One Step to the Right

The Shift That Changed Everything for Me

Life directions change over the years, generally with small shifts in thinking, job changes, relationships growing or shrinking, and children maturing, among a host of other reasons. Looking back, some shifts turn out to be more dramatic than others. The shift I call “one step to the right” is one of those for me, more like a giant-step in being, a step so big that when I took it I had no idea of the life change I was making.

Left-Brain Rational Thinking

The world as we know it today is largely built upon, managed, and governed by rational thinkers, people utilizing their left brain hemispheres. I know it doesn’t look all that rational sometimes, given huge inefficient bureaucracies, widespread wars, environmental degradation, violence and aggression, and corruption.

Yet it’s true that the world, particularly the developed countries of the world are run by people trained in rational thinking—linear, logical, analytical, fact-based thinking. Lawyers, economists, doctors, accountants, engineers, scientists, and managers are all trained to depend primarily on the left side of the brain. Left brain dependence has served us well, myself included. It took me far in life, but not far enough.

The step I took was to move my life from left-brain dominance to right-brain discovery. Unwittingly using what I later learned was the Law of Attraction, I departed from a comfortable life built upon my left-brain analytical/logical/linear side to a new, broader life foundation adding intuition, transcendence, and spirit.

It has been a wonderful journey, and I wish I could claim full before-hand knowledge of what I did. But I had no clue of the magical, wonderful, non-linear life I was about to experience.

But first, some background.

Background

I grew up in a home environment that was safe and loving but without displays of emotion. A home allowing for growth but not encouraging of it. A family conservative, risk averse, and peaceful—but cynical. My parents were very private people, keeping their feelings and philosophies to themselves. I was a good son and a good student, which was expected and acknowledged, though not praised.

My family’s religion was Old Testament. I found little comfort in the vengeful, punitive God depicted by this religion, so I pushed thoughts of God out of my mind.

Though my ideas and interests weren’t discouraged, they weren’t encouraged either. A typical response to an enthusiastic new idea of mine was to point out all the things that could go wrong. So  I settled into a comfortable routine of conservative, logical, and rational thinking by cultivating my math and science skills. My early creative ventures into art and humor atrophied and fell into disuse. I am not blaming my parents. They were kind and generous. Their lives and what they believed simply provided the backdrop for my one-step-to-the-right adventure.

A Shift to the Right

My adult life was fairly successful by most measures. With an engineering degree and master’s degree in business, I held a responsible middle management position in a large telecommunications company. My marriage was stable and rewarding. I had a pretty good life. Following in my parents footsteps, I held my feelings and emotions in check. Though in a stressful job, my co-workers described me as unflappable. I seldom talked about my feelings, to anyone.

Then with a simple declaration of intention nearly twenty years ago, everything changed! Into my late 50’s and caught up in the telecommunications industry upheaval, I took advantage of an early retirement offer. It was then that I made the shift that changed my life—a shift that took me from outwardly successful to inwardly successful, a shift that unexpectedly opened new vistas of living.

What happened was I decided to develop and utilize my intuitive side and I spoke of this to others. This began my one step to the right journey, my first foray in many years from primarily left brain rational living to right brain intuitivism (this may not be a real word). Now when I did this, I had no idea it was a major shift. And I don’t believe I even made a bold and forceful declaration. It was more a mildly stated goal for modest personal growth during retirement, just one small step to the right. But it turned out to be a huge shift of thinking.

I cannot identify a single incident or trigger for this, other than an instinctive, subconscious pull to become whole. With hindsight, at some level I must have recognized that a fully joyous life required that I utilize all my humanity: mind, body, and soul. Until then I had primarily been a mind and body being. Not that my life was without joy, it wasn’t. I found joy in my family and satisfaction in work. But joy was something that happened mysteriously; it simply touched me at times, a fortunate accident. My shift to the right ultimately brought joy more within my control.

The first supportive resource the Universe sent to me was a book—Conversations with God, by Neale Donald Walsch. It was the mechanism made available when I was ready to use it. I can vividly remember the situation: while waiting for a business conference call to begin, I overheard one attendee mention this book to another. The title intrigued me; shortly thereafter, I purchased it and….

Suddenly, my horizons expanded. I connected with nearly every concept of Walsch’s book. God was—as I subconsciously knew—loving, supportive, non-vengeful, and non-judgmental. I could see how I had created my life, my success, as well as my limitations. I saw that I could create a different way of being. I noticed the inherent beauty, simplicity, and love in life. And I found my calling to help others to see that too.

A New Beginning

This step to the right was one of many that I would subsequently make. But none was more important in establishing a new direction than this first one which led me to increased creativity and opened up my spirituality. All of these innate human abilities soared to the forefront with my declaration of intention. Of course, now I know that I simply utilized the Law of Attraction; declaring it made it so.

For me, there is nothing more wondrous, magical, magic-genie-like, than the Law of Attraction. I have learned that the Law of Attraction always works, always; even when I think it’s not—it is. When I declared I would become more intuitive I opened my being to intuitive knowledge and the Universe sent it. Of course, intuition had always been available to me, but I failed to attract what was available because I didn’t believe.

I know many of you have had similar experiences attracting life events that you desired as well as those that we might call surprises. Just being here is probably a great example. For some reason you chose to visit here and read this post. Why? What gifts do we bring to each other in coming together? Let’s see.

Shifting Beliefs

That first step to the right triggered many significant shifts. In no particular order, I’ve shifted from:

• Thinking life happened to me to knowing that life happens through me.
• Loving conditionally to loving unconditionally. This is a big one!
• Living out of fear to living with less fear (still working on this).
• Believing that life is a constant struggle against obstacles to knowing that life is inherently easy (even when it seems unbearably difficult).
• Rigidly believing I must be right to be loved to knowing I am loved even when I make mistakes. Another big one.
• Feeling the abundance of my life rather than the lack of enough.
• Moving past my fears to accomplish what feels right to me, rather than succumbing to the fear of new ventures.

Practical Daily Benefits

Spiritual insight and growth can be uplifting and nourishing to the psyche, but if we can’t utilize what we have learned to improve life, then what good is the learning? My life is better now that I use my entire brain, right and left side. Both analytical and intuitive abilities help me to enjoy a life that is adventurous, fulfilling, and exciting. For example:

• I now have a clear understanding of my Purpose in Life. Believing I am at cause for my life allows me the freedom and brings the responsibility to create/discover my unique purpose in life. Without feeling at cause for my own life, I hadn’t the impetus to even assume there was purpose, other than survival. Purpose brings so many inherent benefits: direction, vision, fulfillment, joy, tranquility, easy decision-making. When faced with a tough decision, I ask myself, “What serves my purpose given who I am?” The twelve paths to finding purpose that were most helpful to me inspired me to author  a book, What is Life All About? How Do I Find My Purpose? 12 Paths to Find the Meaning of Life.
• I now love unconditionally. Unconditional love removes so much stress from my daily life. Conditional love brings with it the responsibility—nearly obsession—to judge, evaluate, keep-track-of, keep-score-of an insurmountable array of activities, decisions, and behaviors of others. That’s the only way to know if conditions are being met! I wasn’t aware of this, of course, until I stopped doing it. Then I realized how much easier life became. And how much more satisfying my relationships became. The energy given off while loving unconditionally is God-like energy, and is clearly felt by others. Without even expressing the words of unconditional love, the message is sent. But verbalizing it is even more dramatic. The best thing I ever did as a spouse and parent was to tell my wife and sons that I love them unconditionally, that there was nothing they might do that would cause me to stop loving them. I’ve found it helpful to repeat that message often, and make sure my grandchildren hear it now, too.

• I know now that God is non-vengeful and loving. The burden of fulfilling the demands required by God according to some religions is simply overwhelming to me. Knowing that God loves me, that I am loved unconditionally no matter my behavior, and that my soul is immortal allows me to live my life without fear (still working on this), frees me to experience aspects of living without wondering if this is right or wrong, or if it has dreadful repercussions for my life beyond. I no longer need to be perfect, to be right in everything I do to earn the love of God and others (which was a terrible burden). I no longer fear death. Dying doesn’t excite me, but death is just my next process in this cycle of life.

• Living without fear. This is still a “work in progress,” as my many years of fearful living are hard to give up at times. Still, I know there is nothing to fear, no-thing, and I’m usually able to get past my fears quickly and move on to the next adventure of life. For example:
  • I began writing a newsletter to help others apply full mind/body/soul solutions to every day problems of living. I looked through my address book and intuitively picked those to whom I sent the first article. Ultimately over 300 people in over two dozen countries read my articles.
  • I’ve authored several books, an act of faith and confidence that never would have transpired before. I would simply have rationalized with all the reasons no one would want to read, let alone buy my books. See below for a listing of them.
  • I now recognize that fear is a signal that a big change is forthcoming, and fortunately, I’ve found that pushing through the fear usually brings me a large step in personal growth.
• I’m calm and peaceful in the midst of the chaos and apparent insanity of the world. I still feel pain and anguish at many of the world’s events, but am able to detach myself from the drama inherent in thinking these things are of real importance.

• Now life is easy. The result of most of the above is that my life is easy—not without challenge, and not without difficulty—but easy as in natural, normal, and flowing.

If You or Someone You Love is Primarily Living Left-Brained

What can you do if you or someone you love is primarily living left-brained?

• Try focusing on possibilities. What-if is a great game to play for even the most rigid left-brainer. What-if is simply asking the question what if my intuition taps into a source of knowledge and experience beyond my consciousness. What might my intuition offer in response to the question I now have, or the life experience I am now going through? What if God were able to speak to me right now? What might she say?

• Use current scientific knowledge to reinforce spiritual knowledge. For example, all matter is energy transformed. Energy is all there is. My body, my spoken words, the article you’re now reading, and even you and I are just different forms of energy. Scientists know that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed. Therefore, the essence of life is eternal, as is the knowledge of the Universe, giving even the diehard left-brainer cause for considering immortality. Quantum physics has identified multiple dimensions beyond our current ability to see, parallel dimensions whose existence explains gaps in scientific observations. Will we soon be able to prove these dimensions exist, giving credence to  the existence of parallel spirit worlds? Serious scientists are working toward this end. I suggest reading The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene.

• Meditate and encourage meditation. The quiet, calm of meditation opens the mind to new understandings. An intention of allowing new experiences allows them.

• Observe the synchronicities (coincidences) of life, those times when for no apparent reason you think of someone and soon thereafter that person appears in your life. Or you have a problem and just happen to open a book or magazine, or go to a web site and much to your delight you find your solution. Who hasn’t awakened in the wee hours knowing clearly the answer to a problem that has been troubling for days?
• It just makes sense to use all the resources available to us—mind, body, and spirit—as we live each day. Life is easier when we do.

Now life excites me; I appreciate the adventure of life itself, even knowing I won’t like some of the adventures. I’ve found joy and fulfillment in my new ways of being. I truly love unconditionally, not just my family, but also all living things. The articles I write and the workshops I have offered have helped many people move forward in their lives. I have purpose in my life and find joy in helping others discover their purpose. Nearly every day excites me all over again. I live now with the philosophy that life is an adventure and inherently easy.

None of this was available to me before my first shift. Now there are no limitations to the wonders of life awaiting me. What an adventure! And all from one small step to the right.

Thanks for reading this rather long post. I’ve read and re-read with the intent of trimming, but to no avail, and I decided to keep it all.

I hope to hear from you. Are  you primarily right or left brained? Or have you found the balance of using the strengths of both?

Sources:

• Featured image, top view of brain, courtesy Flickr user jvleis CC Attr. Lic., image used without change.
• Image of typical occupations of right/left brain people courtesy Flickr user Michael Coghlan, CC Attr. Lic., image used with change.
• Conversations With God, by Neale Donald Walsch
• A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink
• The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene
• My books:
  • What is Life All About? How Do I Find My Purpose?
  • Sample Personal Development Plan and Workbook
  • Five Keys to Balancing Work and Life: Get Back to Basics
  • Jump for Joy, Clearing the Hurdles to an Easy Life
• This post was drawn from a presentation made at Universal Light Expo, Columbus, Ohio, October, 2005.