Tag: Inspiration

We all have patterns in our lives – patterns of thinking, feeling and doing.  But have you ever noticed that when you find yourself repeating a pattern you don’t care for, it feels like it has a motive power of its own – either forcing itself on you or “sucking you in” like some powerful giant whirlpool?

The good news is that these impressions are false. The reality is that patterns emerge in our lives only because we keep referring to and running them much like football plays from a playbook. In fact it’s our current energies that actually fuel every pattern we find ourselves “stuck” in. A hard truth? Perhaps. But we run them, they simply cannot run us.

So…where’s the good news again? Right here: no matter how powerful our bad patterns may seem, we always have the option of replacing them with better ones!

Here are two critical pieces of information you need to remember about patterns: First, patterns are constructs of your past, so they have no power to automatically influence your future unless you choose to return to and run them. And second, you always have the freedom & power to choose which patterns you run, and from which playbook.

Try looking at patterns as opportunities to recalibrate your direction, and keep in mind that they can never exist without your permission. They don’t rule – YOU do.

There comes a time when each of us, mindful or not, sees our expectations of moving forward outpacing our actual performance. And the result is that we find ourselves mentally stuck or stalled in a, well, let’s call it a “crappy place”. But while it feels very real, it’s often just feeling and not fact. So ending up there once in a while is not necessarily something that has to be “fixed” right away.

Sounds crazy, right? Well, here’s the method behind my madness: If you can focus on maintaining a certain level of objectivity while you are in the middle of a mental maelstrom, you can actually get a lot more insight (about you & it) than if you were outside of it. Think about it: You get the benefits of being an objective observer as well as the benefits of being an active participant – kind of like being a war correspondent on the battlefield but without having to worry about being shot at.

So next time you find yourself mentally in a “crappy place”, don’t be too hard on yourself. Instead, enthusiastically seize the opportunity to learn something about how you operate on your deepest levels – it may be a little scary, but it’s a great way to uncover some of that hidden potential.

Nietzsche sums it up beautifully: “He possesses heart who knows fear but masters fear; who sees the abyss, but sees it with pride. He who sees the abyss, but with eagle’s eyes – he who grasps the abyss with an eagle’s claws: he possesses courage.”