To Succeed... Just Let Go

Actually, the title of this episode could be shortened... how to live your life. Because, if you're not in flow, if you're not present, you're absent - absent from your own life. And the really horrible thing is that being absent is normal!

To be abnormal you have to refurbish your brain!! In fact, it's a little more fundamental than that and a lot easier than you might think. You need to fundamentally alter the fabric of your brain through changing how you use it.

We know that the brain constructs and reconstructs itself according to how the user uses it. Truth be told, if you're using your mind normally, the user is marked absent.

One small change to how you use the piece of equipment between your ears changes everything - even the very structure of your brain.

It changes your life and you end up experiencing flow most of the time every day. Your transform your ordinary everyday life into something extraordinary.

Psychology often wraps facts up in unnecessarily complicated language so let me say this really simply:

You can achieve anything that you know you can achieve.

It is that simple - nothing needs to be added. And yet...

The normal mind doesn't know - it thinks it knows! The normal mind thinks that you're inadequate (we all have our perceived inadequacies); it thinks that you're undeserving and, in constantly getting in your way, the normal mind constantly proves to you that you can't achieve the goals that you'd love to achieve.

In this episode, I don't just start simple, I keep it simple. I provide you with a really easy starting point from which you will take the journey to the life you'd love to live.

I mean it - the difference between war and peace all boils down to the baggage that we carry around with us - the baggage that blinds us, that gets in our own way.

Are we talking about big wars, like the war in Ukraine? Well, as you'll discover, we could be. But, whilst today's episode is not going to change the world overnight, what we're exploring has the proven power to change your world... overnight.

Using the training that we talk about in this episode, you will go from being muddle-minded, addled and ill-at-ease to being focused, present, at peace with who you really are.

And, on top of all that, you'll be fully geared up to create the life you want, peace of mind and all.

So listen in. Or do more than that. Click the links to the current free video sessions that I have online that are no more than a warm-up for the free Zooms that I'm hosting over the coming days where you, anyone or everyone, can "Ask Me Anything" about changing your life, putting your baggage down and living the life that you'd love to live.

It's up to you.

Yes, ordinary everyday life is full of ups and downs, hurdles and challenges or, not to put too fine a tooth in it... crap.

And that crap is real. But which is easier? Rise to the occasion and deal with the crap or think about how crap it is and layer crap upon crap to the point that you (believe that you) cannot cope?

The answer's obvious. But that doesn't mean that's what you're going to do because that is not how the ordinary mind sees things. And, most importantly, it's certainly not how your ordinary mind sees you and your capabilities.

That's why this episode explains - in basic fundamentals - how to get out of your own way; how to start rising to living your ordinary life in, yes you'd better believe it, an extraordinary way. We're talking about the keys to living the kind of life you'd love to live.

And, as you'll discover, it all boils down to one awfully fundamental choice...

It will probably come as a surprise to you but, in our everyday lives, there is simply no such thing as fear.

Yes, we're often "afraid" of doing or saying what we deep down know that we need to do or say - or we're often simply afraid of making a fool of ourselves.

But none of that is real fear. You're simply experiencing a reaction to what I describe, in this episode, as "the ghost in the machine".

Or, to put it another way, in purely practical psychological terms, what you think of as fear (and, by the way, thinking makes it feel awfully real) is just a product or construct of... your own thought. In allowing your mind think that way, you're feeding the ghost in the machine.

Many people will say to me that their perceived fears come from their upbringing or childhood and, as long as they continue to allow their minds run in an automated normal way, they will be right. But... their not children any more!

You are an adult. It's time to man up - or woman up - and take responsibility for your own state of mind. When you do that, you'll realise something that will completely liberate you from your own thoughts... there is no fear.

Even if you’re a world-class meditator (not sure what that is, actually!), there will be days when you’re a bit “flat”, a tad “out of sorts” or even mildly anxious, often without being able to pinpoint as to why that might be.

So what!  At least you’re aware of your state of mind - most “normally-minded” people are blissfully (clearly not the right word!) unaware.  And, being aware, there’s something you can do about it - simply a question of making the right choice.

But what if you’re not that world-class meditator?  What if you’ve never meditated at all?  (Don’t worry, we’ll deal with that!!)  What if you’re anxious, stressed, distracted, uneasy, annoyed?

Well, it is what it is and it’s only natural.  You’re using you brain the way nature intended, the way it evolved.

But, today, you’re taking charge of your own personal evolution.  Seriously.  Not a slogan, not a feel-good affirmation, simply a statement of scientific fact.

Today, you’re going to, as I way in this episode, discover that, when you open the door to your own mind, there’s a whole new life waiting for you.

Yes, you read the title of this episode correctly. Most people think that they know what they want. But it is that very thinking that gets in the way of us knowing.

The fact is, of course, at an instinctive level, we do know. We know exactly what is best for us. More than that, we know exactly how to get it. Again, it's only our thinking mind that thinks it knows best.

That's why you need to get out of your own way. As a client told me "When you get out of your own way everything becomes so much easier". Easier to the point of effortless. Effortless, a word I love and a state of mind that is confirmed as scientific fact again and again.

When you get out of your own way, when you stop giving your attention to the same repetitive preprogrammed thoughts that are rattling around in your own head, when you begin to see the present moment clearly for what it is... everything becomes clear. The struggle and stress is over. The life you really want begins.

Time to allow yourself see the wood for the trees.

A couple of weeks ago I celebrated my 26th anniversary of working for myself - doing what I do with my clients, what I explain in this podcast. As I reflected on the past 26 years it occurred to me that there is a common thread running through the conversations that I've had with oh so many people over that time.

That common thread? Above all else (because if you get this right it deals with all else!) people seek peace of mind.

In a world of ups and downs, highs and lows, everyday challenges, cares and worries, peace of mind is, on the one hand, elusive. On the other, as a statement of psychological fact, it is beyond the reach of the human mind when used normally.

The normal mind is noisy. It does not do peace of mind. You need to use your mind a different way. You need to find the innate presence of mind that doesn't just dwell in all of us, it is, as we discuss in this episode, our natural way of being. We simply have to rediscover it.

That is what this episode is all about... how to do the one thing that only you can do that, when you do it, everything else falls effortlessly into place.

We know about healthy mind, healthy body - we discussed that topic in considerable detail in last week's episode. This week we explore what managing your state of mind does to your physical brain and your functioning mind, bearing in mind (if you pardon the pun!) that, as defined by psychology, "mind is what the brain does".

In this episode we explore how to manage your state of mind (you're the only one who can!). We discuss the "right state of mind" (there's only one) and how best to get into that state of mind... how to stay there is something we'll explore in further detail again.

I then go on to explain some of the wondrous discoveries of modern neuroscience - from how regular meditation restructures the brain's key subcortical components, to how we can literally reboot the ageing brain.

What does all this mean in practical terms... well, we get into that in detail too - and it provides you with what we might call a modern evolutionary advantage.

You've heard the expression, you are what you eat. Well, you are what you think or, more correctly, you are how you think.

If your mind is ill-at-ease, your body will suffer dis-ease. There are direct causal links between what we're thinking and our physical wellbeing.

Over many years at this stage, research has established links between stress and heart disease and cancer. The links between stress and digestive disorders has been know for a very long time indeed.

Your weight and how you manage it - or not! - is directly related to how you think - all the diets in the world won't work if you're not in the right frame of mind.

In this episode, we explore what this means in terms of your practical everyday life right now - and off into the future.

More importantly, we explain how to change how you think.