On the surface of things our senses tell us that we are separate individuals, living separate lives in a world that is divided into distinct countries with differing world views.  Our sense of reality is rooted in Newton’s model of a clockwork universe where man’s mind is separate from his mechanical body and separate from his environment.  Things only “exist” if we can experience them with our senses and can be scientifically measured, quantified and replicated in clinical experiments.  We have collectively bought into this old paradigm and the result is escalating dissent, hatred and conflict wherever we look.

There is a growing realisation that something is very wrong with this way of looking at our world and everything in it, including ourselves.  The child was right – the emperor does indeed have no clothes on (see below for the full fairy story by Hans Christian Anderson).  Something is missing.  We have forgotten who we are, what we are and what we came to do.

Over the last 20 years eminent scientists, metaphysicists and quantum theorists, have been revealing the alarming truth that what we thought was solid matter – our bodies, rocks, wood etc – is in fact 99.9999% empty space.  We are in reality vibrating energy in motion.  The laws of physics state that the amount of energy in the universe is constant and can not be destroyed or created – only converted from one form to another.

If you dive deep enough into the heart of “solid matter” you discover that everything is interconnected and part of one vibrating sea of energy.  This is the “deep mystery” which pervades and unites all living things.
Western scientists are finally confirming what the mystics and spiritual teachers have known for thousands of years.  Science and spirituality are finally converging over some fundamental realities.

“Everything is interconnected, the bond is holy”
Marcus Aurelius.

Physicists, studying the nature of light, discovered an electrifying paradox which they called “wave particle duality”.  If an experiment was set up one way, light appeared to be made up of separate particles; set up another way, light seemed to behave like a wave.  So which is it – wave or particle?  The answer was a resounding both, depending on your perspective. It makes my brain hurt just thinking about it!  Luckily the quantum physicist and Nobel Laureate, Niels Bohr, stated that “If you think you can talk about quantum theory without feeling dizzy, you haven’t understood the first thing about it”.  As the ground breaking philosopher, Tim Freke, (“The Mystery Experience”, Watkins, 2012) points out: traditionally science has seen things as either right or wrong, black or white, particle or wave – but not both.  Now we have to see that two apparent opposites can both be right, depending on how we look at them.  Is it a wave or is it a particle? He has coined the refreshingly new terminology of “paradoxity” or paralogical thinking” to refer to the paradox of two opposites both being true.  The startling thing is that this is the same for all life and not just for light.

“If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits”.
Don Ward

Although we might appear to be separate, isolated “waves” on the surface we are also, in our essence, the profound immensity of the ocean.  This is the new paradigm and one that, if enough people wake up to its message, would revolutionise the way we see ourselves, our world and how we live in it.  Instead of conflict, spawned from fear and separateness; it would promote co-operation, love and cohesion generated from a belief in our innate interconnectedness.  What we do to one we do to the whole; what we do to other people we do to ourselves.

“Out beyond ideas of right and wrong there is a field,
I’ll meet you there”.  Rumi

So how, you might well ask, does this affect us individually?  On a personal level, the same paradox exists and we are beginning to realise that our bodies are not just composed of isolated cells, organs and systems distinct from each other – it is an integrated whole functioning in unison.  Everything in the universe is composed of energy and our bodies are multi-dimensional energy systems.  Every cell is vibrating at a particular frequency, in harmony with its neighbours and its environment.  We are literally humming with energy.  Radical and exciting research shows that your body is not separate from your thoughts, emotions and beliefs.

The neuroscientist, Candace Pert, revolutionised the way we see this interconnectedness in our own bodies.  Her experiments showed that the mind is not just in the brain, but all over the body.  The neurotransmitters (the chemicals we think with) are found in every cell throughout the body and form a dynamic information network linking mind and body.  So our thoughts, feelings and beliefs have a dramatic impact on the functioning of every cell of the body.  This offers new understanding about the power of the mind and emotions to affect our health and wellbeing.  These “molecules of emotion” infuse the physical body with consciousness and are instrumental in creating health or otherwise.  Philippa Lubbock, in her inspirational book “Life Alignment”, (Watkins, 2010), states that each feeling and emotion vibrates at its own frequency and “when we feel afraid, sad or joyful, there is a bio-chemical response in our body cells”.  Negative thoughts, emotions and beliefs cause the release of stress chemicals and can leave a negative charge in our cells which weaken and congest the system and we loose energy.  Positive thoughts, emotions and beliefs bathe our cells in life-enhancing, immune boosting hormones which promote health, wellbeing and increased energy.

“Your body is literally eavesdropping on the conversations from your mind”.  Deepak Chopra.

The vibrational pattern of our beliefs and experiences are held in the body at a cellular level.  If an experience had a negative impact on us, we may hold onto the energetic negative charge in our bodies.  If what we are doing and how we are behaving is not working for us any more, we need to discover and understand the power of the “inner game”.  It is useful to learn how to clear the internal interference that prevents us accessing our full potential and transmitting a clear signal.  How we think and what we believe is the blueprint for what we become and how we act.  Without knowing it, we become the story that we tell ourselves on a daily basis.  It is helpful to use the most effective and energising words.
Healing, making whole, involves letting go of negative thought patterns.

NLP Coaching is a powerful way to understand what is going on and to make transformational changes. Life Alignment is a dynamic system of vibrational medicine that homes in on the trapped negative emotional energy and releases it. Physical, emotional and psychological health is restored.   I find that the Life Alignment system amplifies the coaching in a profound and deeply enriching way; enabling people to regain control over their own lives and healing.

“The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself.  It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone”. Orison Swett Marden

New Departure:

As well as having my private NLP Coaching and Life Alignment practise in Wiltshire, I now also work in London every Thursday from May 10th 2012.

Please come and see me at:

The Light Centre,
9 Eccelston Street,
Belgravia,
London,
SW1W 9LX
0207 881 0728
www.lightcentre.com

For appointments e-mail me: caroline@carolinemanncoaching.co.uk
or phone 01747 870 894 or 07985 905 666.

Books and websites you might like to explore:

• “Life Alignment:  Heal your life and discover your true purpose” by Philippa Lubbock, 2010, Watkins Publishing.  www.lifealignment.co.uk
• “The Mystery Experience: a revolutionary approach to spiritual awakening” by Timothy Freke, 2012, Watkins Publishing. www.themysteryexperience.com
• “Molecules of Emotion: why you feel the way you feel” by Candace Pert, 1997, Pocket Books.

The Emperor’s New Clothes – Hans Christian Anderson

Once upon a time there was a vain Emperor who cared for nothing except his appearance and clothes.  He hires two tailors, who turn out to be swindlers.  They promise him the finest, best suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or “just hopelessly stupid”. The Emperor cannot see the cloth himself, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing unfit for his position; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they mime dressing him and the Emperor then marches in procession before his subjects, who play along with the pretense. Suddenly, a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspecting the assertion is true, but holds himself up proudly and continues the procession.

Watching the snow falling softly, silently – a few flakes at first, growing in numbers until it was snowing heavily, blotting out the sky in a hushed, swirling, mesmerising dance.  Visibility was reduced to a few feet in front of my nose.  As flakes came to settle on my gloved hands I marvelled at each perfect crystal, knowing that each one was unique in structure. Softly innocent, silently innocuous.  Each flake was so tiny and yet, in combination with others, held such immense power to bring our lives to a standstill.

So miniscule and yet so cumulatively powerful as to transform our lives.

Remembering that spell before Christmas, in England, when it snowed persistently and relentlessly until airports were closed, flights cancelled and roads across Britain brought to a standstill.  It caused unprecedented chaos to travellers and would-be-travellers – people camping at airports until flights resumed, others incaserated in their vehicles on blocked motorways for days.

It was not all negative of course – it depended on your viewpoint.  The thick snow was a delight for children and the young at heart who spent happy hours tobogganing and skiing down any slope or hill they could find.

So miniscule and yet so cumulatively powerful as to transform our lives – for good or ill.

This power of small things to potentially immobilise us, set me thinking….

Clients often come to me saying that they feel stuck in their lives and held back by something – although they often don’t know just what it might be.  Sometimes, however, they know exactly what the imprisoning “snowdrift” is – a negative emotion, a lack of confidence, a persistent way of doing something which is detrimental to them in some way – but they feel powerless to be able to change and move forward.

The challenge is that we are all creatures of habit.  We are programmed to remember and repeat what we have learnt.  Human behaviour is almost completely made up of small habits or patterns of behaviour (snowflakes with the power to accumulate into impassable snow drifts).  A habit, after all, is only a small action that we repeat, sometimes in combination with other small actions, until it becomes our default way of acting in certain situations.  What starts as a conscious action becomes, with repetition, an unconscious part of who we are and how we act.  What was once gently fluid is now rigidly set and potentially hard to shift.  On the positive side, habits allow us to do things without having to think about them.  They free us up to make repetitive actions easily and without conscious thought so that we have time to focus on more interesting things – new things.  The draw back is when we become aware that they are not serving us any more, in fact they are holding us back, and we want to change them.  Then we discover that they have grown cumulatively very powerful and we are potentially imprisoned in their grip.  Dr Johnson (1790 – 1784) summed it up perfectly, to my mind, when he said:
“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken”.

“First we form habits, and then our habits form us.  Before we know it, we see the world only from our own perspective.  When that happens we begin to stagnate” – Anon

One of my clients had not been able to have holidays abroad with her family because of her phobia of flying.  Even the mere thought of checking in at the airport would render her breathless with a severe panic attack.  Another client kept thinking he must be stupid which consolidated over time into an emotional block to learning anything new and having panic attacks before exams to the point that he was refusing to sit any.  Yet another, a senior partner in a law firm, was rendered literally speechless when thinking about standing up and giving the end of year presentation to the firm.  At some level there was once a reason for the habit to have formed in the first place and had since been perpetuated, at a subconscious level, gaining in strength with each repetition.  None of these habits of thought serve these individuals any more – they are very real, immobilising snowdrifts.

All is not lost – we are not condemned to be at the mercy of our self-destructive habits indefinitely.  The snow plough can come to the rescue (find a good therapeutic coach!); the airport reopens, the cars once more drive down the motorway.  We can perform Houdini-esque escapes from the chains.  The first step is to wake up and be aware that we are imprisoned and then we can do something about it.  The key to changing any unwanted behaviour or habit is not found in our muscles but in our innermost thoughts.

We can choose to replace these old habits of thought that no longer serve us and choose to think differently.  As with an individual snowflake which is unique in its structure – each habit is unique and we can learn to identify its triggers and its many strands in order to understand it, melt it, dissolve it, and replace it with a fresh new habit that is supportive to our goals and aims in the current chapter of our lives.

My client with the phobia of flying now happily flies to new exciting destinations, with her family and friends, for holidays.  The student who was incapacitated by blocks to learning is now proudly getting “A” grades.  The lawyer who was frozen to ineffectiveness in public speaking went on to get a standing ovation.

Life changes when we change how we choose to think about things – one step or one habit at a time.  Change the little habits in our lives and the big things magically and effortlessly transform.

So miniscule and yet so cumulatively powerful as to transform our lives.