I have been absent for a while. No apologies for that. Only that dull aching feeling of 'Should'. THAT sensation of 'I should be blogging...', 'I should be doing this...', 'I should be feeling this, or that, or the other...', 'This is distraction, I should get on with the important stuff...' Locked up in my mind for a while with the monster of Should rattling the bars and roaring at me. BETTER yet than Should, I turn to the monster and face him level-eyed, staring him down and spit out my truth, 'Maybe you're right. I Could. Why am I not doing it then.' A crucial part of mental training is the language that I frame it in. Care-fully considering how to phrase a question or suggestion or idea or logic. Should is a debilitating word, it is the monster that shakes the cages, it rattles the bars and roars at me when I want to sleep, and howls when I am busy running to keep up with all those important little things that need to happen. As I run the Should nudges and shoves at me, do this, what about that, over there, and don't forget to do the laundry. STARING down the Should Monster and rewiring him with a Could liberates my time, my life, my words, my actions and my decisions. I could be blogging, why don't I. I could get up earlier and do this work, what reason do I stay in bed for? I could continue to not eat sugar and feel better in my body, what is my pay out in consuming? THE Could can be turned back around to a question. The Should is only highlighting with bright burning spotlights the problem. This is the issue, here, look at this, ha ha, I found one, Should be doing this. This one, right here, forget that stuff, look what I found. I don't like the Should Monster. He does not serve me and I do not want him in my life. WHAT you focus on grows. And when I take heed of the Should Monster's words and listen and throw my attention on his problems what do I receive? I receive more. More problems, more spotlights, more Should. The first one never served me, so why keep accepting these suggestions from this monster? MEANWHILE, all the time I have been stumbling through dark chasms of grief, past and present with occasional snapshots of the dark moments of the future. Should shoving me and telling me that this is not what is important right now. Forget that, do this. My mind un-prepared and un-willing to engage. Just needing to do stupid things to re-fill with empty crisp goodness. Shinning and scuffing my way up climbing routes, winding a canoe across a lake or down a river. Cycling the long way home and hitting long sections off road with no lights and starring at the fractions of full moon splintering through the trees and digging out my phone to navigate the river side path by the flash light on the top! Stupid, pointless, late-night distractions. YET all so valuable in my steady re-covering of this death, and those deaths of old that I paint over with my grief to allow in and forget all at once. To let me sit down here again, as 7am approaches and the lights plays over the curtains casting yellow and blue strips across the room. AND here I am. Again. Re-starting. Ok. Let's go play. Thank you for your patience. ACM The Rainbow Curtains in the Living Room.
Sometimes crazy ideas work really well!
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A poor excuse, really. Why do you climb the mountains? "Because it's there." WHEN we engage our-selves in the outdoors and throw our lives out there on the line what do we discover? What do we learn? We find that we are in dangerous places, trudging through waist deep snow, poking at slopes with avalanche probes, watching rivers pummel themselves into furious white patterns and watching storm clouds race across the landscape towards us as we turn and run from the peak. IS this danger embraced will-fully and actively Because It Is There? Are we risking our body and mind and our very existance just because a few hundred thousand years ago some rock shifted and shaped these hills and mounded up this rocks, or because the action of the water over the last million years happens to have created this gorge. So it happens to be 'There'. And so we go up it, or paddle down it. 'BECAUSE it's there' is not enough. WHAT is a more reasonable answer? Because I will soon not be here. In the eyes of the hills and the views of the eons of river creations you are insignificant, very insignificant, in fact, you are completely insignificant. Our lives are transient as the water, flashing past. The world watches from the banks as we dash by in a flurry. HUMANITY has the power to alter the course of rivers, to change the faces of mountains. We can change the landscape as much as we desire, given enough time and enough money. IN the end, the world wins out. The mountains that we blast with explosives, the rivers we dam with concrete, the shapes we lay in the land will last out beyond us. They will not last forever, neither too will the mountains and rivers, their longevity is, however, far superior. NEXT time you harness up and tie in to a rope to scale a cliff, or launch your boat onto a river. Remind your-self why you are there, out in the big wide world of dramatic and dangerous landscapes. Because, some day, you will not be. Some day it will be someone else pulling on those holds, and dodging into that eddy. Then smile, exhale and go get your fun. BECAUSE you are there! Thank you ENGAGE more deeply in your activities, unlock the power of your mind and learn the power-full tools within you with my FREE course in visualisation CLICK HERE for more details. Performance online courses, focused mental training to allow your to perform more positively and find success easier, CLICK HERE to find out more. Bespoke personal coaching courses out there in the world of paddle sports and rock climbing also available, CLICK HERE to find out more. ACM Positive Passionate Power-full Performance. The track to the mountains.
Tryfan from behind Ogwen Cottage, Snowdonia, North Wales.
FOR more information on language use and training your mind for better performance check out the Courses page of my website. 4-Week e-Courses, email based, and a FREE course in visualisation practice.
Amazonian Water Lily: The Royal Botanical Gardens, Adelaide, South Australia.
THE Law of Attraction maintains that your repetitive thought patterns produce the results that grow in your life. Bringing you that which you focus on. You reap what you sow. HOW do your repetitive thought patterns set you up for your future? In the book The Secret, Rhonda Bryne discusses in detail the workings of the Law of Attraction and how to use it to create for yourself the life you desire. Also, see my blog posts on The Law of Attraction, mental training and language. TODAY I am going to talk about some fine tuning methods of studying your language and looking into the possible results that you will gain. SOME years back I climbed with a group who adopted an offhand comment as an unofficial motto; ‘If you don’t let go, you won’t fall off.’ To some level I still believe the flippant remark. It seems obvious and positive and simple. It also seems perfect for a climber! HOWEVER, when into the Law of Attraction in detail we discover something interesting. The Law does not listen to negatives. There is no differentiation from positive to negative. The best example of this is debt. Saying ‘I don’t want to be in debt.’ Repeatedly brings – guess what – more debt! Why? Because the Law works on simple terms, hearing the word Debt, the focus goes on that, bringing more. THE Law of Attraction does just that, it attracts to you what you focus on. Mention and focus on debt attracts debt. So how does one escape debt? By focusing on what we want to gain, not what we want to escape. Focus on abundance, or easily affording that next holiday or trip away. Focus on what you want, not what you are avoiding. HOW does this affect my climbing friends? ‘If you don’t let go, you won’t fall off.’ Eliminating the negative suggestion produces ‘Let Go’. and ‘Fall Off’. These are clearly not the aim of a group of climbers. I will also point out that as a group we had a few falls, my first traditional climbing lead fall included. SO, with this new positive focus in mind, how can we better utilise the Law of Attraction in our climbing? Your focus needs to remain positive and empowering. Address your language in terms of ease, simple, steady, powerful. Looking over a route, focus on how you can use positive language to address the sections of the. This prepares you for the process of climbing and to allow the Law of Attraction to bring to you the success that you want. Rather than corrupting your attempts with negative language and negative focus. MORE on positive language and methods of mental training are elsewhere in this blog. The right hand bar has a search narrowing tool for blogs tagged as specifically focused. Alternatively click HERE for my FREE mini-course on visualisation. This course looks into how you can let the powers of positive mind patterns to help you to be more successful in your climbing and use visualisation to succeed. Reference: The Secret. Rhonda Bryne. Simon and Sshuster Ltd. 2006. ISBN: 978-1847370297 Sandy Bay beach, near Exmouth, Devon. HOW we focus affects how our mind creates a positive, successful outcome and, ultimately, a more positive reality. This is the Law of Attraction. By projecting our desired outcome into our minds by visualisation, by talking about our success-full actions, explaining what we plan to do to succeed and by holding onto those thoughts we produce a desirable event. AS we do this, in our outward and real world voice and also in our internal voice – our Self-Talk – we must carefully choose our words in order that we can most effectively project our desired outcomes. HERE we are going to step back up to the beginning of our task. You are looking over your project. You may on a trail, writing a novel, planning a new building. I am at the bottom of a climbing route. Am I glancing from hold to hold nervously, seeing the route and visualising it but saying to my-self about the move half way through, “right foot high, huge step up, and that’s a big rock over, the edge looks too small. Oh, left hand there. That’s too big, I’ll never reach that.” Or are you confidently seeing the moves and focusing on how you can hit the moves and the holds easily and swiftly, “Ok, right foot high, push up powerfully, step high and smoothly through the rock over, then snap the left hand, fast move there…."? What is the more beneficial way for my voice to be speaking of my climb? HOW you use your voice in your visualisation exercises is crucial to their successful outcome. This is where you need to be very carefully guarded against those little niggling voices inside that say “you can’t do that...” and “Really? That’ll never work.” Your Self-Talk, these words, do not serve you. They are 'Safe-Mind' Safe-Mind wants to keep just that. Safe-Mind is there to ensure that you do things safely - in physical terms to not be injured and in mental terms, to avoid humiliation and possible reprieve. Safe-Mind gaily omits much of the possible fun and success that you can have. Safe-Mind is not going to serve you when you launch into risky projects. Learn to hear the taunting jeering remarks of Safe-Mind, and to thank them for their input and then railroad them down with your positive voice. Your positive voice is Monkey Mind, Monkey Mind wants to play, and leap and roll down grassy hills not worrying about the laundry! THIS is where Mindfulness comes in. Mindfulness is a constant game. Here we step away from my chosen climbing route and into the outside world. Mindfulness comes in not just in the climbing wall, but in everything that I do. The more you practice the art of being constantly vigilant towards the language of your Self-Talk, being constantly vigilant over your thoughts the easier it will be to create a positive and successful voice, to accept and allow Safe-Mind then listen to the suggestions of Monkey Mind and go Play. BY letting your voice become powerfully positive you allow your body and mind to succeed. Choose to focus on positive language outwardly in your voice, and to allow your Self-Talk to be positive too, allow positive words to fill your everyday life, to define your daily actions and your life will grow with successful actions and positive moments. FOR More on Monkey Mind and Safe-Mind check out my Blog entitled Monkey Mind / Safe-Mind, published in June 2013. My email based e-Courses are focused on creating positive mindsets, language and outcomes. Find out more about them HERE. OR, go HERE for my FREE visualisation mini-course, this is 4-Weeks long and focuses on the process of visualisation for you to create positive visualisations for all your projects. Have a fantastic day, Thank you, ACM Positive Passionate Power-Full Performance. Footprints in the Sand. Near Exmouth, Devon.
Skate Park on The South Bank, London.
TODAY Monkey Mind came to play.
RECENTLY I spoke of Critic Mind and Doer Mind (Blog: Let You-Self Play, June 10th 2013). Your internal voices that speak to you, the Critic telling you to moderate your thoughts / language / actions and fit in and tread the sensible, worn trail, versus the voice of the Doer, who is your artist brain, your scheming, plotting, adventure seeking voice, the one who wants to stay up all night and do a Star Wars Marathon, or go on a canoe expedition across Sweden or cycle from Lands End to John O'Groats, and sings really loud and maybe slightly off key in the shower. DOER Voice took a cosmic leap today. My Doer Voice in my head decided she no longer wanted to be Doer. That's Boring. Doer Voice declared: I am, henceforth Monkey Mind. Monkey is wildly leaping from branch to branch, dashing across exposed areas to get to that tree over there that is covered in ripening fruit, but which is much too far for all the sensible Critic Voice driven masses to attempt to reach. Monkey grabs at the thinnest branches and jumps high and far, reaching out for the next thing to grasp hold of. MONKEY is making it up as Monkey goes along. MONKEY is loving that. Monkey is comfortable far out of Monkey's comfort zone. Monkey talks fast, acts instantly and speaks hard truths swiftly, chest out and proud. AND who, you ask is Jiriki? Jiriki is Japanese for the process of self-selection and self-promotion. Jiriki is the monkey, who grasps at his mother to be rescued. The opposition to this is Tariki, Tariki is the kitten who needs saving. Tariki is saved by his mother who comes and gently carries him to safety in her mouth, putting her down and licking him to make sure he knows he is safe, Tariki needs higher authority to select her, to move forwards, to remove risk, to endorse her. Jiriki grasps tightly on, saves herself and knows he is plenty safe enough. JIRIKI is bold and proud self-selection, the in-your-face artist who has declared herself Monkey Mind. My task as a person operating to keep my body and actions and language encountering this wonder-full beauty-full world is to hold on and see where Monkey Mind wants to go, then to go there. MONKEY Mind is that bumper sticker: 'Get in, sit down, shut up, hold on.' That's what Monkey Mind says. Then pauses… well, actually… Hold on? Forget that part, wave for the cameras! Shut up? Whoop loudly with joy-full abandon! Sit down? Sit down, not likely! Get in? Well… maybe. Only though the window though! MONKEY Mind is now in charge. Monkey mind is running the show. Critic Voice has not yet spoken up and decided on a new title, Doer Voice did not offer any suggestions and Monkey Mind is having too much fun to throw out any ideas for boring old Critic Voice as yet. LONG Live Jiriki. LONG Live Monkey Mind. ACM Positive Power-full Passionate Performance. Reference: The Icarus Deception: Seth Godin, 2012. Page 47: The Kitten and The Monkey. Copyright: Do You Zoom, Inc. A beauty-full book. Buy it. Release your-self into your-self. Fly High! THE process of positively believing in and visualising success is at the core of everything I do. The ability to choose to let your-self be success-full is key to finding continuing success. Each action is a choice, every word, every move, every-thing.
PART of living in a positive and affirming way is to allow the world to be viewed positively as much as possible, to assist in this a positive choice that can be made is to choose not to complain. INDULGING in the process of complaint allows your energy to be directed onto negative events and negative outcomes. We tend to get what we expect; Henry Ford said, “If you think you can do something, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.” The experiences we attract when we complain are not necessarily the positive experiences we may believe that we desire. GOING complaint-free does not have to be difficult, begin by choosing to consciously observe where complaints are occurring, coffee breaks are a key one, and when you meet up with someone - for example when you arrive home from work. Choose not join in the complaining process if you feel it begin. While the complaints happen work through all the things that you are grateful for about the particular complaint, it could be a particular problem with a sports team member, or a tough section of a course that you are doing, or it could be a person who you can find challenging at times. BETTER yet, drive the conversation towards positive discussion and make people aware of some of the positive things that are going on in your life and in theirs. Vocalise the positives that you are creating, they will be more power-full when you let them out with your voice. SWITCHING from complaining at events to conscious choice not to complain allows you to find those positives in life, finding positive outcomes from what is going on in the world. By finding ways to not join in with the complaint, aiming always to find the 'silver lining' we allow our minds to become orientated around positive results and successes. RE-TUNING to listen for complaints is a simple shift, you will be astounded by how much of your language, speech, conversation, and therefore implicitly your actions and emotions too, are dictated by complaint. CHOOSING to live complaint-free is a huge and beneficial step to your life. Let us begin with smaller goals. Start easy. Start by not complaining about the easy things, making breakfast, driving to work, walking the dog in the rain. Then move on to choose to not complain when a project is challenging, a sale is difficult, or when you are struggling with finances, or relationship trouble. FEELING a complaint or negative emotion rising, you can consciously choose to not allow it to surface. Exhale, write it down then rip it up and throw it away, yell, scream, punch the air, hit a pillow. Release the negative energy. You can choose not to articulate the problem, this only builds and affirms the power of the problem, serving only to extend the difficulty. ARTICULATION is going to make the difficulty easier or the problems smaller. If complaint will enlarge the problem, and exacerbate the issues, then not complaining is going to shrink them. Choosing to release your negative energy and continue on positive energy will help. Positive energy and a positive mindset will allow you to create beneficial results from your actions. NEXT time you are faced with complaint, focus on the language that you are using. Every-thing that you say, do and think has an effect on your emotions and energy. Choose to allow your-self to bring only positive experiences into your life. USING our conscious choice to generate positive experiences is a key point of my e-Courses, find out more in the e-Courses page, click here. Alternatively, check out my mini-course on visualisation, learn how to positively visualise to succeed more, click here. ACM THE process of positively believing in and visualising success is at the core of everything I do. The ability to choose to let your-self be success-full is key to finding continuing success.
PART of living in a positive and affirming way is to allow the world to be viewed positively as much as possible and choosing to not complain. INDULGING in the process of complaint allows your energy to be directed onto negative events and negative outcomes. We tend to get what we expect; Henry Ford is famous for saying, “If you think you can do something, or you think you can’t, you’re probably right.” Well, that’s fine for automobile tycoons. What about me? I hear you cry. GOING complaint-free does not have to be difficult, begin by choosing to consciously observe where complaints are occurring and do not join in the complaining process. While the complaints happen work through all the things that you are grateful for about the particular complaint, it could be a particular problem with a sports team member, or a tough section of a course or route that you are doing, or it could be a person who you can find challenging at times. BETTER yet, drive the conversation towards positive discussion and make people aware of some of the positive things that are going on in your life and in theirs. SWITCHING from complaining at events to conscious choice not to complain allows you to find the positive in life. Finding positive outcomes from what is going on in the world. By finding ways to not join in with the complaint, aiming always to find the 'silver lining' we allow our minds to become orientated around positive results and successes. RE-TUNING to listen for complaint you will be astounded by how much of your language, speech, conversation - and therefore implicitly your action too - is dictated by complaint. CHOOSING to live complaint-free is a huge and beneficial step to your life. Let us begin with smaller goals. Start easy. Start by not complaining about the easy things, making breakfast, driving to work, walking the dog in the rain. Then move on to choose to not complain when a project is challenging, a sale is difficult, or when you are struggling with finances, or relationship trouble. FEELING a complaint or negative emotion rising, you can consciously choose to not allow it to surface. Exhale, yell, scream, punch the air, hit a pillow. Release the negative energy. You can choose not to articulate the problem, this only builds and affirms the power of the problem, only extends the difficulty. ARTICULATION is not going to make the difficulty easier or the problems falls smaller. Choosing to release your negative energy and continue on positive energy will help. Positive energy and a positive mindset will allow you to create beneficial results from your actions. NEXT time you are faced with complaint, focus on the language that you are using. Every-thing that you say, do and think has an effect on your emotions and energy. Choose to allow your-self to bring only positive experiences into your life. USING our conscious choice to generate positive experiences a key point my e-Courses, find out more in the e-Courses page, click here. Alternatively, check out my mini-course on visualisation, learn how to positively visualise to succeed more, click here ACM “What you focus on grows” – Christine Kane.
How you use your voice has a strong reflection on how your reality appears you. When we look at the world positively and see it as full of positive experiences and beautiful, fulfilling encounters we are led to see more of what is beautiful and positive. However, when we see the world negatively and focus on the negative things, the world reflects this on the rest of our experience. Our voice is a projection of our mind into the physical world. Our voice indicates how the world will continue to be viewed, how positively or negatively. Speaking positively of our experiences will attract positive and beneficial actions to us, and when we speak negatively our future experiences will follow those same patterns too. How we choose to speak and address the world and our experiences is heard by all those around us. When friends hear that you had a terrible day, and the traffic was murder, the coffee machine broke - again - your inbox is overflowing, it rained all day and your neighbour’s cat was sick on your front door step. This creates a mood for you to be placed in. A day told like that will receive lots of grave, stern head nodding and murmurs of agreement about the poor state of the world. Along with further anticipation of continued drama and grief. When we take the same experience and we report on it positively we find we receive a more positive response and the whole day looks far better; the road works meant you got to listen to your favourite song, you ran out to the cafe on the corner in your lunch break and saw an old friend, you dealt with your inbox in record time, the canoe trip at the weekend will be better now it’s rained, and hey, the rain washed last nights cat vomit from the door step! How you choose to use your voice affects how the world will return your future experiences. And how you will perceive them. Choose to use your voice to positively reflect your experience. Let your positive voice allow your future to be positive and fulfilling. |
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AuthorAndy Clubley-Moore: joyful outdoor sports activist, writer, father, husband. Lover of life, activity, success and barefoot living. |