Practicing Optimism Will Help You Improve the Quality of Your Life
Practicing Optimism Will Help You Improve the Quality of Your Life Isis through Robert Shapiro
17 November 2013
All right. This is Isis. Greetings.
Greetings! What's happening?
Well, I'm going to talk about disconnecting from thought. Thought has been promoted, you might say, for the past few hundred years as a way to create peace, rationality, calm, and predictability that can be controlled. While that was the intention (and of course thought existed before that), now with rationalization, whatever you do, say, or want to do — the actions you take — can be rationalized, sometimes by perfectly reasonable and logical people and sometimes by the other extreme and everything in between. As a result, thought is not a proven creator of peace. Sometimes it can help, but ultimately peace is a feeling and a condition. So the goal was to create a society that was less chaotic. And it was a worthy goal — still is. But now, whether you pursue thought, you will still be pursuing as beings peace, calm, and benevolence, not necessarily in that order, at different times.
So the issue, then, is that you are letting go of thought. This is part of the reason that almost everybody is more forgetful these days. Of course, you have your little memo pads you can write on so that you remember things, but not everybody does that. And even if you do, other thoughts will frequently become considered more important, which is part of the transformation process to help you all to get to the same feeling — not the same thought, all right? Feelings are much simpler. There are only so many feelings. But there's almost an infinite variety of thoughts. So even with meditations (practices, you understand), very often, there might be prayers, there might be things you say, but ultimately, it's to get to a feeling.
To help you all get to that feeling, Creator has deemed that since you're on a current path, globally, of potential destruction — not just from your own creations, outbursts of anger, criminal acts, or warlike behavior between nations and other groups, but also because Creator expects you to solve problems that are immediate, instantaneous, such as asteroids hitting Earth — then you have to be able to move beyond rationale. You can't make a persuasive argument with an asteroid. It's coming, all right? Many of them are coming. You have to know how to deflect them. And I can assure you, all the missiles and all the bombs you have are not going to work. It comes under the heading of "nice idea; forget it." And that's largely because there are many rocks just headed this way.
Does Creator want to destroy you? Of course not. Creator wants to remind you that you are here to create benevolently, and you must look out for each other, even if you don't necessarily like the other person, even if you feel even more strongly against them for whatever reason. I'm not trying to say your justifications may not be completely clear in your own minds. I am saying that to survive, you must help each other, no matter who the other person is. So these rocks are coming. Sometimes you'll know about it. Scientists can see some of them, and often amateur astronomers can help out. But sometimes you won't have time to see them. You'll be looking one way and something else will happen, as recently happened in Chelyabinsk. And that was not only a disaster for the many people who were injured but it also caused great property damage and fright. And people live with that to this day.
There are ways to deflect these things, and they're not scientific. I assure you, on other planets where you live other lives (or have done so or will do so), science is centered in the heart, not in the mind. Science is more of an educational program about what happens when you do such and such. When you perform something that seems magical but is actually a function of your natural abilities, science will sometimes come in as a teacher afterward and say, "Well, you did this, and this is what happened." But that will be for scholars only, all right? So it is important for you not only to do prayers, to request things, but to do these things together, not competitively. If you discover something in one country, don't keep it a secret. It will require all looking after all to achieve the level of benevolence needed not only to move on to the next place of benevolence for everyone to live but also to survive these times and the times to come.
Homework: Practice Optimism
Creator is not trying to rain down some type of horrible disaster. Creator is asking you, "What will you do to save everyone, including yourself?" Are you willing to set it aside that you might be angry — even in your own mind, justifiably angry — with others, and work with those others and still others to save Earth? It is very important that you not only think about this but that you also feel into it. Heart-centered creation does not differentiate between people. It is everyone. So I'm not trying to scare you. I'm just trying to make it clear to you that you will be leaving what you think is a thought-created civilization. But, in fact, for the most part, it is still created by feelings. And it is your job to practice feelings that you experience in your body. On a daily basis, that will at least get you to a benign and benevolent place.
So homework for you all: Turn the ringers off on your phones. Set them aside. For some of you, that will be difficult, because you like to be in touch with your friends and loved ones. But you will learn how to be in touch in other ways by doing these things I'm recommending, and you must learn for the safety of all beings on Earth. Now, practice every day for at least five minutes and build up until you can experience the physical feeling in your body, however it feels, of being optimistic, or to put it more simply: Practice optimism. If you're not sure what it is, look it up.
op·ti·mism1 n.
- A tendency to expect the best possible outcome or dwell on the most hopeful aspects of a situation: "There is a touch of optimism in every worry about one's own moral cleanliness" Victoria Ocampo.
- Philosophy
a. The doctrine, asserted by Leibnitz, that this world is the best of all possible worlds.
b. The belief that the universe is improving and that good will ultimately triumph over evil.
1. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., s.v. "optimism."
If you practice optimism, you will naturally feel a sense of cheerfulness. It will also bring you into the present moment. Many of you have been working on being in the present moment. This will do it. I recommend that you practice it until you can feel optimistic, and I can assure you, when you're feeling optimistic, you will also feel cheerful. You will notice almost immediately that you will begin to think. So just stop thinking. This is feeling practice. Don't get down on yourself for thinking. You've been raised to think, most of you. You weren't born to only think. You were born to feel and create through feelings, and you still do. But for most of you, it is something that occurs on a level that is not in your conscious mental body, meaning in your thought. So you can practice. When the thought stops and you've stopped it, go right back to feeling optimism.
It is not something meant for you to be thinking while you're doing this, though some of you might get quick pictures of something completely benevolent and joyful. That's all right, but remember, it isn't intended for you to then think about that. It's meant to stay focused in the physical feeling of optimism for you. Know that different people will have different feelings in their bodies. For some of you, you might have a feeling here or there in your physical body. But you will definitely feel cheerful. Optimism just brings that on. When you get good at this, you will discover that there is a tremendous benefit, a side benefit, and that is that good things seem to happen for you more often. It will seem as if mana is falling out of the sky, meaning the unexpected will take the form of good things happening to you as compared to unexpected things that make you feel bad or cause harm.
Do you know that if everybody on Earth — every human being on Earth — were optimistic, animals would be that way too, because very often, they're optimistic when they're on their own. That's their nature. But when they're around human beings, even as pets, they will tend to react and act according to your feelings, sometimes acting something out in order to prevent it from causing harm to you, such as disease. And sometimes they will even take on the disease themselves so that you don't have to suffer. This happens sometimes with pets who love you. So if everyone on the planet felt optimistic, and of course cheerful, it would not be possible for anything harmful to occur to anyone, period. You would still be able to work, but you would be cheerful while you worked. You'd be able to produce things. You'd be able to do things. You'd be able to have good lives. You would live benevolently. That is the simplest, easiest way to achieve that on the planet.
I don't expect you to be able to hold this feeling indefinitely. But you can begin. I recommend to make your initial goal to do this for five minutes. Be optimistic. You don't have to try to be cheerful. If you're optimistic, it will come out. It will just be there, and it will all bring you into the present moment, which is very good. That's your homework. It is good training since thought will not get you to benevolence unless everyone is meditating, and I don't think that's going to happen, because some people simply don't believe in it. It doesn't make any difference what religion you are, it doesn't make any difference what philosophy you believe in, and it doesn't make any difference even if you don't have a religion or a philosophy that you practice. You were born optimistic.
How many times have you seen a baby just smile at you? It makes you feel wonderful, whether it's your baby or not. They're feeling optimistic and loving life. They are born that way. You are all born that way. So this is not something foreign to you. You can achieve it, but it will take some effort to maintain it. So I'm recommending that you start like this, because it will help you to not only deflect asteroids but also improve the quality of your life.
Achieve Your Natural State of Balance
What kind of volume of rocks or asteroids or meteors are you seeing that are aimed our way?
Understand they're not aimed. They're going somewhere, and Earth just happens to be in their way. Creator isn't suddenly throwing a bunch of rocks in your direction. This is the sort of thing that happens on a regular basis. You actually have a planet that has been helping you out for a long time. And science can show you that help. Look at the belts around Saturn, eh? Just look at all of the stones in there, all the rocks. People think that comes from something else. But very often — Saturn's a very big planet, you know — it will capture stone. It will capture rock on the basis of its powerful gravitational field. Saturn was set up in your area of planets, all right. It was set up by Creator to help you and also to show you (as you got more scientific and could see Saturn) that it was necessary, because on a regular basis, not all the time, there are times when there are many meteors. Of course, smaller ones burn up in your atmosphere every day. This is not new. There are many places on Earth, for that matter, where one can see where meteors have struck in the past. And geologists have suggested places that are underwater that look as if meteors might have had a residual effect — meaning because of the curve of the land and so on, perhaps a meteor struck there some time ago. For the most part, they're right. So this is normal.
But during this time of transition from one dimension to another, Creator was rather hoping that you would be able to pitch in, as it were, and help to deflect these rocks — even though there are a few people on Earth trained how to deflect them using what you would call spiritual means, which is actually something that is natural for you in other lives on other planets. You cannot count on them being vigilant every second. They have lives too. They have to work, they have to eat, and they have to sleep, just like you. So you can do your part by being optimistic. An interesting thing happens when you're optimistic and feeling it totally: Energy radiates out of your feet and out of the top of your head. You are not only being receptive but also projective, you might say. And this puts you into complete balance with your masculine and feminine energy.
If you've been wondering how to do that, it just happens, because it is in your physical nature of your physical body to want that. And in being optimistic (which is the way you were born and what you were meant to be as being born optimistic, believe it or not), you achieve in those moments of optimism — hence, cheerful, all right? — your natural state of balance. So it's not about how many are headed your way. It's about what you can do about it in the quickest and simplest way that will also improve the quality of your life and the lives of others. It doesn't make any difference what language you speak. It doesn't make any difference what religion you have. It's not about religion. It's not about language. It's not about nationality. It's about being your natural self. And it's not complicated.
Can you give us an example of what we should say if we feel or hear or think there's something heading our way?
Be optimistic.
Not a particular benevolent magic or true magic?
Well, you ought to know enough about that to do that now on your own. But what you can do, especially if you practice long touch, is just reach in the general direction of that stone and give it a little nudge. Don't try to nudge it in a particular direction. Just push back on it. That's all.
Long Touch: Influencing with Compatibility
I'd like you all to begin practicing something. You know that my blog, as I am able to post to it, is about magic — True Magic in that sense, meaning that which serves all beings, excluding none, in the most benevolent way. There are times when you may be able to help, at a great distance, to ease the pain and suffering of others, even to help to console others in some benevolent way. You will have to suspend your training and conditioning of disbelief to read on, but I'd like you to do so if you are open to the possibility.
Consider that there are many mysteries in the world: How did this come to be this way? How did these great, heavy blocks get moved from place to place? There are theories abounding. Yet very often, the explanation is simplicity itself. What if the blocks of stone are alive? If you've read this blog (www.mysticalman.blogspot.com) for a time and specifically my series of books called Shamanic Secrets, then you know that I believe that everything is alive and the books, which are all inspired and spoken with inspiration, teach a great many things about that.
Here's something you can practice for yourself. Just approach this as if it's possible, not as if you're going to dazzle your friends and family and not because you want to show off — and I'm sure most of you who are reading this have no such interests — but because, and only because, it can be used to save lives, to console the bereaved, and to help and assist when needed.
Here's what to practice: This is best done outdoors in a place that is quiet where you will not be disturbed. But if such a place is not available to you, then it can be done anywhere indoors where you have space around you in all directions of at least six feet. So six feet to the front, six feet to the back, you understand, like that. Also, preferably six feet above you and six feet below you, but I know that's not always easy. Still if you are outdoors, it's a little easier.
Now, this is what to do. Put something on the ground about three feet away from you just out of your reach. It can be anything. It doesn't matter if it's a leaf or a book or a stone, but it will be best if it is something from the natural world, something that occurs in nature — perhaps a light stone. Always remember: If you move a stone, ask its permission. You often do that simply by reaching down, noticing the exact position it is in, and when you go to pick it up, notice how your body feels. Do you feel comfortable? Do you feel physically all right? That's your body responding to the stone.
Never forget: Everything is alive. If you feel uncomfortable for any reason, leave the stone exactly where it is; or if you've already picked it up, replace it to the best of your ability exactly the way it was. Say you find a stone that feels comfortable, then set it up about three feet away from you in the position that feels the most comfortable to your body — again, the stone communicates with you. Then reach out with your, I would recommend, right hand with your palm down.
It is best if you are sitting on the soil to do this. If you cannot, then sit on a chair or a mat that is made entirely of natural products. Then reach out with your palm down toward the ground — not touching it, but just aiming down with your fingers relaxed and your hand open. Without touching the stone, aim your hand so that the fingers of your hand — as if they were long, you know, many feet long — are just under the stone, and lift up very gently.
Practice this, not necessarily expecting to move the stone up. Some of you might see a little something. It is possible. Things could happen, but for now, just begin to get used to extending the energy from your fingers and palm, working with the earth and feeling the energy of all life supporting this act, which is only intended to prepare you to serve the needs of all beings in the most benevolent way.
Good life.
— Robert Shapiro
Is it by being optimistic that the rocks or comets won't hit Earth or just being optimistic in general?
Of course, it's being optimistic in general. Optimism is a feeling. On other planets, people are optimistic all the time — not because they're afraid something's going to hit Earth, hit their planet, ay? [Chuckles.] They are optimistic because they're born that way, just like human beings on Earth. But because of conditions on Earth, they're sort of talked out of it. And because babies (being natural beings, of course) and animals (being natural beings, of course) — in this case, we'll say pets, beloved pets — will sometimes do the same things, such as if people are upset or angry around them, babies might cry, and then everybody tries to help baby. "What's wrong, dear?" You change the diaper; you go through your litany of things. You did everything, and baby's still crying. What is it? People in the house or near the house are upset or they're angry or something. So you give somebody an assignment, or if you're alone, rather, and you try this yourself even though you're holding baby, loving baby, of course. You try being in the feeling of optimism while you're holding baby. Love, yes, of course, but also be optimistic.
Baby, unless there is something wrong and you need to go to the doctor with baby, will relax and stop crying. There are lots of benefits to being optimistic. But it's a feeling; it doesn't help if you think, "I'm optimistic. I'm optimistic." [Laughs.] That doesn't help. It's a feeling. So practice feeling. You have feelings all the time. Optimism is one of the most transforming feelings. Love is another one. So when you're loving baby, and you're feeling optimistic, there's a pretty good chance baby will be feeling better and quiet down. And baby wants to feel loved, wants to feel what's natural for baby, which is optimism. Baby will be reassured by feeling what's natural for baby: love and optimism.
Are you saying that if you're optimistic, there's no way that you can attract anything but benevolence?
In the form of your question, "attract," I'd say that you might find yourself in a place where other people are not benevolent. But in terms of what happens to you, it will go through this filter of optimism and cheerfulness and, yes, benevolence. So it's not likely to affect you as strongly, but this is not an absolute. However, it will be a nice filter, and it is your natural filter. I recommend it. That would be a really fine thing to do in your meditational groups when you get together. But it's not thought. It's the feeling — optimism — that makes you feel good, and people might start to laugh, but that's fine. Let's focus on being optimistic — the feeling. It'll transform your life.
Feeling Is the Short Way
It's just not clear to me how being optimistic is going to deflect a meteor.
You mean it's not clear to your thought. You can't put the words together in your mind about how it works, and since you are determined to be a thinking person — I know you are speaking for the public — then you want to know the science behind it. What are the mechanics behind it? You want to know why it works because in your mind, you believe if the reason is good enough, that justifies the outcome, because that's the way the mind works in your culture. The mind works other ways in other cultures. But people are natural beings, and they are not affected by the polarity of this world that you're struggling to get past.
So that's the actual answer to your question. Feeling is different from thought. Thought is seeking justification. Feeling is. It's like you're putting something between you and feeling. Feeling is the short way. You can take the very long way if you want to, but that doesn't mean that it will be any better when you get to what you want — the end of the rainbow, as it were. Or you can just go right for the end of the rainbow immediately — with optimism. And you're asking me, "Will that magically transform the world if one person is optimistic?" No. But it may in many ways transform your own world.
Obviously, I do not expect that you'll be able to maintain optimism for your entire wakefulness during your day. But you'd be surprised how much optimism you feel, your physical body feels, when you're sleeping deeply, regardless of the dreams you're having. Your physical body regenerates because in its natural state of being, it is optimistic. That's why your physical body regenerates. That's why you can feel better in the morning. It's not because some authoritarian figure comes along and says, "You will feel better." It's not because thought in your body, which is not happening when you're sleeping, does something to transform your body. That is why you are here on Earth with a physical body, because your physical body is entirely about feeling, and this physical Earth is entirely about feeling. You are here to be that and discover how it works, because you forgot who you are when you came here so that you could create and re-create, as Zoosh said. However, the thing that is immediately noticeable when you are born, and beyond that, is feeling.
If you're asking, "Can one person doing that deflect a meteor?" probably not. But if many people are doing that, very possibly. And for those of you who have spiritual inclinations (or you might say "inclinations toward being a natural being"), practice long touch step by step, and you'll get better at it. Eventually, you'll be able to just reach right out and slow that meteor down. It's not your job to stop all meteors everywhere. Motion is natural. Your planet is in motion. It spins. It has an orbit. Motion is natural, inside your body and outside it. It's not about stopping everything. You don't want to do that. It's about being specific and stopping things that are harmful to all beings, such as your planet happening to be in the way of something hurtling along in space, or your planet moving through space and finding something else in the way, an object that would have been happier missing your planet. But oops! So …
Okay.
All right. I know "okay" means "I'll think about it." [Laughs.]
[Laughs.]
And that is perfectly all right.
No, no …
But if I'm — I'd just like you to put that in, okay, Melody? And hear a chuckle too. All right? For the end. And we'll finish it off, okay, unless you have other questions.
No, I really don't.
I know. Keep in mind, then, that this is something that is worth trying for your own good as an individual, to practice this even five minutes a day every day without anything that's going to get your attention. So don't text during those times. It's not something that you practice while you do other things. It is a total focus, and you practice it to improve the quality of your life and ultimately to improve the quality of everyone's life on Earth. But you don't have to think in terms of everyone. You don't have to think, period. It is a feeling. Give it a try. I think you'll find that at the very least when you're practicing it, you'll feel better, and maybe you'll even have a chuckle or two. Good life.
Hmm. Good life.
• • •
[Robert] All right.
Hello!
I can say from my own experience — I've been on this homework for a while, actually, and I have to say that it's very effective. Some time ago, they told me to start practicing optimism, and (as is typical for me since they ask me to do a lot of different stuff) I didn't get on it right away. They're patient. And then down the road they'll ask, "Are you practicing your optimism?" or some other question. They'll say something funny.
I say, "Oh, no, but I haven't forgotten about it," you know. But lately I've been practicing it, just like a few minutes every day. Usually, I don't even think of it until I go to bed, and then it's like, "Oh yeah, I can practice my optimism." Then I do it for like five minutes or something. So when I started doing it some time ago, good things just happened out of the blue. So it was like I didn't connect the dots right away. But afterward, I was thinking, "Now, where did that come from?" and I just immediately flashed on the feeling. It's like, wow!
I remember the first time I did it that it lasted a long time. It's like being in an altered state. There's energy. It'll be that way for you too. You'll feel optimism, and then you'll feel the energy. Then you'll sort of be in it for a while, and you won't even know how long. And not long after that, something good will happen. I don't want to say what, because it's personal, but things like that can happen. It's really … I was kind of dazzled that something that uncomplicated could bring that about. •
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