YOUR LIFE!

UNDERSTAND IT! CHANGE IT!

Contents	Page

Introduction

Part I	Understanding Your Physical Self

Chapter I	Birth-Life-Death – The Dilemma

Chapter II	The Evolutionary Process

Chapter III	Genetics – Our body is this

Chapter IV	The Brain – How We Show Up In Life

Chapter V	The Senses – How Our Brain Gets and	Gives Information

Part II	Blocks to Changing Who You Are

Chapter I	Our Nature – Is Our Mental State

Predetermined

Chapter II	Beliefs – What you believe be to true

Part III	Understanding Your Mental self

Chapter I	Your Mind Set – Who You Are

Chapter II	Your Life – Discover Your Mind Set

Part IV	Changing Your Life

Chapter I	Awareness – What Is It

Chapter II Choice – How do I choose differently

Chapter II	Change -What we resist

Chapter III	What Affects Choice

Chapter V	Choice, Responsibility and Consequences

Chapter VII	Change – Who You Can Become

Chapter VIII What Is Possible – In side your head

Introduction

Chapter I	Man’s Nature

Chapter II	What Is Life About

Chapter III	Spirit Or Soul

Chapter IV	The Minds Process

Chapter V	Redefining Your Life

Note: Add things about Choice, Perspective, and Flow and Process

Introduction

Before you read anything else I would like you to reflect for a minute about how unique you are. There has been no one like you and there will never be anyone like you again. It is with that reflection that I know this book will resonate with everyone who reads it in a different way. So my hope is that you will keep an open mind while reading this book and take what works for you and leave the rest.

In writing this book I know that the subject of changing your life has been addressed by many others. Others who have a credential(s) behind their name, a credential(s) earned because they completed a set of given courses at a school or university. My credentials only come from all of the experiences that are mine having lived the life that I have so far. In my lifetime I have experienced many thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions just as have you.

In my search for understanding why I experienced the above, I have come to realize that one thing is clear. That what I experience in my life is determined by a body part made up of gray matter inside my skull we call the brain. What science has shown so far is that it is an electrical/chemical processing organism. In other words it uses electrical impulses to create synaptic connections which get translated into thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions. These synaptic connections also produce chemical secretions that are sent to other parts of the body to elicit physical responses within the body based on the these things. There are also impulses that come to our brain from our senses. Since we are all unique this process has left each of us with a different way of living life.

One might ask at this point what does this have to do with changing your life. Everything! If you choose to take the path of self exploration into awareness and change then I think that you can only do that by becoming aware of how and why your brain processes what goes on around you the way that it does. I would suggest that this can only be understood by searching your life to see how your thoughts, words, emotions and actions came to be what they are in your life at this point.

The reason to search your life is because everything you have experienced up to now has been determined by where you were born, parents, schools, peers, friends, relationships and the choices made in all of these. Choices that have formed who you are, what you believe, what is acceptable and the rules you live your life by.

These choices have formed the basis for the synaptic connections and chemical responses your body presents to the outside world. These synaptic connections I call your Mind Set. This Mind Set also connects to the chemical responses in your body. I believe that this Mind Set is the current synaptic and chemical responses your body gives and receives to and from outside stimulus. How you react to everyday life with similar responses to situations that arise in your life. Once you become aware of what these responses, then the possibility exists for you to change the synaptic connections and the chemical responses in your body. To change the way you respond to the world in your daily life.

In my mind until you become aware of your Mind Set you will live your life repeating the same actions over and over again. At best you unconsciously create new responses to replace old ones that may or may not work better in your life than the old ones. You may never be able to break free and open yourself up to find what makes your life a fantastic experience of all that there is and all that you can choose to be.

Once you become aware of the current thoughts as they take actual form in your mind and body, then the possibility to change them becomes a reality. It is by this awareness that you will be able to choose to exchange them with ones that create your life in a way that works for you and those around you. That is what this book is about. A way to honestly look at who you are now and then change through awareness to act with new thoughts, words, emotions and actions. A way to interact that brings you closer to yourself and others.

In the book we will explore what are the possible reasons for your current Mind Set in your life today. Only in looking at this can you change your Mind Set into an ever expanding awareness of all the possibilities of life.

I have given this book much thought. Since I have read many books written on subjects ranging from childhood needs to adult results of the parents we had or other care givers that raised us. I want to keep this book simple. Books often use to much verbiage to convey simple techniques or methods of why we are the way we are and the ways to change that. So this book will not be hard to read. I will 'keep it simple small'; kiss. I hope that within the pages of this book you may find something that will transform your life. May you find peace, happiness, joy, and and openness to the endless possibilities of life by transforming what doesn't work for you in your life now to what does work for you in the future. Choose now to look at who your are so you can redefine your life. Fantastic journey to you.

Part I

Understanding Your Physical Self

Chapter I

Birth-Life-Death – The Dilemma

This chapter is about understanding the reality of our lives. An awareness that we are only here for a time that can not be determined. We are finite beings living out this cycle of birth, life and death. This cycle is the catalyst for most of the ideas we have created to explain this dilemma. The fact that we are born, live and die.

These three words define the stages of your life. The moment you took your first breath at birth you began your life. All the breaths that come after that first breath are your life in action. With the last breath you take comes the end of life we call death.

You may ask what is this cycle all about? How do you explain it? The answer as I see it is that each of us must find our own answer to these questions or just accept what you have been taught about this it.

Birth

After that first breath you are born into the process of life. Your mind is processing all that is happening around you. The influence on this process begins with where you were born, the people that surround you and the culture into which you were born. The place on this earth that you were born into.

When a person becomes a human being is a matter of great discussion and controversy. I will just state here that my belief is that with the first breath you take you are a human being. That is when I believe you become active and you are alive. I will not try to convince anyone that this is a fact. Your belief is your own.

Life

With that first breath your mind is actively taking everything in and forming the thoughts or synaptic connections in your brain which start to determine who you will become, your mindset or personality as some would call it.

Personality is the way in which each and every brain processes what is going on around it. We make decisions that form a unique way of defining how to live life based on these processes. People may have the same rules in their minds about how to live life yet in some way they will be unique to that person. Everyone has just a little bit of uniqueness about how they view things.

As you grow up you mature and at some point start reacting and interacting with the environment you are in. Being able to evaluate and determine your responses to the situations that come up in your life. You develop what I called a mindset that becomes the rules you live your life by. These rules can change through out your whole life; from your birth until death.

In life we go through many stages which we have defined as infant, child, teenage, adult and old age. Through each of these stages we change. Our experiences are different in each of them as we mature through living this life. Each of us experiences one or more of these stages after birth. No one knows how many of these stages we will get to have. Death is of coarse the last experience and one we all have. We all have a life span, the moments between birth and death. Our life is begun, lived and ended.

Death

With the last breath you take comes death. That is the moment you cease to exist. There is no more life. It is done and finished. Death is the final phase of your life in this body. Again there are different beliefs about what may come after death and once again I only share what my belief is. I do not wish to dispute others beliefs as they are free to decide what they believe. Death is undeniably the end of your existence in this body.

Conclusion

As far as I can discern this is the cycle of life in the universe that we exist in. Everything follows this cycle. Our Sun came to be in the first flames of it's evolution. It has burned a long time before we were born and it will burn a long time after we have died. Yet it to will at some time burn out and die. Along with it will go all of the planets and anything within the sphere of our suns influence.

It seems to me there is no permanence in this continuing process of creation and endings. It has come to a start, has had a process and will come to an end. Again I do not wish to get into an argument about other beliefs. We exist in a universe where unique thoughts of all kinds have come to be.

Having stated the above I believe Each day is a gift of life to be experienced with awareness, love and gratitude. When our lives are not filled with these then I would purpose that your life is not being lived to the fullest extent that it can. Later I will write more about how our lives can be changed to bring us closer to these feelings.

Everything about what happens before or after this process of birth, life and death is based on belief, assumptions or conjectures. It does however have a great influence over who we are and what we believe. Our lives are lived based on what belief we have about the before, during and after of this process.

Chapter II

The Evolutionary Process

Why talk about evolution in this book. Anything that can affect who you are in this life needs to be looked at. I believe that we exist as a result of a evolutionary process. This process has and is determining who we are as human beings today. I want to address evolution and what I believe it has to do with our changing. By adapting we have developed the characteristics that have allowed us to exist until this day.

Evolution is about adapting to the environment as it changes. That which can adapt to the ever changing movement of life will survive. Everything on our planet is here because it was able to adapt to the changes occurring on this planet we call home.

We as human beings exist because whatever form of life we came from was and is able to adapt to the ever changing flow of creation. To survive the elements and other creatures that exist along with us.

Our minds can not have escaped being ingrained with thoughts that have allowed us to survive. Procreation is one of these thought processes that allows us to keep existing as a species. This I believe is responsible for our sex drive, this need to procreate.

Flight or fight responses to situations in our lives has certainly affected how we think and process what is going on around us. We are constantly making decisions based on what is going on around us to either stand and fight or flee. In every situation I believe our minds decided on which is the best of these to deal with it. So we develop rules based on which of these best helps us survive. These rules can change over time as we find we need new ones because the old ones do not keep us safe or get us what we desire.

Our tribal culture was developed to help us survive because it made us stronger than as individuals. People who band together for a greater purpose than the individual have a better chance of survival. Working together helped allowed us to do what one individual may not have. It also helped us develop rules about how to cooperate and exist together in a group. A lot of who we are is based on our involvement with others.

The characteristics of men and women have a lot to do with evolution. It seems that we have developed two types of people called male and female. Because of this and the physical differences between the two there is a different thought process for both. So in changing your life you need to be aware of as a man or woman what rules have you accepted that effect your life and how you live it. What rules work and what do not? Changing your life means looking at these 'gender roles'.

Conclusion

Do these evolutionary processes inside of our brains mean we are not capable change? No! If that were the case then I would not bother to write this book. It simply means that in order to change we need to become aware of how evolution has affected our thinking and how we act. We can then change our thinking with this knowledge to help our lives be lived better. So change is possible and I get to write this book.

Chapter III

Genetics

Why bring up genetics when talking about changing your self.

It is genetics that determines who we are as a person. It determines how we look, how our bodies operate and how our brains works. We are who we are in large part because of the genetic material given to us by our parents. The possibilities are as endless as the people who have live and are living now.

Scientist have identified genetic disorders of the brain. The brain is not fully able to function because there is something in the genetic make up of a person that is required but not formed correctly. This may means that some people may have a difficult time in changing who they are. Scientists are constantly researching methods of helping people who are disabled to have better lives.

There are also physical genetic conditions that make it difficult for people to change. Mongoloid ism, autism, developmental and other issues that a person is born with can make it difficult if not impossible for them to change.

Conclusion

I will admit that my knowledge of genetics is very small compared to what scientists have discovered. It is however a very important part of who we are. We come from a long line of genetic material that has determined who we are physically and mentally. We are the survivors of human history, a history of genetic evolution.

Chapter IV

The Brain

How can I talk about who we are physically without addressing the most important part of our bodies, the brain. Science has discovered many facts about our brains and how it is constructed and functions. As most of us know it is a soft grayish tissue encased in a skull. This hard case protects the soft tissue that is our brain by protecting it from the everyday bumps and lumps that it receives.

It has a left and a right hemisphere which have been identified to control different parts of our bodies. These hemispheres each take input from our senses of sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. See the image below for a better idea of what scientists have identified about the brain.

This image shows the complexity of the brain functions. It does not show how they interact. Scientists are discovering more and more about these complex interactions that determine how we see, act, speak and perform the everyday tasks necessary to living.

As you look around you at other people you can see the diverse ways in which people live their lives. It all has to do with this brain we each have inside of our skull.

Conclusion

The brain is where the content of who we are exist. Without this part of our body we would not be able to function as we do in everyday life. If anything is wrong with this part of our body it has a major effect on our lives. In our world there are many illnesses that are responsible for people living in a totally different way from what we call the “norm” as talked about above. It is also where all changes to how we live need to be accomplished.

When we die our brain no longer functions and we no longer have a reality. As I like to say we have disappeared from this existence. Our perspective of life is gone. Interestingly enough life will go on without us.

Chapter V	The Senses – How Our Brain

Gets and Gives

Information

To get and receive information the brain has the senses. Taste, touch, hearing, smell and sight. Each of these gives the brain a unique perspective on what is happening. Taste gives the brain information on what is been ingested through the mouth. Touch is formed from several sensations including pressure, skin stretch, vibration and temperature. Hearing is how the brain receives vibrations and turns them into some meaning. Smell is the way in which the brain distinquish the odor given off by any substance. Sight is the way in which the brain receives images so it can navigate or appreciate the world around it.

Conclusion

Life without the senses would be difficult to imagine. There would be no way for the brain to know what was happening. The term 'In the dark' would take on new meaning. There would be no way for us to interact with each other or the world around us.

Each sense is important to live life and understand what is happening in the world around us. People who do not have or lose one or more senses have a difficult time living life. It has been shown however that when one sense is lost the other senses become expanded. For an inspirational story about someone who only had touch and taste for senses read about Helen Keller.

Without any of the senses it would be impossible to be a human being in any meaningful way. There would be no way for the brain to communicate with the outside world. There would be no way for the brain to interact with the outside world and learn what it needs to live life. It would be the darkest of existences.

Part I Conclusion

As you can see we are indeed a complex physical being. That we have to deal with the fact that we are only here for a short period of time. That our physical essence is determined by evolution and genetics. That we have developed a brain structure that allows us to sense, think, act and speak. To not be acknowledge these things does not help us to understand the presence we are as living beings. So that is the reason I have discussed everything I have in this first part of the book.

Part II

Blocks to Changing Who You Are

Chapter I

Our Nature - Is Our Mental State Predetermined

Our Nature has been the object of many philosophical writings and intellectual conversations. Philosophers throughout the centuries have written about what they think the our nature is. If you are interested you can go to the internet and research the 'Nature Of Man' there. I will not go into them here.

Why do we delve into the question of our nature? Having a Nature is one way to explain why and how we act the way we do. A nature would mean that you are driven by a purpose encoded inside your mind to act, speak and think the way we do.

Why would I want to talk about the subject of Man's Nature? Simply because in my mind if we have a 'Nature' then the kind of change I am talking about is not possible. When anyone says that they have a 'Nature' then to me that means they can not behave in any other way. It can also be used as an excuse to behave in detrimental ways with each other. 'There is nothing I can do about it because it is in my Nature to act this way'. To me it means there is no other way to act then the way that we do.

Conclusion

So if you believe you have a nature this book may not be for you. It means we can not change and are set in our ideas of how we live our lives. If you are open to the possibility that you can change your life and the way you live it, then read on.

Chapter II

Your Beliefs - What you believe to be true

Part of our 'Mind Set' is our beliefs. These can cause us to resist positive changes to our lives. If you have certain beliefs then it might make changing your 'Mind Set' more difficult. I have included this link on the Internet because it presents an interesting dialog on 'belief'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief

Beliefs are something we all have. Each person has their set of beliefs that determine how they live their life. Even if someone believes the same way as we do I think that because of our uniqueness it will not be entirely the same in all aspects.

There are those who believe in God and there are those who believe there is no God. Neither can be proven by any means available to us ordinary human beings. The point here being that there is no way to prove there is or is not a God. It is a matter of what each person beleives to be the truth.

So if you are religious there are a few beliefs that can be an obstacle to the possibility of changing your Mind Set, especially as proposed in this book. The main belief I am talking about here is the one that God is in control of our lives. These include the phrase 'It is God's will', 'I leave it up to God' or 'Only God can change it'.

There is another belief system that is called predestination. It purposes that everything is set in place when you are born. Everything happens according to a prearranged plan. The phrases here are 'I can't do anything about it it is already determined' or 'I have no control over my life everything is arranged.'.

The belief in reincarnation is one that does believe in changing your Mind Set. We are here to learn lessons about life and to grow and change through them. It is through this process that at some point in time we have learned all of the lessons and no longer need to reincarnate.

This might give us the out to change by saying 'Next lifetime'.

Conclusion

Beliefs play a very large part in our 'Mind Set'. They determine how much of a change you can make in your 'Mind Set'. You many not even be able to consider that your 'Mind Set' can be changed. Then again you may believe that everything and anything can be changed with your 'Mind Set'. That is for you to decide. So read on if you believe you can change your 'Mind Set'.

Part II Conclusion

These are two of the major blocks that come to my mind that prevent us from changing. You may have others that you can identify for yourselves. These can come in the form of messages you received in childhood. Things like “You are to dumb to learn anything”, “You need to listen to what I say and no one else” and others of this kind. I didn't cover these as you may have looked at them earlier in discovering about who and what influenced you. So any of many things can block you from thinking you can change but I think the two I covered above are the most prevalent.

Part III

Understanding Your Mind Set

Chapter I

Your Mind Set – Who You Are

I believe that man’s mind is a blank slate. How does this blank slate become a 'Mind Set'? Each person is born into some part of this world we live in. This means that we are born into a geographical place where we are exposed to the thinking and ideas of that area. These are usually incorporated into a culture and society give us what I call a 'Mind Set'.

Our 'Mind Set' is also influenced by the choices we make as we grow up and mature. So it is not like our 'Mind Set' doesn't change over time. At any one point in time though it defines how we show up in our lives. It contains all of the rules and knowledge that we get by the experiences of living the life that is ours.

It can be influenced by many factors. A change in location, education, people and other factors we encounter in living our lives. It is also influenced by the choices we make as we experience our lives. This ‘Mind Set’ determines how we think, communicate, emote, and act in our lives right now.

This 'Mind Set' keeps us in a trance, unaware of why we think, communicate, emote, and act the way we do. In order to change ourselves we need to educate ourselves about our 'Mind Set'. This brings about a discussion of awareness.

It is only in awareness that we can grasp the way in which our minds work. Only if you can know what is going through your mind and why can you then begin to have the tools necessary to change your 'Mind Set'. It is like John Bradshaw says, 'You can be a human doing, or a human being'. In order to become a human being, we must become aware of ourselves and how we show up in this life that is ours.

Conclusion

A 'Mind Set' contains all of the rules and knowledge that your brain currently contains. It controls how you show up in your daily life. It defines the way you live and the choices you make. How you respond to the everyday interactions of your life. It is a complicated and ever changing process.

Your 'Mind Set' is who you are. There are 7 billion or so people on this planet each with their own unique 'Mind Set'. So Knowing your 'Mind Set' is essential to changing your life. The question then becomes how do we educate ourselves about our 'Mind Set'. Hopefully the following chapters will help you to do that or see how it may not be possible for you.

Chapter II

Your Life – Discover Your Mind Set

Before you can change your 'Mind Set' it is important to look into your life to see how you got where you are. It is this process that has created the Mind Set we have now.

Life happens! This sounds simple and it is. Two people join together in a physical union and nine months later, in most cases, life happens. You are one way or another pulled from the womb and take your first breaths of life. From the moment of your first breath you are on the way to developing your 'Mind Set'. That space between that first breath and the last is where life happens and you become who you are. A changing ever evolving 'Mind Set' based on people, events and locations you encounter.

There are several factors listed below that determine how your 'Mind Set' became what it may be for you.

Society

Country

Political System

Family

Religion

Friends

Peers

School

Choices

Society

You are born into a society. This is the term that encompasses all of the items below. They are all integral pieces of what we call society. This will play a big part in defining who you are; how you think, act, emote, and speak. So looking at all of the parts of a society will help you to see who what your Mind Set is.

Country

Almost every country in the world has a patriotic belief. Our country is right and all others are wrong. Most inhabitants of countries conform to this belief.

Each country has in place a system of beliefs about how people are to live. Again most people conform to these beliefs.

Yet even in countries there are separate areas where people live differently. India and China are the biggest examples of this. Areas of these countries have a different dialect or sometimes even a different language. There are even different belief systems.

Most countries however do have a central language and system of beliefs that are similar. When I say similar that means that different areas can have different belief systems but conform to the overall belief of the country.

Probably more complicated then I can describe here. A whole book might be devoted to this subject. Countries do in general present a uniform belief system that the citizens conform to. Looking at what country you were born in will help you see why you have some of the Mind Set that you do.

Political System

This subject is even more complicated. So the only thing to get here is to identify what your politics are. This way you can see what ideas you have based on this.

Family

One or more parents can leave. Parents can die and children are raised by who ever is available. Those who raise you will have their own Mind Sets; ideas, rules, emotions, and a view of what life is about and how it should operate.

Religion

This is the most complex issue I could talk about. Only you know the religious beliefs you have. There are so many different religious beliefs in our world that it would take a book or more to describe them all. There are also many beliefs that not religious. Some people are called New Age thinkers who many believe in reincarnation. This is the belief that we exist through many physical incarnations. Then there are Atheists who do not believe in any God or other deity that exists. They in general believe that we just exist and there is no real explanation for it.

Friends

These people are the most influential people in our lives besides our parents. Their Mind Set can have a profound influence on who we become and what we believe. They are powerful enough to override even the teachings of our parents and change the Mind Set we took on from our parents. This is why parents can worry so much about who we pick as friends. So these people can be the greatest influence on our Mind Set. Understanding these relationships can tell us a lot about who we are.

Peers

These are people that are in and around your age group. The peer group has a set of values, rules and requirements for being a part of it. If you adhere to these then you can be a part of your peer group. I am not an expert so I am just going by what I know of the peer group. Examining these values, rules and requirements can help you identify more about what your Mind Set might be.

School

School can take many forms. There is institutionalized, home, private, religious and a few more I imagine. There is no way to cover all of these in this book. Suffice it to say that whathever your schooling or lack thereof is has a profound effect on who you are. Escpecially when you consider that what you learn or do not affects the knowledge you have about the world around you. So another complex topic that only you can look at and see what it has done for your Mind Set.

Choices

All of the above experiences of life are infused with choices. Each of us makes choices during our life about what informtion comes into our lives. So we may experience the same society, school, peer group etc. Yet we make a choice about how it enters into our Mind Set. This is why I beleive that each individual is unique. So even in our sameness we are still each different from one another.

Conclusion

Humans are as complicated as the world they have created. So understanding about each of the listed topics can possibly give you some idea of how compicated humans are and in specific how complicated you are.

I would suggest the following exercise. Take each of the following and think about what ideas they have given you that make up your 'Mind Set'. How do they determine how you think, emote, act and speak.

Society

How does it teach you to interact with

yourself?

How does it teach you to interact with

others?

Country

What is the language

What is the political system

What is the economic system

What are the ideas about how you

fit in

Political System

Gives you an idea of the law of the land

Family – MOST IMPORTANT

What was your Mom and Dad's interactions like

What was your relationship with them

What was your relationship like with siblings!?

What were your Mom and Dad's ideas and thoughts

What do you think your ideas and thoughts are

from experiencing this family

Religion

What ideas did they teach you about why we are

here and how you should act

Friends

What ideas did you develop from your friends that

were different from the families

Peers

What ideas did you develop from your peers that

were different from the families

School

Choices – Next most important

What choices did you make that changed your ideas

and thougts from what you grew up with

Part III Conclusion

Your Mind Set is who you are. It defines how you show up in your daily life. Who you are is a complex interaction of all those parts of your life from where you exist. It is all the experiences, choices, people, places and things that have been a part of your life up until now. Once you have read this book my hope is you be able to move beyond your present Mind Set to a new Mind Set that allows you to live life in peace, harmony, happiness and more love than you can know.

Part IV

Changing Your life

Chapter I Awareness – What Is It

I believe it is the ability to know what is going on around us, what we are thinking, what we are feeling and how we want to react to what is happening in any moment of our lives. Having this ability gives us the key to changing our lives in a significant way. This ability means we can respond to life instead of reacting to it. It is however an elusive quality of mind for most of us.

It is elusive because we as humans are usually going through our daily lives distracted by what is going on around us and reacting to it. Our senses are constantly providing us with feedback from the world as it goes on around us. So it is difficult to detach from this feedback and start to be aware as I have defined it. To respond to life instead of reacting to it. Also there are other things that our minds distract us with.

From my experience our minds can become distracted by thoughts of past or future events. This takes away from living in the moment and responding to it. We are focused either on fantasies about the past and future that are going on what we are doing or thinking about. This usually involves past, present and future reflections.

It can also be we are creating fantasies or day dreams about what we wanted to happen, how we want it to happen now or what we want the future to be. All of which may or may not happen. The past is done, the present is dynamic and the future can not be determined.

Without awareness you will remain stuck in the reactive patterns of living that have defined your life based on your Mind Set. In other words what you don't know you can't change. Awareness takes you from reacting to life to responding to life.

I have stated what my opinion of awareness is. It can mean different things to different people. Some might say they are aware just because they are conscious. Others might say they are aware because they see things others don't.

In reality it probably has as many meanings as there are people who use the word.

Below is something that describes awareness. It is as close as possible to what I believe it is. It basically says what I said it was above.

If you are living your life and can identify with the above then in my opinion change is already occurring and that you are responding to life and not reacting to it. This means that what follows may or may not be interesting to you. You can even skip to the next section if you find that to be true.

In my opinion if you can't identify with the above then you are reacting to life and not responding to it. Reading this book means that you are at least willing to start responding to life and not reacting to it.

I have include this illustration as it helps to understand how awareness becomes possible. Only as you have more time to reflect on life can you become more aware. Until you are no longer struggling to live life can you think about how you live. It is in that Mastery of awareness that you are finally able to Respond to life instead of React to it.

The cartoon below illustrates what awareness is and can help you to understand it in life. It illustrates that when you have no awareness others see you as an idiot. You are in denial because you refuse to be aware of what others see and you don't. As you become more aware you can admit that you are an idiot and see for yourself why others see you that way. When you can see your self as an idiot without others telling you that you are then you have reached what I call awareness. So it is when you develop the characteristics outlined in the first diagram you have become aware. This allows you to see what is really true instead of what you see out of your mindset. It allows you to respond to life instead of react to it.

So by having awareness and the knowledge of what your Mind Set is you can change your life. You can change those things that don't work for you into ideas that do. You can also change your life from one of reaction to one of responding.

By responding to life you you are able to see things for the reality of what they are. You know what is going on around you and what you are thinking, what you are feeling and how you want to react in that moment to what is happening. You stop reacting to life and responding to it.

What this means for you is that you have the ability to make new choices in your life. You are not just reacting to others you are responding with awareness and new ways to get more happiness, joy and love in your life.

Conclusion

If you have read this then hopefully you can see if you responding to or reacting to life. You can determine what level of awareness you have and if there is more you can do to enhance it. Then this book may help you change your life to responding to it instead of reacting to it. This gives you the possibility of moving to a life that is filled with greater happiness, joy, peace, harmony and love.

Chapter II Choice – How do I Choose Differently

I believe you can not talk about changing your life with out talking about the next step which is choice. Once you have awareness then you can start making new choices in your life. You can choose differently than you have in the past. Awareness without choosing differently will keep you stuck in reacting instead of responding

Chapter I	Changing Your Mind Set – Choice,

responsibility and consequences

Chapter I	Changing Your Mind Set – What Does It	Mean

Chapter III	Awareness – How To Use It To Change	Your Mind Set

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Keith McKenna

2016-08-18T20:25:32.47

Alan Deroo