The Straightest Path to Life Without Stress

Lynne Hoft & Vivian Hildebrandt

The straightest path to life without stress is in the resolution of old beliefs and habits of thinking. Although we have been drawing this map for our readers for many years, we know that a large majority of the population is blind to this understanding.

There has always been a struggle between the old ways and the new. When we moved from horse and buggy days into travel by automobile, there were those who remained in the old ways because of their beliefs at that time. Today we are moving into a new world once again. We have seen the progression of technology in our lifetimes. Now we are in a shift of exponential proportions, to a higher dimensional way of being.

Whenever we experience personal or collective shifts, stress occurs. Our minds recycle the old thoughts and beliefs in the face of new situations we are confronted with. A struggle ensues leaving us in fear, worry, or at best, a case of total confusion.

We can move beyond the stress we experience during times of great change. The first step is moving beyond our mindsets. Our mindset is a collection of thoughts from the past. As each generation has moved into the present moment, they have opened to new ideas and creations, and made choices through their wholeness instead of from the mindset of the past.

Stress diminishes when we seat ourselves in the totality of who we are. We are not just mind machines.  We are creative, multidimensional beings who have access to the highest vibrations, to the bigger picture of our capacities and strengths. We can rest in and utilize our Brilliance connection to traverse the sea of changes that are coming into our awareness every day.

The New World we are creating and inhabiting cannot operate at its highest if we maintain our attachment to old thoughts, beliefs and solutions. We can only ascend into higher dimensions when spirit and Brilliance fill us with expanded awareness and higher powers.

There is a lot of focus on “Ascension” in the world today. Many are unclear as to what this means. Those who are Christian make a connection to the ascension into heaven of the risen Christ. This thought is accompanied by trumpets, and a robe-clad man rising into the clouds and disappearing into Heaven.

Are there any commonalities in these two diverse images? Is moving beyond old habits of thinking and old beliefs an “Ascension”?  We could view the ascending Christ as a metaphor for lifting ourselves out of the pit of mistaken beliefs, and moving into a state of Brilliance. It could be that Ascension in current terms identifies a movement from an old, worn-out, unproductive, stressful way of seeing life to an expanded view conceived out of innate Brilliance.

This Brilliance and expanded power is a gift from the Quantum Universe, and also a responsibility. The higher power we inhabit is the resource we use to create the New World, in which love, peace, and unity abound and flourish. In this world the mind’s attention does not align with the past, but gives life only to the present moment.  In this moment we relate to others, express our highest impulses, and co-create a life of meaning and beauty.

Stress is a habit of the past that we transcend through our awakening to the wholeness we embody today, in this very moment. We need look no further than ourselves: indeed, we are who we have been waiting for.

Back to Brilliance © 2011

Our energy level is directly related to how we manage our moods

Every day we have a fixed amount of energy; this is our life force. Where we choose to put our thoughts and attention is where we spend our life’s energy. When we spend it in a low mood—just spinning—it takes that life force, that energy that we have to live a good day, and it’s like misspending. We’re putting our energy into a place where we aren’t going to get any return on it. Our energy is not going where we want our lives to go. We’re taking ourselves where we don’t want to go.

That’s why a lot of people just don’t get very far: They’re misspending their daily energy quotas. They feel exhausted because they’re trying to do their lifework at the same time their low moods are draining their energy and also creating messy situations that require even more energy to clean up.

We only get so much energy each day. That is a major responsibility, but it’s also a gift to spend our energy accomplishing our life’s work and dreams. Knowing that low moods bleed our energy gives us even more incentive to learn how to stay out of them as much as possible. Because, wow, when we’re in a good mood and having a great day, don’t we just feel like we have tons of energy?

A great example of misspending one’s energy comes from a friend of ours who is a public speaker. She had a speaking engagement coming up and needed to confirm arrangements with the group but had only succeeded in playing phone tag. With each day that passed, her thinking slipped. She started saying to herself, Oh man, I’m such a slacker. I can’t speak! I don’t have anything to say that’s of value. She went further down that path, thinking, These people must be crazy to want me to speak, to spend all this money to bring me to this event. Then she admitted she knew she’d been in a low mood lately; at the same time she had an inner sense that everything was going to turn out OK. She told us that she had tortured herself unnecessarily with her low-mood thinking: By the time she finally connected with the event sponsors, a new plan had emerged to make the experience much richer and more valuable for everyone concerned. Had our friend recognized her low-mood thinking earlier, she could have maximized her energy and avoided a lot of stress.

Years ago when we were learning how to be graceful in our low moods, we were at a retreat, talking about the mood-levels principle. One of the women in our group told us about her system for making the most of her moods. She used the idea of a thermometer, with freezing at the bottom and the highest temperatures at the top. She had marked off the thermometer from 1 to 10, with 10 representing a really high mood and zero standing for “in the pits.” When her mood dropped below 5, she would stop making decisions because she knew she would only be making them out of low-mood thinking. If her mood got down close to zero, she would stay at home, sleep, watch movies, and avoid being around other people altogether. But when her mood started going above 5, she would make decisions, knowing they would be positive and healthy for her. When her mood was close to 10, she would write notes to herself to read when she was in a low mood.

Excerpt from Activate Your Brilliance, Back to Brilliance ©2007

(Next week we will continue this conversation with more strategies for lifting low moods.)

Here is a bonus – a link to a short video to celebrate Peace Day, Sept 21:

http://www.heartmath.org/templates/ihm/articles/landing/peace-day/2010/index.php

Of interest here is the fact that about 300 years ago, the study of spirit and mind were separated in order to create a quantifiable study of the mind in the realm of “pure science”.  Prior to this, psyche was identified and understood as the inseparable mind/spirit. This occurred during the Mayan cycle which viewed everything in terms of duality. Most human beings living today have known only this pervasive duality consciousness.

This split between mind and spirit underlies the limited success in clinical results in the field of mental health. It also contributes to the difficulties we have and are experiencing as we’ve moved into new Mayan cycles of intuition, telepathy, and wholeness.

The hippie movement of the 60’s and 70’s reflected dissatisfaction with consumerism, image based lifestyles, and conformity.It also expressed a desire for spiritual enlightenment, love and peace. It was brought forth from the energies of a consciousness rapidly evolving toward the completion of the cycles in 2012.

The term “stress” was first used in 1946 to show that psychological reactions can cause illness in the body. Carl Johan Calleman, author of The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness, says “Stress is a product of the modern mind and reflects the confusing influences on the individual of two different frames of consciousness linked to two different Underworlds (major cycles).”

He points out that when high high-frequency spiritual pulses of light started to be transmitted to the right-brain hemisphere as early as 1947 and more significantly in 1999, the influence of these pulses created a conflict between the rapidly developing higher consciousness and today’s dominant materialistic social values, resulting in significant stress and burnout.

Calleman adds, “The body seems to be telling the individual that it is not being aligned with the divine plan and refuses to go on. Those afflicted are not the lazy, but rather the compassionate – individuals who cannot shield themselves from the high-frequency pulses of the new (cycle)” He also indicates that stress and burnout may be a wake-up call that can lead to greater awareness and expansion of consciousness.

Our study of innate Brilliance has created a new mindset for these unique times. We understand Brilliance to be that innate part of ourselves that has access to all we need to know. It is our link to the Universe and our higher state of mind. When we access our Brilliance we move past conditioned thinking and old patterns of awareness and we move into all of the awaiting possibilities and potentials of our human beingness. Learning to live from our Brilliance keeps us aligned with the Now energies of creation and allows us to flow with universal oneness regardless what cycles are ending or beginning.

Learn more about utilizing our Brilliance Formula in our book, Activate Your Brilliance: 12 Keys to the Art of Living Happy.

If you experience tension headaches, racing thoughts, are forgetful, or have cloudy thinking, it’s

Feeling down?

time to take a closer look at your micro-mirror to determine what is creating those experiences and stress in your life. Short of a medical condition, these are not common or normal and no one needs to believe that they simply have to accept these symptoms or that they will somehow miraculously disappear.

It is up to us to discover the cause and shift our thinking, filtering out the old patterns of thought that aren’t creating the health and happiness we all desire. Is it really that simple, just shifting our thoughts to eliminate our stress? Yes!

When you understand how we create what we pay attention to, the choice is clear. We can focus on solutions, not problems, and move out of the line of fire. Stress isn’t an option when our minds focus on our Brilliance, our unlimited inner resources, and our zest for living life full-out.

When we have situations in our lives that could be precursors to stress we have been conditioned to solve those problems with the computer part of our mind. We go back into our storage banks to find a similar situation, and then pull it out and say “here’s the answer”.

Most often those old ways of dealing with things don’t apply in the new situation because we’ve grown and changed, and circumstances are different. Trying to meet today’s problems from the computer mind is a surefire formula for creating stress and distress.

There is another habit of the mind at play here. It is what we call thought attacks. When you are lost in spinning worries and concerns you are really having a thought attack. While your thoughts are circling around a worry, you aren’t going anywhere. But your life force and energy are being drawn into that whirlpool and being wasted. The more you can recognize and catch a pattern, the faster you can move to clarity and action.

Here’s an example of how thought attacks might occur.

• A sales person has often made sales and lost sales.
• They might receive a call that tells them a sale they had counted on was not going to occur. They might have thought “I was counting on that sale and it just fell through; I can’t believe it!”
• Then as they continue to think about the situation another thought might follow: “Oh my gosh, what am I going to do – I have all my bills plus the new car payment due in two weeks.”

Those two thoughts have created a momentum and they are off and running into the future:

• “Now I have to cancel the roof project on my house – and it will probably leak again this winter if the snows are anything like last winter” and
• “My spouse is going to be upset, big time upset!”
• “The economy is getting worse. The stupid politicians never get the stimulus packages going in time.”

When one thought is given a lot of attention, it can attract a dozen more of the same kind of thoughts. When this happens, one is caught in a full-fledged thought attack, with the computer mind fully in control.

Keep in mind, the chain of thoughts described above started with a message received in a two-minute phone call.  When we take the ride into a thought attack, anything else going on in our lives is up for grabs. We may be worried about our child, toddler or adolescent. Whether it’s their health or grades or attitudes, looking at any concern or worry often attracts the “maybe’s” and “could happen next” thoughts that lurk in our old patterns or in what we observe in the lives of others close to us. We are fueling thought attacks faster than the speed of light and feeling the stress that accompanies the growing numbers of spinning thoughts in our minds.

Our thoughts are the foundation for how we experience our lives. Once we know how thoughts create our lives, it is easier to understand how thoughts create our stress. We have a choice. We can either spin around in our worries and concerns, or we can learn to get back to our Brilliance, and access the thoughts that will create a life of satisfaction and ease.

Excerpt from Stop Stress Guide, Back to Brilliance © 2009

At this time of year, we tend to get overwhelmed. There are lists upon lists for gifts, school concerts and sports events, activities, holiday gatherings, and food to make, bake or buy. It’s hard to keep these lists straight and easy to find yourself recopying and reorganizing every list.

Then there are the events of the world around us. All of us seem to have less money to spend, more worries about our jobs or the jobs of our families and friends, and concerns about the safety issues and wars that are threatening or already occurring.

How do we maintain our heart connection and gain a sense of hope in this season of love and new beginnings, in the midst of the seeming chaos of this moment? It is important to remember that we are all in this together. It is essential to remember that we are all connected to a greater wisdom that is available to us in every minute.

By ignoring our mental chatter (try it) and banishing the negative voices around us (find the good that exists in each situation), we can focus our attention on the wisdom and Brilliance that all of us possess.  We can make this choice, in every moment, every day. The more we are tuned into the thoughts from our natural Brilliance the more our actions will reflect Universal wisdom and lead to new and better beginnings.

In this time of community, let’s include everyone around us so we don’t “go it alone”. Invite your friends to share in accomplishing some of the “work” of the holiday razzle-dazzle. Some may like to bake cookies or hang lights; others could share shopping bargains or “from the heart” gift ideas. Any of these tasks can be returned in kind for each other. Someone else might watch your kids while you finish important activities, and vice versa.

The biggest decision will be to shift each negative thought to a more positive one if you truly want a holiday to remember fondly.

• “I am harried” becomes “I have enough time to do what’s important.”
• “I am overwhelmed” could turn into “I’m going to do what I love, and then I’ll ask for help with the rest.”
• “I hate the Holidays” must shift to “I want to pass on only the message of love and joy in this season”

Changing your thoughts allows you to experience a mindset of enjoyment and a chance to raise the spirits of your community. We are part of the whole. Whether large or small in number, those closest to us at work or home contribute greatly to our love of life, as we do to theirs.  Don’t do it all – give up that thought about controlling everything. Invite the neighbors and their dogs and cats to share in the fun.

Limit all presents to ONE or TWO for each person. Have your guests and family play games, charades, or make up skits; it’s more fun than everyone splitting off to go their own way.  Make up a dinnertime activity that allows each person to share personal likes, jokes, laughs, and hopes. Everyone wants to be included, so the kitchen should be full of helpers and new cooks.

Jane Nelsen says, “A key to happiness is listening to your inner wisdom until understanding sneaks past your thought system.” Shake the old thought patterns about holidays from your tree, and create a new and delectable crop of memories for this season, this year.

Ask yourself this question: Can I let go of judging others in my relationships?

Most of us have a habit of judging others in our relationships. How do we deal with this most common habit and barrier to healthy relationships? First, we need to understand and remember that judgments are just thoughts we have focused on and made real. We judge according to our expectations, losing sight of the fact that we all have separate realities and don’t see things the same.

When we get caught up in judging someone else, we tend to lose sight of the whole person and see only the problem we have identified as theirs. We judge others for the “big” stuff, from not taking out the trash to misplacing the newspaper to being a loudmouth. In our minds they could do better or be better.

We have experienced making judgments, and hundreds of assumptions, because we didn’t take the time to ask questions about what was happening or why someone said something. We all fall prey to the habit of judging others because of how they appear, talk, or where they work or worship.

But in our families, close friendships, or partnerships, we owe those we love or hold dear a better outcome than a fast judgment and the resulting disapproval, cold shoulder, or sermon from the mount. And, why are we on the “mount” anyway? What makes us more qualified to know how others should think, live, or act than they? It’s pretty funny when you think about it. We spend more of our creative energy judging others for being who they are than working on what we can control – our own goals, skills and talents.

Have you ever had a positive result come from making a negative judgment about another or about yourself? All the judgments we’ve identified here are negatives that are classified and held for a long time. This long shelf life of judgments cheats the one making the judgment from really knowing another and prevents the one judged from being known.

Judgments drain our energy. They come from our computer patterns of thinking. When we engage in them, our negative feelings should be our first clue to pay attention and redirect our attention and our energy. Although judgments about nuclear warfare might seem worthy of the negative energy spent, judgments about hairstyles and lifestyles contribute little or nothing. Underneath these judgments we find a lack of respect for ourselves and everyone else.

When we have agreements or shared expectations with others and they aren’t working, we can always renegotiate without judgment in a respectful way. When we disagree about little things, we can agree to disagree without calling loyalty or reason into question.

When we disagree about big things, we can seek common ground, letting go of every detail or stipulation that we think should occur.  When we look at the big picture of life, we can choose to make everything into a mountain, or just loosen up and let people breathe easy, appreciating the wonderful qualities they contribute to our lives.

Any time spent in making judgments or being concerned about the judgments others have made is wasted and produces stress. Judgments are always negative; instead, we can admire, compliment, and acknowledge the positive traits of others seen from our innate wisdom through the eyes of respect. This habit really makes relationships much more rewarding and a whole lot more fun.

If you have relationships that include partners, spouses or children at home, know that those relationships can be a source of continuous stress or continuous support. In times of fear about jobs and finances, along with worries about relatives, friends and/or children, we all tend to “work out” our stress at home.  Everyone there starts to feel upset, distressed or worse when stress is high. This isn’t what we need to make it through the hard times.

Let’s take a look at the general adjustments and pressures in our relationships.  First of all, relationships in the home always involve communication. Sometimes our communication habits need some work in order to make decisions and coexist peacefully. When we have children there are even more people to include in the process.

When two people decide to make a home together they bring all their previous patterns with them. Behaviors that are normal to one may seem unreasonable to the other. Many of us have assumed that we will get along without looking at our individual perceptions and differences. This can lead to conflict, heartache and even more stress.

We also bring our expectations, dreams, and desires into our relationships. When things don’t go as we expect them to we react out of surprise, hurt, or disappointment. These feelings are telling us that we are reacting from our old patterns of thinking. Until we’ve learned to shift from what we thought would be, to our Brilliance, we will be immersed in stress.

We can remove the stress from poor communication and learn to accept and/or negotiate our partner’s “crazy” patterns when we communicate from our Brilliance. We can turn hurt and disappointment into commitment and adventure when we see the Brilliance in others and work to share a life that honors “the others” in our relationships, without demanding shared viewpoints, goals and dreams.

Most of our relationship problems come from our conditioned thinking. Once we have learned to follow our natural Brilliance we can avoid the potholes and have a smoother, more loving journey for ourselves and our families.

If you want to learn more about how Brilliance can make good relationships better, and then turn better into best, access more of our articles on Brilliance to get a bigger picture. We will be sharing our views on “judging others” and “anger” in two articles coming soon.  Stay tuned.

There is a whole lot of programming out there about future planning. We learn to set our goals and to plan the steps. We learn to visualize and see the end result. What is often forgotten in this process is that we can’t see the bigger picture at all times. In fact the human mind/brain system can only discern a small portion of all that is available. It’s that 80/20 rule where we are conscious of only 20% of what is.

No matter how much planning we’ve done we can’t get too attached to our plans because there may be steps we couldn’t see that will take us far beyond the outcome we had envisioned.

We also need to remember that it is not our job to determine all of the “how’s” that are necessary to achieve our goals. Trying to figure out everything about how our plans will manifest creates serious stress. We can get so lost in our thoughts that we can’t figure anything out and we lose our way.

The best plan for the future is to engage in the present moment. Our brilliance truly exists only in the moment. When we let go and know that our innate wisdom always looks out for our very best interests, has the bigger picture, knows all the resources we need, and is always streamlining the process we can relax and enjoy the ride. We can expect short cuts and surprising turns that take us to a future that is much more than we had imagined.

Lynne is currently supplementing her income with part time substitute teaching. When she gets a nudge that she should be available for subbing, she looks online to see what is available and then signs in. In the classroom she can enjoy a prep time without worrying about other commitments, knowing she is right where she needs to be.

When Vivian spends a day away from work at a conference, she is able to stay fully present without making phone calls or checking messages, knowing she is just where she needs to be. In the present moment we are all just where we need to be.

There are tricks to mastering this process. The only real moment is this moment. Anytime our focus shifts to the past or to the future we have left real time. We have lost the power of now. There is a tendency when looking at the past to remember difficult times and then to project more of the same into the future. This is a prescription for stress.

While practicing staying focused in the now, being vigilant about keeping our attention on this moment, we have discovered many benefits. We stay relaxed instead of moving into urgency. We get to enjoy each moment for its gifts. We trust that each moment will bring with it the knowing of what is most important to attend to.

The more we practice being present, the less we identify with the outer trappings of our lives. We then identify more with the true presence of ourselves. This is the greatest gift we can give ourselves; this is the greatest gift we can give the world.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States of America, June 27, 2009 – Vivian Hildebrandt and Lynne Hoft share the things you must know about stress.

Vivian and Lynne have been lifelong educators and business partners for 10 years. Vivian has worked as a counselor and prevention specialist, helping stressed people by showing them their unlimited inner resources and how to effectively use them. Lynne is a licensed teacher and administrator. She is a certified trainer and has developed exceptional educational programs and curriculum. Over time, Lynne’s research created the foundation for the Brilliance programs of today. Together, in their company Back to Brilliance, they help people overcome and deal with stress and depression.

The fusion of their expertise resulted in the creation of the Brilliance Formula. The Brilliance Formula became the very foundation of their work. This formula is an easy and effective way to achieve natural stress relief and to help anyone live a happier life. Back to Brilliance meets the needs of people of all ages in their search for personal and professional growth.

Back to Brilliance programs are based on the realities that people face today. It is undeniable that with the fast-paced life that most people have, stress has become an every-day thing. This stress may be related to personal, financial or work-related events. Stress can adversely affect you and everything in your life. Although stress may seem unavoidable, Vivian and Lynne are here to assure you that it can be controlled and eventually eliminated.

Vivian and Lynne recommend that you should first examine what is actually causing your stress. Observing yourself and everything around you sets the stage for moving into a stress-free way of living.

The first step is to take control. You, of all people, are in the best position to choose the solution that will answer your stress-related problems. When you focus on the things that are advantageous to you, the solutions for your life instead of the problems, you can begin to eliminate your stress immediately.

The second step is to find the Brilliance in you. Every person has natural Brilliance within. Many people may not see it at first, but with a little analysis and experimentation, this step can be easily achieved. Brilliance helps you get rid of the habits of thinking and activities that are not beneficial to you. Emotions that are negative won’t provide any stress reduction and can quickly be eliminated by moving back into your Brilliance. Stress management becomes easy when you understand and practice these two steps.

Stick with natural stress relief. Prescription pills and other medications may make you grow dependent on them. It is best to choose healthy methods that really work to control and eliminate stress and the anxiety and worry it brings to our lives.

Contact Box:

Vivian Hildebrandt and Lynne Hoft will tell you more about stress and stress management. Back to Brilliance will bring back the Brilliance in you.

Vivian Hildebrandt and Lynne Hoft
Back to Brilliance
612-825-3618
www.backtobrilliance.com
vivian@usfamily.com
lynne@backtobrilliance.com