adventure – an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity.
Hazardous?
– defined as risky, dangerous
(So) what you’re saying is: for a circumstance, situation, or event to be considered an adventure, it must contain an element of risk or danger?
Hm.
who is on board?
Does the story you tell (your overriding thoughts that stem from your beliefs – what you believe to be true) suggest that life is something that happens to you, or that life is something that happens for you?
The difference between the two attitudes/beliefs/mindsets is the difference between living from a state of fear, or living from a state of possibility.
Fear triggers the stress response.
Possibility triggers the relaxation response.
Okay. That sounds lame. Who can really live from a state of relaxation, there is no action in that.
Relaxation is just a word so let’s not get too hung up on it.
The relaxation response is the opposite of the stress response. The vagus nerve is stimulated rather than fight, flight.
When we can relax our response we integrate mind, body, heart, spirit – we access the whole of who we are. Our minds become more clear, ideas open up to us, our natural instinct is to problem solve and assume a broader perspective exists even if it isn’t readily apparent.
If adventure (life) creates a sense of risk, or danger – wouldn’t that automatically trigger the stress response?
Are you ready for the answer (?)
Our truest self is the noticer.
When we notice the response (am I perceiving a potential danger? do I feel threatened? challenged?) – we recognize our power. The power of interpretation. The meaning we place on what we perceive. The power to choose a response – perhaps to be curious, rather than react on impulse. The power to choose the next step.
The next step is often the next thought. And then the next thought.
Our thoughts tell a story. The story creates a feeling – an energetic state. Energy is not stagnant. Energy moves. Energy in motion.
Emotion.
Do emotions happen to us?
When we observe, witness, notice emotion – who is in charge?
When we observe, witness, notice (OWN) our experience, we can lead it.
Leader. Executive. Boss.
When we are in charge of our inside world, we can execute next steps.
Skillset: self-awareness (noticing how one responds to a situation, circumstance, or event – is it perceived to be a potential danger? threat? challenge?)
When you OWN your response, you have WON the opportunity to choose. Being in a state of choice is powerful. Having choice is empowering.
An empowered human recognizes their natural ability to choose the thoughts they think. An empowered human recognizes that they tell their own story. An empowered human cares about their own self enough to disrupt storylines that are limiting, promote fear, and suggest that life is something that happens TO us – and we must protect ourselves from it at all cost, rather than telling a story that life happens for us.
In a school setting I used to work in, I would often ask the students: how does life know itself? how does life experience itself?
I’d then give the answer: it knows itself through your ears – you choose what you hear. It notices itself through your eyes – do you see beauty and possibility, or fear and scarcity? It notices itself through your senses.
Do you think life wants to enjoy itself? How does it do that?
What story do you tell?
What adventure are you on?
“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” (make an enemy of no one)
day. 