(This is Part 2 of a series. Go back to Part 1.)
At the level where we appear to be independent beings making personal decisions, this seems to be true:
Where we consistently put our attention determines our entire life and our experience of it.
Where we put our attention determines the kinds of thoughts that we have. And the kinds of thoughts we have, in turn, determines our feelings.
To illustrate the latter point, imagine that you're walking along a path in twilight and suddenly see a cobra directly in front of you. Your palms might get sweaty as a bolt of fear runs through you.
Then imagine that you look again and see this time that it's only a coiled rope. Immediately the fear dissipates—a sigh of relief runs through you. That's the difference in
feeling between the two thoughts, "This is a cobra" and "This is a coiled rope."
Another example: Suppose you encountered a person who was irritable, distant, not friendly towards you. How would you feel? Now suppose you find out that their child just died. How would you feel now? Notice how your feelings would change just from a change in the thoughts or conclusions going through your mind.
And just as our thoughts determine our feelings, our feelings in turn determine the vibration we're putting out—the unseen frequency that we're radiating to the world at all times. Our moment-to-moment vibration, we could say, is what we're "teaching" the world.
And in turn, our habitual vibrations determine what we attract into our life, since in this universe like seems to resonate with like. "Birds of a feather flock together." If a room is filled with tuning forks of various pitches and you strike a particular one, only those of the same pitch will vibrate in harmony—the rest will stay inert.
Similarly, the vibrations we radiate create a resonance with other vibrations of the same frequency. The frequency where we vibrate is the frequency where we attract—and live. Because what we consistently attract creates our reality. Moreover, our frequency also determines how we experience that reality
Let's take an example: Suppose we have the thought, "I'll never make it." That thought as it reverberates around the brain creates feelings of futility and hopelessness.
Those feelings in turn create a certain kind of vibration, which then attracts into our life events and situations and people which correspond to the vibration we're putting out—and which then serve to justifiy our thought that, "I'll never make it."
By the same token, if we consistently have the thought, "I can do this," that will tend to create feelings of hopefulness and power. Vibrating at that frequency, we tend to attract people and events and situations that justify our belief that "I can do it."
In this sense, all thoughts tend to become self-justifying. We collect more and more evidence that we are "right." Indeed, we all go to our deathbeds knowing how "right" we were about whatever we dwelled upon.
This being so, it behooves us to pay special attention to what it is that we're paying attention to, since that in turn determines everything else.
The single most powerful thing that I've ever personally discovered about directing attention is to ask empowering questions. And that's the next subject.
I've noticed that the brain answers all questions. If we ask it, "Why am I always passed over at work?" we'll get an answer. If we ask instead, "How can I get a promotion?" we'll get an answer to that.
The former is an example of a dis-empowering question, and the latter is an example of an empowering one. Those two questions will lead to radically different outcomes—and yet they're just two simple questions.
If we ask the brain, "Why is this world so screwed-up?" we'll get an answer. If we ask it instead, "How can I make a positive difference in this world?" we'll get an answer to that. Again, two different questions, two different outcomes, and two different realities that we get to live in.
So let's take a look, in the next article, at some questions that will strongly tend to direct our attention in ways that empower us—and by extension, the world as well.
(This is the end of Part 2. Go to Part 3.)
—jim sloman, 8.2.03 for 2.5.04
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