The Nature of our Human Experience.
The three principles of universal mind, thought and consciousness represent the spiritual nature of our human experience. They are a formless energy that provides humans with the capacity to experience life.
Universal Mind is that intelligence, the formless energy, behind the universe. It is the energy that serves as the foundation of creation. Universal mind is the power source of all living things. The Universal mind is running through all of us, always. This is what as doctors we hope for you as you explore with us: All humans are a part of the Universal mind, and thus we all have an innate intelligence that gives us the power to respond wisely and overcome unwanted habits.
Thought is the energy that allows for creation. What we create through the power of thought is all our mental activity. Our opinions, memories, judgments, blame excitement and compassion are just a small sample of what we have the power to create in our minds. Thought is how we come to know or experience life. The principle of thought is the vehicle that transforms the creative energy of the Universal mind into what we call real life, our manifest experience.
This is what as doctors we hope for you as you explore with us: Understanding the principle of thought as a gift or as the power we all possess for creating our own thinking is freeing. Our feelings and our experiences of life are the result of our thoughts about the circumstances of life, not a direct result of those circumstances. We discover that we are not wedded to these thoughts. We have many possible ways to look at our life.
Consciousness is the energy to be aware of what we have created through thought. Through the operation of consciousness, our thoughts are brought to life. The second we create a thought consciousness brings the total experience of that thought to us. Our biochemistry, neuropathways, physiology, emotions, and behavior all follow our thinking. Thus, if we have a worry filled thought, consciousness brings all of us to align with that thought. Consciousness is like a movie projector in our minds that brings thinking to life. Delivering vivid, sensory experiences of what’s taking place internally. Although our experience is generated from within us, it feels as if we are experiencing life as it is in the world around us. What is truly inside-out tends to appear very outside-in.
This is what as doctors we hope for you as you explore with us: Our understanding of how thought and consciousness create such a real picture of our life will give us a new freedom. We will understand that we are not bound to that worry-filled thought that fills us with pain and suffering. This will allow us to easily find a perspective that is less reactive and more compassionate.
Exploring unwanted patterns, habits and behaviors.
As our human understanding deepens, we will be freed up to explore more of our human attributes that help us deal with our unwanted patterns, habits, and behaviors. We will find new, creative thinking that will help us deal well with the many challenges that life sends our way.
As doctors, many of our clients through this coaching have discovered that their habits, patterns, and behaviors are merely their brain's way of trying to feel better, to find well-being or peace of mind. Clients also realize that they already had within themselves the well-being, mental and physical wellness they were searching for. They began quite naturally to realize the quiet space within of deeper feeling that already existed within their own consciousness. This allows them to end their attempts to find those feelings of wellbeing and peace through their habits and behaviors. What emerged is an inside-out experience of life instead of an outside-in experience of life. Once a person gains insight into these principles, they can avoid dysfunctional thinking and allow thoughts that are more helpful to arise within. The wonderful thing about getting insights into these principles is clients begin to find help in other areas of their lives. They discovered ways to improve their work environment, home environment, their health, and their relationships.
A useful way to think about what we talk about throughout our articles, blogs and podcast is based on the premise that your habits, behaviors and patterns are an impersonal, thought-based experience that can be addressed without rehashing your past or analyzing your life. It isn’t about a lack of willpower or discipline. It has nothing to do with being ignorant of triggers or not using the right coping skills. Instead, ending your habit, behavior or pattern is about deeply connecting with the truth of who you are and deeply seeing the true nature of your habit, behavior, pattern and yourself.
Our habit, behavior or pattern is innocently rooted in an attempt to feel better, to return to peace of mind, and to feel safe, but that doesn’t mean we have to radically change our life for our habit or anything else to go away. In simple terms, nearly all habits, behaviors, and patterns start as a way to not feel what we are feeling. A way to leave the present moment of dis-ease or discomfort to return to a more peaceful, calm space within. Our habits, behaviors, and patterns are a way to feel more comfortable in our body. They are actually very effective. They do take us out of our suffering for a short period of time. They quiet our painful thinking, transport us away from the moment we are in, and from then on, the habitual thought or behavior looks like the best and fastest feel-better option available for us. Our habit or behavior gives us valuable insights into our state of mind. When we feel the tension and dis-ease that leads us to want to act on our habit, that dis-ease is our signal that we are lost in our personal thoughts. This tension or dis-ease creates an uncomfortable experience for us that is created by your own thinking. This is an opportunity to step back and let our mind clear so that we can reconnect with the truth of who we are.
At some point though our habituated brain is now focused on keeping our habit or behavior alive, and it uses urges to do that. Urges are simply thoughts or feelings that encourage you to act on your habit. Urges can be anything, from something as simple as its okay, to just checking our Instagram or Facebook feed one last time, to something that hijacks our emotions, compels us to act, or feels nearly impossible to ignore, like a craving to smoke, or to take a drink of alcohol.
Soon our habit while still about avoiding your experience shifts us to trying to avoid the painful experience of the urge. Acting on our habit is still about distracting us from our own inner experience, but the source of suffering changes. From a neurological standpoint, that extremely uncomfortable drive to act on our habit is strengthened each time you obey the urge. Neurologically, we have our habit because of how we react to our own thoughts and urges. When we act on an urge, we strengthen the neurocircuits in our brain. Each timewe give into an urge, we essentially strengthen the neural associations that represent the habit in our brain. We tell the brain to keep producing urges.
Furthermore, we obey our urges because giving into them is the only way you know to make them go away. Given how terrible they can feel, it’s no wonder our priority is for them to go away. It often feels like the only way an urge will fade is if we obey it, thereby releasing the pressure of it. We very well may not be consciously making the decision to act out our habit. Giving in and acting on our urge begins to happen somewhat mindlessly. Like a reflex. The great news is that we will learn over time through our understanding of these principles that we actually don’t have to give in to our urges to make them go away. We don’t have to do anything to make those urges go away. They begin to go away on their own when we see the truth about them. When we see our urges and behaviors for what they are, fleeting messages that do not represent “us” or signify our real needs or desires, they are just thoughts passing through us, they are stripped of their perceived power, and they become much easier to dismiss. When we dismiss those urges without acting on them repeatedly, the urges eventually go away. Without urges and from a state of mind that allows us to rest in the truth about our essential nature, our habit, behavior or pattern is a thing of the past.
When we combine the spiritual truth that we are perfectly and completely mentally healthy and habit-free (but for our temporary, habitual thinking) and with the neurological fact that our habit is made up of thoughts that fade on their own, our habit begins to look far less powerful and permanent than it has.
You’ve Got This!