ByKatrin Geist

Breaking the habit of being yourselfrequires – dare I say it? – discipline. Dailydiscipline. And once you embark on it, it’s the most wonderful process in the making. It isexciting and fun, and it becomes easier and easier with every time you practice, just liketraining a muscle. You do indeed create your life! You’re in the driver’s seat, entirely. And ifthat’s not great news, I do not know what is! You absolutely have the power to changeyour life in any way you desire. Youcreate your life every day, with volition or without, on a nerve cell/brain structureand thought/quantum level.

So why not actively create yourlife, instead of mostly running in automatic-reactive-survival mode?Why wait to changeyour life until crisis hits? A crisis can be agreat catalyst – yet we’re free to choose change now. So why not create out of joy instead? We all can. And lasting change is notonly possible, it is fun to set in motion.The following article shares ideas from a fabulous book by Dr. Joe Dispenza (see review below).

Interacting with the quantum field

Nobody is doomed by their genetic makeup or hard wired to live a specificway for the rest of their lives. YOU mold the clay that is the quantum field, and you do soby aligning your thoughts, feelings and actions (refer to my website for more informationon the quantum field, or ‘the field’ for short).

Says Dr. Joe Dispenza, successful chiropractor with postgraduate training and continuingeducation in neuroscience, biochemistry, brain function and memory formation:

“You… broadcast a distinctenergy pattern or signature. In fact, everything material is always emitting specific patternsof energy. And this energy carries information. Your fluctuating states of mind consciouslyor unconsciously change that signature on a moment-to-moment basis.“

In essence,we influence the quantum field through our Being-states (and not only through whatwe want).

Vision andcreative mode

A brain region called the frontal lobe plays a key role in envisioning the life you desire. Askyourself: Who do you I see myself as? How do I show up every day? What would Ichoose as my predominant Being-state, and how much am I living it on a dailybasis? What’s the greatest ideal of myself? Who do I want to be? What would I haveto think andfeel in order to express that? The clearer you see this, the faster you can change into it. The universal quantum law applies to finances as much as happiness,health and relationships. No exception.

If you can hold a vision regardless of what’s going on around you, you are in creativemode, i.e. you refuse to respond to any triggers in your environment, and you KNOW with100% certainty that your vision must come, as it already happened in the quantum field.

This is exactly what we admire in great leaders: Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, AbrahamLincoln, Mother Teresa, etc. Their vision made a difference. They refused to give in tocircumstance, did not blame their spouse nor the weather – they did not suffer from‘excusitis’. Holding a vision is a means to achieving a Being-state which transcendscircumstance.

Mechanics of change and the art of ‘becoming familiar with’

Repetition is the mother of all skill – and it is what wires brain cells together to create newneurological pathways. Contrary to the paradigm I grew up in which said that brain cellscannot regenerate nor change, we know today that this is completely false. The brain ishighly adaptive (neuroplasticity), and changes occur all the time. The moment you learnsomething new, your brain makes new connections.A long standing habit can be seen asa broad, very well trodden path, a super-highway where neurons fire when a habitualthought or behaviour triggers them. A new thought or behaviour (i.e. nerve cell circuit)becomes established through use.

The more you practice a new thought or behaviour,the better you get at it, just like training a muscle. Paying attention to where you want to gois key. Become aware of how automated (in terms of thoughts, feelings, and actions) yourlife really is. Keep what you like, and change the rest. Not all automated brain circuits arenegative. Some of them are exactly what you want. Others are not. By withdrawing yourattention (i.e. quitting to walk the established path) and thinking about how you wouldrather be (breaking into new territory and establishing a new path), you dissolve those oldhighways, bit by bit (they disconnect when focus is withdrawn). Self-love is when yourespond differently to what you’ve practiced all your life.

In order to truly change, we must think greater than we feel. Remember your vision. Ifyou have none for your life, develop one! Now. Not tomorrow… and it’s not about paintingsome grand picture of your life straight away (but feel free if this feels good to you now).

Instead, you can pick out single aspects and start with those. Know what you want, andthen assume the corresponding Being-state. This is completely scaleable, i.e. you canexpand your vision as you go. But start having one! Having no vision is like going to theairport saying: ‘I want a ticket’, or saying to a waiter: ‘I want food’. You’re going nowherefast and nothing can come to you if you don’t specify what you would like, and expect it tocome. Vagueness equals standstill. In other words, in the context of creating, it’s a no-no,and you must know your target.

If you truly can do this (thinking greater than you feel), you have mastered your life. That’show big this short sentence really is. To envision means to see something into existence. Itmeans to create something with volition and expecting to see it, without having any idea ofthe ‘how’. That step is up to the field and not your job. Your job is to hold the vision andfeel its fulfilment. Your job is to become familiar with the feeling-states of your desires.

See it and rehearse it over and over, daily. This process rewires your brain (creatingnew and wanted super-highways, replacing the automatic old ones). By the way: theBuddhist definition of meditation is ‘to become familiar with’. Meditate on desired feeling states. Familiarize yourself to the n-th degree with them. Live as if. Until it is secondnature. Or first. =)

Why we get stuck in repetitive patterns & how to overcome them

Mind is what the brain does. Psychologists tell us that c. 95% of our mind is subconscious.Yet it runs us, 24/7, 365. And that’s good! Because if we had to do it all consciously, goodluck surviving even a single second, trying to orchestrate our some 50 trillion cells thatconstitute the body. Not to mention regulating heart beat, digestion, detox, breathing… ourinnate intelligence takes care of it all and frees us up to create consciously. A marvellousset-up.

Some unconscious patterns do not serve us.So how do wechange them for good? This is the essence of the process Dr. Dispenza proposes, detailed further in his book (see below):

First step: make them known.

Second step: undo themand replace them with what you prefer.

Third step: practice the new state.

We have many unconscious patterns that we did not choose ourselves, i.e. they arosefrom our environment (parents, peers, culture, etc) at a young age and were accepted astrue. If unchanged, they still operate. That is how people become stuck in repetitivepatterns without knowing why.

Experiences and events in life produce emotions, which eventually dictate how we behave,unless we intervene. When you think negatively, you feel bad. Feeling bad gives rise tomore negative thoughts, which result in feeling worse…do you see the cycle? Most of usare trapped in it, without ever questioning it, living a very reactive life with little room forcreating the life we truly desire. Most people do not know how to do this, and that it’s evenpossible. And it is.

Our brain cannot distinguish between something we imagine, and something that is reallyhappening. As far as the brain is concerned, it’s one and the same. So there’s littlephysiological difference between remembering a negative situation and actively beinginvolved in one. In other words: every time you beat the drum of how bad it is (in responseto an observation or a memory), you activate and reinforce those thought and feelingpatterns. Eventually, they become automatic, and we forget why we emotionally react aswe do – we just react. The perfect stuck state. And it leads to an identity we think is us. Butis it? Of course not. A question worth exploring is: What have I memorizedemotionally that I live by that I think is me?

In this automated state, the body becomes the mind: it knows exactly how to respond to asituation and just does it. A good example is driving a car. When you first learned it, youconcentrated a great deal (making new neural pathways). And before too long, youhabitually arrive at work, with the car seemingly driving by itself. Your body knows very wellwhat to do. And yes, you take in traffic, etc. and respond accordingly. But it’s all wellpracticed and smooth, and you don’t think about it. When the body becomes the mind,we live in reactive, unaware mode. This is good for some situations, and not so good forothers.

The power that you have is one of focus. You can change from a reactive state to acreative one by disconnecting the dots that produce a specific reaction. You do so byfocusing on what you prefer instead. When thought becomes the experience, you’rethere. When your vision is so compelling and so real you forget everything else, and itfeels as if five minutes elapsed instead of three hours, then you’re a creative powerhouse.

We all have been in those situations. Whether it’s playing music, reading a great book,participating in an engrossing conversation – time just flew and we could have done it allday. Harness those situations by tagging them with a little intention for your life. The feelingstate is perfect – add some directive thought and watch what happens. Mind and bodymust be aligned, i.e. thoughts andfeelings must be congruent to effect real change.

To sum it up: what you think and feel today determines how you live tomorrow. Yourthoughts and feelings are that important and potent. So why wait learning how tothink andfeel right? Learn how to dance with your thoughts. It’s fun!

I invite you to experiment with influencing the quantum field to your liking.Have FUN! And let me know your outcomes.

References:

• Dr. Joe Dispenza:Breaking the habit of being yourself – How to lose your mind and create a new one.2012. Hay House, Inc.
• Dr. Joe Dispenza:Evolve your brain – The science of changing your mind. 2007. Health Corporations,Inc.

Recommended reading:

If you’re interested in learning more on this topic, I highly recommend”Breaking the habit of being yourself – how to lose your mind and create a new one”by Dr. Joe Dispenza,a successful chiropractor with postgraduate training and continuingeducation in neurology, neuroscience, biochemistry, brain functionandmemory formation, cellular biology, and agingand longevity.
This has got to be one of the best chosen book titles I ever came across. The book is atotal gem for those interested in growth and real change in any area of their life, includinghealth andwellbeing. It’s an awesome manual to yourself, in fact.Dr. Dispenzaintuitivelyused the process later outlined in ‘Breaking the habit of being yourself’ to heal himself whenmedical doctors said not undergoing surgery was a highly regrettable mistake, and today he travels around the globe teaching people his views on brain function and how they canbe practically applied in daily life to effect true change.

‘Breaking the habit’ is an actual manual for change. It goes beyond givinginformation and actually tells you HOW to apply it.It is very well written in that it makes you want to turn thepages, eagerly awaiting the mechanism Dr. Joe Dispenza proposesto help you actively create yourlife, instead of running on automatic-reactive-survival mode. If this resonates withyou, gift yourself this book -and APPLY it!I hope you enjoy it as much as I door more.

You can purchase the book on Amazonor Trademe. And for those who prefer it in anutshell, or who would like a preview/synopsis of this book, you can listen to Dr. Joedelivering a lecture based on its ideas. Happy listening! (50min audio).

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