Radical Liberal Diatribe - Upon Turning 64

It's curious to feel like I'm becoming more radical as I age ... feels great, actually.

Finally, being a liberal is becoming hip again - that was a crazy period of American history where people scoffed at liberal values such as helping less fortunate citizens, trying to be fair in business, working to keep the planet healthy, wanting to use government (voice of the people) to do some good in the world, wanting to reduce violence and warfare rather than provoke it ...

I grew up in a conservative Protestant cattle ranching family where the values were mostly based on common sense, reflecting the tough realities of life as we faced them. I now find myself at opposite ends of the political and religious pole ... but with very much the same principles - how come?

My old Barry Goldwater conservative principles have simply evolved into radical Green conservationist principles - love the earth, value the creation, nurture planetary health, preserve the natural realms, don't take more than your share, live in your heart, respect both human and non-human rights to a comfortable place on the planet ...

• As far as being a Protestant ... I just dropped the capital, threw away beliefs that didn't resonate with experience ... and seriously took on the 60s pledge - question authority.

Obama got elected on the same outcry - who are these people who are leading our world civilization over the economic cliff in the name of personal greed and feigned blindness to the suffering their greed creates?

And why do we let them rule the world?

I ask furthermore, as a psychologist - in all our hearts, what are the attitudes that drive us to continually make decisions that undermine the health of our supporting eco-system, damage our own family fabric, and keep us locked in fear-based behavior?

More importantly, how can we consciously evolve our attitudes so that we break free from fear-based programming, and act through ever-growing courage, integrity, compassion and faith ... why not?

I've just completed a new 7-minute video on all this - too long for this blog format - please go to my Selby24 YouRube Channel to view the video - see you there!

http://www.youtube.com/user/selby2424

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Manifesting The Higher Good

I'm currently at work on a new book based on the teachings of Charles Haanel who wrote The Master Key System a hundred years ago. I took the liberty of reducing the book to its best 20% and I must say, I'm deeply humbled by the amazing level of understanding and insight that Haanel somehow brought into written form, in these quotes.

Charles was the father of America's 'manifestation' movement, inventing the first affirmations, and teaching a deep new sense of our human involvement in the universe. He advanced our understanding of God, whom he called Universal Mind and several other non-religious terms. And he explained clearly how we can tap into our higher creative potential for manifesting the lives we desire.

• His main insight was that we must regularly quiet our minds and look directly inward to our Source, and listen to guidance from that source.

Rather than listening to our ego's mostly fear-based ideas about what we need to be happy and harmonious in life, Charles suggests that we listen to the intelligence of the universe, which he claims, rightly so, that we have direct inner access to.

This is nothing new. There's nothing really new in his writings, nor in mine. Buddha and Lao Tzu and Jesus and so forth pretty much nailed all this wisdom down long ago. What's new about Charles' communication is that he's bringing this wisdom into the world through his own inner voice ... and somehow it resonates deeply.

Charles talks differently than many of our current manifestation gurus, in that he gets immediately beyond selfish intent and desires, into the higher needs and yearnings we feel.

• What we really need to be happy is so often different from what our ego-driven attitudes insist is what we need.

And my thought for today, is this ... each morning, we can quiet our minds (I've been discussing the most effective ways to do this in earlier blogs) ... and then we can open up to insight from our inner vice, which is our connection with Universal Mind or God or whatever ...

Just say to yourself, after quieting your mind of the usual chatter:

"I am ready to listen to and be guided by my inner voice."

Each time you enter into the Silence and open yourself to receive, a new experience will come to you.

1: Perhaps you'll have a thought at some point that emerges from the Silence, and that thought will guide you.

2: Perhaps a daydream or imagination will come to mind, that will guide you.

3: Perhaps without any specific idea in mind, you'll feel the urge to get up and do something ... go into action!

4: Perhaps you'll remain in Silence for a while in meditation, nurturing your own inner clarity and wellbeing and power.

5: Perhaps something else will happen ... what's important is to do this regularly, and be open to guidance and insight.

Here are some quotes from Charles ...

The world within is the Universal fountain of supply,
and the world without is the outlet to the stream.
Our ability to receive depends upon
our recognition of this Universal Fountain,
this Infinite Energy of which each individual is an outlet.

This Infinite Life flows through you; is you.
Its doorways are the faculties of your consciousness.
To keep open these doors is the Secret of Power.

Is it not worth while to make the effort?

A single idea may be worth millions of dollars,
and these ideas can only come to those who are receptive,
who are prepared to receive them,
who are in a successful frame of mind.

Charles Haanel

The Master Key System

For more discussion of all this, please go to my new Selby Solution video program on YouTube, at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/selby2424#p/u

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2012 Vision

In my last post we talked about how the media are gearing up for loads of negative scare-shows related to the 2012 phenomenon. In this new post I'd like to focus on the positive, which is ...

• ... the growing sense around the world that indeed, human beings are rapidly advancing through an awareness portal that will bring much-needed transformation - if we are willing to surrender and open up to this transformation.

All we need to do as a world civilization, to experience release and passage into a higher quality of life on this planet, is to choose each new moment to quiet all our non-stop judgments and fear-based worries and schemings ... and open our hearts in the eternal present to the inflow of Spirit into our lives ...

Perhaps this sounds simplistic - but it's the core fact psychologically as well as spiritually, even though we so often forget:

• Either we continue to allow ourselves to be driven by our ego's conflicts, or we remember to pause, and open up to receive guidance by our higher voice. Shift into receive mode - that's the 2012 act - the inner revolution that we can choose to surrender to ... and not just on a particular future date, but ... right now.

I know that it's exciting to imagine that, on December 21 in a couple of years, some sudden totally-radical event is going to happen 'to us' to transform our world. But in my experience, inner transformation isn't rooted to a particular date - it's our choice each new moment. And it's an act that we must continually choose to make in our own hearts.

• At deeper levels, I think we do better to say that today, each new day within our own hearts, is our 2012.

Charles Haanel in his seminal writings said it perfectly:

The Universal cannot express through you as long as you are busy with your plans, your own purposes. So quiet the senses, seek inspiration, focus your mental activity on the within - and dwell in the consciousness of your unity with Omnipotence.

for more, visit www.iUplift.com

John Selby

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2012 - The Positive Approach To Transformation

Why do so many people seem to actually hunger for (and thus perhaps help manifest) a negative doomsday apocalypse in their near future? Are we really so bored, so hungry for drama, that we need to ambulance-chase our own shared destiny?

In the media there is a great deal of negative dramatization and fear-based programming related to 2012. It's almost repulsive to watch the crass History Channel 2012 programs designed to scare people in order to boost viewers ...

• We're being programmed to anticipate a negative 2012. I am ready to shout - wait! That's not in my future ... is that what you want in yours?

We are indeed manifesting our destiny, by the thoughts and images and anticipations we develop and hold in our minds. Let's not let the media program us like biological robots with their doomsday scenarios.

Instead, let's take charge of our own minds, and aim toward the positive. That's the only way to break with the violent historic past, and truly create a new uplifting experience on 2012.

• We most counteract and neutralize all the negative broadcasting and fear-based chatter about 2012, by manifesting our own positive expression of what this new transformation is going to actually be for us.

As we approach 2012, our challenge is clearly to learn how to stay in love, not fear - and to manage our own minds so that we advance into a quality of expanded consciousness that will make the 2012 transformation effortless, expansive, and a pure pleasure.

The Breath Portal, as described in my last blog and in my videos on YouTube (selby2424 channel) is the most powerful passage I've found as a psychologist, for regularly choosing to shift from negative to positive ... from being lost in fear-based thoughts and apprehensions, to regaining the power and beauty of the present moment.

In the next weeks, I'd like to explore this Breath Portal process with you, if this strikes a positive note in your heart ... as Charles Haanel said with great positive vision a hundred years ago:

· The essence and soul of all things is spiritual; the spiritual is the real, because it is the life of all there is; when the spirit is gone, the life is gone.

So ... let's actively keep the spirit alive in or own hearts, so that we manifest a bright, relaxing, harmonious 2012 experience throughout the world!

For more experience, visit: http://www.youtube.com/user/selby2424

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THE BREATH PORTAL

At any given moment, you're either in gear and doing something, or you're doing nothing ... except being. We are human beings ... and yet we spend most of our time in action gear, busy and engaged, focused and pushing into the future.

• My work over the years, bringing meditation and cognitive science together, has been to find better ways to regularly shift from doing, to being.

Why make this shift?

Because we need to recharge our batteries.

Because we need to reflect.

Because we need to enjoy life.

Because we need to tap spiritual insight.

Because we need to shift into neutral.

Because we need to listen to our inner voice.

Because ... we require balance.

Most people hunger for more pleasure, more insight, more love, more relaxation and peace in their lives. Do you?

If so, the Breath Portal is your key, to being ...

When we're busy 'doing' we're pushing into the future, we're trying to manifest what our thinking minds think they want. When we tune into our breaths coming and going, we shift into the present moment ... our thoughts become quiet ... and we connect again with our infinite true natures ... we tap into our Source - and become whole.

Don't take my word for it ... do it!

Say to yourself, "I choose to enjoy this moment." That's the first step in the Breath Portal.

Then say, "I feel the air flowing in and out of my nose..." that's the second step.

Then: "I also feel the movements in my chest and belly as I breathe ..."

And: "I'm aware of my whole body at once, here in this present moment."

And ... here you are ... through the Breath Portal.

And ... it's always new - you always emerge into a unique unfolding reality ... where you are more than your ego thinks you are ... go for it!

For more, go to www.iUplift.com.

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Tuning Into The Infinite ... Feeling Connected

Science can look back to the moment of the big bang, when the universe came into being from seeming nothingness. Beyond that, science cannot look - that's its limitation because space-time didn't seem to exist in our universe until that nanosecond. 

And in the other direction, it seems that science cannot look beyond the phenomenon of consciousness itself - consciousness is a present-moment experience that cannot be repeated. It's always new inside your head, right? This moment will never happen again, nor will the consciousness you're experiencing right now - 

• So science, which demands replication for experimentation, hits a brick wall it can't get beyond, in trying to study the phenomenon of consciousness. And thus we have the two bookmarks of scientific enquiry - the big bang in the past, and consciousness in the eternal now.
  

So how are we to approach 'before the big bang' and 'this eternal present moment' ...

My understanding is as follows ... we can feel our connection with the Creator. We can feel our experience in the present moment. And this 'feeling' is what takes us where science cant go. 

I love science ... but I spend much of my time focused on what I'm feeling, not what I'm thinking. Love is a feeling, not just a thought. And our connection with the Creator of this universe is a feeling, not a thought. Do you agree? And if so, how often to do you pause, quiet your mind, and tune into the feelings that link you with the divine?

I've just posted my core 3-minute video meditation that helps you move through the whole process of shifting from thought to feeling, from ego to Spirit ... I welcome you to go to YouTube and to the selby2424 channel ... www.youtube.com/user/selby2424 ... and experience for yourself, what we're talking about here ...

John Selby

www.iuplift.com

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Breath Awareness Is All

The Focus Phrase for today is the most basic and crucial beginning point. If you only learn one Focus Phrase, make this the one - and hold it in your mind as much as possible:

"I feel the air flowing in and out of my nose."

In all the world's great meditation traditions, breath awareness is the beginning and ending of the spiritual path ... because when you're not aware of your own breathing, which means of your own moment-to-moment presence, you're just ... not here.

Note that we're talking about a 'feeling' rather than a belief, a thought, a concept. Awareness begins with sensation. That's what it means to be a spiritual being on this planet ... being aware requires sensate attention. So see what happens when you say the Focus Phrase to yourself as you exhale, and then be silent and feel the air flowing through your nose, as you inhale - that's it!

"I feel the air ... flowing in ... and flowing out ..."

The key point here is this - that you can stay aware of the experience, the sensations, of breathing, while you do everything else in your life. This is what is called consciousness expansion - remaining aware of your breathing while you continue being aware of your everyday world, activities, etc.

And the challenge therefore is ... to say this Focus Phrase often to yourself, and let the words direct your mind's attention specifically to the exact point of consciousness expansion - the sensation of the air flowing in and out of your nose (or mouth of course, if your nose is plugged up).

So all day today, see if you can over and over again, return your awareness to your breathing, using the saying of the Focus Phrase as your instant guide and activation ... go for it!

John ... www.iUplift.com

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Daily Uplift Focus Phrases

The core foundation of my video programs is my set of 12 Focus Phrases that instantly redirect attention and energy where needed:

The Focus Phrase for today is based on the life theme ... RIGHT CHOICE.

Everything in your day today will depend on the choices you make. And primary is the choice each new moment, to focus on good feelings and positive experiences - or to focus your attention on negative thoughts, which in turn generate negative emotions, and lead to a bummer day.

Your choice!

So the Focus Phrase for today, to actively point your attention in directions that will serve you rather than undermine your life, is:

"I give myself permission to feel good."

You can also say this as:

"I choose to enjoy this moment."

Hold this thought in your mind all day, and your day will unfold radically different than if you fail to choose where to focus your attention, and let your mind run on its usual fear-based auto pilot ... 

Your choice. for me, "I give myself permission to feel good!"

for more on Focus Phrases ... www.iUplift.com

_________________

Video Wake-Up Guidance

With no music or video fore and aft this time, here's just the straight core guidance in awareness management ... enjoy!

For better resolution, go to http://www.youtube.com/user/selby2424

John talking about 'Your Choice" on video

I'm now moving strongly into video with these blogs, bringing some of my new video teachings free online for you ... I'm excited about this new medium because it enables me to talk to you as if we're in a seminar or weekend retreat like I used to do regularly before I retreated here to Kauai ... now, we can talk again - enjoy!

For higher quality, go to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Qlx8DyTu8&feature=related

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Here is my first video blog, in a series of Quiet Mind Meditation discussions of core insights related to 'awareness management' - which means, how to take charge of your own mind ... enjoy!

If you want a higher-quality version of this video, please go to the YouTube URL "John Selby on Consciousness":  www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY_-lCVxqLQ&feature=related

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Obama and the real change ...

Mood Uplift ... to begin this blog, here's a related link to an early video we produced for stress reduction and feeling better ... enjoy:

http://takechargeonline.com/itar.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Time Magazine recently ran an important if skewed article on "How Obama is using the science of change ..." It's true, Obama is very sharp when it comes to change, and how our attitudes ultimately determine everything that happens in our country. But what does this really mean?

The Time article indicated that change, from a behaviorist's point of view, is something that is manipulated by the government, to force change through 'nudging' it with behavioral tactics. 

• The article assumed that Americans won't change their attitudes on their own - but that we must have governmental manipulation. Right or wrong?
  

Perhaps realistically, a bit of both. I do support Obama's intent to use behavioral insights and techniques up to a point, in order to advance the change that Americans voted him into office to lead us toward and into ... but ultimately, be very careful here - manipulation is manipulation, whether it's on the right or the left.

•  Americans are in fact capable of consciously changing their attitudes themselves, rather than being cleverly forced into change at subliminal levels.
  

TIME MAG PLAYING DUMB

From my perspective, the cynical author of this Time article needs to to clearly cited for drawing a most unfair and noxious conclusion about the human spirit. His name is Michael Grunwald, and he ends the article on change in America by saying: 

"We need better policies, not better attitudes." 

Now that's just plain dumb. Forgive me for sounding like a pundit, but in response to such a statement, I'm a bit tiffed. 

This attitude that we don't need to change our attitudes because government can change them for is, runs directly against my life's work of providing 'awareness management' tools to help people consciously evolve their attitudes. 

Yes we can ... change our attitudes for the better. 

When used properly, consciousness-evolving tools do work. 

• What Americans need is ready universal access to the mental tools that encourage rapid conscious change. This is a wiser approach than focusing on 'enlightened' manipulative governmental policies. 

ENLIGHTENED DEMOCRACY

Policy Statement:  Rather than being cleverly nudged in healthy directions by external governmental tricks, we need to encouraged to wake up and see our choices, and trusted to make the right ones. 

• That's true democracy - being educated about our choices, and then being set free to make our own conscious steps in directions we choose.
  

The crucial issue at stake is - are we really such dumb dogs that we'll forever make the wrong choices? Or are we, right now, becoming a more awakened populace that is going to do the right thing because we ourselves have changed our attitudes for the better?

Debilitating Attitudes ... look a moment at the basic attitude the Time author is perpetrating - that left on our own, Americans will always go the easy status-quo lazy dumb way ... because we're lazy and dumb and can't be trusted to make green etc decisions on our own. 

I say - let's change that particular prevailing attitude!

• I suspect that deep-down, Obama does trust and respect the American spirit to grow, to wake up, to evolve into more sustainable attitudes. And I'm pleased that he's educated in behavioral science. I am too. 
  

But there's something beyond manipulative techniques for generating change.

Beyond manipulation of the human spirit, there's the awakening of that spirit.

We wake up when:  

     a) our comfort zone is disturbed (such as right now) 

     b) we're forced to re-evaluate the situation (as we are right now)

     c) we expand our awareness of the situation: 

     d) we see a better way ... and act on it!

INNER ACTION TIME

Every moment of every day, we're all in position to do just this - 

1:  Pause and become more aware of ourselves and our situation ... 

2:  Perceive the situation more clearly in a new light ...

3:  Choose to let go of attitudes and behaviors that don't serve us...

4:  Act in ways that expresses our new attitudes and perspectives.  

This is what we did when we threw off King George for democracy.

This is what we did when we threw off slavery.

This is what we did when we voted Barack and Michelle as our new leaders.

And so now ... what to do?

Rather than expecting our leaders to nudge us unconsciously toward change, I recommend that we actively take the big leap of responsibility (as Obama encourages us) and consciously learn how to generate our own change ... 

... and that will be change we can trust.

John Selby / with new video blogs at www.iUplift.com

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personal energy management - the core act

I was in Los Angeles last week, running around town fast with a schedule stuffed full of meetings, each one important to me. I knew the week would demand loads of energy, and I didn't want to run out. 

There's nothing worse than running low on energy, right when we need to be sharp and charismatic. But when it comes to optimizing energy levels in our at-work lives, as well as at home and on the turf, what can we do?

Limited Personal-Energy Reserves

The very idea of managing our personal energy as we would manage our business expenditures or our wine intake or whatever else, is a relatively new idea to most of us - but an essential idea to explore and master. 

• What is the source of our personal energy, moment to moment? How does our energy level determine our success, our health, and our enjoyment of life? And can it be in fact managed to our optimum advantage?
  

First of all, obviously we run on caloric energy from the food we eat. To be specific, we breathe in oxygen ... that combines the carbon from food we eat ... which generates a mini explosion inside us - releasing heat and energy. 

• A happy balance between proper diet and relaxed full breathing, combined with plenty of exercise, is optimum for energy management at the gross biological level (see earlier blogs on the crucial 'breath factor').
  

There is also the variable of emotional energy; every time we get angry, frustrated, or anxious, we're burning personal energy - and usually with no immediate gain from the expenditure. 

• Every time we relate, we expend energy through giving our attention and compassion. Hopefully we receive in equal kind and amount. 
  

Caution: there are people who give us an energy boost in their presence ... but there are 'mana munchers' who suck attention and energy.  Energy management involves consciously sharing our emotional energy, and also avoiding energy drains.

The Attention Variable

Attention management and energy management seem closely related - and indeed they are. When we pay attention to something or somebody, we are giving them our energy at that moment. Therefore we must manage our focus of attention wisely, so that we expend our limited reserves of energy in directions that further our own lives. 

• "Energy flows where attention goes" is a core law of Huna philosophy in the ancient Hawaiian tradition. Focus nurturing energy on a project, and you bring it to life ... deprive it of your focused attention, and it withers. How and where we choose to focus our moment-to-moment attention, and with what emotional charge, determines how we relate energetically with the world around us.

We optimize our personal energy by managing our focus of attention. Therefore it's important to consider how and where and why we focus our attention, every moment of our waking lives.

This is a core premise of what's traditionally been called 'chakra meditation' ... in which all seven primary  energy centers in the body are charged, balanced, or cooled off - by focused attention. Indeed, a great deal of the benefit of meditation comes from its natural positive influence on our energetic system.

Chakra Management

Recently, cognitive science and ancient meditative wisdom have combined their 'equal and opposite' insights, in the search for practical ways to manage our energy, both at work and in intimate and family relations. Where ancient wisdom and cutting-edge research are found to be congruent, explosions of insight often occur. 

In this light, Hindu yogic masters discovered thousands of years ago that there seem to be seven energy centers up and down the human spine. Cognitive studies indicate the same - as does personal experience. The seven energy centers have been identified as:

1) the 'earth chakra' at the base of the spine

2) the sex/creativity center in the genitals

3) the power center in the belly and breathing

4) the emotional heart center in the chest

5) the communication/reasoning center in the throat and brain

6) the 'third eye' insight/integration center higher up

7) the 'crown chakra' at the top of the head.

• Modern approaches to 'Personal Energy Management' involve focusing regular attention to each of these seven energy centers. By consciously focusing attention to these centers, a person is able to actively gain and maintain an energetic homeostasis that optimizes health and performance. 

Practical Applications

All of this has been on my mind today, because I have a book coming out in German on personal energy management, and I need to focus my creative attention toward producing a video of several chakra-balancing movement exercises that go with the book. If I don't focus my power of attention and my creative energy properly, that work won't get done.

I realize that Energy Management is a vast topic, almost beyond our minds' ability to grasp. I wrote my first book on the topic, Kundalini Awakening In Everyday Life, over a dozen years ago, back when I was immersed in the meditative dimensions of energy management. Since then I've shifted into much more pragmatic applications of the insights drawn from ancient meditative methods.

But the fact remains - it's important to take energy management seriously, both in business, in relationships, in sports, in love-making, in everything we do - because everything we do involves the quality and quantity of our personal energy.

• Luckily, we do have the capacity, through cognitive/meditative methods, to turn our attention to our own inner energy centers - and give them the nurturing boost and integrative help needed to operate at maximum personal energy.
  

Basic Fact: our bodies seek balance and homeostasis at energetic levels, just as they do chemically and emotionally. All we need to do is master and apply a few key cognitive focusing methods so that we aid rather than thwart our inner energetic balance. Our own power of attention needs to be regularly aimed, with love, toward our own energetic condition.

That seems to be what successful meditation is all about - focusing inward, and using our loving attention to nurture our own inner balance and wellbeing. More on this in a later blog.

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Delivering Experience

Most media programming is designed to entertain, to hold your focus 'out there' on the screen rather than inward to your own self. The act of focusing inward has always been considered vital to a healthy successful self-aware life, but most of media programing aims to do just the opposite - to stimulate the senses so much that we are held outward-focused. After all, that's show biz.

• Inner growth and insight requires temporarily letting go of being entertained by external stimulations ... and opening up to ongoing inner experiences that in turn generate an inner response - and the opportunity to grow, have insights, and tap our deeper source of power and inspiration.
  

After thirty years exploring this psychological process of focusing our attention inward, a couple of years ago I returned to experimental media work, to see if we can use video/TV/e and i media not only for entertainment (focusing outward) but also for stimulating inner experience ... and actively reducing stress, waking up good feelings, listening to our inner voice, and flashing with those inner 'aha!' realizations that in fact can transform our lives ...

My production team here in Hawaii has now completed 16 short experiential-videos on various core-issue topics - each of them aimed to refocus your attention inward exactly where you yourself choose to aim it ... there's an insight tool, a meditation method, a therapy session, a self-discovery and empowerment experience, an appetite-control experience, and so forth and so on ... and yes, it comes to you front-center on your TV, computer or iPhone.

• You choose your top theme of the moment, we help with refocusing your attention effortlessly where you want it aimed ... and then you go on and have your own inner experience based on what's happening in your life right now.
  

From Laboratory To Market

How well do these 16 experiential videos (EVs) work? Probably a lot of people won't want to take time to watch them at all - they prefer external entertainment that will stimulate them from the outside. And that's cool, I enjoy entertainment myself. 

On the other hand  I also suspect there's a lot of people feeling bad and bothered,  stressed out, unhealthy, worried depressed and whatever ... and sometimes also feeling hungry for more love, more connection with their source, more sense of inner balance, personal power and spiritual brightness. 

• Most of us are regularly motivated to look to our own hearts and souls more often, but sometimes we need a bit of help - especially in a culture where entertainment is so clever in holding our attention on what's for sale, rather than on what's equally important ... 
  

For people wanting help looking inward and growing, these new iUplift EVs are a first step in what feels like a giant right direction for employing all the various media so as to help us manage our minds, break free from stress and problems, and free up our hearts and souls for a truly great life ... all while looking at the computer or TV screen ...

"Good EVs (experiential videos) serve the purpose of effortlessly helping you to open up some free relaxed space and time, so that you can in fact have an inner experience that moves you forward."  

I'm getting ready to pack up and head to Los Angeles and show people what we've produced, and to find out what next steps to take to get the tools to the people. Here on island we've started working with the local Hospice team, which feels wonderful. And a study using our DVDs for stress relief is starting up at the local Sleep Clinic. But the larger world awaits ... 

So next week I'll be reporting from LA; maybe I'll make this a bit of a reality blog. Who knows what the response of the world out there will be. We have high hopes.

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Stress and Meditation: A New View

When stress is examined closely, we find that it's almost always caused by the initial reaction of anxiety to a situation, real or imagined. To reduce stress, we must quell anxiety - that simple. Deal with the source not the symptom.

But of course, quelling anxiety is not that simple - or is it?

I've been looking into this universal stress/anxiety dilemma for several decades now, from a number of therapeutic angles, and here's what I've found:  

• Stress can only be successfully managed and reduced, when we successfully manage and calm our minds. 

Self Medication versus Meditation

Most people regularly self-medicate their minds to reduce worries and tensions, using doses of alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs, and also non-drug habits and addictions such as computer games, television, sex and so forth. 

• Sometimes this works, temporarily - but it's like applying a hammer to the head for curing insomnia. There are better ways.

For years now, the press has been covering scientific discoveries showing that meditation does cure stress and anxiety, by successfully dealing with the core of the problem. And millions of people have gone in search of a meditation tradition or program in order to benefit from the 'meditation effect'. 

• But most of those millions of seekers have ultimately failed to establish a daily meditation practice that they can stick to and make work for them.
  

Some thirty years ago, I was working under a NIH grant studying the psychological underpinnings of meditation. We came across a discovery that we didn't at the time recognize as important, and passed over without further discussion. About ten years ago, I remembered that discovery, and have been applying it ever since to new 'psychological technologies' for making meditation easy and predictably effective.

Here's what we found:

1:  Meditation primarily aims to quiet the flow of disturbing thoughts through the mind. 

• When our thoughts become temporarily quiet, inner calm and positive feelings emerge quite naturally, along with relaxation and stress-reduction, clarity of mind, increased creativity and so forth.
  

2:  When a person focuses on two or more sensory events happening at the same time, all thoughts temporarily stop.

•  That's why listening to the Beatles singing harmony (or Bach for that matter), or watching a multiple-sensation sunset, or making love, or playing sports, makes us feel better - we're tuned into numerous sensory events at the same time, and therefore quiet in our minds.
  

3:  Almost all meditation techniques from all the various ancient traditions, are actually employing this 'more than one sensory event' to stimulate a shift into present-moment awareness and quiet-mind consciousness.

• But unfortunately, most people's minds are so addicted to thinking, that they have a difficult time focusing on sensory events (usually breathing and whole-body presence etc) and so they pop back into thinking mode over and over again, thwarting the benefits of meditation.

Technology To The Rescue ...

I happen to have a film background from long ago, and recently I've begun employing new video technologies for inducing the meditative experience without the usual struggle of traditional meditation methods. 

• The success has been quite remarkable - a short 3-minute video that purposefully induces a 'two or more sensory events at the same time' experience, combined with nature visuals, special music and focus phrases, can shift almost anyone effortlessly and quickly into a more relaxed, quiet-mind state of awareness.
  

Having discovered this meditative use of video technology, I've recently focused most of my time on producing a number of these special short video programs, 'video meditations' if you like, so that this tool can be used by everyone, to quickly reduce stress and induce a meditative quality of consciousness - without really any discipline at all.

Yes, I do find it a bit strange to be using television to induce a meditative state - but hey, if it works, let's do it. I also believe strongly in meeting people 'where they are' - and that's often in front of the TV or computer screen.

Of course, using a video-meditation program to quiet the mind and encourage good relaxed feelings isn't the same as spending ten years at the ashram learning meditation from a traditional master. But who these days has time for the ashram approach to meditation? 

• For most of us, whatever gets the stress-reduction job done fast, inexpensively and effectively, is of high value.
  

We're also discovering that when we include special 'focus phrases' in the stress-reduction video experience, we can aim the meditative process in specific directions to improve a number of different life situations - this is a wide-open new area of possibility currently being explored.

As of the date of this posting, my web development team is about 3 weeks from launching the iUplift.com site that will deliver these new stress-reduction video meditations to whatever video-player system (from iPod to widescreen) you prefer. Coming soon ... really.

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America: Getting Smaller And Loving It!

On New Years 09 I hit my biggest - 222 pounds and not loving it at all ... and so I finally joined my wife Birgitta's lead, stopped cooking and just ate what she put on my plate from her reduced-intake diet in which she'd lost pounds over the last six months. 

Finally, after thirty years of growing bigger and bigger even though I was a 'grown adult', I realized that  I wanted, indeed needed, to reverse my size and begin getting smaller - for my health, my image, my power and my longevity. Two months later, I'm at 202 pounds and set to drop down another 15 pounds to where I'm downright skinny and super healthy and at 63, back to being athletic again. 

• Here's the joke on me - it wasn't hard to lose weight. Once my base attitude changed, eating less has not been painful or wrought with suffering. 
  

On the contrary, I've loved every minute. Because I wanted to get smaller, getting smaller has been a pleasure. I simply said no to carbohydrates, to animal fat and dairy, and to sugar and processed foods. I've eaten like a king satisfaction-wise, lost weight - and have much more energy and fun.

• America, how about we lose weight permanently as a nation - let's embrace getting smaller and healthier, both in our economic girth and our personal size - let's get smaller and stronger!
  

REALITY ORIENT: We live on a planet that is not growing at all. But we run an economy based on growth forever and ever amen. Something's gotta give - and it is giving right now. As a mature, full-grown world economic culture, we've stopped growing - bravo! Reality is taking over our manic teenage gobbling habits.

I recently wrote a book with a high-up business friend called Honest Capitalism (going the rounds in New York just now) in which we talk about honesty and integrity being the core of successful long-term business. And what is honesty? The act of openly acknowledging the dominance of reality in all that we do.

• Let's finally face facts - capitalism is based on the unreality that we can grow forever on a limited planet. Let's grow up and accept that 'eternal manic growth' as an adult economy cannot realistically be the foundation of our planetary business plan.

Americans personally also have this illusion that they should keep getting bigger and bigger all their lives - and so we're totally a fat nation. What's the obvious result of living out this unreal attitude? Chronic bad health and staggering medical bills, gross over-consumption at all levels, low physical energy and clouded awareness, and a general lack of luster caused by carrying around too much extra weight.

I was carrying thirty 'dead weight' pounds around - imagine packing thirty pounds of potatoes all the time! Then imagine putting down that thirty pounds - wow - freedom! Now I'm carrying ten pounds extra, which is still a lot to pack ... and I'm going to put down that burden too, in the next months. 

• It's all a matter of attitude transformation - which has been my life study, and needs to be everyone's focus just now - our economic crisis is like a health crisis: if we learn our lesson and are transformed in our attitudes and expectations of life, then we won't have to get sick again, right?
  

The key attitude-shift seems to be this: America doesn't need to grow any more. We need in fact to drop about 10 percent - both economically and weight-wise - and not regain that weight. All our economics is based on growth - and I have come to see this basic capitalist attitude as dead-wrong. What do you think?

• We need to examine the very notion of 'chronic manic growth' as the bulwark of success in business - and to permanently accept our mature national size, and enjoy every moment!
  

Let's not see this economic turnaround as a disaster - let's see it as a necessary permanent loss of weight, as we become realistically healthy in a wise-growth economy. We can certainly evolve and advance economically - but gross weight gain as company policy is not the wise model anymore.

 The challenge is before us - not to 'recover' from our economic downturn by returning to the gobbling-growth model, but to permanently re-adjust our expectations based on planetary reality. Economic colonialism is dead - long live the king!

• So I strongly recommend that we carefully examine and wisely shift our attitudes about our national size, and stay fit rather than pudgy as a country. I know this sounds like economic heresy and suicide - but deeper down it resonates with logic, wisdom, and necessity. Limited planet, limited economy - and loads of pleasure, exploration, advancement and fulfillment ... within the bounds of remaining properly sized to fit the planet without destroying it.
  

To help with pragmatic psychological 'attitude adjustment' tools, I've just produced a short Daily Diet Aid video that we'll be posting when the iUplift site comes online next month. And regularly, I want to raise the vital theme of America losing a bit of weight and loving it. 

Let's experience a giant necessary shift in attitude!

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Depression and Anxiety - Emotional First Aid

The whole world is caught up in a financial melt-down, and everyone's more or less worried or depressed about the situation. This is generating an emotional downward spiral that needs to be dealt with just as urgently as the financial down-spin.

Key Fact: Anxiety and depression are emotions that reduce our ability to deal with the situation. They are our worst enemy, in pulling out of the global economic collapse. If we let our minds and emotions continue to crash, there's no hope of resurrecting our material dimensions.

We must take charge of our minds and emotions, and focus our attention not on the scary depressing images of the future, but on maintaining optimum performance and optimism in this present moment - which is where all recovery will take place, right here and now, in each evolving moment of each new day.

What To Do: 

1~ Stop watching the news!!! These people are totally focused on the negative, right? They're helping to pull us down. Don't give them your precious attention, because they're not helping. Stop focusing on the most negative - realize the situation, and focus where there is hope and opportunity.

2~ In general, stop worrying about the future. That act undermines your power, your mental clarity, your ability to act and improve things. Develop the power to regularly return your attention to the here and now, where you can do something positive.

3~ And yes - do something positive! If it's only to give your wife a hug, or smile to your children, or be nice to yourself - do it! You are in charge of your mind and emotions. Where you focus your attention determines the content of your thoughts and feelings. Stop fixating on the negative - focus on your breathing, find some good feelings somewhere in your body, and remember that economic downfall causes discomfort, but almost never death - this is not a life or death situation - remember that.

4~ Talk with your loved ones about your feelings, let the emotions flow, so they don't build up and pollute everything you do. Express your fears, and they become diminished - that's a basic law of the emotions. Share your feelings ... and also, listen to others with a non-judging supportive ear.

5~ Get help where you can - we're working like crazy just now to launch the iUplift.com site as soon as possible, to make new 'mood treatment' support systems available for minimal cost and maximum impact. Others are doing similar efforts to get the tools to the people. And the bottom line in Emotional First Aid is this - your thoughts are what make you suffer depression and anxiety. Watch the thoughts you let run rampant in your mind - and begin to just say no to fear-based thoughts and imaginations.

Stop running your own interior torture chamber - quiet your mind ... tune into the present moment all around you along with your own breathing and personal presence ... and be open to a new experience beyond the grip of anxiety and depression ... more on this soon.

From Seeker To Finder ~ Changes In Attitude

A core element of my mind-management work has always focused on the fact that our attitudes determine everything in our lives - and if we can help our attitudes evolve, our whole lives can indeed be transformed.

While I continue to await word from my tech men on how to post videos to this blog, I'd like to continue our discussion of how we can actively take charge of our own minds, so as to improve our moment-to-moment experience.

• After all, that's the key to life - focusing on the quality of our moment-to-moment unfolding into the new moment.Everything else is past and gone, or in the future as an imagination. 

Right now is where it's all happening - that seems obvious, but it's so often overlooked as we gasp for air and struggle to get by during these difficult times.

For a starter, consider this: so many people see themselves as seekers after the truth - as being on a great hunt in which in the future, they hope to discover the key to improving their life experience. 

• Much in our culture encourages us to have this attitude - that we don't have the answer to how to live a good life - and that if we keep searching and seeking, sometime in the future we might find the answer and thus gain the relief and breakthrough we hunger for.
  

I encourage people to let go of this attitude in favor of a better one - that right now, we do have access to all we need, in order to wake up and break free and be genuinely happy and fulfilled in the present moment. We can shift our attitude from that of seeker (a future-oriented attitude) to that of finder (a present-moment attitude).

How is this accomplished? Take charge of where you aim your attention, each moment - and aim it toward present-moment experience, not toward future-projections and 'thinking about' life. And how is this done?

I have developed what I call 'focus phrases' which directly aim your attention in precise directions that enable you to be a finder, rather than a seeker. In the video programs that I'll be presenting soon, these focus phrases are front-center, because they do have the power to transform.

For instance, for thousands of years, spiritual teachers have known that breath awareness is the key to being 'here now' and living a full life - but most people most of the time are unaware of their own breathing, and thus of their core presence. How can you remember to return your attention to your own breathing, and thus tap into the wisdom inside you in the present moment?

Say to yourself often, exactly what you want to do:

"I feel the air flowing in and out of my nose ..."

These words, if said to yourself often during the day, do have the power to transform your life - your breathing will deepen, relax, become stronger - and you'll find yourself also aware of your heart, right in the middle of your breathing - and you'll wake up!

The challenge is to remember to say these words, and hold them in your mind as a beginning focus phrase ... and in later blogs we'll explore various support systems to help you hold key focus phrases in your mind, throughout your day ...

Selby Stress Relief Online

Stress, fatigue and depression grip us too often these days - but online help is now at hand.

I'm being encouraged to begin this blog today, to introduce several new e-based and m-based tools that will help reduce your stress and fatigue, quickly and regularly.

Most of us can't eliminate the external situations that provoke stress, depression, confusion and emotional fatigue - but we do have the choice (one we recognize it) of actively taking charge of our minds, refocusing our attention, and uplifting our spirits. 

As a psychologist, therapist and spiritual consultant, for the last thirty years I've been developing new 'cognitive shifting' techniques and personal support-systems for various wellness and corporate applications, based on an integration of cognitive science and ancient meditative techniques. 

We have recently made a major breakthrough in the use of video experiences that enable you to shift from stressed and depressed, to relaxed and uplifted, without going to the spa or the therapist or the beach. Neither do you have to spend years meditating to achieve results - the video experience itself quiets bothersome thoughts, and points your attention in empowering, enjoyable directions. 

On this blog space I will offer written insights and suggestions, and also short 'Video Treatments' that guide you through powerful stress-relief experiences ... these are online support methods that you can return to at any time for immediate help.

Within the month my team will be launching a new site ... www.iUplift.com ... that will offer a wider range of short 'uplift videos' to help you, wherever you are, to quickly shift out of stress and worries, emotional fatigue and mental confusion, into a stronger, more positive and enjoyable (ie successful) state of mind.

I'm going to post this first SelbyUplift blog today, and go talk with my tech team about how to post one of the new Video Treatments currently in production, so that you can right away, on my next blog here, actually get access to online tools that reduce stress and boost wellbeing.

The web can now deliver professional stress-release tools that you usually find only at expensive spas or an enlightened therapist's couch. I'm excited about being a part of this new movement to get the 'uplift tools' to the people, fast and inexpensively. If you want to sign up for more blogs, we can continue this discussion several times a week!