We’re all familiar with the way thoughts and feelings come and go during each day. Feelings can be gentle or turbulent. We experience high moods and low moods. Some moods pass quickly; some stick around longer. It’s rather like internal weather.
When the ‘sun is shining’ we feel good and our actions are intelligent and effective. When ‘the clouds’ roll in, we feel bad and our actions become confused and ineffective.
This is the way it is for everyone – the universal human experience. We accept it as normal but we rarely consider where this ‘weather’ comes from.
What causes our experience?
We grow up to assume that our experience comes from external sources, such as an activity, an event or another person. This can look very convincing.
For example, when someone pushes in a queue ahead of you, they ‘make you angry’. The experience of anger seems to come directly from the other person. Or you might share a candlelit meal with a loved-one and it ‘makes you happy’. The experience of happiness seems to come from the circumstances of the meal.
Yet there must be more to it than this because in a relaxed state of mind, you might laugh off an inconsiderate person who pushes in a queue. Similarly, if you were still sore over a previous argument, the cosy meal would be far from happy.
We also know that experience is subjective. Two people can watch a film together and have very different experiences: one enjoys the film while the other is bored stiff. Similarly, you might be inspired by a scene of natural beauty which leaves other people untouched.
Considering these clues, the idea that our experience comes from external sources looks rather doubtful; there are too many inconsistencies.
So where does our experience really come from?
Remarkably, the answer was revealed to an ordinary man called Sydney Banks who had a profound enlightenment experience. Syd went on to share his understanding which has attracted much attention because of its power to transform lives.
It’s all down to the power of thought. We are always thinking – it starts when we are born and continues until we die. Thinking is a life-sign, like breathing or heartbeat.
During every moment of our lives, the power of consciousness brings to life whatever we are thinking at that time. Literally, we feel our thinking. This, for example, is how you can get scared by a movie, even though you are safely sitting on your own sofa!
Our experience is created from the inside-out
Notice that this understanding is simply descriptive. It does not tell us what to do; rather, it tells us how things work.
We can gain insight into this understanding only through lived experience. A purely intellectual grasp has no power. Transformation occurs when we see the implications playing out in our own lives.
Three key implications
- Wellbeing is our default state. We don’t need to strive for what we already have. We automatically fall into a feeling of wellbeing whenever we become aware of the quiet beyond the noise of our thinking
- We have innate resilience which will always take us back to wellbeing. It’s like built-in buoyancy. Uncomfortable feelings – such as stress or distress – are a signal that our current mental effort is taking us away from wellbeing. Whenever we see this, it makes no sense to continue that mental effort
- We have natural wisdom through our ability to have insights. An insight is when we see something true that takes a load of thinking off our minds. Your wisdom is guiding you in those moments you ‘just know’ without knowing how you know
See how this can transform your life:
One option is to read my book
Or you could arrange a conversation with me
Or check out these additional resources