Ashok Gupta explains why resolutions fail and what works instead: use morning visualization to make new behaviors self-sustaining, practice surrender by noticing resistance and breathing through it, and find your authentic purpose through felt joy rather than willpower.
Well, hello and welcome back to our Facebook Live. We just had our Facebook Live on New Year's inspirations. New Year, new you for a healthier and happier 2021. And I thought we'd start this separate Facebook Live to answer some of your questions that I know you may have many of. And if we can keep the questions more to the kind of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual goals that you can set, some of those healthy goals and, and more information about that, that would be fantastic. Great. So I'm just going to go to this now and let's look at some of your questions on Facebook. Okay, so in the comments section, please do share some of your questions about what it means to set these New Year's inspirations. We're letting go of New Year's resolutions now, and instead they're inspirations. So what does that mean to you and what works for you? Perhaps some of you can share some of those goals that you are indulging in. Don't be shy. So when we're talking about our New Year's resolution, some people ask me, actually we do have a question now. So Laura's asking, how can I maintain excitement about sustaining goals that I've achieved? Okay, well, look, we as human beings, we're aspirational beings. So as soon as we've achieved a goal, we move on to the next thing. And the next thing, you're absolutely right. What about sustaining that goal? We talked about this idea that your imagination is more powerful than your willpower. And an exercise that I'd love for you to do, Laura, which I use every morning without fail, and it really helps, reinspire me. Each moment is as soon as you wake up, your mind is in a semi hypnotic state. Your conscious mind hasn't jumped in and able to pollute that unconscious, I suppose you could call it sensitivity. So as soon as you wake up, imagine those goals and imagine sustaining those goals and how fantastic it feels. So let's say your goal is to exercise each morning. Okay, you've started that goal, but how to sustain it? Well, keep imagining how good it feels, how it's going to feel in a month's time, in two months time and three months time. And then as you sustain that goal, eventually it will become self sustaining. And many runners and athletes know and people who exercise that once you've got that endorphin rush, you crave it, you want more and more of it, and so then you sustain it. So keep reinspiring each moment by imagining the benefits. And not just imagining in terms of intellectually but feeling it. Just close your eyes for a few moments and just imagine what it feels like to fulfill those goals. Do that as soon as you wake up and that will help sustain them. Brenda asks, how can I learn to surrender and stop resisting? Brenda, what a wonderful question. And you know, Brenda, I wonder if you could be patient for just a few weeks because we're going to be doing another Facebook Live precisely on this subject, on surrender and acceptance. We're going to be doing a whole Facebook Live on this. And in the meantime, if you go to the meaning of life experiment and watch day nine, that talks exactly about acceptance and surrender, what it is and how you can achieve it. Well, you can't achieve surrender, but you can certainly practice surrender. And really, in some ways it's don't have to learn to surrender. You simply need to let go of resistance. Surrender and acceptance is your deepest nature. Anyway, you're already surrendered to that which you are. You cannot not be that which you already are. But what you can do is blind yourself to it. And our resistance to what is so what is happening right now covers up this beautiful diamond that we are with a layer of dust. And the purpose of giving back to others and meditating and all of these different things we practice is to remove that layer of dust to stop resisting what is so. Because as I'd mentioned in the first part, 2020 was a year of resistance. We resisted what is so because we weren't used to something like this in our lives. We got so used to life being a certain way, and we strengthened hopefully those muscles of acceptance and surrender because we had no choice. Life will help us let go of our attachments and our resistances and surrender to what is so. And the next lesson will come. And the next lesson will come. So the way we practice is to feel that resistance, that anxiety, that grief, whatever emotion you have within you, take a deep breath in and breathe it out to the feet of the Lord, they say, or whoever you believe in, or whatever represents love. So we can all believe in love. Whether you're an atheist, a spiritualist, a religionist, we can all believe in the power of love. So whatever represents love to you, imagine that in front of you and surrender and let go of your resistance and say, I am being taken care of, okay? There's a higher power at work. And when we surrender in that way, it brings enormous strength to us. But far more information. In that video, Kerry asks, after you healed yourself, when did you know what your new life purpose was and how did you go about Creating it authentically. Kerry, what is that feeling we have that connects us with our life purpose? It's that highest feeling of joy, that greatest feeling of expansion when we know, aha, I'm born to do it. This is what I was born to do. This is the gift I'm here to give this planet. And we connect with that in those moments when we experience it. How do we feel when we're giving back to somebody? Or how do we feel when we write a piece of music? Or how do we feel when we are teaching a room full of kids? Do we experience that highest level of expansion and beingness where all time and space stops and we are truly in the moment connecting with that inner joy that is the clue to what we are here to do? And, of course, there are processes that we go through, and that was a process I went through with a coach to really understand what is my heartfelt calling in this lifetime. So in terms of how we create it authentically, we be still, we go inwards, and after a meditation, ask ourselves, why am I here? What is my purpose? Instead of answering that intellectually with the mind, we bring forth that heartfelt intuition, that inner voice, that feeling that comes up, what am I born to do? And to help you along that process, in the Meaning of Life experiment, days 25, 26 and 27, I take you through a whole workshop of how you can connect with your life purpose. And I'd love everybody on this call, on this Facebook Live to experience that. So even if you've already done that exercise, what. What a great way to start 2021 to watch days 25, 26, and 27. Perhaps someone can paste here the three links from YouTube. Perhaps. And watching those three workshop videos will hopefully get you closer to your life.
