Concept Of Enlightenment | Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle talks about the concept of enlightenment.

"You are already fully yourself."  

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Everything is always working out for me | Abraham | Esther Hicks

Everything is always working out for me is a wonderful rampage of appreciation from Abraham, to get us in the Vortex.  For more information check out http://www.abraham-hicks.com
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You Need More Money—Is That True? The Work of Byron Katie

Katie examines our common misconceptions about money.

"Who would you be without the story 'I need more money?'"

"With or without money, we have a right to be happy that is our birthright."

"In my experience, peace has no conditions, and it's a matter of what is true and what is not."

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Work Versus Passion – Puppy and The Plough | Sid Savara

“A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means” – William Hazlitt

        

 

Imagine the last time you had to work on some dreary task – something you truly dreaded. Go on, close your eyes and do it. I bet just now, merely thinking about it changed the way you felt – your emotions. You may even have furrowed your brow, grimaced, tensed up your muscles or pursed your lips. Just thinking about it likely changed your body language.

Now close your eyes and think about a time you were doing something you loved. Perhaps a hobby, sport, or working towards a dream of yours. How does that make you feel? I bet your body language and feelings changed again.

That difference in attitude is the difference between how we approach doing something because it’s work (something that you have to do)and doing something because it’s your passion (something that you want to do) – and we’ll explore that a little in today’s post.

Note that in this case, when I say work I don’t necessarily mean your career. There are plenty of people in jobs and careers they love. I’m taking my definition of work from the general productivity sense of “stuff I don’t want to do – but have to.”

The Puppy And The Plough

I was thinking about this recently, and the best analogy I could think of is working is like pulling a plough.

The plough is cold, hard material – it has no feeling, no desire to go anywhere, and you don’t want to pull it! However, if you want to get anything accomplished, you have to muster up the motivation and determination to pull it anyway. That’s what work is like – you don’t want to do it, but you suck it up and get it done.

Passion on the other hand is like walking a puppy.

Have you ever taken a puppy out for a walk? You can barely control it! When you’re inside the house, as soon as it hears your pick up the leash it starts running in circles in anticipation. It gets excited. It starts clawing at the door trying to get out. As soon as you get outside, what happens? It tries to run up the street. It runs to the next tree. It practically pulls you behind it, and about all you can do is guide it in the general direction you want to go.

Now that’s what following your passion is like. When I”m working on an exciting piece of software, or writing a new song on guitar, or even writing new articles for this website – once I get started, the project practically does itself. I get in a zone – I forget to eat, I forget to shave, I literally will start falling asleep at the keyboard sometimes because I have to force myself to sleep!

Work Versus Passion – Energy Levels Over Time

Another way of looking at this is considering the long term impact of work. In the short term, we can put up with just about anything – but what are the long term ramifications? I think they look like this:

Work: Over time our “energy” (motivation and actual physical energy) goes down over time the longer we work on something we don’t want to do. What keeps us motivated to keep working? I think it’s small accomplishment boosts from payoffs. For example, occasionally we’ll get paid, earn a bonus, get a pat on the back – or perhaps we reach a short term goal because of the work we’re doing. Nonetheless, the general trend is downward – and without enough payoff, we’ll eventually reach a point where we can’t stand it anymore. The work in and of itself is not rewarding.

Passion on the other hand I’ve found generally increases my energy over time – almost regardless of progress. When I’m passionate about something, I go to sleep and wake up even more motivated to work on my projects than the night before. When I accomplish a small goal, it helps to further fuel my momentum – but with passion, the general trend is upward anyway – and (I didn’t show this in the graph) this helps push me through short term setbacks without losing enthusiasm. The activity itself is rewarding, and I continue doing it even without bonuses to motivate me.

Note that these are extreme examples. For me, most of my passions involve some amount of work, so it’s not always exciting. For example, I don’t especially like some aspects of software development, like tracking down frustrating bugs, but these short term instances of work don’t impact my overall passion for it.

Final Thoughts

What do you think? What are you passionate about? Share your thoughts with me in the comments, over email or over Twitter!

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How to Silence Voices in Your Head | Eckhart Tolle with Oprah

When they announced on Facebook that Eckhart Tolle and Oprah were sitting down once again, questions for Eckhart began pouring in. Watch as he answers two of your most burning questions: 

 - How do you calm the voice in your head, and 

 - How can you clear your mind of bad memories? 

For more on #supersoulsunday, visit http://bit.ly/1pqTI5s 

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Neuroscience Reveals How Gratitude Literally Changes Your Brain to be Happier | The Power of Ideas

We often hear about the power of gratitude for creating a more positive and happy mental state. But did you know that gratitude literally transforms your brain?

According to UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, regularly expressing gratitude literally changes the molecular structure of the brain, keeps the gray matter functioning, and makes us healthier and happier.

When you feel happiness, the central nervous system is affected. You are more peaceful, less reactive, and less resistant. And gratitude is the most effective practice for stimulating feelings of happiness.

In this article we’ll share some of the research demonstrating that gratitude makes you happier, followed by some practical steps you can take to positively transform the molecular structure of the brain.

Studies of gratitude making you happier

In one study of gratitude, conducted by Robert A. Emmons at the University of California at Davis and his colleague Mike McCullough at the University of Miami, randomly assigned participants were given one of three tasks. The participants kept a journal each week, with one group describing things they were grateful for, another describing what’s hassling them and the other keeping track of neutral events. After ten weeks, the participants in the gratitude group felt 25 percent better than the other groups, and had exercised an average of 1.5 hours more.

In a later study by Emmons with a similar set up, participants completing gratitude exercises each day offered other people in their lives more emotional support than those in other groups.

Another study on gratitude was conducted with adults suffering from congenital and adult-onset neuromuscular disorders (NMDs), with the majority of people having post-polio syndrome (PPS). 

Compared to those not jotting down what they’re grateful for every night, participants that did express gratitude felt more refreshed each day upon wakening. They also felt more connected with others than did participants in the group not expressing gratitude.

A fourth study didn’t require a gratitude journal, but looked at the amount of gratitude people showed in their daily lives. In this study, a group of Chinese researchers found that higher levels of gratitude were associated with better sleep, and also with lower levels of anxiety and depression.

Better sleep, with less anxiety and depression. Some compelling reasons to express gratitude more regularly.

Three simple steps to becoming more grateful

If you’ve only got time to say one prayer today, make it the simple words of “thank you.”

This is worth keeping in mind as you go about figuring out your daily practices and routines.

Here are three practical steps you can take to infusing routines of gratitude into your life.

1) Keep a daily journal of three things you are thankful for. This works well first thing in the morning, or just before you go to bed.

2) Make it a practice to tell a spouse, partner or friend something you appreciate about them every day.

3) Look in the mirror when you are brushing your teeth, and think about something you have done well recently or something you like about yourself.

Please let me know what you think below.

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