A child sat and watched as the big game took place, surrounded by all the adults he’d come to know. The excitement and intensity of the game took the child over as the adults crowded and hollered and shouted and screamed at the television. Before the game would end this child would be transformed, forever a fan. Forever changed!
Here’s a bit of behavioral therapy for you: stay in the light more often. Human beings are always influenced by their environment and by the energy created out of that environment. We see, hear, smell and feel the energy around us to the point where it becomes comfortable and familiar; have you ever heard a song play that took your memories back to a specific place and time with memories so thick you could swear you were back in that same place once again? I meet people all the time in my recovery centers, people who have come to the center to work on one concern or another, and I’ve seen these people wrapped up and stewing in the comfort of negativity, as if this is all they know and all they care to know. But what if they could soften the blow, turn down the volume on a particular subject and turn the volume up on another more positive and clean vibration? This is the process of changing the channel.
Human beings become consumed with the environment and the manner of how and where we live. Our thoughts and emotions are on automatic pilot, reacting in real time to any given situation that arises at any given moment with those same emotions and thoughts leading the person to make meaning of the current circumstance. Most of us feel locked in this wheel of emotion, turning and turning and stirring the emotional pot that just keeps boiling over to burn our skin every once in a while, for some more than once in a while, becoming sick and tired of the same old thing over and over again. We understand what positivity is but most of us have become too pessimistic to even entertain the idea and as a result, spend most of our time in this black hole of “I’ll never get what I want,” and “life is unfair,” attitude, or some variation of this attitude. A ton of Americans seek behavioral therapy to help put them back on track, sometimes remaining in the therapists office for years on end as the therapist attempts, most often to no avail, to change the cognitive understanding of their thoughts. So here is a very simple technique to begin to change your life: choose to be in the light more often!
But what does this actually mean and how is it done? First we must understand that the point of view we bring to the table on any given situation has been molded through years and years of growth and outside influence, you’re either pessimistic or optimistic, but either
way there is a thread of thought that outlines how you will be taking on something new; and if you’re constantly being dealt the same old hand in life, perhaps something needs to change. Which beast will you feed is the question at hand, the negative raging beast or the positive peaceful one?
Take time throughout your day to write down a list of things that are truly beautiful in your life; look at nature, look at your accomplishments, look at family and friends and look at anything else you can pin point that is beautiful and peaceful, take your list and begin reviewing these thoughts daily. Now ask yourself: What emotion(s) is tied to these things on your list? Peaceful, satisfying, loving, caring, bliss? I hope so, or some derivative of one of these. Instead of always focusing on the negative, allow your time to be consumed with a peaceful and positive vibration. Instead of being consumed by the past, which is merely just a memory given meaning by the way in which we view the world, focus on something that is beautiful today giving a more positive outlook to what is to come in the future. Choose to be in the light more often.
The biggest trick of this exercise is to remain consistent. If you’re constantly thinking bad things will happen, well, bad things will happen. But if you’re constantly keeping your thoughts in the light, you will receive light, beauty and peace. I’m not saying to be naive about something or anything, sometimes things do go wrong, but it’s our attitude and point of view that allows us to bounce back and utilize the negative as a springboard to something new, exciting and extraordinary. Maintaining a peaceful mind and a positive point of view can lead to a life spent satisfied with success and confidence, and maybe then you’ll cancel your next appointment of behavioral therapy; spirituality and spiritual growth are at the fingertips of all of us, it is our birthright.
Paul D. Alleva is the founding owner of Lifescape Solutions and Evolve Mental Health which he opened in December of 2011, based on a new model of healing and psychotherapy called Spiritual Growth Therapy. His newest book Let Your Soul Evolve: Spiritual Growth for the New Millennium 2nd edition describes the model.
