Neurobiology and Happiness (a.k.a, The Smiley Meditation)

I have been doing a lot of reading lately. I have had the chance to re-read my Kryon books. Kryon is a group of angels who channel through Lee Carroll. I love the feel of the information. It is very uplifting. I also bought a new book called Buddha's Brain,The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom.

On the surface it may not seem like the two books would have anything in common. However, they seem to compliment each other very well.

I was in the middle of Kryon Book 10 the day Buddha's Brain came in the mail. I stopped reading right where I was and started the new book. The following is from the last couple of pages I read in Kryon Book 10 before I started on the new book.

Predisposition

What is predisposed in your body? What disease are you going to get because your brother got one or your sister or cousin? This is plain talk. Why don't you eliminate that? This information is about self-empowerment. It's about asking yourself, the Divine-Self, questions about God. Use the power of your own Human consciousness in what you've called intent, every day of your life. Talk to your cellular structure. Maybe it's time you stopped talking with Spirit for a while and instead talked to the Higher-Self within? Do you know that there are trillions of cells waiting for the boss to talk to them?

Some of you have never even addressed your cellular structure, and you wonder why it is out of balance! Have you ever sat down and had a meeting with your body? Perhaps this is something to do alone and not around your friends [good advice]. Then after you've healed yourself and balanced yourself and enabled yourself, they might notice. "Whatever happened to that problem you used to have?" they might ask. And you could say, "Well, I had a meeting with my cells, and boy, were they glad to hear from me! Because I never talked to them before. I've been alive all these years and I never knew I could. You won't believe what they were going to do on their own! So I rewrote their schedule. I created something - a longer life." Now perhaps you'll also start understanding how peace is created in you and what happens when a number of people create peace in themselves...

Ahhh, talk to my cells...

I have done something similar in the past. I used visualizations and affirmations to cure a very serious health condition. I know first-hand that it is possible to redirect the way the body works.

When I ordered Buddha's Brain I wanted to learn to be happy. I wanted a general, sustainable, every-day feeling of happiness. The last couple of months have been very difficult for me, and I really want to get past it. I want to feel like I did before. And (in true Mishell fashion) I wanted it quickly.

I found what I needed within the first chapter of the new book.

Don't let the word neuroscience intimidate you. This is really easy to understand.

Neurons release neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that send signals to cells. The neuron releases the neurotransmitter, which travels across the synapse (the tiny space between cell and neuron), and moves into it's place at the other side of the synapse. It looks like this:

If I wanted to use this information to create a visualization for increased happiness, what would those neurotransmitters look like? They'd look like this:

I know it's funny and seems simplistic, but that's exactly the point! It is simple. And I have had terrific success making myself feel better using this visualization. I close my eyes, take a couple deep breaths, and think about my cells filling with these smiley-faced neurotransmitters. I am immediately filled with a sense of well-being. Sometimes I am even brought to laughter. If that isn't healing, what is??

What do you think the outcome would be if you used this simple meditation on a situation that makes you sad? What would happen in your body if you infused that situation with happiness?

Nexus

This morning I had one of my favorite kind of transcendental experiences. I saw beyond the illusion, to what our reality is made up of.

As I stood on my front step, I turned and looked back behind me. I saw what you would expect to see... The wall, the ground covered with little purple flowers, and a portion of the sky.

All of a sudden, the scene turned into a picture. It had lost its 3 dimensional quality. The picture fractured and pieces began to fall away. When the image was gone, I saw what was underneath. Nothing. There was nothing but blackness.

As I focused on the black I began to see energy. Waves and clouds. There were patterns in the energy and I could also make out symbols. It looked like a very long mathematical problem, but with letters and symbols I am not math-savvy enough to understand.

I have only seen similar "math problems" twice before.

The experience only lasted a moment. But as I stood there, surrounded by blackness, time stopped.

I found myself in authenticity.

I was at the nexus, experiencing the creation of the physical "reality" we humans cling to.

Sometimes I look at my life and see chaos. Sometimes I get to see the underlying order. And it feels as elementary as 1+1=2.

Bluebirds. And "Who Do You Ask for Guidance?"

Today I experienced  miracle. I asked for a sign. A very specific sign. And I received it.

As I was sitting on my front step this morning a scenario was playing through my mind. Decisions, changes, and possible outcomes scurried around in my thoughts. I put a question out into the universe. "Am I making the right decision?" I asked for a sign that this was the right thing for me. I wanted to see a bluebird.

I got busy and forgot about asking the question until, while out for a walk this afternoon, I saw a bluebird. It was sitting on a fencepost and at first glance I thought it was a ceramic figurine. Then it flew up and landed in a nearby tree... Right next to a second bluebird!  Before today I had only seen one bluebird in my entire life. This was truly the answer to my question!

I posted this experience on my Facebook page when I got home and later in the day I received an email from an old friend. She asked me who I direct my questions to when I ask for help. A very good question, I think, because my answer has changed from what it would have been a few years ago and is different than anything I have read.

When I ask for guidance, I just put it out there for anyone to help. I know there are those in spirit whose job it is to help. They love it when we ask because we are more receptive to receiving the signs they are already sending to us.

I used to say that I was asking spirit guides or angels. However, what seems to be the reality is it is myself that I am addressing. 

When I talk about "they" and "them" who send the signs, I am talking about the consciousness of energies that exist in the higher levels. Yes, it is a part of me, and it's a part of you. But it's energy signature is one that never really reaches the Earth level. It is a part of me that never resides in my body, only in the higher levels. 

We exist on multiple levels at the same time. The way I see it is we are made up of many many different layers. Each layer has a different energetic vibration. These energy bodies get lighter and lighter (and farther away from the human body) until each person's energy bodies cross into each other. Eventually, they unite. This is why it is true when people say we are all one. This also makes it true that there is a god "somewhere out there". Each of us at our highest level is god, the god who is really nothing more than the energy of love, and is comprised of the higher energy bodies of every living thing.

I ask "spirit" for guidance. I use spirit as a general term for the awareness in any of my energy layers that are lighter than me, closer to source energy (god energy). Asking guidance from this love energy ensures that the outcome will be the best for everyone involved, not just the best for me from my clouded human perspective.

Asking why. On Trust, Fear, and Patience.

I find myself asking why.

When I reach out to the universe for the answer to this question I feel tightness in my throat and stomach and my head is awash with questions.

Do I want to know why in an effort to control my situation? Is it a control issue to need to make sense out of something confusing? Or is the issue one of letting go and trusting in the universe to bring me to my highest good?

If the universe brings me my highest good then I am brought back to asking why. Why would something so random and unlikely create such a powerful change in me that I am forced into a state of complete upheaval? Is that the answer? Had I been lulled to sleep by contentedness and missed the guidance to go in another direction? Were my desires lit and stomped out by the universe in an effort to trigger my habit of running away? It is, after all, a well-established pattern.

Or could the lesson be one of patience?

 Over time the threat of not having my needs met has caused me to look for quick solutions. Instant gratification seems to hold back the tide of longing that amounts to oceans of fear.

Lack of patience is all about fear.

That is something I have never consciously considered before!

Since starting on a spiritual path my personal goal has been to remove fear from my life. And I have done well in many areas that have caused me to feel fear in the past. I have come to terms with my psychic abilities. I have learned to open my heart and share myself with other people despite the chance I may have to live with rejection afterwards. I am bold, daring, and always ready to take a chance at something new or unconventional. In many respects I am fearless.

However, the fear of lack is a ghost always whispering in my ear. I’m not afraid of lacking things. I don’t really care about things. But I still carry a lot of fear when it comes to my relationships with other people. Most of the time I would rather attempt to entirely eliminate any need for another person rather than own to my actually needing someone else. So I learn all I can, and do everything for myself. Do I fear not having people in my life so I respond proactively by removing any need for them? If I don't need them they can never let me down.

This fear of trusting someone else could be the heart of my difficulties with being patient.

Now, it seems, I start a new chapter. Be patient and learn to trust.