Being 50/50 with Life

I first heard this concept from Gary Douglas, founder of Access Consciousness, and it took me a long time to fully understand what being "50/50 with life" actually means.

The key is to embrace the assumption that we are all infinite beings and as such, are infinite creators. The 50/50 concept doesn't work unless this is understood. But, it's what got me into a conundrum, which is why I had such a hard time understanding this.

The conundrum is: If I am creating everything that's happening in my life, then where's the 50 percent come from? Isn't that 100 percent me? Actually, no.

We all came into this reality agreeing to quite a long list of rules and laws, and by doing so, it shifted our power and energies to "the other". It's important to get why this is important. "The other" is the Infinite--all the infinite possibilities from which all possibilities are born. It is, as I like to say, the soft underbelly of my own infiniteness. It's the part that we make "the other"--the part that is beyond what our limited minds can fathom.

So... it's imperative, when desiring something, wanting, or needing something, that we acknowledge "the other" as our actualizing partner, that without, life becomes difficult and suffering becomes the norm.

Ultimately, Life--our experience of everything we are--is a team effort: the team of You and Life. It is at the core of dualism--the engine of polarity that drives all motion in the Universe and beyond. By not acknowledging this Other Partner, we end up victimizing ourselves within the limited perceptual box that is the mind.

How do we access that other 50%? It's deceptively simple: ask questions. But more than that, it's BEING the question, where you're genuinely curious about what is you are asking about. "What would it take to find an epic, generative relationship?", for example. Hold that question, really be it, and soon, your partner, The Other, we begin delivering circumstances, opportunities and new awarenesses about actions you can take that fulfill that sincere question--a conversation, a Facebook post, a look, a new context--all flowing to you from the Infinite in response to your question.

Now, there is a nuance to this. If you're asking the question out of desperation, or other fears, the low frequency emotional content serves to block the broadcast of your question and the reception of all the possibilities. The question must flow from pure curiosity. "What else IS possible here?", "What DOES have to change here in order to resolve this issue?", or, "WHO do I need to be in order to receive more money?" The Universe instantly begins the process of delivering your possibilities. Then, as the possibilities come pouring in, it is then becomes a matter of choice. And a choice made creates new awarenesses and even more possibilities.

So, say hello to your 50/50 partner: Life!

Hacking Memes

Since embracing the "quantum" way of life, many things have changed for me. I notice I have really different "pet peeves"--behaviors of self or others that stimulate an automatic reaction because of a pre-conceived judgment or point of view.

We call them "pets" because we have no intention of letting them go, mainly because, I'm pretty sure in my case, anyway, letting the Pet Peeves run rampant gives a certain "rush" of control; an outburst of a point of view; the heart-felt judgment or justification of who you are. I think we embrace certain Pet Peeves in order to make it seem we're participating in life and expressing ourselves about what we need and desire, much like we do with our pets.

One of the newer Pets I've been letting run amok, is rebelling against memes about process. Here are a few (actually seen on Facebook) that usually put me in a state of rebellion:

• "When I don't work hard, I lose money."
• "A year from now, you will have wished you had started today."
• "Consistency always leads to excellence. Whatever you do in life, always be consistent"
• "The road to success comes through hard work, determination and sacrifice"

Everyone, it seems, has their own formula for success. And most people would probably nod their heads as to the truth of these statements. The problem is, each one of them, under certain circumstances and possibilities, are absolutely false.

For example, I've worked hard and lost money. I've also made a lot of money without doing hardly anything.

A year from now I'm not going to be mulling over my choices I'm making now. I'll be making new choices without any regrets.

Consistency is also the way to mediocrity, stuckness and non-mindfulness.

We all know examples where "hard work, determination and sacrifice" has not led to success.

Conventional wisdom without introspection allows one to embrace these memes, not because they are really true, but because they sound like they should be.

All of the memes above are about process--the way you do things; the right way to do things. From the quantum perspective, however, they are one way of doing the process.

What gets me up on my soapbox about thinking in this unexamined way, is that it completely deletes out possibilities. There are a million ways conditions, things and experiences manifest in the world. Why narrow it down to one measily meme?

By applying infinite quantum states to the things you want and the life you desire, it is the certainty that asking the question puts the universe into motion is key. Sure you'll have stuff to do when you start asking about a better job, a bigger house, nicer car, or an epic relationship, but without living in the question of those things, it can only be hard work and sacrifice--that one way you are convinced is the only way.

The universe always has your back. There's even a word for it: "pronoia", which I've written about in past issues. The universe has your back only when you embody the question. It's then that the universe gets busy bringing you what you want in the way that is best for you.

Questions such as, "What would it take for the best house to show up for me that would bring joy and ease?"; "What energy do I need to be to receive an epically healing and generative relationship?"; or, "What is it going to take to bring about a big change in my life toward joy and fulfillment?" Then, you remain in that question as the Universe goes about answering it.

I'm not saying there won't be hard work. I am saying "hard work" is one possibility. If there are infinite ways something appears in this universe, then there are certainly other ways than "hard work" for it to show up. Maybe it's joyous work. Maybe it's play that doesn't feel like work at all. Maybe it's just answering the phone. Or, maybe it's enthusiastic involvement.

My point is to be mindful about how you've decided to make things happen. Look at what processes you believe must be in place before something happens for you. Then, realize that is only one way of looking at it. If you must have a process, or a checklist of things to do to get what you want, then ask the universe for options--the most fun ones. But always remain in the question, and the quantum Universe will deliver.

As An Infinite Being, You Chose What?

One of the most basic realities about being a spiritual being is that we are infinite. We have all the power, all the awareness, all the knowledge we need to create anything we desire. In fact--a hard fact--is that we have created, in great detail, everything we are experiencing in our lives.

If you compare what your life would be like if you were to fully embrace your infiniteness with what you currently are experiencing, there is probably a "YUUGE" difference. Why is this?

For various reasons over the last few billion years, we have diminished our own power, and our own awareness, to the point where we are mere fractions of what we could be in this world. Why did we do that? Lots of reasons: We did it for someone else; we judged ourselves to be incorrect or wrong; we did it to fit in with a lesser or rule-abundant crowd; we decided being powerful and aware was unacceptable; etcetera, etcetera...

Gary Douglas, founder of Access Consciousness, has a good question that can help set you on the path to reclaiming your personal power and awareness: "Would an infinite being create that?"

"My money is always short at the end of the month" -- And an infinite being would create that for what reason?

"When I argue with my wife, I'm always wrong." -- And an infinite being would create that for what reason?

"I never have enough money to do what I want." -- well, you guessed it.

My old buddy, Bashar, has three questions that should blow your mind and help with this:

1. I am feeling (experiencing, having) (fill in the blank)>
2. I CHOSE this for myself.
3. I CHOSE this for myself because it serves me.

Now this cuts right into the meat of how we, as infinite beings, have come to be functioning as we are in this physical world: CHOICE. We choose everything that happens to us, and it's not as simple as making a black or white, 1-2 choice. Sometimes we make big decisions (choices) about "the way things are" in order to hold those conditions in place to minimize our powers or make ourselves "right". We may choose pain and suffering to prove to ourselves we deserve it for all the times we decided we misused our power.

There are a multitude of reasons we make the choices we do, and the key is to become AWARE of what choices we've made. because when we usually make a choice, we promptly forget about it--especially negative ones. We call it "human nature." I call it "de-evolution".

By using Bashar's three sentences, we can unravel how it is we ended up here, and it allows us (or forces us) to ask the right question. "How or why is this serving me, and why the hell do I think it's a good thing?"

What we're going for here is AWARENESS. Awareness trumps past choices--it interrupts the energy flow created by the choice, and requires that a new choice be made. In this way, we can (if we so choose) clear out the present and the future of negative choices, replacing them with life-affirming, loving, adventurous ones.

"Choice awareness" is the primary driver of happiness and success. If you're always choosing the energies of your highest expression, infinite possibilities unfold, and power is restored.

Predicting and Choosing

I love those moments when "out of the blue" you get an insight on how you've been living your life--and they seem to come when I'm doing something mundane, like walking the dog, driving the car, or grocery shopping (must be some neurological circumstance of some sort)... Anyway, today a big existential question came crashing in: "Do I really know what's going to happen, or am I choosing it?"

Now, what I mean by "knowing what's going to happen", is a range of things--from daily routines where you pretty much know what's going to happen when you take a shower, or do the dishes--to knowing where the money is going to be coming from to pay the rent. In fact, all those circumstances that you just know are going to happen, and do, make up the matrix of our lives; and we don't often stop to see all the choices we make moment by moment to keep that matrix rolling along.

The quantum truth of the matter is that ANYTHING could happen AT ANY MOMENT, since quantum states exist in and out of time, which makes all possibilities possible at any time. I might think I know what's going to happen when I get in the shower, but then the water suddenly shuts off because the City workers turned off the water to the apartment while they repaired the broken main. Or, I think I know what's going to happen when I do the dishes, but then the garbage disposal jams...and I get all bent out of shape about it.

The point I'm attempting to make is that by habitually pre-determining our choices by making predictions about our own activities, shuts off the infinite other amazing possibilities that could happen. I think we construct a nice, predictable set of circumstances for ourselves that (we think) guarantees security for our reality (our money situation, our living quarters, or transportation, our relationships). But what if by doing this we unwittingly cut ourselves off from a huge potential of fantastically wonderful things that could happen to us?

Perhaps a more "quantum" way to live would be to--instead of predicting what's going to happen--we just float in the question: "What amazing things await me at any moment?"

There have been manifestation experiments where it was shown that asking questions about something greater happening, is far superior to visualization techniques. In other words, jump out of the box of yourself and trust that the Universe has your back, and is going to give you what you desire. Your job is not to limit it to a specific set of familiar circumstances.

We have all been burned badly by the unpredictable, so the idea of asking open-ended questions about our desires feels like giving up our personal power, and control, and that is scary.

Gary Douglas, founder of Access Consciousness tells us to "live in 10 second increments"--where any choice can be changed within 10 seconds. Now that's freedom. You desire something? Get the energy of that thing--just the energy of what it feels like, not what it looks like--and keep choosing that, and follow the energy to the actualization of that desire.

Abraham Hicks has a famous saying: "Hold a thought for just 17 seconds, and the Law of Attraction kicks in. Hold a thought for 68 seconds and things move; manifestation has begun."

So, rather than "predicting" everything that's happening to you (thus guaranteeing the same old-same old), start choosing your desires by asking questions like, "What would it take for ______ to show up?" "What energy, space and consciousness do I need to be for __________ to happen?"

After a little practice, things really will start moving directly toward your desires, and if you stay out of the habit of needing to have a predictable life, who knows what fantastic things could happen?

Take A Moment

An article inspired me in this newsletter about joy not having to be an intense experience, and that cultivating an awareness of "okayness" is a valid path to well-being. In fact, unamplified states of gratitude and appreciation for the "little things" in life go a long way to de-stressing the system, and allowing the body and mind to restore.

I think it is a part of the human condition to strive for intensity of feelings; a way of creating a narrative of grandness and transcendence that rises above the "normal", the "mundane" or "average". It is born out of a numbness to routine, and a sort of blanking out of the repetitive or regular, much like retinal fatigue, or the numbness from rubbing an earlobe. Society's highest expectations and rewards are given to those living the most outrageous and intense lives, and we all have embraced this paradigm as a judgment on how we measure up. You know, the "star" factor.

Modern psychologists would chalk these attitudes up to bad mental health, and here's why: Most of what happens to us in our daily lives certainly is unremarkable, and yet we seem to measure our joy factor or happiness factor by how intense our perceptions are as we put a priority on extreme events.

We've all heard people say, "It was really dangerous, but I've never felt so alive." The reality of this is if this danger you speak of that was making you feel so alive just kept going without respite, the stress of it would certainly kill you.

Another aspect to this is finding fault with experiences, judging them as "boring" or "monochromatic" or "disappointing" in some way. It's a mind set that has an expectation of intensity that sets a standard against which all experience must measure up. This is validated with TV dramas, big movie adventures, and sweeping novels--all stimulating our nervous systems and exacerbating our sense of the extreme. Our lives by comparison certainly become dull.

Everything Science tells us about the human mind-body system is that excitement, danger, peak experiences, are all stressful to the body; causing the restorative systems to shut down, the adrenaline flight or fight systems to ramp up, leading to cell damage and oxidative stress injuries. The life of the adrenaline junkie is certain to be shorter and less satisfying over the long term.

As an alternative approach, start to become aware of these conditions:

• At this moment, nothing hurts
• Right now, I am not upset, and I'm not suffering
• Nothing is actually bothering me at this moment
• I don't really need anything right now
• I'm fine with the way things are right now
• I'm grateful for just being able to be
• I appreciate everything around me at this moment

When you start breaking it down like this, it becomes apparent that what is really causing any of your well-being and any of your happiness is happening at every moment. Lifting all the judgments about how we're not living up some "superman" or "superwoman" intensity, allows us to become aware of and enjoy those small moments to ourselves, and allows these moments to rise to equal priority with moments of intensity.

I'm not saying one shouldn't strive for something fantastic in their life, or plan big adventures. I'm saying that the time between the intensities of life is just as valuable, if not more so in terms of body repair and mental well-being. We tend to forget that this is important amidst all the bombardment of MMA fighting, 200 MPH car races, super-hero blockbusters, acid trips and rock star stadium concerts.

Just take a moment, to have a moment.

Are You All In?

Commitment is a complicated and funny concept. On the one hand it represents strict, unbending discipline. On the other it represents a giving up, or letting go--a turning of one's soul totally over to a belief.

The first definition makes me feel tired. Don't we all feel a commitment to working as hard as we can to make our lives happy? We grit our teeth and grimly set forth on the laborious path to what we believe will create happiness and fulfillment. This brings out the rebel in me. Why not work smart, not hard? Or, maybe it's not a matter of "work" at all?

The second definition of commitment is scary to me. It's the commitment it takes to jump into the abyss; take that leap of faith, or give up all your preconceived notions, plans and schemes for success, and let the Universe just provide.

Somewhere in the middle of these two extremes is where most of us dwell for the short years we have on this planet. We beat ourselves up for not "sticking with it"; but then beat ourselves up because we realize we just can't let go and have a little faith in life. All the while, happiness, contentment and fulfillment seem like bubbles in the wind.

I must say, after 60-plus years of wearing myself out working my ass off, instead of achieving a modicum of happiness for my trouble, I instead have realized the utter futility of it. Over my lifetime I've often glanced over at the Second Way longingly wondering if that would be the fruitful path not taken. I even dabbled in it sometimes when the stakes weren't very high, with mixed results.

Now I'm wondering, what if the Universe is just waiting for me to get out of my own way? What if I'm unconsciously blocking the Universe by making all these plans, cooking up all these schemes, and worrying my pretty little head about outcomes. There's a nagging knowing that this is the true reality of my life, that the ego must demonstrate how powerful it is in creating a life for me. But what if that is all just bullshit? What if the doorway to fulfillment and the actualizing of all my grandest wishes and dreams was as simple as just asking for it?

The Universe sometimes has a way of pointing directly at your self-esteem issues when you ask for something. We jump over into planning and working hard to prove to ourselves we're worthy of what we ask for. "Work hard enough, and you can have everything you want." I think this is mostly a lie. Sure, hard work and slavish commitment to an objective is how most of us get stuff we want, but what if that is the "long way 'round"?

Instead, what if it's more a matter of asking for something and then being completely, and committedly willing to do, be or not do and not be whatever comes up in the actualizing of it, and what if doing and being only those ways of joy and ease was the fastest track to bringing your dreams to fruition?

In other words, you want the joy and ease in your life that your objective would bring. What if the path to that objective was doing and being that joy and ease right now? All the Universe seems to want to know is, Are you committed to the joy and ease your dreams would bring? Can you truly receive that, or are you awash in doubts and self-defeatism? The Universe is all too willing to let you thrash around in those doubts, otherwise how would you become aware of the alternative?

Say it with me: I hereby COMMIT to the joy and ease the actualization of my dreams would bring, vow to become joy and ease in my life right now, becoming a powerful, shining beacon the Universe cannot miss in bringing me everything grand and wonderful I can imagine, and beyond. Are you ALL IN?

Reverse Engineer Your Pain

After being on the spiritual discovery path for most of my 63 years, I've come to see that there are just about as many approaches to how to go about this journey as there are people. In other words, spiritual journeys are a deeply individual experience, and ultimately, only the journeyer can decide which way to go, or what approach to take.

Ironically, there are also some very tried and true techniques to use to speed you on your way that seem to apply to practically everyone--results vary. My own style of research and discovery into who and more vitally, what I am, includes trying out practically every mode and modality I run across. I've often thought, If I just stayed with one damn technique I'd probably be a lot further along by now. But then, this would be only if I didn't change as a result of applying these various tools. I change--need a new tool. And although that seems like a bit of an excuse, it seems to work for me as I am now.

That said, one observation I keep running across, and then processing on, is how the emotions are intertwined with the physical body. There are hundreds of modalities that address the emotional component of physical disease and discomforts, yet basically, they are all saying the same thing.

My favorite spiritual teacher and savant, Teal Swan, summed up this whole approach with one question: "How does your pain make you feel?" Sit with that for a moment. "How does your pain make you feel?" What emotions are triggered by your pain?

The reason this is such a significant approach is because the structure of pain and dis-ease in the body is underpinned, anchored and given form by the emotions or feelings from which they arose. By re-experiencing these emotions, we're able to effectively "reverse-engineer" and de-construct our pain.

It goes like this: Say, you experience knee pain. Now sit with that pain for a moment--not resisting it, not judging it, or fleeing from it. Instead, observe how that pain makes you feel. Pick out some emotions--there will be several.

For example, I felt my knee pain and it had a feeling of helplessness about it. I followed that back into my past, asking for the earliest time where I felt helplessness like that. I ran straight into a time when I was about 8 years old and had badly sprained my ankle. I couldn't walk on it, and was limping around. My friends wanted me to come out and play, but I had to say I couldn't. This tied into feelings of abandonment and rejection--not to mention frustration. I realized my knee pain had dozens, if not hundreds, of "anchors" or connecting points with past incidents.

I immediately began to feel my knee loosening up a bit, and inflammation and pain levels going down. I kept re-addressing the feelings my knee pain was putting me through, with it becoming increasingly clear that although physically the knee was swollen, stiff, sore and hard to walk on--all of that was being held in place by a previous emotional state. The "holding in place" of those emotions, over time, created physical changes and mutations resulting in knee pain.

Another one of my favorite teachers, Christopher Hills, always emphasized that emotion is "E, energy, in - MOTION". When the motion stops or is obstructed in some way, either by denial or lack of interest, or misunderstanding, it eventually creates physical disease and discomfort.

Thus, pain becomes a virtual key to emotional freedom. Emotions are locked up in the pain. By simply looking at them, the energy is reset into motion and pain dissipates.

This is such a simple mechanism it's easy to forget about it--not to mention pain has a way of distracting attention away from its cause. Use your pain as your deep existential treasure--your strident path to ease and joy in the body and freedom of choice in life.