Transforming Stress To Wonder

Chapter 3 –Approaching the Inner Game

"A person will be just as happy as they make up their mind to be."

-Abraham Lincoln

The Inner Game

It may feel strange to begin doing this inner work. It may be helpful to see it as a self-played inner game, much like video games would be a self-played outer game.

In the inner game you become more familiar with the feelings and beliefs to which you are constantly responding. As you do this, you begin to become an observer rather than a pawn. There are many paths or techniques that can lead to personal growth. Using the Wondershift technique to play the game automatically improves your relationship to your feelings, beliefs, and, consequently, your behaviors. Mastering this game empowers you in your daily life experiences.

Before we begin the directions for this inner game, there are a few assumptions the players must understand in order for Wondershift to work well. These are listed on the following page and explained further in the chapter:

• When we are happy we are not in stress.
• The mind/body can be trained to be happier.
• What we believe and think creates our reality on a moment-to-moment basis.
• There is a healthy mental and emotional direction in life and we are either moving with it or moving away from it.
• Conditional Happiness differs from Essential Happiness.
• Emotional Maturity leads to happiness.

When we are happy we are not in stress.

Stress is a description we give to the state of discomfort we experience when we feel threatened. In a state of stress our entire body is involved. Physiologically we produce an entire inner negative chemistry involving our heart, our blood vessels, glandular system, digestive system, immune system, brain, and even our skin. When we have prolonged stress, or we feel constantly threatened in some way, the subsequent inner chemistry, from living in this state, causes damage to our body. Generally when we experience unhappiness, whether it is anger, guilt or depression, we are producing an unhealthy inner environment. We can say that our emotional health is closely related to our physical health. Likewise when we move toward a happier self we are also eliminating stress from our system and our lives. And the reverse is also true. As we choose happiness, we are also choosing a healthier life.

Chapter 4 – Emotions, Beliefs, and Personal Growth

"Healing may not be so much about getting better, but about letting go of everything that isn’t you. All the expectations, all of the beliefs, and becoming who you are."

- Rachael Naomi Remen

Emotion/Belief Complexes

A brief explanation of how we assimilate information can help us understand and use the process we will be exploring in this book. Before we consider the Wondershift technique for addressing our emotions, we need to examine the elements of our experience we call beliefs.

Beliefs are elements of mind. They have characteristics and function. Put simply, beliefs are our conclusions. They create a reflective filter that guides our awareness, perception, and experiences. One basic purpose of beliefs is to take care of us. Mostly we conclude or believe things are "good for us" or "bad for us" so that we may better care for ourselves. Beliefs channel the data as we take it in. A belief that has an emotional charge, either negative or positive, will direct our emotional response and thus our corresponding behavior. For our purpose, we will be referring to these charged beliefs as emotion-belief complexes.

If we were to multiply all the belief complexes we have, whether charged with an emotion or not, we would be describing a belief matrix through which we see our world. How you see the world and how I see the world differ as a result of the differences in our matrix, or conclusions base. This explains why two friends can watch the same movie and have totally different responses to it.

In general, among the methods for approaching stress, one does not seem to be better than another. There are methods that approach the behavior, others that approach the underlying belief, and still others that approach the emotion at play. They all seem to have their time and place. It is interesting to realize that it is possible for us to approach and change beliefs, emotions, and behaviors. It is important to know that it is possible to turn off the stress response from the inside. It is possible to turn off beliefs and emotional responses we have held for some time, perhaps an entire lifetime. If we explore and practice methods for doing so, we can actually change our whole life experience from one of stress to one of ease. All that is needed is the knowledge of how to do this and a healthy intention to reach a place of greater ease.