Yesterday I had a BIG experience which has created a twist in my gut all night. Someone told me that I was "tactless" and "niave" to be saying how good I felt on my social networks and blog despite the pain of others. I was shocked since this has all been my self-therapy to reach my own happy-place without any thought of what has been labelled by others as, "gloating". I am amazed. Why isn't it okay to feel good and shout it from the rooftops once you have actually managed to turn your despair into joy?
Abraham's Take on the Emotions: A GPS
Abraham is a non-physical entity channeled by Esther Hicks. She is the author of multiple best selling books on the topic of the Law of Attraction, and has been touring the country with her work for the last 20 years. Abraham, through Esther, suggests that we all have an Inner Being, a true essence of who we are, who communicates to us through emotions. Emotions are powerful magnetic attractors which are like a GPS indicating how close we are to our Inner Being - the mysterious place of alignment which connects us with the All That Is. Abraham provides us with a tangible scale to evaluate where we are using our
emotional guidance system.
Emotions on this scale are neither labelled "good" or "bad", they are simply information from our inner being about how to feel good. By pinpointing where we are on this emotional scale we can take deliberate action to move upwards towards a place of health and vitality. By deliberately choosing better feeling thoughts we can consciously move up the scale from despair to joy. Her first and primary book, "Ask and It is Given", shares this philosophy in detail, along with 22 Processes which can be used to uplevel the vibrance of your thoughts.
Just even looking at the scale has been VERY useful for me to do several times throughout the day. Sometimes I notice that I am actually much lower on the scale than I imagined, so I take deliberate action to "get happy". I do this because it feels good to me when I am happy. I am more productive, functional, uplifted, and enjoying life. When I am higher on the scale, good things happen to me more frequently, I meet just the right people at the right time, I experience more miracles, I laugh more and feel gratitude for being alive. Things I dream about for "one day" happen. Things I want to manifest appear. It is amazing. Honestly, I will do just about anything to get happy. Writing exercises, affirmations, exercise, hooping, meditation, laughter yoga, whatever. It is my life practice to master every possible way I can to feel good!
What Does the Emotional Guidance Scale Look Like?
Here is what the emotional guidance scale looks like ~(note the numbers are just keeping this organized and easy to reference)
1. Joy/Empowerment/Freedom/Love/Appreciation
2. Passion
3. Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness
4. Positive Expectation
5. Optimism
6. Hopefulness
7. Contentment
8. Boredom
9. Pessimism
10. Frustration/Irritation/Impatience
11. "Overwhelment"
12. Disappointment
13. Doubt
14. Worry
15. Blame
16. Discouragement
17. Anger
18. Revenge
19. Hatred/Rage
20. Jealousy
21. Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness
22. Fear/Grief/Depression/Despair/Powerlessness
One important note of this philosophy is that emotions are really not "good or bad". They are just a handy indicator one can use for reference to notice how close or far away we are allowing ourselves to be from Source. So when someone who was feeling deep despair is suddenly feeling anger, it is actually a good thing, because it means they have progressed upwards closer to joy!
I myself have been fluctuating a lot along this scale. Many times I have been sobbing in despair, even just this last week - even yesterday! Then I suddenly had the urge to say something spiteful soon afterwards. In the past I would have judged that. Now I am trying to just acknowledge it is part of an upward climb and do breathing meditation through the urge (instead of acting on it, which I generally regret). Then I make a deliberate choice to do an exercise to move the energy to a better feeling place by choosing better feeling thoughts.
How to Change Your Emotional Set Point
Two exercises to uplevel thoughts (which can be seen in my blog and social networks) are "Rampages of Appreciation" and "Focus Wheels". I share them publicly because it feels good to broadcast when I have successfully transformed struggle into elation. Also, when I do, I generally hear from people that they are very helpful because others are often exploring ways to emotionally uplevel.
Anyways, these are super simple exercises and I will share them here. Again, more guided description is in Ask and it is Given.
Rampage of Appreciation
In a
Rampage of Appreciation, you look around at your environment and notice what pleases you. You choose to focus your thoughts on one specific pleasing thing and allow your attention to become completely engaged. You look deeply and think of all the different things you appreciate and love about this thing. By writing about how pleasing and wonderful it is, you actually notice your positive feelings increasing overall. I usually write about a paragraph. I have done this simple exercise with my wood beam ceiling, my plants, the sunshine and other simple everyday things. It has been life changing. Here is an example of one of my rampages of appreciation:
On Sunshine: I love the sun! I so appreciate this massive ball of warmth and gleaming light which rises and sets every day of my life. I love the colors of the sun -- the oranges, reds and even whites. I adore the exansiveness of the sun in the sky -- it is such a glorious and predictable friend in my life. I adore her heat! She always warms me... I love the feeling of the sun on my bare skin (with sunblock!) and enjoy how she helps all the living plants grow and expand into their highest potential of fruits and blooms. I love the sunrise, when lightness and brightness arises where before, there was darkness. I love sunsets, the warmness of the colors, how the clouds can become purple and orange and all the wonderful sweetness of the change. I love watching the sun go down on the ocean, and how the water reflects the light. I love the sun's gift of inspiration, joy and hopeful courage. When I am in sunlight, I feel energized, active and ready to grow into my highest essence. Thank you! I am so grateful for the wonderful, wonderful sun!!!
I try to write at least one of these per day, among other feel good exercises.
Focus Wheels
The other type of exercise which you can see the results of in my social networking are called
Focus Wheels. A focus wheel functions on the scientific fact that once you hold a thought firmly in your mind for 17 seconds, another thought of the same quality generally appears next. We can use this to our advantage by becoming much more selective about the thoughts we have. This exercise can be used when we are actually feeling emotional difficulty and want to deliberatly change our emotional set-point to experience relief.
In a Focus Wheel, you first choose the ideal way of thinking which you want to have about whatever situation is troubling you. No matter how far away it feels in the realm of possibility, allow yourself to imagine the best feeling thought you can possibly imagine having about the situation. You begin by writing this in the center of a piece of paper, in a circle. Next, you create 12 circles surrounding this central idea at each of the 12 locations of the hours around a clock. Begin by trying to think of a thought which provides some relief from where you currently are. Here is an example
Thought trying to change: I feel fat.
Thought in center which I want to get to: I love my beautiful body!
First attempt at a thought of relief: I used to be thin.
You notice that this thought actually causes more negativity than relief because when you think it you begin to feel bad that you are no longer thin.
Second attempt at a thought of relief: My mom is thin.
You notice that this thought also provides no relief because now you feel inadequate next to her.
Third attempt at a thought of relief: I know I can make positive changes in my life.
You notice that this third statement actually provides a tangible feeling of relief and so you write it it your first circle at 12 O "Clock and focus on it intently for 17 seconds, noticing which thoughts come next which feel good.
You may notice a string of similar thoughts are some searching. Slowly, after identifying the best feeling thought and writing it in a circle and focusing on it for 17 seconds, you end up with a focus wheel like this:
I have made amazing changes in my body in the past so I know I am capable.
I am doing more exercise so that is a good thing.
I am choosing to eat more vegetables and I know that is benefiting me.
I don't have to change myself overnight, it is okay if this takes some time.
What's important is that I have chosen to feel good and to take at least one action a day.
It will be fun when I can buy some new clothes because I am so skinny!
I am going to feel more energized, healthy and joyous!
This is going to be a fun process.
Maybe I'll make some new healthy friends.
I'm loving this process of being a conscious creator!
I love my body. I know we are a team and together, we can do this!
I love focus wheels! When I actually have the discipline to be able to do them, I notice my entire perspective instantaneously changes. What a gift.
The Importance of Feeling Good and Social Networks
All of this finally brings me back around to the topic of this blog: the importance of feeling good, and my gut wrench around being labelled "gloating" when posting in social networks when I have good feelings. I guess you could say that I am so completely self absorbed in my own healing process that this didn't crossed my mind! While some may think sharing joy when others are miserable is poor taste, I choose to view it as positive, indicating there are wider possibilities to consciously choose a fun life experience.
Abraham, through Esther, shares that those who are vibrating lower on the emotional scale will positively despise those who are feeling great because the vibration of joy is so completely unrecognizable. She actually suggests refraining from conversations with those at completely different vibrational set points where you talk about how great you feel because they will (with justice) find you so completely irritating that they feel like you are driving them completely crazy.
The interesting thing about this situation is that social networks are a one-way conversation. There is no holding back from speaking around some people who are miserable and choosing to speak only to the happy people. When you blog, Tweet, or post a Facebook one-liner, everyone in your network (in my case- all 840 in my Facebook and all 444 in my Twitter account) instantaneously view it. I don't tailor all my entries to accommodate one specific person or community and their emotions. I tailor my entries to uplevel my own emotions.
In the end, I am sorry that this has caused confusion, anger, bewilderment and apparent agony. All I want to do is share love and be happy. We are each making our way in the best way possible. I am doing my best at choosing joy and I hope to spend time with others who want to play with me in these realms. My lesson in all of this: from now on, I will whisper my joy in lower case instead of shouting it in capital letters. I'll turn down the volume, but I won't change the essence of who I have worked so hard to become.
I welcome feedback on this blog entry, btw! This has been a challenging topic to write about for me for multiple reasons and I am open to hearing new ideas and growing...
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