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It is with the greatest pleasure that I am writing about Eckhart Tolle’s masterpiece, The Power of Now. If you are in a position where you would like to read about calming the incessant chit chat in your mind and analysing those negative thoughts then I highly recommend that you read this book. I have lent this book to many people and it’s amazing to get so many different takes on what the book is about and how useful it is. For me, it’s in the top 5 best self-help books of our time, it’s straight to the point, cuts to the core and I love it.

Just as the title of the book suggests, there is complete power in the ‘now’ and it’s the healthiest and most peaceful place to be. So what does this mean exactly? Well, we live with a tremendous amount of conscious mind chatter every day and when it is negative, it is not a good place to be. Eckhart calls this psychological time. So much of our lives is taken up in this place, thinking of past and future and in fact it can serve us greatly if used in a positive and creative way. However, Eckhart says, “If you dwell on it mentally, and self-criticism, remorse or guilt come up, then you are making the mistake into ‘me’ and ‘mine’: you make it part of your sense of self and it has become psychological time, which is always linked to a false sense of identity.” The power of now is in what Eckhart calls, ‘clock time.’ It is making a mistake and learning from it, it is appreciating what is, it’s setting a goal and working towards it whilst giving complete attention to the steps you are taking now. Psychological time kicks in when “you become excessively focused on the goal, perhaps because you are seeking happiness, fulfilment or a more complete sense of self in it…your life’s journey is no longer and adventure, just an obsessive need to arrive, to attain.” Seeing a process as a means to an end takes the real joy out of living and doing.

Eckhart uses 2 great ideas to get us out of so much psychological time. The first is a technique that is thousands of years old and is part of Vipassana meditation in Mahayana Buddhism. The idea is to pay attention to particular thought patterns and observe them without any judgement, as if they were passing clouds. Be aware of thought patterns that arise frequently and “when you listen to that voice, listen to it impartially.” The second is to become aware of any negativity and unhappiness within yourself and “catch it the moment it awakens from its dormant state.” He then advises us to “make it a habit to go within at once and focus as much as you can on the inner energy field of your body.” Great advice, this then enables us to tap into that part of ourselves that is infinitely more aware and knowing.

The Power of Now is definitely worth a read, there is much more wisdom in its pages than I could ever hope to condense within this post. It is a classic that, I’m sure, will stand the test of time.

As 50 ideas in 50 days draws to a close, I am struck by the similarities in wisdom that reside over both time and culture. It doesn’t matter whether you are concerned with business, relationships, spirituality or mindset, there are some strong similarities across the board.

Peace is not about the extremes in life. If we rely on something else outside of ourselves to bring us euphoria then we must realise the temporary nature of those highs and peaks are always accompanied by their opposites just like the ebb and flow of the tide. We must be at peace with ourselves inwardly and then we can have any emotion accompanied by an underlying stillness.

How do we create peace and calmness inside? Well, from the 50 days a few things come to mind, particularly from Wayne Dyer, Sonia Choquette and Esther and Jerry Hicks. Firstly, if we feel too overwhelmed with a situation and have too many thoughts fighting with each other, it’s important to stop that train of thought, spend some time completely surrounded by nature or in meditation. Anything that stops the conscious mind chatter should then bring much clearer answers to you. Secondly, find something to be grateful of every day, there is always something good to be found and very often the beauty of the simplest things is the most profound. Finally, change those negative thoughts around as quickly and as often as possible. If you’re like me, you may find it difficult at first, if you have been more used to the glass being half empty but really, practice eventually makes the glass well and truly half-full.

Day 50 of 50 ideas in 50 days is The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. Both Tony and Jim are huge in the personal development field, particularly in the area of performance psychology. The basis of The Power of Full Engagement is that it is, “energy, not time that is the fundamental currency of high performance.” This is great news for those of us who think that there are never enough hours in the day. The 4 principles of Full Engagement are as follows:

1. “Full engagement requires drawing on four separate but related sources of energy; physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.”
2. “Because energy diminishes both with overuse and with underuse, we must balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal.”
3. “To build capacity we must push beyond our normal limits, training in the same systematic way that elite athletes do.”
4. “Positive energy rituals – highly specific routines for managing energy, are the key to full engagement and sustained high performance.”

It is important to live in harmony with the natural rhythms of the universe, be it the seasons, the sunrise or the ebb and flow of the waves. This should be so in every part of our day to day lives, work periods and rest periods. This is managing our energy effectively. In sport, this idea began with Flavius Philostratus (AD 170-245) who wrote training manuals for Greek athletes. Russian sports scientists resurrected the concept in the 1960’s and began applying it with stunning success to their Olympic athletes. Today, ‘work-rest’ ratios lie at the heart of periodization, a training method used by elite athletes throughout the world.”

Jim spent a long time analysing top tennis players and their matches and he found that the distinguishing feature was not in how they played but in the differences in what they did between points. He says, “the best players had each built almost exactly the same set of routines between points. These included the way they walked back to the baseline after a point, how they held their heads and shoulders, where they focused their eyes, the pattern of breathing and even the way they talked to themselves.” He noticed that in the time between points, the best players were able to lower their heart rates by as much as 20 beats per minute. This ensures that energy is conserved, sharpness is increased throughout the game and fatigue is lessened. It makes sense doesn’t it? It is important to apply this to all parts of our lives if we wish to utilise our energy effectively and avoid burn out. This means proper quality rest, not TV or filling the body and mind with toxins, it defeats the whole purpose.

This is definitely good quality advice for ending my 50 ideas in 50 days.

Day 49 of 50 ideas in 50 days is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Classical Greek philosophy is one of my favourite areas of philosophy as it is so vast and covers all areas of thinking such as, mind, morality, dialectic and metaphysics. Western philosophy was born here. Marcus Aurelius lived in the 2^nd century, from 121 to 180 and is considered to be one of the most important Stoic philosophers. Meditations is a collection of writings he wrote in his journal about the lessons he learnt as a young man, before he became emperor. His wisdom was amazing and it is just as relevant now as it was all that time ago. It just goes to show, the most powerful ways of thinking are just as useful regardless of the time. Wisdom transcends both time and space.

Marcus says, “take it that you have died today and your life’s story is ended; and henceforward regard what future time may be given you as an uncovenanted surplus and live it out in harmony with nature.” So, imagine you have been given some extra time (that wasn’t in the contract). How would you live each day? I would imagine that you’d live each like it was your last since it has been gifted to you. He says, “were you to live 3000 years, or even 30,000 remember the sole life which a man can lose is that which he is living at the moment; and furthermore, that he can have no other life except the one he loses…this means that the longest life and the shortest amount to the same thing.” The most important thing is the moment we are living now, we don’t have anything else, so make the best of this precious time.

Another crucial point Marcus makes about how precious each moment is, is in the fact that everything changes so quickly – we can grasp at nothing. (It is in this grasping that the Buddha believed suffering arose, around 800 years before Marcus.) Marcus says, “ time is a river, the resistless flow of all created things. One thing no sooner comes in sight than it is hurried past and another is borne along, only to be swept away in it’s turn.” All things are impermanent and this constant is perhaps the only thing we can truly be certain of in life. So, if this is the only truth, remember that the things like the negative opinions of others are most certainly not truth. They have no power over you, unless you let them. Marcus says, “the approval of such men, who do not even stand well in their own eyes, has no value for him.” For someone to disapprove and criticise so much, their opinion of themselves must be poor in the first place. He reminds us that we need not have any distress over external opinion, “the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you can revoke at any moment.”

Marcus truly lived the wisdom that he recorded in his journal and this wisdom is as real in the 21^st century world as it was in 2nd century Europe. Truly timeless knowledge.

Day 48 of 50 ideas in 50 days is The Wheel of Time by Carlos Castaneda. I first read Carlos Castaneda whilst studying South American history at university as part of my Spanish course. It wasn’t part of the curriculum, I came across one of his books in the library and loved it. So, I’m very pleased to be looking at the key ideas of The Wheel of Time. Perhaps the most beautiful aspect of Toltec wisdom is how it inspires and encourages us to take a journey into self-discovery that leads to transcending any conditioning and to following our own individual path. This is something that is echoed by many tribal traditions across the globe. There are 3 specific points I’d like to focus on from The Wheel of Time.                    

1. Make sure the path that you choose is a path with a heart, if you are at the decision stage and you feel there is no warmth and feeling in this choice, forget it. Carlos says, “anything is one of a million paths therefore a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions…there is a question that a warrior has to ask mandatorily: “Does this path have a heart?”” How does this decision feel to you? Does it feel right? No heart, no path.
2. “Once a man worries, he clings to anything out of desperation; and once he clings he is bound to get exhausted or to exhaust whoever or whatever he is clinging to. A warrior-hunter, on the other hand, knows he will lure game into his traps over and over again, so he doesn’t worry.” It’s all about knowing and trusting. Once you begin that spiral of worry, you set in motion a whole host of negativity and begin to cling to things in desperation. If we focus on the positive or the negative, the amount of effort is the same, so choose not to worry. Carlos says, “the trick is in what one emphasises. We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.”
3. Carlos goes on to say that our lives are full of the internal chatter in our heads, so if the internal chatter is negative or if it is incessant worry about things you cannot change – stop it! “And whenever we finish talking to ourselves about the world and about ourselves, the world is always as it should be.” Does negative internal chatter actually change the situation? Does it make the situation better or does it make your life any easier? Most probably the answer is no. So stop it, be aware of what is happening around you and find something to appreciate.

Day 47 of 50 ideas in 50 days is The Silva Mind Control Method of Mental Dynamics by Jose Silva and Burt Goldman. Before 50 ideas, I had heard of Jose and Laura Silva’s work before but was more familiar with Burt Goldman since he is a fellow hypnotherapist. There are some excellent, practical tips in this book you can utilise in your everyday life, techniques that I have used myself and with clients, to great effect.

First things first, let’s think about our different levels of brain waves. (This was covered also in my post about Bill Harris and Holosync) The different states are as follows:

Delta – 0.5-4 cycles per second (deep unconscious sleep)

Theta – 5-7 cycles per second (deep comfortable sleep)

Alpha – 8-13 cycles per second (REM sleep and meditation)

Beta –  example: approx. 19 cps (conscious aware state, creativity)     

                               approx. 21 cps (stress and anxiety)                       

So if we want to slow our brain from a stressed to a relaxed state (beta to alpha) there is a wonderfully simple little hypnotic technique that is so effective. I have taught this technique to over 90% of clients. The trick is to do it often, initially every day until you get to the point where your mind is so conditioned that you can bring about this change with a single breath or visualisation. Inhale and in your mind say, 3,3,3, do another 2 deep breaths for 2 and 1. If you are particularly stressed, begin from 10. Practise this often and before long you can bring on the relaxation with one inhale and exhale.     

The book says, “fear is imaginary just as faith is imaginary – and both being imaginary, they are subject to your mental control.” Fear is just negative expectation, think about it, you are imagining what could go wrong. Silva and Goldman say to get rid of the fear, we must turn our expectations round from negative to positive. What good is there in imagining the worst outcome? Focus on the positive things that could happen. (Then the Law of Attraction works in attracting the positive outcome too but that’s a different blog post.) How about changing your thoughts from, “I’m going to fail this driving test because I’ll forget to do x, y and z” to “I’m going to pass this test with confidence and ease, I’m a careful and relaxed driver.”

Finally Silva and Goldman give 5 superb little rules of happiness, they say “stress is not caused by problems, it is your attitude toward the problem that causes stress…the question is not, how can I rid myself of stress but how can I change my attitude toward work, events, disappointments, fears and people?

1. If you like something, enjoy it.
2. If you don’t like something, avoid it.
3. If you don’t like something and can’t avoid it, change it.
4. If you can’t or choose not to avoid or change something you don’t like, then accept it.
5. You accept something by changing your perception of it.

Simple steps and essentially, changing your perception is not as difficult as you may think. Find something, anything good in the situation and focus on that instead.

Day 46 of 50 ideas in 50 days is The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe by Glenn Clark. In this beautiful little book, Glenn Clark writes about the wonderfully talented genius that is Walter Russell. Walter lived from 1871 to 1963 and firmly believed that genius was in everyone. Unfortunately, it is never discovered by many due to the way that we think. Walter says, “some appear to have it more than others only because they are aware of it more than others are and the awareness or unawareness of it is what makes each one of them into masters or hold them down to mediocrity.” This genius, Walter believes is manifested in 3 different ways. Firstly, by the amount of work they produce, secondly they never know tiredness/exhaustion and thirdly, they improve vastly as they grow older. He says, “great men’s lives begin at forty, when the mediocre man’s life ends.” Wow! This quote is most definitely a rapturous one for me as I approach my 40^th birthday and yes, I can believe that for some people it seems like the beginning of the end. However, around this time it can also feel like a whole new chapter of contentment, excitement, confidence and wisdom.

In order to connect with our genius, Walter suggests something that is echoed by so many personal development thinkers, past and present and that is, to appreciate the stillness. He says, “if you are alone long enough to get thoroughly acquainted with yourself, you will hear whispering from the universal source of all unconsciousness which will improve you…lock yourself up in your room or go out into the woods where you can be alone.” I can’t agree with this strongly enough. Too much conscious mind chit-chat limits our potential and keeps us from what we are truly capable of. Connecting with that stillness not only recharges your batteries but helps you gain flashes of insight that normal everyday life might be unable to give you.

And what of our daily life? Tasks should be completed with love and happiness, even the most mundane. There are things that we would perhaps rather not do but doing them with hatred or disagreement of any kind won’t get it done any more quickly or easily, nor is it worth the negativity it creates in your body. Walter says, “there should be no distasteful tasks in one’s life. If you just hate to do a thing, that hatred for it develops body-destructive toxins and you become fatigued very soon.” Ever noticed the difference in how worn out you feel when you have a negative attitude toward something? Housework is one of the best forms of exercise so how about hoovering with a little happiness and see how differently you feel!

Day 45 of 50 ideas in 50 days is The Book of Understanding by Osho. It’s time to put my bias aside and actually take the time to read some of Osho’s work. I must say, I always consider myself to be open minded when it comes to reading, to the point that I will read and give my opinion but I never wanted to read any of Osho’s work because I always considered him to be too materialistic. (I have never understood why someone would need so many Rolls-Royces.) However, bias aside, today, I am willing to finally look at his work.

Osho believes it is entirely possible to have a union between the material and the spiritual, he says, “it is the synthesis of matter and soul, it is a declaration that there is no conflict between matter and consciousness, that we can be rich on both sides.” Our lives should be a dynamic existence, truly living is accepting the lows and embracing the highs, taking risks, fully aware that you are living and not wrapping yourself up in cotton wool, so as to avoid sadness or failure. He says, “for centuries, that has been the way of the monk, ready to sacrifice all possibilities of ecstasy just to avoid the agony. He is ready to avoid all the roses just to avoid the thorns. But then his life is just flat… a long, long boredom…he does not really live, he is afraid to live.” Correct me if I’m wrong here but, for many monks and nuns, particularly westerners, they decide to become ordained and have a life of servitude and meditation because they have lived a dynamic life and they are aware of it’s fickleness, illusion and impermanence.

There are, however, a couple of points that Osho makes that I wholeheartedly agree with and they are as follows:

1. Observe your behaviour and your negative thoughts. “Watch as they arise, without any judgement and condemnation, they will disappear, leaving a tremendous amount of energy that you can use for creativity.” This is very well said, shades of the Buddha here. So much energy is spent on judging our thoughts and actions. Allow those thoughts to pass without judging good or bad. They just are.

1. “I am not against rules, but the rules should arise out of your understanding. They should not be imposed from the outside. I am not against discipline, but discipline should not be slavery. All true discipline is self-discipline.” True. Think for yourself, don’t accept on blind faith, analyse and decide. Let your inner resources be your guidance.

Okay, so I would agree here that one blog post probably does not do Osho’s work real justice but this short time has introduced me to his work and has made me a little less judgemental and that is always a good thing.

Day 44 of 50 ideas in 50 days is Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. I’ve been really looking forward to the ideas in Maxwell’s book as I had never come across it before. The ideas inside greatly intrigued me. I am always keen to delve into ideas about the unconscious mind and how we can use it to create a better existence for ourselves. Originally published in 1967, Maxwell (a plastic surgeon) wrote the book because he was interested in how surgery changed the emotional lives of some and not others. Some gained a greater confidence and others kept the same low self esteem they suffered prior to the operation.

‘Cybernetics’ comes from a Greek word which literally means, ‘the steersman.’ ”Servo-mechanisms are so constructed that they automatically ‘steer’ their way to a goal, target or answer. When we conceive of the human brain and nervous system as a form of servo-mechanism, operating with Cybernetic principles, we gain a new insight into the why and wherefore of human behaviour.” What does this actually mean? When a missile is fired, it uses it’s mechanical senses to stay on target, (think positive feedback) when it’s not on target, (negative feedback) it adjusts it’s course so it’s back on track.

Maxwell says, ”a human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment.” Do you receive that negative feedback and believe it? What about your years of conditioning? We all have limiting beliefs to some degree or another. The greater these are, the more limited your achievements. Maxwell was certainly a pioneer of his time, he was aware of the power of the unconscious mind and it’s ability to change radically due to it’s plasticity. He says, “your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an imagined experience and a real experience” so he suggests using your imagination, “if you have been shy and timid, see yourself moving among people wit ease and poise – and actually feeling good because of it.” Exercises like this are essential for success in any area of life, Maxwell suggests 30 minutes and I think, initially this is a great suggestion because you are building new ‘memories’, a new image of yourself and this requires a little time.

Limiting beliefs are ultimately responsible for being unable to reach our goals. (Not including external factors that may stall or stop us.) We can will something to happen and use all the conscious effort we can in planning each step but if our unconscious mind is working largely on conditioned limiting beliefs like, “I’m not good enough,” then we are unlikely to get the results we want. This is why an exercise like Maxwell describes above is so important and equally effective, if we truly want to make a difference and have results.

 Day 43 of 50 ideas in 50 days is Joseph Campbell’s Pathways to Bliss. I have quoted Joseph Campbell for a long time, I love his work and his writing style, which has a poetic beauty. He describes ‘our bliss’ as the “welling up of the energy of the transcendent wisdom within you.” He encourages us to follow our bliss and his reason for suggesting this comes from the ancient Hindu texts, ‘the Upanishads.’ Inside, the texts tell us that there are 3 paths to enlightenment: sat (beingness), chat (consciousness) and ananda (bliss). He decided he best knew what ‘bliss’ felt like and made the decision to follow that path. He describes bliss as the joy you feel because God is flowing through you. It’s the happiness you feel through living on purpose. He also says, “when the call isn’t answered, you experience a kind of drying up and a sense of life lost.” It’s important to answer the call! You can keep with the same routine and have the same problems surface again and again in your life. However, if you answer the call and direct attention to your purpose, it’s interesting how life tends to flow beautifully from that point on.

Joseph talks about our life path and says, “over and over again you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Each time, there is the same problem: do I dare? And then if you do dare, the dangers are there and the help also, and the fulfilment or the fiasco. There’s always the possibility of fiasco, but there’s also the possibility of bliss.” That is life, there are no guarantees about what will happen and how it will turn out but should we never try because of the possibility of fiasco or failure? It is how we handle the fiascos that bring the possibilities of bliss. If we feel defeated and scurry back into our comfort zone, then the chance of experiencing bliss is extremely remote. However, if we follow our purpose then we have a greater chance of fulfilment because the fulfilment is in the actual journey. It is in the Pathway to Bliss.