Know Thyself

"You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are" Yogi Bahaman.

I started a new morning practice, ritual of sorts at the end of January. It's focused on identifying and feeling (not processing or trying to figure out where they come from) ALL my emotional triggers. I LOVE it! I am a life-long learner and usually apply or do the exercises I learn from the plethora of personal development books I read. However, this by far, has been one of my favorite books/exercises. Perhaps it's the timing of it given the circumstances of my life in this past year and or that everything else I have read and learned helped me to understand the concepts and theories it posits. 
It is time consuming however. That's what makes it so powerful, it's not a quick fix to the new and improved you, as many books seem to promise. I actually put my TM (Transcendental Meditation) practice aside to complete this 10 week practice. That's quite a commitment for me as I love my TM practice and the clarity, centeredness and inner peace it brings to my life (when I'm consistent about it). I am not ready to share the book title just yet, I want to complete the entire practice before I recommend and share it with others. 
I am only on week 3 of this 10 week practice with 3 repetitions, for a total of 30 weeks but this book has confirmed that helping others to really "Know Thyself" is at the heart and soul of what I want to bring and share with others. My professional career and work experiences brought me to know myself better than I think most people know themselves. Yet, after reading this new book I realized I still really didn't know myself particularly, the subconscious, non-intellectual side of myself. And therefore, I had not been really good in recognizing the patterns that keep resurfacing and repeating in my life. For most of us, these are very subtle patterns. We all know people whose patterns are very self-destructive and are apparent to everyone (except sometimes to the person themselves). Those patterns are easy to spot, these more subtle patterns can also have a significant influence (negative and/or limiting) on our lives then most of us can recognize. These patterns are usually set before age 7, before we have the mental, intellectual capacity to make sense of situations or events. They get ingrained in our subconscious as emotions/feelings that then get triggered (usually by others) and resurface throughout our day to day lives, usually so subtly that even those of us who think we have a good knowledge of ourselves, can be fooled. Take me for example, I think I know myself pretty well on a conscious, intellect level. I just completed the re-editing of my first book where I share 10 lessons  which I think can help others get to know themselves well and thus create their lives by design (versus a life by default which is usually the norm). Most of my friends and close family members would agree, I know myself pretty well. 
Yet, what I am learning from this book and the application of the exercises is that our unconscious (subconscious) programming is indeed running our lives and it's not other people out there in the world that this applies to, it's YOU and ME! Scientists like Dr Bruce Lipton state that our lives are being run 95% of the time by our unconscious programming. Until I read this new book and started its' practice, I would have thought it applied to most others not me.(Dr. Lipton's book, Biology of Belief is listed on the suggested learning on my website. I have also linked a great article below for further reading). 
I do believe I have gotten past many issues or blocks (negative/limiting) beliefs that I am consciously aware of. However, I feel that I am getting to know myself on a much deeper level. But you want to know the truth? In the first two weeks, I didn't want to complete such a long and time-consuming process, thinking again that I knew all about this stuff (emotional triggers) as a professional counselor/therapist. However, last year I made a commitment to discovering and bringing healing modalities to our young people, especially young men who are suffering a deep inner pain in silence. I believe this book (which is not a new print) appeared in my life not by coincidence.
According to Wikepidia "The Ancient Greek aphorism 'know thyself', is one of the Delphic maxims and was inscribed in the pronaos of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi according to the Greek writer Pausanias. The phrase was later expounded upon by the philosopher Socrates who taught that: The unexamined life is not worth living."
The wisdom of the Greeks astounds me. The Greeks who set the foundation of western civilization (thousands of years ago) and who themselves learned from the Egyptians, have a thing or two to teach us, wouldn't you agree? I often wonder why we don't appreciate and apply all of the ancient knowledge that has existed to serve us and make our lives more peaceful, joyful and purposeful. I know that "the unexamined life is not worth living" may sound dramatic or extreme but I agree that until we truly know ourselves, our lives can feel very meaningless. 
I was watching Evan Carmichael's You Tube channel (Believe Nation) just a day ago and the Universe sent me a sign to validate the importance of knowing thyself and thus the inspiration for this Blog post. Patrick Bet-David is in the video clip (link below) and he says "study every single one of your trends..next time your angry, depressed, confused, lazy, when your positive, fired up, when people want to be around you, when people don't want to be around you, get a piece of paper and write down what happened to cause you to feel this way...study yourself as thoroughly as hedge fund managers study stock...study your trends and you will change your bad habits into good ones" Thanks Evan and Patrick couldn't agree more. 

I started Vida805, to share the knowledge that has taken my life from good to great and that I know has put me on the path of taking it from great to amazing...join me it's possible for all of us especially when we tap into the power that comes from truly Knowing Thyself!

Article: It's now a proven fact-Your unconscious mind is running your life!
http://www.lifetrainings.com/Your-unconscious-mind-is-running-you-life.html 

Evan Carmichael's 10 Amazing Habits You Must Adopt in 2019
https://youtu.be/WGxbnCWGsPs

To find out more about upcoming "Don't Die With Your Music Still in You" Workshops or "Know Thyself" Bootcamps in Santa Barbara, CA, please visit: www.vidaconsultingservices.com

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