Keeping yourself going, before seeing results
Ok I have a question:
How do you guys keep yourselves going before you're seeing real results with what you're doing?
Generally this isn't much a problem for me because I usually enjoy making progress in whatever I'm working towards. Sometimes, however, I'll have a pain body attack and get into a really kind of down, sometimes depressed, mood where I'm really comparing myself to others, even in unfair ways, have tons of negativity going on, etc....
Again this isn't so bad now adays cause I've spent tons of time listening to Tolle and meditating, so it doesn't happen very often, but when it does it's extremely unpleasant to say the least.
Putting that aside, I was talking to Manwhore about it and I think I need a hobby or something. Something that I can do that isn't work and I can do purely for fun when I'm not working. Cause right now my life mostly revolves around some really long term goals and I'm not seeing too much results from any of them at the moment. I'm making progress and all, it's just really slow.
Thoughts?
You can and should experience the results in your mind before seeing them in reality. Experience them Until you are in the mindset of Knowing, total certainty. "Of course I can do this."
Any doubts, negativity or pain that comes up - just go into observing mode. As none of that shit helps you, point it out and speak to your ego. Keep looking for the benefit ask, "how is this helping me?" You're not looking to judge your ego when it comes into attack, just look. In your observation and awareness is where it loses its power, though it may not seem like it when you're having a pain body attack.
MW is right about a hobby or something - whatever you're doing in your life should be seen as a hobby and fun (work should be fun), something you're doing for you, and that you can enjoy along the journey. Otherwise there's really no point and you should reflect if you really wanted what you're going after. Weigh the benefits, pros and cons. If it is something you really desire, then keep experiencing it in your mind before seeing it in your reality (have it before you have it). If you do this, you develop pure inspiration and nothing holds you back, nothing gets in your way.
The pain body attacks, they're lessons that you've got to figure out yourself. When they occur, be present, settle yourself and ask, "what is it I must learn about this so I don't keep experiencing it again and again?" It might be an imbalance in your life somewhere causing you to crash, or you might simply have more practice to do in gaining control over your mind.
When it does attack, remind yourself that you're out of alignment with what you desire, you're heading away from your goals. Flip to feeling good immediately. "I Choose to feel good now" "I Choose to be happy now". You can do this if you know you can. Everything in life is a choice - you may have unconsciously chosen to feel bad, but you still chose it - and if you can choose to feel bad, then you can choose to stop feeling bad. Always reach for the thought that feels best in any moment... just be present and appreciate where you are.
There's no point in feeling bad ever. Use negativity as a signal to flip to feeling good in an instant.
Don't ever force your emotions either, if you're feeling good, then just allow and enjoy. And if you're feeling bad, then just observe and look. You'll find balance and harmony if you stay disidentified with your thoughts and emotions - you won't create anymore crashes resulting from highs and lows.
Yes, it's understanding that SOMETHING is out of alignment and requires action. They're not just passing clouds of pollution that come from nowhere, they're self-generating, and they require you to trace them to their route and take action on them. That's why I'm having you take on these activities, that's the source of the negative momentum/emotions.
jabronavich coming up real clutch with that post right there. Very well put
How do you know you're dettached from your emotions instead of supressing them? Started trying to force myself into being present when negative thoughts/emotions come but im not entirely sure whether i am dissolving them or just pushing them to a place where they still exist but cannot be felt.
If they're going away instead of dissolving, you need to use less effort. I wouldn't force anything ever. You really don't have to force presence, you just kind of be present. Ask, "am I present now?"
Dissolving negative thoughts or emotions - don't force them away. All you do is look at them. "Okay, there's the negative thought. That's fine, that's what is." Just observe and look without judgement. Accept that it's there and just be with it.
It can take awhile to get rid of them - if they 'go away' instead of dissolve, they'll keep coming back, whereas if you feel them dissolve they won't come back. Doesn't matter how long it takes, just keep looking and observing when it comes up without using any effort... one day you'll just notice that it's gone.
I can go into a whole bunch of reasons why you don't need negative thinking or emotions, but it comes down to: "how is this helping me?" If you keep pointing out logic to your ego, it will start to work with you instead of against you. "If it's not helping me, it must be hurting me. And if it's hurting me, then why keep it?" Keep pointing out logically to your ego and it will change. The act of looking and observing like this drains the ego of its power, it will have to find another way to trick you into identifying with your thoughts.. until it just runs out of tricks.
I'd say practice when it's easy. Practice being present and accepting what is when everything is normal is the best time. Throughout the day just ask, "I wonder what my next thought is going to be?" And then just wait and see for a minute, or keep it going for as long as you can. If a thought comes up, just notice it and then stop. This is dissolving your thoughts. Practicing when it's easy, when the big stuff comes up like a bunch of pain and negativity, they become easy to dissolve. Or when you're actually having negative thoughts and emotions, listen to Eckhart Tolle speak about dissolving the pain body - even though your ego won't want to, just do it anyway.
As you can see this stuff is really easy. It just takes Dedication and Persistence on your part.
It's been a long time since I first learned this, but you'll get to a point quickly (depending on how dedicated you are) where it will be easy to look at what you're thinking and not identify with it. And after that you just won't have negative thoughts or emotions anymore - your ego finds an identity in the present moment just chillin out, instead of wrapped up in thought creating mental movies, commentary, judgements, etc.
Doing this stuff becomes automatic. If something comes up in your reality that you don't like, you'll just blaze right through it like nothing's there - and find yourself in a desirable outcome/situation almost immediately. But you have to clear the shit out of your own mind first.
So take a minute or so: "I wonder what my next thought is going to be?"
Thanks a lot for such a thorough answer
Rezznt have you seen Shikorah's signature pic? That's the whole thing. You can't "wait to feel good" before doing something. You simply have to execute. That's why we're telling you to pick up hobbies.. boxing having a couple other facets to it as well. But it's the lack of action that's lead to the stagnation and therefore the negative momentum/emotions
Yes, it's understanding that SOMETHING is out of alignment and requires action. They're not just passing clouds of pollution that come from nowhere, they're self-generating, and they require you to trace them to their route and take action on them. That's why I'm having you take on these activities, that's the source of the negative momentum/emotions.
Can you clarify this a little; taking action on smaller 'hobbies' will help find uncover the root of this? Or the lack of these hobbies are the source.
It's been a while since I've had strong periods of unconciousness/pain body attacks but I'm definitely acquainted with the feeling. Couple months ago I picked up an old hobby, tbh im not nearly interested or obsessive as I used to be but it is nice to have something to pour myself into with no end goal in mind. Spring is around the corner and I'm definitely planning some day hikes and a couple camping trips.
Meanwhile - and this has been huge - I've started running. Im in the gym lifting 3-4 days a week and fart around with bodyweight stuff in between but thats not enough for me. About once a week I'll go for a nice long run. Nothing crazy, I take my time and walk if I feel like it. I'll choose a new route or odd time of the day and just go exploring.
I'll notice sometimes a low level aniexty creeping in. Im taking action on my goals but the unease appears in my stomach seemingly out of nowhere. I'll take a few minutes and listen to tolle while stretching/doing some corrective exercises then complete a little circuit around my house. Its a hilly route but only takes 10-12 minutes. I'll try to choose a pace just faster than I should, definitely unsustainable for anything longer, and it'll flush out whatever bullshit is going on.
If im particularily aware I'll notice the point, a few minutes in, where I'll either have to slow down/stop if my thoughts want to keep looping. I punch through that point and instantly be revitalized till the end of the run. Come back inside, have a glass of water, take a break.. Repeat 1-3 times as necessary. Bonus points for tolle in the ears
Ice that's exactly what I've been saying this whole time. Excellent
You can supplement with the two towel ab workout I had in another thread. And we're also doing the 100 pushup challenge down here in Colombia.
Yeah Ice's explanation makes more sense. I get what you're saying now. I've experienced that as well.
MW, I thought you were saying that you could push through any emotion and I know at least for myself that's definitely not been the case. There are emotions I've felt at times that were so strong, that I tried to push through as hard as I could, and there was just no way I could do it. Pushing through them would have been like trying to add another 100 pounds to what you currently bench, without working up to it. You just can't do that, no matter how hard you try, it's not gonna happen.
What Ice is describing isn't one of those cases though.
Well the deeper, stronger pain body attacks are usually a result of me putting something off or avoiding something for a bit and that low level anxiety accumulates into a shit storm. Going for a 10 minute sprint in that state probably is next to impossible but over the course of a couple days you can dissolve it through with what j-bro wrote about. Don't let that limit you but if it's been accumulating for a while it'll likely take a bit of work and a lot of tolle to get rid of it
Rezznt why would you just ignore what Jabronavich has been saying in this thread.
Regardless.. you train/take action through the emotions. Just because you feel like a pussy doesn't mean you have to act like one.
Was there a time when you had to get rid of a strong pain body yourself?
Fuck yeah, lol.
I've gone through the process dozens and dozens of times, worked through abuse, trauma, injuries..
That's why when I hear about little boy blue hurting over only having lived a life of video games and not being able to get himself to take action, I think "Waaaaaauah!"
You can do it, we all have to at multiple points in our lives.
Rezznt why would you just ignore what Jabronavich has been saying in this thread.Regardless.. you train/take action through the emotions. Just because you feel like a pussy doesn't mean you have to act like one.
I've been doing what he's been saying for years now. It's how I made so much progress in dissolving my pain body. I didn't address him because he didn't tell me anything I don't already know, except for the thing about choosing to be happy stuff, which is easy to say, much less easy to feel in the middle of an intense pain body attack.
It's not bad advice obviously, but it's not anything I haven't heard Tolle say a billion times at this point.
Sure I would agree with you to a certain point, hopefully he's got some more points to make there. But the main point is that the way through that shit is action. Like.. literally action in its simplest sense. Running around the block, lifting some weights, going up to a woman with the thought in mind "I'm going to talk to this woman." and doing it. These are all the masculine energy in action, and it acts to dissolve mental stagnation and bring out the best in you.
Yeah that makes sense.
I think it's also the fact that I got too focused on the wrong thing. I got tunnel vision about my results with chicks and thought that the only way I could dissolve that negativity was by fixing that issue, which I can't directly control, so I went down into a really negative spiral. I didn't realize that I could shift my focus to something else, take action on that and simply dissolve the negativity that way.
Was there a time when you had to get rid of a strong pain body yourself?
LOL. I've known Jonathan since we were kids, so I had a good laugh at this one haha.
It's cool though - to see you guys thinking this is some super human feat. It isn't. You can do it too. You can live your life in total peace - calm, cool, collected - no matter what's happening around you.
All this talk about painbody attacks.
I'm just gonna put this out there because you guys need to hear it.
The reason you guys have been listening to Eckhart and hearing all these Proven successful thought structures, but not seeing the results you should be getting is because:
Knowledge is not power. Applied Knowledge is Power.
You don't Know a fucking thing, until you are actually applying it in your life.
This is a classic case of where knowledge without application becomes destructive to your life.
You think you 'know' something, so you go on intellectually knowing it, without applying it. But you think you 'know' it, and you think you 'apply', but you don't. So then you don't actually KNOW it, you merely understand it.
"I understand this, am I applying it in my life?" "Could I be applying this in more areas of my life?"
You may be doing like a half-assed job at it, then your ego takes over and fools you with an illusion "I know this already, see I did it, there I'm good now. Now go watch some television, go eat that cake, go click on that link, then that link, then respond to that text, now this, now that."
I'm saying this because of this fact:
-It is impossible to be unhappy when you are living in the Present Moment.
The only time negativity can exist in your reality, is when you are unconscious. If you are not happy, it's becuase you are not present.
When you are present, the only things you feel are peace, joy, happiness, love, gratitude, serenity, harmony, etc.
You start to understand that ALL NEGATIVITY is simply an illusion, created by the limited mind to protect and defend itself (the ego). Fear, worry, anxiety, hate, lack, resentment, etc.
If you want to ever stop feeling bad, falling for the illusions, pain body attacks - you need to stop fucking around and make the DECISION to go through with this.
Go through with what? GET CONTROL OF YOUR MIND.
Stop learning, start applying.
I've explained this a lot of times on this forum, but I'll do it again here, because I can see a lot of you guys are at very important turning point in your life. Continue chasing the illusion -OR- start following the secret to success. And I'm not sure you'll ever figure it out unless you make the Right Choice Now.
-
Bring in No Mind as often as possible 20x-50x times per day. Just be still: No Thought, but completely aware of everything around you. Just look & just listen.
Can't do that without your ego getting in the way? Bring in 15 seconds of positive thought: bring up a good memory, a good laugh you had with a friend. Be there and experience it again, allow yourself to feel good. Keep doing it UNTIL. Then when you can hold your own positive thought for 15 seconds without your ego interrupting you, then you can hold No Mind for 15 seconds easy.
Here are some cheat questions: "Am I present now?" Keep asking yourself CONSTANTLY OVER AND OVER THROUGHOUT THE DAY. "Am I present now?" Walk into the other room, am I present now? Start working on a task, am I present now? Think about something else, am I present now? The phone rings, am I present now? But what about the other thing, am I present now?
Am I present now?
What about now, am I present now?
"I wonder what my next thought is going to be?" Then just wait and see.
"What is this moment lacking?" Then just look and see.
"What's going on inside me right now?" "How do I feel?" Then just look and feel.
"Am I present in this activity?" "Am I present with what I'm doing?"
Make the DECISION to go through with this UNTIL you get control of your mind, and you are living PREDOMINANTLY PRESENT throughout your day.
You can do this, it's very easy. You've just got to give the DEDICATION AND PERSISTENCE to going through with it UNTIL.
-
All these painbody attacks, negativity, uncertainty, depression with your life - all this shit will disappear.
Anytime you find yourself saying you 'know' something, "I understand this, am I applying it in my life?" Knowledge without application is destructive to you.
You need to forget about everything else, and focus on just this. This should be your PRIMARY PURPOSE in life. So become friends with the Present Moment. ***STOP*** "Am I applying this in my life?" "What is my relationship with the Present Moment?" Be friendly with the present moment, make it your very best friend.
Your ego is going to think, "but then I'll be bored" or some bullshit. Not true. You're going to love listening to the Silence all the time. While everybody else is running around stuck in thought, chasing this then that, one damn thing after another - you'll be chilled out, Loving Life. Clear, Content, Confident, On Top Of Your Fucking Game. Feeling good and taking it ~easy~
Listening to the Silence, the Stillness. It doesn't matter how loud things get... you'll hear the Silence is louder. It pervades everything. Without it, nothing would exist. The Now itself.
Anyway, if this doesn't wake you up, I'm not sure anything will. You'll just keep chasing one thing after the other, thinking salvation is right around the corner. It isn't.
I've studied massively successful people, and I've been blessed to be personally mentored by some. There is no other way. Nothing will ever be more important than you regaining or gaining for the very first time, Control Over Your Mind. This is the baseline for all success in life. Stop listening to your thoughts (your ego), start listening to the Silence, it's the only place you'll find true wisdom and the answers you're looking for. Good luck.
p.s. - being present does not mean inaction and being still. It means you are detached from the illusions, you're guided by the wisdom of the Silence - your subconscious, which always knows the perfect thing to say and do to bring about a desirable outcome. All you've got to do is Trust and Let Go. Get your mind out of the way and let your subconscious guide you, it does all the hard work for you.
Yeah I used to get pain body attacks a lot too... not any more. Just go into a dark room, close your eyes and put your headphones on and listen to Tolle for an hour straight without any interruptions. Nuke that fucker on the head. If it sounds like a horrible prospect then it means it's what you need and it'll help enormously. It's much easier to be massively Present and then fend off bullshit negative thoughts one at a time, then to try to claw your way there through little sessions dotted around here and there. In fact I'm going to start doing this weekly.
In the thick of things I would get horribly frustrated trying to lay down and do nothing but listen to tolle. you think how would that help but thinking is the fucking problem. you can't think your way out. listening to tolle is great, as is forcing the energy out of your body. part of the reason mw recommends boxing. 3 minutes punching the shit out of a bag, repeat as necessary. I need to get on that myself, but running works in the meantime
AlphaPro wrote:
Was there a time when you had to get rid of a strong pain body yourself?LOL. I've known Jonathan since we were kids, so I had a good laugh at this one haha.
story time story time!
Oh man, I'm not sure painbody attacks make good for story time. That's just shit you have to figure out on your own and learn from.
But you can focus on the good stuff as much as you want. Like having a good laugh with a friend. Me and Jonathan always burst up about this one:
So we were on this binge, just getting drunk and going out every night for like a month straight. We like taking shots before going out, so we always had liquor in the kitchen. Usually tequila or vodka.
So this one time, we went to buy liquor and saw some tequila we've never seen before, it was peach flavored or something. It had tags and jewels, looked fancy. "Looks good, let's get that!"
We're doing our thing, getting ready to go out, and someone always pours a shot and goes get over here! SHOT TIME!
So we both got shot of peach flavored tequila, Cheers it up, and simultaneously we take our shots. After like a second of silence, in unison we spit that shit out all over the kichen counter - coughing and gagging.
That fucking tequila was so disgusting - no joke. You can't script that.
So we had that tequila sitting in the kitchen for months, nobody would touch it. I think I finally got rid of it, some girls came over and I told them it was good and to take it haha.
thats definitely more what i was looking for. lmao i still have this peach snapps shit in my freezer from a couple years ago. i dont get it peaches taste amazing