Lori Carpenos Lori Carpenos

Finding Resilience and Potential in Life

I’ve harkened back to this old John Lennon lyric many times throughout my life, when things didn’t go according to my plan. It’s brought me comfort to remember this happens to all humans, though I can’t say that I liked it very much. I think that’s true for most people – they may give in to, or even accept the concept but not exactly embrace what comes their way.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”.

I’ve harkened back to this old John Lennon lyric many times throughout my life, when things didn’t go according to my plan. It’s brought me comfort to remember this happens to all humans, though I can’t say that I liked it very much. I think that’s true for most people – they may give in to, or even accept the concept but not exactly embrace what comes their way.

I saw a deeper meaning to the lyric as my understanding of the Principles of Mind, Thought, and Consciousness unfolded through the years. I began to see that I have greater choice than to merely accept the way things occur. I began to see that it has to do with what I do with my own thinking around whatever happens. I could think perturbed thoughts, or I could think shucks I have to accept this, or I could think neutral, with no thought of judgment at all. I realized it’s up to me to steer my thought rudder around toward clear open waters rather than bash my ship against the rock wall that suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, on my well planned course.

Sydney Banks - The Missing Link

“Thought is like the rudder of a ship. It guides you through life and if you learn to use that rudder properly, you can guide your way through life far better than you ever imagined. You can go from one reality to another. You can find your happiness…”
Sydney Banks, The Missing Link

When I didn’t go to judgment, I’d become curious, quite naturally. I wondered where the new path would lead me or what there was to learn from this new, unplanned event.

Finding Resilience and Potential in Life:

Understanding how Mind, Thought, and Consciousness work together to provide a very real experience of life was what allowed me to back off of my own thinking, to see that what I think and therefore how I respond, was optional. After all, I’ve witnessed others see the same thing differently and I’ve even experienced myself see the same thing differently at different times, so I realized it’s possible to just open my mind up to see the unexpected event or circumstance in a brighter light. Frankly, the results have been nothing short of miraculous.

Life happens and we do what we do with it according to what we make of it. Do you see what I mean?

Here’s an example from my own life: I expected to be finished with my book by now – actually, quite some time ago. Truth be known – I began it over five years ago! What I found is that it has a life of its own. I changed so much along the way, and I’m really glad it worked out that way because I know that I’ll have a much better book to offer, in the end.

If you have a story that illustrates finding resilience and potential in life, I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below.

Here’s to life unfolding in the way that it does and to each of us finding the bright spot within, that allows us to recognize the mystery behind it!

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Lori Carpenos Lori Carpenos

What is Innate Well-being?

The following is an excerpt taken from an interview with Dr. Dicken and Coizie Bettinger for a book on relationships and the 3 Principles that I’m writing with Chris Heath.

The following is an excerpt taken from an interview with Dr. Dicken and Coizie Bettinger for a book on relationships and the 3 Principles that I’m writing with Chris Heath.

Dicken was a practicing psychologist in Vermont when he learned of the 3 Principles.  He and his family moved to LaConner, WA to work with a group of therapists whose mission was to share the Principles with others.

Coizie:

At the time we started learning the 3 Principles, we began to understand that our thinking creates our moods. This was immediately helpful in our family because the kids were around ten and fourteen when we became aware of this. It was something they could relate to and understand. We came up with this sort of rule for the family that we wouldn’t talk about problems or issues or hard things when any of us was in a low mood. Our children loved to catch us in low moods and then not want to talk about whatever it was, which was very effective because our parenting improved as a result. We didn’t deal with problems in low moods. We would just wait it out until we felt better and that was good for Dicken and me.

We just flat out refused to talk about things while in low moods. It was a big discovery that it’s normal for the quality of our thinking to go up and down (which is what moods are) instead of believing that what we think when we are in a low mood means something significant or it means something that has to be talked about in the relationship. And so when we began to see low mood thinking as normal and that you didn’t really have to pay attention to that thinking and it would pass pretty quickly, boy did that make things easier in all of our relationships. We didn’t feel compelled to have to talk about things when we were upset. And we didn’t think it was necessary to do that in order to have a better relationship. We didn’t take each other’s low moods so personally so it became more and more just a natural fit and a normal cycle and nothing to really be concerned about. Feelings no longer were  statements about the relationship. They just became indicators of the quality of thought that was coming through. That was huge. It made a big difference. It seemed to take the pressure off. I think before that we took each other’s low mood thinking personally and thought we had to figure it out. If Dicken got into a low mood and he seemed pretty serious, I would sometimes think that meant something about me; that he was mad at me or unhappy with me. So I thought that we needed to discuss it. And unfortunately we would. (Laughter)

To this day it is just such a relief not to feel like there are issues and problems and things that we need to talk about. We just know that in a better mood, when better thinking starts coming through it either won’t be a problem or it will look different or there will be a solution that comes to mind. It is just so easy. We definitely started to have much more trust in our own wisdom and in leaving things alone until our heads cleared. Then we were in a space that was very easy to see our way through any difficulties or problems or challenges. It relieved the pressure of having to work so hard to figure out what didn’t seem right. We both gained much deeper trust in our own capacity for common sense and wise thinking and that we could trust our thinking when we were in good feelings but not at all when we were in bad feelings.  This was so helpful.  It paid off to just wait until the wise thinking showed up rather than work so hard when it wasn’t available.

There was one really good example of that which I will never forget. It was when we were making the decision to leave Vermont to move out here to La Conner, WA. When we first started thinking about moving our son had two more years of high school, so we thought he could come out here to finish high school.  But we weren’t ready to move until he had only one more year left and of course he was adamant that he wasn’t going to go. So we started to have conversations about it and immediately one or two or all three of us would just start having upset thinking, and we would get scared, or I would cry. It seemed like we didn’t know what to do or what could possibly be the solution. So when we started trying to figure out how we were going to work this out we all agreed that we would only talk about it when we were all in pretty good states of mind. And if any of us got upset while we were talking, we would stop. And we knew that at some point we would come to agreement. We trusted that would happen. But it wouldn’t happen if we were upset and having a hard time talking about it, so we started and stopped the conversation several different times over the next weeks.  And then one time, one of us got a different idea. A totally new thought that none of us had even considered, a whole new option for what we could do.  This new thought was so different, which was for Dicken to go out to Washington by himself and I would stay back with Ben until he finished his last year of high school. It made so much sense to all of us immediately.  It was a big relief and it felt so right that we just trusted it. Immediately we began to put our energy into thinking about what we could do to make it the absolute best year that our family ever had.  We all began to become creative and to brainstorm and come up with new ideas for how to do that and it ended up creating a remarkable growth-filled year for all of us. I don’t think we would have gotten there if we had used our old way of thinking that would have forced a decision that would have been really difficult for somebody. Most likely we would have forced our son to come out here.   

I don’t know what it would have been, we had different options but that is just one example of how, by learning the Principles we began to trust in our own wisdom.  We learned that the answers would be there when we were in a good state of thinking as opposed to when we were anxiety-ridden. Our understanding of the Principles allowed us to trust our wisdom.

Dicken:

After my very first training in the Principles, I made this remarkable discovery that at any moment when I just stopped working on getting somewhere in order to develop or to achieve my well-being, the most incredible experience happened. I naturally began to feel and think better which is what I was looking for in the first place, and I didn’t have to work at it. I already had it, just naturally built in. This notion that I already had perfect well-being inside and I didn’t have to develop it, was a huge change for me. So as I worked less on myself and had less thinking on my mind I began to become more lighthearted and more present and more available and my kids noticed it and it sure made things so much easier for Coizie and me. We got closer and closer without even trying. So I learned that intimacy was not a function of working. You can’t work your way to intimacy. It was a given that when my personal thinking would quiet down I would feel warmth and a connection and closeness to whoever was around me.  I couldn’t believe it was that easy. I couldn’t believe that if I got out of my own way I would feel close and connected to people around me.
Coizie and I started having so much fun.  We would allow our thinking to quiet down and then we would feel warm and connected and so close.  We would just enjoy sharing quiet time together.  We started seeing how easy it was to connect on a much deeper level.  We couldn’t believe that we discovered something so simple that could immediately help us be warmer and more loving as parents, as well as warm, loving and intimate in our marriage. What a beautiful thing to discover and then be able to share with clients and see them have the same results very quickly. To see this happen over and over again was just unbelievable to me. It was like a dream come true.

I changed from being preoccupied and resorting to my old pattern of withdrawing.  I would withdraw into myself and I would turn to my books and techniques to escape inner tension.  I still experience inner tension sometimes, but it doesn’t mean anything anymore and it wakes me up to the fact of thought and I fall out of that thinking easily and quickly. I now realize that pure consciousness is an underlying space inside that is always there.  I experience this space as welcoming and warm and loving and wise.  It is my home base.  For me to know that this home base is always right there inside, not just in me, but in everybody; in my family, my friends, my clients and even in strangers, has been powerful. For me to see and know with certainly that beauty is in everybody, allows me to know that even when my kids or wife are having a difficult time and struggling, inside they are already perfectly ok.  This is so helpful.

To be really patient with the fact that we all get caught up at times in our own thinking is good to realize. The thoughts seem real to us and we get stuck. Realizing that allows us to look past it.  This really helped us when our kids were teenagers and now with grandchildren, it does as well. We’re sharing with them about thinking and feeling; where our feelings really come from.

Coizie:

It just takes one person to begin to live it in a family, a relationship, or even an organization. Dicken was the first to learn about the Principles, but it was contagious in our family. You could see it spreading from one person to another to another and then we would each reinforce the other, just by the way we were living from this understanding. You know, right now our son’s girlfriend is learning this from Dicken and that is just so neat to think that she is deepening her love for our son.  And to see her becoming more satisfied and at ease with herself is just so great! 

Please have a look at Dicken’s website for more information:

​ http://www.3principlesmentoring.com/

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Lori Carpenos Lori Carpenos

The Truth About Supremely Happy People

Very happy people all have one thing in common, though most of them don’t even know what it is. The truth about supremely happy people is that they spend more time living in positive, upbeat thinking than the rest of the population. They don’t do it on purpose; it’s natural to them.

…if only people knew the truth about supremely happy people.

By Lori Carpenos and Jack Pransky

Very happy people all have one thing in common, though most of them don’t even know what it is. The truth about supremely happy people is that they spend more time living in positive, upbeat thinking than the rest of the population. They don’t do it on purpose; it’s natural to them. If you took a closer look you’d see that they don’t focus on what they don’t like in life. They are more enamored with, more intrigued by, and more interested in the joyful aspects of life. If two poles existed with positivity at one end and negativity at the other, they would naturally gravitate toward the positive. Because they enjoy it so much they tend to have more benevolent thinking. They don’t even know they’re doing it because they don’t think they’re doing anything. And they’re not; they’re just being. They would say, “Well, what other way is there to be?”

How do we know this about them? Because we know this about us! It’s not that we’re happy all the time, but when we’re not we don’t take it too seriously. We know it will pass and, lo and behold, the happiness eventually returns.

Unlike many of the people we spoke of above, seeing through the eyes of happiness and positivity did not come naturally to us. Jack’s ex-wife used to call him “Doctor Doom” because he was always looking at what could go wrong. Lori was depressed for years and spent years talking about it to a therapist!

But we learned the truth about supremely happy people.

We learned about “The Three Principles,” and by “principles” we mean “universal truths” or facts about how our entire experience of life is created—not what happens to us in life, but what we make of what happens to us, or our internal experience of whatever happens to us. In other words, what we have come to understand about these three psychological/spiritual principles at the core of all human experience is what brought us to the state in which happy people naturally live. Anyone can attain a happier, more joyous experience of life with a deep enough understanding of these principles.

We do not have enough space here to go into detail about what the three universal principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought are, but to cut to the chase, at their essence and most simply, what these principles mean is that whatever happens in the outside world can never make us happy or unhappy. What makes us happy or unhappy or any other feeling or emotion comes from our own thinking appearing and feeling real to us. Happy people are happy because they see themselves and the world through happy eyeballs (their own thinking), plain and simple. Unhappy people are unhappy because they see the very same things through the eyes of anger or upset or disappointment or frustration or worry or bother or depression or any other emotion. In other words, happy people create their own happiness simply because of what they see with their own creative power of thought made to look and feel real by their consciousness. Therefore, happiness is their own creation.

And here is an even more amazing thing that we learned from understanding the three principles: If we didn’t take our unhappy thoughts seriously they wouldn’t impact us and we would automatically be happy! We don’t have to go out of our way to think up positive or happy thoughts (that’s too hard!), because joy and happiness is already naturally built into the human spirit, and the only way human beings cannot experience it is if they create the illusion with their own thinking that life is otherwise. Such thinking puts a veil over the internal happiness that exists, and which would be there for everyone to see if they weren’t thinking otherwise. Now, there is nothing one can do to stop those thoughts and the resulting feelings from popping into our heads, but when other than joyful, loving, peaceful or wise thoughts do pop in, we don’t have to take them to heart, we don’t have to believe them, trust them or follow them. We simply allow them to pass through like clouds across the sun.

We could not have an experience of anything without the ability to think! That’s a fact.  We could not have an experience of anything if we had no consciousness of our thoughts; it would be like reading a book in a foreign language that we didn’t understand a word of. That’s a fact. And without the energy behind life (the principle of Mind), the creative source of everything, we would not be able to think or be conscious. That’s a fact. All we have to understand is how these facts work together to create any possible experience, any feeling, we can ever have.

Think about it: We could not possibly be in a bad mood without low quality thoughts, and vice versa. We could not possibly be in a good mood without high quality thoughts and vice versa. Most of our thinking is not voluntary; thoughts just occur, constantly, for all of us every moment of our lives. We get into habits of thinking, however, which can result in labels, such as pessimist, optimist, worrywart, Debbie Downer, Nervous Nelly, etc. Our individual thoughts create outcomes—sort of a built-in system of consequences–all brought about by us!

Outcomes change however, for people who know enough about the three principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought and how they operate within every human being. A deep understanding of these principles naturally results in greater resilience, common sense, happier lives (no matter what is going on in the outside world), greater passion for life and a more generous spirit, as well as a greater appreciation for ordinary life experiences. There’s nothing to cultivate or make happen. These are the outcomes from a simple understanding.

Happy People And Self Actualization

This is not as much of a mystery as it sounds on the surface. Psychologist Abraham Maslow found that everyone in their best or peak moments displayed the same characteristics as ”self-actualized” people. In other words, even generally miserable people have happy moments, and in those happy moments they are thinking the way the happiest people think generally. This means we all have it in us to be happy because in moments we are! We all know how to be that way because it happens to us, sometimes even in spite of ourselves. All we have to do is realize what our minds look like and function like in those moments, allow it to happen more often and disbelieve our thinking when we’re not thinking that way.


We don’t want you to believe us. Simply look inside yourself and see if it’s true for you. 
If you want to learn more about it and understand it better you can watch interviews of
people from all walks of life talk about these three principles at  www.3PGC.org or www.threeprinciplesmovies.com or read books such as Somebody Should Have Told Us! by Dr. Jack Pransky. There is no doubt that understanding these Principles leads to greater happiness—at least it has been no doubt for us and for the thousands of others who have caught on to the way life really works.

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Lori Carpenos Lori Carpenos

How to keep up with technology and not lose your mind in the process

Or is it our ability to think, that has the power? In fact, our ability to think has to be powered by the same life force that powers our heart and lungs. Our ability to think is accompanied by the free will to think anything! I learned this from Sydney Banks, who, in 1973, discovered that we all operate from three Principles: Divine Mind, Thought and Consciousness, which taken together give us an experience of our lives every second we are alive.

The world seems to be changing at warp speed, to me; does it to you, too? I wonder when I turned into my mother.

Hunkered down at home on a Monday due to storm cancellations, I thought it a good time to take care of the personal business that I put off as long as possible — checking credit card statements, emails, movie reviews, and frequent flier mile questions. Things that have no urgency or deadline attached yet have the power to drive a person crazy when tackled in between two things that do have a deadline or urgency, real or imagined.

Is it really the thing that has that power?

Or is it our ability to think, that has the power? In fact, our ability to think has to be powered by the same life force that powers our heart and lungs. Our ability to think is accompanied by the free will to think anything! I learned this from Sydney Banks, who, in 1973, discovered that we all operate from three Principles: Divine Mind, Thought and Consciousness, which taken together give us an experience of our lives every second we are alive. Divine Mind refers to the power behind everything including the human ability to think. Consciousness refers to the fact that we are always conscious of what we think, it makes what we think appear as though it is the one reality. Thought refers to the ability to think anything. From this knowledge came my awareness that I could think about (reflect on) whatever I choose and I don’t have to believe any of it since I’m the one making it up.
I exercised this ability and decided to settle in and enjoy the process of taking care of the mundane things we all have to keep on top of in life.

I made my way down the list, letting out a sigh of relief with each check mark as though I had just won an Olympian award for most organized or best checker offer. Accomplishment can be such a thrill. I’m happy to have made up that game with myself, it elevates the mundane to a higher power. Why not? It feels better to do things that way and makes the mundane more pleasant.

It seems to me that we’ve been given the ability to be selfish (which is nothing more than thinking selfish thoughts and believing them, or not) — why not put that ability to good use? I used to think it was selfish to look for ways to take care of myself. I would have put finding a calm state of mind in that category thinking that the only person it would benefit would be me and then I’d get less done. Or so I thought.

First, It’s better for everyone involved when we look at things from the vantage point of a calm mind. Did it have to take a storm to see that? Not only does it not take time to be calm, it’s also good for everyone with whom I come into contact!


Let’s have a closer look…

Since when does being calm take time?

That sounds so funny to me now — I realized that it’s something I thought that I was unaware of thinking. It’s because of the Principles at play within us, that made it look real to me. I actually believed that I needed time to calm my mind — now that’s quite an idea to entertain. I reflected on the consequences of believing in such drivel.

When having to deal with customer support, I would get a thought about how annoying that’s going to be so I’d put it off, like I would if I were a kid having to clean her room or brush her teeth. Why do I think it has to be a bad experience?

All the things I put off until I THINK I’ll have time for them!

I realized that I made that up. It doesn’t have to be that way! By putting things off, the pile would only get higher and then I’d have a bunch of anxious thoughts about what needed to get done that I wasn’t doing. I would never consider if my state of mind was calm and if not, just go to a calm mind, and pick up the phone. In a calm mind, it was easy to make the choice to enjoy my time with customer service. Why not?

This insight came to me as I hung up the phone with an AT&T technician in Kentucky, named Samantha.We had a lovely time joking about how we all need a college degree in “Satellite Internet/TV remotely controlled interchange/exchange,” and a minor in cyber phonics —  we laughed; the whole thing was a pleasant exchange.

New technology can connect phone lines to TV and probably other mobile devices as well. I enjoyed moving through all the internet windows, with Samantha’s guidance, to find the page that showed me my incoming calls because the number I thought I heard on my voice mail was not a working number.

Since you can’t leave breadcrumbs on the internet, I had no idea how I would ever be able to retrace those steps without an AT&T technician on the other end of a phone line. I couldn’t help but wonder how long it took Samantha to learn all that.

I complimented her on her skills to which she told me a story about an ER Surgeon who was similarly amazed that he could do what he does by day and be completely stumped at night by a TV and a remote controller.

I commented that we all need one another and as our society becomes ever more complicated, we need one another even more. There is no individual human brain that can do it all. Even Einstein would probably need some technical assistance in today’s world.
Complicated societies require the expertise of many people. New jobs will have to be created for all the new details of modern day life. That remark seemed like a no-brain er to Samantha and me, yet a roomful of politicians may not draw the same conclusion. I wish I had asked her how long it took to learn her job and what her salary was and what her age was, but that would not be socially acceptable — or would it? In future generations perhaps it will. I chose to stick with my conditioned viewpoint that those questions would not be socially acceptable and I didn’t want Samantha to think I was prying.

She also led me through a series of steps that began at the Start button, cascaded to Control Panel and then to Internet Networking — behind that door lays the answer to the question: How many bars do you have? I know I’m being a bit glib right now since most people are quite familiar with this and in fact if I keep going you’ll know my age — or at least within 5 years of my age. I know a little but not nearly enough to keep up with the pace of technology today.

A friend warned me a couple of years ago, saying, “you’d better keep up with technology or you’ll be a dinosaur like the older CEO’s who refuse to learn as though they are better than that, and are meanwhile being replaced by their younger, tech savvy, employees.” The world has changed at warp speed; we can fight it, grin and bare it, or embrace it — the choice is ours to make. We have the free will to think anything we want.

We joked about how we can be on hold for 1/2 an hour and once someone actually picks up we’re then led through a maze, trying to figure out how to word the question, never mind figure out what the answer means.

Samantha told a story about an 80-year-old woman she tried to guide through a series of steps and the degree of patience it required because the woman could barely get beyond turning the thing to the ON position. Heavens, where will the world be when I turn 80? I had better keep up, or at the very least stay friendly with the Samantha’s of the world — they rule!

I wrote down Sam’s info so I could give her a good review for her calm effort with me.
Samantha  SL486N

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I Looked in The Mirror and Didn´t See Wrinkles Anymore!

I didn’t see the person who wasn’t very clear in yesterday’s meeting or the one who got embarrassed making eye contact with the handsome stranger in Whole Foods. I saw beyond all of that, I saw right through to my essence and I fell deeply in love.

form and formless - mind thought and consciousness
 

A love affair really does begin with a love affair with you. 

In fact, I didn’t see “me” at all. I didn’t see what I would typically see. I didn’t see my physical reflection, I didn’t see the person who wasn’t very clear in yesterday’s meeting or the one who got embarrassed making eye contact with the handsome stranger in Whole Foods. I saw beyond all of that, I saw right through to my essence and I fell deeply in love.

In love with the ability to experience being a human in this magical mystical place, we call planet earth, suspended in a Universe of cosmic energy. It blew my mind. It only lasted for a moment, I think I could have stayed with it longer but that was all I needed — a brief glimpse to remember who I really am.

We are not our story, we are the essence behind the story:

It’s the same for every human on earth. I couldn’t help but think that if everyone could have that brief moment where the truth was revealed – not the story we make up about our lives, but the essence behind all life. We would remember what a miracle it is to be able to experience Creation, as well as our individual thoughts emanating from the power to create a personal experience through our ability to think and be conscious of what we think.
How can you not fall in love with the mystical universal experience, we all share? That Universal experience is who we really are – we are the ability to experience Creation. We also experience the ability to create in our personal worlds, and experience our personal creations as well. We are so much more than our physical being.

What does this have to do with our daily lives?

It becomes so easy to notice when we start to go down the tube of upset. It becomes automatic to catch ourselves the instant we feel “off” our mark. By this I mean, that when you spend time in the flow of life and out of your head about what you think life is, or what it should bring you, or what you deserve, you will feel calm and secure. It’s an automatic thing. It becomes the norm, your default setting and you’ll notice when you’re not there and you’ll want to get back “there” to that good feeling so much that you’ll take a straight line back, not a jagged one through emotions and upsets. Just right toward better feeling states. The cleanest, fastest way is to let go of non-productive thoughts that cause you to feel bad. Thinking about it won’t change it, thinking about it will only take us away from a nicer feeling state where we all function better.

Turning a glimpse of pure consciousness into a way of life:

I can’t imagine how these glimpses that help me in my personal world would happen for me had I not known that it is Mind, Thought and Consciousness that brings me my personal experience every moment of my life as a human being. Mind, Thought and Consciousness are the 3 principles that were uncovered in 1972 via a spiritual epiphany that a man named Sydney Banks, experienced.

To me, it was the Holy Grail that everyone wants but most of us have been looking for it in the wrong direction. Humanity has been looking in the world of form for the answers that are already within, invisible and immeasurably valuable to humankind.

These Principles, once understood by enough people, will definitely bring peace on earth. We each have the opportunity to understand them for our own peace within and to understand how we get a personal view of this mystical thing we call Creation.
In the last thirty years of my life, my understanding of these simple, yet extraordinarily profound principles has deepened.

What Sydney Banks saw in a moment in time, takes most of us a lifetime to SEE. Perhaps because to fully understand the depth and breadth of what was revealed to Mr. Banks, we have to find it through insight, not through our analytic minds, and we’re so accustomed to depending upon our analytic mind for answers. It’s not something that can be taught or learned, it can only be uncovered from the depth of our own soul — where we already know and knew before we covered up our spiritual essence with personal, conditioned thinking.

We can all sense a formless energy behind the physical world we know:

We exist in what seem to be two worlds — the formless world of spirit and the physical world formed by our use of Mind, Consciousness, and Thought. We can use these gifts in a healthy, helpful, productive manner or we can use them in a destructive, unhealthy manner. Most of us don’t realize that we also have the gift of free-will to choose which thoughts we make our own and go forward with and which we let pass us by with nary a second glimpse, knowing full well how destructive it would be to follow them. Thought is the bridge between the world of form and formlessness for humanity so that we can know Creation.

“Form and formless are intertwined in this world. The formless can only be expressed in form and form can only be thought with the formless.”
— Swami Vivekananda


Mr. Banks saw that the world of form and formlessness are the same. He did his absolute best to show anyone who would listen. I listened with as quiet a mind as I could. I have had glimpses of the oneness of the world of form and of formlessness, and it is a beautiful, serene, magnificent experience.

Each year that I look in the direction of the formless energy from which we derive. I SEE it more and more. I cannot begin to tell you how much easier, simpler and more lovely it makes life on planet earth — you’d have to SEE it for yourself.

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Lori Carpenos Lori Carpenos

What is Free Will and How Does It Affect Us?

What is invisible, yet incredibly powerful? What is at work all the time, whether we’re aware of it or not? What is the “mechanism” always available to us that dictates our every action? What is an amazing gift that every human receives at birth? What is completely free for the taking in every moment of life?

What is invisible, yet incredibly powerful? What is at work all the time, whether we’re aware of it or not? What is the “mechanism” always available to us that dictates our every action? What is an amazing gift that every human receives at birth? What is completely free for the taking in every moment of life?

No, it’s not Superman!
OK, I admit it, not much of a brain teaser since the answer is right in the title — I just figured I’d use my free will to have some fun with you, which mixed with your free will, creates an outcome: You might be turned off by what you perceive to be silly and X out of this blog or you might get a light-hearted feeling and decide to hang in with me for a bit.

So one person’s free will affects another person’s free will and the synergy of the two (or more) creates a certain outcome. Comparing it to physics, one magnetic field affects another magnetic field determining whether the negative and the positive go forward together or the two negatives repel one another and go their separate ways.

free will and thought - creating our reality
 

Free Will is an incredible gift that we have at our disposal, 24-7; yet, who stops to consider it for one second? Not many, which is exactly why I want to draw your attention to it; so you can take better advantage of it.

It seems to me that the way in which we use our gift of free will determines the direction our life takes. In that regard, our decisions result in certain consequences, which ultimately create an outcome down the road apiece… just like the illustration of the magnetic pull of magnets, we affect ourselves and one another, but we humans have choices available to us; magnets and other unthinking entities do not.

We have the freedom to choose, the freedom to accept something or let something go. We can choose to be free from the bondage of our own minds, by virtue of where we put our attention. Just as a photographer can choose to focus on the foreground or background, diffusing any portion of the scene, we are all capable of doing the same with our own view of things, in the moment. We’re capable of taking our focus off what doesn’t serve us or anyone else., but how often do we exercise this capacity? If your radio station was full of static, you wouldn’t keep listening to it, or would you?

Free Will And The Principle Of Thought

Through the gift of thought, we have the freedom to:

  • accept the “reality” we find ourselves in, or not…

  • accept or reject any “reality” that is not beneficial to yourself or anyone else…

  • pick and choose which “reality” with which to run…

  • blow things out of proportion…

  • make something from nothing or nothing from what could have been something…

  • take things personally…

  • make mountains out of molehills…

  • take offense…

  • feel disrespected…

  • do something about it, or nothing about it…

  • make it a big deal or no big deal (NBD)…

  • take it (whatever is going on) personally,

                                                                           
                                                                          or not…

                                                                 We alone choose

What’s really great is that we don’t have to change or DO anything at all, except — not trap what we’re thinking about — simply let it move through us naturally; like the wind moves through tree leaves or waves move through the ocean. We wouldn’t want to trap a tornado in place – yet we sometimes do just that with our own minds. Does that make sense? It’s one thing if you’re studying information for a test, it’s another thing if you’re bothering the bejeezus out of yourself for no good reason.

The next time you find yourself in an unwanted state of mind, you might remember your free will and exercise it wisely.

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Lori Carpenos Lori Carpenos

The Key To Self-Discipline

An interesting thing to contemplate, especially this time of year with holiday parties and all sorts of merry-making to take us away from our typical (hopefully healthy) routines. Maintaining healthy self-discipline can be a burden in the best conditions. So I thought it valuable to reflect and have a deeper look at what self-discipline really involves.

An interesting thing to contemplate, especially this time of year with holiday parties and all sorts of merry-making to take us away from our typical (hopefully healthy) routines. Maintaining healthy self-discipline can be a burden in the best conditions. So I thought it valuable to reflect and have a deeper look at what self-discipline really involves. Reflection often leads to insight and insight leads to sustainable change from within.

As I reflected, the realization came that discipline is everywhere in my life, from brushing my teeth to leaving my office in time to get to my Yoga class. Since we know every experience in life comes to us via Thought and Consciousness, we also know that our experience of discipline comes via Thought and Consciousness.

Knowledge, Self Discipline And Choices

Knowing where discipline originates sure helps:

  1. Knowing this explains why we have thoughts that lead us away from healthy discipline such as good dietary and sleep habits.

  2. Knowing that Consciousness makes our thinking appear so real also explains why we have thoughts that lead to unhealthy behaviors or what we might call lack of personal discipline, that can result in

  • eating disorders

  • inadequate sleep, or

  • excessive exercise.


Discipline is a choice:

Discipline requires us to choose one thought over another thought. Can you recall the cartoons where a miniature devil sits on one shoulder whispering in the recipient’s ear while a little angel sits on the other side whispering opposing thoughts in the other ear? It occurs to me that armed with enough understanding about how Thought and Consciousness work together to bring us experience, we can see that not all our thoughts are created equal; some are good for us and some are terrible for us. Yet we can so easily succumb to the thoughts that lead us astray. You know, that devil-may-care attitude to which we can fall prey. Intellectually we may know that something is bad for us but those devilish thoughts can catch us off guard and then send us sliding down a slippery slope.

Our psychological operating system:

Knowing how thought works is truly invaluable to us – it reveals our “operating system.” It tells us that every experience we have comes to us as apparent reality, as if it is an absolute black or white truth, when really it is simply the result of a set of thoughts. So if we think, “shucks, going one day without brushing my teeth will not make them fall out of my mouth,” that thought could convince us to skip a brushing. Then finding ourselves unexpectedly running into a friend who engages us in conversation, another thought might materialize: “Yikes, I didn’t brush today, I wonder if my breath gives me away?” The thoughts we take seriously and follow will always bring a particular outcome, whether in the short run or the long run.

What can happen when we don’t know how it works?

Before I knew how thought and consciousness work, I often tripped myself up with my own thinking. Now that I know that my reality is a self-created illusion – a personal interpretation of what’s happening, I have far more control over my choices, which makes life easier and gentler.

Imagine this:

Imagine being at a holiday party where your devil starts to convince you that “you can have one more rum punch; after all it is a holiday.” Do you think you would succumb to the temptation if you realized it was that little devil up to his tricks again? It seems to me that it’s not the original thought that is the real culprit; it’s the next thought that evaluates the first one. Is this good for us or bad for us?

Natural high vs. unhealthy temptation:

Self-discipline in life can give us a natural high. We can succumb to unhealthy temptation hoping to feel high from something outside ourselves such as drugs or alcohol or any addiction with negative side affects, when in fact, there is no greater high than exercising our right to take care of ourselves. It feels so empowering. Seeing the results of our efforts, knowing that the experience was due to us, rather than some random event feels wonderful. After all, we are the ones in charge of ourselves in every moment of our lives. Knowing that our thinking will lead us astray if we go along with it is invaluable to help us choose wisely.

Knowledge is the key to self-discipline —                                                                                               the knowledge of what is creating our experience in the moment …

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