What borders you?

To develop ourselves in life, we have to cross borders. Not only geographical or physical borders, but also the borders of our mind.
Sometimes we are not even aware of our borders. We (unconsciously) take our world for granted.
So think about your borders. Do they help you in your development or do they bother you and are they an obstruction?

In other words:

What borders you?

Borders in our mind
When we get conscious of our boundaries, and want to get rid of them, our first reaction is that we want to change the borders themselves. In order to grow we think we have to change the outside situation, our environment, our friends.
But in most cases the best solution to grow is not to fight the borders, but to transform yourself.

Overcoming Real Borders
Now let's expand this way of thinking to the real big borders in society.
Take for example the Berlin Wall.



To tear down this wall, a single personal transformation of an individual human being is not enough.
To achieve this, the transformation of many people is necessary, including the so called 'leaders of the pack'.
Such transformations take time and can only be achieved by collective faith.

Compare the falling of the Berlin Wall with the destruction of the walls of Jericho.

Jericho: Hebrews 11:30-31 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

The theory behind it is that not the sound of the trumpets (shofars) destroyed the walls, but the low frequency and monotone vibrations (pulses, sum of individual sound waves) caused by the monotone stomping of the feet of the crowd, produced enough power (amplitude) to achieve this.
This could only be achieved if every member of the crowd had enough faith (to believe this result could be achieved) and therefore the discipline to act in one way.

How to change things
When we try to change a situation we have to deal with the next situations

	Balanced	Unbalanced
Stable	Unchangeable e.g. Universal Love	Hard to change e.g. Fall Berlin Wall
Unstable	Easy to change e.g. melting of ice	Chaotic e.g. weather

Now it becomes clear why in some situations it takes time to realize changes while in other situations a change appears after a single small action.



In a chaotic situation, first try to stabilize the situation and find a new balance

If we want to change situations like destructing the Berlin Wall, the first thing we need is acceptance. Acceptance of the fact that you as an individual (at first) are not able to breakdown this wall.

Only after this step faith can be created that this wall can be destroyed. Not by a direct individual breakdown, but by a well tuned set of collective actions 'around' this wall. Collective faith, concentration and repeating monotone actions will "vibe" the wall down, using the simple universal forces.

Learn to recognize situations that are stable, but not in balance. Use faith to get them balanced.

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Stumble It!

Sometimes Shit Happens

Even if we do our outmost best in life,

Sometimes Shit Happens



All kind of Shit, like accidents, divorces, dead or health problems could be messing up our lives.
When dealing with Shit, we may ask the "What" and the "Why" question.

First we may analyze de cause of the shit (the What question).

• What caused the Shit?
• Did I cause it myself or did somebody else do this?
• Could I prevent this kind of Shit or not?

But perhaps more important is the "Why" question

• Why did this happen?
• Why did it happen to me, my friend or my enemy?
• Why did it happen now and not later or earlier?
• Is there a reason why this happened?

Answering the Why question, could give us the meaning of this Shit that happened in our life.
Let's distinguish between several events that could happen to us in life.

Suppose you got caught in a car crash.
This is not a global, but a personal event, with mainly personal impact.
If the accident was caused by you, you could raise the why-question to yourself.
If the accident was caused by someone else who - for instance - was drunk and got on the wrong side of the road, things become more difficult.
The meaning, sense or reason of such an accident is often not personal, but more local. People in your environment learn from this that drinking alcohol and driving don't go together.

However, questions that you could raise in these kind of situations are:
Why was I there, at that moment, with what reason? And, could I have reacted differently?

Global events, like a tsunami or an earthquake, have an enormous personal impact on us, but no personal conclusions (in terms of meaning) can be drawn.
In these kind of events life may seem unfair from a personal point of view. These events only have a global meaning. Only global conclusions, like 'building stronger houses', can be drawn here.

The reason why such events take place are on a global scale. They concern the life and development of the earth as a hole.

Things like humans, animals, corals or whatever are of minor importance than the greater goal : survival of the Earth.



So in general we may conclude that from local (global) Shit-events we may often draw personal (global) conclusions with a personal (global) meaning.
You could say that local events have a local reason and global events have a global reason. Don't mix them up!

But perhaps you think that

Things happen without a reason ?
As we've seen, this may seam so, because reasons are sometimes global and not personal.

But perhaps you think there are no reasons in life, and everything - Shit and Good - is just random happening, without a meaning?

In this case you probably also think you've got no destination?
Because events in life only have a meaning if you have a goal, a destination. Not chosen by yourself, but by the universe.

So if you think

There's a destination in life
you'll search for the reason that Shit happened to you. By learning from the reason's that caused this Shit, you'll be able to reframe yourself and still reach your final (but sometimes hidden) personal destination. In a way you could say the environment (universe) helps you to reach your destination by generating Shit if you don't decide in line with your destination.



In a way you could say that the meaning of Shit happening in your life depends on what you believe.

Redefine, self-redefine, Shit as

Shit Helps In Thinking

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Stumble It!

Are you hardwired?

Of course we're build up by DNA and organic material. But is our brain also hardwired, programmed, to believe in God?



Neuroscientist Rhawn Joseph has made a study of this question.
His colleague, radiologist Andrew Newberg, studied the brains of Tibetan monks and Franciscan nuns to seek for the relationship between neural activity and mystical experience.

In an interesting article, Rhawn concludes that hyperactivation of the amygdala (the hypothalamus), hippocampus and overlying temporal lobe gives a person the sense that he is floating or flying above his surroundings. It can trigger memories and hallucinations, create brilliant lights, and at the same time secrete neurotransmitters that induce feelings of euphoria, peace and harmony.
In fact you could say our brain is in a way preprogrammed to recognize patterns (faces, objects, language, music), to analyze and interpret (complexity, meaning, good & bad, feelings) and to associate (logical, creative, abstract).

It looks like the brain is also preprogrammed to perceive this God awareness, create dreams and to have self-reference thoughts.
Enjoy it !

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Stumble It!

Mind of no Mind

We've been learned to think before we act. Nothing wrong with that. But sometimes when you have to act fast, it's better to be trained in such a way that you don't have to think before you act.

The "Zen expression" for this state of body and mind is called:

Mushin no shin

which means more or less "Mind of no mind".



Mushin no shin is a state into which very highly trained martial artists (e.g. samurai fighters) are said to enter during combat.

When you are in a Mushin state you don't experience disturbing thoughts and you can totally respond to your environment, without hesitation.
It's not just a question of "not thinking". You can only act on your gut-feeling when you are intensively trained to do so.

The time you save by not having to think, can be lifesaving and bring you in a position of total focus en dedication.

Don't use Mushin just for fighting, but use it to contribute to achieve a better performance for your friends and a better world.

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Stumble It!

What triggers you?

Sometimes in the middle of what seems to be a normal conversation, an ordinary event suddenly causes an intense emotional reaction. How is this possible? Normally a small event causes a small reaction. Sometimes a small event causes a large reaction, this is called anEmotional Trigger

The cause of an emotional trigger is not in the context of the situation or the present circumstances, it lays in the past. Within our past there's an event or trauma that is large enough to evoke such an emotional response. The trigger in the conversation is only a small inducement of this previous trauma.

Now you could say you respond emotional stable (S=1) if your Response (R) is in balance with the size of the Event (E) that triggers the response. If S is larger than one (S>1) you over-respond. So expressed in an emotional response formula:

R S = E

How can you deal with our own triggers?

1. Be aware of body cues.


2. Step back, don’t knee jerk react!


3. Look at your feelings (be very specific) & write them out.


4. Look on your lifepath for the "emotional puzzle piece" match.


5. Mentally "pull apart" the super-imposed images of the events "e" and "E", by identifying differences.


6. Deal with the primary past Event (trauma).


7. Choose to respond differently to the present event.

Once your conscious of your emotional triggers, the trigger stops. It's just like with tickling.You can't tickle yourself !So in the future not only be conscious of your own emotional triggers but also be aware of a remark you make that may cause an emotional trigger (with)in your friend. It's often just like with avalanches. Don't scream or explode (= trigger) or the avalanche (= large event) starts. But also don't run away too long from the situation, but work in small steps on the solution, or otherwise the avalanche starts on other triggers. Just like with the bushfires in Australia. Already the aboriginals in Australia knew more than thousands of years ago that controlled burning could prevent a major bushfire and encourage new growth of plants. Now get triggered with 'controlled bushfires' in your life.

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Stumble It!

Mixed Faith?

Do you believe in God? We all think or feel we belong to a certain religion.

We qualify each other as Buddhist, Christian or Scientologist.

But often what we believe is a mix of certain different kind of believes. And even if you don't believe in God, you often have a specific opinion on spiritual matters.

So you could say that, believer or non-believer, we all have a kind of a "mixed faith" to a certain degree.



You may now test it in the
Belief-O-Matic™

So even if you're sure of your faith, put it to the test and see what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing.

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Stumble It!