Always learning and keeping an open mind
Before writing this, I didn’t know what to share with the community for this month. Then a wave hit me as I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts “Bulletproof Radio with Dave Asprey” and towards the end of the podcast one of the guests named Gordy Bal asked the question “What does a Conscious Thought Revolution mean to you?” and the answers he received opened my eyes! You can listen to the podcast by going here. https://blog.bulletproof.com/coffee-talk-evolutionary-biology-food-hangovers-conscious-parenting-439/
Conscious Thought Revolution
When we have conscious thinking, we are learning to pay attention to the world outside of our own ego. One by one we increase our consciousness with which we make decisions about what we do for a living, about the way we respond when we get bad customer service, about the food we put in our mouth, etc…and then virally we spread that to the people around us. Then it becomes a revolution. This is how we can become the change we want to see in the world, by creating at conscious thought revolution.
The easiest way this can be achieved is by teaching kids to be conscious. It is being conscious and recognizes that every interaction you have with children generates meaning and to realize that the words we use are taken by a child and then are made up into some meaning for which they create rules for which they live by. I’m sure we can all find things that adults have stated to us when we were kids which we interoperated into rules which we still live by today. My life coach has helped me delve into this to help me understand why I do certain things.
In coaching kids, we ask them to pay attention when they are looking around and not listening to the coach. We forget to ask ourselves; do they even know what we mean when we state “pay attention”? Probably not. This is being conscious of these things so I can teach them how to be conscious and then they will “pay attention”.
When coaching I encourage kids to ask questions and teach them to be aware of what they are doing. I try to draw their attention to the thoughts that flow through their minds.
Dave Asprey stated: “A revolution means something that’s disruptive. It means it’s different and it’s a radical step out. And we can think about all sorts of stuff, but when you have a conscious thought what you’re doing is you’re thinking about what matters rather than just thinking for the sake of thinking. Or thinking and telling yourself a story, so when you have conscious thinking, you’re actually learning to pay attention to the story you told yourself but pay attention to the real story as the world exists outside of your own ego.”
Then Eric Edmeades of getwildfit.com stated: “It’s not so much we need a conscious thought revolution right now; it’s been going on for probably 2-million years. And 2-million years ago there was very little conscious thought and then slowly a little conscious thought developed, and then slowly a little bit more. And then maybe some point in time the ‘60’s, it started going the other direction, and maybe even earlier than that. For me, what it really is exactly that, it’s that – one by one, that whole “be the change you want to see in the world.” One by one we increase our consciousness with which we make decisions about what we do for a living, about the way we respond when we get bad customer service, about the food we put in our mouth, and one by one we do that. And then virally we spread that to the people around us. And then it does become a revolution.”
As the conversation went on, they expanded upon their answers and this is what hit me - It is a lot easier to teach kids to be conscious. It is something we do every day at BLUE WAVE. Last excerpt from the podcast that was a great insight was from Eric Edmeades. He stated; “I'm so clear about this I noticed when I was a kid that my parents could say something and if I ... As a kid you don't have a lot of meaning yet, right? You walk into the world; you don't know what the rules are. And I remember one day I was eating an apple, and I wanted to go to the bathroom. So, I was eating the apple, and I went into the bathroom, closed the door, put the apple down, did my business, washed my hands, picked up the apple, walked out of the bathroom. My mom saw me come out of the bathroom with an apple and she was like, "Oh, my God what are you doing! That's dangerous." But then she got busy with something and didn't explain to me what dangerous meant. And I must have been eight or something at the time, but I'm thinking, well, she knows I'm smart enough to have washed my hands, so it can't be that. What else could it be? And as a kid when you don't have any meanings, you don't really understand the world, you will make up meanings. And I remember one day playing with a straw, and I noticed that if you block the top of the straw you can pull the liquid up. And if you let go of the top of the straw the liquid falls out. And I started thinking well, maybe that's what she meant by dangerous - that if you swallow while you poop, you just fall out. I became really nervous about this. I would not chew gum going to the bathroom. I'd go in there, I wouldn’t swallow. I thought if you opened both ends, it's all wrong. And years later when I saw the absurdity of this as a parent, I've looked at that and I thought, wow, there's a lot of things that my parents said that when I look back at those memories now the meanings I assessed were so incredibly wrong. For me, a Conscious Thought Revolution as a parent, is to recognize that every interaction I have with my children generates a meaning, and the meaning might not be the words I used. The meaning might be that they take those words and they make up some meaning, which for them will become a rule to live by. Just yesterday I was in San Diego, and I'm walking through the mall … I did a Facebook Live about this, because it just struck me. There was a little girl with her mom in the lineup. And the little girl goes, "Mom, mom I want one of…" whatever. I don't even know what it was, and the mom says to her, "Well, you better marry rich."
I’ll end it at that line, and you can come up with your own rule the mother at that moment set in motion for her child. It isn’t just about what you say, it is how you act and/or react. What you display in your body language and facial expressions. The main thing is becoming aware of these things and what better way to do that is with the help of the community of teachers, coaches, neighbors, family, friends, and from some of the best teachers of all your children.
How can you start a conscious thought revolution?
BLUE WAVE ON 3…BLUE WAVE ON 3…1...2…3 - GO BLUE WAVE!
