I was driving home for lunch after a storm front had dropped a heavy rain, after an already well-soaked winter. Though the rain had stopped, traffic was still moving very slowly. I have come to realize over time that when traffic is moving slowly there is always something I’m supposed to see; something that I would miss if I was racing by at my usual speed; a leaf falling, an egret in flight, a rainbow, a message. I started looking around for what that might be. I was not disappointed. Over on the shoulder of the freeway was a duck in a newly formed puddle! Though the puddle was small the duck was splashing and appeared to be having the time of his life. Surely this puddle would be gone as soon as the earth had an opportunity to absorb all the water. But the duck was unaware of that future event, as certain as it was. He was enjoying this present moment, in the now, in the new found joy of a perfectly good puddle.
That picture stayed with me throughout the week as I reflected on Nature’s lesson for me.
If the duck responded like a human he might never notice or appreciate the puddle because it wouldn’t last, or wasn’t large enough or maybe if he flew further he would find a whole lake! Or he might enjoy the puddle, but not leave when it dried up leaving him stuck in the mud. Or maybe he would keep refilling it with a hose so he wouldn’t have to move on to something different.
How many opportunities for joy do we overlook because it won’t last long or it didn’t look the way we thought it should or surely there must be something bigger, better further ahead. Or stay with a situation long after the joy/growth it offered has passed.
I’m not saying we have to say yes to every opportunity for joy, because I know we get to choose the joys of our experience from an abundant supply. I know if you look for joy, believing it is there, you will find it. (The same is true for trouble!) I’m not saying we need to leave when an experience becomes less than joyful, because I know we get to choose from the infinite potential of Life’s experience and emotions.
I’m just saying choose joy whenever and where ever you can and if you get 5 minutes, 5 months, 5 years or a lifetime of Joy, then that is its own reward!
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Neuropeptides and You
Several years ago I saw the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know!” [Check it out if you've never seen it] and learned about the existence of neuropeptides. Neuropeptides are these wonderful things, they are chemicals that your brain physically manufactures to relay whatever emotions you're experiencing into the blood stream and circulating to every cell of your body.
Neuropeptides are created for all sorts of emotions- peace, worry, anxiety, anger, fear, victimization, happiness, worthiness, satisfaction, resentment, well-being, joy, freedom, etc. I thought this was a wonderful way of physically explaining how when you are feeling the emotion of joy or bliss that your entire body feels joyful, elated, full of exciting energy and when you are worried and fearful that your body feels like crap.
The movie went on to explain that each cell within our body has receptors for these neuropeptides that allow these mind made chemicals into each cell. Each cell has receptors for the neuropeptides it is expecting, those neuropeptides that it is expecting based on past experience. If a cell receives a neuropeptides that it has no experience with, it has no receptor for that neuropeptides.
So I have been thinking of these ideas on and off for several years and interpreting it through my studies. It explains so much about why some people I see around me feel hopeless and are seldom able to maintain happiness (no matter what good comes their way) while other people around me are hopeful and always find their way to peace (no matter what “misfortune” comes their way).
So here is my theory (keep in mind that this is always expanding).
Perhaps over the course of a lifetime one has been trained to think and feel a certain way through your parents, teachers, experience, your perceptions of life and your relationship to it. This has trained your cells, causing them to create receptors for the neuropeptides your body has created. If one has experienced a steady diet of the neuropeptides for hopelessness, anger, fear, abandonment, worry, resentment, unworthiness, victimization - those are the neuropeptides that their cells are used to receiving. They would have few receptors open to happiness, joy, peace, well-being, freedom, gratitude - so if one experienced those feelings it would be difficult for them to embody those feelings.
So how do we make the shift?
We recognize that our thoughts and feelings today go forward to prepare our experience of tomorrow, but how do we make the shift when our bodies may not even know how to receive and retain joy?
Dr. Ernest Holmes tells us, in the book “Science of Mind”, to spend some time contemplating joy every day. If we were to do that, spending time contemplating joy, peace, whatever makes life worthwhile for us and sit in that feeling and that emotion then day by day we would manufacture those new neuropeptides and eventually increase the number of those receptors.
But I believe we need to do more than that. We need to somehow stop feeding our old receptors because when we stop feeding those receptors of fear and worry and victimization they eventually shrivel up and go away. So it is important for us to monitor our emotions. If it is an emotion we do not wish to have manifest in our experience we must consciously shift our thought to the emotions we do wish to experience. Do whatever it takes to change the way you feel!
Initially this takes a very conscious effort, We cannot go on autopilot or default mode, but as we keep doing this over time it gets easier and easier. This is because the neuropeptides and receptors for the emotions we wish to experience will increase and the neuropeptides and receptors for the emotions we preferred not to experience will decrease and go away.
I'm here to tell you it's worth the effort. Take the time to give this gift to yourself - to contemplate your good every day, many times a day, throughout your experience of life. Be in gratitude, Open your mind your eyes and your thoughts to love, beauty, peace, well-being that is available to us always. They are never far from our next thought.
We don't have to know all the answers, for there is something within us that knows all. We don't even need to know what it will look like for there is a guiding intelligence within us and a law of mind that we are always using. It is always moving forward on our behalf for a greater expression of life and of happiness through us.
It might be considered work, it might be considered discipline, but it is the gift that you give yourself that will reward you every day of your life.
If you'd like to read more about Neuropeptides search for Dr. Candace Pert in any web browser.
Neuropeptides are created for all sorts of emotions- peace, worry, anxiety, anger, fear, victimization, happiness, worthiness, satisfaction, resentment, well-being, joy, freedom, etc. I thought this was a wonderful way of physically explaining how when you are feeling the emotion of joy or bliss that your entire body feels joyful, elated, full of exciting energy and when you are worried and fearful that your body feels like crap.
The movie went on to explain that each cell within our body has receptors for these neuropeptides that allow these mind made chemicals into each cell. Each cell has receptors for the neuropeptides it is expecting, those neuropeptides that it is expecting based on past experience. If a cell receives a neuropeptides that it has no experience with, it has no receptor for that neuropeptides.
So I have been thinking of these ideas on and off for several years and interpreting it through my studies. It explains so much about why some people I see around me feel hopeless and are seldom able to maintain happiness (no matter what good comes their way) while other people around me are hopeful and always find their way to peace (no matter what “misfortune” comes their way).
So here is my theory (keep in mind that this is always expanding).
Perhaps over the course of a lifetime one has been trained to think and feel a certain way through your parents, teachers, experience, your perceptions of life and your relationship to it. This has trained your cells, causing them to create receptors for the neuropeptides your body has created. If one has experienced a steady diet of the neuropeptides for hopelessness, anger, fear, abandonment, worry, resentment, unworthiness, victimization - those are the neuropeptides that their cells are used to receiving. They would have few receptors open to happiness, joy, peace, well-being, freedom, gratitude - so if one experienced those feelings it would be difficult for them to embody those feelings.
So how do we make the shift?
We recognize that our thoughts and feelings today go forward to prepare our experience of tomorrow, but how do we make the shift when our bodies may not even know how to receive and retain joy?
Dr. Ernest Holmes tells us, in the book “Science of Mind”, to spend some time contemplating joy every day. If we were to do that, spending time contemplating joy, peace, whatever makes life worthwhile for us and sit in that feeling and that emotion then day by day we would manufacture those new neuropeptides and eventually increase the number of those receptors.
But I believe we need to do more than that. We need to somehow stop feeding our old receptors because when we stop feeding those receptors of fear and worry and victimization they eventually shrivel up and go away. So it is important for us to monitor our emotions. If it is an emotion we do not wish to have manifest in our experience we must consciously shift our thought to the emotions we do wish to experience. Do whatever it takes to change the way you feel!
Initially this takes a very conscious effort, We cannot go on autopilot or default mode, but as we keep doing this over time it gets easier and easier. This is because the neuropeptides and receptors for the emotions we wish to experience will increase and the neuropeptides and receptors for the emotions we preferred not to experience will decrease and go away.
I'm here to tell you it's worth the effort. Take the time to give this gift to yourself - to contemplate your good every day, many times a day, throughout your experience of life. Be in gratitude, Open your mind your eyes and your thoughts to love, beauty, peace, well-being that is available to us always. They are never far from our next thought.
We don't have to know all the answers, for there is something within us that knows all. We don't even need to know what it will look like for there is a guiding intelligence within us and a law of mind that we are always using. It is always moving forward on our behalf for a greater expression of life and of happiness through us.
It might be considered work, it might be considered discipline, but it is the gift that you give yourself that will reward you every day of your life.
If you'd like to read more about Neuropeptides search for Dr. Candace Pert in any web browser.
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