Intentional change is a choice that is renewed in every moment and deepens our experience of Life. Like the constant change that Life demonstrates, this choice sets in motion more than mere pivots and a new perspective. New tools arise in the form of new awarenesses.  My final 4 Pivot points are awarenesses that arise as the first 6 Pivot Points become our first and second natures…

We begin again as always, centered in the truth that we are Living Expressions of the Conscious Intelligence that created everything seen and unseen in the Universe.  Our personal power is permanently and unconditionally sourced in this Living Intelligence. This is our starting point, always.

Pivot Point #7 ~ BELIEFS DISTORT PERCEPTION

Beliefs act like perceptual filters that unequivocally distort experience. For example, if I believe that my teacher/boss/sibling doesn’t like me or is biased against me, then I will not be able to accept what he or she is trying to show me about my work or actions. When I believe that the best possible solution looks a certain way, then I probably won’t recognize an even better solution when it presents itself.

The wisdom teaching here is, The difference between a flower and a weed is a judgement.  Beliefs flow naturally into judgements. Both are static, and both block growth and change from expressing naturally. Mike Dooley has been saying for years that, “your beliefs create your reality, choose good ones!”

Very, very young children perceive the world innocently because they arrive without beliefs. Returning to Innocent Perception is a process of recognizing and releasing the limitations of belief that you have already taken in. These are referred to as transparent beliefs because they have become so seamlessly a part of us that we do not even see them objectively anymore. That is, until you go looking for them because they’re messing with your pivots…

Pivot Point #8 ~ INTENTIONALLY RELEASE THE PAST

James Taylor sings to us, Let the day run long, Let the river run high, That tomorrow may live, So must yesterday die, and a Zen teaching points out that, you can not fill a cup that’s already full.  Letting go makes space for the new. Change requires it.

Hurt, confusion and injury happen. Does it affect the healing process if the cause was intentional or unintentional?  No, but what we BELIEVE deeply impacts the healing process.

Once hurting is happening, we have choices. We can continue feeling the hurt over past events by thinking about them regularly, habitually, all the while knowing that we will never be able to change them, re-living it keeps the wound alive. (and your Inner Storyteller in a trance)

We can also set the hurtful events aside, call it moving on, make no decision about them, and allow our present concerns and distractions to silence our thinking about them, thus dooming ourselves to repeat them.

Or, we can accept something happened and proactively choose to let it go and instead, face the future with a changed perspective that includes the easing of hurt through choosing to expand our capacity for acceptance. The past is consciously and intentionally released in favor of acceptance and allowance of what is.

This is an active process of turning adversity to advantage by focusing on what is gained in discernment from every experience whether it hurts or not. This is the opposite of denial, avoidance and resentment. It takes time.

Habitualized hurt (or any emotion) is stagnant, fixed, while Acceptance flows into Allowance, and with it the energy to engage our present moments differently. To consciously be happy and at peace with ourselves and our lives is the living fluidity that heals hurts and clears up confusions.

It’s really that simple. To justify reactivity and cling to resentments is Life stopping. Life flows and changes. We cannot ever change that fact. THAT particular power is not ours to wield. Our power resides in choosing how to feel and act in any given moment.

Pivot Point #9 ~ PARTICIPATE, EXPRESS & EVOLVE YOUR GIFTS

Life is the Gift, and you are here, so you have NOT been left out! The intelligence of Life that resides within each of us is far vaster than any one of us, and vaster still than all of us collectively.  Each unique one of us is given a slice of time in form to develop our gifts and share them with each other.  If you withhold your uniqueness it will never be found elsewhere.

Dr. Seuss told us as kids and it’s still true, Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.  We each are a unique expression of Life, and we each have a lot in common with many other people.  Life’s purpose is revealed in each person’s unique constellation of gifts.  Our collective purpose is to express, grow and share our gifts. How we do that are choices we visit and revisit daily, moment by moment.

We find like-gifted ones and opposites attractive for different reasons! Honest participation is key to the communication, creativity and cooperation required of sharing and growing our gifts individually and collectively. This is a living expression that is never complete because Life is always in motion, cycling naturally through form and evolving though us.

Pivot Point #10 ~ LISTEN INWARDLY AND OUTWARDLY

The art of listening, both inwardly and outwardly, is performed by an open, silent and unified Heart and Mind, fully receptive to where they have intentionally focused their attention.  This is one of the greatest gifts we can give to each other AND to ourSelves.  Healing and personal transformation always begin with the experience of being heard.

Chatter surrounds us, awash as we are in our modern multimedia experiences and devices. Chatter fills our internal space too, as our trance propelled Inner Storyteller fills in all the intolerable gaps in data with seemingly endless debates about meaning, intention and what to do ifs…  Until we embrace silence and innocent perception we hear parts of a lot of things while never actually learning to listen to anything fully.

Alfred Brendel pointed out that, the word ‘listen’ contains the same letters as the word ‘silent’, and Ram Dass offers us, The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

If you are answering before the other person has stopped talking, you may have heard something of what they were saying, but only up to the point where your Inner Storyteller kicked in and started filling in the blanks – which were only “blanks” because you stopped listening and shifted to assuming that you knew how they would complete their thought… You were too busy forming your response to listen fully.

Listening inwardly only becomes manageable once you’ve befriended your Inner Storyteller and aligned with Honesty. Insight and intuition can erupt even through the chatter, but it is another voice entirely that speaks to us from the Core of our own inner connection to the Living Intelligence.

THAT Voice requires peace filled stillness to be heard with clarity, something we are all capable of, should we so choose and act accordingly, we will succeed in hearing it.