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Thursday, February 5th at Noon pacific/3pm eastern/8pm UK

PLAYING WITH SPIRIT with Barbel Mohr

Join Michael for this lively chat with Barbel Mohr, best-selling author of The Cosmic Ordering Service and over 20 other books on success, happiness, and spirit. Be sure to email your questions for Barbel and Michael to radio@geniuscatalyst.com.

You can listen to the show this and every Thursday - simply go to hayhouseradio.com at Noon pacific/8pm UK and click on the button marked "Listen Now".

A quick note from Michael:

Many of the ideas in today's tip have come to me via the work of George Pransky and Syd Banks. If you enjoy these ideas, you can learn more about their practical application in my new book SUPERCOACH: 10 SECRETS TO TRANSFORM ANYONE'S LIFE available for pre-order now!

One of the things I've noticed over the years is that when a client tells me that they are "stressed out", there are two things which are always present - a busy mind and an icky feeling.

What makes it worse is that these two things tend to feed on each other. The worse they feel, the busier their minds tend to get as they try to figure out what's wrong and what to do about it; the busier their mind gets, the worse they tend to feel.

In order to help them to reconnect with their innate happiness and well-being, I will often point them towards what I believe to be the opposite of stress:

These two things feed each other in a wonderfully positive way. The quieter your mind, the more beautiful feeling you will tend to feel in your body; the more wonderful the feeling, the quieter your mind will tend to become.

One of my favorite analogies for the workings of the mind is the tachometer (or RPM gauge) of a racing car. Generally speaking, you can use the tachometer to let you know when the engine is functioning optimally and when it's time to shift gears

But what if instead of measuring RPM, or "revolutions per minute", our mental tachometer measured TPM - "thoughts per minute"?

Let's say that our brain's "thoughts per minute" tachometer ran on a scale something like this:



When we find ourselves experiencing stress in our lives, we know that we can reduce and often eliminate that stress entirely by slowing down our thought-speed. And although there are thousands of books written about the power of meditation, prayer, chanting, and even questioning your thoughts to set yourself free, the simpler truth is this:

You don't need to do anything to slow down your thoughts.

If you want to slow down your car engine, you do it by not pressing on the accelerator; if you want to slow down your thoughts, you do it by not speeding them up.

In other words, a quiet mind is actually your default setting - the place you will naturally return to when you're not artificially revving up your thoughts in an attempt to control the future or figure out the past. And that quiet mind is so often accompanied by a beautiful feeling that continually trying to acquire better feelings through work, relationships, money or food begins to feel as silly as "practicing having a nose" - at best, it's unnecessary, and at worst, it actually gets in the way.

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Today's Experiment:

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1. Notice for yourself what happens to the feeling in your body when your thoughts slow down and speed up throughout the day.

2. Make a quick list of which activities (e-mail, websurfing, going for walks, eating, reading, etc.) tend to rev up your thoughts and which ones create the space for them to slow back down.

3. Spend as much time as you can today in a quiet mind and a beautiful feeling. If you notice yourself trying too hard to figure it all out, just let it go as best you can and come back to it when it feels easier. Have fun, learn heaps, and hang loose!

With love,