Welcome this is David Greenwood of your Life in the Now. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to visit me for a while.
In the movie, The Matrix, the main character is offered two choices, a red and a blue pill.
Each led to another destiny.
The red pill meant a desire to awaken to reality, although this knowledge brought some real challenges.
The blue pill represented a life of security and blissful ignorance.
If you want your life to continue the same way it’s going, making the same choices, the same habits, the same life, then stop reading. This isn’t for you.
If instead, you are ready to open up to an inner reality that sometimes brings challenging self awareness, along with inner freedom, then read on.
Okay. If you are brave enough to continue, let’s start by saying that I’d like to think that we’re two old friends walking together on a path leading through the meadow on a beautiful sunny day…the sky’s brilliantly blue and we’re just strolling along discussing the questions that are important to both of us…questions we have about life…the things we think about late at night… or our thoughts about the nature of reality.
Over the course of these articles I want to explore topics that intrigue me and perhaps you’ll find them of interest as well.
Let’s consider what is both within our minds and that questions that seem as unattainable as what lies beyond the stars. About whether its possible to live a life free from the constant worries and fears that plague us all.
Why are we pondering these issues?
Perhaps it’s as simple as we are compelled to do so. That some of our experiences have led us both to a place where we are ready to take action, to set ourselves free from difficult relationships, challenging jobs, health problems, stress, worry and concern.
I think that we both wonder that if we could experience that which is beyond words and ideas, something that will awaken us into a new way of being, our life would naturally be positively affected.
Let’s consider that such an experience brings with it a transformational energy that could help us be free from the negative conditioning of our subconscious mind.
If it is really possible to create a healthier ego that allows us to experience life without the movement of our negative thoughts so that our daily lives would never be the same again.
Welcome to life after the red pill.
Imagine what it’s like to free up your ego to embrace both creativity and analytical thought, of being and doing, the yin-yang, the masculine and the feminine aspects and experience a healthier balance. Experiencing life with this level of intelligence could allow us to embrace whatever destiny stirs our soul. I doubt we are here to be overcome by constant worry and concern and finally die without ever truly living.
If we could experience some Essence or Presence that is always around us we would never have to meditate again for that quietness, that energy would always there.
Your life would be lived within this reality. Could it be that all it takes is for our thoughts to slow down and naturally come to an end. Others have stated this as their perception. If experiencing life without the movement of thoughts could bring a heightened level of living it would naturally be available for everyone. It wouldn’t matter who you were, what religion you had, your race, age, sex or anything else.
Could we really have a spiritual experience when we at least temporarily stop thinking?
Of course you can’t force yourself to stop your thoughts because that requires a movement of your ego.
However, when it falls away on its own It could be that connection naturally occurs and ushers us into that joy that always surrounds us.
I know. It is a paradox. That any attempt to reach this level of awareness or connect with this Presence is an act of will and just won’t happen.
Thought has to drop away on its own when you see the truth of who you are and no longer need to be caught up in the cycle of thought and fear.
So that the experience of Presence can’t be an end in itself, but just the amazing result of seeing and experiencing how our conditioned mind is causing our issues.
So as we walk together along this trail on a beautiful day we are beginning to understand why it is so important to resolve the resistance of our own thinking, of our own subconscious mind. Only then could we be free of our deeper conditioning and perhaps discover what life could be without it.
Otherwise spiritual pursuit is the result of the movement of thought and in essence it’s your ego that is trying to achieve spiritual enlightenment and freedom.
Today as we walk along we are discussing beginnings, for it is important to start at the beginning…perhaps to honestly discuss the experiences that have led us to our level of understanding…which perhaps will help us both understand why we are so passionate about becoming free of our negatively conditioned mind…to help us both embrace our authentic selves and naturally experience living life in the now.
For me, I realize that I was just an average kid growing up in a small town on the Olympic Peninsula across from Seattle. Doing the best that I could to enjoy high school and trying to make sense of this busy time of friends, dating and other pursuits. Some days were great and others not so good.
Through it all what helped me were my two passions for science and psychic phenomena. At 13 I developed an overwhelming desire to understand the supernatural, mystical world of the occult, and this led me to read books on reincarnation, karma, the after life and much more. I found Edgar Cayce, Seth, the I AM Presence, Masters of the Far East and Theosophy.
This focus led me to a place where I gained both respect for and fear of these hidden worlds.
During the summer of my senior year my brother and I had some very confusing, exciting and terrifying experiences. It certainly opened my eyes to an entirely different way of perceiving the world and to even more challenging questions of life.
Perhaps on a future talk we can discuss more in depth about my experiences that summer, but let’s just say that in later years on camping trips when my friends and I would gather around the campfire and share ghost stories, few of my friends knew that the stories I shared actually happened to me.
All this led me to question what was truth and what did it mean to be alive.
As my life progressed as both a scientist and researcher into the spiritual realm, I discovered more mystical studies as well as many transformational experiences, even though my progress was more of a lurching forward than a smooth flow.
After all, I was a typical guy in his mid 20s, enjoying sports and living in Denver. For months I would abandon or simply forget my spiritual interests until something would occur to remind me that it was time to get back on track for what I could only guess was a deeper study of necessity, but for what reason, I had no clue. To me, it seemed like all I did was fail to achieve any permanent breakthrough in consciousness. I would get so close and then my ego would drag me back to the challenges of daily life.
So as we walk along on this beautiful day sharing our stories about life’s questions and our experiences, we come upon the fact that we all have something within us that holds us back and often causes us to do things we really don’t want to do.
As if there’s another part of us that leads us into habits and avoiding issues that cause us even more problems.
This part of us seems so strong that its no wonder that we feel powerless to resist it. Sometimes it leads to bad choices. Other times it wants us to play it safe and not take risks, and it rarely allows us to resolve our deeper issues of self doubt, a lack of self esteem and the constant worries and fears of the future.
This part of us does a good job at having us escape from our issues through pleasurable activities like sports, movies, dining out, travel and other fun things. Sometimes it has us drink, smoke, gamble, take drugs or even move us into codependent romantic entanglements. It seems programmed to having us find ways to avoid our inner pain and confusion.
First we need to be aware of what is stopping us from having the life we deserve and desire.
To understand that there is a part of us that often both protects and punishes us with old behaviors, thoughts and feelings of lack and inner resistance. It becomes clear that this part of us isn’t always in alignment with how we wish to move forward in a positive and growthful way.
Even on this beautiful sunny day as we walk along we can feel it’s power and resistance.
To help us understand what this part of us is like, why it does what it does and how we can regain control of our lives, I created on my website located at YourLifeintheNow.com three videos that uncover the facts of our amazing and powerful subconscious mind. Here you will also learn the three Secrets it doesn’t want you to know.
To me its vitally important to understand what holds us back so that we can effectively resolve this challenge. This is the first step on our journey to inner healing, more fulfilling relationships and spiritual awakening.
How essential it is to be aware that our subconscious mind is the repository of our thoughts, feelings and experiences. Like a vast library of your life. Perhaps like me you may wish to know how actively it is involved in your daily life.
This spectacular library also has an active librarian. The part I call the Guardian.
Your inner guardian is the defender of the beliefs and behaviors that result from all the experiences that you’ve accumulated over a lifetime.
I came to learn that those beliefs and behaviors weren’t always in our best interest and that for roughly the first 16 years of our life we develop brain wave patterns from theta, alpha and finally beta. But during those early years we actually live in a state of suggestibility that we also experience during hypnosis. You are in that same state of consciousness as you are very suggestible, which of course is why children learn so quickly and seem to absorb everything like a sponge absorbs water. You learn language at this early age because you are open to everything around you.
Unfortunately, you are also open to negative input from others like parents, siblings, friends, enemies and life.
All these positive and negative experiences create your subconscious belief system, which means your core beliefs were to a great degree created by other people.
You really don’t achieve the ability to filter out what you take in until you fully develop beta brainwave around 16 years old. What is important is that essentially your subconscious mind was created by other people’s beliefs and behaviors. And as children we often made the mistake of believing things were our fault when it never was. The common example is when a parent had a bad day and yells, the child isn’t thinking that they had a bad day. No, the child thinks, “What’s wrong with me?” or “What did I do wrong?”
Over the years these negative beliefs and mistakes create how you feel about yourself, both positive and negative. This leads you to doubt yourself and your abilities. And if you weren’t raised in a positive environment of caring people who knew how to validate your feelings as well as allow you to make mistakes and learn from your experiences, then life is going to have some difficult challenges.
Someday perhaps our world will be different and our society will understand all this and be filled with loving, healthy parents that will give us the right balance of positive and supportive attention, but that day has not yet dawned.
Perhaps you aren’t aware of all this or are determined to ignore your issues.
Despite this they still exist and will effect or even sabotage your actions and behaviors.
Just think of your graduating high school class. How many of your fellow classmates were able to be and express their healthy, true, loving, open, vulnerable and authentic selves? Probably zero. All of us are wounded by our childhood and teenage experiences. It’s just the natural state of our early lives.
Some people learn how to hide their issues by developing a mask that compensates for their inner fears so that they project nothing but positivity and joy. While inside it just isn’t the case. Others are driven to deep depths of anxiety and depression as they can’t escape from their past traumas.
If you were to understand what people actually are thinking you would see that they’re just like you and me and that they are filled with doubts, anxiety and worries about the future.
While for some their optimistic nature pulls them forward, yet still they come upon challenges that remind them of their inadequacies and inabilities.
That is where relationships shine. Most people can cruise along ignorant of their issues when single because they are not challenged to address them. No one is there to reflect back to you that some of the things you do are pretty screwed up.
When you are single you just may not know or care how others might experience you.
On another walk it would be great to explore how our experiences are a wonderful mirror as they reflect back to us both our issues and our healthier attributes. Once you are aware of this you can begin to take steps right now to resolve you issues, regardless of whether or not you currently are in a relationship.
But when you are, be prepared for a wild ride!
So let’s pause in our walk and for a few moments…please close your eyes… and just focus on your thoughts… become aware that some of those thoughts and feelings within you could be about worries or concerns…and just be aware of the source of those thoughts…for they aren’t coming from the healthy you…they originate from that part of your subconscious that is either protective or controlling…so whatever thoughts you experience…just realize you are listening to your ego…which can be both positive or negative…so in a moment be aware of which one you might be experiencing… and just stay with those thoughts or feelings…so take just about 10 seconds to close you eyes and observe your thoughts.
And now that you are back, realize that this is in reality a transformative exercise which we will return to on a future walk. One that will guide us even deeper toward a state of mind with no thoughts.
I began to realize that when we experience a healthier ego… a healthier subconscious mind… that it allows us to experience the stillness…and the Presence… to move into the Now moment, without resistance.
The old, resistive, negative subconscious abhors silence and is frightened by stillness… it doesn’t trust it… and it will do what it can to fill your mind with endless thoughts, chattering nonsense and other forms of escape.
Have you ever looked a beautiful sunset or a mountain scene that takes your breath away… and for a moment you experience that stillness with a quiet mind. Then how quickly the resistive mind starts up and says it’s time to go or that we need to do this or that and its back. This negative ego needs to be moving to exist. Which is why it loves entertainment, for it occupies your mind and serves as a great form of escape.
And that is also for another walk.
So as we have walked along we have touched on many topics here today that we’re going to be exploring in the future…for we are beginning our journey to free us from the negative conditioning of our subconscious minds and help us both to continue the journey to create a healthier ego… and with that healthy ego we will naturally begin to experience what it’s like to be in the moment … to be in the now… and I guarantee when your negative psychological thoughts naturally fade away you will be in the now, and you will experience a life entirely different from the state of mind you are in right now.
So let’s continue our walk along this pathway on this beautiful day listening to the sounds of nature, breathing in the fragrance of the outdoors, enjoying that quality of stillness that ushers us into that state beyond knowing, beyond our thoughts, and naturally experience a whole new way of living, one that which will change the world one person at a time.
Thanks for sharing this walk with me.
Until next time…
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