Hi Joshua,
When I compare myself to just a year ago, I realise that my productivity, and perhaps my sense of value, has increased exponentially. But, as you pointed out, it's also a question of not letting conditions limit or define me. I don't think I'm quite there yet, as I have knee jerk reactions to the fears of the people around me, and my own fears, to try and fix things. I would love to be a match to 40% Arnaud, but do I get there by just processing fears and changing my perspective. Is my mental self talk enough to change my perspective? I have been having these glimpses lately of "seeing" or "knowing" (not sure how to describe it), that it is all within me. Is that a sign of a shift?
With my love,
Arnaud
Dear Arnaud,
There is nowhere you need to go. 40% Arnaud is not better than 10% Arnaud. It's just a different version. What will be the difference between the 40% Arnaud and the current Arnaud? You will feel better. So then, if you feel better now, doesn't that in essence get you where you want to go?
How does one feel better? One perceives things as better and this perception of reality actually transforms one's reality. Yes, this is a mental game. It's a game of focus. You choose your thoughts based on how you want to feel. You choose your perspective based on how it makes you feel. You are choosing your thoughts and your perspective right now, but you are simply not aware of what you are doing. When you see something in your reality and you do not like it, you are choosing to look at it from a limited perspective. Certainly, you could call this unconscious judgment, but how would that serve you? We call it a choice that you make. You can stop and think about the negative emotion you are feeling and you can choose to think different thoughts, to analyze your fear, to process the limiting belief, or to choose a higher perspective. As long as it makes you feel better, it doesn't matter how you get there.
You have some momentum around these knee-jerk reactions as you call them. It might be a habit of reaction. It might be called a habit of judgment. Since judgement is based in fear, you can let go of the judgment. Your primary concern should always be how you feel in any moment. You do this now. You prefer to feel good rather than bad now. You know that this is a feeling reality and you really want to feel good. It's just that your process is backwards. You want the conditions to be good so that you "can" feel good. We say you can always feel good right now. It's not about control, because that will never work, it's all about perspective. From the most limited perspective, you will always feel bad no matter how wonderful the conditions are. From the highest perspective, you will always feel good no matter what the conditions are.
In the best of times, you know people who complain about something. In the worst of times, you might have seen people who endeavor to make the best of it. There are those in fear, no matter the conditions, and there are those who live in ease, no matter the conditions. You see, the conditions are not as important as you think they are. Nothing wrong is ever happening. It can only be through the triggering of a limiting belief that you could choose a limited perspective. The limiting belief triggers the knee-jerk reaction. So yes, you will still react, but the process of looking at the belief and proving that it's false will help you regain the higher perspective. Do this enough and you build momentum to a habit that is actually beneficial. Your knee-jerk reaction will be positive and this will create a future you prefer.
With our love,
We are Joshua
