Do
you trust life? How secure do you feel on a day-to-day basis? I’m not asking
you to look into your bank account and answer this logically. I want to know
how you feel.
Do you feel like life has your back? What’s your risk threshold? That is, how far beyond the usual do you feel comfortable with acting? Can you act on inspiration as it arises and trust that it will take you where you need to go? Or do you hold yourself to a strict routine, any defiance of which would mean chaos? Do you count your every step, or can you allow yourself to fly?
A major part of personal development is building trust. Trust yourself, trust other people, trust your environment, trust life.
An externally-focused approach to building trust would look like seeking out environments and people who are already trustworthy: safe, affluent places to live that have honest people. This approach can be effective, but it is missing a key ingredient.
I live in a safe, affluent location with people who don’t harm me or rip me off. Perhaps then it’s only natural that I feel basically secure and trust life. I can walk around by myself at night without worry. This is only logical, as I live in a safe place.
Certainly I can attribute my sense of security to money. I don’t worry about going hungry because I always have plenty of money in my bank account, and there are numerous places I can use that money to get food. As far as my physical and safety needs go, life has never come up short for me. Over the course of 18 years it has steadily earned my trust.
I know plenty of people who also live in this safe, affluent area and have roughly the same financial situation as I do, if not better. Because we share similar external circumstances we must by extension share the same sense of security, correct?
I’m afraid this is not the case.
Where is Your Security Now?
A lot of people I know, whatever their current career-related situation, don’t seem to feel that financially secure. They certainly engage in conspicuous consumption (buy things they don’t need) but they’ll almost constantly attest to being broke. It doesn’t seem to matter that they’re able to throw money at all this stuff-- and that’s on top of getting their physical and safety needs met.
I have the sense that there are certain things that are acceptable to spend all those extra dollars on, but others aren’t quite so acceptable. You can buy one article of unneeded clothing after another, for instance, but a trip out of the country just seems unreasonable.
What for? If there’s a TV in every room of your house, four computers, four tablets, four iPods, four cellphones… What the heck can’t you go travel for? Does your sense of security require that your money go toward something concrete, that you can see and hold-- maybe for years to come? Is that why people are reluctant to donate or put money toward starting a business?
Perhaps another example: A lot of people who I know and are wealthier than I am state that eating healthily is too expensive. What are you talking about? I’m (almost) a vegan and I don’t eat processed foods (no preservatives or additives). I have few qualms about buying supposedly expensive organic foods. I don’t have a job- I only did for about 3 weeks- and the stereotype I’m supposed to fall under is the poor college kid who eats Ramen every night and Taco Bell on weekends (for protein, of course). Some people are shocked at my food bill. Somehow I have no issue with keeping it the same. I don’t think I’ll find myself crawling on my knees back to inexpensive white bread any time soon.
The point is that trust is not merely the product of God plopping well-being at your feet for years. You have to seek out trust. I promise you, you can have all the money in the world and still not trust this world.
Step 1 to Trust: Trust
If you ever want to trust, the first step is to simply trust. That’s it. The safety doesn’t come first. There is no way you will ever trust in this universe if you don’t make the first move. Spending your life around the nicest people on Earth will not keep you from closing yourself off and feeling defensive.
I’m reminded here of the good ol’ Grapes of Wrath. The preacher, Jim Casy, said that a man who owns a million acres of land is afraid of dying, but "a feller having fun don’t give a damn.” Tom Joad told him that when his Grandpa was having the most fun he was also his closest to death—that is, in the riskiest situations.
This illustrates a beautiful point. Fear-based- that is, externally-based- pursuits by themselves can never make you feel safe in this world.
If you think this physical reality and your current natural life within it are all you have, then you are bound to also have a pervading sense of insecurity. If you believe the best you can do is build something concrete in this world which hopefully outlasts you, and you get your needs met along the way, you will probably live a life of fear. If you think that we live in a random materialist-reductionist universe devoid of consciousness or spirit and that humans are a plopping of chemicals and squishiness who are wired to crave fame and fortune and be greedy, well… good luck to ya.
Perhaps you are confused. If your belief system is based in science how could it possibly also be based in fear? That sounds ridiculous! It’s those crazy religious nuts that have all the superstition!
Yes, maybe that is so, but you’re suggesting to me that there’s no purpose to be found here, and there’s little more to do but eat and poop and make money and die all due to some survival-based wiring. Although, you could join us in the search for more wires. Hm…
It’s when your trust in the universe wanes that you check out. When you check out you seek comfort for the sake of comfort, to help you forget all the bad stuff out there. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re actually hungry or cold or in physical need.
On top of that, these physical needs exacerbate themselves when you don’t feel secure. You feel colder and hungrier when you’re distrustful. When you just want to check out of life for whatever reason, food- or maybe drugs or TV- becomes your highest ambition, and that ambition is endlessly unattainable.
I could use a bit of trust in the universe in writing this right now. I’ll tell ya a little story. This morning I was considering writing an article on Biphasic Sleep today. I figured it would be a logical action since this is an interesting topic, and I tried to get myself excited about it. Of course, there’s the problem- I had to force myself into excitement. Sorry kid, but that means you don’t really want it. I got another idea and the same thing happened. Then, finally, the idea for this article arose and I felt it. I thought, Oh. I’m gonna write that one today. This was just before I left for school. After my 11 o’ clock class I walked into my 12 o’ clock class to find that it had been cancelled. This gave me two hours of time between classes rather than the usual one. I was ecstatic that I would get the extra time to write (yes, I realize I could have skipped class, but it is the last week. Ooh spooky!). Mere coincidence, or does someone- or something- out there kinda like me? :)
This little story brings me to the point of incompatibility. As I’ve read more and more about rejecting incompatibilities from your life- particularly people- I’ve nodded my head in logical agreement, but I’ve never really understood on a deep level. I mean, can’t you basically be happy almost anywhere, doing anything with anyone? Surely you can find good points to relate on with almost everyone, and if you both put your shields down and talk about what you really care about, then aren’t you bound to learn from and enjoy each other?
I wouldn’t say I’ve experienced these truths 100%, but I’ve definitely come to understand them more recently. I believe that there are certain things- such as article ideas- I get more excited about than others because these excitement-laden entities (e.g. tasks) will provide me with the most growth, and I will be able to bring my best to them. In this case, that means that writing this article- as opposed to any other- is the best way I can serve human consciousness at present. It is the topic with which my experiences and growth-related needs currently intersect best.
I like to think of this excitement as inspiration endowed to me from the universe. Inspiration is what keeps me on track. Emotions are meant to serve as our compasses, telling us where we ought to go and where we should not. It’s not a perfect system, such as when it gets mired with disempowering habits, but this is how it is meant to work-- and it can be trained to work more accurately.
Without emotional guidance it is very difficult to make decisions. People with damaged right-brain hemispheres (the supposed emotional, creative side of the brain) are extremely slow decision-makers, because they have to logically deliberate over every possible variable. And there are a lot of variables in this world.
Inspiration- which is felt as an emotion- is thus the leader of focus. By heeding this inspiration I can live most optimally, spending most of my time tending to what matters most and what will yield the best results. I don’t even have to be nitpicky about measuring the worth of one option against the other—inspiration does the bulk of that work for me. Ain’t that lovely?
Without this higher guidance my results are bound to be mediocre at best. The timeline of my life might look choppy, rather than logically and beautifully flowing, and much of my action would be taken haphazardly. I might be likely to join the pack and do what everyone else is doing— for instance, get a master’s degree and then go job-hunting. I doubt I’d be writing this right now.
Yeah, I would probably take care of my survival needs that way, but would I do anything truly fantastic? Probably not. I wouldn’t have any sufficient force leading me into it. Developing my consciousness and serving humanity would fall down a few places on the priority-totem pole. The way I see it, when those ends get pushed down on the priority list, and I’m kept from meeting them, my life can only ever be sub-par.
I’m not saying that you have to work yourself up into a frenzy in order to accomplish anything of substance, or even that you have to follow inspiration. This is simply what I have found to work for me.
Logic, Emotion, and Purpose
Inspiration ties in logically to my intentions. When logic and emotion combine synergistically they each become something much more powerful than we normally know them separately. They are no longer just crazed emotion looking for a hit of something, or dry logic that falls dead on our hearts.
Instead, when my desires make sense to me and intersect with what I know I ought to be doing, it’s almost guaranteed that I will take action on them. I’m also more likely to try my best, rather than half-heartedly, and take action consistently. I will stay with the task until it is complete. In addition, I am happy to do so. :)
This synergy of logic and emotion comes not just from one another, but also from a larger context in which they both lie. Without a larger context I’m unlikely to come by goals that are valuable to me or that can provide value to anyone else. Maybe I could grow through my pursuit of them and would enjoy the experience along the way, but I just can’t work as hard as I need to at it consistently. Logic and emotion degrade and separate: in turn, motivation wanes.
Consider what happens when logic and emotion separate. On the one hand, with a purely emotional approach to life, I’m merely trying to attain a certain feeling. Usually this takes little effort, and once I attain this goal I either continue the current task on autopilot (e.g. eating more than needed) or I discontinue it.
This approach is ineffective, unsustainable, and potentially detrimental. This is the approach used by drug addicts: take this to mean that this type of motivation (pure emotion) may not be totally within your control. This depends on how much you’re able to influence your own emotional state and how specific your desire is. Perhaps you can attain a particular emotional state through meditation, but if it's not backed by something you fully believe in and care about then it will crumble before long.
On the other hand, with a purely logical approach, I’m trying to pursue something that sounds sensible but that I don’t really care about.
It appears that on both sides- the logical and emotional- there isn't a whole lot of care for what I'm doing.
For an example, the separation of logic and emotion is the state my competitive running life (ultramarathons aside) has fallen into. On the one hand I’m just trying to attain certain feelings, such as an adrenaline rush. Maybe I’ll run fast for a minute or even a few, but once I get my hit I fall off the boat. I can feel a sort of wall in front of me at all times which I just can’t speed past.
On the other hand it seems logical to me, for instance, that I should aim to run 5K (3.1 miles) in less than 20 minutes, but the goal feels very “meh” to me. I just can’t get enough fuel and excitement behind it. In the last year my best take at it was 21:56.
The default context your goals fall into, if you do not choose your context consciously, must be social conditioning. What else could it be?
I’m in my 18th season of running on a team, and from the very start the basic idea has been that you should overall be trying to run faster as time goes on. No one really tells you why—it’s just an assumed norm. That’s just what you do, and it’s what you’re supposed to want to do. It would follow, then, that my logical goals align with this idea.
Maybe in the past the context of social conditioning was good enough for me. I didn’t call it that; rather, I just took it for granted. Once you hit one time goal you’re just supposed to want to run faster. After I broke 21 minutes in the 5K (my best ever is 20:25) I aimed to break 20 simply because that is what I was taught to do. I’m not sure there was any deeper meaning or reason to it.
I’ve had a hard time figuring it out, but I think the reason I’ve been struggling in fast-running in the last year is that I finally have been consciously developing a context in which I wish to live my life, and speediness does not fall within that context.
To clarify, this larger context for your life is also known as your life purpose. I don’t have a precise life purpose statement at this time, but my context encourages that I grow, provide value to others, and basically enjoy myself along the way.
I talk about this toward the end of The Valid Path; these three (growth, contribution, and enjoyment), like logic and emotion, combine synergistically. This means that the best way I can grow is also the best way I can serve others and enjoy myself. Thus, the best-fueled, most motivating activities incorporate all three of these. Two do me decently. As for activities that only have one, I have to do a lot of convincing myself to stay the course-- and I definitely won’t do my best. And activities that basically have none—forget about it. They are dead to me.
I will note here that taking care of my basic needs enables me to carry out these other three tasks, so I feel motivated to tend to them as well. I’ll write for a long time without eating, but not days upon days. ;P
Even this larger context, of course, must arise from and resonate with your set of beliefs. Otherwise it would make no sense to you, and you wouldn’t be able to act well on it.
Ultimately, then, the best motivation arises logically and naturally based on your beliefs. Particularly, it is your broader beliefs-- what you believe about life, the universe, and the nature of existence.
Belief
It is precisely those broad beliefs that I set out to share with you in this article. With the piece of the puzzle that is belief, everything else makes sense.
You see, the beliefs which provide me with a sense of security are the very same beliefs which provide me with strong, solid motivation. What exactly are these magical ideas? Well, I don’t think they’re too fringe, but I’ll get on with it.
As I said earlier, if you believe your natural life in this physical reality is all you have, then you are bound to live with some degree of fear. A materialist-reductionist viewpoint does not allow for a high level of trust in the universe because it cannot see beyond its immediate surroundings and needs. This is exemplified in the darkworker (a person who is motivated by fear) seeking a relationship partner to avoid being alone or money to avoid being in want. This viewpoint is the root of the belief that humans are inherently greedy and selfish, out only to fulfill their own needs.
I likewise believe that we are best to be selfish, but this is with a big, big twist from the norm. I believe that everything in this universe is an extension of a collective consciousness. You can think of this, more simply, as human consciousness—the thoughtspace that we all share.
I believe that consciousness has separated and taken on physical forms, and in these separate forms consciousness will reintegrate with itself optimally, and eventually become one once again. As extensions of this consciousness, our reason for being here is to elevate this consciousness. It is only by recognizing the truth of our oneness that we can do so.
I see myself as an equal part of consciousness with everyone and everything else. My physical form is but a receptor and broadcaster of this consciousness. In this sense all the information that I receive—that is, everything that arises in my reality- is an extension of myself. “Myself” does not refer to my body, but rather, my consciousness. This includes all my own thoughts, feelings, and actions.
This means that consciousness, rather than matter, is the primary stuff this universe is made of. Rather than me having a consciousness which arises from my physical brain, my physical body arises within consciousness. Consciousness is the framework of reality. I don’t arise in a pre-made reality, but rather things arise in my reality.
Life is by no means random to me—everything arises in my reality for a reason. Everything that arises in my reality is a reflection of my consciousness.
This can be extended to say that there is no world “out there” beyond myself which is not me. For instance, there is no place thousands of miles away called “Africa” in which crises of humanity are happening. In this moment Africa is only an idea in my mind.
How, then, can I go to Africa if it is not presently existent? Reality, which is powered by consciousness, fills in those gaps for me. As I perceive myself to be moving my surroundings change, and in time my external reality becomes the entity known as Africa.
I’m sitting next to a window right now, and even the image I have of what’s outside is merely an image. It’s just a video playing. Because this physical reality is consistent, however, if I walk out the door (or jump out the window) that two-dimensional image will become my three-dimensional immediate surroundings. When something becomes a piece of my surroundings, it becomes a piece of my reality.
It’s like a video game. If you’ve ever played a game like World of Warcraft, the Sims, or Runescape, you know that the whole game world doesn’t exist to you at once. If you move a certain distance you’ll soon run into blackness; then, the game stops for a moment while it renders (loads) what will be your new surroundings. As far as you can tell those surroundings only came into existence once you moved your character there. Maybe you knew the surroundings would appear that way, but that knowing is only a thought in your mind.
You, as the player and the holder of the controller (or tapper of the keys) are the consciousness. You command your character- your avatar- within its game world. You call the shots, and the avatar carries out the shots (well, he shoots the shots, that is).
You know that a video game world isn’t something that exists “out there”: your character can only act if you agree to engage with the game world. If you don’t agree to engage, or you play for a while and then end the agreement, you turn away from the screen and your present reality then becomes your physical surroundings, such as your house. Once your reality is concerned with the stuff of your house, rather than the stuff of the game world, the game character becomes irrelevant for the time being.
We likewise agree to the rules of physical reality: ultimately, you’re the one who made them up. These agreements, of course, are ever-changing. You don’t believe today what you did a year ago. Athletes push the limits of what we think is possible. The findings of research contradict the results of years past (though they’ll just tell you that they’ve refined their methods).
There are some agreements which are tough to break: this is because we cling tightly to them, and foresee doom if they were to break. These include the laws of gravity and the consistency of physical reality. If your reality was a bunch of incoherent flashing images around you, how would you feel? I suppose you could try LSD if you really want to find out.
We have little need to break these agreements, however, because the basic gist of physical reality as we know it is optimal to our growth. Again, it is precisely why we are here.
My understanding of this basic gist allows me to see, then, that everything happens as it needs to for the elevation of consciousness. My belief that consciousness is primary (rather than physical matter) allows for the likelihood that this one physical life is not all I have. When I die I may pass on to a different reality for some time—perhaps one similar to the dream world I experience each night.
Following that, I suspect I would likely return to this physical world, though shortly upon returning I would forget the truth of my existence until the ideas are again exposed to me. I will return to the level of consciousness I died at more quickly than I attained it in my previous lifetime, and I will continue to grow from there. I will likely have a set of experiences different from previous lifetimes: in this way, I can have optimal learning in the current lifetime.
Notice that in our dreams there are a different set of rules than the one we experience during the day. Dreams have less consistency, and the range of possibilities there is broader. Time is pretty irrelevant in dreams: unless you are lucid, it is hard to comprehend anything beyond the present moment.
Lucid dreamers, who are aware they are dreaming and take more control over their dreams, can build their skills to become more conscious (aware and powerful) in their dreams. By this consciousness they can create their dream world as they’d like. As long as they can comprehend it, they might be able to create a dream world made of pure love. Such a world would vibrate at a high calibration, meaning it would epitomize the heights of energy and of consciousness.
Subjective Reality
I have to note that what I say is “my” consciousness is not really mine. I only have access to a certain spectrum of consciousness, which is what arises in my reality. My accessibility is always changing, particularly as I grow. It’s like the electromagnetic spectrum—it contains various wavelengths, such as microwaves and gamma rays, but humans can only see a certain range of wavelengths which we call visible light, or colors. As I learn, grow, and experience, my range of vision on the consciousness spectrum broadens, and I am able to receive and broadcast a larger variety of wavelengths.
The idea that consciousness, rather than matter, is primary is known as subjective reality or virtual reality. I could go on and on about subjective reality and whether it’s important that I experience lower wavelengths, but the real question at hand is this: Where does all this mumbo jumbo fit into trust with the universe?
Well, because consciousness is the primary stuff of this universe, "consciousness” is the same thing as “the universe.” Let’s call this combination of the universe and consciousness the “universal-consciousness system,” because the universe operates in a somewhat-systematic, semi-predictable fashion.
As part of this universal-consciousness system, I can take assurance that the system would like me to succeed at contributing to it. This means that the system will arrange reality in such a way that I can best succeed; however, that will be so only if I believe it will be. In other words, I have to demonstrate trust in the system for it to work favorably.
One way I demonstrate trust is by acting on inspiration. The more I do so successfully, the more inspiration I receive. It’s a positive feedback loop. In addition, my intuition (or snap-decision-making ability, if you prefer) will become more accurate and make use of itself more often.
This doesn’t mean that life becomes a breeze when you trust. I don’t think the universe wants me to just lay around and eat fine cuisine all day. It doesn't necessarily want me to be rich or even physically healthy all the time. What it wants is for me to stay engaged and in the flow. In flow the level of engagement is high, as is the level of activity. This is the sweet spot of challenge, where we grow and enjoy ourselves most—and this is what we’re here for.
When you are in flow, you are strong and time moves fast. You move fast, too, but it’s hardly at all distressing. This is eustress, the healthy stress. Eustress is like climbing a mountain and then running down. It isn’t easy per se, like eating a meal, but it doesn’t feel hard because you have so much fun and are so focused that you become strong. Difficulty level isn’t something defined “out there” anyway; what’s hard is only that which is hard for you.
In a nutshell, the premise of subjective reality means that I am safe here. If my reason for being here is to elevate consciousness- rather than to merely survive- then I need not fret over survival. Yes, I must put effort into surviving, and helping others to better survive certainly serves the universal consciousness system. This would make sense, since the experience of this physical reality is meant to elevate consciousness; thus, lengthening that experience gives us more time to elevate consciousness.
This also means that being selfish can actually be my best way to contribute. I’m being selfish by writing this. My whole website is based on selfishness. You know what it’s also based on? Elevating consciousness and helping others grow. I’m doing what makes me feel best, and in doing so I help others to feel and be their best, too.
My security holds true regardless of whether my consciousness goes on after I die. Obviously I am secure if consciousness continues on as this means that time is ultimately irrelevant, and the task of consciousness-elevation is what matters anyway. It’ll take all the time we need-- even if the task doesn’t occur totally within this particular physical reality.
If my consciousness does not continue beyond this physical reality, I hope I may die knowing that I contributed my best to this consciousness system.
Let me throw in a little warning right here: Do not take the possibility of consciousness continuing on to mean that you can just goof off and waste time in this life because you have forever and a million lifetimes ahead of you. While you can do that, the universe will show little support for you.
It is a privilege and not a right to be here. This physical reality is a beautiful place to play and to express the conscious beings we really are. If you instead see this as a mindless, careless vacation, or if you do the opposite and see this as a place in which you must constantly grind out unforgiving work and live in the fear that your time is limited, you are bound to suffer. You are demonstrating distrust in the universe when you do this, and it will thus be unable to give you support. You may not grow so much, while you’re at it, either.
Rigidity and Openness
You don’t have to religiously lock yourself in to a particular belief system to benefit from it; in fact, if you don’t allow your beliefs to evolve you are likely to stagnate and succumb to fear. All I ask is that you be open to possibilities beyond your current viewpoint. Realness asks for openness, which is the opposite of rigidity. Rigidity degrades us. It causes us suffering.
Openness, on the other hand, is our light for the way. Openness is what allows us to go on great adventures, to live with total honesty, to foresee accurately, and to love unabashedly. It gives this life the mystery and awe that makes life beautiful. With openness anything is possible, and that is a wonderful thing. Even if certain possibilities scare us or we cannot fully comprehend them, don’t they add to the beauty and mystery of life, too?
Openness is characteristic of trust in the universe. Openness is a prerequisite to all trust. Because everything is an extension of the universe it is only the universe you can trust or distrust anyway. It is only by openness that we can accept the possibility that the universe loves us and wants to help us.
Remember that openness, in addition to the other realness principles (honesty, foresight, adventure, and love), is not something to be crossed off on a list. It is something which we all have to some degree, and which can be developed over time.
Shifts in mindset are key to building trust, but note the word building—this means that you must take consistent action over time to demonstrate trust, as I discussed earlier.
For myself writing this article has been a form of building trust. Right now it is December 11th: I started this on December 8th. Normally I might have dropped an article after 2 days and moved on to another idea, but I knew this needed to be written. To stay with this idea until completion is a solid demonstration of trusting the universe. I was inspired to write this article, and I must write it ‘til its end.
Though I prefer to finish an article in one sitting I am glad that this one has taken a few days. In this time I’ve experienced a small-scale shift in my thinking. I’ve had a significant drop in fear and distrust.
Somehow I don’t feel like I need to be afraid of all the scariness “out there” like cold and hunger and being late and scrambling for money. Steadily I am more able to let go of my need to be dishonest, dancing around what I really want to say with indirect passive-aggressiveness. Less and less I need to pre-plan what I am going to say and do, as I discussed in The Pettiness of Planning.
Such behavior is a breach of trust, and I’m better able to see that it is unnecessary. Logically I’ve known this for a while, but now I’m coming into true, complete learning—understanding at a deep level. This means that my feelings, automatic behaviors, and beliefs are starting to change along with my conscious intentions. More and more I am seeing through the silliness of the rules I have agreed to, whatever their source. Ultimately, I created the rules anyway.
The need to control and know what is going to happen can be called a dominance mindset. You must dominate the objective world “out there” for the sake of your own shaky security.
As I open myself to other ways of approaching life I see that I can just take each moment as it comes, as the universe assures me that it will play out as it needs to. This is not a turn of the tables, in which the outer reality dominates me. Rather, we create the moment together. When I stay present I am better able to meet the needs of this present and also enjoy myself. I can have experiences I would have overlooked with the planning mindset. I can trust the universe and co-create with it.
Since planning from the past cannot as accurately meet the present as actually attending to the present, I am in fact more lost when I rely heavily on planning. Planning exemplifies rigidity, and rigidity just plain ain’t fun.
Yes, some reliance on planning can be wonderful, and I do embrace a healthy dose of planning. Too much planning, however, and your reality will become pretty robotic. Since we aren’t robots this means that you won’t quite be living to the best of your abilities.
Our physical bodies have some programming, but that is not all we are. Likewise, we can do with some planning, but that is not our only tool.
Ending: Trust is the Way
Even though everything is an extension of yourself, what you generally call “you” (i.e. your individual, physical self) is still the best receptor you have of the universe. Remember that you cannot know what other people think—you only have access to what you think they think.
When others put you down the universe doesn’t necessarily want you to agree. You are, in fact, putting yourself down with your beliefs. What other people say only has the meaning that you give to it. You must maintain integrity and use foresight to decide what is right and best for you. If you really trust in yourself you will not be derailed by the words of others.
I’m wondering if the universe doesn’t tell us to stop doing things; rather, it only nudges us in the direction of what to do. Instead of telling you to stop your crayon-making business it will keep giving you the idea to start a personal coaching business. Powerful, persistent ideas such as these are often the products of inspiration. If they cause you more anxiety than they uplift you, however, you may simply be deluded. Accurate ideas about yourself and about life are key to receiving inspiration properly.
Remember that support is the universe’s extension of its trust in you. It is by trusting yourself and by trusting the universe that you gain this trust. Remember-- you must be the one who takes the first step of trust. The universe’s trust is already here, and it is up to you to uncover it.
I think the universe sent these ideas my way at this time partially in regards to my website. It wants to help me uncover all the blocks to trust I have. It is reminding me that I don’t have to fear or try to manipulate my audience, and they don’t have to distrust me, either. Sure, some people who come upon this website won’t want much to do with me, but as long as I maintain trust in life I am apt to find that life trusts me, too.
I must keep my intentions clear. This isn’t solely about building traffic and making money, and it doesn’t have to be anyway. Those are merely means to the end of elevating consciousness. Thus, my focus should first be on that end. This means creating highly valuable content. If I can keep my eyes on that, then the means- with a little extra work on my end- will show up.
It is the same with your life. You don’t have to hold on to your fear-based thinking. Remember that most of the time, fear is indicative of a lie. Do not believe what fear tells you.
You might think that if you let go of fear and greed you will be making yourself vulnerable. Please know that once you remove hidden motives and step into trust you are trusted in turn. In time joy and abundance will flow into your life, and this could be in any form. The internal joy and security you can experience in trust is far greater than any object- and selfishness-based striving you could do. The form does not matter as much as the feeling. The pleasure of physicality pales in comparison to the joy of consciousness.
By making yourself vulnerable you set yourself free. Open yourself to love, and you shall receive it.
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