My heart to encourage your heart
“Aim at nothing and you’ll hit it every time.”
Zig Ziglar
Repeat
It was a hot day, miserable in fact. The road was radiating heat like a red hot engine overheating on a summer’s day. I was that guy outside on a jog soaking up the heat like someone who has lost their mind. I swear I saw buzzards circling! Next thing I noticed my eyes were gazing down, looking at my feet, counting the cracks in the sidewalk. What followed is illustrative, my posture began to slump, my steps became harder and my breath got shorter. In short, my running got harder because my eyes changed what they were fixed on. I became aware of this and changed my focus for just a moment. I lifted my eyes towards a fixed point in the distance and my entire posture, gaze, and breath changed for the better. The only thing in my circumstances that changed was my focus.
You go where your eyes go.
Want to change your life?
Change your focus.
Step 1: Take a moment at each meal of the day to simply think about what you have been focusing on.
Step 2: If your focus is misdirected, willfully change it.
Step 3: If distraction is common then place a visual reminder such as a photo, or a word, heck get a tattoo!
I LOVE “likes”!
I was glaring at my screen eyes wide open scanning for the red notification that I have received a new “like”. I saw the beautiful red number that indicated that yet another human or computer somewhere out in the universe saw my work as worthy enough to attribute the click of the “like” button. See what I just did there? I prescribed significance and meaning to getting “likes” on my social network. Know what happened in my brain when I saw this red notification? My brain lit up like a Christmas tree in the rewards center. A shot of dopamine (the neurotransmitter responsible for pleasure), pulsated through my system causing my brain to smile BIG.
I just explained the anatomy of addiction!
At the very core of my functioning, I was rewarding myself by searching for “likes”. And just think, I haven’t even watched the popular Netflix documentary about this very thing. I am admitting my vulnerability to being addicted to the “like” button. How about you? Do you find yourself surfing searching for the newest response to your post? Are you hungry for the next comment on your selfie or blog post or video? We are people who are searching for the next HIT of dopamine whether it comes in tiny doses the size of an M&M or in huge doses such as personal praise or rewards. We are becoming mice in B.F. Skinner’s test labs where he created the theory of Behaviorism, this theory is rooted in the belief that we have NO FREE WILL and are only a product of rewards either positive or negative. Are we ok with being reduced to a series of rewards that influence our next actions? Are YOU ok with this?
What is my counselor’s take on all of this?
I believe that earlier and earlier we are introducing electronic devices to children where their reward center of the brain lights up much more frequently than it is designed to. With our young brains lighting up so frequently it begins to develop shallow root systems. The trees grow tall but the roots grow shallow. What does this mean? It means that as soon as something hard comes into the life of the young person they fall over because their brain can’t handle the stress.
What about you and me?
Our roots are getting more shallow as well. When the root system in our adult brains gets shallow, the smallest stress can topple us over like a live oak in wet weather with a gust of wind. Don’t believe me? Look no further than the year 2020 when Coronvirus hit our nation and world. One of the biggest results of Covid has been a massive toppling over of our trees. The absolute highest intellectual minds in science and medicine have been toppled over which has trickled down to the general public. Guess what our response was? BUY MORE TOILET PAPER!!!!!! Seems to me we have toppled our trees.
So what and now what?
We have a problem. More than ever we need to take the time to be aware of what we are doing to our brains and begin to make the choices (you have free will) to choose to deepen our roots.
Here are some root deepening exercises we can all begin to practice to deepen the roots of our brain.
In conclusion:
We have the opportunity to be deeply rooted as we lead the next generation towards their future. Unlike Skinner, I believe we have absolute choices, God doesn’t make us mice rather we are complex intricate humans made in the likeness of a creator God who loves us and designed us for JOY! If you will take these ideas and put them into practice you will produce fruit that will impact the next generations to come.
Let’s go deepen our roots!
To heal is to recover from what was broken. It means to allow the little people with hardhats to come out and repair the parts of you that are broken. This is best accomplished while we sleep. Every night when we lie down to sleep these little imaginary people with hardhats come out and repair all that was broken throughout the day. The more sleep the more repair. The less sleep, the less repair. So get more sleep.
Application:
What can you take away from this to assist you with healing?
P.S. can this apply to emotional and spiritual healing as well?
We can’t make a wave, we can’t fight the wave, might as well surf the wave.
Waves come at us daily in the form of circumstances.
Fighting with life’s waves leaves you all wet.
Resisting life’s waves will break you.
Surfing life’s waves will thrill you.
Application:
What is one wave you can identify that is crashing on you that could be surfed?
Dave Scott 