Zen of Zippity Doo Dah

When you close your eyes, can you see the color red without silently saying the word red in you mind? Only in complete silence can we hear everything. Only in complete stillness does the stone girl dance. The words we say to the world are important but nothing is more important than the words we say to ourselves. Phrases like, this is a pain in the neck, this is such a big headache, I am so sick and tired, all have a major impact on our well being and our health both mental and physical. But there is a great distance between the phrase “the problem is” and the phrase “the opportunity is.” Both are saying the same thing but with one we are empowered and with the other we are burdened into depression. And can’t never could.

We all have a resume of life experiences. Some are good, some are bad and some are even embarrassing. The ones that are most important to our survival rarely make the career version. When we try to walk on ice it is very difficult because there is no friction, nothing to push against. The experiences life hands us, are the stop we are pushing against, not the weight we are carrying. Without the stop we slip and slide and fall and our hopes for a better today into the future are diminished.

Our brains react to everything we say to them. Humans, like all living creatures, have what science calls the primitive brain. This part of our brain’s job is survival, to keep us alive. At the cellular level and the level of our primitive brain there are only two states: growth and healing or protection. We cannot be in both at the same time. While the rest of our brain can think its way out of fight or flight, it is the biggest part of the primitive brain’s primary responsibility. If our internal dialog is keeping us in protection mode, even if its at a subtle level, we cannot grow and heal.

Large portions of the communication, this technologically saturated world we have manifested ourselves in, is centered in fear. Many things in this world are scary, some justifiably so, and these are put front in center to get our attention. In fact, much of the modern world is geared to demand our attention constantly and fear is one of the surest way to get it. Advertisers work at our most primal instincts, fear and sex, both key to the survival of the species.

There was an experiment conducted with a high school basketball team where on the first day of practice the team was split in half, and for the next week at the end of practice, half the team was taken to a room and asked to visualized themselves shooting free throws, while the other half actually practiced shooting free throws. At the end of the week, the coaches measure the improvement for each player. The players, who never shot a free thrown during the week, improved within in five percent of the player who had actually shot free throws all week. The experiment was repeated many times, and each time the results were very similar or the same, with times where the players who never shot a free throw improving more than the ones who shot basketballs each day. Our minds make the world around us fit the picture they hold not the other way around.

There are very few things each of us can actually control but our internal language and the pictures we hold in our minds are one of them. We are creatures of habit and our brains like patterns that are easily repeatable, good or bad. It has been studied, and the proof is overwhelming, we create a world that matches the internal picture and manifest that picture even when our environment is telling us something completely the opposite. Story after story of humans that were told they weren’t worthy and would never accomplish anything but ended up manifesting greatness against all odds. They refused to believe the world’s message and manifested what they knew to be true for themselves.

Break the patterns, everyday in every way things are getting better and better. Listen and change your internal language. Be nice and supportive to yourself first and most importantly, and then sing Zippty Doo Dah:

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!

My, oh my, what a wonderful day.

Plenty of sunshine headin’ my way,

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!

Mister Bluebird’s on my shoulder.

It’s the truth, it’s actual,

Everything is satisfactual.

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!

Wonderful feelin’, wonderful day!