While it’s been generally believed that people in unfamiliar terrain often end up walking in circles, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, Germany proved this to be accurate, yet only under a specific circumstance. Findings presented in a study published in 2009 showed that when the study’s participants were tracked by GPS in two very different yet equally unfamiliar environments, they repeatedly walked in circles when they could not see a reference point. In this study, the reference point was the sun. Conversely, when there was a reference point, “when the sun was visible, participants sometimes veered from a straight course but did not walk in circles. They made progress in a specific direction.”[1]
What if this is true regarding how we live as well as how we navigate physically?
I love the concept of consciously “designing a future to live into”. This future of our design becomes the sun by which we navigate. It is out there, shining brightly, drawing us towards it. It is through this envisioned future that we can tell if we are happening off course. With our reference point we have the capacity to reorient ourselves and keep moving in the direction of our desire.
Without this future, what are we navigating by? If we have no reference point out there, are we expending great effort yet living in circles? Could this be why, at times, we feel we aren’t getting anywhere? Perhaps living without a designed future becomes living in circles or worse, living towards what was least enjoyable about our past?
When our reference point is how we don’t want to feel, what we don’t want to experience, we are navigating by our past, our pain, and our fears. And if we are navigating by what it is we desire to get away from, won’t that result in circles as well? We’ll be navigating by where we already are.
The drug is approved by the FDA so it is highly effective and safe in treating ED. purchase cheap viagra The sufferers who bear the history health record of a head injury when an external mechanical force cialis cheapest causes brain dysfunction. A charge off is comparable to trying to stop those tadalafil in canada pop-ups from opening while doing a live presentation. Lots of order cialis online https://www.unica-web.com/archive/2018/unica2018-entries.html people are unaware of this treatment. I’ve done that mistakenly with my automobile’s GPS, setting my destination to where I am rather than where I wanted to go. It kept directing me back to where I had been. Circles are exactly what happened until I realized the glitch!
In November I coached a young woman who was sure what she didn’t want in a partner. She’d go out in the world and see all these living examples of what she didn’t want, in droves! She found this over and over, reinforcing more of what she didn’t want. She was living in a circle. Her reference point? Her past experiences.
I asked her what qualities she did want in a partner. It was a new inquiry for her. We engaged in an exercise of identifying the qualities that she desired. Within a few months she was involved with a partner with the qualities she desired. She had set her sun in her sky, and she began to move towards it.
We can too, about anything in our lives. When we put that reference point up there and head out, we are heading in a progressive direction of both our design and our choice. Happy navigating.
[1] http://www.cell.com/current-biology/retrieve/pii/S0960982209014791, Current Biology, Volume 19, Issue 18, 1538-1542, 20 August 2009
I found my focus on a deeper level, what really moved and inspired me, which made choosing possible. Working with Lisa has given me the clarity and focus to move forward in my life and understand my role in the creation of my reality. ”
Lovely, am off to look for my “sun”.
Greetings Adam. I was introduced to a new tool for clarifying that “sun” you mention this weekend at the Himalayan Institute in Holmsdale, PA with Devidas Karina Ayn Mursky entitled “Manifest Your Life: The Yoga of Intention”. Sankalpa, a Sanskrit term, means “will, purpose, or determination.” Here’s some info from the web: “To make a sankalpa is to set an intention—it’s like a New Year’s resolution with a yogic twist. While a resolution often zeros in on a perceived negative aspect of ourselves (as in, “I want to lose weight, so no more chocolate chip cookies or ice cream or cheese”), a sankalpa explores what’s behind the thought or feeling (“I crave chocolate chip cookies or ice cream or cheese when I’m feeling stressed or sad. I will set an intention to become conscious of this craving and allow my feelings to arise and pass, rather than fill up on fats”).” – http://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/1526
A sankalpa embodies the positive outcome and elegance of effort. My daughter lives in India. While I get to see her on Face-time and Skype and we communicate often, I yearn to be with her in person. Rather than focus on what isn’t, the sankalpa I created speaks of me calmly, confidently, and joyously teaching, traveling, and experiencing prosperity. It is holistic, happy, and satisfies the best of the best. It beats the hell out of the complaint mode. With a sankalpa, complaint melts away and in its place is a new experience here and now and an exercise in intention, surrender, and acceptance. Utilizing the tool of sankalpa is work, as defined by “an activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result”. What better work can we invest ourselves in than to shift towards intentionally creating the experiences we truly desire! Check it out. I’m having fun with it.