[Jill’s Note: If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.]
Change Your Thoughts–Change Your Relationships!
Have you ever thought someone was mad at you only to find out they were just worried about something completely unrelated to you?
I remember an experience like that one day many moons ago when I was in college. The hypochondriac in me was worried about some non-existent health issue, and therefore I was being more quiet and introspective than usual. That night as I lay in bed before going to sleep, all of a sudden my roommate burst out, “I’m sorry!” Confused, I asked her what she was sorry for. She answered, “I don’t know, but whatever it is that you’re mad at me for!”
Most people can probably relate to this scenario. When we think that someone is mad at us, we come up with all sorts of things we must have done to piss them off. After all, why would they be so mad if we didn’t do anything wrong. During those times, it all feels so real. My roommate absolutely knew for certain in her head that I was mad at her, and it didn’t feel good. She went through all the feelings she would normally go through if I was in fact mad at her.
In other words, we create entire stories in our heads. Read the rest of this entry »
[Jill’s Note: If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.]
Plugged Into Intuition!
We’ve all had “gut feelings” about people or things at some point in our lives. I’m sure you can think of times where you had positive experiences when you listened to your gut, and negative ones when you didn’t.
How many times have you thought something like “I knew shouldn’t have had that extra cookie!” or “If only I had taken my umbrella like I had been thinking of doing!” or “There was just something that wasn’t quite right about him,” etc.?
Yet most days we go through life without paying much attention to that little voice inside us even though it’s always accessible. Read the rest of this entry »
[Jill’s Note: If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.]
On a recent Sunday morning I woke up early, but eventually drifted back to sleep. I’ve found that with morning sleep I often have dreams that I’m able to remember.
[Jill’s Note: If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.]
As I was running home from my yoga class today (a hot and humid day) I was marveling at the fact that not only did I not mind the run, I was rather enjoying myself. It’s times like that where even I wonder “What did you do with Jill?”
During my run, I started thinking about the many other ways in which the current me is unrecognizable from the me that I was just one year ago. I came up with the following 17 things that you would not have seen me do last summer: Read the rest of this entry »
[Jill’s Note: If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.]
Beyond The Golden Rule
We’ve all heard the saying “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Which of course means that we should treat people the way we would want to be treated.
Otherwise known as “The Golden Rule.”
I’ve tried to live by this rule as much as possible throughout my life. For instance, I don’t like to be yelled at, or hit, or talked to incessantly about things that I’m not interested in, so I don’t do those things to others. And yet I’ve also found myself in situations where I’ve somehow managed to unwittingly upset people or hurt their feelings. Read the rest of this entry »
Helping Each Other
A friend of mine was in town recently and told me how she and her brother have been estranged for many years, however, she wanted to try to reunite with him. So she made some kind gestures to him, but he seemed to rebuff them. While she felt hurt by that, she continued to want to try to reunite, as she knew it was one of her father’s last wishes.
When she first told me this story, I had been familiarizing myself with a new understanding of how life works. That is, from the inside out, rather than the outside in. She seemed receptive to hearing my opinion, so I shared with her my understanding as it applied to her situation as best I could. I wasn’t totally confident in my explanations, but what I was saying seemed to make sense and she was definitely grasping it as it applied to her. Read the rest of this entry »
[Jill’s Note: If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.]
The Energy Behind Life
I grew up without any religion.
While my parents are Jewish by birth, other than eating deli and knishes on occasion, I didn’t (and still don’t) know anything about Judaism. There was no talk about God (either for or against) in my house. And very early on I decided that God was simply something people believed in because it provided them with comfort. Religion, I felt (and still do), was necessary to provide some basic guidelines for those who need rules to live by. (They’re the same ones who need rules for SEO, by the way!) Read the rest of this entry »
[Jill’s Note: If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.]
When I graduated college way back in the olden days of 1983, I landed a job with Prime Computer in their Business Practices department. My main job was performing simple word processing (typing documents into the computer) of the internal company handbooks which were created by others in our department. Once a particular handbook’s information was in the computer, it was also my job to bring it to our Reprographics department who would reformat, print and bind it into the spiffy looking handbooks that they eventually became. The Reprographics department was located in the basement which seemed to be deep in the bowels of the building itself. I had to take a special elevator to get down there, and it was kind of dark and dirty and even a little bit scary to my 22 year old self. While the people who worked there were nice enough, our department was beholden to them to get our handbooks printed properly and in a timely manner. This always gave me the feeling that they had something over us. There was a sense that if we didn’t maintain a good relationship with them, they could easily screw us over.
During this time, the movie “Ghostbusters” came out and became an instant hit. And with that, my colleagues would tease me every time I had to “go down to Repro” that I had been “slimed” like the characters in the movie! At one point, they even bought me a mug that said “I’ve Been Slimed” which I still have:
Read the rest of this entry »
[Jill’s Note: If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.]
You Are Not Who You Think!
Most of us carry around a certain image of ourselves. I certainly did and still do, but I didn’t realize until recently how malleable that image can be. Read the rest of this entry »
[Jill’s Note: If you prefer to listen rather than read, please scroll to the bottom of this post for the audio version.]
Bad Thoughts Equal Bad Feelings
A few months ago I finally grasped a concept that I had been grappling with for quite some time:
Thoughts create feelings not the other way around. The difference between generally happy people, and generally sad (or mad, or whatever) people is their ability understand that simple concept. Read the rest of this entry »
Getting Caught Up In Thought
Recently, a friend who has a small consulting firm called me for some advice about a business situation. He told me of a client who had signed off on a proposal and was ready to move forward with his services. Wanting to get a good feel for exactly what would be needed to get started, my friend began to review what the company was currently doing. After analyzing their situation, he suggested to the client that rather than trying to fix a certain aspect of their business, it would be best for them to start over from scratch. He let them know that from his analysis, their current model wasn’t working well and was losing them money. Read the rest of this entry »
I learned a lot more this week about Mind, Thought and Consciousness and living “from the inside out” as described by Michael Neill and others. Understanding the principles behind how life actually works can and will transform anyone’s life. I’d love to discuss this understanding with anyone else who’s interested. Feel free to contact me!
Here’s what else I learned last week:
Monday, Mar. 10, 2014
- There’s no psychological trauma that can’t be “cured” by changing your relationship to the memories that originally caused the trauma. – George Pransky (paraphrased).
Read the rest of this entry »
