Life Empowerment

It’s Not a Problem, It’s an Experience

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“To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.” - Pema Chodron

Life has its down periods: your boss is unhappy with you, your business is struggling, you get into a fight with the love of your life, your finances are tight, you aren’t getting good sleep, you get sick or have chronic pain.

Our way of dealing with this is usually to do one or more of the following:

  • Get away from the problem — quit your job, break up with your partner, or stop caring. Anything you can do to exit.
  • Ignore the problem — just don’t think about it. Pretend nothing’s wrong. Think about anything else.
  • Comfort yourself — drink, smoke, food, TV, Internet, porn, social media, games. Anything to take your mind off the difficulties.
  • Complain — lash out at someone, rant, moan about it to a friend, feel resentful, tell yourself that the other person is the problem (because they are, right?!).

There’s nothing wrong with any of these things. Don’t feel guilty if you do them. Sometimes, they can be soothing or helpful. Talking to someone about your problems, for example, is a good idea. Giving yourself some rest so that you are better prepared to take on the world’s problems … that’s not a bad idea too.

But trying to avoid the problem, exit from it, or even comfort yourself — these have limited effectiveness. We know that by now, because despite our best efforts, the down times keep happening. We get in a slump, we get miserable, we feel down.

Here’s a mental shift that might help: when you’re feeling hurt, sad, angry, overburdened … think of it not as a problem, but as an experience.

Fully feel whatever pain or sadness or anger you’re feeling.

Stop avoiding it and just feel it. Truly allow yourself to feel it.

And as you feel it, don’t think of the difficult feeling as a problem you need to solve. A thing you need to get rid of. Think of it as an experience you’re having.

It’s not a problem, it’s an experience.

That’s all it is: an experience, a feeling. Nothing to panic about. (Unless you’re feeling panic — that’s OK too.) It’s something you’re experiencing right now, and it’s not good or bad. It’s just an experience. It might not feel good, but that’s not a problem. Not all experiences feel good, right? Sometimes we just have to experience cold, heat, storms, and pain. It’s part of the experience of life, and we don’t have to shut it all out.

Feel your difficulty fully, with as open a heart as you can muster. Allow it into your heart, as you would a good friend. And just be with it, no judgments, no need to do anything. It’s just your present experience.

Whatever you’ve done to comfort yourself — no judgments with that as well. That’s not a problem, just an experience.

You can find peace with whatever that experience might be.

Now it’s time for action.

From this place of peace about who you are, what you’re experiencing … you can take the next step. It might be something like:

  • Love the feeling, the experience, the pain.
  • Love the person who is in front of you, hurting. Feel them.
  • Love the world. Give the world your gift.
  • Take a small step toward making your situation better.
  • Take a small action to realize your life’s mission .
  • Be silent, so you can listen. Be still, so you can experience.

What action to take depends on the situation, but it starts with a feeling of being at peace with your experience.

-AG

How to Be Childlike

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“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” -Pablo Picasso

LOCATION: Toontown - Disneyland, CA

I have been plotting and planning on writing something on the topic of having a "child-like" mindset and I finally had the chance on writing it this week! Yay! 

So working for "The Happiest Place on Earth" has some pretty good perks such as bringing your loved ones to Disneyland or any Disney Parks and Resorts all throughout the world. This week I had a cool little local vacay idea and brought my cousins out to the park and just decided to abandon my worldly concerns, and just play.

Or I’ll sit and just watch them play, pretending they’re superheros or princesses or playing house or shooting each other with stick guns.

It never fails to leave me with a sense of wonder, of pure joy, of a return to innocence and a simpler time.

As grown ups, we’ve lost this childlike sense of life. And that’s actually a sad thing.

It’s not just about happiness and innocence either — being more childlike also helps us to be more creative, more imaginative, more innovative and open to worlds of possibilities.

Consider: as children, we are naturally imaginative, curious, able to play without a worry in our minds. Some qualities of young children that happen naturally:

  • they live in the present
  • they have no concerns about money, productivity, or being cool
  • there are no limits to their imagination, except what they’ve been exposed to
  • they play and lose themselves in play
  • they create with abandon
  • they are endlessly curious, and ask questions … without end
  • they love showing off to their parents

We could learn a lot from children. Sure, they have qualities we might not want, but in my eyes, they are already perfect. We don’t need to mold them into people, we need to be more like them.

We lose this childlike nature, the nature we’re born with, because of society — it has certain institutions and systems in place that beat childishness out of us, so we can be more productive citizens and consumers. I think it’s unfortunate.

We shouldn’t abandon all responsibilities, but we can learn a lot from children and be more like them in some ways.

LOCATION: Tom Sawyer Island - Disneyland, CA

How to be childlike?

We must first acknowledge that no change is instantaneous, that any change worth keeping takes time. But you can start today.

Start by deciding to abandon caution and to give this a try. Start by identifying the qualities of children you’d like to emulate: curiosity, play, living in the moment, abandoning worries, imagination, creativity, pure joy.

Observe children. Watch how they play, how they live, how they create, how they ask questions. Sure, sometimes they do dumb things like throw tantrums, but even in that you can see their pure abandonment of everything but what is happening to them right now. Watch and learn.

Play with children. If you have some of your own, great. If not, play with children of friends and family. Lose yourself in the play. Be a dinosaur, or a gorilla, or a villain. Have a joyous time. Make them squeal in delight, and feel free to do the same yourself.

Talk with children. Ask them questions. Answer theirs. Don’t talk down to them with baby talk, but don’t be too grownup either.

Play by yourself. Go outside and run around, jump, slide, kick a ball around, pretend. Forget about who might be watching.

Create like a child. Don’t be constrained with what people expect, what you’re used to. Be wild and have fun. Imagine that things can be different, that there are no limitations, and see what happens. Most of your childlike drawings will be tossed in the trash, but some might be put up on the fridge.

Be curious like a child. Look at things with a child’s eye, and ask questions you’ve never asked before, explore with a beginner’s mind. Don’t be afraid to ask why, and what if, and why not?

Live in the moment. Forget about all you have to do. Forget about what happened yesterday, or that conversation you had. Forget about that meeting that’s coming up, or those deadlines. Just do, and be.

See the world with new eyes. It is a wondrous place, a miracle happening every second, a source of immense fascination that can knock you on your ass if you let it. You are a miracle, and every moment you have is a gift. What will you do with that gift?

And last, if you have children, let them be childlike. Stop trying to make them grow up. Stop trying to shape them, criticize them, make them your own piece of clay, as Marvin Gaye said. Let them be, and enjoy the beautiful way they already are.

-AG

“Adults are always asking little kids what they want to be when they grow up because they’re looking for ideas.” – Paula Poundstone

LOCATION: Pixie Hollow - Disneyland, CA

SIMULATE THE MIND

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It takes a level of self love, dedication, and determination to live your greatest life. So, look within.

Look at every area of your life and ask yourself these questions: Am I on course? Am i growing mentally, emotionally, and spiritually?

Anything that is blocking that, anything that is preventing you from living your greatest life, make the tough decision to let it go. 

-AG

SMILE A LITTLE!

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Smile.

The simplest and most effect change you can do is learn to laugh and smile more all day, every day.

You hold a vibration in you all day and it goes up and down with your emotions and mood and the vibration you hold effects what you attract and experience.

The higher the vibration, the easier and faster it is to attract what you want because the wave length distance is shorter and return back to you quicker.

If you can hold a higher vibration within you all day the LOA (Law of Attraction) will work easier for you and all you have to do is smile lots.

What makes you smile?

-AG

Stay humble.

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Stay humble.

Once you DO successfully attract what you want and change your life, stay humble. Be thankful and grateful and share your happiness with others. 

Being selfish, greedy, egotistical, show off, or anything like that will hold you in a lower vibration and most likely prevent you from continuing to attract success. 

Make sure that once to do succeed, continue all the positivity, visualization, focus and love that you were doing before. This will ensure a continuous flow of awesome energy through you forever. 

Some people succeed and then totally change their daily habits over night because they think they are “done”. You are never done being in control of your own life so what ever habits caused you to succeed, keep going, growing and evolving. 

The simples way to stay humble once you succeed is to share with others and help people do the same. 

Help others also be happy.

-AG

SIMULATE THE MIND

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"Taking the path of least resistance is always helpful and peaceful, which is always in line with your life’s purpose. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like. The more in harmony you are with the flow of your own existence, the more magical life becomes."

-AG

Keep moving.

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Keep moving.

Creation depends on the movement and flow of energy. Once you decide what you want to create, keep moving toward it even if it’s just baby steps.

If you stop, so will the growth of your creation. Use your thoughts, feelings and actions to keep energy flowing and keep your dreams growing.

Keep going.

-AG

Direct your energy.

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Direct your energy.

Your focus, attention, thoughts, feelings and love are what feeds an idea as it becomes a reality.

Choose to direct your energy toward your dreams and NOT your fears.

Focus on your fears and they will grow and become your new reality. Focus on your dreams and watch your reality change.

Feed your dreams.

-AG