Superconscious

Hot thoughts and cold thoughts are metaphors to how we react or respond to something. Eg we drop a plate and it smashes or someone cuts us off. Can you guess at the different kind of thoughts one might have and their metaphorical temperature? 

What is a thought anyway? Where do thoughts come from? These questions are of interest to scientists, philosophers, psychologists and many others. Research has mapped brain waves (see below) as well as mapping that the average person has between fifty-eighty thousand thoughts a day! A lot right?

Our thoughts (electric) trigger feelings (magnetic) in our limbic system creating emotions (e + motion = energy in motion). So, we have this electromagnetic field that is constantly changing based on our thoughts and feelings. This is why I (like many therapists) are obsessed with the questions: how does that make you feel? what thoughts do you have on that?

Our limbic system is like a chemist in our brain and we can buy lighter or more uplifting chemicals like Serotonin and Dopamine or sadder more stressful chemicals like Cortisol and Adrenaline.  But how can we ‘spend wisely’? Can we control our thoughts? Have you ever tried to stop thinking? How did that work out for you? Spoiler alert you can learn to control your mind.

Emotions provide clues to our thoughts. If you find yourself experiencing a heavier emotion ask yourself: What must I have being thinking in order to experience that emotion? 

There are some tools to control your mind and tools to work with the emotions. Thoughts and emotions interrelate as well as attitudes, beliefs, decisions and choices to create how we experience our lives.

We are going to explore these foundational topics and tools this Sunday in Intro to the Emotional Freedom Techniques. I will break this down and give lots of examples as well as you going home knowing how to do EFT or if you already know how to enhance your skills.

EFT is a springboard for knowing yourself more deeply, healing trauma and busting limiting beliefs that are not true and no longer serve.

EEGs map brain waves and have being conducted under a variety of conditions such as when people are awake, asleep, meditating, watching movies and even having sex.

Researches have discovered that most people experience Beta brain waves which relates to the fight or flight state (a stress state brought on by real or perceived danger). The slower waves of alpha and delta require our bodies to be in rest and digest otherwise known as breed or feed (a natural state for humans to be in when no real or perceived danger is present). While being in a relaxed state is natural unfortunately it is not normal with people experiencing epidemic levels of stress which causes huge social impacts.

Thoughts that have dystopic scary futures like, ‘What if I lose my job? or ‘What if the rug gets pulled out from underneath me some other way?’ cause high levels of stress, anxiety and even panic. This is all over a perceived danger. This kind of thinking is often caused by a belief and childhood experience of something going wrong a time where the rug was pulled out from underneath you. So you are on high alert and may have a limiting belief ‘I have to be on the look out / all good things come to an end’ and this may no longer be serving you.

It is very valuable to become a detective of your own subconscious! Which is why the question: What must I have being thinking to experience this emotion? is helpful. What are your thoughts, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, decisions and choices?

EFT teaches you to know thyself to look at what you feel, where you feel it and what happened in order to be free of it. It’s not a fluffy walk in the park but it is effective. 

The best ways to begin to know your mind and slow down is to spend ten minutes a day observing your thoughts and also to turn your attention to your breathing. Please email me or like superconscious on facebook to access many exercises. EFT is also fantastic and can be learnt in 5 minutes (however it takes a lot longer to master). I hope to see you at my next free EFT workshop.

A group of Cherokee children gathered around their grandfather. They are filled with excitement and curiosity. That day there had been a quite tumultuous conflict between two adults and their grandfather was called to mediate. The children are eager to hear what he has to say about it. One of the children pops the question that puzzles him. “Grandfather, why do people fight?”. “Well” the old man replies “we all have two wolves inside us, you see. They are in our chest. And these wolves are constantly fighting each other”. The eyes of the children have grown big by now. “In our chests too, grandfather?” asks another child. “And in your chest too?” asks a third one. He nods, “yes, in my chest too”. He surely has their attention now. Grandfather continues. “There is a white wolf and a black wolf. The black wolf is filled with fear, anger, envy, jealousy, greed, and arrogance. The white wolf is filled with peace, love, hope, courage, humility, compassion, and faith. They battle constantly”. Then he stops. It’s the child that asked the initial question that can’t handle the tension anymore. “But grandfather, which wolf wins?”. The old Cherokee simply replies, “the one that we feed”.

Which wolf are you feeding?

A synergy exists where the whole is greater than its parts or in other words when a group of people come together and focus on a goal the impact is far greater than individuals alone. Eg. having a gym buddy or doing a course with a friend.

Please enjoy a talk I gave on synergy as part of a Self Mastery online course it goes deep into the topic. I give details about how you can consciously or unconsciously create synergies in a simple conversation that impact relationships. I talk about synergies I have observed on film sets and other workplaces. And finish with the 5 top tips to being a constructive part of a synergies and thereby increasing its power. 

Do you ever get decision fatigue? If you are a parent or in a leadership role or even a human who has to eat you have probably experienced decision fatigue at one time or another. Have you seen how many jams there are to choose from in the market!?!

I know some couples who dread the question, so what do you want to eat? (haha).

I know there are some times when I have being directing or producing when what I crave is to go home, meditate with the lights off and create some time and space to just be…. without making a single decision. Yet I know that having free will, knowing what I what, making choices is essential to empowerment….

and practise makes perfect…..

So as many times as possible in my day before beginning a new task I get centred, ask myself what I want and imagine what it is like to live that vision. I have a five step process if you would like to know more please email for the link. 

There are also situations when you may be presented with two choices and either option may be appealing or seem challenging. When you are two awesome option but can only choose one that is what I call a beautiful problem. What about the two challenging options? Or when you need to make a decision that makes you ponder on your codes of ethics and sense of integrity.

Below is an exercise that engages both your logical / rationale conscious mind, and your intuitive, creative subconscious mind. If it resonance with you give it a go and let me know what your experience is. 

1.Take a deep breath and centre yourself.
2. Write your challenge in detail (around a page).
3. Condense that to a paragraph
4. Condense that to a sentence
5. Condense that to a word or image
6. Get yourself into a meditative state. I suggest using a singing bowl if you have one and listen to the bell or watch your breath for five minutes or look at nature for a few minutes (clouds, the ocean, fire / a candle, non-verbal music)
7. Set a timer for 5 minutes and meditate on the word or image you choose.
8. Write what insights came to you in the meditation period. You may receive images, thoughts, etc. Start with a sentence, expand to a paragraph and continue writing if you feel you have more to express.
9. Enjoy the clarity and take action.

What is love? What does it mean to you? Perhaps you have different definitions for romantic love, platonic love and universal love? Perhaps you have not contemplated the different meanings of love?

Many of my clients have worked with me to process and release emotions such as grief, hopelessness and depression that arise from the break down or break up from a relationship.

I have deep empathy for this because I personally discovered Emotional Freedom Techniques after a period of failed attempts to heal grief after a break down of a relationship.

Back in 2013 after an unexpected break up, I was so sad I couldn’t stop crying and I couldn’t seem to control my mind the way I had been able to, as I had been taught for many years. I used ALL the techniques I had been studying for 15 years (meditations, cutting the ties that bind, energy clearing, screaming into a pillow, mantras, mindfulness, breath work, dream work, bioenergetics, hypnosis, making pain my teacher and friend, reframing, surrendering and more!)

I knew how important it was to control my mind. I knew from many experiences that the inside creates the outside. I knew the power of my thoughts. Yet all my attempts were like holding two hands up to a tsunami of emotion. The tears flowed until…..

I got a ping, an email from Jenny Johnson (one of my EFT mentors) about level one of The Emotional Freedom Techniques. ‘Gee’ that’s what I need right now! I went to the course and had a session from Jenny and I realised what was underlying the grief was a childhood event that was causing an emotional resonance. With the support of Jenny I was able to clear the grief!

I felt amazing. The heavy weight had been lifted and I could return to creating my life.

Since then I have been a strong advocate of the Emotional Freedom Techniques and trained until I had mastery of EFT. I continue to work with my other tools such as counselling, hypnotherapy, metaphysical teaching – all pointing towards the same intentions of conscious reality creation.

I believe you create your reality consciously or unconsciously so you either do it or it is done to you. I know it sounds like a lot, especially if you are living a creation you don’t like. But the good news is, if you are responsible for it (and avoid blaming) you have the power to change it! 

I have learnt that when we are emotionally overwhelmed it can be very challenging to feel empowered and creative. I deeply support EFT as a very powerful tool to calm the tsunami of emotion, get to know yourself more deeply, to sit in truth and get to a place where you can create powerfully. 

There is a difference between everyday love and universal love. Many clients and friends tell me of the deep pain and dysfunction patterns that arise (as opposed to success patterns) that are often justified by statements like “but I love him / her / them”.

Some people stay in abusive relationships because of this kind of reasoning or similar. As you will hear in the video below ‘love’ is one of the most manipulated words on the planet….

Eg. If you love me you would…. x/y/z

Because I love you x/y/z

The truth is love is a universal energy, a vibration that relates to unity and oneness. 

It is often felt as a warmth and expansion in your chest. Often it is felt when a person falls in love but it is an energy you can tune into at any moment… 

It is like building a fire. If you grab and focus on one thought of unity, kindness, gratitude, oneness these are like the twigs / kindling before long you can use the winds of your concentration to create roaring warmth. Admittedly, when the wood is wet it is more challenging. That is why I love EFT as a powerful tool to assist you on your journey.

Imagine what the world would be like if we could share the love we have for those closest to us with the whole world and ourselves.

An important part of EFT is the set up statement:

“Even though [insert challenge] I deeply and completely love and accept myself x3“

Many people find loving and accepting themselves difficult because they have ingested the 3 most common beliefs from 0-21 I am not good enough, I don’t have enough, I don’t know enough.

Other reasons people find it hard to love themselves is because they find their behaviour unacceptable – they are very hard on themselves and I often tell people to put the stick away and stop beating yourself up please! Would you talk to a little child the way you talk to yourself?

Some people believe they won’t change if they love and accept themselves. Yet it is the subconscious mind that dictates behaviour and the limiting beliefs that are held that control a lot of the destruction.

I suggest that if you work towards and adopt the belief that you are loveable and acceptable change can and will happen. Healing is a process and not an event. I encourage you to watch he below video from one of my courses.

If you need to enter a password to see video, use “love”

I’m not good enough. I don’t know enough. I don’t have enough (time, money, etc,). Not many people escape the first 21 years without one one these limiting beliefs been strongly programmed into their subconscious where they quietly lurk sabotaging your conscious goals until you decide hey wait a minute I keep repeating the same dang pattern over and over. Maybe something deeper is at play? 

For all those who have suddenly found themselves with more time than ever before (which is probably everyone) you may be discovering that the things you ‘didn’t have time for’ have deeper reasons you didn’t engage in them. You may be discovering or creating new reasons – ‘I don’t have the motivation’, ‘I don’t have the energy’. I would like to suggest you keep looking and going deeper into the why. What limiting beliefs could you change? Look to your thoughts and feelings for clues. For more info on how to do this get in touch with me for a video link and password to a 20 minute talk I recorded.

We have an infinite amount of space and time. Time seems to be limited but time is so dependent on our consciousness. Time can fly or drag depending on our perception. When we dream or meditate we enter a timeless realm a space in which time in non-linear. You may be feeling powerless right now because you have no idea how long your reality will be ‘restricted’. I would like to remind you, you are more powerful than you have ever been told and your ‘prison’ can be your liberation. 

A final thought is on the gratitude that is often a result of a restriction. When we fast or go through something uncomfortable physically or otherwise the joy and gratitude we feel for food and comfort is immense. I travelled for a month without having hot water or a shower (I was using cold water and two buckets) this was over 8 years ago and I still feel gratitude for showers every time I have one. 

A master is someone who turns any situation into better than if it never occurred. To all those on a self mastery journey I wish you happy turning. Diamonds are formed under pressure. 

Yesterday after I got out of the ocean, I went to the ocean tap to rinse the sand off my feet. It is one of those taps that you press in and as the pressure releases the water flow shuts off. The one at my local beach has a very short length of water flow and I have to press if a few times to get the sand off. Grrrrrrr! Am I right?

Well, it all depends on my perception and deception filters.

It all depends on how I am choosing to see the tap. 

One of the foundational exercises I suggest for people to do is to watch their thoughts for ten minutes a day, for 7 days in a row.

Once you have an awareness of what you are thinking you can choose different thoughts. It might go something like this…

Inner monologue:  That was such a beautiful swim, I am so grateful I could enjoy that, my feet are sandy, oh great the tap is free, f**k you tap the stream is so short, how annoying, now I have to press it again, ugh so much effort….. hold up…… why am I angry?, take a deep breath, ahhh, okay [to thought] – thank you but no thank you, I choose to be grateful for that tap, I live in a society that has put that tap their to remove the sand, how kind.

You could go on and on with lots of gratitude…

Inner monologue: it is so great to have a tap to wash my feet, and feet to wash, to be in a peaceful society with taps, wow somebody invented that tap and that pressure system to conserve water, people care about the environment, many people are inventors, we have so much ability as humans, this suburb and council is amazing, etc.

Every thought we have sets off a pulse of electricity in the brain that triggers a neurochemical reaction that we experience as emotion. Eg. “f**k you tap” = cortisol = anger Vs “I love you tap” = serotonin or oxytocin = love / gratitude / happiness.

It is through our power of choice at the level of thought that we can begin to make new choices and new neural pathways and actually make ourselves feel good. It’s as though there is a chemist in our brain, our thoughts are dollars and we can buy antidepressants. 

There are so many other ways to make changes with various healing tools, going deep into our subconscious, working on our attitudes, beliefs, imagination, etc. Yet I would like to suggest working with thought is a fantastic way especially if you feel out of control in your life or of yourself or if you are feeling low energy.  You can influence and control your mind even if everything around you seems out of control. In the opening line of one of my favourite fiction books, Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts writes:

“IT TOOK ME a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured. I realised, somehow, through the screaming in my mind, that even in that shackled, bloody helplessness, I was still free: free to hate the men who were torturing me, or to forgive them. It doesn’t sound like much, I know. But in the flinch and bite of the chain, when it’s all you’ve got, that freedom is a universe of possibility. And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.”

In order to choose a different thought you have to have an awareness of what you are thinking. You can develop that by watching your thoughts or paying attention to what you are feeling. If you feel angry or sad ask yourself what have I just been thinking? Once you get good at watching your thoughts (if you are not there already) you can work with the statements “thank you but no thank you I choose” or “Delete, delete, delete, I choose” Or “Cancel, cancel, cancel, I choose”.

Many of my mentors and some people I know have gone beyond thought, they exist in constant present moment awareness. And this is a respectable endeavour. However, most people have 50-80 thousand thoughts a day and are looking to make some changes in their lives. So watching thoughts and working with thoughts can be used in conjunction with present moment meditation eg focusing on breath and the practise of ‘being here now’ and ‘loving what is’. By the way, these statements work well as a mantra for a run away mind seducing you in ever increasing spirals of negativity.

The vital reminder here is you are a free will being. You have the sovereign power to use your power of thought to influence your feelings, and actions. I encourage you to ask yourself what you want and remind you, you have the power to create. 

After a long break I reconnected with the producer on one of the documentaries I am working on about the book, The Heroine’s Journey and women’s psychological and spiritual journeys through life. We talked about our whys and soul missions in life. It was so uplifting and joyful to go through this at a time when we both needed it. Making feature documentaries has so far called up in me a lot of resilience. Most feature documentaries take between 2 – 5 years from conception to release and some up to 20 years! Before taking on a project I ask myself will I still care about this issue so passionately in 5 years? Am I passionate enough to keep going even if I get 100 nos? 

Often times when we are creating a project or experience it’s like flying a kite – if the conditions are right we just have to run fast and hard once and the kite soars. Once that initial effort has passed it is a matter of gentle guidance. It is very enjoyable. Sometimes though, the conditions are not favourable such as little wind. In these times it is easy for us to forget why flying the kite was so important, to get tired and give up. I love the motto, “when you are tired, rest, don’t quit.” In these times of rest, of pause we can remind ourselves of our why, reconnect to our joy in the process and outcome, remember our passion, and rejuvenate our energy through self nurturance. These processes of realignment can change our course, redirect us back to a success pattern where we are aligned with what we wanted to create and our chosen purpose.

So whether you are creating a long term or short term project, or a healthy, vibrant relationship with yourself or another or others, or healing some deep seated trauma – if you are feeling a bit tired or over it and ready to flip the table or through the towel in – I invite you realign with your purpose and passion. I invite you to recognise (= re + cognition / re-think) your ability to create.

As hidden in Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam we have the power to create within our brains – our thoughts, our imagination. I invite you to get back in touch with the reasons you started on your journey.

What was the change you wanted to make? 

What was the experience you wanted to have?

Keep coming back to the questions: Who am I? What do I really want? And why do I want it? What would it be like if I had it?

Vision boards, mind movies or quotes on your computer home screen are other great tools for realignment something you can watch or see daily to remind you of your dreams, goals, and project outcomes.

Beliefs either liberate us or limit us. But some of the time we are not even conscious of our beliefs. They are subconscious and come from things we were told or observed as children. I invite you to shine a light on these shadows and make the unconscious conscious. 

This month I facilitated two tapping circles and the last one was incredible. We started by tapping with one of the participants who had a belief “I don’t appreciate things”. She also believed “I can create anything I want”. How this was turning up was she had created a lot of success in her life but could not hold onto to it as she would end up in self sabotage. She was anxious at a crossroad wanting to create but afraid of not been able to enjoy and maintain. Through the powerful tools of the emotional freedom technique she discovered where this began as a young girl hearing repeated messages “You don’t appreciate things / me / etc”. This message had become internalised. What we believe turns up in our lives as thoughts, feelings, experiences and the ways in which we can view reality through our perception and deception filters.

How do you interpret your reality? And how does that effect your choices especially what you are willing to explore and go after?

Gary Craig one of the founders of EFT used the metaphors of the palace of possibilities and the writing on the walls. He says we have so much potential we have hundreds of rooms we could explore but we stay in one room limited by the writing on the walls. The writing on the walls has been written by our parents, siblings, culture, school teachers, religions etc things like no pain, no gain, you’re not enough, that room is only for certain people not us / you, you can’t go in there to do art you will starve., etc. 

Please watch the below video for further explanation and a short guided meditation to erase your writing on the walls and choose to write new beliefs and see how your life transforms. 

Where your focus goes energy grows. Last week I had a dream I was drawing a circle of light on the floor and when I did that the floor changed qualities and you could move through it to the other side. I was telling another person you have to maintain your focus. Then I started to go through the hole but I lost focus and got stuck! 

One of my mentor would always say, “take a deep breath and become a 100% focused”. The mind training he passed on has served me very well. This month I wanted to share two videos I made about focus and imagination.

Anger is like fire it can get out of control and be very destructive or it can serve a purpose. As an energy anger is neither good nor bad. Consider e/motion containing e + motion = energy + motion…..

When we allow energy to move it can be processed and released. However, there are tendencies for emotions to get stuck in two main ways…..

1 – suppressing or repressing emotion

2 – wallowing in an emotion

To process and release the emotions is to give permission for movement. I would like to offer you a few suggestions when you are faced with a build up of intense energy.

First and foremost do your best to relax, relax, relax. Sometimes, the first emotion that needs to be processed is the fear of being overwhelmed by the emotions. (If you have fear and there are deep or complex issues it would be beneficial to get support through an EFT or other healing session. Eg clean your own teeth but go to a dentist for root canal.  Get in touch for support.) 

If we fear our emotions we may run away from them with addictions and distractions. This is an indicator of the first tendency of repression. If this is you, after you clear any fear,  becoming aware of what you feel in your body by moving your conscious awareness out of your head and into your body is a fantastic practise. 

You might notice your jaw is clenched, you are holding muscular tension, your palms become sweaty, or your breathing shallow, or your body might become hot. If we are in our heads and not feeling our feelings sometimes we don’t notice our feelings at all. Just acknowledging you are getting angry or are angry can provide movement.

If you tend towards the second option of wallowing then engaging your rational right brain  such  as naming the emotions and its source(s) helps to process the enormity / depth of the feeling state. 

Contemplation to investigate the thoughts and beliefs that relate to the anger is helpful for both tendencies. It can also reveal subconscious anger that is often buried because we feel we don’t have a right to have it. 

Looking deeper into anger we can find two root causes. One is a sense of unfairness and the other is a sense of powerlessness. 

Let’s compare guilt and anger as they both can reveal the ways in which we are thinking about fairness. Guilt relates to thinking we have done something unfair to someone else. Anger relates to feeling someone has done something unfair to us.

How do we know if it is really unfair? It can be valuable to dig deeper and ask is the story I am telling myself true? Is this behaviour / event really unfair? Eg. if you feel guilt for not cleaning the beach for one day and you have been cleaning it every day for years or if you feel angry for not getting flowers twice a day from your lover there may be some underlying beliefs to question.

On the other hand, you may ask the question – Have I really been unfair? And get a yes. Or you may ask – Have they been really unfair to me? And get a yes. This is your emotion giving you a signal to take action. E.G. Communicate and request changes for more justice and fairness or in the case you have been unfair make a mends. 

Many people say, ‘Seeing is believing’ but consider the opposite, ‘Believing is seeing’. What we believe to be true is often what we attract. If we believe life is ‘drab and grey’ (insert any belief about life) then we find ourselves in these situations either because they really are ‘drab and grey’ or we are perceiving them to be ‘drab and grey’. And this is where powerlessness often comes in.

If we believe there is nothing we can do eg ‘it is what it is’ that we have no choices then we can get overwhelmed with anger (or sadness). 

The truth is we are creators. We create. We create all kinds of experiences and things. Anything can be turned into a lesson, lead into gold, lemon into lemonades. Even when it seems we have no choice or ability to create we have the freedom to create our perception and to choose our thoughts.

Contemplate the last time you felt angry…. Did you feel powerless? Was something unfair? Was it truly unfair or did you just perceive it that way? Is there a communication, boundary or choice that can change it? Is there any way of viewing it with fresh eyes?

I remind you, you are a powerful creator. You do have a choice in what you think, feel and believe. Beliefs can either limit us or liberate us and essentially we are making it all up so you may as well make up ones that serve you. 

I know that when we feel overpowered by depression, anxiety, anger, rage or other intense energy the abilities to choose beliefs or consciously create reality seems out of reach. This is why I am an advocate of emotional processing tools such as EFT/Tapping, breathing techniques, writing techniques, movement techniques and other tools to move stuck energy. Thus freeing up energy to remember or awaken your power and your abilities to create. 

What kind of fire do you want your anger to be? One that teaches you and warms you or fire that gets out of control?