A

Objective: To understand how to create peace of mind and transform fear into creativity.

Character A: Worth = Tough Love

Worth is pretty confident that if we have divinity inside of us than we can understand it by observing our own simple self-repeating ability to consciously choose.

Let's begin by laying our foundation.

If we are going to understand how to create peace of mind than we have to define what we are making.
In order to define what we are making we have to fit peace of mind within the context of reality. Since our minds are at the center of our reality, we must begin there.
Being at the center of my existence, what do I know to be absolutely true?
1. Now is all that exists.
  1. 1 pm happens now. 2 pm happens now. 3 pm happens now. I literally can’t escape right now. It’s eternally now forever.
2. The only constant from my point of view is change
  1. My heart is always beating. My breath is always breathing. My mind is always moving. I think we get the idea - change is constant.
  2. Without the stillness of now, the illusion of time would not exist. Time or the measurment of change does not exist without the relative backdrop of stillness.
    1. Form moves through space
    2. Heads and tails exist on the same coin.
    3. Ying and Yang
3. Can you think of any other absolute truths without zooming in on change? Besides the fact that we exist.
Using these three ideas our simple defination of Peace of mind is being comfortable right now in the middle of constant change.
Based on this definition and the knowledge that there are two states of emotion that all other emotion are built on top of we can also define love and fear. We know our hearts are always beating with more love or more fear. Coherence or incoherence. We'll see this in a ted later. so…
1. Love is defined as being comfortable right now in the middle of constant change
  1. Love and comfort are a natural expression of Peace.
2. Fear is defined as being uncomfortable right now in the middle of constant change.
  1. It’s reactionary. It’s an automatic response to change. It’s fight, flight, freeze. It’s our subconscious working for us. It’s unconscious. So…
If we want to create peace of mind we have to transform the unconscious part of our mind that has learned to be uncomfortable into comfort, into consciousness. We have to grow conscious. We are left with 2 questions.
1. How do we grow conscious?
2. Why is it so difficult?

OK, this is our foundation. Does it make sense? Now, in order to answer our first question - How do we grow conscious? - we'll need an internal tool. Part two will outline the qualities of awareness to see if we can discover transformation there.

Outline

Imagine Possibility

B

Sub-objective: How do we grow conscious?

Character C: Enthusiasm = Man is nothing without his tool

If you want to walk 2,600 miles from Mexico to Canada or make any other unreasonable badass dream come true, learn how to choose to create enthusiasm. Enthusiasm makes the hardest challenges bearable and it’s contagious. It's a practice like yoga. It's not always easy but you sure do feel better afterwards.

If we are going to grow conscious we're going to need a tool. (Note: The words consciousness, awareness and attention are used interchangeably in this outline and performance.)

If emotional discomfort is an expression of fear and an internal experience we will need an internal tool to feel better.
In other words, we are looking for something that already exists inside of us that has the quality to transform. Let’s break down the qualities of our self-awareness to see if we can find transformation there.
1. Can my awareness fixate on a point/multiple points
  1. Example: Can you fixate your attention on your nose?
    1. Now point your attention at your right big toe at the same time.
2. Is my awareness expansive?
  1. Can you feel your body in between your nose and big toe?
  2. Can you expand your awareness outside of your body to watch a film?
3. Can my awareness get lost in things/go on a ride of emotion?
  1. Have you watched a movie lately?
    1. Have you gone on a scary movie ride, lately?
  2. Maybe your best coping skill for life is getting lost in your phone, work, music. Do you get lost in things because being present is uncomfortable?
  3. Can awareness detach from things that it is not?
    1. If you don’t want to feel scared at the movies you can choose to detach and walk out. Or just detach and sit there with the thought: Why is being afraid entertaining?
      1. Enthusiasm doesn’t understand why we’d want to choose to be afraid.
4. Awareness transforms:
  1. Did you know that a conscious being chose to create the movie with the intention to capture your attention and transform your emotional body into a roller coaster of thrill and mystery?
  2. Let's look at another example. Your nephew timmy is aware that you are walking down the hall blind and unconscious to his whereabouts so he jumps out and scares you. You transform into a blubbering, screaming idiot for 2 seconds before you take a breath and let go of the false fearful reaction that your subconscious initiates.
    1. If somebody has more awareness of you than you do they can manipulate and transform you. Sometimes we allow this to happen intentionally in order to experience pleasure. Sometimes we don't know it's happening. The best defense from fear based manipulation is to know yourself better than anyone else. Do you? We can also experience conscious transformation by looking at a concept called...
  3. Stream of Consciousness. Stream of Awareness. I’m doing it right now while I’m transforming this document into an outline. Boom!
    1. The more relaxed you are, the easier it is to stream consciousness. The more comfortable you are with being vulnerable, the easier it is to stream consciousness. The more you practice disattaching from your uncomfortable emotion so that it may pass, the easier it becomes to stream joy - which by the way - is the most fun stream to experience.
Let’s watch somebody transform themselves live with science and put some of these ideas into context. Woo Hoo!

Now that we have watched somebody use the qualities of awareness to transform themselves with choice we come to our second question: Why is it so difficult to do? In other words, if we can consciously choose joy and gain access to highest capacity for thinking why don't we? This is the question we'll discuss inside letter C.

Let's experience our tool!

C

Sub-objective: If can gain access to highest capacity for thinking by choosing joy why don't we?

Character C : Logic = Story. The part of our mind that creates logic also creates story. Logic follows directions and doesn’t really think for himself. Because logic is direction oriented we have to check to make sure our logic is pointed in the right direction. If it’s not pointed in the right direction we will eventually suffer when our logical sand castle dissolves.

Introduction to outline C

If we have the ability to choose joy and gain access to our highest capacity for thinking why don’t we?

In other words, why does the depressed human commit suicide? Why does the anxious human live with belief that they cannot heal? Why is the majority of the population content with a greed fueled financial system? Why does the hate filled terrorist strap a bomb to there body and run into a concert hall? If we live in a free society why aren’t we educated in school to recognize the dangerous effects of fear based propaganda?

At first these questions may not seem linked, it is my hope that through this work we can recognize that these questions are linked and as result so are there solutions.

I encourage you after watching the Byron Katie video below to spend time thinking about these two ideas.

If I am alive and self-aware than everything there is to know about life can be discovered there. In other words, by studying both the qualities of my awareness and the life that it inhabits, I can understand the great problems of our age.
If my external reality has patterns like gravity, lift, and acceleration that I can understand in order to create an airplane than maybe I can understand my internal patterns of fear, love and consciousness to create peace and poetry.

I’d encourage you to continue on your journey of self-exploration by watching as many Byron Katie videos as possible. When the resource section comes around you can find my favorites there. If you’d like to read the patterns that I’ve discovered about my mind, studying fear from the inside out, you’ll discover them below the video under the subheading Outline #3 : Notes Section

Is it true? Can I absolutely know it's true?

Outline C : Notes Section

This is how I understand fear in my mind.

Fear is defined as being uncomfortable right now because something has changed, is changing or will change.
Fear is created to keep us safe.
Fear is a learned behaviour, which means it can be unlearned. That’s the point of all this if you haven’t caught on yet. From my experience I have not come across any depth of fear inside of myself that I could not transform. Sometimes it takes hours, days and weeks to come through to the other side but even the most primitive and intense fear - which reeks and can take you into the depths of insanity- will pass with space and the practice of detachment and questioning. Fear is as natural as hunger, lust, and excrement. I am far from fearless and have watched a lot of fear pass. Courage is needed, it’s located in your heart and will.
1. Just so you know, passing emotion and transforming emotion are the same idea.
Because Fear is learned it becomes a subconscious reaction. Fight, Flight, or Freeze.
Do you remember how awareness gets lost in things? Anybody who has experienced fight/flight/freeze know that it’s a full body experience that captures our awareness. Recall the little timmy example for basic reference of getting lost in an idea that isn't true.
1. It begins with a bio-chemical reaction that pumps adrenaline and cortisol into the body. To be afraid is literally to be captured in a body that has learned to react and take control of the situation. If we try to tell somebody to get over there problem, it will only feed the problem. The person caught in an unconscious fear based reaction is not aware in that moment that they are lost in fear. It’s like getting caught in a wave that spirals you out of control and the wave in this case is the movie of our mind. It sucks, but we can grow out of it. First we have to detach our awareness from our minds ride.
  1. Evidence that fear is full body : The depressed human has slouched posture. The anxious human bites their nails.
2. Because our awareness get’s lost in our minds fear is a powerful tool for manipulation. If you have an animal that is afraid of going hungry you can drag it wherever you want by dangling food in its face. The animals awareness becomes Hunger and Hunger is focused on one idea. The trick to manipulating anyone is to make them think they are ‘hungry’ in some form.
  1. For example, television commercials and politicians often attempt to create a sense of temporary anxiety that can only be cured by voting for/purchasing their particular product. We can look at this formula a little closure.
    1. Somebody gives a presentation of rhetoric that creates a reaction which causes the consumer to become lost in the reaction.
    2. Engaged the presenter attempts to convince the consumer's mind that they are/have that solution to there new problem.
    3. The presenter than show them what to do to feel better. Buy/Vote or in other words...
      1. America isn’t great. (reaction)
      2. I’m great, look at how great I am. I can make america great again.(I am the solution)
      3. Vote for me in order to feel better.
      4. rinse/repeat
  2. If we are not careful we can spend our whole life under the spell of fear and not even know it. For example our school system has been using bells to time us since we are old enough to sit in a desk. If we are not on time we are punished. By the time we are adults we are completely normalized to the idea of getting stuff done on time, so much so, good adults will “take responsibility” for “messing up” after failing to complete their task of making enough money “on time.”
    1. The consequences on the Macro level are severe austerity measures that cripple whole countries economies like we’ve recently seen in Greece. On the micro level the small man is evicted for failing to pay rent. We say “that’s how life is” and that’s not true. “That’s how life is…” is a thought that only exists inside of the mind of man. Thoughts are not life, they are just an expression of life. We get to choose our expression. If you spend 4 months in the woods where time dissolves, this idea of being timed upon returning becomes very disturbing. If that idea makes you uncomfortable breath and dettach.
3. Fear is the feeling of not having enough. Love is the feeling of being at one with the world. Love is the feeling of being complete. Fear is incomplete. Fear is “things have changed and we’re missing something.” We must fight for the thought we want to keep or run from the thought that makes us feel small.
  1. Anxiety : worried that we won't have enough when something changes in the future.
  2. Depression : despair. Because we’ll never have enough to solve the problem that’s happened to us.
  3. Anger : Must fight to keep what we'll will lose. “I’m not complete without my teddy bear, I’m angry at you for taking it.”
  4. Fleeing : “I don’t have enough to handle this experience, I’m out.”
  5. Jealousy : “I’m not enough because you're dating a sexy human and I’m not.”
  6. Greed : “I don’t have enough money so I’m going to hoard it, so I’ll always be ok, no matter what happens”
  7. You can do this exercise for all fear based emotions if you’d like.

With all that said we can define fear another way:

Fear is a learned reaction that captures our awareness. It’s designed to keep us safe by engaging the whole body to begin searching for what’s missing, will be missed or is going missing by either fighting, freezing or fleeing.

The part of our mind that does all the searching is our brains. (Our brains are the gateway and filter for how we experience the world. Our brain’s job is to search our world for patterns that not only keep us safe from danger but also guide us back toward food, water, shelter and sex without us having to do much thinking.) This is our autopilot. This is our ego. Our egos keep track of time with memory and future-projection in order to guide us toward the sweet nectar of pleasure and away from danger of pain. If you are following Bruce Lipton's ideas with me than we can understand our ego as the collective intelligence of every cell in our body. We experience this connection by noticing discomfort in our body and linking it to an idea that's creating it. Posture is a basic example of that.

Do you remember how consciousness has the quality of getting lost in something? Because our awareness has the quality of getting lost in things, and since the majority of human cultures are created out of fear, our ego minds are overdeveloped. The majority of human beings are conditioned with so much fear growing up that their awareness gets completely trapped inside of their heads.This is why meditation is so difficult. Meditation is the practice of detaching from our thoughts. When we believe that we are thoughts, detaching from them is scary (I know, I’ve gone through it.) This is a hard cycle to break because fear captures our awareness. The person who “'can’t meditate' is literally lost in the thought 'I can’t meditate' in the same way we become lost in a movie. Except, since we believe we are thoughts, we don't believe we can dettach like we can with a film. Some human beings believe they are thoughts so much they are willing to die for them (terrorism/patriotism). Suffering happens when one of the thoughts we’ve identified with is no longer true. Grieving is the process of forgiving yourself for believing something that is no longer true.

The problem is not that 1% of the population owns the majority of the wealth. The problem is that the majority of the population thinks that wealth is found in things, jobs and notches on our belts. In other words, as long as the majority of the population thinks they are incomplete without the 'right things or experiences' then they are searching for something. If the majority of the population is searching, than they can be guided and controlled with advertizing or fear based propaganda in the same way that we can train a dog with food. Again, in other words, as long as we believe that our worth is found outside of our ability to choose, the most important choices of our life will be made for us without us knowing there are better possibilities. Democracy thrives when we are all consciously engaged and creating our lives, one conscious creative choice at a time. In this way, we all have to take responsibility for our lives and imagine new possibilities. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm saying it's worth it.

D

Objective: To transform fear into creativity.

Character C : Possibility = Best imagined with our eyes clothes

After doing enough Byron Katie work sheets there are a few patterns that I’ve discovered. Let's take a look.

When I am uncomfortable it's because I am believing a thought that no longer makes sense.
The right question or angle will remove my consciousness from my mind long enough to become aware that the logic leading to my discomfort is built on sand. The right question will detach my awareness from my mind, every time. Is it true? Is it true? Can you absolutely know it’s true?
1. I've learned that when I am lost in something my perception of possibilities is limited. It’s filtered through my discomfort. Because It’s filtered through my unconscious my thoughts become it's expression. I may have negative thoughts like this.
  1. It’s not possible to leave my job because the idea scares me.
  2. It’s not possible to make my life how I want it because I have to pay bills on time
  3. It’s not possible to get along with my family because my dad did something to me.
  4. It’s not possible to create peace on planet earth because I can’t even create peace inside myself first.
    1. These thoughts aren’t true. They are just thoughts expressing how I feel. Fear limits our ability to see what’s actually possible.
2. Because we can become lost in negative thoughts we have to create a practice to recognize how we are feeling. We have to pay attention to how we are feeling because our choices and thoughts are the living expression of our feelings.
  1. I regularly check in on my breath. Consciously breathing is the easiest way to check in with how I feel. If I’m not feeling at peace in my body than I know I’m not seeing the most possibilities right now, therefore I won’t be my best self. As a result....
3. I know I have to grieve.
Grief happens when we forgive ourselves for believing something that is no longer true.
1. "If you revolve your love back on yourself first, in your rawest vulnerability you’ll discover your worth." - Brunch
  1. In other words, if you love yourself enough to forgive yourself for believing something that isn’t true, you’ll discover your ability to choose another way of being.
2. Grieving takes courage, but once you’ve learned that all of your emotional suffering is your responsibility, you don’t really have a choice. Life doesn’t exist in boxes and once you begin to see your box, you’ll grow out of it. Remember, if grass can grow through cement, imagine what you can grow through.
3. Grieving is the passing of emotion. It's the conscious recognition that you are not that emotion.
  1. Lot’s of time I’ll be in conversation at a party, will become uncomfortable and consciously let the emotion pass while I’m still chatting without the other person noticing. When the emotion is too much to pass without crying or visibly displaying it I’ll politely excuse myself and leave to take care of business or bury it for later to deal with in privacy.
  2. Remember, only you can grieve. Nobody can grieve for you. I’d recommend doing this with your partner if you have one. It’s far easier to grieve with someone there to rub your back. That’s why people go to therapy. Everyone grieves differently, I started with the process Robert Scheinfeld writes about in Busting Loose from the Money Game but now I’ve tailored it to fit my own life by facilitating the process through exercise, yoga, writing, and other creative activities.
4. They key is to understand that the formula is always the same.
  1. Become aware that you are uncomfortable.
  2. Call it forward. Feel it fully. Become conscious of where the emotion is stored in your body. Know it is not you, it’s just your creation. Creations can be changed.
  3. Focus on your breath.
    1. This creates space between your awareness and the suffering. “It’s a creation of my consciousness it’s not me.” - These words said consciously can release discomfort on their own. But you have to consciously say them and mean them. Patting yourelf helps. Exercise helps. Movement helps. Breathing is the key.
  4. Have gratitude for the discomfort.
    1. Acknowledge the fact that your mind has become afraid in order to keep you safe.
      1. “It’s a creation of my consciousness it’s not me, thank you for your creation, it is not longer needed. I release.”
      2. Gratitude is the best medicine for mental health.
  5. Breath it out.
    1. When I got off trail, I started hosting at a corporate run restaurant and had an incredible amount of social anxiety. I’d do this process, over and over, calling forward as much discomfort as I could process at one time. Life grows in small increments so I'd call forward as much as I could, let it pass and then call some more. I'd do this for hours before I’d go to work. Eventually, the learned behaviour is transformed and I chose to quit after two months to take a better job. Then the discomfort came again. The next layer for me was anger. Then hatred. Then terror. On the otherside of terror I wrote Creativity expressing everything I’ve learned. It took 1 year of daily practice to break through enough to create this website. I’m still actively processing fear today. I'm saying it's easy. I'm saying it's worth it. There is a reason why worth is the most powerful voice. The most important choices are the toughest.
Reclaim your natural creative power
1. After you’ve released the emotion, you have to tell yourself a new story. Be kind to yourself always.
  1. We want to write a story that is simple and expansive allowing us to feel whole no matter what changes.
  2. Short and sweet usually does the trick. “I am. I am. I am abundance.”
  3. Sometimes I add, “With gratitude, I am consciousness, the ultimate power in the universe” for fun. Then I imagine my body filling itself up with comfortable joy before I go on with my day. This is busting loose. Buy it. Read it.
    1. Become your best self and have gratitude. What could be better than that?
2. Every time you let an emotion pass, every time that you accept reality as it is than you open up your perception to see more possibilities. The more possibilities you are able to see the more creative you’ll become. Creativity is about connecting ideas that have never been connected in the way that YOU are able to connect them. Everyone has their own unique perspective of the world, the more you get to know yourself on a deep level and the less attached you become to your thoughts and ideas the more you’ll allow consciousness to flow out and create work you never dreamed possible before. Ride the wave of possibility by filling yourself with Joy then choosing to do what you are inspired to do. When you find yourself off track correct yourself and keep moving. If we only have one life, why not move toward becoming light?

In other words,

Imagine that you are the stillness inside a river of flowing colors.

Imagine that every color you experience is a wave of possibilities. And every wave is an adventure waiting to be chosen.

Imagine that what you choose affects the possible colors that future generations will experience

Now, imagine that discomfort filters out the colors that you are able to see.

Imagine every time you practice detaching from your discomfort, every time you check in with your breath to notice how you feel, is like checking in to see if your perception is being filtered.

Imagine what it would be like if you took responsibility for believing that discomfort and forgive yourself with gratitude so that your discomfort dissolves.

Now, imagine reclaiming your natural state of abundance by refilling your body with the words that you want to embody. Words that solidify a story in your mind that you are whole no matter what changes.

Imagine every time you let your discomfort pass you step into a new way of being so that your color changes and the river of life that surrounds you becomes brighter and more beautiful so others can ride your wake, and use your inspiration to transform their own lives too.

Imagine that as you create new possibilities that the wake you naturally leave behind turns into a spectacle like the fluttering wings of a butterfly

Now, imagine that caterpillar consciously transforms into the butterfly by choosing to grieve.