Awakening Saturday morning, March 15, 2014 wasn’t unlike any other day, coming awake out of lucid sleep repeating love, happiness, peace, joy, strength, vision and freedom. Something was competing with my consciousness.
My legs were cramping up, and for good reason I suppose, after a late night return from Sacramento after being blessed and challenged since Wednesday March 12
- Blessed with presenting The Inspirational Tipping Point Workshop to Principal Group Financial’s Management Team on Thursday, March 13 and presenting The Inspirational Tipping Point Speaking Presentation to NAIFA Northern California’s Sales Expo on Friday, March 14.
- Challenged on Wednesday, March 12 running at times to try to catch six cancelled or missed flights on my way to Sacramento. At the end of the day, the only way to get to Sacramento was to fly to San Francisco and hire a car and driver to drive me to Sacramento as I was not going to take on a late evening drive from San Francisco to Sacramento not knowing the territory after getting up at 4 o’clock that morning.
You can read more about Wednesday’s travel excursion here;
Blessed or Challenged, I do my best so that the song remains the same no matter what; love, happiness, peace, joy, strength, vision and freedom.
It would not serve me to react to the stress that my body is feeling at the Vancouver Airport by introducing negative emotions of aggravation, anger, blame, despair, distress, fear, frustration, irritation, misery, overwhelm, panic, resentment and worry, as the Air Canada, Alaska and United ticketing agents did their absolute best to serve me by finding alternate flights so that I may be of service to others.
It would not serve me to echo the same negative emotions after arriving in San Francisco on Wednesday night to find out that I had no luggage, no suits, no toiletries, no workshop handouts and to echo these same negative emotions into the Principal Financial Group and NAIFA Northern California over the coming few days.
The song must remain the same no matter what; love, happiness, peace, joy, strength, vision and freedom.
Freedom from what?
Freedom from what is going on in my body and freedom from what is going on in my ego, what some call the amygdala, emotional or limbic brain. I am something more infinite, I am a being, what people of faith call the soul.
Yet my legs are cramping, and competing for my consciousness.
I know from experience, that the amygdala, emotional or limbic brain is a construct of unmet needs fueling negative emotions and negative beliefs and they are unreal and only real if I give them my conscious attention.
Note that I am not a proponent of medicating unresolved unmet needs fueling negative emotions and negative beliefs with I am Happy, Happy, Happy … As this is unsustainable. Unmet needs that fuel negative emotions and negative beliefs must be identified and cleared … allowing ones values, positive feelings and positive beliefs to shine through.
I also know from experience, that the amygdala, emotional or limbic brain is competing with my I am, being or soul for consciousness and the amygdala, emotional or limbic brain will try to get my attention or consciousness one way or another, often by colluding with my body in the form of aches and pains to verify the amygdala, emotional or limbic brain’s existence.
So I am wanting to remain in the song of; love, happiness, peace, joy, strength, vision and freedom, yet my legs are cramping.
My I am, being or soul is telling me to drink water and ride my exercise bike as soon as I can.
I am on my exercise bike right now using Dragon Dictation to write this Blog.
As I’m writing, I am thinking;
- Why do hockey players ride an exercise bike right after a hockey game?
- Why do hockey players ride an exercise bike after one of the most intense workouts and team sports?
- Why have I instinctively been riding my exercise bike anywhere from 30 – 90 minutes 3 – 6 times a week for the past 3 years?
Hockey players do this to remove the lactic acid from their systems as lactic acid is what causes muscles to burn after strenuous exercise. At the same time, hydrating while riding helps to rid the body and the brain of excess lactic acid and other toxins in the process. The Sporting Life book describes lactic acid as “a dead end as far as energy production is concerned.” Too much lactic acid will burn out the body and brain if you are not consciously aware.
So it would stand to reason, that one could find themselves in a destructive loop with the amygdala, emotional or limbic brain colluding with the body fueling negative energy.
The amygdala, emotional or limbic brain’s unmet needs, like worthiness as an example, fuel negative emotions like anxiety, despair and exhaustion, and negative beliefs like; it doesn’t matter what I do, I never seem to feel good enough, which gets projected to the body in all kinds of ways, colluding with aches and pains and eventually leading to disease … disease of the body and brain.
The body’s buildup of lactic acid, along with the resulting aches and pains, give the amygdala, emotional or limbic brain validation that the unmet needs, negative emotions and negative beliefs exist.
With this going on, both the amygdala, emotional or limbic brain and the body are both competing with the I am, being or soul for consciousness.
So what song do you choose to sing, because the song will remain the same unless you choose to consciously change the song?
- Love, happiness, peace, joy, strength, vision and freedom based on Values
- Aggravation, anger, blame, despair, distress, fear, frustration, irritation, misery, overwhelm, panic, resentment and worry based on Unmet Needs
It is up to the I am, the being or soul to keep a clear body and brain.
I took this a step further wondering if there were any scientific studies about how lactic acid affects the brain and here are a few fascinating articles with different perspectives;
We all have an unmet need of worthiness in varying degrees and you can bet the unmet need will be triggered in the amygdala, emotional or limbic brain when one expands their comfort zone … remember to remember to pay attention to your values-based I am, being or soul and find ways to understand the unmet needs that fuel negative emotions and negative beliefs that can trick your body and brain.
The key is to gain understanding, as there is nothing wrong, only an absence of understanding.
International Values and Behavioral Analyst, Business Coach, Speaker and Author
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