Talk: Are You Taking Backward Steps?

Are you ready to be challenged beyond your comfort zones & fearful repetitive patterns? Learn how to rewire your neurons & jump without fear into the unknown.

Transcript

Meditation and spiritual practice is more complex than the mind believes it to be.

Mind always likes to simplify situations or experiences in ways that it can understand.

The ways that it likes to understand experiences is through references that it has already managed to understand.

So very often we like our experience to be repeated.

We understand things much better,

We feel much more comfortable with our experience when there is a repetitive nature within that experience.

Meaning that the neurons in the brain recognize and say oh yes I remember this way of thinking or this way of feeling or this way of interacting.

Because it's happened before,

The neuron has fired and wired in such a way where that experience makes sense.

This is sometimes why we have to repeat things many many times to actually learn what we are repeating.

The first few times we think it's just okay this is an interesting experience and then next minute we are having another experience and we forget about the experience that we had previously.

So repetition is a very useful and important aspect of meditation when we repeat the mantra or when we focus upon being present and aware of the breath.

There is a repetitive nature to the practice or to the meditation or to the way that we are expanding our awareness.

Yet that repetition is very different from a reactive repetition.

Very often when we let go of this interesting desire or interesting need to learn about the world or learn about ourselves or learn about experiences that we are having within the world from a state of newness then repetition becomes reactive.

So the repetition isn't a step forward but rather a few steps back looking into the repetitive nature of the experience and feeling comfortable with that repetitive nature of the experience.

So instead of jumping into the unknown,

Instead of taking a quantum leap into the space where we simply don't know what the experience means even though we are repeating within that experience a certain thread of thinking or a thread of wisdom for example when we repeat the mantra,

If we repeat the mantra with a sense of wow this is an amazing experience I have a good feeling I have a sense of gratitude a sense of thankfulness even though the gratitude and thankfulness is within the repetitive nature of the mantra there is an exploration of something new.

This means we are not stepping back to certain belief systems or certain feelings that we are comfortable with.

So we are not stepping back into an idea of the world that we have experienced and we are not adventurous enough or not open enough to look at the world from a new perspective.

So we just keep taking those steps rather than moving forward we take those steps and those steps become steps that we are taking backwards rather than forwards.

So when this experience happens we are not actually firing and wiring the neurons in our brains in a way where we are adventuring and creating new space or a new dimension within our thinking where the neurons fire and wire in a place that has never been fired and wired as an experience of learning.

It is a new space but the space is there the potential is there so when we take that step forward and fire and wire within part of the brain which hasn't actually had the experience or the learning of seeing or tasting or receiving or hearing or touching or being recognizing the world from this new perspective when this new experience happens then basically the neurons in the brain begin to fire and wire in a new way and this newness is what I am saying is important to come back to this sense of awe this sense of adventure is what is important to come back to.

And if we are unable to come back to such we are unable to make sense of this space of adventure or this space of newness then very often we are simply reacting to references that only make sense because we are used to them or we are comfortable with them.

So then the neurons are still firing and wiring but they are firing and wiring from a space that is rather limited so they are firing and wiring the neurons in the brain are firing and wiring just because they recognize the experience.

So for example if you have an idea that the world is not a very nice place to experience life or to experience your potential within then that firing and wiring that is happening in the brain feels very comfortable and it feels like a very real experience but actually what is happening is that you are just reacting to this repressed reference that is within your mind and because you are feeling comfortable with this reference you are thinking that to be reality this is why it is very difficult to ultimately into the unknown because we are more comfortable with that which we know of that which we have experienced and to let go of that is the first step of making sure that you are not in a reactive space to limited belief systems or to ideas about the world that you have simply been manipulated to think about in a certain way and manipulated by for example a traumatic experience or manipulated by a level of consciousness that is limited and not willing to grow beyond that negative perception or that trauma or that whatever it is that is preventing you from taking that step forward rather than just reacting which means you are taking steps back into a world that even though comfortable doesn't actually bring you knowledge or wisdom about yourself or about the experience that is happening around you or about the communication and importance of that communication and learning within that communication that is happening because of the experience so it is very important to understand that feeling comfortable with the situation is not a real reference as to that being a valid situation it must not be what makes you decide or helps you to decide decide that something is valid or not or that the way that you are thinking is valid or important to follow sometimes we have to be strong and look at those thoughts and say for example the thought is one where you are being limited by that thought for example the thought is I am not good enough and you think okay that is a valid thought because that is what I have always thought about myself that is always been how people around me or situations around me acknowledge myself so I feel comfortable with this it is important to realise that that valid feeling that comes to you or that valid okayness that comes to you because of that thought needs to be transcended by taking quantum leap beyond that which you know into the unknown that means questioning the validity of such a thought or such a feeling or such a reference that comes up to and questioning that in such a way as to ask yourself is such an orientation an important thought is this an important thought does it give me anything in this moment is it important for me to actually think or feel in this way sometimes certain limited perceptions of the world can be very useful but in most cases they are not so sometimes you know these limited thoughts will help you to survive in the world because there are dangers real dangers out there and you need to just not jump into the unknown you need to stay with that which you know to survive you know stay on the ground do not go swimming in the stormy waters because you know at the moment there is a storm and it is dangerous and so it is important to be anchored within the very basic knowledge of survival but for most of us from moment to moment our experience is not about survival even though it feels like survival even though the reactions within our body perceive these thoughts or these feelings or these social interactions that we have in modern civilized in the modern civilized world as a survival mode and our brains and the physiology of our reactions react as if such is survival truly isn't and when we limit every experience to being that of survival meaning to just fulfill our basic requirements then we have materialism gone out of control we have certain ways of doing or thinking about the world and ways of thinking and nurturing ourselves that are so very limited that on some level that limitation not only harms oneself but also harms others around and also creates suffering for oneself and others so if you have for example in a family constellation just many people within that family constellation feeling the same for example feeling that the world is a fearful place and hence being limited or caught in a victim mentality is a valid one because everything that happens within the family constellation communication is limited by that pain and suffering of being a victim then of course what happens is that the family communication becomes limited to one perspective one limited perspective that makes no sense to what it means to find love in the world or what it means to find a state of greater compassion for people and oneself within the experience that we're having in the world so we know this and understand this and we have to be strong and clear and very very aware that this strength and clarity is not about being egoic meaning I want to be the best or I want to be the strongest here I want to be whatever it is you know it's not driven by that sort of egoic force where your life is about achieving something or getting somewhere better than where you're at but rather about acknowledging that the fear or the dysfunction that's creating the fear that limited perception or that reactive repetitive pattern that is repeating itself within your brain within the neurons of your brain need to be challenged in such a way so that the brain structure can change so the neurons fire and wire in a place that perhaps it has never experienced but the potential is there to experience such and that space could be for example firing and wiring in a place where yeah I'm not needing to be caught by this victim thought or this limited negative pattern of thinking I what about if I challenge that and I think in a more positive way some part of your feelings or some part of your experience or people around you or you yourself might say oh that's not valid it doesn't feel right or does the experience isn't really flowing in the way that I'm used to it's all my references are upside down if I'm challenging them in this way and nothing makes sense sometimes that's what has to happen I was speaking to someone the other day and I got fired from their job and it was a terrible thing for this person because actually it was their dream job to be part of this company and they had a very good position within this company and they were enjoying what they were doing and there was no reason you know sometimes people say yeah it's good to leave the job because I'm not happy and I'm not fulfilled in the way that I could imagine myself to be fulfilled by doing this work they were just fired it was a shock and this person was very unhappy of course speaking to all people that they knew including me just to get some guidance as to how to how to manage this situation and I said quantum leap into the unknown they said what quantum leap into the unknown and I said well I am in the unknown but I'm not happy about it you know I'm not happy about being here and this is why I'm speaking to you because I am in this unknown situation now from being well paid and from you know being happy with what I'm doing I'm stuck in a situation where I'm nervous about life because I don't have any income to pay all my bills I have no idea what I can do because you know to get the same sort of position again in another company is highly unlikely because the person was getting a little older and apparently you have to start young in this sort of had to do with investment in this sort of field apparently I don't know but you know they just didn't they weren't very positive about their about the situation so the neurons in the brain were basically saying I'm not comfortable I want to go back to what I know I know what that I was comfortable in what I was doing in the past and because I can't go back you know to the comfortable situation and that reference that I'm used to neurons were firing and wiring from the same place so they were reacting oh this is not good this is suffering that's a belief system see so I was saying jump into the unknown and to take it to jump in this way into the unknown requires that you're positive about jumping you're not jumping from fear so the person at the time that I spoke to him was actually him when I spoke to him and was not able to take that positive leap into the unknown because the fear was too strong and the challenge to transform that fear just didn't make sense because they were just in a reactive space the mind was just reacting to if I don't have this then this must be what I need to feel and of course I didn't help any more than just say jump into quantum leap quantum leap jump into the unknown because sometimes we need to give space sometimes we need to give a little bit of space for the process to unfold and I gave this person the space to just look a little bit deeper into their experience beaming in a positive sort of way you know just helping in that sort of way that is difficult to quantify because as you do when you're in the background just beaming positivity you know to a situation that's obviously not very nice for the person or that's creating suffering for the person so after a few days the person came to me and said it actually does make a little bit of sense what you're saying and when you said it I was just actually upset with you because it didn't make any sense to me but I feel better even though I still am facing all these panic thoughts and fear thoughts about what am I going to do I feel a little bit better actually you know it's giving me the space to think about things in a different way because when I was working I was just too busy to to caught up and what I was doing too excited about what I was doing too much into what I was doing to actually have create enough space to think to truly think and contemplate what is is what I'm doing truly meaningful is there a purpose in what I'm doing now that I've had the space to contemplate in this way I can see that I'm more excited about doing something in a way that I wouldn't have ever done before I'm excited about starting my own company what you think Tony they asked me what you think I said well it seems like you're more positive see the fear the fear had gone not completely because of course they were still nervous and there were still all sorts of feelings about the situation that would create a just a stress and anxiety that sometimes is actually quite useful a little bit of stress and a little bit of inner sort of push is quite useful and the stress was turned around because person was excited about venturing and trying something new that's what a quantum leap means it's a practical state of mind where you jump into a space where you can experience things from a very different perspective and the way this person began to experience their work was by seeing that they in themselves were more that they had a validity that was more important than just the validity that they were getting from the money that they were being paid in this good job that they were fired from and that they had a certain knowledge and a certain wisdom that could be shared in a way that was perhaps totally different than what they would think about if they were busy with what they were doing before because there was no space to think about anything else when they were doing what they were doing before because their focus was in what they were doing before but now their focus was adventuring into a new space so beyond the reactivity now there was a positivity and adventurous sort of state of mind sense of wow something new out there that allowed for the person to explore their potential from a new perspective so this is what I'm speaking about in meditation we have to do the same sometimes we face the same challenges as the ones that we face in life very often the ones that we face inside of ourselves are exactly the same as the ones that we face outside just it's a sort of mirror of what we are facing on the outside the inner world is a mirror of the outer world and if we hold on to the fear in the same way as this person held on to the fear in the beginning when they were fired and there is no movement we just sort of swim around the mud muddy space of our fears survival mode of wanting to just exist we don't feel an adventure we don't experience a great adventure in what we are doing we just this is not good I need to suffer here because this is not good and that's the reactive mind playing around in different ways but if we say okay I don't need to swim in that muddy lake I can step out there and look there is a mountain that I've never seen or never tried climbing even though it's difficult I can step out of the muddy lake and begin to walk up the mountain okay it's hard work I don't know where I'm going I don't have a map I don't have a reference to orientate me within this new experience that I'm having but I'm feeling positive see that's the first important lesson in letting go of the old paradigms that we've been manipulated to think or to feel or to experience or to use as our reference or our orientation within the world see if we if we change this orientation then even though we don't really know where we're going just like this person who was fired from the world didn't know exactly what what steps to take because they've never taken any of those steps before they took the steps and they started a wonderful company and it was so exciting for them that there was no longer a fear there was a sense of positivity in what they were doing that was contagious because they weren't I have to sort of earn money I have to do this fear-driven paranoia that our society sort of overwhelms everyone with manipulates everyone with but that didn't exist anymore there was just a an excitement about sharing that which was useful and important in the moment for that person sharing their skills sharing their knowledge sharing their just their gifts and climbing turned into a whole marathon so they were running up the mountain of course now they're doing so much better than ever before money-wise but that wasn't their driving force see their driving force was the adventure and the positivity within the adventure rather than focusing on I need to make money to pay the bills see as soon as you do that and you know that the mind is reacting to the old belief systems and there is no positivity when there is a reaction from that state of mind because it's just fear that is what manipulation is all about it's about a state of fear that you justify as real and in meditation that state of fear can be many things it can be subtle see if you don't manage to work with the outer reflection of the inner world could be so subtle it could be your subconscious that's playing out those fears in such a way that doesn't even make sense to you just realize that you're swimming in a muddy lake but you have no idea where's all this mud coming from why am I swimming in the muddy lake I don't know I haven't got time to think about it I just have to swim otherwise I'll drown that's the level of manipulation that is part of the inner world and this is why meditation is complex this is why you need to be strong and disciplined this is why you need to be clear because your focus goes exactly where the experience is taking you if you change the experience by coming back to that which you don't know the unknown and there is no focus that can take you back to the old references to the old belief systems you have to explore the new even if you have to swim a little even if you have to climb the mountain a little bit even if you have to be disciplined strong and clear the energy goes to the unknown and the unknown is the space of your potential there is always more to learn there is always more to experience consciousness is infinite it's not limited to that which you understand in this moment that which you see is real within your experience in this moment so if you're not free enough to open up to the unknown then ask yourself why am I holding on here what's the benefit of holding on to this fear or this repetitive reactive pattern of thinking and if you don't understand meditate upon it sit in stillness listen to the vibration let go of the mundaneness of your experience and listen to the vibration that's deep within your body that's being repeated in the mantra as you meditate move deeper and deeper into a space of letting go into a space where the old is no longer your reference where you're letting go as the vibration moves through you letting go of the old energies and acknowledging that which is new within you just feeling sensing experiencing opening up to the vibration we continue with the mantra the who mantra listen to the vibration open up to the vibration and let go You You You You You You You

Reviews

Love it ! Just What i needed. ❤ 🙏

So much information, thank you.

Fantastic talk. Felt like you were talking to me. Thank you very much 🙏

Very helpful, and very relevant to some of my current challenges in life. Thank you.

Very enjoyable. I'll come back to this again to reflect at difficult times.