Intellectual vs Visceral – Part 2

Several folks referred to the last post, and basically asked, "Yes, but HOW?" (do you shift from an intellectual understanding of a concept to a visceral understanding – actually effecting change.)

On my post of July 13, 2012, I wrote about the "flipping point" – that point in time when we've "had enough" of repeating a pattern of behavior that rarely (or never) worked how we thought it should.

There is another point to consider that quickens the pace to that flipping point. It ain't pretty, but it's effective. At first blush, I am pretty adamant that my unwanted behavior is totally counterproductive – I see no reason why I wouldn't want to get rid of it. However, when I look more deeply, I always find an upside to that pattern that is juicy enough to maintain unwanted, repetitive reactions.

Example: the upsides of continuing to believe that "I'm not enough" allowed me to watch from the sidelines, pretend I could do better than those fools on the playing field, while not risking looking like a fool myself; sit on my pity pot, play the martyr; and best of all, I got to blame my dysfunctional behavior on somebody else (Anybody else), thereby abdicating responsibility for my own quality of life (which reinforced the belief that I'm not good enough).

Pretty cool, eh? 

Except that it requires living a petty, self-serving, ego-driven life, sacrificing my destiny, my faith in mySELF, my faith in the one-ness of all beings, and my faith in that which is greater than us all. Other than that, it's pretty cool.