Spiritualize the Form of Your Life
by Dr. Jeff Alexander

Now that the New Year is here, it is time to lay down new resolutions and goals. No more fattening food, start that exercise program and take on that new hobby. Time to make a new start. Why do so many people have the best of intentions to make those necessary changes and then don’t?  The reasons are always the same: not enough time, extreme overwhelm and no energy. At least these have been my excuses. Oh well, there is always next year.

Consider the possibility that now is the perfect time to make the change. There is no better time than now. In order to change and have what you have never had, you must do what you have never done. This means letting go of old behaviors and habits. That equals personal change. Easier said than done? Most of you know that life will not stop for you to catch up. Life comes at you in many unpredictable ways with new challenges, problems and circumstances each day. I have noticed that in my own life, the priorities that are the most important often get the least attention. This, of course, is not intentional and just seems to happen unconsciously.

 

While we all have important things we must do, if we don’t create new openings and act on them, we can end up going in circles. Our discomfort grows until we finally have had enough. Discomfort and pain eventually pushes you over the edge until you say, “Enough, time to make a change!” If you are fortunate, this uncomfortable catalyst can come in the form of an overworked and tired emotional state with a mind that is exhausted. Some people create illness or disease to jumpstart them into taking a new course of behavior.

 

I remember the day my father came home from the doctor after being told that he had a serious heart condition. He was forty-five years old. Sitting in his favorite chair, his eyes were fixed on a pack of cigarettes on the coffee table. For the last twenty-five years, he smoked two packs a day. He looked up at me, reached over to the pack of smokes, and tossed them into the trash. He did not smoke another cigarette after that day. He stopped cold turkey.

 

A couple of months later, I asked my dad if he missed smoking and how easy it looked for him to quit. He smiled, “If you only knew. I fight the urge every day and it is tough.” I would have never known. I asked him how he did it. I will never forget his reply “Being your father and watching you grow up is more important than smoking. That is what I say to myself when the urge hits me. I just think about what I want to have instead of what I am giving up. The urge doesn’t really stop, but I just keep going in the direction of what I want.” I never forgot that.

 

Even though my father died years later, I like to think that I got to have him longer because of his change of behavior. Focus on what you want instead of what you don’t want. Focus on what you want and let go of everything else that stands in your way of getting it. Most of the time what stands in your way are your own dysfunctional habits. Letting go does not mean that they will simply fall away. Letting go means knowing that you have attachment to a particular way and that you recognize this. This opens up the possibility that there might be other options for new behaviors.

 

Habits are nothing but actions that you have performed many times to the point where now you don’t have to think about them. They can be good or harmful. Most new resolutions are good, and we usually desire to release the harmful ones. Focus on what you want rather than on the reasons why you can’t have it. Those who get what they want never stop wanting it.

 

Overwhelm is the state of mind that comes from the belief you do not have the capacity to do it all. I have news for you. You can’t do it all. You were never intended to do it all, and that is why you do not have the capacity for such a large task. Your mind sees the whole scope of your life and thinks it must handle the whole thing now. You get a sense of the enormous amount of stuff that fills your life. Your little personality self sees how huge it is and says, “You don’t have the capacity to do all of this. You are one person, and this is too big.” You feel overwhelmed.

 

You walk into the kitchen and notice a sink full of dirty dishes. You say, “Wow, look at all those dirty dishes I have to wash.” That is because you see the whole task in front of you. You can’t wash all the dishes at one time, yet the mind sees the whole thing and bundles it all up as one big job. After enough complaining you eventually start to wash them. One dish at a time until the sink is now empty.  A friend of mine asked me once, “How do you eat an elephant?” When I asked how, he replied, “One bite at a time.”

 

So people who have overwhelm issues, usually have capacity issues. It is not the size of the task or amount of items in their life; it is the belief that they do not have the capacity to get through it. This is true. You can’t do it all and don’t have the capacity to do it all. Even though you think you should, you don’t. This causes your emotional body to feel contracted because of the conflict between the truth of what is in your life and your beliefs about how to proceed. Your Spirit has given you all the capacity you need to do only what is immediately in front of you. Your Spirit knows you do not need or have the capacity to do the whole task at once, so you are given only what you need. Only the next step, the next piece is necessary. You have the capacity for this. Spirit is very efficient. The next time you feel overwhelmed, simply say, “Wow, look at this large amount of stuff. I am glad I do not have to do the whole thing at once. I know I have the capacity to do only the next piece. And when that is complete, I will have the capacity to do the one after that. I will just take it one bite at a time.”

 

Anyone who runs a marathon knows the power of just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. It could be overwhelming to dwell on the whole twenty-six miles. You have the capacity to lift that foot and put it in front of the other until you cross the finish line.  That is how you run the race.

 

Please know that your Spirit would never bring to you anything you could not handle. You have the capacity to resolve, change, take on new tasks, and let go of old behaviors anytime you want. Success is accomplished by surrendering to the fact that you must organize your life, put the priorities in check and set up actions that align with your most important goals. To paraphrase my father’s words, step back and look at what you have in front of you and then assess what is most important. Then one bite at a time, begin to take action. Celebrate each step.

 

By dwelling on what you have not accomplished yet, you may trigger your capacity issue and feel emotionally overwhelmed again. It is important to step back, assess, make appropriate changes, and then jump back in again and take the next bite. Continue to affirm to yourself that you always have the capacity to do what is in front of you, not any more or less.

 

Let’s take a moment to talk about habits and why they are hard to break.

 

When you start a new behavior that challenges or is contrary to old habits, a conflict in the brain occurs. The brain says, “Wait a minute. A pathway has been cut through all my neurons, and we have been running this loop for years. And now you want to cut a new path?” The emotional body reacts to this conversation in your head with discomfort and resistance. This is often diagnosed as withdrawals. They are felt throughout the entire body and are usually uncomfortable. The term withdraw is appropriate because you are literally withdrawing from an old brain pathway and carving out a new one. This takes time and conscious energy. The old path or habit is unconscious and takes little energy. The brain takes repeated actions and eventually files them into an unconscious part of the brain. This miraculous activity is done for a very important reason.  By making repetitive activities unconscious, you are more present with what is in front of you.

 

When you want to start a new habit, you have to start the whole process over again. This requires a surge of energy to create the new change. If you have a belief that change is fearful and hard, your brain will project a negative judgment about change. Your emotional body will react to this picture in your head with contraction and pain. Many people think it is the new behavior or goal that is so challenging. It is your perception of change that is the problem. The antidote to this is to focus on the pleasant end result. The emotional body will react to this with expansion and faith. Keep your eyes on the goa,l and you will clear every hurdle in front of you. And if you trip and fall along the way, that is when you must get up, learn and look for the goal.

 

 

Many people put affirmations, quotes, photos and other items to remind their brains of their goals, and this feeds the capacity to take on the next piece when things get tough. Remember, your Spirit has given you the capacity to take on that next piece. Not the next ten pieces, just the next piece.

 

I will explain how this works. I call this process spiritualizing the form. We are created in physical matter. We live in a physical world where there is form. Even our thoughts are form-based. They vibrate at such a high rate, we can’t see our thoughts with physical eyes, but we feel them and visualize them as pictures in our mind. This gives them form. By spiritualizing the form in our lives, we infuse it with a higher frequency of potential energy. We pour enthusiasm, excitement and love into what we have in front of us. Whether it is sweeping the driveway or performing a successful heart transplant, by spiritualizing it with a larger God-view perspective, you infuse it with new energy, and this feeds your desire to see it through.

 

The Leap of Faith weekend program does this in a very dramatic way. I provide participants with an environment where they are confronted in many ways to stimulate their beliefs on fear. It brings out their deep-rooted pathways and behaviors of how they deal with fearful challenges in their lives. They get an opportunity to bring to a level of awareness and observe their old unconscious beliefs. Most students are amazed to see what has been running them for years.

 

Leap of Faith students have an opportunity to re-program new habits and actions regarding how they deal with fear. Healthy and positive habits are then laid down in the brain as this is done many times throughout the weekend. The old dysfunctional habits are still present, however they soon atrophy because of non-use. The new conscious behavior is now taking over, and the brain begins its beautiful process of cutting a new pathway. A more spiritual pathway. This is what I call spiritualizing the form.

 

I have joined many of you with my own New Year resolutions. I have boldly announced with my wife Laurie some new very exciting challenges that will take my old brain pathways to the edge. I have taken out my spiritual weed-wacker and began to cut new paths by taking one small step at a time. We have elected to share some of these with our readers and graduates. We have completely changed our eating habits and began a new dramatic shift in this area. We have invested in Laurie going through a program in California to become a Gourmet Health Chef. Why start here? I believe that even with all the strategies, techniques and new information to help people become greater, with a lack of physical energy in the body, it is difficult to make these changes. When one awakens to new potentials and desires to live a more spiritual life, often they meet serious and hard challenges. This is natural. It takes energy in the body to get you through it. That is why we committed to this path.

 

If you do not have the physical energy to meet all the new changes, this can be difficult. This is where you must learn to care for your body, feed it wisely and insure that it is strong and ready for all life experiences. You can have all the great goals, strategies and desires for new resolutions, but if your body is always tired, ill or lacking in energy, it will be difficult to get going. You will feel the lack of energy and tend to slide easily back to that old pathway or rut. We will be addressing this important subject of energizing your body in future articles. For now, check out my wife Laurie’s blog on our new path we have taken to increase our own ability to physically be ready for all that is coming.

 

In the issues to come, I will be sharing with you some personal insights and challenges and how I meet them. I do this in hopes to motivate you to join us along the path of spiritualizing all form in your life. Changes are at hand. They are everywhere in the world. They are not bad. They are natural. They present us with opportunities for growth. Each change can be a step into creating heaven on earth. Or it can be hell, depending on what part of your brain you access. The good news is that you have the choice.

Your perception of overwhelm will change, and you will eventually come to peace with what is in your life. And together we will create heaven on earth, one step at a time.

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