WHAT IS YOUR DEFAULT POSITION ??

Are you one of those people who constantly looks at life through a pessimistic lens? Or, are you someone who has a more optimistic filter?

More pessimistic, to many, sounds like a space they might NOT want to play in. More optimistic is viewed as more appealing; maybe it is a space that opens one to contemplating possibilities.

However, BOTH positions are out of balance, out of equilibrium.

The first position tends towards more negatives than positives and the second position swings the pendulum towards more positives than negatives. The pendulum swings from one side to the other as you repress the negatives in search of the positives.

What is important to know is that the pendulum is swinging from one side to the other rather than being centred and stable. The less centred you are the more you are likely to be distracted towards one side and then the other. This means less focus, greater distraction. You become scattered and scattered thoughts are scattered energy - a weakened energy, a weakened force and a weakened position. 

This can and does impact your decisions, your relationships, your work-life etc.

When  you are tending towards negativity you close your Mind to what is possible and if you are constantly in that space it will eventually become your neuro-chemical default position to the point where it might seem that 'life is just like that'.......until something or someone shakes you up somehow and you begin to rethink things.

When you are tending towards the positive you dare not even contemplate the negative. You constantly want only the positive and you constantly seek that which you judge to be 'better', the word 'judge' being the operative word here; you chase 'happy' because 'happy' is 'good'; it is positive, it is better!! 

Both positions are closed to their respective opposites. 

There is another position you could play in - that being Balance or equilibrium. When the pendulum stops swinging it comes to rest at centre; having gone from one side to the other, it arrives at the centre. 

Rather than seeking positive without negative or staying in the negative because positive is out of your awareness, consider finding your centre, your balance, your equilibrium in any situation that seems to pull you from one side to the other, that creates doubt & uncertainty.

Open up to the possibility that every positive has a negative (& it does not have to be a hugely debilitating negative so don't panic!) & every negative has it's positive, concealed though it may be.

When you arrive - and I use that word deliberately because it can be and often is a journey - at balance, like the pendulum, you will be at centre. You will seek neither the best nor will you judge things to be the worst; you will seek neither positives nor will you run from negatives. For a moment you will see the balance and the wisdom of the situation. 

The more often you are prepared to take this process seriously and act on it, the less often distractions & imbalance, scatteredness and doubt will throw you from one side to the other and you will more likely take advantage of your wisdom to guide you.

It's a process, it's a journey, it takes committed action and it is so worth doing!

Lilly Fitzgerald

DO YOU REALLY LISTEN.......& HEAR?

I received this in my email inbox just recently. It was from a person called Amish Shah to whose newsletters I subscribe. It relates his wife's interaction with their daughter and it explains VERY WELL how so often in life, we listen to respond \ react rather than listen to hear............Do you agree?

Enjoy the read!!

"My wife Puja is really into Buddhist and Zen philosophy and I recently overheard her telling our daughter a story that was told by a Zen master.

She said, "Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served his guest tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then just kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in! Stop!”

“Like this cup,” Nan-in said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

Like this story depicts, we often approach life situations with our own views and ideas, without taking off our opinionated lens. How then can we truly live life if we don’t release judgments?......"

When we judge something as either only positive or only negative, we are blocking ourselves from understanding the complete picture. No situation or circumstance is ever only positive or negative - however, each individual may have a PERCEPTION that it is.

Your perception then is KEY in understanding that every negative has an equal and opposite positive and every positive has an equal and opposite negative. 

An intellectual understanding of this concept is one thing; applying it to your life is another!

Where are you seeing something ONLY as positive or ONLY as negative?

Who are you seeing as ONLY positive or ONLY negative?

To living life fully,

Lilly

NEGATIVE SITUATIONS

Now here is an interesting interpretation of Negativity:

Negative situations are simply experiences you have not yet mastered. The negativity is the attachment to OLD thinking patterns that no longer serve.

These old thoughts create your current reality which you LIVE out. 

Old thoughts are habits that are deeply embedded in your sub-conscious and are the default position you return to whenever you are in a situation that is similar to the original trigger of these thoughts MANY, MANY years ago.

This gold way of thinking \ old habitual pattern \ old sub-conscious patterning is like a really comfortable BED - easy to get into & hard to get out of!!

Blame Excuses Denial = BED
comfortable  BUT  challenging to 
get out of. 

It is not necessarily where you want to be yet you default to.

A negative thinking pattern, has its foundations in fear. Fear blocks your capacity to think. It disengages your Pre-Frontal Cortex - the CEO of thinking and decision-making within your brain. Neurologically, fear reduces the blood flow and electrical activity in the pre-frontal cortex.

So, when you attempt to think your way of negativity, it DOES NOT WORK!  

When you find yourself in a negative position that you feel overwhelmed by, use a pattern interrupt and do something different:  

• do something physical
• something that is fun
• something that will change your focus 
• something that will exert you

That is just the first step! The first step is however, an important step!

Why not take it!

Lilly Fitzgerald