Decision Making: Fear-Based or Faith-Based
September 25, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
If you are faced with personal or professional decisions and feeling stuck, or if you feel that your decision may not have turned out how you would have liked; take a look at what may be keeping you stuck. Are you mired in ambivalence or scared to make a decision because you are fearful of the unknown? Is it sucking the energy out of you going over and over in your head about “what if” when faced with a big decision?
Don’t allow “what if” to stop you by thinking of things you fear happening. Let “what if” help you sprout wings to soar beyond your imagination can take you. Ask “what if” to bask in possibility thinking and dwell in the realm of creative, faith-based thought. Having faith that what you desire will be met with the resources to make it come true.
We waste loads of emotional energy on decision making, whether it be for work or for our well-being. We know emotion is actually energy in motion and emotional energy makes up about 70% of our total energy. That’s why you may still feel tired after getting much rest if your brain is working overtime dealing with emotional issues.
Are you making your decisions based on fear or faith? We usually get stuck because we are paralyzed by the fear of the unknown and the fear of letting go of what once was and moving on to what could be. We’ve got to reach a point where the fear of the unkown is much less than the current situation. Having faith that your decisions will met positively, faith in yourself for making good decisions based on your instincts and information gathering, and faith that the universe is abundant and will provide for you, if that’s what you desire.
Making decisions based on fear means not going down the path you really want, your outcomes fall short, you short-change yourself, you’re not really truly satisfied – you feel you’ve settled. You are left with a wanting something better. You’re playing not to lose instaed of playing to win. Decisions based on fear leaves you still wanting for more because it isn’t exactly right – there is lack.
Making decisions based on faith keeps you moving forward. Making decisions based on faith may seem awkward at first, but then becomes powerful beyond belief. Decisions based on faith feels like you arrived, it feels right and it feels good. It is empowering. Fear is only in our minds anyway – it’s only a perception, so let it go. Thank it for making you aware and then release that feeling and move forward in faith. It will energize you to no end.
So what is holding you back from a big decision? What decisions would you make if you could do no wrong? What would you do to move forward in your personal or professional life if you had the faith it would work out? I may have mentioned it before and it’s worth repeating: It all works out in the end. If it’s not working out, it’s not the end.
Your Thoughts Reside Outside Your Head: Complaining vs. Engaging
July 22, 2008 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Your thoughts are not only in your mind, they are in your body and in your environment as well. When you change your mind, you change your energy, and when you change your energy, you change your life. Your thoughts can help you bounce back, pull you out of a slump, and increase your resilience or decrease it. You also change the environment around you and influence how people treat you.
When you are caught in a downward energy spiral of complaining, you are focused inward and miss the outside world. You are essentially trapped in your negative energy and your perception is creating your environment to a degree. Dr. Masaru Emoto has scientifically proven that thoughts and feelings affect physical reality. In his book The Hidden Messages in Water, his subjects focused different intentions on frozen water molecules. His mesmerizing findings showed that the water labeled with kind, loving thoughts formed beautiful, symmetrical, snowflake-like, colorful crystals. While the frozen water exposed to negative thoughts and visions formed distorted, incomplete and dull crystals.
Our thoughts do, indeed affect our environment and people around us. Our bodies are 75% water – imagine how our thoughts are affecting the water in our bodies. Our thoughts affect our outcomes.
Research has shown that 70% of our thoughts are negative. Imagine what may happen if you change those thoughts to a positive perspective. When you are lost in complaining or negative thoughts, you miss what’s going on around you. Complaining puts stress on your body, telling it that “what is” is not what you want it to be. Stress affects our bodies with an increase in cortisol – a stress hormone which increases abdominal fat. No wonder American’s are so obese – we’re stressed out!
Be aware of your present moment, your surroundings, your thoughts and be fully engaged in what’s going on now. Pay attention to who you’re with, what you’re doing, how you’re feeling, what you’re thinking and practice being alive and engaged in the present moment. Being fully engaged means bringing your total presence to what you’re doing: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual energy all working together in total participation. This does not bode well for multi-tasking. Practice staying out of your head and into your life. Practice focus, practice positive intention, practice being present and see what happens. Being mindful with positive intentions and positive focus on the future helps us increase our resilience.