Photo courtesy of Peter Burgess and Flickr
In the first two articles of this series, we explored how an increase in your clarity of understanding and clarity of mind are extremely powerful leverage points for making a difference in your life. In this third and final article we’re going to look at the third leverage point, a factor that’s extremely valuable when it comes to your relationships. It influences your relationships with other people, with yourself, and with life itself. As you’re going to discover, this is highly relevant when it comes to solving problems and realising your goals, dreams and desires.
Leverage Point #3 – Clarity of Connection
Here’s an example of this leverage point from my number 1 bestselling book, CLARITY: Clear Mind, Better Performance, Bigger Results (© 2016 Jamie Smart):
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During the London Olympics, a curious phenomenon took place; all over the country, people’s moods lifted. I was interviewed by Sky Radio News to give my perspective. At one point, the interviewer asked why communities were coming together around the Olympics, and why people felt more connected to one another. I said that feelings of connection and belonging are natural for people when they’re not lost in isolated, stressful thinking; that when people feel more connected, they have a greater sense of well being. I explained that there’s nothing inherent in the nature of communities (or events such as the Olympics) that has us feeling connected or disconnected; it’s always down to our thinking. It looked like the Olympics was making people feel more optimistic and connected, but the optimism and connection they were feeling is natural for people when they’re paying less attention to contaminated thinking.
As your understanding of clarity increases, contaminated thinking falls away and you start experiencing greater connection…
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Connection is what’s already there naturally for people when there’s nothing else in the way…
– Connection with other people
– Connection with your wisdom, intuition and deeper nature
– Connection with life as a whole
And what gets in the way? Contaminated thinking; the mistaken belief that we’re feeling something other than Thought in the moment. But it doesn’t work that way, ever. Consider these 2 rules of human perception:
Rule #1 – You’re always feeling the principle of Thought in the moment. 100% of your perceptual experience arises from 100% of your thinking.
Rule #2 – Even when it looks like you’re feeling something other than your thinking, you’re still feeling Thought in the moment.
Thought is the best special effects department in the world. We find ourselves in a Thought-generated experiential reality before we know Thought has anything to do with it. As a result, we all get hoodwinked by the “outside-in” illusion, and fall victim to the illusory patterns of contaminated thinking. But here’s the good news: It’s called “contaminated thinking” because it’s an illusion. The outside-in misunderstanding is just that; a misunderstanding. It doesn’t work that way; not ever. It only ever works “inside-out”.
And what does this have to do with connection? Here’s what. As I said earlier, connection is what’s already there naturally for people when there’s nothing else in the way. The only thing that ever gets in the way is “contaminated thinking”, a mind-made illusion. Illusions aren’t real, which means that…
There’s never anything in the way. Connection is always and already there for us, no matter what.
While we can fall into the trap of thinking we’ve lost connection with another person, our inner wisdom, or with life itself, we never really do; it’s just an illusion. So how do you “wake up” from the outside-in illusion and start experiencing those connections that are already there? As usual, I’ve got some bad news and some good news:
The bad news: There’s nothing you can “do” in the moment to wake yourself up from the outside-in illusion.
The good news: Your mind is a self-correcting system. As you continue deepening your understanding of the principles behind clarity, you’ll find yourself “waking up” spontaneously, without having to “do” anything.
Here’s how it works: You’ll be caught up in contaminated thinking (possibly with feelings of agitation etc) when suddenly it will occur to you that you’re feeling your thinking, not the thing you’re thinking about. When this realisation occurs to you, it’s a sign that the process of self-correction has already begun; you don’t need to “do” anything to help it along. It’s a naturally occurring process.
As you can see, clarity of understanding, clarity of mind and clarity of connection are all intimately related.
– As you continue increasing your clarity of understanding about clarity, you’ll find your self-correcting system working more and more efficiently, returning you more quickly to…
– Clarity of mind… With greater understanding of how the system works, you’ll find yourself spending more time with a clear head, and bouncing back more quickly at those times where you lose your way in contaminated thinking. This increasing clarity of mind is the source of…
– Greater clarity of connection. As you keep waking up from the outside-in illusion, you’ll find yourself more and more deeply in connection with other people, your inner nature, and with life itself.
And what does all of this have to do with achieving your goals and bringing your dreams to life?
You know those days, where everything just seems to fall into place? Where people go out of their way to help you? Where fresh, new ideas flow like a river and problems seem to solve themselves? That’s what! If you want to have more of those days, fewer sleepless nights, and more time to enjoy the people and experiences that matter to you, keep exploring the principles behind clarity.
If you’d like to experience deeper connection with other people, please share this article using one of the methods below.
You can increase your clarity of understanding of these principles at www.JamieSmart.com where you’ll find more great free stuff, including articles, audios and videos.
To your increasing clarity!
Big love
Jamie
PS The next installment of Project Glasswing is due to kick off in the new year. If you’d like to be considered for the latest intake of this programme, I’m looking for 36 very specific people:
– You are a coach, therapist or change-worker (Eg. Sports coach, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, business coach, bodyworker etc)
– You have at least one year’s experience of working with clients (either paid, pro-bono or both)
– You probably charge by the hour, but want to use a “coaching package” model and increase your income
– You have room to work with at least one longer term contract client, starting in March 2017
– You want to take your practice to the next level in 2017, and are willing to put step out of your comfort zone if necessary
– You’re an enthusiastic, friendly people-person
– You have a coachable spirit, and
– You can keep a secret
If that’s you, then email me at info@jamiesmart.com, and let me know where you’re located and a little about yourself (if you don’t know what to tell me about, look at the list above for inspiration). Change the subject line to “Project Glasswing JST”. I’ll be choosing people in the next couple of weeks. Talk to you soon!