manabunnow4zph – Mindfulness Challenges

Thoughts

Since you saw the title of this mindfulness challenge this week, how many thoughts have rattled through your mind, five, ten, even fifteen? We have at least 60,000 thoughts that rattle throughout our minds each and every day.

The surprise as it turns out is that about 90% of those thoughts are the same thoughts. If we dump out thoughts that are not in our best and highest good – thoughts that have very low energy charges – thoughts that are negative – we free up a massive storage capacity in our energetic hard drive. With this new capacity we are magically able to do what it is that we want to do with our lives, to manifest our destiny so-to-speak. How then can we track the 60,000 thoughts that rattle through the hamster wheel in our minds each and every day?

The mindfulness challenge this week requires use of a little technology and a little preparation. My invitation is to set a timer at a set time sequence each and every day. Find a timer that might be on your cell phone or smart phone or watch. Perhaps you might want to use your a timer in your kitchen that can be set for a set number of minutes. Set the timer for 54 minutes.

Each and every time the timer buzzes (whether it’s your smart phone, cell phone, watch or timer from the kitchen) stop and note whether or not the thought that you are having when the buzzer rang is a positive thought, a neutral thought or a negative thought. Positive thoughts give you energy. Neutral thoughts are flat. Negative thoughts deflate your energy.

The other technology you’ll need for the week is a small notebook and pen or pencil that you can carry around with you in your pocket or somewhere on your body. Every time the buzzer goes off – every 54 minutes – all you have to do is stop and acknowledge what it was that you happened to be thinking at that particular moment. Do not bother recording the specifics of the thought. That will take too much time and is totally unnecessary.

All you want to do here is to acknowledge the thought you were having when the buzzer went off and then place a single mark on your notebook;a plus sign for a positive thought, a dash for a neutral thought and a minus sign for a negative thought. By the end of the day (if you have succeeded in recording your thought every 54 minutes) you are going to have anywhere from 8 to 12 counts of your thoughts and whether they were positive, neutral or negative. And of course, you will have a report for each day of the week!

Today, set it for 54 minutes. Feel free to alter the time lapse between when the buzzer goes off from one day to the next. Tomorrow set the timer to an hour and ten minutes or set it to 34 minutes. Set the timer to whatever time sequence seems appropriate. It depends in part on how often you are willing to be interrupted during the day. Or, you can just keep it set at 54 minutes each day this week.

Just remember to code each thought as positive, neutral or negative each and every time the buzzer goes off. One note of caution: Be sure to turn the timer off when you go to sleep because you don’t want to be waking up and coding your dreams.

This will take a bit of effort to prepare. It does take a little time in terms of actually doing the report. I promise however that it will give you incredible insights on the proportion of thoughts that are enriching your life force.

Have a fun time this week as you monitor the quality of your thoughts.

Robert

Deeper Meaning Behind Desires

What is the deeper meaning behind becoming aware of what you desire moment by moment? Desires are what charge us up. They give us an infusion of energy. It is as if we are getting an adrenaline shot. It helps us feel alive. It helps us feel that we are living a vibrant life.

Take for example the experience of desiring a car. When we desire a car we begin to look around, to search for the car that is perfectly suited for us, our needs and the needs of our family.

We visit lots that have cars for sale.
We talk to friends.
We notice cars on the highway
We evaluate cars parked on downtown streets.
We form judgements about which cars we really like and those we do not like.
We calculate the extent to which we can afford or not afford the car of our desires.

The decision over buying a car consumes our thoughts – at least temporarily. That desire fills our spirit and our mind with an infusion of energy. This is a good thing.

The difficulty is that we become addicted to certain patterns of behavior that are guaranteed to deliver an instant rush of energy. This of course is a well-known habitual pattern for anyone who is an addict and that includes pretty much everyone. We are all addicted to some particular type of behaviors. Some habitual behaviors are far, far more harmful to our bodies than others.

In terms of individuals who currently experience the symptoms of Parkinson’s, there is no doubt that foods can have a dramatic impact on health and wellness. Certain foods help relieve symptoms. Other foods aggravate symptoms. The connection is immediate. This means of course that if you have a persistent nag to eat certain foods that you know are not in your best and highest good, you will suffer the consequences.

The road to recovery requires that we become more aware of the consequences of fulfilling our desires. Is it something that is quite healthy and needs to be pursued vigorously? Or, is it something that is not in our best and highest good?

Perhaps yesterday morning you thought to yourself,

“Oh, I know I really need to go out and get my regular exercise today.”

Then you think,

“But wouldn’t it be nice to cuddle up, have a nice pot of tea and watch that show that I’ve been wanting to watch that I taped?”

It may be that watching that show cuddled up on a couch is precisely what it is that you and your body need in the moment, but it is also possible that desires are undermining your own best and highest good. It may be that the better choice in the moment is to get your body out and start moving it.

Becoming aware of our desires then becomes an exercise of realizing how much our desires control our choices. The real question turns on whether or not we desire something or need something. Desires also of course are piggybacking on past experiences that offer us instant energetic charges. Needs are something that arise from a much deeper place.

We remember what it was like to eat that delicious chocolate cake and we think to ourselves,

“If I have that chocolate now I’m going to get that same incredible surge of pleasure and energy; so I’m going to do it right now.”

It is possible to get those surges of energy in other healthy ways, as we become much more mindful, moment to moment of the choices that we make and the desires that we have. Desires will consume our choices if we let them. Unhealthy desires will maintain our body in a continual state of imbalance and illness.

Become, then, continuously aware over the next several days of what you desire. Know that what you desire may in fact be incredibly healthy for you and your body, family and friends. It is also possible that what you desire in the moment is in fact just the reverse and is obviously not in your best and highest good.

Becoming more aware of what you desire is 90% of what you need to do in order to make informed and healthy choices for yourself and for your future. May you have a delightful week as you monitor the meaning of what it is that you in fact desire.

Robert

Desires

The mindfulness invitation this week is to become – as often as possible throughout the day – aware of what specifically you desire.

Do you desire sweets in the moment, perhaps a piece of chocolate or pie?
Do you desire caffeine
Do you desire sleep?
Do you desire a shopping trip?
Do you desire fast food?
Do you desire companionship?
Do you desire a partner that you perhaps currently do not have?
Do you desire to be around friends?

Desires arise continuously throughout the day. We often think of desires as being only in two categories: sex and food. But desires often consume the choices that we make. The challenge then is to become aware of what you desire in the moment, minute by minute, hour by hour. Have a delightful time as you become more aware of what you desire from moment to moment.

Click on the horn below for an audio presentation of this week’s mindfulness challenge:

Robert