Higher Learning
Lesson 9: Being prepared for the future
1. Everything is Changing
2. Who Controls Your Thinking?
3. Imagine That
Exercise One
4. Information and Understanding
5. The Flow of Information
Exercise Two
6. Intuition: Getting Your Own Information
7. Confusion
Exercise Three
8. Speaking to Authority
Exercise Four
9. Social Choice
Exercise Five
10. Trends
11. Inspiration
1. Everything is Changing
Take time to stand back from your life, and see if you are experiencing the quality of life — and well-being — you want most. Not only is the world around you changing, but you are changing too, daily.
All of these can change over time:
- your goals, including your financial goals
- your net worth, your income, and your cash flow
- where you want to live or work
- the work you actually want to be doing
- the amount of time you wish to spend on different areas of your life
- what is expected of you at work, or what new things you need to learn
- what matters to you, how you wish to make a difference in your life
- your preparation for the unexpected, including insurance and job loss
- the jobs that have a future in the US, and those being outsourced or done elsewhere
- how changes in technology may affect your future livelihood or financial security.
Before you consider how you might be benefited by a changing world and financial environment, be sure to do what you can to prevent yourself from being greatly disadvantaged by it.
The things we have to protect ourselves from today would have been inconceivable a decade ago. Minefields abound on the Internet, including so-called "phishing," in which con artists send legitimate-looking emails to people, pretending to be a certain company, asking for personal information, and then steal their identity and/or financial assets.
It is a rapidly changing world, and not all of the change is for the better. For example, tens of millions of people in the US have already been victims of identity theft; their financial lives have been torn apart or ruined, merely because someone gained access to their personal identifying information. It typically takes hundreds of hours of a person's time and energy to try to straighten out an identity theft, or to try to establish their credit again, and the results are often less than satisfactory. Do not be one of the fifteen million people that this may happen to this year. Practice safeguarding — and, when you dispose of it, properly destroying — identifying financial information, especially anything that has your social security number on it. In states which allow you to freeze your credit, so that no one can apply for credit in your name, this can be an important step to take; otherwise, you might consider paying for a credit protection and reporting service, but do research to find one that is really honest. It is unfortunate that the credit system itself has been so lax in protecting people — the system has created its own need for high-priced protection services, and in many ways encouraged identity theft. Banks throw credit offers at consumers, including blank checks on their credit cards — and even used to just mail new credit cards to people without them even asking for them. Their safeguards were lax or nonexistent, because they were more interested in issuing plastic in the hope of making more money than in really protecting anyone. They did this with home mortgages as well. And, the repercussions in people's lives — and in society as a whole — are enormous.
It is important to learn to deal with a different world, daily — to make good decisions, to be self-directed and responsible. Use what you learn from outside you, to support what you know within you. Regardless of how popular a given trend might be — especially if it shows people's lack of awareness — keep your own sense of what is right or most progressive for you.
You have to learn to pay attention to future trends and changing directions — especially those which can greatly affect your life. Find some web sites that deal with money, personal finance, and financial trends, and learn to be more aware of what is happening financially, globally. There was a time not too long ago, when a person could have a job, stay there for many years, and expect the world to keep being pretty much the same for the foreseeable future. Those days are long past.
The more rapidly things change, the harder it may be to rely upon what you already know. We are not saying to adopt new trends as readily as new fashions. That is a superficial and unthinking way of adapting to change. Rather, understand change, and learn to rely not upon external trends that are ever-changing, but your inner wisdom, inner guidance, and intuition — which are invaluable in the rapidly changing world.
2. Who Controls Your Thinking?
Do not devalue what you can know within you, in favor of external information or formal education. The more self-aware you are, the more you will be able to realize the true value of things outside you — and have them be to your advantage rather than your disadvantage.
It is more often the case that we are controlled by things outside us, rather than simply living from a place of complete inner creative freedom. But, few of us wish to admit this.
You need to know that there are other factors which may already control or determine your thinking, choices, actions, apparent options, emotions, desires, self-image, limiting behavior, and conformity. Society, in large or small measure, has programmed, conditioned, and indoctrinated you; if you wish to be more true to who you are — to creatively express that and live that way — you have to go against the current and swim upstream.
People imagine they have control in their own lives, over those they are in relationship with, including family members, and over what happens in their lives. But, control is often merely an illusion. Children today are often entirely out of control, willful, selfish, spoiled, and demanding. They want what they want, and they often run their parents.
As an adult, we may find that others control our thinking and behavior by one of the following mechanisms:
- by their emotions, or by our emotional reactiveness to them (whether we "love" or "hate" them doesn't matter)
- by weakening us or making us needy of them, and then taking care or our "need" (or "enabling" us)
- by appealing to a sense of guilt, obligation, pride, tradition, or "responsibility"
- by their "mistakes" and "failures," which may impede, encumber, or mislead us
- by appealing to selfishness, lust, greed, or ambition; by sex
- by mimicking our behavior or interests, or being accepted by us, to shape our thinking or desires
- by appearing weak, and appealing to our ego to "help" them
- by encouraging our dependencies, addictions, or failings
- by simply telling us what to do, or how, or when, or where
- by making us feel "less," and in need of their approval, acceptance, or apparent benevolence
- by invalidating or restraining our true perceptions, higher consciousness, conscience, or self-realization
- by promoting our worldly success and spiritual demise
- by reducing our awareness of evil and wrong
- by scoffing at our spiritual yearnings or experiences; by defending the status quo
- by implanting thoughts, feelings, desires, or other influences directly or indirectly
- by programming, conditioning, or indoctrination
- by inducing or supporting our complacency or inertia
- by suppressing information we might need in order to make an informed decision, or by lying to us
- by ridiculing us or our inner knowing, by putting us down
- by implanting fear in us, or by falsely appeasing that fear.
We are manipulated, controlled, invalidated, or exploited by every person, institution, politician, religious leader, business advertising, and relationship that refuses us the truth. This is done by restricting our access to information, deceiving us, manipulating our emotions, replacing news with government propaganda, replacing facts with marketing slogans, calling upon "experts" especially in science to assuage all our doubts and reassure us that everything is under control and being taken care of for us by someone else.
Whoever controls your thinking controls your behavior, your choices, and your life. Social institutions, even in a democracy, are often oppressive, suppressive, and repressive — and use their authority and power to gain our compliance and complacency. Society has the inherent agenda to control the individual — you. You may not be aware of how your thinking and behavior are governed by forces outside you. Most people, most of the time, are governed by and act out of their programming and social conditioning, habitually, unthinkingly. People accept every sort of external influence without discerning, without taking the time to sort out what is right, good, and true versus what is not. This occurs in regard to religion, business, government, education, and other institutions.
It is not just institutions, but people who are close to us, who are often invested in us remaining as we are, rather than allowing us the space for growing, changing, and moving in other directions. They may feel threatened by our freedom, or change — especially when they are close to us, or have known us for a long time. And so they may try all the harder to control us, to make us doubt ourselves, to increase our dependence upon them or obligation to them. They might not even realize that they are trying to control us, but may simply be reacting to our own process of change. Many people's lives are controlled by an overbearing parent, spouse, or child — and they mistakenly excuse this as some kind of "love," which it is not. It is giving up control.
People are often entrained and embedded in social "support" systems that are largely invested in their dependency, compromise, dis-empowerment, and, in many cases, their exploitation — including family, friends, work, finances, relationships, business, televangelism, substance abuse, consumerism, gambling, pornography, and other addictions. Getting control of one's life, one's thinking, one's emotions, and one's spiritual existence is not easy, but it is the most creative activity a person can make in our society. The creative process is not just about painting pictures or singing or dancing; it is about being free to be who we truly are, and not controlled by anything outside us.
3. Imagine That
Imagination frees your thinking.
The last thing you would ever be taught in school would be to rely upon your own inner wisdom, insight, and intuition. Intuition is not logical or rational. But, it is the way we know everything. Imagination is not something that only children do; it is the key to creative self-expression, inner-directedness, and clarity of intuition.
In school, you are not allowed or encouraged to think for yourself, in a way that completely diverges from the way everyone else thinks. Could you imagine disagreeing with every teacher, with everything they said? Could you imagine questioning authority, questioning the validity or truth of everything you were taught or told?
The reason you didn't, was that you were completely programmed, conditioned, and indoctrinated into believing what you were taught and told. That was how you "succeeded" as a student, how you were promoted from one grade to the next, how you were accepted, approved of, and rewarded. It is how you gave up your own mind, your own thinking, your ability to know things — different from everything you were taught or told.
As a result of this process, most students get out of school not having any idea how to truly know anything for themselves. And so, for the rest of their lives, they often fail to learn anything from life.
The prize isn't getting a PhD and becoming a perfect parrot, able to recite exactly what everyone expects to hear from you. That is not the definition of "success." The idea is to learn to stand back from what you may have been taught or told, everything expected or demanded of you by others — especially academics — and learn how to know things within you, for perhaps the first time. This is the opposite of being programmed externally. It is taking responsibility for coming closer to the truth within you, regardless of whether it finds acceptance or approval or agreement outside of you.
When you have a problem, your conscious mind is not receiving the information or guidance it needs from a more subtle level. This is a technique to bypass the rational mind, to access information in a different way.
If you have practiced centering, you know how to turn the attention away from external things, allow a more inward attention of the mind, and notice what is going on for you, within.
If you haven't ever done intuitive exercises before, or feel some resistance towards it, this would be a good time to put your skeptical, rational, rigid, concrete thought patterns aside. Open your mind. Let something different, more simple, subtle, abstract, new, and novel come in. Give yourself that space, at least for the sake of the exercises.
Some people may get a symbol for a problem when they close their eyes, relax, get quiet and centered. You might wish to try this first: relax, close your eyes, and ask your deeper intuitive self to show you a symbol that represents the problem. You might notice something right away, which appears to have no relation to the problem. But, if you get something which seems to draw your attention, you can use that symbol instead of the one that we provide, in the next exercise. We are going to be looking at a symbol that represents the problem, and asking what it has to say to us. Of course, this is done intuitively, on a quiet level of the mind, not out loud. Throughout history, people have made discoveries based upon a symbol that they saw in their mind, which they intuitively grasped. And some did shout out loud, "Eureka, I found it."
Exercise One: Bring to mind the problem you wish to solve. Take a few deep breaths and relax. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself walking down a path outdoors, in a natural setting. It is a lovely day. Up ahead you see a tree that draws your attention. There is something about it that is interesting. Be aware of what the tree looks like. Is it large or small, with leaves, flowers, or bare branches? Is it healthy and flourishing, or is it withered or distressed? Is it receiving sunlight? Is it isolated or alone, or does it have company? Is it happy or not, feeling the breeze or not? What meaning does it have for you, what does it say to you, what meaning do you find in it?
Take a few minutes. When you are ready, gently open your eyes, return your awareness to where you are, here, now. Write down your impression of the tree, what meaning you can see in it, how it represents an aspect of the problem. (in 200 words or less)
This may have been easy or hard for you, but you gave your mind a chance to reflect and communicate on a more subtle and abstract level. It is always you who provides your own internal representation of a problem or solution, interprets your experience, and finds meaning or value in what you experience within you. The more valuable you find this exercise, the more in touch you may have been with your deeper visually-intuitive self. Perhaps you found yourself thinking that this wasn't working for you, because some other picture came to mind. You might have had the thought, "What comes to mind is ... this." If that is the case, you can use that as your starting point, and see what your mind is trying to tell you. Some people relax, close their eyes, get quiet, and see a different image or symbol that comes to mind. If so, ask what meaning it has for you, and listen. Perhaps the intuitive hearing sense may be more active, or help to fill in the meaning or picture for you. Sometimes all you get is a word, but that is a start.
What you need to do, when you close your eyes to access your information, is to pose a question — one that has a recognizable, "real-world," answer. The question can be general, such as "What's important for me today?" or specific, "What am I not seeing about this problem?" Ask your intuitive self for an answer that you can understand. Realize, the answer does not always come immediately. Don't try to force it. Often, information — a sense of what you need to know or do — may filter into the conscious mind from the unconscious, over a period of time. Or, you may become suddenly aware of the answer while you are doing something else, such as driving or going for a walk.
4. Information and Understanding
Our modern times are often called an Information Age. Your education gave you countless tidbits of information, most of which you do not use in daily life, and which you have likely forgotten. You have also learned about the Internet and how to get an endless amount of information, daily. But, what do you do with all that information? Where are you in the midst of all that information?
You receive, process, assimilate, integrate, and express information at each moment, on all levels of your life: physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. What you do with that information is up to you.
Information is always flowing, moving, changing. And, ultimately, everything in this world is information. Information isn't just something you get from the news, books, teachers, or the Internet. Everything you experience is information, and it changes continually. The idea is to learn to work with the flow of information, outside and within you. There are as many perspectives as there are people; your own perspective, understanding, and insights are unique.
The information you already have isn't meant to be static or unchanging. Information changes. The idea is to learn to make use of new information, constantly. It doesn't matter all that much what you have already learned, what matters is how quickly you can learn new things — because things are always changing. What a college student learns by their second year is often obsolete by the time they graduate.
Are you open to new information? In what way? Are you able to discern what is right, good, and true for you — which is very different from all the crap you may be exposed to on the Internet, on television, and so on? Just because everyone has an opinion, or a forum for expressing it, doesn't mean it is right, good, or true for you.
Critical analysis requires information, but information is entirely different from understanding. You can have the best information in the world, and still not know how to solve a problem. Math problems are like that. Everything you need is right there in front of you, but what do you do with it? In our society, we suffer from information overload. Sometimes, the more information there is, the less likely you will find the right solution. The information — the useful portion of the data — often gets lost in the details. Government has produced countless billions of pages of information, but does that mean it always knows what it is doing, or that it honors what is right, good, or true? It's not the information, but what we do with it, that matters.
We get information on many levels. There is literally information in everything, including us. Our DNA is a complex coding of information, represented by four "letters"; the arrangement of these basic four letters produces approximately 300,000 pages of information in each DNA molecule. This information is available in every cell in our physical bodies (nearly 50 trillion cells), and is interpreted, replicated, and carried forward from moment to moment. Similarly, a great deal of sensory information flows continuously, from seeing, hearing, feeling, touching, smelling. There is a flow of information on an enormous scale, which we may not even be aware of, in our own bodies. A similar process occurs on the mental level as well. If you think about it, you will realize that almost all of the information you have ever taken in is not on the conscious level of the mind — it is on an unconscious level. You have to do something to bring it to awareness. We have too much information — most of it irrelevant in the present moment — so we store it on a deeper level of the mind. Everything we have ever experienced is coded and stored within us, whether that involves a nearly infinite array of neuronal connections, biological memory, genetic memory, or a holographic mind. Part of problem solving is learning to draw upon information we already have; some of that is conscious and rational, the rest is unconscious and intuitive.
There is so much information in everything, that as children we learn to tune out to it. Our socialization requires that we only acknowledge specific, objectively verifiable information which others are aware of. Our educational system actively seeks to program the minds of children, to feed them a prescribed set of information from outside of them, and have them all come into agreement on it. In fact, if you are not in agreement on the information which you are being programmed with, or are not able to recall it from your memory banks, or are not able to apply it as expected, you are given low or failing grade marks.
This process of "education" turns off the flow of information and inquiry that naturally occurs with us, and replaces it with an externally-derived system of information, indoctrination, and set thinking. This is, literally, the exact opposite of the real meaning of education, which comes from the Latin root "educare" and which means "to draw out from within."
Information cannot replace or generate understanding. We are the ones who provide meaning. We are the ones who must re-learn to look within ourselves, to understand the meaning or purpose of things outside us. In so-called "primitive" cultures, this ability is highly developed and taken for granted. We have lost it in our modern, technological, information-driven society. But, even today, in rainforest areas, there are "shamans" or "medicine men" who can walk into the forest and point to hundreds of different plants and tell you exactly how they affect the body, and help to treat disease. They can chew up a leaf, understand its taste and effect, apply it to the skin, and heal diseases. They have no formal "education," and they are certainly not conventional doctors, but they know more about healing and gathering information from their environment — in a most useful and valuable and productive way — than any university trained medical doctor, despite twenty-five years of education and training.
In our society, which has scorned this sense of inner connection, in the same way it has ruined our connection with the outer environment — literally destroying both the inner and outer environments of creativity, deeper appreciation, recognition of value, and natural harmony — we need to regain that. We need to honor the meaning and purpose we derive from within us, and not be governed by the external factors that disconnect us from what is right, good, and true within us. This is what real problem solving is all about — learning from our experience, drawing upon what we know on a deeper level within us, and acting for the highest good of all.
5. The Flow of Information
Take a few moments, now, to notice what is in your mind. Simply be aware of what you have in mind. It is probably not a lot, at least, not in comparison to the enormous amount of information which resides on an unconscious level. In the present moment, we do not need to call upon all of the information we have, but rather we access it selectively as we feel we need it.
There is a flow of information from unconscious to conscious mind, and it varies in content, intensity, and value, from moment to moment, throughout our lives. Everything we have ever experienced resides on some deeper level of our mind, our being. The information is all there, coded and stored, much like a "hard drive" on a computer. Sensory information, cognitive perceptions, knowledge and understanding, common sense, emotional reactions, trauma, accomplishments, whatever we have learned, what we have observed, the choices we have made, and so on. Most of the time, we have little or no need to recall these things, consciously, and so we simply don't. But, we have an ability to do so, to whatever extent we may make use of it.
Here's how it works. Take a moment to think of a car, perhaps your own. Some people just experience thoughts, others get some mental imagery. What is the make and model? What does the car look like? What does it look like inside? What does the seat feel like? Is there a smell associated with it? All of this information is usually out of mind, but it can be recalled from the unconscious at will. Some things are easy to recall or correlate with our present moment experience; others remain disconnected, inaccessible, unusable.
Exercise Two: This is an exercise in accessing information flow from the unconscious. Pick a subject, and talk about it for five minutes, out loud. It can be anything, such as "the color blue," "trees," "dogs," "cooking," "where you want to be five years from now," "the weather," anything. Just keep going for five minutes on that one topic.
or
If you prefer, you can write down a subject about which you have some interest or concern, as a heading or question. Then close your eyes and quietly center for about five minutes. When you are ready, gently open your eyes; then write for five minutes as if you were answering the question or addressing the concern.
This may have been easy or hard for you, but you had a chance to be more aware of the process by which you do access information from some other level of the mind, beyond the conscious mind. You will do this more comfortably, as part of problem solving, the more you practice it.
If intuition was simply a means for accessing the wealth of inner knowledge, experience, and information that we have, it would already be quite valuable. But, it is more than that. Intuition allows us to access the right information at the right time, going beyond information access, to information production. The intuition produces new, creative, non-obvious information. Often, how it does so, does not rely upon previously stored information. The intuition has access to a whole world of information that goes beyond anything we may have learned, experienced, or known in the past. It does not depend upon the flow of past information from unconscious to conscious mind, but rather the flow of future information into the present moment.
The future is happening right here, right now. What you thought about or experienced a few moments ago is different from what you are thinking or experiencing now. Between then and now, the future arrived, or at least part of it. There are similarities between what you experienced in the past few seconds, and now, but it is different. The past no longer exists, and the future is forever flowing into the present moment, at each and every moment.
Intuition includes the ability to sense or know or experience the flow of the future into the present. The future is not fixed or set or certain, but there are currents of information, trends, and probabilities which flow from the future into the present. The present has a kind of continuity or patterning, which extends into the future; and the future has a kind of predictability which manifests in the present moment.
Intuition is not only sensitive to or aware of other "time" but other "space" as well. In other words, you can know things at a distance, and the actual distance doesn't matter all that much. Quantum physics even describes the reality of "action at a distance," according to Bell's Theorem. It is possible to not only be aware of something at a distance, beyond the space of your physical senses, but it is possible to affect something at a distance when there is no physical or observable connection at all. In a sense, everything is affecting everything else, at all times; and information flows between all things and you.
Practice drawing not only upon your intellectual capacity, or recall, but what you feel or experience in the moment. What feelings, sensations, impressions, ideas, images, or other thoughts come to mind? Be aware of that flow; pay attention to it. The more you do that, the more you will open your intuitive channels and inner access to information.
6. Intuition: Getting Your Own Information
Intuition can also be called "receptivity" or sensitivity. It involves the act of being internally receptive or sensitive. We do not rely upon the external senses, but rather our inner sensitivity or senses. Still, they are analogous in many ways.
Your intuitive channels are primarily: 1. cognizance, 2. feeling, 3. hearing, and 4. seeing.
Cognizance simply means knowing. You may not know how you know something, but you just do. And it does not depend upon having external evidence or verification. A mother may hear a siren in the distance, and this time unlike any other, she just knows that it has something to do with her son. She just knows, and she get up and goes out and investigates. Her son has been driving around town and has been in an auto accident. And, yes, this kind of intuitive experience does happen in the "real world."
Intuitive feeling is similar to this, but there is mainly a strong or subtle feeling that you actually feel in your body. It is a particular sensation, perhaps of coldness or warmth, tingling, tension, perhaps a sensation of energy — which you can relate to something occurring outside you when it is observable with the outer senses. At other times, it may relate to something beyond what your outer senses are presently informing you about, perhaps something at a distance. You might be with someone and develop a strong headache. It has nothing to do with what you are talking about, and the subject of a headache never comes up. The other person does not even look as if they are suffering from a headache, but you tell them you are starting to feel a headache, and they tell you that they have a terrible headache. You have been picking up on what they are experiencing to the extent that it is being mirrored in your own body. This happens more often with those we are close to, but it certainly does happen.
Intuitive hearing means you may hear something, perhaps in your head, which may be in your own voice or in another tone of voice, which informs you about something. It might be the words to a song that they happen to be playing, which has a very specific message for you. You get a bit of information. You might hear words to the effect of, "Watch out, keep away," when you see someone on the street. It might be accompanied by a strong sensation in the body — a clear feeling — or it might simply come through your hearing channel. It may have nothing at all to do with the way the person is dressed, or their apparent income level, or the apparent degree of friendliness with which they approach you. "Something tells you" to be aware, alert, and on your guard. And you do. This sort of intuition can save your life. And, yes, this also happens in the real world.
Intuitive seeing is either seeing an image in your mind which provides some information "out of the blue," or it may be actually seeing something on a more subtle level — as if you are actually looking into it more deeply. This can happen in relation to another person, as well. You are talking with someone, and then you feel as if you can see deeply into them; you realize things about them, their strengths or weaknesses, their hopes or fears, their concerns. It is as if those things were made visible. Sometimes, it can even be the case that you see the words for those things in your mind. It is a kind of "in-sight."
The clearer your intuitive channels, the more of these kinds of experiences you may have. They are normal and natural, not abnormal or unnatural. Some people have only a few of these experiences in their lives, and they are memorable; other people have these kinds of experiences every day of their lives. It all depends upon how clear your channels are, how developed they are, how accepting you are of information that does not depend upon concrete external evidence, and how trusting you are of your self and your inner wisdom. In other words, it depends upon how open you are. Closed-mindedness, and excessively rigid critical thinking tends to close down these more intuitive ways of knowing the truth. Skepticism is not a replacement for truth; it is just a rigid, habitual rejection of anything you are not familiar with or which you do not already think you know.
Intuition provides subtle guidance, a sense of direction, a sense of moving towards whatever is right, good, and true for you. It is a kind of inner assurance that you are heading in the right direction. Note, this inner direction which comes from your true intuitive deeper self is entirely different from the internalized mechanism of programming, conditioning, and indoctrination. Those are all external forces which have been forcibly ingrained within you, by repetition or habit. And, they cannot truly take the place of deeper inner knowing.
The more centered you are, the more calm and quiet you are inside, the less you react out of emotion and ego, the more clearly you will be able to sense what is right, good, and true for you. This works, whether you call it clear thinking, intuition, groundedness, or greater awareness — the result is more confident and effective problem solving and decision making.
7. Confusion
This may surprise you, but confusion is not necessarily a bad thing. In many ways, it is a clear sign that something better is making its presence known or felt.
Every decision is made in the present moment, without foreknowledge of the future. If you were to know exactly, with total certainty, how something was going to be in the future, there would be no possibility of making a decision. What would be would be.
In school, answers are predictable, logical, or a matter of recall. But, in our lives, we generally do not know how things will be. We have to make decisions regarding the unknown, uncertain, unpredictable, undependable, or unimaginable.
We may do our best to deal with the unknown, by what we know. There is nothing wrong with this. But a problem may arise if we habitually rely upon what we know — and think, and believe, and choose, and act the same way — all the time. This precludes change. This is a way of trying to deal with the unknown by sticking with the "tried and true." It sounds good. It may feel comfortable. But it closes us to change, learning, growing, new opportunities, progress, or a greater success.
Different and new and non-obvious results come from making entirely different choices. Confusion is sometimes part of this process.
Ambiguity is part of problem solving, and part of life. There is no "one and perfect answer" to a problem, which you have to find. We work with what we are given, make the best choices we can, see how they work, and choose again if they do not work to our satisfaction. Decision making may seem like a "final" process, but it is iterative; you get to choose more, later.
Do not avoid confusion by refusing to step into the unknown. Do not try to avoid confusion by "solving" all of your problems, and not allowing anything to be different from what you expect. Do not try to avoid confusion by trying to control everything. Do not try to avoid confusion by trying to eliminate uncertainty from your life.
If you feel confused when you need to make a decision, solve a problem, or choose a direction, that is okay. Give yourself permission to feel confusion. It may be accompanied by various emotions such as worry, doubt, fear, or guilt. If that is the case, give those feelings a chance to be heard, and a chance to be felt. Feel them, hear their message, and then let them pass from you. Do not try to make decisions based upon the erroneous desire to merely quell your emotions. That is only emotional reactiveness, and is not necessarily a real decision.
Exercise Three: This is an exercise in awareness. Allow yourself some time to be with the following questions. Sit with them, and be aware of the thoughts, feelings, and desires that come into your awareness.
Questions: Think of a time when you may have had a decision to make, when you felt confused. Recall what it felt like, and what you did in response to that feeling. Did you give in, make a poor choice, or do something you later regretted? What would be different if you stepped back, quietly centered yourself, and allowed that confusion and that feeling to pass from you? How would you choose differently?
If you feel confused, allow the space for what is old to leave you, and what is new to arrive. This may take a bit of time. It may require you to clear some space, by letting go of some old thoughts or beliefs or desires you might have held closely, whose time has passed. Do not hold on to confusion as a way of avoiding making decisions. Some people do this, habitually, their whole lives; their confusion is a product of their underlying fear of making a decision, fear of being wrong, fear of making a mistake, fear of being disapproved of or rejected. It is necessary to get past such limiting fears and confusion, not base your decisions (or indecision) on them.
Be willing to receive something new in decision making and problem solving — it is called "inspiration." It is a new idea, a new and more progressive belief, a new direction, a new possibility. This is why it is essential to not merely choose between the most familiar and known options you can see in front of you. You have to give yourself a chance for something new and better — something unknown, unpredictable, unexpected — something wonderful. Keep yourself open, in a place of wonder, and curiosity, and inspiration, and inspiration will find you.
Honor your self in your decision making, and your decisions will honor you as well.
8. Speaking to Authority
By this we mean "speaking up," or "speaking to power."
It is easy to make decisions in your own little world. We all do this, all the time. It is a lot harder to look in the face of authority, and speak your own mind, your own thoughts, your own wishes, your own needs, your own decisions.
As children we are often taught not to speak up, not to speak out, not to interrupt people with more authority or power, not to question, challenge, or confront elders. Nonsense. That is merely the programming, conditioning, and set-up of the society in which we may live. It has no ultimate truth, validity, or value. It is just a way that people who have power try to hold on to it.
Regardless of the intentions of parents, teachers, authority figures, relatives, people we know or people we do not, it does not serve us to buckle under the pressure of authority. Maybe as children we felt we did not have any other choice; children who "disrespect their elders" tend to be punished for speaking their mind, and as a result, many give in. They choose to not push too far or too hard.
As an adult, you have the right to think what you wish, believe what you wish, choose what you wish, act as you wish, and live the life you choose for your self. No one else stands in a place of authority over you — unless you allow them to.
Part of what we "learn" as we grow up in our society is to give up our power to others, to those who demand that we do, implicitly or explicitly. We go to other people to solve our problems, and to have them make important decisions for us. How many people will challenge what a doctor tells them, the procedure or surgery that they are told is "necessary," the medications they are prescribed, and so on? We are not saying that what doctors recommend is not in good faith, or not helpful, or not appropriate. We are saying that this is just one example where you are the final determiner of what is right, good, and true for you — regardless of the apparent superiority or authority of a doctor. You are responsible for making your own decisions about everything that affects you. What anyone else has to say is merely a suggestion. You choose.
Giving up your power — your power to choose — because you are programmed and conditioned and indoctrinated to do so, does not ultimately serve you.
At some point, many people wake up in life and realize that they have given all of their power away. They do not know who they really are, they do not know what they really want, they do not know what their true purpose is, they do not make the most important decisions for themselves, but they let everyone or anyone else do that for them. This way they avoid responsibility, they avoid having to think for themselves, they avoid confrontation or disapproval, they avoid taking power back in their life.
When was the last time you confronted authority? Enforcing your power over those you feel are weaker than you, and giving in to those you feel are more powerful, does not solve the problem. It is the problem. If you want to make a difference, challenge authority. Speak to power. Speak in the face of power. Speak the truth. Speak what honors you, rather than being afraid to speak up and as a result denigrating yourself.
Exercise Four: Take a few deep breaths, close your eyes, and relax. Think of a time when you may have had a decision to make, when you felt disempowered, when you could not tell someone what you really wanted, when you felt intimidated — where the words you would have liked to say could not cross your lips. What did that feel like? Be aware of the thoughts, feelings, and desires that come into your awareness.
Now, mentally go back into that situation, and say what you would have said then, calmly, clearly, without upset emotion or ego. Just say what you needed to say. Be aware of the thoughts, feelings, and desires that come into your awareness. What does that feel like?
If you wish, you can continue to do this exercise, bringing to mind times when you could not face or speak to authority, and doing so here, now. Perhaps, you may find it easier to honor your self, and get used to what that feels like in your body, so that you can do so in future situations. When you are done, you can open your eyes.
The most basic good choice you can make is to honor yourself, and do what frees you, uplifts you, supports you in being you. Do it in every choice, every decision, every action.
Ultimately, no one knows what is right for you better than you. You may have been invalidated so much or for so long that you lack confidence in yourself; you may have lost sight of what it means to stand up and be you. If you don't speak up for yourself, who will? If you speak up to authority, it may try to put you back in your "place." See that for what it is; don't expect it, but if it happens, don't be surprised. Speaking to power doesn't mean you get to change the person or institution you engage, not directly, not immediately, or maybe not ever. But, it changes you.
It gives you true power of choice.
Finally, what do you do when someone (or everyone) else has power, and you seem to have none? The right thing.
9. Social Choice
How often do you place your individual choices in the larger context of helping society? Do you think of social needs when you choose to satisfy your own needs? Have you ever thought that every choice you make — what you choose and what you do not choose — goes towards structuring the society in which you live? Have you ever thought that you actually make a difference?
If you don't choose to make a difference, who will? The way society, and its many institutions work, is to try to ensure that tomorrow is like today and today is like yesterday. It perpetuates the status quo, the way things are as the way they should be, and the way they will be, tomorrow as well.
Most people are content to have all of their most important choices made for them by others, by parents, family, bosses, leaders, authorities, and society in general. All of the most important choices in their lives are made for them by others, and then they get to choose the beer they like.
You need to realize, you have to go against that, to make progressive choices in your own life, or to make a difference in the world. In the same way, you may need to go against — or diverge from — choices you may have made in the past, to make more progressive choices, now.
Exercise Five: This is an exercise in awareness. Allow yourself some time to be with the following questions. Sit with them, and be aware of the thoughts, feelings, and desires that come into your awareness.
Questions: Ask yourself, what is the nature of your "loyalty" to past choices, or to having others choose for you? Is it some kind of loyalty, or is it more a lack of responsibility, lack of self-esteem, lack of independent thinking, lack of a true sense of self, lack of self-directedness, or the effect of fear, pressure, apathy, or unawareness? Do you know what it means to be true to your self?
Do you let others choose for you? Social institutions of government, education, religion, business, and so on, seek to perpetuate the same influence they had in the past into the future. They seek not just continuity but more and more power, taking a greater role or influence in our individual lives. They do this intentionally. They want the past they are familiar with to be their future — and your future.
The choices you make in your life may be largely governed by these institutions, or the context they present you for choosing. Dominant institutions do not like it if you choose out of them. They do not like you to have a different context for choosing, a different way of thinking, a different choice — they perceive that as a threat. And it is a threat to the status quo. But that's how things change. That's how something better, new, or unexpected comes along and is eventually accepted. Systems that are set up to effectively resist change experience a lot of discomfort or fear about change when it gets too close to them.
Again, this happens within an individual as well. You have certain systems or patterns of thought and behavior which are entirely beholden to the past. They are ingrained, accepted, believed to be working for you, and resistant to change. We are all that way. The idea is to challenge your old thinking, behavior, choices, and meanings. Be open to new and more progressive directions.
The more we obey — or our choices obey — the thinking and will of others, the less they follow our own inner guidance. We each have a means to know what is right, good, and true for us, within us. Society does not. You have a heart. Society and all of its institutions do not. You have a conscience. Society does not. The artificial organizations that dictate your choices, and tell you what to think and what to believe and how to act and what to do, only conform you to external, unreal, non-living, unfeeling, artificial institutions. That can never replace your own inner alignment with the truth, goodness, peace, love, and light within you. You must not let anything or anyone take that away from you, even if they give you the illusion that they are solving all of your problems for you, or that you benefit from their making all of your decisions for you. You have to be more wise than that.
As we observed, the first requirement of decision making is to honor your self and your own truth.
Sure, you'll make mistakes, and you don't know everything, or how everything will turn out. No one does. But, the more you respect and trust your self, the better you will become at this. That is how you make decisions that are best for you and everyone else.
10. Trends
The world you live in is changing, rapidly. Are you aware of the apparent trends in our society? Not all of them are good for you. Any of these could affect your life, now and in the future:
- decreasing consciousness and conscience in our society; fewer people having any idea what is right, good, or true for them
- debt increasing to a level that is not sustainable in the consumer economy; more people having negative savings and few prospects for a secure financial future
- very high energy, water, and natural resource costs; lack of availability of resources, both in your nation and around the world
- inability to cope with the effects of natural disasters including more devastating hurricanes and earthquakes
- decreasing intelligence, creativity, morality, ethics, and understanding; more facts and information in our "education," which we forget or do not know how to use
- increasing addictions, including alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, and spending; more entertainment, pornography, and virtual worlds to escape into rather than face reality
- fewer families staying together; more children having sex at an ever younger age; definitions of "family" that have nothing at all to do with the real parents
- the political incorrectness of ever calling a problem a problem, individually and as a society; words routinely removed from the popular vocabulary because they suggest problems
- the increasing lack of personal freedom and safety of personal identity; the increasing suffering and cost of identity theft
- more students dropping out before completing high school; fewer students willing or able to pay for college expenses
- people being in debt for their entire lives; the rich getting much richer, and the poor getting poorer; the shift of wealth and power to other countries
- increasing disease, obesity, and lack of fitness and well-being; more people on more daily medications, at all ages
- less workable relationships; love, face-to-face communication, and intimacy replaced by techno-relating; births being scheduled at the convenience of the mother rather than when due; a life controlled by technology, from birth
- fewer people obeying the laws, including such simple ones as stopping at a red light or driving sober; illegal government actions, and the denial of basic human rights, in your nation and around the world.
The world is moving in a given direction. If you do not consciously choose to live in accordance with your own inner-directedness, inner guidance, and inner wisdom, you will merely be swept along with the changes. If you unthinkingly do what everyone else does, your life may not work out very well, or take you where you hope to be in the end.
Today, there are graduation ceremonies for pre-schoolers. They have not even entered kindergarten, and they are celebrating graduation. Yet, forty percent of young people drop out of school before they finish high school. What they are "learning" is little more than society's attempt to make them just another cog in the wheel. They do not learn how to think for themselves; they are merely programmed to think like others. By the time a young person graduates from high school, after more than twelve years of "education," many cannot even read a bus schedule to figure out how to get to a job.
More of the same "education" — which is little more than creating well-conditioned consumers, who will be in debt their whole lives — is not the solution to anyone's problems. If you truly wish to succeed in life, in all areas including financially, you have to learn to think and act differently from the majority, and your own little clique or peer group or society.
You have to dare to be different.
Remember, you are always learning. Allow your awareness, understanding, and insights to grow; continue learning throughout your life; and, you will live the life you were meant to live. Here. Now. Not in the future or after you reach some goal, but here, now. Realize, everything you learn, everything you know, is to simply allow your self to be happy, free, and at peace, now.
11. Inspiration
Inspiration is that little voice that tells you, things will work out for you.
Inspiration takes us higher, bringing us closer to our highest good. For many people, inspiration is spiritual or religious, a kind of divine guidance. Some people believe inspiration has to be found outside us, and is not found within us. Inspiration is like a light shining in the dark; the experience of inspiration does not depend upon any particular belief system.
Inspiration is a feeling that we can go forward, or get through some difficulty — we know this within us, no matter how external conditions may appear. We may experience:
- optimism, or a sense of the light at the end of the tunnel
- a realization that others have had similar problems or difficulties, and we are not alone
- a feeling of reassurance, or a sense that we are on the right track
- some insight or creative idea
- greater perseverance, or
- the understanding that "this too shall pass."
Inspiration resides in the inner being. For those who have a true sense of inner being, inner light, conscience, and goodness, it is simply a reminder of what is already known on a deeper level, within. It is the resonance of inner truth. For those who do not wish to hear the truth, this little spark of recognition — of what is right and good and true for them — is repelled and rejected. It is incompatible with their ego or emotional state. Their "source of inspiration," just like their "conscience," is merely their ego.
Finding inspiration is a process of reconnecting with our highest self. Inspiration does not come from emotion, ego, selfish desires, ambition, or external motivations. True creativity is a quiet receptivity to inner inspiration — such that we act in a way that is most true to who we are. You don't have to go looking everywhere, all over the world, for inspiration. It is right there in you.
Problems don't go away by denying that they exist, by making ourselves unaware of them, or by losing ourselves in them. The answer is outside of the problem. And, it takes more than just relabeling problems as "opportunities" or challenges, and thereby accepting them. We have to find a real way to move out of the space of problems, to break agreement with the process of accepting them. Part of the solution to every problem, is a realization that we do not need to subscribe to an endless list of problems in our lives.
Inspiration challenges the status quo. If you have a problem — any problem — then the truth is not what you have preferred to believe or may have realized. Part of the solution to problems is spiritual: hope, faith, and perseverance. It is the hope for something more, something better.
Inspiration challenges your beliefs and creates change. You are responsible for your own realizations, your beliefs, your understanding, and your acceptance or rejection of the truth. The truth is there. Listen. The world will do everything possible to put out this inner light, truth, conscience, awareness, goodness, and free thought. You must not let it.
Never give in. Never give up.
All you are looking for, your highest good, awaits you. Know that, and don't let anything of this world take that away from you.