I just LOVE frameworks, models, and processes for change!

One of my favorites is the Scale of Human Conscious by renowned psychiatrist Dr. David R. Hawkins, in his book Power vs. Force. Hawkins wondered if maybe, emotions aren’t just “good” or “bad” as we think, but they are connected together, literally.

He came up with the scale you see an example of here. He postulated that emotions were actually levels of energy, one greater than the other. The lower half can be thought of as “Force” emotions (struggle) and the upper half as emotions of true “Power” (ability to act creatively).

How can you actually USE this scale in your daily life.

1. Notice what emotion you are feeling or you notice in a friend. (Better: ask your friend what emotion they’re feeling.)
2. Find that emotion on the scale.
3. Recognize the emotions just below that emotion. The current emotion may just be a way of staying out of the lower emotion beneath what they think is happening.
4. Recognize the next highest emotion and connect with that energy.

Here’s an example:

You notice a friend is “angry”. Telling them “you shouldn’t be angry” is a judgment, it’s shaming, and is actually telling them, “go down to the lower level of consciousness & energy”. In the case of anger, they may actually be “fighting off” thwarted desire, fear, grief of loss, or even apathy. Recognizing that, and allowing them the space to relieve that emotion, can release the stuck energy. Now, you can also ask them about the next higher level.

In the case of anger, “pride” & “courage” are the next levels up in energy. You could ask them, “What would you LIKE to do about the situation, if you could?” or “What have you done about this in the past that worked for you?” These kinds of questions can have them remember what they are proud of doing, times they had courage to face this kind of obstacle.

Remember, a key here is we can’t PUSH people into our desired level. We can only ask them questions that have them consider their levels and move themselves in levels of energy to face life valiantly.

If you’ve seen the movie The Secret, you’ve also seen another suggestion for this scale from Esther Hicks. Different level names but what I find useful is the revolutionary suggestion that “emotions are all connected”, not just random storms of the brain from stimulus.

Please try this framework for change out and post a comment about what you discover!

A contributor to Forbes Magazine has interviewed over 200 billionaires, Olympians, straight-A students and entrepreneurs and found this out: NONE of them use “to-do” lists.

He lists three key reasons a to-do list is a fail:

1. TIME is not accounted for
2. It doesn’t distinguish between URGENT and IMPORTANT tasks
3. It contributes to STRESS

What people tend to do with these lists is cherry pick the easy items and never complete all the tasks.

So what do these highly successful (and Highly Effective) people do: THEY USE A CALENDAR. They actually schedule tasks into their day and let the calendar tell them what to do, rather than their mind & emotions when they look over a pile of tasks.

Here’s the article: Forbes Magazine article July, 10 2015

Tony and his wife had a Question and Answer video call with people around the world on Wednesday. Couples and individuals got to ask the tough question like:

• “How do you rekindle the passion when it’s gone?”
• “What do I do when it’s my lovely wife that fired me from my job?”
• “How do I find the person that’s right for me?”
• and many more in this 1 hour video session

Tony, in his usual style, cuts right through to the truth. Sage and he have been married 16 happy years and they also have those moments where emotions run high. He’s learned a lot about what to do, and what not to do, after diving into marriage at 24 and instantly becoming a father to a 17 year old.

Those of you familiar with my work will hear the influence of David Deida and understanding the polarity of masculine and feminine energy. There are also many other useful distinctions you can apply today. They lay out some practical tips for single people looking for the one and to the several couples that want to deepen what they have together.

Go beyond the marketed consumer version of Valentine’s Day, which tells you spending money on external things is what creates happiness, and instead deepen your understanding of your mate, or potential mate, in a way that actually causes love to flourish.

As Cooper says in the opening, mindfulness helps us get around the stresses of daily life. It means, “being aware of your thoughts, physical sensations, and surroundings”, as he puts it. This may sound trivial until you look carefully to the sentence. Most people are completely unaware of their thoughts, their true present-moment sensations (not just pains or emotions), and what is really happening in the present moment.

Cooper was very skeptical going in. He had a profound experience and said it has changed his life.

13-minute 60 Minutes video (watch in browser):

To put it simply, your mind and body are in this present moment, rather than lost somewhere else in distraction. The most common distraction being the incessant running commentary of thinking or problem solving. Why is that important? You can only ACT in the present moment. You cannot act in the story in the head, being lost in the past, future, or projections of the mind. That’s like trying to take action in a dream. Indeed, many people are stuck in their own dream rather than participating in this moment.

There are also three additional short video segments on the CBS site to view: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mindfulness-anderson-cooper-60-minutes/

There are literally thousands of forms of meditation. What gives mindfulness the edge is that it’s been scientifically proven in countless studies over 40 years to eliminate depression, anxiety, and stress. Even medications typically just mask symptoms, create side effects, but still don’t eliminate the problem. Mindfulness is being taught at Google and other cutting-edge profitable corporations as well as taught in hospitals to cancer patients.

Mindfulness is something we can see at the highest levels of peak performance as well. Watch the Seattle Seahawks play football and you notice they’re a different kind of team. Pete Carroll, the head coach, has created a training system that has the players be mindful in the chaos of a big game.

If it works for all these people, maybe it will work for you to create a little more peace in your busy day? You are worth trying it out for yourself!

An article in Business Insider gives 13 tips for creating a recharging weekend. Some of my favorites that you can apply this weekend are:

• Make appointments with yourself: setting specific hours or minutes aside for activities YOU want to do
• Planning actually makes weekends happier: “looking forward” to things, being in anticipation of joy, gives us moments of joy now.
• Plan 3 – 5 “anchor” events: You don’t have to plan the entire weekend, but having 3 clear events on your calendar, and doing them, can create a memorable weekend, rather than an unfulfilling & unmemorable weekend.

One of the other tips Vanderkam shares is to write a list of 100 things you dream of doing so you can discover things you can do right now. When we rise above the mammalian obsession with food, sex, and comfort on the weekend, we can find a couple hours to put into our dreams.

Making and keeping an appointment with YOU is especially important for the exhausted parents out there! Your children deserve to learn how to pursue their interests every weekend rather than see a sacrificial parent teaching them that “dreams are not important”.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you about how you used one of the 13 tips this weekend.