Life persists...

I was walking round my local nature reserve this morning, & took some pictures.

While there are some beautiful scenes of nature, there are also various factories, gasometers etc in the vicinity too, so I had to use my cameraphone to tactically shoot round them.

It's a beautiful day today, & I was reminded that for most of human history, we've spent it very connected to nature. This connection to the natural world is literally wound into our DNA.

Then I came across a tree, with grafitti sprayed on it. While I'm used to seeing tags sprayed on buildings & walls (man-made artefacts), this was the first time I could remember seeing it sprayed on a tree, something natural & living.

My first reaction was a kind of minor outrage, which quickly gave way to a strange sense that there was something quite poetic about it. It occurred to me that the tree had probably been around since before the graffiti-artist was born (assuming it wasn't an old-age pensioner with a spray-can), & would probably outlive him or her. That in fact this tag was probably entirely temporary, & didn't bother the tree in the slightest.

As I looked around, I could see that nature was taking it's toll on the man-made stuff in the environment (rusting, crumbling, decaying) while the cycle of nature persisted.

The river keeps flowing, the trees keep growing, the clouds wander by at their own pace. Even the impact of time, weather, gravity & oxidation on the man-made structures are evidence of the natural cycles of birth & death.

The journey continues...

By the way, I'd love your comments on this - please give me feedback so I know what you think.

Feel what you'll feel...

There are a few practices that I'm doing on a daily basis to keep me in good mental shape & help me live beyond the script:

1) Spending some time each morning & each evening "feeling how I'll feel" when I'm living in the sunlight of the spirit.

Feeling how you'll feel when you've got what you want is a powerful way of getting yourself comfortable with having it. Why? Because people like what's familiar. Comfort zones relate to how we are FEELING. When you get comfortable with feeling how you'll feel when you've got what you want, you massively reduce the impact of your "comfort zone sensors".

2) Practicing gratitude for absolutely everything, whether "good" or "bad".

The reality is that everything that has happened in my life so far has been part of getting me to where I am now. So it follows that wherever I get to in future will be the net effect of everything that happens along the way. I assume that where I go in future will be great, so I can thank everything along the way, as it's helping me to get there in some way.

There's another, slightly more subtle motive too. The more grateful I feel for the wonderful stuff in my life, the more comfortable I'll be having great stuff to feel grateful for. It's those comfort zones again.

3) Going for walks in the nature reserve near where I live.

For many years, I went for a walk nearly every day. For the last couple of years, I stopped doing it (I'd moved into the city & it wasn't as easy & bla bla bla). In fact, there's a nature reserve less than half a mile away from where I live. When I go for a walk, it does wonderful things for my mind, body & spirit.

I'd even go so far as to say that walking is an essential part of me consciously making changes in my life. It's what my friend Bill Cummings describes as "Spiritual Self-care". When I walk regularly, out in nature (rather than just along a city street), wonderful things happen in my life. And yet, I stopped for a couple of years (probably due to some fear of change).

By the way, please post your comments, because I'd love to get your feedback on this.

Your Inner Diamond Revealed

I explored the diamond metaphor more deeply with a group of men earlier this year, but the concepts apply equally to men & women. This all connects to one of my favourite quotes of all time, by the wonderful Marianne Williamson (often misattributed to Nelson Mandela)...

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

By the way, please post your comments, because I'd love to get your feedback on this.

Download Antivirus Software for Your Mind

Did you know that you can download antivirus software for your mind? Here goes...

If you could choose between, on the one hand, feeling positive, resourceful, happy & optimistic...

Or on the other hand feeling negative, unresourceful, unhappy & pessimistic, which would you choose?

This is not a trick question!

If you're like most people, you would choose to feel positive, resourceful, happy & optimistic. So if you're feeling negative, who's choosing that? After all, we've already established that YOU would choose to feel positive & happy.

If you're feeling negative, you're not choosing. And if you're not choosing, who is?

The Script!

The Script is a collection of mental & emotional habits that’s been built up over centuries, & that you’ve been learning since before you can remember. The Script is a story about you: who you are, what you’re capable of, about your world, and your place in it. The Script has been developed by well-meaning people. It’s been passed on from generation to generation, & added to along the way.

Here's a metaphor: Imagine a brilliant diamond, sparkling with light. That diamond is then covered with a thick layer of horse dung. Finally, the ball of horse dung is painted with a veneer of bright red nail polish.

The Diamond is your authentic self, who you really are.
The Horse Dung is your Script, who you fear you are.
The Nail Polish is your social personality, who you pretend to be.

From an NLP perspective, we would say that every behaviour is purposeful. The purpose of the Script is typically to keep us safe in some way, or achieve some other valued result (being paid attention to, feeling important etc). But the price is often our general sense of wellbeing.

So can you change the Script? Yes. In fact many NLP tools are designed to do just that. But more important than changing the script is the simple recognition that the script is NOT YOU!

You are not the script!

So here's the antivirus bit: Any time you're feeling anything other than positive, resourceful & happy, just ask yourself “Would I choose this?”. If the answer is no, then you're “in your Script”. Just take a moment to remember that the Script is not you – you are not your Script.

On a cloudy day, the sky is actually blue - there are just some clouds in the way that make it hard to see, but it's still blue.

When you're feeling negative, you're actually a perfect, resourceful, amazing human being – there's just a Script in the way that makes it hard to see, but you're still that amazing human being.

As you keep noticing that you are not your Script, your awareness changes, & the real you will emerge more & more fully.

By the way, the idea of "The Script" & "Antivirus for your mind" as used in this context come from my friend Richard Wilkins. You can learn more about Richard & the work he & his partner Liz Ivory do at http://www.theministryofinspiration.com/

By the way, please post your comments, because I'd love to get your feedback on this.

My year-long adventure living beyond the script

I'm Jamie Smart, an NLP & Hypnosis trainer with a passion for authenticity & adventure. I've decided to start a one-year experiment, Living Beyond the Script. "The Script" is the term my friend Richard Wilkins uses to describe the collection of limiting beliefs that keep us "playing small". I'm going to find out what happens when I live beyond the script, in what I call "the sunlight of the spirit". I'm going to post my findings here. Enjoy...