This is Part-5 and the last part of the multi-part series on life-altering shifts of mindset and perspective. Here is Part-1, Part-2, Part-3 and Part-4.
“I have realized; it is during the times I am far outside my element that I experience myself the most. That I see and feel who I really am, the most! I think that’s what a comet is like, you see, a comet is born in the outer realms of the universe! But it’s only when it ventures too close to our sun or to other stars that it releases the blazing “tail” behind it and shoots brazen through the heavens! And meteors become sucked into our atmosphere before they burst like firecrackers and realize that they’re shooting stars! That’s why I enjoy taking myself out of my own element, my own comfort zone, and hurling myself out into the unknown. Because it’s during those scary moments, those unsure steps taken, that I am able to see that I’m like a comet hitting a new atmosphere: suddenly I illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to fall off of me! I discover a smile I didn’t know I had, I uncover a feeling that I didn’t know existed in me… I see myself. I’m a shooting star. A meteor shower. But I’m not going to die out. I guess I’m more like a comet then. I’m just going to keep on coming back.”― C. JoyBell C.
18. From Staying “Secure and Comfortable” to “Stepping Into Fear, Excitement And Discomfort”
“It’s good to feel stupid sometimes and do things that are out of your comfort zone.”-Mary-Louise Parker
CONFRONTING THE FEAR OF CHANGE
We have been programmed to work hard, get a job or get the dream life and then live life on autopilot. When you are confronted with the fear of change and the discomfort of stepping into the unknown on a regular basis, your habitual limbic brain panics. It serves you up the classic “flight or fight” response.
The problem lies in the fact that we have not been trained to deal with the flight or fight response and stay in the zone of discomfort. We have also not been trained to effectively manage failure and adversity. These are things or nuisances that happen to you along the journey.
THE ADVANTAGES OF STEPPING INTO THE ZONE OF DISCOMFORT
The zone of discomfort or stepping into the unknown may be uncomfortable at the outset but the rewards are huge.
You experience fear but you also experience great excitement.
You gain great confidence at having broken through your own personal barriers.
You feel a very deep sense of accomplishment and an awakening to your purpose.
You feel like you are on the top of the world and that you can achieve anything or conquer anything if you keep going through the fog of fear and into the excitement of the unknown.
It is the zone of comfort or always sticking with the known that is risky and uncomfortable in the long haul. You will not be disappointed in the short run that you stayed in the static zone and in the zone of safety. However, in the long run, you will most possibly regret not going for that risky venture and see what would have happened. It is a strange paradox and it is almost inevitable.
“If we’re growing, we’re always going to be out of our comfort zone.”― John Maxwell
FINDING MEANING AND FLOW IN THE ZONE OF DISCOMFORT
Meaning and flow in life come from challenge and pushing yourself past your comfort zone and striving for excellence. It is hard to find continual meaning and adventure and savor the journey completely if you shut off a part of your life for the sake of feeling safe. And moreover, there are no safety nets, no false assurances, and no safe zones. Our minds synthesize the meaning of risk and safety and disallow us from taking action.
Most acts of staying safe in the zone of comfort are a play of our deep and feeling limbic brains to protect us from the apparent danger of failure and novelty. In the long run, you will see that not going for it is a lot more risky and disappointing. The risk and the challenge of doing something that is in the zone of discomfort make it all worthwhile.
Action Tips:
Continually step into your zone of discomfort.
Attempt to feel the fear and the deep excitement that comes from doing something beyond your creative comfort zone.
Stretch slowly into your adventure. Attempting to do too much too soon will make the change so drastic that you will be inclined to quit.
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch
19. From “Feeling Enervated and Having Low Energy” To “Feeling Great and Taking Charge Of Your Energy”
“The greatest weariness comes from work not done.” ― Eric Hoffer
WHAT IS THE DOMINANT STATE OF YOUR ENERGY?
What are you doing with your energy? What is the dominant state of your energy, your thoughts, feelings and actions? Do you frequently grapple with thoughts that weaken you, emotions that sap your personal power and actions and habits that do not serve your greater good?
Take a few moments to make an inventory of your energy blueprint. How do you feel and how much energy do you have during the daytime? Do you feel drained and tired after dealing with certain people or situations in your life?
Are you emotionally fused or do the emotions and moods of others affect you adversely and do you feel unable to unhook yourself from the contagious negative emotions of others. You may have tried to create a distance from “energy vampires” but you see them everywhere and you feel depressed after dealing with them.
TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR ENERGY, NOT JUST YOUR TIME
It is time to shift your perspective from feeling crappy to feeling empowered and taking charge of your energy. Guard your energy carefully and become aware of your energy blueprint. Awareness of how your energy shifts with time, situation or interaction with others is the first step towards taking charge of your energy.
There might be very obvious energy sinks such as people or going somewhere you do not like to go that you will gradually want to avoid. However, the idea is not to completely avoid or repel negative people as many self-development books and blogs suggest because negativity cannot be totally avoided. However, negativity be transcended or blocked effectively.
Even if you proceed to surround yourself with the most positive, encouraging and supportive people, you will not get the full benefit of life if you do not allow yourself to understand the other points of view. Moreover, what anyone else does when you interact with them is a great big unknown. A better strategy is to commit to blocking energy sapping interactions and ask what the lesson is in that interact or how you can become a better person by that interaction.
THE MAGNIFICENT SHIFT OF PERCEPTION
It is amazing when you make that little shift of taking dominion of your energy and not allowing energy vampires to suck you of your energy and blocking them while learning from their point of view, all of a sudden you are free to roam this exquisite earth. Instead of attaching a big emotional story to all the energy vampires and situations, you alter the way you interact with the story.
You slowly allow yourself to let the emotional charge and fusion associated with difficult situations drop away. You become a witness of what is really going on and look at it from different perspectives, including from that of the person or situation that transpired the incident in the first place. Doing so puts you at a great position of understanding and empathy and sets you free from habitual reaction.
Action Tips: The steps to a higher energy state:
1. Understand and assess your dominant energy state. Is it high or low?
2. Understand when and how your energy elevates and falls beyond a threshold that makes you feel enervated.
3. Take charge of Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual realms of your life and gently block anything that sucks out your energy from you.
4. Movement and exercise always make you feel a lot better but of course if you have a condition, clear it with your health provider.
5. Take consistent and constant action. But also get adequate rest and relaxation and silence. Both the movement as action and rest as stillness and sleep are vital to optimal energy maintenance.
20. From a “Scarcity Mindset” To An “Abundance Mindset”
“As long as we remain vigilant at building our internal abundance—an abundance of integrity, an abundance of forgiveness, an abundance of service, an abundance of love—then external lack is bound to be temporary.”― Marianne Williamson
DO YOU BELIEVE IN ABUNDANCE, PROSPERITY, HOPE AND POSSIBILITIES?
This is a very powerful shift of consciousness. What we pay attention to usually increases in our life for the simple reason that the observer and attention is what shapes and gives reality to matter. Even though this may seem woo-woo, Quantum physics has proven beyond a shred of doubt that everything is energy that oscillates and vibrates at different frequencies. When we the observers direct out attention or energy towards something, the incidence of it happening intensifies and multiplies.
For example, if I told you “black car” a few times and made you aware of the existence of the color black on a car more than any other color, chances increase significantly that you will see black cars when you go out or look at a street. In science terms, you have primed your attention to observe something more acutely, something that was always present but now the observer is more aware of it.
FOCUS YOUR ATTENTION ON ABUNDANCE AND OPPORTUNITY, NOT LACK
Opportunity and abundance are very similar. When you look for opportunities and expect abundance, you are more likely to find them. As your attention increases on abundance, chances are that you will take action and repeat it and reap more abundance. When you think that you deserve abundance, when you feel strongly about that abundance and when you are inspired to take consistent action towards abundance, you have a potent mix working for you.
“You can add up your blessings or add up your troubles. Either way, you’ll find you have an abundance.”― Richelle E. Goodrich
The amazing Louise L. Hay says that abundance is like an ocean and if you approach the ocean with a thimble or a big bucket or set up a pipeline to the flow of abundance is entirely up to you. You are the gatekeeper of the abundance or scarcity that you are willing to allow in your life. Now this is very hard to digest if you are already tired of trying to manifest some abundance but repeatedly fail. Nothing seems to work regardless of what you think and feel. The key is action.
ARE YOU TAKING ACTION TO BACK UP YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS OF ABUNDANCE
Action in the face of failure.
Action and trying new things and seeing if you succeed.
Persisting but trying something different when things do not work out at all and having the wisdom to choose when to do that.
RESEARCH ON LUCK AND OPPORTUNITY MINDSET
Research in the lab of Dr. Wiseman has shown that people who think they are lucky look for opportunity and find it more often that those who feel that they are unlucky. Subjects were asked to count pictures in a newspaper that also included a message in big bold letters that said they won 250 pounds as a prize. People who considered themselves unlucky seldom found that message compared to the people who thought they were lucky. The research suggests that having deep seated beliefs makes people spot opportunities and take action while on the other hand, having unsupportive beliefs may make people miss opportunities.
I think that it is a deep-set self-image issue whether you consider yourself “abundant” or of you lean towards the “scarcity” and your attention and action eventually make it a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If you are struggling financially, the last thing that you should do is to focus all your energy and time and attention on scarcity because you will not have any energy left over to get out of that trap. It may be the most difficult thing that you may have to do but not getting caught up in the poverty and scarcity trap and persona may be the best thing that you do for yourself.
Instead focus on abundance and what action steps that you can do to get yourself out of the predicament or situation. Now this is easier said than done but set up some triggers and reminders for yourself to not waste too much energy and attention on scarcity and shift your focus to prosperity and action.
“In the beginning there was only abundance”- the Upanishads, ancient text
Action Tips:
Replace thoughts, feelings, actions that speak towards a scarcity and poverty mindset with those that address and feed abundance and prosperity.
Empower yourself by taking action and doing a little service towards your abundance mindset and soon it will become a habit.
Create habits that sustain the abundance mindset and let go of disempowering habits and rituals that do not.
Set up triggers and reminders and intrinsic and extrinsic motivators that remind and propel you to action towards abundance and dismantle those that remind you that scarcity is everywhere.
Look at the world with a new filter that there is great abundance everywhere and not through a scarcity filter.
Consciously write down and count all your blessings and magnify them.
21. From “Taking Everything For Granted and Feeling Entitled” to a Mindset of “Gratitude And Appreciation” And From Looking At Things From A Filter Of “Stale And Boring” to Looking At Life Through a Lens Of “Wonder And Amazement”
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” ― Thích Nhất Hạnh
DOES YOUR PERCEPTION MAKE YOU CURIOUS OR DOES IT MAKE YOU JADED AND CYNICAL?
Recalibrate your perspective to look at things through a lens of wonder, curiosity and amazement. Usually we get very used to our surroundings and the world around us. We get too comfortable and then we really stop looking. Everything looks the same and does not seem any different.
This is called a habitual state of “sleepwalking.” This means that we are present but out attention has gotten habituated to the surroundings and we become immune to the joy and beauty immediately around us.
When you change this filter to one that allows you to see the world from a perspective of wonder and amazement, you can look at everything with novelty. This is very similar to the wonder and amazement that children feel and display when they look at their world.
WHY CURIOSITY AND WONDER ARE MEANINGFUL SHIFTS
Why is this a relevant shift? First, everything is changing and things usually do not remain exactly the same and in the same context. When we look at something with newness and novelty, we are open to useful information that we may have missed before.
The second significant aspect of looking through a lens of wonder and amazement is that you get to enjoy the very same dull moment a lot more and with a lot of enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, you begin to realize the lessons in mindfulness that reveal to you how beautiful and magnificent everything that appeared ordinary can instantly transform and become.
It is really not a matter of looking at the world with “rosy sunglasses” but to look at the same world with “heightened awareness and attention.”
Your attention is present in an undiluted way in the magnificence of the current moment.
“Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
FEELING DEEP HEARTFELT APPRECIATION AND GRATITUDE
The other major shift in perspective is to look at things through a filter of deep and heartful appreciation and gratitude. Instead of taking things for granted and feeling entitled to them, we actively count our blessings and rejoice in the awareness of appreciation.
When you shift from feeling of neutrality or ingratitude to a deep and heartfelt feeling of gratitude, you will slowly begin to see how lucky and awesome everything around you can be. Even better, take a few moments during your day and write down what you are deeply appreciative towards and the feelings of good will and joy that well up in you when you write them down.
“If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is “thank you,” that would suffice.”- Meister Eckhart
Action Tips
Look at your world from the lens of wonder, curiosity and amazement or through the “eyes of a child.”
Bring your undivided attention to the wonders of the present moment and let the mystery of life reveal itself.
Feel and express deep heartfelt gratitude and appreciate what you have instead focusing on complaining and criticism.
Here is a summary of all 21 shifts:
1. From The “Fixed Mindset” To The “Growth Mindset”
2. From “The Universe Is Out To Get Me” To “The Universe Is Conspiring Towards My Success”
3. From “How Can I Get More” To “How Can I Enjoy More Of What I Have Right Now”
4. From “Internal Struggle and Resistance” To A State Of “Flow”
5. From “Imagination And Dreaming” To “Taking Prompt Action And Repeating”
6. From Feeling Isolated To Feeling Connected And From “I Can Do Everything Myself” To “I Need a Great Team“
7. From Excessive Negativity And Criticism To Positivity And Bliss
8. From Passive Learned Helplessness To Active Engagement
9. From Predominantly Consuming To Claiming Your Creative Powers
10. From “Serving The Self” To “Serving a Greater Cause And Assisting And Uplifting Others”
11. From “Overwhelm And Doing Too Much” to “Slowing Down, Doing Less And More Quality Work”
12. From “Others or Things Are Responsible For My Happiness” To “I Am Responsible For My Happiness”
13. From “Life Is A Series Of End Points” TO “Life Is a Journey To Be Enjoyed”
14. From “Avoiding Failure and Difficulty” to “Embracing Them and Learning the Lesson and Moving on”
15. From “I am worthless” to “I am awesome and doing the best that I can with what I have”
16. From “hopelessness” to “hope”
17. From “knowledge is power” to “Wisdom, experience and Implementation” generated by the knowledge is power
18. From Staying “Cushy and Comfortable” to “Stepping Into Fear, Excitement And Discomfort.”
19. From “Feeling Enervated and Having Low Energy” To “Feeling Great and Taking Charge Of Your Energy”
20. From a “Scarcity Mindset” To An “Abundance Mindset”
21. From “Taking Everything For Granted and Feeling Entitled” to a Mindset of “Gratitude And Appreciation” And From Looking At Things From A Filter Of “Stale And Boring” to Looking At Life Through a Lens Of “Wonder And Amazement”
Now over to you! Please let me know in the comments below about your thoughts on the shifts in mindset and perspective in this post and share any stories that you have.
Photo Credit: Alejandro Groenewold via Compfight
