In the past at this time of year I have tended to get caught in something of a ‘goal setting’ trap.
You know, that sense of frantic, simmering panic that if I don't do something different things will be the same?
Well, that way of thinking definately makes sense right?
Doing the same things and expecting different results would be some people's definition of madness.
But, hold on a minute, it doesn't take much reflection to realise that our most consistent actions do not need 'thinking about', they 'just' turn up again and again, running on automatic, just outside of our conscious awareness.
The human animal seems to have evolved a perfect system for getting 'survival' done.
Chose a 'pattern' of behaviour, repeat a pattern of behaviour, forget why you chose it and just do it without having to actively think about it anymore.
The 'cherry on the top' of this perfect 'survival system', is our relatively recent ability to now create a 'story' about our 'automatic patterned behaviour' and call it 'just who we are'!
No human being experiences 'reality' directly. It's easy to read over that last phrase......STOP.......and read it again.
No human being experiences 'reality' directly.
You, right now are receiving information from the 'outside world' (Reality, whoever that is) through your senses, that information gets transformed into your personal 'map of the world' and it's your maps that are running you life.
The maps that are running my life are doing it without much of my conscious mind involvement.
As I move forward into another New Year with many exciting projects ahead in 2018 and beyond, these two ways of seeing the world are making a massive difference to my planning and thinking.
Becoming clearer and clearer about the ‘stories’ I am living in, those which are set on automatic, begins to create a sense of peace in me as a place to come from, rather than a place to get to.
Goal setting seems such a good thing too do, and it can be when flowing from Peace, too often in my experience goal setting has been a panicked response to trying to GET peace, and from that place has seldom been helpful.
What is your ‘experience’ of the ‘story’ you are living in at the moment?
Unravelling those ‘stories’ and ‘Seeing’ the story beneath it is a great starting place.
The most powerful ‘intentions’ I set are paradoxically the ones I forget about , when they unfold I’m surprised.
Setting an intention is powerful communication with unconscious process.
Spend time ‘losing yourself’ in ‘intentions’, write em down, then burn em, feeling a deep sense of ‘Peace’.