The Rabbit Hole of Reinventing Yourself

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
—Albert Einstein

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“As within, so without.” —Hermessianex

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.”  —Lou Holtz

“Your only limitation is the one you set up in your own mind.” —Napoleon Hill

“As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.” —James Allen

So what in the hell does that really mean? Delving into the new (and very exciting) world of neuroplasticity, I think I may finally, after much seeking, understand the science of how the brain works and how we can truly reinvent ourselves—our personalities and our day-to-day lives.

Trying to figure out why my life is somewhat like Groundhog Day (the movie) has been the blight of my existence for a while. How can someone be reasonably intelligent, creative, have business acumen, and do a fuck load of things to reach a dream, and still wake up each day to a lot of reoccurring experiences with only some different players? Not only has it been a mystery to me, but to friends, family, coaches, and teachers who have watched me.

I’m thrilled when I get odd sparks, new little bits of magic or manna here and there, like dialing a radio and finding a beautiful song on a station, but then I hit the mountains (a challenge), lose the frequency, and static returns.

First I read The Brain that Changes Itself. Then How God Changes your Brain. I recently began immersing—and I mean submerging and steeping myself in the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza. Finding myself in a dark night of the soul, I got to the fall-on-your-knees moment of feeling the time had come to flush or swim (to use the Fish Called Wanda analogy). I asked (okay … pleaded) for an answer, for the missing piece of this bizarre life puzzle. And I got it.

Dispenza, the popular fellow from What the Bleep do We Know!? and What the Bleep!?:Down the Rabbit Hole, takes the quantum model, and in layman’s terms, explains how we can rewire our brains to create a “redesigned” personality and subsequent new reality. It brings the law of attraction to a whole new level and answers a good part of the reason why the “law” works for some, but not others.

To take Einstein’s quote above a little further, we cannot bring bold dreams to fruition, no matter how many things we do, how many affirmations we say, or how hard we try, if we’re doing it with the same stale mindset in the world of matter.

Dispenza’s theory is that we live in either a state of survival or a state of creation. In a state of survival, we live in reaction to our environment, which means we are at the mercy of the outer world. If shit happens, we react with a surge of emotions that batter the system. We anticipate new experiences—with jobs, lovers, friendships, family—based on what has happened in the past. When we step back as an observer of ourselves and fast from our emotional reactions, we have an opportunity to create anew.

The hard part in active creation comes in first realizing that a) we do have the power to create a much more vibrant life, b) we need to discipline ourselves to do the work involved, and c) we must nurture the fortitude to continue in faith and have the patience to await results.

If you don’t believe we have that kind of power over our minds and emotions, watch the true story of A Beautiful Mind.

The work involved? In a simplistic nutshell:

• Spending some time before we get out of bed to set intentions for our day and to ask for help and for evidence (signs that tell us we are consciously affecting our outcomes through our intentions).
• Meditating and visualizing, or as Dispenza calls it, rehearsing a new life, daily and repetitively so that we can walk into the new without resistance from our minds or from that little devil within that says, that’ll never happen—it never has before, so give it up, dude!
• Observing what we react to and how our body feels (when adrenaline and corrosive chemicals surge—what Eckhart Tolle calls the ‘pain body’) as well as catching ourselves when falling back into the painful, albeit comfortable rut that physiologically and tangibly resides in our brains.
• Constructing new roadways by trusting and by developing new responses and exciting visions for our lives.

In this process, we are pruning away the old mind, releasing the old self, and cultivating a new personality and a fresh reality. Just as an unused path in a forest is difficult to access, so too are the trails of negativity when left ignored. The brain is a large part of the science of reinvention, but the big, beautiful heart is not left out of the equation.

As we release primitive, lower frequency emotions and are no longer enslaved by them, we liberate the energy of our divinity. When we meditate and enter our internal landscape, the heart speaks. We stop analyzing, judging, and predicting. We move from a narcissistic state to a more selfless perspective.

The big message in all of this is that if your emotions and thoughts are careening down a slippery slope, detour them now. Before a disaster. Before a diagnosis. Before something brings you to your knees.

A few years back when I was in a stressful job, I distinctly recall thinking that my recurring thoughts and bad feelings were not good for my health. I innately knew that I was harming my body, yet I could not stop myself from being sucked into the whirling dervish within.

I’m not much of a bible quoter (can you drop the F bomb and quote the bible in the same post?), but my favorite promise is, “I will restore to you the years the locusts have eaten.” (Joel 2:25) In Catholicism I was taught to take the bible literally, which I never bought. I believe the messages are threaded with a much deeper, figurative wisdom. I now realize what the locusts actually are: fear, disappointment, doubt, anger, guilt, regret, despair, judgment, self-criticism, etc.

And I also realize that we ourselves, in co-creation with the greater mind, can restore the years that have been wasted in a state of survival and have left us with ill effects and residue. Our withered “crops” can be revived and miracles can abound from places we had not imagined when we tap into a new way of thinking and a solid source of power.

Is it easy?

Not.

At.

All.

I’ve just begun emotional rehab and I liken my addiction to emotional states and survival mode to getting off crack. One needs be ever vigilant. Cutting through old patterns and identifying preconceived outcomes I have developed based on the past is hard work. You must “lose your mind” to develop a new one. It’s time-consuming and exhausting. And, being human, I can find all kinds of diversions to keep me from sitting in contemplation. Yet when I do, cool things happen.

Is it worth it? Well, we can ask, is it loving and kind to torment yourself with nasty emotions and hanging on to past hurts? Would you rather live by rote or by creation?

The big thinkers—Martin Luther King, Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, Ghandi—these groundbreakers stepped away from the known and accepted norms to embrace what they believed they could change in the world in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

I guess the question is, are you worth it?

To learn more: Dr. Joe Dispenza