awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.” – Aristotle
MANY HAVE ASKED “ What is Awareness?” Awareness is just itself—pure, alive, alert, silent, and full of potential. It is a feeling of being at ease with everything and everyone around us. It is a peace of mind and a sense of well-being, as well as an inner knowing that all is well, despite the circumstances we are in at the present moment.
WE MUST LEARN to experience our self, free of the mind stuff, of our stories, and self-images. To experience our true self, we have to move away from the stories we have told our self about our self-image and any thoughts about our self in the experiences we are having right here and now in the present moment.
Christina Reeves and Dimitrios Spanos
-Authors of the book
“The Mind Is The Map”
CHAPTER THREE -AWARENESS
Understanding Our Patterns
All too often man ignores the wisest command ever given
by a sage, the famous “Know Thyself” inscribed in the temple of Delphi.
HOW OFTEN do I react to people and situations based on old habits (perceiving, thinking, feeling, behaving)?
SO MUCH of living a full and happy life is about know-
ing ourselves. And both the forming and the breaking of
patterns is a lifelong learning practice. The path to higher
levels of understanding who we are requires us to discern the patterns that are shaping our lives. Discovering which ones will sustain us, and which ones no longer benefit us, as well as which ones we might want to create, are important to understand.
LIFE IS A ROLE PLAYING. The story has been written and now we need to study the script and do the work of endless rehearsals when our patterns keep revealing themselves to us, learning the lessons we came here to learn.
Christina Reeves and Dimitrios Spanos
-Authors of the book
“The Mind Is The Map”
CHAPTER ONE – UNDERSTANDING OUR PATTERNS p.31,34, 2018
The Present Moment
“For those who have found the still point of entry, around which all –including themselves – revolves, everything is acceptable as it is, indeed, can be experienced as glorious and wonderful.”
Joseph Campbell
ANXIETY AND FEAR are the stuff of the mind about what might or might not happen in future, even if the future is one hour from now. The present moment does not create such emotions and there is no other reality than the present moment. We cannot go to the store to buy something yesterday. Nor can we go now to buy something tomorrow. WE CANNOT act in the past or in the future. We can only act in the present. Only in the present can we make decisions or respond to events or challenges. Only in the present can we exercise our free will to change our lives. The only point of power to create and change our lives is the present moment. There never was a time that was not NOW. There is no other time.
Part II Cultivating the Journey
Chapter Seven-The Present Moment
Our Responsibility is our Response-ability
Following the law of least effort, as nature teaches us, we will learn to accept people, situations, circumstances, and events as they occur. We will know that this moment is as it should be, because the whole universe is as it should be. Our acceptance of what is becomes total and complete as it is in the moment, not as we wish they were.
Accepting things and others as they are, we can learn to take responsibility for all of our experiences and even for all those we see as problems. Our responsibility is our response-ability. Taking responsibility means not blaming anyone or anything for our situation, for our feelings, for the attachment or the expected outcome we have (and this includes our self). Every problem is an opportunity in disguise, and this alertness to opportunities allows us to take each experience in each present moment and transform it into a greater benefit.
Acceptance and Effort
Some of us are seeking continuously and dynamically to improve the quality of life for our self and others, while at the same time, we need to remember to accept at every stage the results of those efforts. We need a delicate balance of making efforts to improve ourselves and our surroundings and at the same time, accepting ourselves and the results of our efforts at every stage of that process.
