Take, for example, a job I had to get done.  Now, I knew that it involved writing 28 pages in a day.  Right, that seemed pretty straightforward enough so I dutifully sat down and began typing.

Sometimes, the ideas would flow steadily with perhaps a brief pause here and there as my brain scanned its databases for the most appropriate word to use.  At other times, the ideas were a little less willing to stream through and those were the times when I would take a break and try and do something different.

When I got back, I would continue with a little more momentum than when I’d stopped but it wouldn’t be long before I was stalled yet again for an idea.

If you’re a writer, you’ll be very familiar with this sort of thing and more than likely take it philosophically as ‘par for the course’.

However, it occurred to me one day that, given that I’ve been writing for most of my life and that I’ve been writing ‘professionally’ for a good few years, shouldn’t this get easier?  Shouldn’t I be able to stick at something just a little bit longer and coax the writing muse to stay longer than it usually does?

Don’t get me wrong.  Breaks are wonderful and necessary.  But they don’t always create or cause greater efficiency.  What do I mean by that?

If I needed to write a 28 page document in one day, I should have been able to do it, given my experience, my knowledge, my skills etc.  After all, I’d done it before and I should be able to do it again whenever I wish to.  But why wasn’t it getting any easier?  Why didn’t I feel I was getting ‘better’ at it?

Pondering these questions triggered the ‘ah-ha’ moment.  I realized that what I hadn’t done but ought to have done was set myself mini-goals, or sub-goals, if you like.

For instance, I could have broken down the 28 pages per day into say, 7 pages per hour.  That would have enabled me to complete the job in 4 hours.  Or, I could have set myself a less demanding pace and decided to complete the job in 7 hours, which would have meant 4 pages per hour.

Within these time frames, I could easily allow for breaks thus keeping a fresh and steady momentum.

So what is the ‘elusive obvious’ here?

It’s this:

The brain is most efficient when it has more immediate, measurable and frequently occurring targets.

Blindingly obvious, you say?  I agree, ‘cept we don’t always remember, do we?  And we don’t always apply it to all our goals, do we?

28 pages a day is a good enough target when you have 28 such chunks to complete in the next 28 days.  The brain then organizes itself according to the 28 days and the subconscious ‘pressure’ to complete 28 pages each day is active and effective.

However, when the 28 pages in one day is a one-off, non-recurring event, then the brain requires more immediate, measurable and frequently occurring targets or goals.  The ‘pressure’ is set off at each hour and you’re more likely to stick to the demands of each hour i.e. 4 (or 7) pages rather than hang loose by a less immediate and less frequent demand such as ‘a day’.  After all, when does the ‘day’ start for you?  When does it end?  A day is an adjustable target, an hour isn’t!

Does this make sense?  I hope so.  If not, consider this:  Which of the following requests is likely to get you acting more efficiently i.e. producing the most suitable response in the least amount of time :

• Please be ready for dinner this evening
• Please be ready for dinner in the next 30 minutes?

Or, how about this one.  Which of these is going to get you moving real fast:

• Walk fast because there might be snakes in the area
• Walk fast because there’s a snake right behind you?

Yes, your brain’s efficiency increases when the targets are immediate, measurable and frequently occurring :).

But now, here’s the more important reason for sharing all this with you:

When it comes to ‘personal development’ goals, these too operate by the same principles.  You would be more successful with them if they too were broken down to more ‘immediate, measurable and frequently occurring’ goals!

Yes, the goals of happiness and freedom and prosperity can and should be broken down into sub-goals with more immediate, measurable and frequently occurring time frames.

Now, if you’ve read this far and are keen to know what I mean by that and what examples I might offer you, I dare say you’re going to be disappointed, if not irked, by what I’m about to suggest.

Why?  Because I’m sure you’ve heard it before and perhaps chosen to ignore it or didn’t think you could do it or even tried and didn’t succeed or perhaps simply had no idea how to do it.

Well, despite the risk of leaving you disappointed and/or irked, here is what I suggest when it comes to the goals of happiness, freedom and prosperity:

Break them down to the immediate and frequently (constantly) occurring goal of…

NOW.

Indeed, it’s the only way you’ll ever ‘achieve’ them!  Imagine, intend and allow happiness, prosperity and freedom NOW.  It’s not just a metaphysical goal, it’s a proven method for getting your brain to cooperate with you in achieving your goals.

If you have any doubt about the effectiveness of this, just remember:

What you see in your immediate reality are the EFFECTS of PAST thoughts, imaginations, intentions and permissions.

If you wish to see different things i.e. EFFECTS in your future reality, set yourself the immediate goal of imagining, intending and allowing them NOW.

Do it.  NOW.

Love always

Lucy

Awakening to Happiness, Prosperity and Freedom NOW!

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In a world of potentially infinite demands on our time and personal resources, it would be suicidal not to establish repeating parameters within which we can manage our most basic needs.  Such routines not only make the difference between survival and crash and burn but also help us develop efficiencies along the way.

Quite simply, instead of having to make a decision everyday and possibly several times a day about whether to have breakfast, lunch or dinner, our brains are programmed to anticipate, prepare and consume these meals at particular times each and every day.  It is a huge saving on our mental and emotional resources!

Likewise, being programmed to go to work five days a week from 9am to 5pm is another efficiency many of us have developed.  It pays off for most people at least in terms of the income it generates and the boredom it seems to save us from.

Or take brushing your teeth after every meal or at least twice a day.  Because it’s become routine, our mental and emotional resources that would otherwise have to go into making a decision about it every day, are instead available for other more creative uses.

By and large, the greatest efficiency we gain as a result of routines relates to decision making.  As you have probably experienced, decision-making without a background of repeated/automated decisions i.e. routines, can be taxing on our mental and emotional resources.

When something out of the ordinary happens, such as a friend suggesting you go out for a drink after work, the brain expends more energy into helping you make a decision about it than it would if it remained on autopilot and sent you straight home.

In other words, non-routine decision-making is a lot more taxing that routine decision making and this is where the efficiency of routines is greatest, at least until the brain is trained for non-routine demands :)

However, we’ve all felt at some time in our lives, the dreariness and lifelessness of being ‘stuck in routines’.  Life can become lifeless and meaningless as we go through the motions from one day to the next while still holding out for some miraculous ‘save me from myself’ change or event to happe!  At the same time, we’re feeling increasingly despondent, if not depressed as our routines seem to suck us dry of joy juice!

Given that we live in a time and space-bound world, the ‘reality’ of limited time and space/resources is a pressing one.  Routines help us minimize the impact of this apparent limited nature of our time and resources.  For this reason, they are helpful and necessary for our survival.

But equally necessary for not just our survival but also our happiness is allowing our naturally creative and spontaneous nature to be expressed.  Routines, when used intelligently, can help apportion and direct resources (mental, emotional, spiritual and physical) to this natural flow of creative expression.  But, routines, when used slavishly, can impede, if not completely block the flow of creative expression.

This is the sort of thing that many of us face from time to time.  Instead of being efficient masters of our routines, we become unquestioning slaves to them, at least until we realize that we are doing too little ‘living’ or too much ‘surviving’.

Creative expression is the purpose of life.  It is the very nature of joy, of happiness!  It is what allows us to feel peaceful and enthusiastic at the same time!  It is the offspring of desire whose energy is love!

So, how do we ensure that our routines don’t suffocate us, blocking off the energy of love, the very force of life itself?  Well, it is important that we do something different everyday.  How?

Start by thinking different thoughts.  Remember that all our routine behaviours began at some point as routine thoughts, so pay attention to some of the familiar, routine thoughts that go through your mind.  Catch one of them and think something so completely different to it.

For example, one of the thoughts that I routinely have is: I need to write a blog post.  I can practice non-routine thinking by thinking:  I want to write a blog post that will make me smile and make my readers smile too.

Notice what this does.  Not only does it remove the unattractive imperative of having to write a blog post, it allows me to creatively explore an alternative way of joyfully writing a blog post!

Likewise, with a particular behaviour.  Instead of eating a meal off the same plate, try a different plate and try a different position at the table.  Who says you have to sit at the same place every meal?

In fact, changing places every now and again not only breaks the monotony, it also gives you a different perspective, both physically and mentally.  How?  Because all information in your brain is stored in networks of associations.  Change one piece of information and you are effectively shaking up and rearranging the network of associations.  Remember, it’s not information itself that is novel, it’s the organization, associations and interpretations that generate novelty.

I cannot begin to tell you the tremendous and far-reaching benefits of practicing non-routine thinking and acting.  Try them for yourself.  Start right now.  What would you typically/routinely do after reading a blog post like this?  Do something different instead.  See where that takes you.  If nothing else, it gives your brain something different to process and in that way, keeps it active and alert.

Making useful and creative changes in our lives doesn’t have to involve grand, largess actions or decisions.  Rather, it is through the small, seemingly insignificant, ‘routine’ things in life that we most easily express the creative influence of our life energy, our love, for our happiness and that of all else!


In other words, think of and use your routines not as boundaries to keep you safe and predictable but as the fertile ground within which are uncountable seeds of creative expression waiting to be noticed and nurtured by you!

Go do it now!

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Hall of Mirrors at Damanhur – Image from Daily Mail

The brain processes ‘imagined‘ and ‘real‘ events in very similar ways.  The same visual centers of the brain are stimulated, for instance, when you see something in your bedroom and when you imagine it.  And because information in the brain is stored, not in isolation but in association, visual stimuli trigger emotional, sensorial, mental and physiological responses.

Such is the nature of the complex networks of  associated information.  It is the reason behind ‘wet dreams’, waking up in a panic and finding butterflies in your stomach when you are anxious or nervous :-). Whether ‘imagined’ or ‘actual’, the brain and the body’s responses are similar.

This fact can be used to great advantage and it is, by athletes, scientists, teachers, healers and anyone wanting to effect a reality different to their current reality.  Children are born with this ability, which, sadly for many, diminishes as they get older.  Why?  Because we live in a society dominated by the belief that values and respects only that which is physical, tangible and quantifiable.  Anything ‘imagined’ is treated with suspicion and often dismissed.

Yet, interestingly enough, we hold a conflicting belief, or rather, a ‘knowing’ that our imagination is the basis for some of humanity’s most spectacular achievements, from the Taj Mahal to computers and the internet to high consciousness communities in Damanhur, to name just a few.  Many of us are also familiar with the story of Einstein visualizing himself riding on a ray of light, the speed of which would be impossible for us to appreciate through mere reasoning but possible to ’sense’ through imagining or visualizing as Einstein did.

So, how does visualization work?  When we visualize something in our mind’s eye, we activate the associated sensations, emotions, thoughts and beliefs.  I explained in previous posts about affirmations and the need for them to be supported by our beliefs and emotions.  Visualization provides us with a powerful means of generating those emotions rapidly and effortlessly while bypassing conflicting beliefs! This ability for visualizations to bypass conflicting beliefs is what makes them particularly powerful.

As the appropriate and most supportive emotions are generated, our entire mental, emotional, biochemical and physiological ‘maps’ and patterns are changed.  Clearly, the more often we visualize and the more deeply we enter into the sensorial and emotional aspects of our image i.e. we see, taste, smell, hear, feel that which we are visualizing, the more powerful and stable are the new patterns or ‘maps’ that we create.

Put another way, if you are having trouble believing that you will find your ‘perfect partner’, visualizing being with the perfect partner, doing things with her/him by using the brain’s ability to ’see’, ‘touch’, ’smell’ and ‘taste’ will evoke strong emotional responses that start to lay down the ‘maps’ or patterns for that reality!  You are therefore primed and set for that reality!

The fact is, all the things that we do routinely/habitually are the outcomes of what was once consciously desired, imagined, thought and felt.  Having a cup of coffee, for instance, once began with the desire, thought and positive feeling for coffee.  Over time, this ‘map’ of desire, thought, sensation and emotion was laid down, refined and accessed/retrieved so frequently that it became an ‘automatic‘ response.  In other words, you no longer had to consciously go through the entire gamut of desire-thought-emotion-sensation to get you to the point of making and drinking a cup of coffee (action/tangible, physical reality).  The entire process has been truncated to go directly from thought (mental) to action (physical)!  But more of that another time :-).

What is important to remember here is that visualization is something that we naturally and routinely do.  As far as the brain is concerned, visualizing activates the same centers in the brain as information received from physical stimuli.  It is an elegant, efficient and powerful technique (natural ability) that we already possess but which most of us have forgotten how to use to our advantage.  Visualization is particularly powerful because it enables us to rapidly and effortlessly arouse the emotions and beliefs that are needed to support our desires and intentions/affirmations and to turn them into reality while bypassing conflicting beliefs.

Do you have trouble visualizing things you desire?  Or are you a pro?  Share your experiences in a comment!

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