Can You Remove Your Blinders?

Do you read magazines (online or print)? Do you watch television? Do you look at billboards? Are you on one or more social media sites? My guess is that almost everyone does at least one of these. It's rather obvious. But how much are you discerning that this is in fact, manipulating you, and more importantly, how much of it are you actually looking at with a measure of critical reasoning in order to determine what it is doing to you? The answer to that question may well determine your state of inner well-being.

FOMO (fear of missing out) is a term that sprang to life some years ago with regard to people's feelings as they 'watched' their FB friends' lives unfold (in apparently beguiling fashion) in front of their eyes on their monitors. FOMO has even garnered support groups for those who have become depressed due to the apparently more 'fun' or glamorous or popular lifestyles of those online friends. We may laugh. How silly, we may think.

How about this: you watch that reality TV show and feel worse afterwards because you have not yet managed to buy such a mansion, or have such a body, or carve out such a lucrative, celebrity life-style for yourself. We may laugh. How silly, we may think.

What about those glossy magazines or tabloid newspapers (sometimes even disguised as serious press with their occasional articles about subjects not pertaining to gossip) you look at? Those amazing ads with those amazingly young people in them with their amazing looks and amazing clothes, all telling you that if only you buy that cream, or this perfume, or that article of clothing, or that suitcase, or handbag, or briefcase, you will also - just like those people laid out so seductively on the photo spread - live such a lifestyle. We may laugh. How silly, we may think.

And yet, I wager that most of us have been there and felt that. Our culture, our mass media, our very way of living wraps sticky tentacles of desire around us. We may have sprung back very quickly, realizing what it does to us, and decided not to go down that road, or it may have taken us longer to recognize the dangers and eventually remove the blinders, or we may have found ourselves deep in that hole of comparison, desire, envy, depression, feeling bad about ourselves, or desperate yearning for something that we don't know how to fulfill.

Understand that what speaks to your mundane or outer self will rarely give you the satisfaction and joy that something different, that speaks to your eternal or inner self is capable of doing. The place where you will find inner well-being, peace, happiness, harmony, and freedom, will almost never come from that which is out there, with empty promises of being or having more than others. Remove those blinders and start looking inside yourself for all that so far you have deluded yourself into believing you can find out there.

A marvelous quote by the Dalai Lama that refers to this says: Do not let the behavior of others destroy your inner peace. He also said: True happiness comes from having a sense of inner peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved by cultivating altruism, love and compassion, and by eliminating anger, selfishness and greed.

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See the preview (click the image) to my latest online on-demand video course:
Freedom From the Torture of Your Thoughts




Now Available
"Freedom From the Torture of Your Thoughts"

Click HERE for the introductory pricing of US 15

**************************************************

See the preview (click below) to my first online on-demand video course  

  NOW available

"Emotional Unavailability & Neediness: Two Sides of the Same Coin"

Click HERE to access the introductory rate of US 15

 *****************************

Si hablas español:

Hace poco di una charla en Marbella sobre el tema

"Basta con la tortura de tus pensamientos"

Se filmó y se puede ver en YouTube aquí:

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Also visit my book website: www.gabriellakortsch.com where you may download excerpts or read quotations from any of my books (also in Spanish & German). My latest book Emotional Unavailability & Neediness: Two Sides of the Same Coin is available globally on Amazon in print & Kindle. You can also obtain it (or any of my other books) via Barnes & Noble.

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch (English). Available globally in paperback or Kindle e-book versions

Bücher von Dr. Gabriella Kortsch (Deutsch) ... JETZT bei Amazon (Taschenbuch oder E-Book) erhältlich 

DEINE SEELE UND DU

  

Angefangen mit Rewiring the Soul - auf Deutsch: Deine Seele und Du, jetzt weltweit erhältlich als Taschenbuch oder Kindle E-Book (Blog hier), werden auch meine anderen Bücher in Zukunft auf Deutsch bei Amazon erhältlich sein.

Libros por Gabriella Kortsch (español) ... ahora en todo el mundo en Amazon en versión bolsillo y Kindle

Note: Also see my other other blog The Tao of Spiritual Partnership, so named for another one of my books. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed. 

My blog posts are also featured on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest & you can find me on Instagram 

Nurturing Greater Thoughts

Do you remember learning how to read at school? While each country will have followed different precepts, in my case a lot of it had to do with 'See Jane run'; 'See Jane's dog run'; and 'See Jane and Tom run'. I was devastated by the utter boredom of the thoughts implied in this learning how to read process.

Fast forward a few years. Obviously I had been reading many more exciting books: adventure, fairy tales, historical novels, but one fine day I stumbled across The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and as you can imagine, I was awe-struck. The thoughts that swirled through my head thanks to ideas propagated on each page of this amazing book, were infinite, as they occupy me still, albeit on other levels now than then.

But here is the point: the 'see Jane run' type of thought kept readers on a given level. A wardrobe with a hidden door that led to magical kingdoms led readers to a very different level indeed. And in our lives it's quite a bit of the same. How much of your time do you spend mulling over mundane thoughts that keep you at a very basic energetic level? 

Routine forms part of all our lives, but just to offer a couple of examples of ways to walk through that proverbial hidden door and enter the magic kingdom: driving in your car, going over, in your mind, what you need to do today. You've actually already got it all down, you made a list, no real need to go over it all again. SO instead: listen to some TED-type seminars that really turn you on and make you enter new worlds because of the material that is being offered - all you have to do is get the podcasts into your system, or download them for MP3 listening in your car. Likewise seminars from any number of speakers and thinkers that have the capacity to transport you from your mundane thoughts to a world filled - in some fashion - with magic. And of course, this affects your energetic frequency and vibration. How could it not?

You're not in your car? Perhaps you're shaving, putting on your make-up, cooking, puttering, waiting in traffic, waiting in line at a bureaucratic institution that exists merely to let the rest of us mortals know that our time is no longer ours, or perhaps you're waiting at a doctor's office, at the bank, on hold with one of those corporations that - just like the bureaucracies - believes that its mission in life is to make us realize our time is no longer our own. In all of these instances, if you have come prepared with some material of the type I've recommended here, you can not only use your time to remove yourself from the mundane nightmare (Sartre might have termed it a Huis Clos) those situations sometimes subject us to, but literally transport yourself to another plane, another level of being thanks to the thoughts those talks and seminars are exposing you to.

It was Benjamin Disraeli who said: Nurture great thoughts, for you will never go higher than your thoughts, and it is so very true that this is a matter that lies in your hands and in your head, and how you choose the level of thoughts on which you keep yourself.

Note: TED seminars as well as seminars by a varied number of speakers can be accessed on my left sidebar under links, especially the links with an asterix. Or go directly to the TED site, or even to YouTube and search for people that inspire you

***************

See the preview (click the image) to my latest online on-demand video course:
Freedom From the Torture of Your Thoughts




Now Available
"Freedom From the Torture of Your Thoughts"

Click HERE for the introductory pricing of US 15

**************************************************

See the preview (click below) to my first online on-demand video course  

  NOW available

"Emotional Unavailability & Neediness: Two Sides of the Same Coin"

Click HERE to access the introductory rate of US 15

 *****************************

Si hablas español:

Hace poco di una charla en Marbella sobre el tema

"Basta con la tortura de tus pensamientos"

Se filmó y se puede ver en YouTube aquí:

*****************************

Also visit my book website: www.gabriellakortsch.com where you may download excerpts or read quotations from any of my books (also in Spanish & German). My latest book Emotional Unavailability & Neediness: Two Sides of the Same Coin is available globally on Amazon in print & Kindle. You can also obtain it (or any of my other books) via Barnes & Noble.

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch (English). Available globally in paperback or Kindle e-book versions

Bücher von Dr. Gabriella Kortsch (Deutsch) ... JETZT bei Amazon (Taschenbuch oder E-Book) erhältlich 

DEINE SEELE UND DU

  

Angefangen mit Rewiring the Soul - auf Deutsch: Deine Seele und Du, jetzt weltweit erhältlich als Taschenbuch oder Kindle E-Book (Blog hier), werden auch meine anderen Bücher in Zukunft auf Deutsch bei Amazon erhältlich sein.

Libros por Gabriella Kortsch (español) ... ahora en todo el mundo en Amazon en versión bolsillo y Kindle

Note: Also see my other other blog The Tao of Spiritual Partnership, so named for another one of my books. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed. 

My blog posts are also featured on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest & you can find me on Instagram 

Greeting the Unknown

Leaving the familiar behind is not something all of us do easily. It may create stress, worry, and fear, and therefore many people do their best to avoid it. Yet it is at the threshold of the unknown that growth, expansion, and adventure may take place.

How else was the New World discovered, how else did the first moon landing take place? How else were so many of the objects we take for granted invented? The submarine, the airplane, the microscope, and the printing press, not to mention digital technology in all its wonders that lead us to even more 'magical' discoveries!

I am also reminded of a 2008 movie I've enjoyed so much that over the years I've seen it several times. It relates the true story of a journalist out to get a coveted scoop, yet who winds up on some strange by-ways due to the vagaries of his situation, and is then faced with the unknown which he not only fears, but which - in modern terms - freaks him out. Nevertheless, he takes on the challenge, never realizing the riches that will come to him thanks to it. The title of that film is The Children of Huang Shi.

And on a very personal level, when you leave a familiar job routine to take on a promotion with greater responsibilities, even if you remain within the same firm, or when you leave a comfortable job to take on a new one, even if it's in the same city, but with new colleagues, new systems, and many other unknown factors, or when you start a new relationship, when you have a child, when you move to a new city or country, when you start some inner work on yourself (whether in therapy or otherwise), when you start a degree at university, or even simply when you dare to change your appearance in ways that are apparent to others, and hence expose you to comments (good or bad), you are taking a step into the unknown.

How do you greet it? Do you look forward to meeting all the unknown elements of this new sector of your life, in the knowledge that this will change you in ways you are not yet familiar with, and that in that changing, you will not only grow, but also become more of what you can be? Do you allow yourself to see the miraculous in that possibility? Do you actively look for change of this type?

If the answer is a lukewarm yes or a maybe, or perhaps even a downright no, then please remember what I wrote above: it is at the threshold of the unknown that growth, expansion, and adventure take place. Crossing thresholds always implies risks, but frequently also fear. Allow yourself to greet the trepidation, worry, or fear as a friend that has the potential to bring you to new places, and such potential is worth gold. Saying hello to the unknown is frequently akin to greeting a stranger who will somehow show you riches beyond belief.

***************

See the preview (click the image) to my latest online on-demand video course:
Freedom From the Torture of Your Thoughts




Now Available
"Freedom From the Torture of Your Thoughts"

Click HERE for the early bird special pricing of US 15

**************************************************

See the preview (click below) to my first online on-demand video course  

  NOW available

"Emotional Unavailability & Neediness: Two Sides of the Same Coin"

Click HERE to access the special rate of US 15

 *****************************

Also visit my book website: www.gabriellakortsch.com where you may download excerpts or read quotations from any of my books (also in Spanish & German). My latest book Emotional Unavailability & Neediness: Two Sides of the Same Coin is available globally on Amazon in print & Kindle. You can also obtain it (or any of my other books) via Barnes & Noble.

Books by Dr. Gabriella Kortsch (English). Available globally in paperback or Kindle e-book versions

Bücher von Dr. Gabriella Kortsch (Deutsch) ... JETZT bei Amazon (Taschenbuch oder E-Book) erhältlich 

DEINE SEELE UND DU

  

Angefangen mit Rewiring the Soul - auf Deutsch: Deine Seele und Du, jetzt weltweit erhältlich als Taschenbuch oder Kindle E-Book (Blog hier), werden auch meine anderen Bücher in Zukunft auf Deutsch bei Amazon erhältlich sein.

Libros por Gabriella Kortsch (español)

Ahora en todo el mundo en los sitios internacionales de Amazon en versión bolsillo y Kindle

Note: Also see my other blog The Tao of Spiritual Partnership, so named for another one of my books. Click here to visit the blog and/or to sign up for the feed. 

My blog posts are also featured on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest & you can find me on Instagram