Joyful Minds, Open HeartsOvercoming Negativity Addiction

Look around you.

Listen within.

This moment is alive with everything!

Love is literally in the air as it is what builds all the particles of existence. Your awareness, your bare attention, is the paradise you’ve been looking for all your life.

And, it’s right here.

Right now.

Always has been.

Look at something near you right now. Drop your ideas about it, your stories, your expectations, your preconceptions…Now, really look at it. In it, you will find all of eternity. The bliss beyond even the idea of bliss.

Love and happy biochemicals,

Denise

Today was groooooooooooooovy! I am really getting the hang of this Overcoming Negativity Addiction program!

I started out in the morning feeling a little sad. Trying not to be sad felt like NA, so I let myself feel it and within about five minutes it was gone.

I started to think that the mind is like waves. They come and go and when you can watch it all, like a scientist, then you don’t get that ‘clamping down’ feeling where you get your biochemicals engaged. This book, “Joy of Living” is really helping me to be the observer of my mind rather than the reactor to my mind.

I used allowing and surrender and letting everything be exactly as it is as my vibe switch of the day, whether it was emotions, other people, even food I ate! I took my dad to this wonderful restaurant, had a big salad and a little taste of what he was eating and I just felt really happy not being militant with myself about what I was eating (especially around the holidays). I was in total self allowing and it felt REALLY good today.

I truly enjoyed last night’s Free ONA support call and felt like we all expanded through our triggers! It was TOTALLY AWESOME!

Today, there was a situation I was feeling I was forcing a little bit and I TOTALLY surrendered and let it go, and literally felt my biochemicals get happier. I LOVE that feeling when my biochemicals get all snuggly and happy again! And, of course, the SECOND, literally, the SECOND I let it go, the person called me and the whole situation came flowing to me once again.

I am so happy studying my mind like a scientist. I did so horribly in chemistry class in school, but now I pride myself on being a chemist learning the formula for consistently happy biochemicals.

Also, I said last night on the call that no one vibeswitch fits everybody and no one vibe switch fits one person at different times. It’s like jazz. Flowing, changing, shifting. One day, being assertive and taking lots of actions is going to get your biochemicals feeling groovy. The next day, surrender, letting go, not saying much, is going to feel great biochemically.

This is why it’s so important that you keep a journal so that you can log in your inner chemistry experiments. With curiosity, ask yourself, “hmmmm, what is really going to get my biochemicals happy in this moment?” The answer to that question changes from day to day, moment to moment, so you have to keep asking it. Sometimes, crying and letting it all out feels better biochemically. Other days, laughing and making fun of your situation feels better biochemically.

Remember, your vibe switches are unique to you. One person’s vibe switches are another person’s negativity addiction. That’s why it’s so important to get to know your triggers and your unique ways to vibe switch!

Love and Happy Biochemicals,
Denise

I know this may sound a little crazy, but this morning I woke up listening to the “voices in my head”. Since I have become a scientist of all things having to do with thought addiction/both positive and negative, I have become someone who really enjoys studying my own mind!

This morning I woke up and instead of trying to immediately vibe switch into positive thought chemicals, I instead decided to listen to whatever thoughts were firing off automatically. And as I was listening, I got this distinct feeling that there were two different voices  in my head, one positive, one negative, both giving commentary on my life.

The negative commentator was saying things like, “You’re still not feeling 100% better physically. What if you never recover from this flu?, etc.”

The positive commentator was saying things like, “Your puppy sleeping under the covers with you is so adorable, etc.”

Being the inner chemist that I have become ( I am learning how to trigger happy biochemicals in an addictive way), I thought it would be helpful to imagine these two commentators standing in a box at an NFL game, but only one of them could “take the microphone” and talk. (My husband is a big football fan, so I’m sure this metaphor bubbled up from talking so much about football.) So I imagined “handing the mike” over to the happy, upbeat, commentator who puts a positive spin on all situations.

The cool thing was that I got to determine what that commentator was going to say, so I started speaking in a calm stream of constant upbeat things as if I was commentating a play by play of my own life.

Here’s an example:

“I am feeling really good today. I am going to have a wonderful, amazing,  happy, day. I am so grateful for all the great things going on in my life. I am feeling a lot better today. I am so blessed to have my great husband, wonderful home, new car, my dad visiting, etc. All is well in my world.”

And my biochemicals just LOVE my happy commentator.

Whenever I have a free moment throughout the day to focus on my thinking, I hand the microphone to my happy commentator.

How about you?

Which commentator has the microphone in your head?

Love and Happy Biochemicals,
Denise

Today I intend to use my main vibe switch as present moment awareness.

Whenever I get lost in any kind of thought and leave the present moment, I am going to become aware of my body sensations, sounds around me, my breath, my thoughts, and emotions, all from the observer perspective.

I am going to aim to spend at least 75% of my day today in my body, in my awareness of the present moment.

Right now, I hear the sounds of the computer keyboard clicking as I type “click, click, click”, and I hear the “hummm” of my computer and I hear my chihuahua snoring in the other room. Oh, and some birds just chirped outside. “Chirp” “Chirp”. I feel a little sleepy because I woke up really early, but I feel fresh and clean because I just took a shower. My hair is still a little wet and I can feel it on my neck…Ahhhh. (For those few seconds I was not lost in thought!)

There is a great Zen saying that instead of asking yourself “Why?” (Which gets you out of your body, into your head, lost in thought once again) it’s helpful to ask “What?” meaning, literally, what is going on around and inside of you?

Present moment vibe switch check in!!! All day today.

A lot of people have come to me saying, “I stopped doing ONA because I felt so guilty for relapsing or indulging the chemicals and so they said “What the heck, why try again?”

Just remember, that guilty voice is just part of the addiction talking. We ALL relapse at times.

Thinking is sticky business. If we didn’t ever relapse we’d all be Ghandi or Christ or Buddha and even those folks said it isn’t easy to get enlightened.

I truly am starting to feel that relapsing is part of recovering!!! Because we become more and more the WITNESS to our relapses, watching ourselves go through the indulging and that witness is our Soul who is always at peace.

The more we Identify ourselves with that AWARENESS (remember 70% of recovery is awareness of indulgence), then the more at peace we are.

Don’t be a slave to your scary thought trains any more!

Recommit.

Join us in class tonight or take the ONA program.

Remember, you paint your world with the thoughts you think. The bio-chemicals in your body caused by your habitual thoughts dictate your experience of the entire world around you.