How to Navigate Bad Times

Just imagine

Just imagine what would happen if you felt really good.  You felt as thought something really special has happened to you - completely out of the blue.

Don't feel that way?  How do you get there?

One great way is to think back to a time when this happened to you.  You received a gift...a prize...an award that was completely unexpected.

What was it?  Think back to how you felt when that windfall came your way!

Capture that and remember it over and over.  Now translate that to today.  You're about to receive a windfall and it's just about to come your way, but it's going to be out of the blue and completely unexpected.

Put yourself in that joyful experience and re-experience it again.

That's the feeling you want and that's the feeling you want to tap into.

Now go put on your memory cap and think back to that great time that caused you to feel really blessed.

More on Centering and Grounding

So what's so important about centering and grounding and why is it important to know about it and practice it?

Allowing your mind to be concentrated enough to focus on your goals is key to preventing scattered-brain, unfocused, disjointed, and then spiraling out of control.  And any of you who have been through tough, stressful, trying times, know what I'm talking about...there always seems to be the demons knocking at the door trying to drive you out of your mind with fear and intimidation.

Fear and intimidating will kill anything positive.

Fear will take away any good energy in a split second.

Fear will remove you from the place you want to be into a dark abyss that is never-ending.

Fear is something you need to get away from quickly, and it can overcome you quickly if you let it.

The purpose here is to arrest it before it gets a start.

Fear is like a horribly addictive drug...what if's, shoulda's, oughta's, coulda's and uh-ohs are not going to give you the results you want.

So how do you get out of this?

Practice some quick and easy techniques.  Practice, practice, practice.

Here's a typical outline for meditation:

1. Start breathing deeply - into your stomach (not your chest) and allow your stomach and diaphragm to move...we want your body to move so your breath can feel your core.  You should be sitting down or laying down.
2. Concentrate on breathing for a couple of minutes - in and out calmly, slowly and deeply - at least 10 deep breathes.
3. Start relaxing from the top of the body to the bottom - head, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, diaphragm, pelvis, thighs, legs, feet.
4. Now let your body sink even further into the chair or chaise or bed.
5. Picture a white light or white flowing substance above your head, and it is going to move like a thick rich liquid through you body, starting with your head, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, diaphragm, pelvis, thighs, legs, feet.  It's going to fill all these areas and make your whole entire body glow from within when each part is filled.
6. Now think of the specific goals, desires you want to accomplish - health, wealth, friendship, purpose, whatever it is.
7. Allow yourself some time to just float with what you have accomplished and congratulate and acknowledge what you have done - in this session.
8. Close the session by gently returning to either wake up or drift off to sleep.

That's it.  Doesn't this sound just dreamy - OK bad joke - but I love doing this, and it usually takes about 15 to 30 minutes.

From these steps you can even make your own meditation tape/mp3 and have it say exactly what you want.

There are some other helpful techniques tomorrow.

Centering and Grounding

Centering and grounding are two vital techniques used toward this process of focusing on your goals and achieving them...blossoming in difficult times  - BDT!!!

I talk a lot about the spiritual process here.   However, centering and grounding are techniques are more physical and lend themselves to putting us all in a place where we can be more spiritual and meditative.

Centering and grounding are terms that refer to the process as a result of relaxation and meditative techniques.  They are not the end result, but like meditation and relaxation lead toward clearly focusing on your goals.

Centering refers to keeping your focus toward the center of your soul and spirit, while grounding allows you to remain calm even in the most difficult circumstances. 

Centering is focusing on that calm center part of your experience.  Getting in touch with that calmness that lies at the center.  We each have this - I call it the God in all of us.  It is our sanctum sanctorum where no one but God and you exist.  It is the closest thing to heaven on Earth that we can have.

Grounding is more physical - it's literally remaining rooted and unflappable while the wind is at tornado speeds.  The best way to describe this is that man is the bridge between the physical and metaphysical.  We can exist in both planes, whereas thought can not be physical and deed can not be metaphysical, but with man, thought & deed can be one.  But as this conduit, we can not be disconnected from either...we must remain grounded while we are dreaming, or we are out of balance.  But this is God's purpose for us - to constantly remain in balance while trying to balance two dichotomous forces.

You can begin to get an idea of how hard this is, but with practice and information, it is very possible.  It doesn't require a PhD from Harvard or Oxford (do you get PhD's in Oxford - oh well, for now, let's just say you do!!!)

But it requires will and resolve and with practice you can get very good at this.

Tomorrow I'll do some more explanation and then some practice exercises.

Some cool stuff on the net

I love surfing, and I love surfing for resource information/media to support my faith and belief tools.

I'm not saying that once you've reach some sort of fulfillment that you need to keep doing all the little techniques I use here.  Actually good feelings feed on themselves, and once you start feeling good about yourself, it doesn't take much to feel better. 

OK, that's a duh statement.

Resources

I'm at sort of a break between subjects or series of blogs, and thought it would be fun to get in a "footnote" sort of mood.

There are so many authors and participants in this process, that it begs a list of who and where to go.

I have to qualify this, because I am very careful about who I recommend as well as what I recommend.  To explain that a little further:  Everyone has a "tilt" on their views, I'm no exception:  I want you to know up front what my tilt is.  This way you can judge it for your own, without having to spend the time to go through umpteen blogs to get the information you need.

Toward that end below are some of my favorite resources, with comments: