OK remembering what I said about not believing everything that you think, and understanding the need to choose your thoughts carefully we are now going to take this concept up a gear. Sadly many people today are instead living in a brain washed trance and they don't know it. We describe this mode of thinking, or rather not thinking, as conditioned thought. They are blindly obeying what society tells them to do, how to speak, how to behave, and what to think. They are obediently following society’s unrelenting conditioning through parental example, television, magazines, education, peer pressure, and cultural norms. They desperately want to be the same, be ‘normal’, be ‘cool’, to 'conform' and be accepted. The result is that they see a false reality and believe it to be authentic. For example they actually start to believe that it really matters that their bodies conform to a society ‘norm’, or worse conform to a media promoted mythical standard of beauty and thinness that is anything but ‘normal’ or widely attainable. They actually start to believe that they must dress in a certain way, talk in a certain way, have enough friends on their social networking sites etc . The list is endless.
They accept without question many values and assertions of our society such as wealth and money make you happy, that life is not fair, that you need to drink alcohol to enjoy yourself and have a good time, that you should always have company or be in touch with as many people as possible at all times through social networking and so on. That you must always be being entertained or amused by something, or else life is 'boring'. Again the list is endless.
Even more damaging society teaches them that they should be driven by the ‘Self, Me, I’ agenda, and be a slave to their ego, and thereby be unhappy most of the time believing what their ego’s perspective tells them. They are indoctrinated to see themselves as the centre of the universe and the need to ' look after number one' rather than seeing that we are all joined, and interdependent and linked in so many ways .
We are encouraged to find problems in situations where really there aren't any - not in the greater scheme of things. We get into the habit of allowing our mood to be hijacked several times a day or worse by what our minds interpret as undesirable experiences for example the slightly critical remark we receive, the slight joke at our expense, getting wet in a rain shower, the small scratch on our car and so on. But who says these are things that we should allow to upset us? What if we were able to just shrug them all off? Would there really be any problem with that?
We are encouraged to believe that it is normal to spend most of our lives remembering and analysing and perhaps regretting the past, or imagining, planning and worrying about the future rather than living in and enjoying the present and we do not ever question this.
This is all a false reality, and there is no easy way to say this but in order to attain that happiness that you are seeking you have got to stop running on autopilot. You have to start thinking for yourself and really start to try to see reality for yourself rather than just blindly repeating conditioned thought. Of course this is not easy because you are fighting a lifetime of conditioning but once the light bulb in your mind lights up and sees that there are other ways -exciting new and fresh ways of seeing things then the worst is over.
Of course we are not born with this false reality. Arguably children are born with the ability for free independent thought and are born feeling unconditional love, have no ego, and living in the moment. As children grow, we observe them being contaminated and brainwashed. Our challenge is to undo this conditioning in ourselves.
It is sad that so many younger people nowadays feel that they need mind changing or mind numbing drugs for life to feel good and be enjoyable. Others are bored or depressed or lethargic and unmotivated. This wonderful gift of life seems lost on them. What a tragedy. They say that youth is wasted on the young and sometimes it does seem like it. When you are old it is common to realise that life is just so precious and miraculous and the older you get the more precious it becomes. Wake up now and don't wait until you are old or losing your health before you see the reality that every second of consciousness and life is just the most magical and wonderful gift.
Yet another problem with never turning off the chatter and living your life of conditioned thought on auto pilot is that there is no chance to listen to your intuition. Intuition is our 6th sense and is an essential part of steering the course of a happy life. Part of living a happy life is following your heart and intuition. You must recognise the power of your intuition to guide you. There is a voice inside all of us that knows what is best for us more than anybody else. But you have to wake up and start thinking for yourself before you can hear it. Follow it. We all know deep down whether something is right and good. This may well be because a moral code is our genetic inheritance. An intuitive sense of what is good for the general benefit of the community or group has conveyed survival advantage in our evolution. Many people have become deaf to their instincts. Following your instincts and intuition is far more likely than using reasoning and logic to lead to making the right decisions for you and your happiness. Pay attention to your 'gut feelings'. If something does not feel right , walk away..