About Mindset

http://jackcanfield.com/if-you-can-imagine-it/

I read this article yesterday and thought that I believe it's so true- the most easy way to actually achieve anything is to change your mindset.

I think we set our own obstacles and decide what is normal for us to have and be. I read somewhere about top 5 reasons why people are poor and #1 was that it just never occurred to people that they COULD be rich. They had always been poor, or mid-class, their parents had worked hard all their lives, yet died poor, most of their friends and neighbors were poor. Of course like everyone else they'd dream of richer life and winning the lottery, but the mindset was that it always happens to someone else, nothing miraculous ever happens to them.

The poverty mindset is based on many negative beliefs such as
"I will appear greedy and selfish if I want to be rich"
"Money comes only with hard work and I don't have anything to offer that would have such significant value"
"This is normal, everyone is poor and that's just the way it is"
and so on.

But obviously I am talking about all kinds of mindsets, not just regarding money and wealth. You may have a mindset that you are not good enough for a soul mate relationship, that you only deserve the "faulty ones", you may believe that you never get lucky, nothing ever changes and whatever other "I just can't do it" that you can think of.

How about adapting a new mindset that you always win? That you are always lucky? That you are beautiful, lovable and perfect the way you are?
I think the first mindset you should change is the mindset that your mind is already as set as can be and changing it is really hard.
I know you can change it easily and instantaneously if you only choose to.

Just like lovely Freya shared with Lilac my post about overcoming low self esteem regarding relationships overnight, I can think of other small examples when things have seemed to shift in my brain.

For example, when I was in school I could not knit for the life of me, it was a total mess and left me frustrated until many years later in my 20s I tried again for fun and suddenly found it extremely easy. I knitted a really long scarf of all sorts of different patterns and really enjoyed that feeling of just overcoming a mental block that I had set for myself saying I just can't do something. It suddenly made me feel like ANYTHING was possible, since I had been wrong about my knitting skills, i can probably ace just about anything right

Likewise I was terrified of swimming, especially swimming in a place with no bottom. Every time I went anywhere near a deep water I felt like I was going to drown and panicked. Until one moment I just decided to relax and float. To my surprise I didn't sink at all and could float for a long long time in any position without getting tired. From that moment I felt no fear swimming in the "bottomless" end of lake or under water and it literally just happened in a split second just because I changed my mind.

I have many examples, but this post is getting too long So if you look at every area of your life, which mindsets could you adjust?

I think lunar hit the nail on the head here. It IS easy to change your mindset. We don't have to find our limiting beliefs and understand them first. We can change it in a minute or less for so many them. Just consider that it can be, just like when the poor didn't consider that they could be rich, which is why they weren't. The how's are so doable and not our business compared to wrapping our minds around the possibility at all of the experience itself. There's absolutely no need to dwell on belief and how to believe, when the conductor of energy is simply being open to the possibility of that experience. Pondering it for a moment and leaving it at a loose "maybe".

Thank you for the post, lunar. Mindset is everything when it comes to what we experience and are looking to shake things up.

Whilst i agree that changing our mindset helps, i dont think its as easy and flipping a switch and suddenly we start thinking and believing differently

e has at least 5 steps in that article, and some of them wont change anything over night, especially the 'Victim talk'

some of his techniques i was given by therapists for my self confidence, and yeah they work fine, but it took a while before my confidence started to shift to a better place.

I think there has to be a level of commitment if you want something like this to work

I think there are different levels for different people, some things, such as just deciding I can drive with no fear or become a millionaire overnight will take more time to sink in Some things are simpler, such as knitting hehe, or say- running.

I could never run for a longer distance than about 100 feet without laying down and dying. I always sucked in all sorts of long distance running assignments in school. Then one day I went to jog in the park with a friend who was rollerblading. We were talking the whole way, I wasn't even thinking about what I was doing and then realized at one point that we had circled the whole Hyde Park and I had been running for 45 minutes nonstop

Or my hair for example- it has never ever grown past few inches than my shoulders. All the hairdressers told me that this is the longest it will get, that every hair has its maximum growth point and it will just break off or fall out if it gets longer than that. My hair never grew no matter what I did, vitamins, no vitamins, cut, no cut, special shampoo, no special shampoo.. Until one day I decided to grow them long, without doing anything special, with no change to anything other than me believing they CAN grow- and lo and behold they started growing straight away and are almost down to my waist now and keep growing (although the baby keeps plucking them out daily ).

Yeah i wonder if there's something in how 'believable' something is to you

i seem to find it easier to change my mindset towards education and career.. than i do money

i have no issues in getting through college and doing it for free or finding the money.. and i am able to have the mindset that money's always there and i get through... but i cant just flip the switch to.... i'm rich.

I love this thread. I wanted to make a long long well-thought-out reply with lots of questions later once I have time, but I would like to quickly add to the discussion now. I agree that changing your mindset can be as quick as flicking a switch - and that it can also take a long time. But my beloved Alan Watts says, like Lunar does, that change only takes a long time because you think it can't be instantaneous. If you think it's going to be hard to change, then it will be. MTC talks about the "resolution" to change too, in a post on the Law of Detachment. Swami Vivekananda also says, "Strike a match, and light comes in a moment," though I suppose that is quite out of context.

That said -- what about neural pathways etc.? From memory it takes time to change the brain? Of course that then begs the question of mind/body connection.... we were talking a bit about it with posay in chat the other day. One angle I find fascinating is this one, from Aldous Huxley's Island (which is really a philosophical treatise masquerading as a novel):

“You're assuming,' said Dr. Robert, 'that the brain produces
consciousness. I'm assuming that it transmits consciousness. And my
explanation is no more farfetched than yours.

So perhaps the neural pathways do not matter as much as we think they do? Maybe I'm playing devil's advocate, but then I keep thinking of those stories about how people who are brain dead or in a coma still actually hear and experience everything going on around them.....sadly I can't find any studies or articles right now as I'm in a bit of a hurry, but I'm sure they exist and that I've read one or two in the past. And then there are NDEs - Near Death Experiences - where the brain is dead but consciousness is actually heightened...definitely a topic of its own.

Back to the original question, then: if we want to change our mindset quickly, I think we can. After all, some spiritual traditions would perhaps see it more as casting off the false self to reveal the hidden, "true" self that is complete and fearless... perhaps, perhaps it's more a question of "how" to change in an instant.

Edit: While I was typing (and then having dinner) 2 new replies were posted, so apologies for not responding to those

I am a firm believer in the power of the mind, but just like Nighty I don't think it's that easy to shift into a different mindset. I know I can do it with a lot things and everything mention in that article I do on a daily basis. For example. I have had insomnia for a long time, but I just couldnt figure out exactly where it comes from. So I have tried to suppress it. Pretended it wasn't there, kept on telling myself I was an awesome sleeper and so on. It worked to a certain extend. The insomnia phases keep coming back. Sometimes when it comes to our limiting beliefs it is important to peel those things like an union. Layer by layer.

Just like lunar I had a fear of swimming. Mindpower worked tons for this. I trained myself and exposed myself to the fear. I can do triathlons now, so I can conclude that worked.

Freya wrote:But my beloved Alan Watts says, like Lunar does, that change only takes a long time because you think it can't be instantaneous. If you think it's going to be hard to change, then it will be.

This here is the answer to the question, as far as I know from my own experience and the others I have worked with. It does not depend on the person or the subject of the belief, but on that specific moment and whether we choose that it can be instantaneous. Let's for a moment define "choose"... by that I mean you decide in that moment that it is possible. Not try to believe it, not pretend, not attempt, not fake it. You decide and remain loyal to that choice through doubt and fear, should they come into the picture. Instantaneous meaning as quick as the spark of a match or within a few days, weeks, months... the mindset change, along with physical evidence, shows up as soon as we choose it- and by choose, I don't mean wishy washy back and forth and feeling sorry for ourselves but hoping it changes while going through motions of suggested processes. I mean a conscious effort to correct wrong thinking as it shows up throughout the day and night. Every single person can do this with surprisingly little practice and consistency. You choose it again and again until the inner default perspective has already changed.

Lovely replies everyone! What an exciting thread.
I was wondering -- Luney when you've made "shifts" in your mindset - big ones - how did you go about it? Did you just *decide*?

I think with most of them I didn't sit down and think "Right, I am consciously deciding to be confident now", or that I am able to do this particular thing or knit or swim or anything along the lines. It was more like I decided to give it a go and see what happens and discovered that I could do it all along, but had just been allowing the fears or past failures to paint a gloomy picture.
It's like with my laptop, it wasn't working or turning on, no matter what I did, then I turned it off, went to sleep and next morning it worked flawlessly when I turned it on, as if nothing ever happened. Same with failures, if you have tried something and it hasn't worked out- be willing to try again.

I have had things I have consciously changed my mindset for that have worked though. Sorry for repeating examples, I'm sure I've talked about it before either in here or ploa but just to illustrate a point again:
When I was in high school we had to do a long jump from a standing point, with no run. I would try to summon all my energy and strength, give the best of me and jump as far as I possibly could and I was getting decent results, but wasn't getting any further than with previous jump, plus there were other people, taller than me, who had better results.

Then I suddenly decided to just change my mind. I looked at a certain point, a foot or so further from my best jump point and decided to jump there... and I did, beating everybody else. I got all hyped up and looked at even further point.. and jumped to that point too. By then all my classmates and teacher were amazed. People were trying  to borrow my shoes, thinking they are magic, but it wasn't anything outside of me, it all came from just changing my mind about what I could do.

The class ended shortly after, otherwise who knows how far I could've kept jumping, I would've probably learned to fly

Actually that brings to mind a good point- I find I get much better results when I am specific about my goals and time.
If I say "I'll lose as much weight as I can before the end of the month" or "I will lose 10 pounds at some point", it's a lot less probable I get any results.
If I say "I will lose 10 pounds by the end of the month" I'm in a lot better place to be motivated and also programming my body to do it, thus getting much better results.

Same with work, if I think "I'll work as much as I can" I end up slacking and not getting much work done at all. When I say "If I make x amount this month I will reward myself with $100 guilt free shopping spree" then I will make that amount + $100 extra effortlessly.

If I sit down in the morning and type a short list of what I want to get done today, I will get a lot more done than any other day when I just aim to do as much as I can.
(Hmm... maybe that belongs in the procrastination thread )

Of course, lunar- you don't have to make the conscious choice to change your mindset on confidence or anything. It happens naturally. Though you can choose it, if you happen to consciously be aware that you're not experiencing confidence. Just like how you say loa is always in place, it's just we can deliberately apply the knowledge of it in specific moments or circumstances.