Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Functionally Dysfunctional Boxes

In my last blog post called "The Aquarium Shark" I spoke of how our comfort zone is our box within which we view the world and live. I want to expand upon this theme.

I have heard many people tell me that if the life they are living is supposed to be their “Comfort Zone” there is nothing comfortable about it.

Life can be quite uncomfortable and miserable within our boxes. As uncomfortable as life may be, it must be understood that we are playing the game of life following the rules we agreed to use. Rules to the game of life seem to line the inside boundaries of each of our boxes.

Once we understand how we keep getting what it is that we are getting, either comfortable or uncomfortable we can begin to take more control by opening up to redefining our rules.

For instance, a rule I have heard many people say that the word “Grace” from the Bible is defined as “Undeserved favor from God.” Remember that our rules define the boundaries of our box. So from this definition of grace we see the viewpoint that grace is a PASSIVE event like God “throwing us a bone every now and then.”

I was shocked the first time I realized that all of the reference books say that the true definition of the word “Grace” is that it is a ACTIVE utilization of Divine light and love!

The true definition of grace is, “The purposeful allowing and influence of Divine light and love working in and through your heart and its reflection in the world around you.”

Can you see how empowering this true definition can be in your expansion of your box?
Can you see also how limiting it can be if you have been living within your box thinking that grace is a passive thing?

I like to ask people who believe its passive “Does it kind of feel like God is stingy with his bones?”

Armed with the accurate definition of grace we can improve what it is that we are getting. As we ACTIVELY and PURPOSEFULLY send out Divine Light and Love from our hearts into the workplace, people, and events of our lives those rays of light and love bounce (reflection) off everyone and everything in our world and come back at us as what we would identify as FAVOR! Contrast this with praying earnestly for help and then wondering why help often doesn’t come, why you don’t get your bone.

We all must understand how we keep getting what we are getting in our Comfort Zone. Our boundaries of our boxes will not shift one inch until we really look at the rules we brought into it, consciously or subconsciously.

This is the value of going outside of your comfort zone. If we continue to seek answers from sources that also bought into the same rules, we will beat at the walls of our box to no avail. Sincerity is no guarantee of truth.

Question everything you think you know, especially those rules you feel you “definitely know!”

The strongest rules are often the most limiting. Share

Saturday, January 24, 2009

The Aquarium Shark

Did you know that one of the most valued and sought after saltwater aquarium fish were baby sharks? This is because if you place a baby shark in a small (100 gallon) aquarium it will stay small, usually less than a foot long. The same shark in the ocean may be 12 feet long!

I love this fact because in life we have all created our own aquarium, most call it our box. Our box is also our Comfort Zone with which we view the world. Everything outside of our box is the things that we fear and avoid. If everything inside our box is our comfort zone, then everything outside of the box of our world would be our Uncomfortable Zone.

When I trained in Anthroposophical Medicine in Germany, they taught that if everything you have done has created this reality of illness/life-dysfunction, then if you want a new and better reality of health/functional-life, then you must change everything you are doing. These medical doctors in German would, as part of their treatment of a cancer patient, tell the patient, “If you normally answer the phone with your right hand, then answering it with your left changes you.” “If you are dominantly a thinker, and get very little exercise, then exercising will help restore balance and health.” “If you are an athletic person and do nothing creatively, then increasing your creativity through art and clay-modeling can change your health.”

As one of my teachers, T. Harv Eker says, “Often people wait for the feeling of fear to pass before they will do anything…therefore most people never do anything!” If we are going to get out of our Comfort Zone we must realize that once we are outside of it that it will feel Uncomfortable at first! The uncomfortable-ness of change/growth is not an indication to stop growing.

While not suitable for all audiences, the new movie “Yes Man” with Jim Carey is a great example of opening up your aquarium/box and letting your life be filled with all the potential for growth that the ocean of life has to offer.

I encourage you to push, tear, claw, and rip your box to shreds at every opportunity and don’t be surprised, those of you who think that you’ve discarded your aquarium, to find that you have often just expanded your box but not gotten rid of it. PUSH, PUSH, PUSH! Share