People are increasingly resorting to the virtual world to take their minds off the "not too bad" lives that they think they have in the so-called "real world". What is really strange about this is that years of published research and thousands of self-help books explain that your current life is a creation of your own thinking and, by the same token, the life you really want can be created by you changing your mind. Really! In the real world!
Copyright (c) 2009 Willie Horton
I read recently that a man in England murdered his estranged wife because she changed her marital status on Facebook to "single". And, a couple of months back, one of my clients told me that a woman had murdered her husband for being unfaithful to her in the online virtual reality game, Second Life.
Tony deMello, the renowned Indian spiritualist commented, before his untimely death in 1987 that the individual and global problems that we face in our daily life are the result of us becoming disconnected from our true nature. And that was a good ten years before even email became popular. What would he make of what passes for the real world in the 21st. Century?
Members of Second Life pay good money - and spend up to sixteen hours a day online - creating the life they want in a virtual 3D world. What about creating the life that they really, really want in our very own ordinary, everyday 4D world - the world in which most of us exist but in which very few of us actually seem to live. I say that because university research suggest that "normal" people use about 1% of their mental capacity to live in, focus on and experience the present moment. But, the present moment is the only place we can actually be - so, if you're not there, what are you doing - surely, whatever it is, it's not called Living.
The same Tony deMello suggested that "normal" people live their lives asleep - never realising that, to live the life that they really, really want, all they would have to do is wake up. He wouldn't be the first spiritualist to say that! Waking up simply means coming to your senses. You have five of them - use them to appreciate and experience the here and now.
If you do, you'll discover something abnormal - in the present moment there is no stress, no worry. If you're focused in the present moment you forget your useless thoughts - so you do the job that you think you don't like better - and it becomes easier. You become more effective, more efficient, more present, have more presence, become more impressive and more alert to what's really going on around you - not what your normally inadequate and defensive mind thinks is going on.
So, start paying attention to what you see, feel, hear, smell and taste - as if you were experiencing what's going on for the very first time. Start focusing in the present moment - neuro-psychology proves that the chances of you being happy and successful are directly linked to your ability to pay attention. So, develop that ability. If you don't you might as way log on to Second Life and concoct some sort of nonsense that will numb your senses and remove from the real world that you think, in your muddled mind, is "not too bad".
Get a first life.
Labels Kill (or the bizarre behaviour of normal people)
"Normal" behaviour is dictated by our subconscious which, "normally" is focused in the past - when we were young and impressionable. One of the most destructive normal behaviours is the way we label people. We offend, hurt and kill each other because of those "labels". And, yet, that behaviour is just a big bad habit, developed over thousands of years. The good news is that we can break even the biggest habits by breaking little ones first.
Achieving Business Success in This Recession
Effortless success in business is now just as achievable as in any other economic environment. It's all about state of mind and whether you are able to focus on the job in hand or prefer to wallow in the "gloom and doom" in which everyone is currently investing their energy. Harness you mental energy - invest it in the present moment - and see an "unbelievable" return on that investment.
So Many Self-Help Books - So Little Change
Bookshops are full of "popular psychology" and "self-help" books - yet most lives stay the same and the world appears to be in a bigger mess than ever. The problem is that an intellectual understanding of "self-improvement" books is not enough - and, in fact, can be quite dangerous. You need to experience the difference between being "normal" and the "altered state of mind" in which you can clearly see the way towards happiness and success.
