Hello there, my name is Chris. For the purpose of trying to remain "mostly anonymous" I won't disclose too much information about myself, but I will tell you that I'm currently living a very happy life, surrounded by an abundance of love, wealth, and...well duh, happiness.
As you can see from the description of the "Welcome to my blog" found on the upper right corner of the page, it hasn't always been that way. My life has definitely been a journey full of wrong turns, dead ends, and retracing my footsteps. While you could say all that metaphorical traveling has lowered my metaphorical fat content - don't even ask - it left me mostly feeling lost, empty, and incomplete. It created a feeling of void in my life that was, perhaps, the biggest cause of my feelings of depression. I felt worthless, out of place in society. It didn't feel like I belonged. I couldn't relate to other people. I couldn't even relate to myself.
For most of that journey I was stuck in an ongoing loop of hardships. I didn't understand it at the time, but all those hardships were self-imposed. I brought them on myself through my self-defeating thoughts. After much contemplation (ie meditation, deep introspection, etc.), spanning many years, I came to realize that it was my self-beliefs, my self-concepts, that had developed over the course of my life that were the causes of my pain.
Looking back on my earliest years as a young child, I remembered being mostly happy and at ease with myself and in the company of others. I recalled feeling free. Free from fears about my future and unattached to any chains from my past. I was innocent and I wasn't a victim of cruel circumstances. I had an attractive personality and, with it, many friends and, perhaps, some enemies too...but, darn it, I had people that would stick up for me should those enemies confront me.
I figured, if I could be that way before, then it must be possible to attain it again. And I was right!
By far, the most important step that I ever took on my new journey towards improvement was the recognition that I - my thoughts and beliefs - was the sole cause of my hardships. My mind had become my biggest enemy and, in hindsight, was the reason for most of the enemies that I encountered in the "outside world" - which were really only perceived enemies, due to my perspective, but they were still very real to me at that time.
So the solution was clear - I had to re-direct my thoughts. I had to alter my perspective and, therefore, begin to change my beliefs about myself and the world that surrounds me.
This "inner work" wasn't easy. It took me three long, difficult, and effort-filled years of trying out and discarding many "self-help" techniques and tools, in itself causing me some stress. I devoted hours into meditation. I studied spirituality and religion on the Internet and in books for many months and even became quite spiritual in the process. I tried to consciously concentrate my thoughts, making them as positive as my pessimistic mind could muster. I used "positive affirmations" directly after awakening and before I slept. I forked over more dough on hypnosis MP3 recordings than I'd dare admit to anyone of rock or equivalent intelligence. I even spent a good chunk of change on a few computer programs that claimed to help relieve symptoms of stress and depression by simply listening to their recorded sound files (eg binaural beats). I bought e-books and paperback books and hardcover book, all geared towards self-improvement.
I went through all of this seemingly for naught...that is, until I read a little red and white covered book by the name of Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz. It was in those 268 pages, not the prior bagillion gazillion combined pages from other self-help books and Internet articles, that I finally felt the "spark" that would set my new journey a blazin': a journey towards more fulfillment, success, and happiness.
It's not that meditation, hypnosis, positive affirmations, spirituality, or even the binaural beats programs don't have what it takes to improve someone's life, it just didn't have what it took for me at that time. What I found was that I had the wrong frame of mind while using all those techniques - I EXPECTED THEM NOT TO WORK. Ever heard of self-fulfilling prophecies? Well, that's precisely what I later discovered was happening to me by not ever giving those methods a chance. THAT was where Psycho Cybernetics came in, it opened up my eyes to the truth that I was sabotaging myself with my own beliefs and self-image.
After reading the book, and internalizing all its great insights I began to notice that a lot of those techniques that I mentioned earlier - particularly meditation, hypnosis, positive affirmations, and spirituality - were starting to work for me. They started to work because I was using them with a different approach - I was open to the idea that I might not understand how everything works. I no longer expected failure. I was finally giving them a chance to work for me.
And, wouldn't you know it, they did.
How you view life. Whether you see it as full of mostly beauty or ugliness, happiness or depression, success or failure, is all a matter of choice. You may not realize that yet, but you can and will if you commit yourself to that end. And when you do, you will finally have the power to change...and you would be no more intelligent than a rock if you didn't take advantage of that opportunity.
I'm trying to provide you with that opportunity right here and right now. I'm going to give you everything that my own research and experiences have uncovered for me. I'm going to give you the truth about why you're struggling and the tools necessary to apply it to overcome...scratch that, PEACEFULLY AND ENTIRELY ANNIHILATE them for good!!!
and one more ! for good measure.
Peace,
WorldOfBliss
P.S. I just discovered a "scratch that feature", so I no longer have to say "scratch that." scratch that...how cool! The world is indeed a beautiful place!
