MOODS: CHANGING THEM

 I think that it is possible to change and shift perceptions moment to moment with a clear intent to do so.  I think we can be in charge of changing our moods, and fretting, and worry.   I think that it is not only possible, but easy. 

In the past, I had come to believe many things that I no longer am trapped by.  I can now move from anger to listening.  I can step back from reacting if I want to.  I can hold space for you or anyone, rather than make them wrong, if I decide to.

I can free myself from being at the effect of people around me......all the time.  I can always always be aware.   

Our bodies have taken on the habits and familiar responses to everything, and even our cellular parts have absorbed the belief that this is "the only way to be, feel and react."   How silly, me thinks.

Anytime I notice (and notice is the key word), that I am tense, not breathing, running a familiar scene in my head, I can pause, breath and do something different.....like hold space for what is taking place without reacting.   That would be acting from the Tao, the spirit, the sacred way.  And shifting my familiar justified feeling to simply being present, can feel like climbing the highest mountain, barefoot, in the snow, in the dark, hungry and scared and naked.

 We already do this some of the time, don't we?  Yes, we do.Just need more reminder.   All the interactions with people, the discomforts, the disturbances, the blame and frustration and judgment of ourselves, is what we learned from the everyday world.

I and we can step back from that learning every day, every moment.By writing this to you, I am writing this to me.   As Jonah said to me in Taos, "You think I am standing in front of you.  I am standing behind you so that you can learn about this part of yourself." 

Maybe that is what Love looks like.   It is less a romantic thing then a way of being. 

FREE FROM BEING RIGHT

We can end and dissolve personal conflicts with anyone immediately.  Conflict ends when one person steps back.  Deciding that I do not have to be right, defend my position, or explain my actions, can end any conflict, or simply avoid the conflict.   

I do not give up anything.  I do not win or lose anything.  I do not shy away from confrontation.  I simply decide I do not have to be right. Instead, I replace my familiar need to defend, explain and make my point, with listening and hearing the other person, determined to see "through their eyes" seeing what they are seeing, believing and feeling.  

 We can leave behind the learned process of standing our ground, and holding an emotional position, even though every physical body sensation, and reaction, is to do what we have always done.....make sure we are right and understood.  

  Or, the inspiration to be free of old stories, need to react, or even be understood, can bring immediate emotional relief, a lightness of tension, and bring inspiration to do it again, with the next potential conflict. 

  Adding the ingredient of holding no expectation of others, and a willingness to be free of making someone else wrong, or placing blame, brings immediate internal peace.  And more often, if not expected, the other person will join you, releasing their need to be right, and apprecaite having been heard, maybe for the first time in their life.  They might even apologize, or not.  Why practice this?  To be a bit more connected to others, no matter who they are.