The Reason why Honking could Kill you.

The Reason why Honking could Kill You

We spend a great deal of time talking about sickness and disease and little on healing and wellness.   And, there is good reason for it.   Healthcare is one of our largest costs and conversely, one of the most profitable industries.  

Inside you, there is a key to wellness.   And, something that every good medical doctor will acknowledge and report with an almost complacent, “Yep.  It’s true.   Strange, but true” is the reality that biological organisms - specifically humans - do not respond in predictable ways to treatment; we assume someone will respond according to the math of medicine – the linear A + B should equal C treatment plan. 

We aren’t machines.   We are more complicated.   Our thoughts interfere.  Doctors don’t really talk about the placebo effect – it’s not profitable to acknowledge that the power of your thoughts can have the exact same medicinal impact as that of the drug if told what will happen to you after taking the sugar pill.    

Most things work in synchrony.    The wind affects the weather.   The sun impacts your mood (there is a reason people retire in the South).   Two patients with the same illness receiving the same medicine can have two different outcomes.  Why?  Because of you.   That thinking part of you.   That “someone” inside you that thinks and believes and chatters to you all the time.   Thoughts are things and have outcomes.

The work of Candace Pert on Molecules of Emotion   { http://candacepert.com/ } has shown that what you believe causes your brain to release neurochemicals, which ultimately determines how you feel.   The stark reality being that this transaction with your environment is completely perceptual.   If I tell you that  “I love you,” and we are in the middle of a fight and your perception is that I am being snarky, then this will cause a flood of cortisol (the stress hormone), adrenaline, or acetylcholine – among other chemicals.    If you perceive my “I love you” as a reconciliatory action with genuine positive intentionality, then your brain will give you a “feel good” cocktail of endorphins, oxytocin, or GABA.    The person honking his horn when the light turns green because you didn’t go will be much more likely to die of heart disease.   That’s the sad, but real truth.  

My graduate research was in stress and stress management.   And, I don’t know why we don’t see headlines about it.   Stress is the number one predictor of dis-Ease, is responsible for 90% of our healthcare claims in the U.S., AND is completely transactional and preventable – meaning it is based on our perceptions of what is going on in the world – i.e., “that person ‘cut me off’ in traffic on purpose” vs. “an honest mistake.”   That means we can do something about it.  

What you think impacts EVERYTHING.   Your thinking rules are determined by your beliefs.   And, these rules categorize and encode this information as you experience the world – putting away into those buckets those experiences that validate your beliefs.  

And, for many of us, we believe we aren’t good enough - that we aren’t lovable as our most authentic self.   That means we see the world through this lens and filter experiences through it.   All around us, we see threats and validations of our own hypothesis of our worth.   And, for many of us, our self-worth is low to moderate, at best.   Are your thoughts kind to you?  How often do you beat yourself up?  How often to you criticize the mirror’s reflection or the impromptu comment you made in the meeting?

This is why the believability in our lovability as a nation is … unbelievably important.    I dare say we should be investing national resources to re-educate all of us.   Thank God for Oprah.   There’s not a whole lot of money in helping people understand their true nature as whole, but there is a whole lot of saving for all of us.   Healthcare is one of our nation’s greatest spends, after all.  

Right now, “someone” inside of you is having a conversation with herself – do you agree with me, whether you like what I am writing, do you feel guilty because you sometimes honk your horn at people, etc., etc.   This conversation never shuts up.   And, every thought has emotional reverberation -  every mental action has a biological correlate.   A thought is a chemical messenger, echoing through the body like the aftermath of a rock guitar solo… or jazz… or funk.   It’s happening right now.   

This conversation impacts your health.   It would be in your best interest to know who this “someone” is that never shuts up.   

It’s time for a paradigm shift.   I am not the first ‘scientist’ to write about the now ‘proof’ we have for your consciousness and its impact on - - - well, everything.  

Consider the BIG picture. 

• In the last exhale of Brahma (the big Bang), our universe was born.   And, we’re about 13.8 billion years old.   Slightly more alarming is that after all this work, we now have the capacity to destroy our precious Mother Earth - Gaia, Bumi, Pachamama...    
• Human beings are brilliant.   Look at what we have accomplished!  But, we must move from the information age, to the wisdom age, and the difference between the two is application and execution.   We still have cave brain culture in an age of nuclear weaponry.   This is a scary notion.
• And, as much as we know, we know so little.    Consider that all we know in all of our Sciences is based only on the .01% of the Universe that we actually know about.  
• 75% of the whole of our universe is “dark energy”  - meaning we don’t know what it is.   Dark energy is expanding galaxies faster than the speed of light at this point.   Einstein called this the cosmological constant, which was close, but not quite. 
• 20% of our universe is dark matter.   We have no idea what it is, but we do know how important it is.   It holds EVERYTHING in place.   And, it’s really strange.   It emits no light, reflects no light, has some ‘stuff’ or substance so it causes gravity – and a lot of it – and if particles of dark matter collide with one another, they pass right through each other.   Without dark matter, we wouldn’t exist.   It quite literally holds our bodies together through its gravitational influence.   And, we have no idea what ‘it’ is…
• About 4% of the Universe is a hodgepodge of invisible atoms.    So, that’s 99%.  
• The last 1% of the Universe is mostly hydrogen and helium.   And, of that 1%, only .01% is really visible to us as “stuff”.   
• So .01% of our Universe is what we visibly see, study in Science, argue over, fight over… All the galaxies that you see in the vast expanse of space are accounted for in this .01%.   When you are on the beach, and you look up, and you see the billions of stars that are in the sky - that’s the .01% we’re talking about.  

Humans really do squawk a lot about how much we know, and we marvel in the wonder of our science, which has categorized .01% of the universe we are able to see.  

We could spend our time categorizing and framing or performing advanced mathematics to figure it all out.   But, at the end of the day, nothing is more important than the reality that you are here, now… that you exist and KNOW that you exist.    The real depth of the story lies in the reality that you are awake – that this random cosmological error fusing stardust and carbon - is now aware of ‘itself.’   Cosmic evolution took 14 billion years to create you and me.   We are an activity of the universe - an activity of the universe in which the universe is becoming aware of itself.   Without you, the “universe” is a vast, ambiguous quantum soup.   The universe has color, texture, and form, because YOU are the witness of it.   Without YOU, quantum possibilities do not materialize into these colors, textures, or forms.   The world – EVERYTHING - is a projection of consciousness.

So, it is really, really, really, really important to understand WHO is doing this projection – 1: because your consciousness is a gift of 14 billion years of evolution and 2: because it impacts everything you feel and do; it affects your outcomes, and your health; it impacts me and my health; and quite literally, our collective future depends on it.    

So, here we are at this beautiful confrontation, much like a Wild West shoot out scene.   The sun is rising.   The Earth quiet.   The wind blowing.   And, we have guns on our hips.  And, life is asking across from us in the best possible Clint Eastwood voice, “what ya gonna do, kid?  what ya gonna do?”  Really consider the absurdity that we spend billions of dollars every year inventing new warfare technology so that we can blow one another up.   Stop.    Really consider that fact. 

We have the capacity to heal our world, feed our poor, and to thrive.   We could invent a world, if we could gather as one tribe, where there is goodness, truth, beauty, and virtue – where none are starving or economically deficient, one where we are not burning and chopping the Earth, but honoring her.   But, first we must overcome our hardest opponent: our mind.  

Let’s explore this thing called “the mind.”  Maybe we can get to the bottom of it.  

• Your body has about 100 trillion cells, more than all the stars in the Milky Way.   Each cell is doing 100,000 activities every SECOND.  Every cell synchronizes with every other cell in your body.   It does this instantly.  That, in and of itself, is new science.   We now know that your cells respond instantly non-locally.   Local communication would be similar to me calling you on the phone.  That’s our old model of neural firing.   You touch a hot plate and bang, nerve cells fire – going up to your brain, brain interprets ‘hot’ and send signal back to hand to remove itself from the pan.   Welcome to the digital age.   It doesn’t work that way.   Your cells actually respond at the same time – without a local signal.   
• You might be asking how your foot cells and brain cells can respond at the same time.  
• Simple: your mind does not exist in your brain.  
• This is why your body can fight an illness, digest your food, maintain your heartbeat, monitor your temperature, play a piano, kill germs, remove toxins, grow a baby, and think thoughts – AT the SAME time.   Never before have we been able to explain how this works and thanks to advances in quantum biology, we now can.      
• What we now know is that your body is a verb, not a noun.   It is an activity.   It is a process, not a thing.   Back of you is consciousness and that consciousness sits outside of ‘stuff’.   It sits in the womb of creation - the infinite void, the Buddhists “nothingness” or the Quantum Vacuum of Science.  
• We come from nothingness, spinning stars as we dance.   All the atoms of your body come from the stars – quite literally.  Under a quantum microscope, you look more like a galaxy spinning than a suit of skin.   You are recycling stardust, spinning, and recycling in and out of you all while maintaining the illusion of your solidarity.      Atoms are coming into your body and leaving your body at every second and in this moment.  
• Your body is not a structure, it is a process.   At the level of sub-atomic particles, everything that you see is changing.   Particles are coming and going.   Nothing in the universe is ‘standing still’…  all around us – EVERYTHING is moving, vibrating.   Some are just vibrating more than others.   A rock vibrates very, very, very slowly.   You vibrate much faster.  
• When you look at the body, you see stuff.  Heart, lungs, skin
• Get a bigger microscope and you see molecules.  
• Get a bigger microscope and you see atoms.  
• Get a bigger microscope and you see subatomic particles.  
• And, that’s the building blocks of you, me, and everything.   And, also where it gets pretty fun.
• Radioactive studies have proven that at this moment, you have a million atoms in your body that once belonged to Gandhi, Jesus, and Alexander the Great.   
• In just the last 3 weeks, a quadrillion atoms have gone through your body that have gone through every living creature on this planet – a tiger in Africa, a lemur in South America, a yellow Labrador in Wisconsin, a Redwood in California, and that lunch lady in Knoxville, Tennessee. 
• You have ‘stuff’ in your body that was not there less than 3 weeks ago.  In less than 1 year, you recycle 98% of ALL the matter in your body.  
• At the atomic/molecular level, you have a new liver every 6 weeks, a new stomach lining every 5 days, new skin once per month, a new skeleton – that thing that seems so hard - in less than half a year.  
• The chair at your dining room table is more ‘the chair’ – more the same – than you are.   You are now in your 2013 model of a body.  
• Last year, you had the same clothes, but a different body.   Your clothes, your dining room table, your computer --- these things have a longer shelf life than your physical body.

This raises a big question for us – and for science.  Who are you then? 

• If you think you are your physical body, then which one are you talking about?  The 2012 model.   Or the 2013 model?  Or the 1999 model?  Who are you? 
• My psychologist friends will gladly tell you that “you” reside in your “brain,” but your “brain” is made of completely different ‘stuff’ – different atoms – every single year.  
• We are just recycling stardust, particles spinning in and out of a continuous field of magnetic energy and vibration.  
• YOU are not your brain, because your brain is not a solid thing.   It is changing every single second.   Where do “you” exist then?  Where do “you” sit? 
• Your 2012 body is dead.  It’s gone.   It left you.   Your 2013 model is made of completely new material.  
• There’s your first scientific proof that there is life after death.   You die every second and your energy reincarnates materiality – ‘stuff’ – as you.    Every second.   Right now.    
• You are in process with your environment, taking a bit of the atoms of the tree, the grass, the bricks of your home... with you – spinning it into the building blocks of you –making new hairs on your legs, new skin cells for your bio suit, and saliva in your mouth.
• Your consciousness is outliving the molecules through which it expresses itself – all the time.  It’s doing it right now.  You don’t need proof of reincarnation.   It’s happening now.  
• The cells of your hand were not there a month ago – but they remember the difference between hot and cold, pain and pleasure… they remember how to hold a baseball or to write with a pencil.  The MEMORY is reincarnated.  
• So, where does memory sit?  This is why experiences matter.   This is how karma exists.  
• Experiences, memory, actions… these things are lasting.   They carry vibration and information.   And, this information organizes everything.  This information takes ‘dead’ stuff from the stars and organizes it into – everything you see around you.  
• Your cells remember what they did yesterday, last week, and 15 years ago.   They pass on to their great grandchildren memory (this is why you can still ride a bike after 15 years, when the cells of your body today have NEVER ridden a bike before).    In the yoga sciences, we call this imprint sanskara.  

 The hard problem of science is your subjective experience. 

• Where is the mind?  It is everywhere and perfectly entangled with yours.   If we were having a conversation, I would be talking, and you would be listening.  Your mind would interpret what I said, and produce chemicals based on your perceptions of what I said.   You would then dialogue with me.  My mind would interpret what you said.   This would be a dynamic dance of consciousness. 
• There is no mental event that doesn’t have a neural consequence and correlate.   
• Every thought has action that follows in the body.  
• The brain functions as an integrated whole.  
• The brain follows the direction of the mind.  
• Everything is integrated.   Your thoughts are connected to your feelings.   Your feelings are connected to your body.  Your body produces chemicals that impact you and the environment.   The environment impacts your body.   Your body impacts your feelings.   Your feelings impact your thoughts.  
• You are in a dynamic interchange with everything all the time.   YOU exist ONLY as a process, not a thing.   I know that’s really, really strange and hard to get.   But, it’s true.   Just as it’s hard to look at the Earth and know it’s round.   What I am telling you right now is that the world is NOT flat.   Your ‘skin’ suit that you think is SOLID and separate from everything else is an ILLUSION.    
• If I told you that I learned that you were getting fired tomorrow, you would have a serious reaction.   You would produce cortisol.   Your blood pressure would increase.    You would start to sweat.   Your pupils would dilate.   That’s a lot of ‘stuff’ because of what I said to you.   Had I said the same thing in Mandarin, you would have had NO reaction.  
• Some part of you interpreted MEANING and from that perception, you had a reaction.  
• Science has YET to find the meaning-maker.   It doesn’t exist IN THE BRAIN, because it CONTROLS the brain.   The meaning maker tells the brain to produce cortisol, to raise the blood pressure, to sweat.    Or not. 
• The brain is the tool of the meaning-maker.  

You are not your brain.   By the way, NO physical matter can make meaning.  Or imagine.  Or remember.   Or be inspired.   Or love.   These things EXIST as separate from our ever-changing, ever impermanent physical matter.   This is how we KNOW that consciousness does not exist in the BRAIN, but rather the BRAIN exists in consciousness.  

• The scary truth, mathematically, is that if you get to a small enough level, ‘stuff’ disappears and all that is left is the possibility of things with some laws in play.  

Why does this matter? There is no way of understanding human biology without understanding the whole system, because systemically, everything is connected.   Your thoughts affect your neurotransmitters, your neurotransmitters regulate your immune function, and your immune system regulates your health.   We CANNOT look at the parts as we do in the reductionist West.    Parts are fictions of imagination.   You cannot isolate a molecule.   A molecule is a fiction of imagination.   Your body is not a noun; your body is a verb. 

 Mind and matter are inseparable.   If the environment sick, we are sick.   If the rivers are poisoned, so are we.   Everything is connected.   You are in activity with “the environment” all the time.   It is one system.   The trees are your lungs.   The earth is recycling; so is your body.   The rivers move like your blood.   Your emotions and mood affect me; I perceive them subconsciously and actually produce neurochemicals to match yours. 

 As is the atom, so is the universe.   As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm.   As above, so below.   As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind.   We are biological fractals and holographic expressions of the total universe.  Identity CANNOT be contained by the boundaries of your skin, because the WHOLE universe is involved in the shaping of your body… right now.   The entire web of life is responsible for the activity you call your body.  

Wellbeing is a state of being created from your thoughts.   Your thoughts create brain changes that syncs your biological functioning according to those thoughts.   In short, you think yourself sick or healthy.   Other moderators matter, of course.   Exercise, Diet, Social Support… these things matter.  

 The mechanisms of illness are not the root causes of illness.   Modern Science examines illness from a reductionist lens – treat the bacteria with an antibiotic or treat cancer with chemotherapy.   The problem with this approach is that mechanisms of illness are not the origins of illness.  This is why when are treating illness, we aren’t really changing anything. 

 Health comes from the word ‘holy’ – stemming from ‘whole’ – the return of your whole self.   When you come in contact with that within you that is timeless – soul – you find that which cannot be tainted, hurt, fragmented, or lost, and therefore free from death.   

 It is no surprise that more people die at 9:00am on a Monday morning, at work, than any other time of day (cardiac arrest).   This is an entirely human accomplishment.   Animals aren’t dying on Mondays more than Tuesdays.   In fact, they don’t know when it’s Monday or when it’s Tuesday.

 I am in the leadership coaching business.   My partner Sheila and I help couples transform their relationships.   We also teach yoga and meditation.   

 Often, I am asked why I choose to work with companies rather than to just move on to some type of Tony Robbins initiative.   Why help companies change corporate culture?  

• Because only 20% of us will answer “Yes” to the question – “Do you like your job?”   
• Because if your boss criticizes you (gives you negative feedback), your wellbeing will drop by 40% and you’ll get sick.   But, if your boss notices even a single strength of yours, you will start to thrive.  Because we lose about $300 billion dollars each year due to disengaged workers.  Because disengaged workers are not only unhappy, they actually seek to come to work to make others unhappy.   

Because your thoughts matter.   And, if you hate your work, then you hate yourself.   If you hate yourself, then you cannot see love in the world; your perception will be filtered through the lens of a victim.  

And, if you filter the world through this reality, then you are likely to honk at me when the light turns green and I don’t move soon enough.  

Namaste, 
Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

Dealing with the Consequences of Being Yourself

Back again 

We are constantly learning.     

Here I am.  Back again.  To the same realization as that before.   But, from a new place.    

We repeat ourselves in patterns – in spirals.   We learn ourselves more deeply every day through reflected experience.   The task is to deal with the consequences of being yourself with as much ease and grace as possible.   And, that’s what this whole shin-dig called life is all about.    

Here’s what I learned this week.   Again.   But, also for the first time.   

Stay grounded in your truth.  Know it first.   Then, soften into the perfection that is you.   And, imperfection.   Because you are perfectly imperfect, as it turns out.    You are a unique ball of energy that has traveled through time and experience to be where you are right now and to know it.   You can feel you inside - if you try.   You know you are in there – that little kernel of spaciousness and quiet that sits confidently in knowing that this part of you has never been touched by experience and pain.  

There are moments when you can let your truth shine rays outward in waves of grace and guided by will.   Days when we are pushed so deeply into the fabric of ourselves that we can seamlessly slip into the suit of our soul and then reflect on its entrance afterward.   These moments are fleeting and perfect.

To self, in these moments of grace and selfish honesty, we will say, “Wow.  That was easy.   I just need to be me.   Honest.   I need to be clear on what I want.   Do it or Say it.   And have the courage to deal with the consequences of being myself.”  

 ·         Speak your truth and stand in the grounded nature of your yourself. 

·         Listen. 

·         Be kind and empathetic.  

·         Feel everything incoming and notice how it feels.    Don’t be reactive.   Just wait on the response to come.  

·         Speak your truth and stand in the grounded nature of yourself.  
·         Don’t analyze.  

·         Be present.   Listen.   Then…

·         Repeat.

Start living as yourself.   Start by being authentic with yourself.   And, then show up as nothing other than yourself in the world.   If you don’t feel like having a conversation, politely leave it.   But, notice first what it is that you want.    Start here.   And, then be brave! 

It’s your life, after all.   As my friend Sabrina says, Execute on it.   The only difference between the idea of you and the realization of you is moving from idea to action.   So, Just Do It. 

Namaste,

Ryan

PS – In order to show up in the world and receive love, we must first understand all the ways we get in the way of its natural flow.   Trust.   And, offer up humble service to the way of your truth and the passions of your heart.   Trust.   In the end, all is faith.   As Bob said, ‘Everythin Gon Be Alright’ … ya.   Everthin Gon Be Alright. 

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

A Little Friction is Needed

A Little Friction is Needed

As I was finishing the renovation of my home, built in 1907, one of the last projects was finishing a custom, butcher-block bar made from the wood studs in the walls that had been opened up to create a larger kitchen.   It was beautiful.   But, it was rough.   The wood was gnarled and nail ridden.   

Starting with very rough sand paper, we began sanding.   Layer by layer, we increased the grit of the sandpaper until, finally, we were using ultra-fine, steel wool.    In the end, the wood was “finer than frog’s hair” as my Tennessee family would say.  

In order to polish ourselves, a little friction is needed.   There is no growth without pain.   Troubles, worries, frustrations, and arguments are catalysts showing us where we don’t’ want to be, what we don’t want in our lives, or how we need to change ourselves.   Our relationships are our mirrors and our greatest teachers.   But, wow… they are hard, too.   So often, we experience the “rub” of relationship. 

A gem must be polished using continual and easy friction.   A stone polished with force and aggression will be left with scores and abrasions that cannot be removed.  

In conflict, the words that we say and the thoughts we think can create scratches and scuffs, and sometimes worse, gashes.   We are working on one another all the time.   We are all in process, shaping and molding, sculpting and whittling.  

It is necessary.   This shaping happens all the time – in relationship and across society.   Not long ago, we still had segregated restrooms.   Society, belief systems, and thought movements are ever changing as we share and commune and “rub” one another.  

A plant that is not pruned will grow long and straight and be quite narrow.   Eventually, its height will outpace its leaves and growth will be stunted.   For a plant to thrive, it must be pruned.   Pruning will cause the plant to grow both tall and wide.  Pruning helps the plant thrive.  However, if pruned too much or cut too deeply, the ‘wound’ to the plant would be fatal, and it would die.   The same is true for us.   We need a little pain and struggle to develop depth and wisdom.  We must know sour to fully appreciate sweet.  However, if we experience too much pain, we can wilt, retreating into the safety of our shell and forbidding love’s entrance.  

To love we must be vulnerable.   To grow, we must experience pain.   This is a tenuous dichotomy to hold – allowing oneself to be vulnerable and at the same time – also allow and take in feedback, fight through defensiveness and the natural tendency to reject new ideas, to receive polishing, shaping, and that rubbing that comes in relationship without bucking, resisting, or worse – attacking in defense.  What a delicate balance! 

But, this is the nature of the universe.   Everything is duality.   There is order in chaos.   To reach our highest potential, we must be open, not closed, but also experience hurt/shaping/feedback in order to love/grow/change.    Love cannot exist without being open and vulnerable, wearing the essential nature of our soul on our sleeve.   In this raw state, we love at the level of the soul.   But, this is also the place where we can, naturally, be hurt the easiest.   Our shell gone and force fields dismissed, we are the most raw and susceptible to pain.   And, in this space, we are able to be polished.   We have to openly receive a little rub – a little friction and pray that the surgeon of our heart and soul is gentle and kind, careful and considerate, patient and earnest.  

So… give your beloved a little rub, but use an easy grit.   Words and thoughts are things.   Don’t cause wounds and abrasions.   Be open to feedback without creating walls of defense.   And, if you are vulnerable enough, who knows where a good rub might lead …

Namaste,

Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, who's the Wisest of them all?

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall …  who’s the wisest man of All? 

Why you, my king, if you believe it to be, All is all in the reflection you see…

In the ancient texts, it is often said that your reflection is your projection.   I have properly been harassed for using the saying when illustrating a point.   It does sound preachy.   I know.  

But, the point is really important.  We cannot know anothers’ thoughts or experiences.   We only can know our own experience – our own thoughts – because we are the ones living and breathing and seeing.  So, we have to often ‘infer’ the perspective of others with the stories we create about their motives, the rationale for happenings and doings.   So, we are all mirrors to one another.   When we ‘assume’ someone feels a certain way or thinks a certain thing, then it is likely we feel these things ourselves.   If we think someone is gossiping about us behind our backs, it is probably because we gossip ourselves.   If we are being deceitful, we will suspect deceit from others.   We only know OUR reality – and that’s why we get to experience life with our beloved partners, our friends, and our family, so that they can reflect back to us that which we may not see in ourselves.  

I have experienced this first hand.   When I was a very young man, I met my ex relationship (ER).   ER had a Borderline Personality Disorder .   Because I was “Captain Fix-it” as a young man and determined to change the world with love, I took on ER to save her .   ER had root level feelings of being ‘damaged goods’ and unworthy of love.   Because of these feelings, she often perceived normal behaviors as overt acts of aggression.   Her “projection” into the world was her perception.   What she believed, she perceived and therefore received.  She thought bad things were going to happen.  And, to her, they did.   Put simply, thinking does.  It gets about doing and does it.   If you think it’s going to happen, it will.   Because you thought.   And likely perceived it.   

Everything is perception.   Your experience of reality is completely mutable.   These “acts of aggression” that happened to ER were very real to her.   To anybody else, not taking out the trash when asked the night before could have been a simple forgetful moment.  To ER, it was an overt act of hostility – a purposeful attempt to thwart, punish, or harm.    But for her, this was real.    

Thus is the nature of reality.    We determine it.  

The relationships you have in your life are there to teach you what you need to learn about yourself – they are mirrors to your projection habits.   What you perceive can tell you a lot about what you believe.  

This human tendency has been written about in the yoga doctrines for ages.   Recently, science confirmed in a unique way.  

When we perform an action, interpret a beautiful painting, sing in the shower, or even experience an emotion  – our neurons fire.   This makes sense to us.  Here’s where it gets a little peculiar… when we see someone else perform an action or experience an emotion, many of the same neurons fire as if we were performing the action or experiencing the emotion.  These are called mirror neurons.     

 We are also, it seems, hard wired to be mirrors for one another.     

Taking this one step further, what we can imagine also can come true – and does.   Whether you are creating hives or irritating your bowels, thought has consequence.   When we imagine an event, neurons fire as though the event were occurring.   And, we imagine a lot.   About 50% of the time, our minds are wandering according to experience sampling research.    And, a lot of that time, our wandering minds’ thoughts are about things that make us anxious.  

So.   What does this mean?

We must start by loving ourselves.  

When we love ourselves, we are able to see that within others that is also loveable.  

When we see ourselves clearly, we are able to see  that within others that has never been touched by sadness, grief, or loss.   

We are able to see those around us purely, their actions innocently, and their intentions well meaning.   

We are able to see love.   In all forms.   In all things.  

 And, love is worth seeing. 

Namaste,

Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

 

Perception Matters

Perception Matters

Thoughts are things.  They have energetic and biochemical consequences.  Things like “the law of attraction” are considered pseudoscience by mainstream science.   But, isn’t this the same pattern we have seen again–and–again?   The world is flat.   The Earth rotates around the sun.   Depression can be cured with electrical shock or bloodletting.  

The nature of science is the nature of man.   We are certain.   We are absolutely certain.   Until we are not.   And, then we are certain again.  

• The world is flat.   It is flat I tell you!
• Oh… it’s not?
• Really?  It’s not flat?
• Oh….. hmmm. 
• The world is round.   It is round I tell you!

We now know that much of what the ancient, Tibetan doctrines referenced as the state of reality has been proven by Quantum physics.   Time is relative.   You are energy.  There is a unified field of consciousness.   Mood is contagious.   Matter is just another expression of energy.   What you think impacts me directly – even to the level of my endocrine (hormone) response.
  
These “crazy”, “woo-woo” notions are now being proven.   And, they aren’t so “woo-woo” after all.   Turns out, the world is round.   Turns out, the Earth rotates around the Sun.   Turns out, we’re all connected in a giant web of consciousness and emotion.   Turns out, your state of happiness impacts mine.

We are so resistant to the new.   In fact, norepinephrine is released when someone presents a viewpoint that is different than the one we hold.   The same chemical compound is released when we are confronted with differences of opinion as those released when we are in a state of life-threatening danger.    The purpose of these chemicals? – to shut down higher level thinking (i.e., the primitive brain takes over) and creating – physiologically – the inability to consider other viewpoints.   In short, it is very, very hard for us to have ‘an open mind’.
  
In spite of this, we are capable.   If we can dissolve ego and step into our higher self, spirit, consciousness, or “soul” – then we can let truth in like light through a window.   And, the importance of doing so has never been so vital as right now.
 
Look around you – examine the state of wellbeing, the state of health, the state of our Earth mother …  the call for the paradigm shift is NOW.  

Let’s start with what’s in it for you:

• Our beliefs have a profound impact on our biochemistry.   There have been hundreds of studies showing the remarkable impact of placebo effects, which science treats as a type of error.   Time and time again we have seen that the power of the mind produces the same effect as the substance of the pill! 
• Thoughts are things.   They have energy that we can measure on an EEG or an MRI.   They don’t stay ‘inside’ your brain/body.   Others can sense them and pick them up in much the same way as the radio picks up the FM or AM signal.   This is now a scientific fact.  
• Your beliefs create your biological experience of reality.   Your beliefs can make you sick.   Or healthy.  

Thoughts are things.   Change your thoughts, change your life.  

“Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it…” – Ernest Holmes.  

Namaste,

Ryan
 

 Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

Your Brain is a Process, not a Thing

Your Brain is a Process, not a Thing

In the ancient texts it is said that where attention goes, energy flows.   Your attention - what we in the consciousness field call “mind” – is a spotlight on the nutrient-rich soil of creation and where it goes, that which it shows … grows.   

Your brain has about 100 billion neurons – give or take a few million.   Every experience you have creates new neural connections; these connections also create new emotions, which shape those connections.   As experiences are repeated, these connections get stronger, while others get weaker (a process called synaptic pruning).   Quite literally, this means that what you think and do has a “Bobcat” effect on your brain, landscaping your brain based on your thinking.   This entire process is known as neuroplasticity.    In essence, what we know from neuroscience research is that your brain is not stagnant, but is changing every single day.    Your brain is a process, not a thing.    That means you are busy creating new highways and byways and potentially even interstate connections based on what you do, think, and feel regularly.  

Through the process of synaptic pruning, certain behaviors – like riding a bike or swinging your 3 iron – can become automatic.   However, so can emotional patterns or thinking habits.   If you view the glass as half empty for long enough, guess what?  Your brain will actually start “pruning” those centers for optimism, hope, positivity, etc. 

What you think, you become.  

Virtually any talent or skill can be developed through training.   Musicians who practice start linking neural pathways from the right to the left brain, allowing them rapid fluidity in the ability to create and play music.  Professional ball players can handle that bad hop with ease and grace because their muscle fibers actually fire faster than those unpracticed.  

Whatever you are doing – at any time – you are physically modifying your brain to become better at it.   So, if you are worrying, you are getting better at it.   If you are fighting, you are getting better at it.   If you are cleaning, you are getting better at it.   If you are loving, you are getting better at it.  

This is a foundational property of the brain.  It’s strange, I know.  The hard wiring of the brain is to be … well, not so hard wired.  The Operating System of the brain allows for frequent downloads of new software.  

Becoming self-aware, mindful, “awake,” … to find “moksha” then is critical.   Because by doing so, we can actively rather than passively shape our brains, our thinking, our emotions, our abilities.   And, what an empowering notion!  But, to be not awake or aware, means that we are reshaping our brain with our monkey mind.   Our ‘to-do’ list brain gets bigger muscles and sharper eyes… it gets better at worrying and planning and … feeling anxious, less centered, more depressed.  

The “trick” is not a trick at all.  

First, you must realize that in order to have clarity, the water has to be still.   Slow down.   Pause.   Breathe.   Find your presence in this now.    Develop a sense of warmth and gratitude.   Acknowledge where you are at and be thankful – simply – for the awareness of it.   Start “practicing” mindfulness in all your routines.   Taste the toothpaste again.   Chew your food a little longer.  

You know… stop and smell the roses.  

Namaste,

Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

The Magic Pill (open the box and look inside)

If you heard that a magic pill could help 80% of managers make better decisions; 90% better listeners and communicators; and reduce stress levels among all employees (even those not in a mindfulness program) by over 40%, your organization would be buying the pill, perhaps even the pharmacy to make sure they had an abundance of supplies, and mandating that every single employee take one – every day. 

But, this isn’t a magic pill. This miracle drug is mindfulness training – and an overall commitment to a progressive culture shift - all of which are beginning to infiltrate corporate America and produce a competitive advantage than cannot be duplicated by anything else.

The P&L impact is significant; healthcare is typically the third largest cost for an organization behind manufacturing and payroll. And the MAJORITY of health spend is due to stress-related illnesses, as almost 90% of what we see the doctor for in America is stress-related. Of these, most are preventable or easily moderated – including things like chronic fatigue, anxiety attacks, mood swings, depression, sleep problems, high blood pressure, ulcers, poor immune function, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, the common cold and flu, and even heart disease (the one thing that companies pay that huge stop-loss coverage to prevent against).

Heart Disease? Yes, heart disease! Dean Ornish (of the Preventative Medicine Research Institute) in a Journal of the American Medical Association study found that mindful meditation practices can REVERSE coronary atherosclerosis (patients in the control group had more than twice the cardiac ‘attacks’ than those in the experimental group). 

The long and short of it? Studies of mindfulness training (when done correctly) reveal that meditation may be responsible for “80% or greater” reductions in medically-related insurance claims (Journal of Behavior Modification: Walton, Schneider, Salerno, and Nidich 2005). Wow! Can you imagine reducing your organization’s third largest expense by 80%?

Bleeding edge research is now showing these practices are transforming the corporate bottom line. ​

And, in case you are worried that this Eastern explosion is too Zen for your company, don’t forget to look over your shoulder. Companies like all-American General Mills (whose workforce and campus headquarters are predominantly white and “corporate” looking) are introducing distinctly “uncorporate” elements into the average employee workday - meditation sessions for executives and team leads, yoga classes for employees, and gratitude programs for creating “community” at work.

But, this isn’t a magic pill. If it were, the government would have mandated that every American take one immediately. Learning mindfulness, the philosophy behind it, and more, applying it to the Western way of life is more than challenging – or we’d all be doing it.

At the Moksha Institute, this is what we do. We transform individuals, teams, and organizations. Our team includes Ph.D. level Psychologists, former CEOs and VPs of Fortune 500 companies, and nationally recognized yoga / meditation teachers.

We understand the realities of working in a business, coaching an Executive struggling to balance work and home, and living the Moksha principles in the midst of daily life. We practice what we preach. We apply what we call Yogic Science – fusing the timeless teachings of the East and the scientific research of the West to produce an approach that is unparalleled.  

At the Moksha Institute, we are applying ancient teachings for the modern time to help individuals and organizations thrive. We can help you transform.  

Namaste,
Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com