THE REAL ENTRY POINT TO WHOLE-GRAIN HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS

THE REAL ENTRY POINT TO WHOLE-GRAIN HAPPINESS AND SUCCESSnBy
Bill Cottringe
n“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.” ~Stuart Chase.

Several years ago my youngest daughter Abby was given an unusual final exam in her high school Epistemology class. She had to pass the exam in order to be able to transfer the credits to an out-of-state high school to which she was moving from here in Washington. The question was: How can you be absolutely sure about the certainty of what you think you know to be true?

The project intrigued me enough to help her research all the best ways of knowing the truth from all the established sources such as sensory perceptions, critical thinking, scientific method, higher authorities, direct awareness, instincts and intuitions. But at the end of the day, all were slightly faulty to one extent or another, relying upon some kind of leap of faith as to the validity of the source. At any rate, her answer to the question, which ended with this “leap of faith” conclusion, was apparently good enough because she passed the final examination, got the credits, and successfully transferred to the other school.

This profound question has still held my attention for several years now. And it has lead me to question a very solid belief about effective helping whether it is in giving self-growth advice, motivating others to success, problem-solving, teaching communication and relationship skills, or writing about being successful and happy. For as long as I can remember, I was convinced that the secret to success was in understanding and untangling the constant interactions between thinking, feeling and behaving—or the energies from the mind, heart and body.

It is very difficult to separate these three parts of a pretzel long enough to see where one ends and the other starts or which effects which and how. Most psychologists would say that thinking is what drives feelings and behavior, even if the are reciprocal. And for the most part, interventions that focus on correcting thinking, usually do improve feeling and behaviors and the results of all three functions. But of course the emotive therapists would claim the same about emotional catharsis. The jury is still out on this one.

Spiritualists have always focused more on the power of belief, but never really offered an understandable definition of what a belief was, at least conceptually. When quantum physics started redefining physical reality for us all and taking us from a passive observing role to an active participating one, beliefs started getting some attention. Here’s the most scientifically understandable explanation of what a belief is:

Belief: Intense thoughts and feelings about something you are convinced is true because of compelling evidence, confirmation from combined sources of knowing or even pure faith. As such, a belief is a very powerful, densely packed energy force.

Science has now made a good case that the energy of a belief—the electromagnetic energy coming form the heart (which is many more times powerful that the brain’s energy output)—is the way we interact with the atoms in the universe, creating the physical realities we used to think we were just observing.

So then, success requires putting out, communicating about and reacting to the positive energy of correct beliefs about ourselves, other people, situations and events in life. On the other hand, failure comes from the negative energy of incorrect beliefs. This may be the main reason why many people are not very happy. To be successful and happy, you have to have a heart full of mostly correct beliefs. And most people who are at this wonderful point of well-being will tell you they had to forget a lot of heartbu
and get rid of many false beliefs first.

The formula for success that life created from the beginning is easy to see, but hard to apply. The reason for this difficulty is that we get overloaded with all the incorrect beliefs we have stored in our heart’s memory bank and they have to be replaced with correct ones. Of course that takes time, one belief at a time, so to speak. I suspect the negative thoughts we have about this uncomfortable reality is what blocks access to knowing our true beliefs, which are way down there in our subconscious. And without that knowing we can’t do anything about the situation.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could restore some balance in a world gone mad with an over-flavored negative spin, probably in the 75% range? Maybe a start would be to consider accepting the safe assumption that most of us may need to open up to the possibility that the majority of what we think we know, may not be so. Probably 75% or maybe more. Hard to swallow? Maybe there is a lump in your throat. nn nn