Conscious Creation & Neural Pathways: Challenges & Opportunities

I remember the first time that somebody asked me whether I was aware of how I was creating. I was not even sure what the question meant. Yes, when I want to create an article, I am quite aware of what I am doing. But it turns out that the question was an invitation to look at it on a larger scale.

How often do I want something, and how often does it get manifested exactly as I wanted it? I realized, after some deep thoughts, that there are areas in which I am aware and create consciously. However, there also are many areas in which that is not the case. It made me wonder how consciously I am living.

With my scientific background, I tend to go to my mind first. While it may not be the most optimal approach, it helps me to get started. Once I have an idea, I can open my heart and receive the messages that guide me. When I met beings that I call dragons, I learned increasingly what conscious creation means.

How most people create
Most people create in a way that we all have learned. Come with an idea (mind), be as creative as you can be (emotions) and create it (manifest). That is the way most people create, and that results in often wonderful products. However, that is only a part of creation. It is a creation within a solely physical world.

The other part is related to the quality of our lives at home and work. Most people do not see that as creation. They see that as circumstances that they do not have any or very limited control over. That means that they no longer “conscious create” but step in a different position: that of the victim. They feel that they have no choice because of others, of the company, of society, or any other reason with which they can come up.

Every person should be asked regularly the question I was asked: “Are you aware of how you create in your life?” By asking myself that question repeatedly, I began to understand the complexity of experiences, emotions, beliefs, neural pathways, and consequent actions, words we use, thoughts and beliefs we hold, and emotions. I want to look with you at some key elements of this unconscious part of our creation.

Scientists believe that our subconscious mind induces more than 90 percent of our experiences. That makes us only for a very small part, a conscious creator. Can we change that?

Awareness
Since so much is subconscious, we have to conclude that we are very limited in the awareness of what triggers us. It helps if we have a certain understanding of the process that takes place, because that makes it easier to change things. We cannot change things of which we are not aware.

When I shared the way most people create, three main aspects were involved: thoughts, emotions and manifestations. That is the physical approach to life. That works in many situations, for example, when we want to build bookshelves. We need a plan (thoughts), some creativity to make it fit in the whole style of our house (emotions), and we need the materials and become active in the actual making (manifestation). While that is good enough for the creation of physical objects, it is not good enough when it comes to the experience of the quality of life.

Then, we need a fourth aspect: spirituality. Besides physical beings, we also are spiritual beings. When we want to create a fulfilling life, we need to include all aspects of our being. While we can get away with ignoring our spiritual aspect when we make a table, we cannot do so when we consciously create the way we live.

Many traditions see the four aspects of our functioning as the four directions in a circle. When we connect the points, we can see that there are triangles. The left triangle is the physical; the right is spiritual. The axis from right to left is the creation that has to come from the spiritual aspects of ourselves, leading to manifestation. However, the vertical axis is the challenge. That challenge is what we call the mind, the combination of the beliefs and connected thoughts (upper point), and our emotions (lower point). This axis is the challenge for all of us when it comes to the creation of the quality of our lives.

Neural pathways
It all sounds so easy. Change the way you think and the way you react to your environment, and you will change. We all know that it is not as easy as that. To understand that, we can use Hebb’s law. This law, formulated by Donald Hebb in 1949, states that neurons that fire together wire together. Everything we do, say or think fires neurons in our brain. As soon as neurons fire together, they connect (wire together). When this firing and wiring gets repeated, it is no longer an incidental event but becomes a pattern, leading to a habit.

Habits can be very functional. For example, when we learn to drive a car, we first need to think about everything. When we repeat it, the neurons that get fired when we drive create a pattern, and soon, we do not have to think anymore about most of the actions involved in driving a car. There are many of these very functional neural pathways.

However, as much as we can create good habits, we also can create habits that do not support us. When we are worried and keep repeating this worry, it creates a neural pathway that makes worrying a habit. It even can lead to an addiction, an addiction to that worry, in the same way as we can get addicted to substances. If we are willing to look at ourselves in all honesty, we will see that we have many patterns and habits, of which some can be disruptive in the creation of a happy, healthy, joyful and abundant life.

Creating new pathways
In the same way as we can get neurons to wire together, we can change that. That same law states that if we do not fire the neurons together anymore, the wiring stops. Here lies our solution. The awareness of this aspect is the beginning of the creation of a more fulfilling life.

When we are aware of a pattern, we can choose to do something different than reacting in the same way as we always do. When we get triggered, instead of stepping into the pattern, do something completely different. Make a list of things you love doing and choose immediately one of the items on this list as soon as you are aware that you step into a pattern. That will do two things. It will stop the strengthening of the wiring. It also creates new wiring that is more supportive. It requires a willingness to do so. You may be surprised how much you can change in a short time. The more consistent you are in moving away from the old pattern, the weaker the wiring becomes. That makes it easier to create new neural pathways that are more supportive. This process is very empowering, and after a sometimes challenging start (your neural pathways like to fire), it becomes increasingly easy.

However, do not underestimate the power of certain habits. Many of these habits have their roots in childhood, often based on experiences that are traumatic for a child. These patterns are often deeply ingrained and require the need for being very consistent in the creation of new neural pathways.

The pitfalls
Everybody who has tried to make changes is aware that there are many challenges. We can summarize these challenges under one term: fear. Fear is the most dominating energy in our society, and it appears in many forms under many names, such as fear, angst, worries, anger, frustration, sadness, pretense. When we are willing to look at it in all honesty, we become aware of how these energies influence us daily. They are underlying many of the patterns we have.

The biggest challenge of fear is that it is such an integrated part of our lives that often we are not even aware of it. A lot of the patterns we have and the emotions we experience have become so “normal” that we no longer recognize them as fears. However, whenever we are not happy, do not experience joy, and do not feel loved, fears are still influencing us. Being aware of that opens the door to change.

Working with fears is so important that I received guidance again and again about supporting people to transform fear. I have given several workshops and created a CD with meditations guiding people into the use of a powerful transformational tool. It is interesting to note how little effect these activities had. That is not because the method does not work but because it is not easy to break through fears that block the attempt to change them.

The next step was to create an online course to go even deeper. However, not many people are willing to look that deeply at their fears. What makes staying in a state of fear seem more preferable than change?

There are different answers to this question. People come up with all kinds of excuses. The most common one is that they do not have time. We all know that excuse and know that it is not true. When we do not want to spend time on something, it is a choice, so lack of time can never be a real answer. To get a real answer, we need to go back to the mind.

The mind is part of the physical system and determines the way we have learned to function in an often challenging world. The function of this mind is survival. It wants to keep us safe. That means it tries to deal with fears to the best of its ability. Its problem is that it mixes up fear and danger. For the mind, fear is the same as danger. However, fear is a physiological response to something imagined. We have learned to see difficult situations, due to the emotional reactions to it, as dangerous. The mind believes that it is doing the right thing and consequently does not want to change. After all, from the mind’s perspective, it does not deal with fears but with dangers.

Decision and commitment
As long as we are happy, loving and abundant, there is no need to change. However, as soon as we experience a lack of that, we are dealing with fear. Fear lowers our overall vibration and prevents our spiritual essence from expressing itself through the physical system. As soon as we notice this, we now know that fear is involved. To avoid the strengthening of the neural pathways connected with these fears, go to your heart to the best of your ability, and do something entirely different.

Of course, what we do needs to be something we love doing. It will strengthen new neural pathways, and the old ones based on fear begin to lose their power. It will allow the creation of a life in which we experience love, joy, happiness, and abundance. It is more than worth the effort.


Conscious Creation is a weekend workshop from the program “A Path to Connection” by the Universal Center for Metaphysical Ecology in Sedona; go to UCME.international/path-to-connection/. For information on the CD, go to www.lemurantis.com/cds.html. For information on the online course “Living Without Fear,” go to UCME.international/online-courses/

NO COMMENTS

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Exit mobile version