Looking after number 1

Thank you for following my blog and let me say that I feel a bit like Thomas Eddison may have felt when he sensed he was about to have his breakthrough!

I'll start by briefly mentioning that before Sigmund Freud, both Buddha and Plato described the devided self. The Buddha had the metaphor of the split mind - a rational rider atop an irrational elephant. To Plato the psyche was a charioteer, our reason guiding the wild horse of our passions. Freud depicted the ego as the carriage driver, id as the wild beasts pulling the carriage and the superego as the driver's father who tells him what he is doing wrong. He considered our id to be a pleasure seeker, wanting whatever feels good at the time, with no consideration for the reality of the situation, speaking up until his or her needs are met, the basic part that drives us from birth and is linked to our need to survive, eat, drink, reproduce, etc. The ego is the part of the psyche that consists of our reason and rational behavior, the things we've learned, our intellectual self and our "minds". The super ego is more commonly known as our conscience and it's basically the ego average of society (like Carl Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious). It's the part that controls our behavior, allows us to know right from wrong, is the source of our feelings of guilt and it's supposed to prevent the chaos and anarchy that would come if our basest, animal impulses (id) was to take control of our lives. For my part, it is fascinating to see how my id has and continues to play a huge part in my daily focus and choices. What is more fascinating that that, however, is how freedom and self love may have everything to do with taking better care of my id!

"But enough about me... Lets talk about you...
What do YOU think about me?" Id

I brought this picture of my mum and me into an Insight Seminar when I was asked to bring in a picture of love! Now I see how taking joyful responsibility for my life is to be my own best parent and coach! How? By asking myself "How can I best look after my id right now, today, this week, month, year"? I thought I was doing alright since I have so much fun and freedom in my life, few responsibilities, many quality friends and fun things to do at the weekends. I live to party and this is being threatened by my id's short sightedness, or rather by my (until now) unquestioned assuption that id knows how to get to where we are going. I am grateful to my financial situation for it is forcing me to see what is not working and what needs to change and the truly good, no... Make that GREAT NEWS is that it's still about about Mr. Id and what he wants!!! Time to become even more deliberate about my self centeredness! Looking after number ONE!. I had a chat with my id in the car yesterday and he told me that he needs me, he wants me to take care of him. He may not be the smartest part of my psyche but he knows that he is going to be here today AND tomorrow and he'll want his needs met then as well so... Lets make sure that I am thinking about tomorrow too and not just throwing in the towel because my id is such a kid!!!

He knows he is cranky and short sighted but he wants me to take responsibility for him because that is MY JOB! His job is to be who he is!!! My id needs me today AND tomorrow and looking after his needs is MY JOB!!!! He just wants me to do my job and that is precisely what God and Jesus want. For me to love myself. That implies freedom! The freedom to think long term, go for real happiness rather than pleasure, go for what I want rather than what I like, take more responsibility for my finances and other areas of my life. In other words, take better care of id and polish rather than crack myself against that part of my psyche!
My id wants me to do a better job of looking after him and this is closest to the bull's eye when it comes to Self Love and Freedom for me! I was confusing "giving into it" with "looking after it!". How innocent of me. I confused freedom with letting my kid be a kid, which my dad wasn't very good at, compared to my mum!!! So there I was, trapped and wishing I was free. Free to do what? PLAY of course!!!

My id is my instant gratifier, my rebel and the part of me that I have associated with freedom, without question for far too long. Now, there are two kinds of freedom. Freedom to do what I like (which usually means giving in to the short term thinking of my id) and to do what I want, which usually means deliberate attention to long term gains and thus application of common sense (my ego's job - to think!). My id wants my ego to remember what id is like, not to take it personally and to do his job and think long term! Amazing!!! I am my id's bitch and I'm proud of it. Funny to consider how we all are and that's why supermarket shelves are 90% full of comfort eating! It's an insult to our id's really. "yeah, we know you are into instant gratification and that's why you are 'low on cash' and into cheap food so here you are little boy/girl. We know you love a tasty bargain!". To be truly free may mean being a conscious and deliberate about how I take care of my id! This requires Thought (i.e. Ego: common sense, intelligence, presence of mind). My behaviours have been very much based on my feelings which seem to be mainly id driven and I haven't been applying as much thought into my actions as would be wise for me to apply, if I really care to keep my id happy longer. The synthesis of my decisions and the purpose of my life may indeed be to be true to myself by taking care of my id for my values are my id's! Fun, play, excitement, partying, socializing, sex, drugs, music!

For example, kids will often act on their emotions, without thought to their ecology but when they are asked to consider their actions (i.e. throwing a brick from a bridge at traffic below) then they can more easily see what they are doing. Many end up in jail precisely because they did not practice a balance between the 3. (Thank you Delia for this metaphore)

I love the idea of liberating other peoples heart's through liberating my own heart and although it may not be obvious to my id, it is clear to me that as a successful entrepreneur, my "job" is to be of the utmost service that I can. This means that I am solving peoples problems and thus being focused on other's needs and wants. It's in my id's best interests that I do well by doing well and off course... An attractive carrot is that of financial freedom which means earning more than I spend supporting a lifestyle that I want, through passive income. It's impossible to be selfish without being selfless for I am not an island. The art of being self-full requires it.

"Unless we change direction, we are likely to end up where we are going" says the Chinese proverb. I'd just like to mention one more point and that is imagine you are at the helm of a huge ship moving forward at high speed. Now, how is it possible for a single, person to change the course of something so massive? By moving a steering wheel that operates a rudder, which then turns the ship, sure... but the rudder itself can be enormous, perhaps even ten stories tall on some ocean liners. So what moves the rudder? A tiny second rudder called a trim tab, which is attached to the big rudder. Through the marvels of engineering, when the trim tab swings to one side, it creates just enough vacuum to pull the big rudder around. The trim tab is tiny compared to the size and weight of the ship, yet it is the trim tab that determines the ship’s course. In other words, what is the one action that will have a domino effect on the rest of the check list required to make the desired changes. I thought my health and wealth were the main trim tabs in my life but right now I think it's "taking better care of my id!"

"Blessed are the self centered for they shall know God"
Neil Donald Walsh (conversations With God)

The Grip

It ain't about money, it's about freedom and the strategies that support it.
For example, my life coach and I have very different strategies to fulfill similar values. He is a workaholic and thinks, or rather his "protective character" thinks that anything that interrupts his work threatens his life. My protective character (i.e. PC for short) thinks that anything that interrupts my play time threatens my life. His PC thinks that "by working I survive". My PC thinks that "by playing I survive". We both realize that by being more like each other we would have a more effective balance. He has resistance to having more fun in his life and I have resistance to having more work in mine. I'm allergic to that word "work". This is why I don't see Life Coaching as work but as liberation and this is why I feel good about my 101 days of freedom.

When we have a big enough why, we'll change but the why has to be linked to our highest values! Why? Because we don't procrastinate on what inspires us... on our top values. There is no lack of commitment there! Commitment = freedom, when it's to my highest values. That's what it means to "let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love" - Rumi.

I feel like I could write a book about my "condition" but that will not change my blueprint. Its reprogramming my beliefs and associations and taking action that does it. This is the 20% that brings me the 80% of my desired outcomes. So the 7 main actions I have committed to taking in these 101 days are;

Daily:

Reframing - I've recorded empowering thoughts I believe in along to some uplifting music which I listen to while jogging, doing house work or driving. Thoughts like "Thank you for investing in fun, freedom, love and self respect! Long term Gain rocks!!"

Gratitude - 5min. Write and/or review i) What is going well in the most important areas of my life (i.e. my finances)?. ii) What if this situation was for me, devinely designed for my upliftment, learning and growth? iii) What are the positive aspects of this challenge, for what we focus on expands, innit!

Visualization - 15min. Enjoying the process, using all five senses to create a vivid, emotional and exiting experience! This is a superb way to reset my financial thermostat and it also addresses the crucial habit of starting with the end in mind for long term gain brings me fun, freedom, love and self respect while short term gain costs me fun, freedom, love and self respect. Besides... everything is and was created twice. First in the imagination and then in reality!

Meditate with Holosync binaural beats audio technology - 30min. "The lazy man's way to meditate deeper than a Zen monk, instantly!". By Bill Harris from The Secret.

Doing 1st things 1st - Number 1 priority is always self love followed by asking questions such as
"What's my relationship with the present moment?" (i.e. with my life, since my life is always now. If the answer is something like "I don't mind what's happening" then I am free)
"Am I treating now as an obsticle, a means to an end or an enemy?"
(The moment I see the dysfunction, it begins to dissolve and the rising awareness is consciousness),
"Am I activating what I want in this moment or am I focusing on something that doesn't allow me to have what I want?" and
"What are the most important outcomes in the most important areas of my life today, this week, this month, this year?".

Listening to my intuition and following my inner knowing. It may feel like it hampers my style at times but sure enough, it PAYS!!! I am FREE to act upon the wisdom of the smartest part of my psyche! One of my fav affirmations is I am following my heart and I'm celebrating love. After all, it's all good, it's all God right? Love is everything and everythign is love so lets feel the fear and do it anyway! (i.e. What would my higher self suggest right now, today?)

Better Feeling Thoughts (BFTs) - an ongoing process of minding my self talk, thus my focus for it is not what happens to me that makes me feel one way or another but my thoughts about what happens to me. This addresses the habit of taking responsibility for my internal state and for manifesting more of what I really want for when I am practicing better feeling thoughts, I feel better and thus more aligned with Source energy which means I am more aligned with the art of allowing. Here is a wonderful article by Joy Idries that expands on the relevance and power of BFTs http://chronicillnessandlaughter.com/the-happiness-diet-higher-frequency-food

There is one more daily activity which is worth mentioning and only takes 5 minutes and that is to review what worked and what didn't. :)




p.s. And here is a finished version in myspace
www.myspace.com/weathermanfuturenow

The Grip

Look at me, can you see,
I was happy as can be
With my head
in the sand
How long have you been, holding my hand

Who's life is this
What did I miss
I was happy in ignorant bliss
There was no plan
I understand
I've been flying, now I must land

I've been running from the land of milk and honey
For fear of getting stuck in the grip for money
Someone told me a story under a setting sun
You can go chasing money but you'll miss the fun

Who whispering
Then disappearing
Who sneaked in through the back door.
Who's hands are these?
I'm on my knees.
I don't know who I am any more.

I've been running from the land of milk and honey
For fear of getting stuck in the grip for money
Mama told me a story under a setting sun
You can go chasing money but you'll miss the fun

And then it came a new picture in the frame.
My emancipation from her pain.

It's just a game. It's just a name
We can play along now. Lets bring it on

------------------------ x ------------------------

Now that's what I call freedom!!!!

I'm not interested in wealth and health as much as I'm interested in freedom and fun and I see more and more now how thinking "long term gain" brings me fun and freedom whereas short term gain costs me fun and freedom! The hard path is the easy path and the easy path is the hard path! What an irony - comfort is death and discomfort is life! I'm talking about assailing some of the most sacred bastions in human history. "The hardest victory is over self." said Aristotle. Yeah... I'm talking about self dominion, mind mastery, staying aligned with Source energy by practising expansive thoughts rather than contractive thoughts regarding the various aspects of taking joyful responsibility for my finances!

It's not about money for me. It's about harnessing the INCREDIBLE power of blue printing my brain!!!! It's about reprogramming my default destinantion because it's clear that it is not taking me where I want to go! In other words, if I want more than my past, I have got to engage PULL MODE!!! Its about change at the unconscious level!!! It's about re-programming my mind to take me to where I really want to go! Now that's what I call freedom!!!!

These 101 days are not about the fruits but about the roots. Not about the money but about my beliefs, or rather my financial blueprint. They are about what is at the core of everything I manifest. They are about the invisible for it creates the visible. They are about the causes rather than the effects and about the software that runs my brain and determines the kinds of thoughts I have and how they in turn lead to feelings which lead to actions and behaviors which lead to results that are in alignment with my expectations. So if I want different results, I need different expectations, i.e. Different beliefs!

One of the essays I am required to write for my Life Coaching Accreditation is on beliefs and their effect on us. How fascinating and important? They are our possibility filters and thus determine the world we live in. They are like self fulfilling prophesies that profoundly inspire if not define our thinking for they determine where we put the flash light of our focus and thus what appears or fails to appear in our world. After all, where we look is where we go and we get what we expect, not what we want or wish for! I am sure most Gurus out there would agree with this too and yet how much is done in various seminars to address this indispensable point? It's all about beliefs!!!! DOH!!!!

The first time I really got a glimpse of the power of our beliefs (i.e. our unconscious expectations) was during an Insight IV, 37 day seminar in Chile in 2000. They pointed out the dynamics of The Law of Beliefs which is The Law of Focus or Attention. In other words, they highlighted The Law of Attraction and the crucial, central, essential importance of re-programing our beliefs and thus re-setting our life blueprint as this determines how our life proceeds... but then, they dropped the subject and just continued presenting various other material and tools while completely skipping over how to do this fundamental and primary step, i.e. helping participants re-program their limiting beliefs and adopt supportive ones that are in alignment with their desired outcomes! I couldn't believe it. I was concerned that I'd learn new techniques which I won't use because they won't help me re-set my expectations there and then!

I still absolutely loved the seminar and yet, how fabulously on the bull's eye it would have been to have been taught ways to effectively apply creative visualization in order to course correct and engage pull mode. Most people operate in push mode (have to attitude) and many rebel and go into Drift mode but Pull mode is where it's at. It's a "want to" attitude the amazing thing about it is that it's the minimum amount of self dicipline we need for maximum results! Then we carve out a new path of least resistance and manifestation becomes relatively effortless and it engages our natural state. This is the theory and I believe in it and this is a central aspect to my 101 days of Freedom.

Reprogramming the various default settings we have as part of our life blueprint is what a multimillionaire guru like Tonny Quinn does. No wonder he charges £17,000 for his two 2 week seminar and no wonder one of his course participants is charging $1497 for a 3 hour consultation in which he assures you that through this process of guided visualization, based on your desired outcome, our unconscious blueprint is re-set and thus a new course is set. His service includes a CD with his voice guiding you through a visualization process which uses all five senses to create a vivid experience which is emotionally charged and exiting and each session focuses on one particular outcome for the next 21 days. I am familiar with a couple of his CD products and I am very confident that I can offer something as good if not better, for a lot less (around £147). This would include a values elicitation, accredited coaching and my wholehearted commitment to being of utmost service. I have already prepared a visualization CD for myself, it lasts 15minutes and I am going to use it every day and report on my progress! I have all the equipment at home to do a professional recording and can even mix in some binaural beats if a client would like that extra alpha or theta hypnotic induction. Infact, I am going to try it straight after this blog!

Time to walk the talk but only cause I'm worth it!
Wish me luck amigo/a
101 'ere we go! Namaste!

The Hootchie Cootchie man

Cool... I just realized today that I'm my dad's 7th son. 4 from his first (I just remembered one died while a baby), 2 from his second and me from his 3rd marriage. I came to the uk the year I turned 14, 7 years latter I went to university, 7 years latter my mum passed away, 7 years latter I went to Chile to do Insight IV (life changing 37 day seminar), 7 years latter my step dad passed away on the 7th of the 7th month. 7 was my mum's favourite number... and I think this picture may have been taken on my 7th birthday, just after my mum came to kidnap me from my dad.

Oh, and it takes 1/7th of a sec for light to go around the world. There are 7 Musical steps before we reach the octave (based on the golden ratio). There are 7 chakras, we can remember 7+/-2 things, Vision starts at the back of the brain and actually passes through 7 synapses before it makes it's way into the concious mind in the frontal cortex. We have about 70 thoughts per minute. Earth is covered in 70% water and we are made up of about 70% water. The deepest part of the ocean is seven miles down. No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times. Newton divided the spectrum into seven colours. There are Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. God rested on the 7th day. Scientists have come up with the composition that 70% of the universe is dark energy (25% dark matter and 5% normal matter). Hydrogen protons are 7000 times heavier than at rest when they are as close to the speed of light as possible! It's the biggest single prime number digit. Ask people to name their favourite number between one and ten, and most will say seven. No wonder there are many who recon that ending a price with the number 7 inspires more people to buy it! It's the happy and lucky number and that's why I'm starting my 101 days on the 7th of Sept and finishing on my birthday, the 17th of Dec when I shall start on the 7th cycle of 7 years of my life and I live at No. 7 Church Ave. Yeap!... I'm a fan of the number 7! =)

"On the seventh hour, of the seventh day, of the seventh month, the seven doctors say "He were born for good luck that you'll see". I got seven hundred dollars don't you mess with me 'cause I'm the Hootchie Cootchie man..."

E=Mc2

Hairlo again!
Ok... current update. My 101 days of self love coming up next week will focus in one of my areas of interest. Money. Or maybe a better term would be prosperity, or even life for if I don't get some money, I don't eat and if I don't eat I die. Actually, it's more than that. It's a 101 days of FREEDOM! I'm reprogramming my default destination because it's clear that it is not taking me where I want to go! In other words, its about change at the unconscious level!!! It's about re-programming my mind to take me to where I want to go! That's Freedom!!!!

When I was still very young I adopted beliefs like “rich folk are sour, always working and they don’t know how to have fun”, “life without fun is no life” and “I rather poor and happy like my mum”. These beliefs led me to unwittingly conclude that since making money requires work and work is boring, poverty would be my perpetual state because I wanted to enjoy life. My father was the first man to do brain surgury in Bolivia and my mum was a “nobody”. And yet, I felt greater affinity with my mum, her family and friends who were “peasants”, as my dad used to call them. I saw money like my mother did, as a key symbol for the ego, used to control and put others down, a source of problems and fighting and I concluded that I couldn't strive for wealth and be happy at the same time. I ended up rationalising that money is NOT IMPORTANT compared to things like FUN, FREEDOM, CONNECTING, SOCIALISING, FRIENDS, EXITEMENT, HAPPINESS, FULFILLMENT, PARTYING & HAVING A GOOD TIME. Money simply paled into insignificance compared to these! I didn’t review the quality of my thinking about money until now and simply preceded making decitions based on erroneous conclusions. DOH!!! Off course money can be fun for it supports life and if I don’t get some money, I don’t eat and if I don’t eat, I die.

I believe in creative visualization as an amazing tool when it comes to practising the art of allowing and I have commited to visualizing mon-fri, so 5 times a week for at least 15min. I shall listen to a guided visualization audio program that I recorded some time ago and I shall see, hear and feel the sights, sounds and feelings of my wish fulfilled. I know this will inspire me to practise doing 1st things 1st and to focus on my high priority financial to do's regarding. I am exited by the prospect of becoming an accredited life coach by my next birthday and I know that the more responsibility I take for this one area of my life, the more fun, freedom, respect and love I shall manifest and that is what I want. DOH!

One more thing, poverty is missing out. Freedom is LIFE! Life is ENERGY!. Wealth is an expression of my spiritual desire for true independence. Money is congealed creative energy and just like the ocean is in every wave, this life force is part of the greatest creative energy of ALL - This is what we are talking about. Not wealth or health but THE ULTIMATE IN CREATIVE ENERGY!!! E=MC2 YES indeedee!!!! And M stands for Money and for Mass (as in our physical bodies) It's all about energy. Energy is Life! This is not about money but about unpresedented freedom, energy and life for me. After all, I can have what ever I want in life, as long as I am willing to pay... attention. If I fail to pay attention to what I really want, then I will experience pain. This is one of the most important lessons in life!