I’ve been reflecting on this phrase which I used in the last post about my dream board. This is something which comes up a lot for me and I’d be interested to know if it is also true for others. My hunch is that is probably is.
One of the main things I worry about is what people will think if they ‘find out’ that I’m interested in this sort of thing. As you can see, at the moment I’m anonymous. I’m not alone in this, I’ve been using a great forum (here’s a plug www.stevepavlina.com) and my impression is that the only people who tend to reveal their identities work in this field ie life coaches etc. This probably isn’t entirely the case but I think it’s a general trend.
Then there’s my internal ‘critic’ who says: “What are you doing wasting your time on this? It’s all ‘airy fairy’ nonsense/it’s weird/you’re just trying to escape from reality etc etc.” Or ‘blah blah blah’. It really does like the sound of its own voice, it’s just unfortunate that it has set up camp inside my head.
Of course everyone has an inner critic. I’m no expert but I assume this is the product of things we’ve been told by others during our lives, in particular during our childhoods. It’s also there to protect us against certain things, maybe from an evolutionary point of view. So if we were to suddenly feel compelled to go out into the street naked (could happen!) it would say: “Stop, don’t do that. You will look stupid and probably end up in prison, lose your job and friends etc.” That is quite useful. What isn’t useful is when it can’t get out of the habit and tries to stop us doing things which could enhance our lives if we can just push through the fear. Like getting a new job, or moving to a new place, or doing something new just because we want to and feel it will broaden our minds and experience.
I suppose if your mind has been used to thinking in a certain way for your entire life, new ideas can sometimes be threatening. This can particularly be the case, I think, with religious ideas which tend to be quite entrenched especially if you have learnt them at an early age when your character is being formed. I don’t think that religious and spiritual ideas are bad, far from it, but I think it’s good to be aware of the fact that we could be constrained by exploring different areas of spirituality by our conditioning.
Now when I notice the phrase coming up, I just laugh and take it in a light-hearted way and then focus on what I really do want. I remind myself of all the amazing people who do believe in this ‘airy fairy nonsense’ and the fact that focussing on positive, fun things, is a much better way to spend your time than focussing on the negative which just makes you feel terrible.
This is an excellent book about fear which was recommended to me by the amazing coach Kathryn Entwistle and which I have just suggested in the forum above for someone struggling with these ideas: ‘Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway’ by Susan Jeffers. I have also suggested that they watch/re-watch ‘The Secret’. I especially like the part about John Assaraf’s vision boards but as you can see, I am slightly interested in dream boards (obsessed?). Not sure why, it just works for me!
Oh yes and something else truly amazing has happened to me this morning. I won’t post it on here as it involves a specific person who is quite well-known and very inspiring indeed but hopefully I can post something in the future.
