clarityandcalm.com The World of Deeper Feelings
Why do deeper feelings matter? They’re the greatest remedy to stress, for one thing. Stress takes a great toll on peoples’ mental and physical health. When we tap into the world of deeper feelings, the mind re-sets itself. There’s a rhythm to everything in the universe – everything moves in a wave-like pattern. When those waves are stalled in the body by too much sitting, too little movement, we get disease. When they’re stalled in the mind, we get stress, and over time stress can turn into insecurity, anxiety and worse.
Your mind is always functioning in one of two ways – its actively going after thought, moving around your personal world of data, analysis, past and future, or its receptively settling into the here and now. You’ll know how your mind is functioning by how you feel. When you settle into the present, even for a moment, you get touched by the world of deeper feelings. You relax, sigh, perhaps notice that the sun is coming out, there’s a beautiful scent of fir trees in the air, or that the silence of that moment holds you close. When your mind moves back into its more effortful function, that awareness disappears, and your feeling state will be neutral. If you stay in your perosnal world of thought for too long, you will begin to expereince stress, and eventually various forms of distress.
We Are Always Getting Prompts: Everyone has a core of innate health and wisdom, that sends out quiet thoughts to help keep you on track. Its that same voice, or thought, that appears quietly in your mind when you’re leaving the house and “umbrella” passes through your mind. You think, no, its sunny out, and leave without it, only to be drenched in a downpour later in the day.
That same quiet wisdom is giving you prompts all the time about how to keep your mind in its natural rhythm of moving in and out of the present. When you’ve been hard at work, using your personal world of thought , you’ll have the thought, ‘take a break.’ It’s up to you whether you respect or ignore that thought. If you listen to it, you might take a short walk, or close your eyes at your desk for a few minutes, or do whatever else occurs to you in the moment to take your mind out of current function and let its return to its natural rhythm of rest and be receptive, then retrieve or analzye data. Again, if you ignore it, you’ll know it by the way you feel – you will begin to feel stressed and tired, or notice that you’re having arguments with people, or making a lot of mistakes at work, or being inefficient at your tasks at home.
Deeper Feelings Help People Function at their Best:
Deeper feelings fill you with joy and well-being. People’s minds naturally become more inspired and creative. You become more productive and successful. And because your own feeling reservoir is full, you have more to give to others. You’ll be kinder to your children, and get along better with your spouse. You’re more likely to have the time and energy to check in on a sick neighbor, or volunteer at a food bank. You become more interested in making our world a better place.
WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH OF THE TIME YOU LIVE IN THE WORLD OF DEEPER FEELINGS? TAKE THE DEEPER FEELINGS QUIZ:
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest, please rate your self in response to the following questions:
1) How much of the time do you live in the world of deeper feelings?
(10, all or most of the time; 1, almost never)
2) How would you rate your average mental clarity on a given day? (10, crystal clear and inspired, to 1, mentally muddled most of the time.)
3) How would you rate your average mental calm? (10, thoughts that flow with ease and grace, to 1 a mind that races most of the time.)
4) How responsive are you on a give day? (10, you take the time to let thoughts settle before you respond or act; 1 you are often reactive (angry, impatient, impulsive, frightened or insecure).
5) What is the overall quality of your relationships? (10, excellent; 1 have few and/or many challenging relationships)
6) How is your communication with others? (10, excellent, 1, poor)
7) How often do you have spontaneous feelings of gratitude, love or well-being? (10, all the time, 1 almost never)
How often do you feel creative and inspired? (10, all the time, 1 almost never)
9) How often do you engage in acts of altruism – help other people, animals and/or our world? (10, all the time, 1, never).
10) How would you rate the overall quality of your life?
When you have finished the quiz, add up your score. If you rate:
75-100 – You have a natural gift for tapping into the world of deeper feelings, and have a high quality of life.
50-74 - You have a good quality of life. Accessing deeper feelings more of the time could bring you more joy, creativity, and/or improve the quality of your relationships.
25-49 – Your mind is stressed a good deal of the time. Learning to let your mind rest more naturally throughout the day, without techniques or exericses, would give you a greater quality of life; more calm and well-being, more mental clarity, and better ideas for your work and your relationships.
1-24 – You are suffering from the habits your mind has developed, and they are creating significant stress, making it difficult to enjoy life, be productive, to get satisfaction from your work or have good relationships.
WHAT’S YOUR SCORE?_______________
If you rated high, congratulations – you are enjoying a beautiful life, have mental clarity, good relationships, and can help make our world a better place. If you rated low on the scale, don’t worry! Many people who were struggling much if not most of the time are leading happy, high functioning lives once they learned the 3 principles approach for optimal living.
