"F" Bomb your way to Happiness #4

Here is my final favorite remedy for "What to do this year that will make you happier than you were last year." And it goes like this:  "I don't necessarily need to reinvent myself in 2015, I just want to ramp up some of the same good stuff that I have already been focusing on in 2014."  It's just like refilling a precsription for the new year with just a little more "oomph" added in.  The key to success is fusing this script into your daily life.   The Action Plan for retention is to include an  F' Bomb into the equation.   It totally works for me as a built in reminder and it places my intentions front and center. 

This is the last of my 4 favorites.   Be sure to share your own  homemade F' Bomb scripts with me in the comments below or on our True Nature Facebook page.

For me, fear comes in a couple of different ways and the distinction is critical.

Fear can be a natural response to physical danger.  For instance, I drove 150 miles in a nasty snowstorm last Sunday night and experienced a good amount of fear during that white-knuckle 4 hour ride.  Although that fear was not a pleasant feeling, it was useful and kept me alert and safe in making driving decisions the whole way.  It actually saved me.   Thank you fear!

The other kind of fear that we have all experienced is self created fear.  This is a fear that is totally conjured up by our ego when it feels threatened in some way.  A few fears that come to mind that have affected me are: fear of not having enough money, fear of dying, fear of losing control, fear of not being liked, fear of failure, fear of success,  and on and on. 

These fears can result in limiting emotions and actions and sometimes can even be paralyzing. You may have heard this antidote before but it is one that I have personally referred to hundreds of times over the years. 

 Fear can be defined this way:

False Evidence Appearing Real

This kind of fear that we "make up" is usually centered around something that is going to take place in the future or something we are worrying about in the past.  Either way, the stories that we make up are illusions.When we start to believe these illusions that is when we get into trouble.  When we feel this kind of fear we tend to shrink, cower, close off and shield our hearts.  It can literally rob us from our Joy and Happiness.

So how do we let go of this kine of fear?  We reach out and meet it, we befriend it and then ask it "WTF?"  That's correct, we ask that fear "WTF?"" Where are you coming from?" Once we can isolate, determine and understand the fear's roots, we can proceed courageously despite the fear.In order to work this process a fair amount of self awareness must be practiced.  You will need to acknowledge and build awareness of when you are acting from FEAR.  It may be worth your while to enlist the help of a coach or teacher. Feel free to email me for recommendations.

Remember that choosing to live from fear is a choice.  Opening up to your TRUTH will free you from your fear based walls and self limitations.

Just be you... and be fearless,
Chris

Check out the other 3 "F" Bomb prescriptions:

"F" Bomb to Happiness Vol.3

Here is one more favorite remedy for "What to do this year that will make me happier than I was last year." Aend it goes like this:  "I don't necessarily need to reinvent myself in 2015, I just want to ramp up some of the same good stuff that I have already been focusing on in 2014."  It's just like refilling a precsription for the new year with just a little more "oomph" added in.  The key to success is fusing this script into your daily life.   The Action Plan for retention is to include an  F' Bomb into the equation.   It totally works for me as a built in reminder and it places my intentions front and center. 

This is #3 of 4 of my favorites, one more in store in my next blog - so keep close watch.   Be sure to share your own  homemade F' Bomb scripts with me in the comments below or on our True Nature Facebook page.

For many years, I spent a good portion of my waking hours almost completely living up in my head - until I realized that strategy wasn't really serving me very well any more.    

It was rather trying for me to transform from my rational, systematic, analytical thinking into wholehearted, visceral, true self thinking.  The ultimate path was trusting my feelings and letting my heart be my guide.

Men traditionally have a rougher time with this shift from the head to the heart because we have been programmed to be problem solvers, fixers, and analyzers.  Listening to my heart to make decisions seemed so illogical and irrational to me at first. Once I realized that much of my rational thought was just a disguise for fear, I promptly made way for this comforting new "heart-centered" option.  It turns out that the heart is much more trustworthy and most times more correct.  Not to mention it is much more fun and satisfying to live more from my heart as opposed to my head.

I found that my (unconscious) mind was always setting me up to as a control freak - wanting to analyze the shit out of everything and explore every angle so I could be certain to have complete control of the outcome.

Yea, right... that was a  painstaking and grueling way to exist!

Letting go of my fears along with my need to be in control was conquered by getting the "F" out of my head and having the faith to open up and listen to my heart.   It felt incredibly freeing and uplifting to move into this underused decision making space.

My rationale mind part is still a valuable and useful tool, but now I can  integrate it into my decision making process in a more measured and natural way.

After a lot of practice, my default decision making process now includes a conscious pause,  and a reminder to get the "F" out of my head.  From there, I get very quiet and listen to my Higher Self or True Nature.  Once I have my direction confirmed from a feeling in my body, I refer  back to my head just to let in some of those inevitable fear thoughts.  I check how those thoughts sit with me and then I give them the the proper amount of attention they are due based on my feelings and my core values.

This process is a tricky blend of head and heart and it takes time to learn and navigate the territory.  The ratio of head and heart will be different for everyone but I can safely say that you will see marvelous changes take place by tapping into your heart for decision making.  Getting in touch with your heart will open you up and give you a new sense of ease and comfort in all areas of your life.  When we neglect the significance of heart centered living, we risk losing our sense of true self and can end up sacrificing our joy.

Next time you are making a decision or choice, be conscious of exactly where you are looking for the answers.  If you up in your head, try to get the "F" out of there and feel with your heart.  Your heart will speak to you through your body and will always give you the best answer.  All you have to do is be very quiet and listen.

Just Be You,

Chris


See the two previous "F" Bomb Prescriptions:

"F" Bomb your way to happiness. vol. II

Here is another remedy for "What to do this year that will make me happier than I was last year." And it goes like this:  "I don't necessarily need to reinvent myself in 2015, I just want to ramp up some of the same good stuff that I have already been focusing on in 2014."  For me, it is somewhat like refilling a precsription for the new year with just a little more "oomph" added in.  The key to success is fusing this script into my daily life.   The Action Plan for retention is to include an  F' Bomb into the equation.   It totally works as a built in reminder and it places my intentions front and center. 

This is #2 of 4 of my favorites in the upcoming blogs - so keep close watch.   Be sure to share your own  homemade F' Bomb scripts with me in the comments below or on our True Nature Facebook page.

I was 17 years old when I enrolled in my first self awareness training course.

The course was The Silva Method, which at  that time was called Silva 

Mind Control.  In that course I learned meditation, visualization, 

manifestation,  psychometry and psychic healing techniques. 

 Back in those days though,  if  I mentioned any of those words to my friends 

or classmates, I would have been ridiculed and labeled as a freaky weirdo!  

Well, needless to say,  I did... and I was...and so from there I just clammed up 

and did not speak again of those incredible things that I had learned.  It was 

my secret.  

Even though I was excited to share my new found strength and power, I felt 

afraid and ashamed.  At that moment, a gigantic limiting belief was formed 

within me.  Here is what the belief sounded like in my head: "If I talk to people 

about self awareness, energy work, or spirituality, they will think that I am a  

weirdo.  I don't want to be thought of as weirdo.   I want to be liked and 

respected -  so  I will not talk about those subjects to anyone."   Not talking 

about those subjects will keep me safe and loved.  "The good news is that my 

passion and thirst for more kept me studying and learning about energy and 

awareness for the next four decades,  but the bad news is that this one big 

constricting belief held me back in life and kept me from being authentic.  I

stayed small and held back from sharing with others who I really was.   And 

that my friends sucked! 

 It wasn't until about 10 years ago that I actually did the work to push through

 these limiting beliefs.  I have now transformed those beliefs and I am 

confident to share, teach and life coach to everyone about manifesting, 

meditation, intuition, feng shui and energy healing.  Even today though, I can 

still sometimes feel a twinge of awkwardness while bringing up these subjects

 with certain people.  99 % of the time I'm am able to power through the 

fear without as much as a hesitation. 

Think about what your own limiting beliefs are.  Is one of those beliefs being 

worried about what others think about you?  Worrying about what others think 

is erroneous and will rob you of joy, happiness and living an authentic life. 

 You may not even be aware of your limiting beliefs because they usually 

reside at your unconscious level.   I suggest that you enlist the services of a 

life coach or mentor to help you to tease out these beliefs and transform 

them.  ( I know of someone that can help..) 

 Contact me anytime at cgrant@truenaturecc.com

Just be you,

Chris

truenaturecc.com

Next weeks "F" Bomb Prescription:

Previous Weeks Prescriptions:   HUG HARDER

"F" Bomb to Happiness

Here is my remedy for "What to do this year that will make me happier than I was last year." It goes like this:  I don't necessarily need to reinvent myself in 2015, I just want to ramp up some of the same good stuff that I have already been focusing on in 2014.  For me, it is somewhat like refilling a precsription for the new year with just a little more "oomph" added in this time.  The key is fusing this script into my daily life and the perfect solution for retention is to include an  F' Bomb into the equation.   It totally works as a built in reminder and it places my intentions front and center. 

This year I have four different prescriptions that I know for sure have worked as reinforcement for me to increase my happiness, and I am betting that they will work for you as well. 

 I will be revealing my other 3 favorites in the upcoming blogs so keep close watch.  Don't feel you have to follow my prescription - as you can invent your own to fit your current goals and intentions.  Be sure to share your F' Bomb scripts with me in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

HUG HARDER THAN A MUDDA FUDDA!

So Whats up with wimpy huggers?  You know, the ones who hesitantly offers up a hug - and then, when they finally muster up the clumsy courage to hug you it's only a half hearted, barely touching, back patting, hug-less hug?

Well I know who you are! - and I get it - because I was one of those bumbling weak type of huggers myself.

My family never exactly received high marks in the hugging category when I was a kid.  That's not to say there was not a lot of love in our family, there certainly was, but I just never noticed a whole lot of big bear hugging going on between my mom and dad.

For years I attributed my lack of whole hearted hugging to bashfulness or simply being too reserved to be able to wrap my arms around someone for a Hi - Howdy-Do.

I grew up in typical middle class suburbia in Michigan where hugs had social meanings and consequences attached to them.  In my high school days if you hugged a girl, that meant " YOU HUGGED A GIRL!"  News like that would be spread like wildfire and the two culprits were instant locker gossip and labeled passionate lovers who were destined on a path to Going Steady!  And as a guy, if for some strange reason you hugged another guy, OMG, you would have been viciously ridiculed down to some kind of queer status and forced to hide in a bathroom stall for the rest of the semester.

As an adult I was never much of a hugger either, which I now realize is connected to my fear of vulnerability and intimacy.  Fortunately my wife is somewhat of a hugaholic and she will hug just about anyone, anytime, even upon first meeting them.  Her hugging habits have loosened up my hugaphobia to a degree, but it wasn't until fairly recently that I began my transformation from hugless to huggerific!

A few years ago I was enlightened by my life coach who helped me to realize that vulnerability and intimacy were not as scary as I thought they were ...and in fact, those two fears were robbing me of a good deal of JOY in my life.

Now that I have faced and embraced those two fears, I have discovered a whole new wealth of JOY and HAPPINESS!

These days I have become a much improved hugger.   It gives me a comforting warmth to hug someone.  Now I almost feel a need and passion to give that comfort and warmth to others.  So  when I give a hug today - I will not be wimpy.   I will hold that hug just tight enough and long enough to be sure it is a hug that is pleasantly felt and a hug that is fondly remembered.  And that makes me HAPPY.

In 2015 I plan to really hit my "Big Hug Stride" and truly make a difference.  The next time you give a hug - be aware and conscious.  Hug a little harder and a hug little longer - then let me know how it feels.

Just be you,
Chris

truenaturecc.com

Next week's F' Bomb to Happiness:

Learn from Childhood? Hold Your Breath...

 

I love helping people out in the beginning stages of their meditation practice by providing them with tips and tricks that I have found work well for me and have made my meditation easy and effective.

Thinking back to when I was Growing up,  I was always a social kid – but I also remember, that ever since I was quite young, I always relished the thought of taking time alone for some me-time.  Even if it was just for a brief interval, I valued that special solace of not having to listen, speak to or participate with - anyone but me.  As a kid I was never bored or never lonely.

                                               One of my early "outer world silencing" discoveries was when I was swimming in a pool with a bunch of other noisy kids.  While all of them were jumping and splashing and laughing, I would breath in a deep breath, dunk myself under the water and self-create my own little sacred world of “noiselessness”.   

I just loved this feeling!  I would pop my head back up for air and then go back down below the surface.  I would do it dozens of times, each time being amazed at how I could instantaneously go from a world of chaos to my special quiet place with such a natural ease.

Today in my meditation practice, I still use this same technique as a visualization technique to quiet my mind from thoughts and distractions.

Here is how I make the "Swimmers Silence” work for me now:

I imagine myself in a beautiful flowing stream listening to all of nature’s sounds from the birds and bugs to the whistling wind, to the water rushing over the rocks.

I slowly dip down below the surface and beneath the current to comfortably rest in the soft powdery sand. 

I can feel the weight of the water slowing down my movements as I slowly wave my arms into hands together-prayer position.

Being that this is my imagination, I am of course able to now somehow breathe under water as well, and it is beautiful and it is peaceful and silent. 

 All of my worries go away and my body, mind and spirit are now relaxed for meditation.

Whenever a thought or distraction enters my mind, I simply and effortlessly direct it above my head and into the flowing current of the stream as I blissfully watch that thought meander downstream.   Poof!  It's gone!  Then I softly go back to my meditation.

Every Mindful Meditation approach, no matter what its origin must deal with quieting the inevitable thoughts that will wiggle their way into the conscious mind during meditation. 

My under water technique works really well for me.

I hope my meditation approach inspires you to find your path and to discover 

your own True Nature.

Just be you,

 -Chris

Good News about Bad Weather

This winter it seems that I can't go anywhere without hearing a lot of hoopla, whining and complaining about the weather.  I can actually see and feel the suffering and mental anguish people are experiencing due to the unusual cold and snowy weather we are experiencing here in Michigan.

 I thought it would be fitting and important to share these words of weather and suffering and how we live our lives to bring us a different perspective. 

In the 4 noble truths - Buddha talked about suffering. 

The first noble truth says it's part of being human to feel discomfort.  Nothing in its essence is one way or the other.  All around us the wind, the fire, the earth, the water, are always taking on different qualities: they're like magicians.

We ourselves ebb and flow like the tides, we wax and wane like the moon.  We sometimes fail to see that like the weather, we are fluid, not solid and so we suffer.

The second noble truth says that resistance is the fundamental operating mechanism of what we call ego, that resisting life causes suffering.
Traditionally it's said that the cause of suffering is our narrow view, which is to say, we are addicted to ME.

We resist that we change and flow like the weather, that we have the same energy as all living things.
When we resist, we dig in our heels.  We make ourselves really solid.  Resisting is what's called ego.

The third noble truth says that suffering stops when we let go of trying to maintain the huge ME at any cost.  This is what is practiced in meditation. When we let go of the thinking and the Story Line, we're left  just sitting with the quality and the energy of whatever particular "weather" we've been trying to resist.

The essence of the fourth noble truth is that we can use everything we do to help us realize that we're part of the energy that creates everything.  If we learn to sit still like a mountain a hurricane, unprotected from the truth and vividness and the immediacy of simply being part of life, then we are not this separate being who has to have things turn out our way.

When we stop resisting and let the weather simply flow through us, we can live our lives completely.

It's up to us.


This excerpt is from Pema Chodron's book Comfortable with Uncertainty.   I would recommend you put this book high on your priority list.

Hey - Spring is in the air!

Afraid of Not Having Enough Money?

We all have some kind of “relationship” with MONEY.  We give money a certain meaning and power in our lives and given the culture that we were brought up in money can even be a defining measure of our self worth.  I think most of us to some degree have an incessant worry or fear that we will never have enough or will be unable to keep enough for whatever we are saving for in the future.  I am no stranger to that type of thinking and belief.  In fact, the "not enough" belief that was at the forefront of my limiting money beliefs for years.

  Many of my previous false money beliefs were actually hidden from my conscious thinking. I didn't even realize they were there and I was simply ignoring my self-troubling relationship with money and pretending that it didn't exist.  I  suppose I felt no reason to question my status quo thinking and chalked it up to "that's just the way it is." 

 If a situation were to arise where I would have to actually confront my own thinking about my relationship with money, or if I would be in a money conversation with someone,  I would just latch on to the closest commonly shared noble view that I thought made sense  or would make me feel good or I would just assemble some buzzwords that would sound good to whoever I was talking to.  I would spout off some appropriate cliche money line like:  "Hey you can't take it with you!"  Or - "Money isn't everything!" Or  "Money can't buy you happiness!"  

Although I could lay down those lines with friends at social gatherings thinking it "worked" in that situation or was cool to say when the timing was right,  the truth was that those stereotypical phrases were not in any way related to my actual money beliefs!  

In reality,  I was incredibly frightened and paralyzed by the thought of not ever having enough -  and I was scared to death of losing any of my money. 

 In order to cope, my solution to conquering this fear was to commit to working my ass to the bone day and night to insure that my priority # 1 was making "enough" money to stuff the coffers and build the stash so that I could "someday" not have to worry about ENOUGH money any more.  It took me quite awhile to realize the destructive nature of that strategy. Consequently my ego imposed denial caused me to disconnect from my true nature and miss out on a good deal of  joy, love, peace, purpose and happiness in my life.  

Those false money beliefs were very real to me and were just as strongly ingrained in me as my belief that I was a male, human and living in the USA.  To question those beliefs and to realize that they were not really serving me any more - was not an easy task.  By seeking the needed coaching support, and following some simple steps to releasing and changing my beliefs,  I was able to uncover and acknowledge the origin of my pain and fear  around money, work through them and then awaken to my real truth.  

Now with an enhanced awareness around money I have experienced a resolution with my money issues.  I have shifted and evolved into a place where I have assigned money a somewhat different role and value in my life. 

My sense of truth around money has altered the way I look at my life, my work, my future and even how I exist in the present moment.  This is not to say that those money fears never show up any more in my life, it's just that now I can see them for what they are and move through them very quickly.

What are your beliefs around and about money? Imagine what your life would be like if you had a different perspective on your relationship with money. What if you had the power to change reality?

 I would encourage you to explore these money belief areas as I am quite sure you will find some beliefs that are not serving you or your highest good. 

 A great place to start would be to check out this book by Lynn Twist , The Soul of Money.  Let me know your thoughts after you read the book and know that I am here to support you when you need it.