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Self Importance

5 Holiday Mind Hacks

November 25, 2015 by Mark Shepard

8251731_mFive Jedi Holiday Mind Hacks

(To Help You Survive Close Contact with Those Alien Beings We Call “Relatives”)

Chances are as we look ahead to this long Thanksgiving weekend, you are going to come into contact with people who you may or may not see very often.

RELATIVES…

You may love and adore them…

Maybe you can’t get enough of them and seeing them during the holidays is the most fun you can imagine having…

Or maybe you love them dearly… in small quantities, from afar…

Or you may be actually DREADING hanging out with them for 1, 2, 3, or more days. The slow, water torture that threatens your sanity and your digestive system…

Here’s a quick set of 5 Jedi Mind Mastery Tools to help you get through without chewing your own hind leg off to get out of the “trap” of “familial obligations”.

Here’s pretty much the same thing I just said in the video but “wrote-out” fer yah in case yer a “word person”.

  1. Take Response-Ability For Your Own Well Being.
    Remember that you choose your thoughts and you DECIDED to be here. Take Response-ability for your own emotions and well being. These people may not “get” you. But you can “get” them. If your relatives weren’t actual real people but part of the built in “program” of the Jedi Warrior’s “Game of life”. How could you shine your spirit with their helpful input and empower yourself to appreciate whatever “lessons” they are helping you learn. In other words, stop thinking like a victim, and “use” this opportunity to “level up.”
  2. Change Your Focus. Remember that this is temporary. You WILL live through this. :o)
  3. Practice Laughing At Yourself.
    Use this as an opportunity to learn to laugh at yourself a little more easily. Especially when Uncle Charlie starts handing out his somewhat crude and tasteless “gag” gifts… or starts telling the same jokes that he told you LAST year that were embarrassing to  pretty much everyone present. It could also be your opportunity to try out some weird subtle joke that NO ONE else will get… Just drop that in and have fun watching while people either pretend to get it… (they don’t hee hee), or stare at you cluelessly and ask for an explanation… Then explain it in such minute detail that they start to fidget and groan… Simply do this every time uncle Charlie tells one of his… So that after awhile everybody tells HIM to stop because that will only get YOU going… Ok, so this one is a little EVIL! The point is find a way to have fun and enjoy the family dynamic, for a change.
  4. Let Go Of Attachment.
    Speaking of change.
    [This one is dedicated to my 88 year old dad and to my 55 year old self who is becoming more and more like him] This holiday season is a wonderful time to practice letting go of any attachment you may have to other people changing.YOU definitely know how to eat right and stay fit and healthy. THEY don’t. Or they do but don’t want to. Or they SAY they do but don’t really want to… whatever the case may be: They also don’t want to have you rub that in their faces. Particularly while they are rubbing holiday desserts into their faces.You love them. You want them to live a long healthy life. Well guess what?People pay me big bucks to help them change their eating and exercise habits and even when they WANT TO it’s a pretty big challenge.Attempting to get people who DON’T want to change to change, particularly over a holiday weekend is like trying to talk the spots off a leopard. It’s hard work. It’s pointless and you might get your head bitten off. So Let go of all that heavy concern about your loved ones. Focus on YOU staying on YOUR program. YOU thinking the kinds of thoughts that radiate compassion and acceptance towards yourself and your relatives. YOU having ONE helping of that awesome Coconut Cream Pie instead of FOUR. [Yeah I ate FOUR pieces of that amazing coconut cream pie. I’ll admit it. It was awesome. But now I’m back to my more moderate senses….]
  5. Take Charge of Your Mental Movie Screen.
    If someone is really up in your face about something, practice shrinking them down and moving them off of your mental movie screen. This also works if you are attempting to get over an “ex” during this holiday season.

So there you have it, 5 Jedi Mind Mastery Hacks to help you get through the holidays, or should that be spelled, Holy Daze?

OH here’s a bonus one…

BONUS! Practice NOT bitching to each other about each other…

…behind each other’s backs. We are all feeding the beast of negative thinking in some shape or form, what the Toltecs called “The Parasite”. Let’s see if we can interrupt that pattern this holiday. What do you absolutely love and adore about your relatives? I’m sure there’s something… Get creative and generous if you have to. :o)

And remember, you can always say “no” next time. Or plan a trip to someplace YOU want to go… And go there by yourself  or with someone who’s company you totally and completely enjoy.

This holiday the biggest take away for all of us is to “Stop Thinking Victim Thoughts”. You’re a Jedi. You’re a Transformation Nation Member in good standing. Think Differently. Love the present moment as it is and your holidays can be FABULOUS.

NOW go get ’em Tiger!

– Mark

p.s. Hey! A Warm Transformation Nation Welcome to Rade from Sweden and Bryan from Iowa! Cowabungah!

p.p.s. On Monday, you may want to check out my course about mastering your mind for a change around food, and fitness.

It’s Not Just About The Food

Filed Under: Articles, Cultural Conditioning, Daily Mind Mastery Tip, Dealing w/ Difficult People, Dealing with Difficult People, Relationships, Self Hypnosis, Self Importance, Self Love, The Game, Transformation

Interrupting Routines Again

November 17, 2015 by Mark Shepard

hh-11-17-routines-collageI had no idea what I was going to say before I turned the camera on…

And you know, it actually turned out better than I could possibly imagine!

What came out of my mouth was some key thoughts about the ancient Toltec practice of “interrupting routines” and “eliminating self importance”. So I hope you’re ready to shake things up a little bit… Ready?

Here we go!

Any questions?…. Ask ’em.

Filed Under: Anxiety, Anxiety Relief, Articles, Daily Mind Mastery Tip, Eliminating Routines, Fitness, Hypnosis for anxiety, Innovative Thinking, Living in the Present, Non-Attachment, Self Importance

Columbus was a…

October 12, 2015 by Mark Shepard

44331926_mBy many accounts, Christopher Columbus was a real jerk. Worse than that actually.

I am pretty happy to join with Native Americans in condemning him as a worse force for genocide than Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun or any of dozens of ancient and modern “bad guys”.

Millions of native Arawak and Caribe indians died as a result of his establishing his headquarters on the Island of Espaniola, now home to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

But one thing you HAVE to give him credit for.

He BELIEVED in himself. He SOLD his idea to Queen Isabella. In an age when your place of birth usually condemned you to a life at the same social and economic level as your parents, Columbus totally “boot-strapped” himself and DECIDED he was the ADMIRAL of the New World.

He was a tough guy in a tough world and he was a survivor.

Today, because of his willingness to push the boundaries of conventional beliefs about the world, we live in a very different LOCATION.

Of course some other bad guy probably would have come along and done exactly the same thing. There was a tremendous imbalance of power and technology at play.

Soon after the Spanish basically wiped out the native americans in the Caribbean, they looked around for someone to do the hard labor of destroying the pristine environment, so they really cranked up the African slave trade…

So if you want, you can hate Columbus for that as well.

But instead of hating shitty people who did what we think of as shitty things in the past (that we now benefit from), what can we learn?

What can you and I discover of meaning and usefulness on this beautiful, pristine, October day that just happens to be Columbus Day?

First, Columbus was a product of his times. He would NEVER in a million years see himself as a bad guy. He was operating according to the beliefs and “pre-sets” of his culture. Like a fish doesn’t perceive the body of water it is immersed in, Columbus wasn’t CONSCIOUS of how his thoughts and actions were constantly being directed by the overriding cultural beliefs and ideas…

Secondly, you HAVE to give him credit for being a BOLD and ACTION TAKING person. He faced the fear of the unknown and pushed himself and his crew into new uncharted territory.

Thirdly, he was an ego driven, fortune seeker who attempted to negotiate 10% of ALL money made in the New World. Queen Isabella was a better bargainer and offered him POSITION and TITLE. Columbus SETTLED for the TITLE.

If he had gotten his 10%, He could have RULED the world. The world would be run by HIS descendants…

OH, wait… we have CORPORATIONS and GOVERNMENTS getting their 10% of EVERYTHING today… hmmmm.

And what do we know about Governments and Corporations? Well they are a lot better at hiding the fact that they are exactly and ruthless and power hungry as any old Columbus types.

They are just better at manipulating the media…

So before we condemn a single man for generations of genocide and horror, Let’s just take a moment and notice the many ways in which we Americans (and Europeans) benefit from the culture we fail to notice all around us…

And the biggest lesson of all…

#4? Columbus BELIEVED in himself. He BELIEVED in his DESTINY of “GREATNESS” AND he took ACTION.

Today. Believe in yourself. Take action. Push back the boundaries of what you think is impossible.

I’m not saying to cut Columbus any slack. Just to realize we are not better than him. We are all proceding through life according to our cultural and familial belief systems.

Change the BELIEF and you change REALITY.

Your assignment today is to play with that idea… at least a little… while you get outside and have some fun.

I’m going canoeing… right now. I’m Outa here.

peace.

– Mark

photo credit – Copyright: muhor / 123RF Stock Photo

Filed Under: Daily Mind Mastery Tip, Eliminating Routines, Freedom, Goal Setting, Living in the Present, Mental Toughness Training, Non-Attachment, Peak Performance, Present Moment Awareness, Problem Solving, Self Importance, Self Improvement, Shoulders of Giants, Transformation, Triumph Over Adversity

Self Importance vs Self Worth

September 23, 2015 by Mark Shepard

hh-09-23-15-self-worth-ss2What’s the difference between self importance and self worth?

Self importance is actually an indicator of low self worth and requires the opinions of others to confirm it…

If you have high self worth, you don’t need anyone else to prop it up.

If you require other people to constantly acknowledge your value, then you are not sure of your own value.

This hit me really hard years ago when I realized that I was performing my music for the approval of other people… and invariably they didn’t approve enough! OR, someone from the audience would come up after the show and give me what they thought was “helpful feedback”, and I’d be devastated (sometimes for DAYS).

Please Note for a future discussion: Self importance and self pity are totally linked.

It was so painful for me that I quit performing and started painting. The cool thing was, I had no attachment to whether anyone liked my paintings. I honestly just didn’t care! As a totally untrained visual artist, I paint like a damn kindergartner. I just play with colors.

Whatever. I paint on a canvas until I like looking at it. And then I stop. If you like looking at it, great. If not, that’s cool too.

So on the surface self worth seems like narcissism. Because you are honestly telling yourself and anyone else who cares to listen,

“Yeah I AM awesome!”

It can also seem “uncaring” because it’s a place where you actually don’t care what anyone else thinks or says.

But it’s an internal truth NOT something that anyone else can confirm.

For you to look in the mirror and totally love and accept yourself REGARDLESS of what anyone else thinks of you is the ultimate goal.

If you’re out in the wilderness and a lion is stalking you, are you offended by that?

You don’t have time to be offended! Because the lion is just doing what lions do. Protect yourself. Get out of the lion’s reach. But don’t take it personally or be offended by it. Being upset and offended literally robs you of resourcefulness. It’s an energy drain.

Ultimately that’s our goal with other people. We want to stop being “offended” by their thoughts, their actions, their gossip, their judgment and enjoy what they have to teach us about ourselves! We may still have to protect ourselves from their actions. But their thoughts about us are all about THEM. I can’t quite express to you how freeing this one concept is.

Here’s the video:

And just because we believe we are amazing and fabulous and perfect just the way we are, it doesn’t stop us from always improving. And when other people give us feedback, it may be helpful or it may not be helpful. Take what supports your growth and let go of the rest.

There’s a lot more to explore with this topic but that’s enough for today! :o)

Play with these “Why” and “How” questions in support of today’s Mind Mastery Transformation Thoughts:

  • Why am I fvcking AMAZING? (I will often tap on the EFT meridian points while saying these and I’ve found that for me using cuss words really helps to take the intensity up a notch, which seems to help really get the point across to my unconscious mind)
  • Why do I care what I think?
  • Why do I stop taking other people’s opinions personally?
  • Why do I deeply and completely accept myself? Right now as a fabulous “work in progress”?
  • How can I love myself even more today?

Join the revolution in personal transformation!

– Mark

Got questions? I have answers and I want you to have them, so…

Let’s talk

P.S. I’m working on creating a sweet new intro course that will set the foundation for you to absolutely rock your own world in the best possible way! It’s a powerful short course on how to stop worry, stress and negative thinking…

It will be free (for a while at least :o) IF you’ve opted in with the handy yellow form…

You HAVE opted in haven’t you? Cool. I’ll see YOU on the INSIDE!

Filed Under: Daily Mind Mastery Tip, Self Importance, Self Improvement, Self Love, Self Pity, Transformation

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