By Gregg Sanderson
I welcome the opportunity (even if painful) that my minute-to-minute experience offers me to become aware of the addictions I must reprogram to be liberated from my robot-like emotional patterns.
I have the most delightful little device around the house. It moves along the floor and bumps into things. No, it’s not a puppy. It’s a robot, and it goes along one way until it bumps into something, then it heads off in another direction until it bumps into something else.
That describes the emotional lives of a lot of people. One big difference is that my robot cleans the floor in the process. But robot or human, all they can do is follow their programming.
People get programmed from birth with limitations and models about right and wrong. When something happens that your programming can’t accept, it sets off the unpleasant emotions. We call them addictions because they act just like physical addictions, except they’re emotional…and they’re the ONLY cause of suffering.
My robot can’t change its programming—but people can if they just know what to change it to. That’s where these 12 pathways come in. Based on Ken Keyes Jr.’s Handbook to Higher Consciousness, they describe a mindset that you can apply to get back to center any time you’re upset. I’ve been using them for (OMG!) almost 45 years and have never found a painful emotional incident where one or more of the pathways didn’t apply.
Realize that any time you aren’t feeling happy, you have the opportunity to open your personal gates of joy even wider. You can go from “poor me” and “somebody done me wrong” to peaceful acceptance, and you’d never have had that chance unless your programming got triggered.
…that my minute-to-minute experience offers me…
If you aren’t happy, you’re suffering. If you’re suffering, you ALWAYS have the opportunity to change—and you don’t have to. Emotional growth is always an opportunity, but never a requirement.
…to become aware of the addictions I must reprogram…
All suffering is caused by needs that aren’t being met. You have the chance to discover exactly what you’re demanding from the situation that you aren’t getting. You reprogram by “up leveling” the addiction to a preference.
…to be liberated from my robot-like emotional patterns.
No more bouncing off the walls. When you change the program, you’re free to make your own choices when you (metaphorically) bump into something, then you can take off in any direction you choose.
Thus completes the “Freeing Myself” section of the 12 Pathways.
We’ve learned:
I am freeing myself…Nobody is going to free me.
I am discovering…My needs distort my perception.
I welcome the opportunity…My chance to shine!
Next month, we start the all important section, “Being Here Now.”
Be there then.
Gregg Sanderson is author of Spirit With A Smile, The World According To BOB. He is a licensed practitioner in the Centers for Spiritual Living, and a Certified Trainer for Infinite Possibilities. His earlier books were, What Ever Happened To Happily Ever After? and Split Happens—Easing The Pain Of Divorce. His latest project is the New Thought Global Network, where subscribers can enjoy the best in New Thought presentations from anywhere at any time. You can see it at http://www.newthoughtglobal.org.