Are you one of those people who always pick the slowest line to stand in? I do, every time. In fact, I think all of us choose the slowest line. I have never heard anyone brag about always finding the fastest line, have you? If that were me, I’d surely let the rest of you “slow-liners” hear about it.

In the grocery store checkout, I will stand aloof from the other indiscriminant line-standers and watch to see which checker looks like they got a good night’s sleep, how many carts per line and how full each cart is. I usually narrow it down to two lines and just before I’m hemmed in from behind by a less discriminate shopper, I bolt over to my second choice. Then I stand and watch as shoppers, who were back in the dairy department when I first got in line, are now gleefully stuffing their car trunks full of eggs, chocolate chip cookies, and the 2 for 1 Gummy Bear Bar-B-Q Sauce special from aisle 4.

Why? Why do we abhor standing in line? Because it’s boring? Because we feel nothing is being accomplished? Because standing there, shifting from foot to foot, we realize that life is passing us by? Yes, to all three. Lines are boring, unproductive and render us impotent while we are there. Or, so it seems.

Some people treat life as one long line. They are always trying to be where they are not. They feel they must always be doing something. The thing is, life is not a long line. Every instant is a complete life within itself. We just fail to adequately appreciate it. Here’s what I mean.

Stop everything you are doing right now and ask yourself, “What, at this very moment, do I absolutely need? Unless you were taking a dip in your pool when you “stopped everything” and right now you absolutely need a life-granting gulp of air, your answer will have to be…Nothing. From moment to moment, we need only the essentials like expanding lungs and pumping heart. Beyond the basics, we have desires, not needs. Desires come not from the present. They are ignited in the memory and fanned into fury by the possibility of future fruition.

We humans are unique on this earth, not because we can think, plan and communicate using language. Any garden variety chimpanzee with a middleclass upbringing can perform all three. Daniel Gilbert, a Harvard psychology professor and author of Stumbling on Happiness, says that what really separates us from our furry neighbors (of the chimp variety) is our concept of time, particularly the ability to project our thoughts into the future. Humans can imagine, and imagination it turns out, is both a boon and a bane. Wielding this double edged sword, we can dream of a safe and secure future and then build toward it. Or, we can visualize the nightmares ahead and be immobilized here in the present.

So what does all this have to do with the frustration of standing in a grocery store check-out line? Everything! Feeling bored, anxious, or frustrated, are symptoms of a restless imagination. We can imagine that being stuck in line will make us late for the game on TV or hold up the meeting at the ladies garden club, or both. It’s even worse if we encourage ourselves to think happy thoughts like sipping a quiet glass of wine with a good friend or fastidiously grooming our chimpanzee. As soon as we realize we are still stuck in line, the emotional storm clouds again gather overhead.

The problem is not a long slow-moving line. The problem is the mind, and that is where we will find the cure. Boredom and anxiety are just symptoms of the mind dwelling in the past and/or future.

So, how do we neutralize these unwanted emotions that trample all over our peace like K-Mart shoppers after the Blue Light special? Why, we do what the chimps do. We pay attention to what is right here, right now. We entice our minds into the present by paying very astute attention to the things around us. Try it. It can’t fail. Open your bag of chocolate chip cookies and taste one. I mean really taste it. Feel the crumbly-ness dissolve on your tongue and explode into a shower of sweetness, followed by the slow melting chocolate chips. Follow the swallow, all the way into your tummy. Become aware of how it makes you feel, become aware of Eufeeling. Now turn your attention to the artichoke in your cart. Appreciate it for the odd and remarkable creation it is. Rotate the stem and feel the points tickle-scratch across your palm. Smell it and see if it doesn’t remind you of musty Fritos. Become quiet and pay attention to how you feel in that silence, you Eufeeling. Pick up a banana and…

Well, I think you get the idea. To neutralize the pressures of civilization we only have to become like animals. We forsake the meandering mind for the joys contained right here in the present. We become like a cat watching a mouse-hole; alert, ever watchful and absolutely alive. Paying attention is not only a cure for boredom; it is the remedy for the daily frustrations and anxieties of our lives. Once you pay attention then pay attention to how you feel. There you will feel some good feeling, some sense of wellbeing like calmness, lightness, or peace. Eufeeling is always there, always has been and always will. You need only pause long enough to recognize it. So, get up in the morning and pay attention; feel the warmth and wetness of your shower, taste the toothpaste and smell the coffee. Pay attention all day long and you will thank me by evening.

Video: Stop Thought Experience

Book: The Kinslow System: Your Path to Proven Success

CD: Exercises for Quantum Living

90-Days to Becoming Fully Human: Free Downloads

The coin is Eufeeling, the essence of each of us, unique in all creation. Eufeeling is not some fanciful philosophy or long-sought after Utopia. While it has been hidden from view from the dualistic mind it is easily, clearly, and quickly perceived by the undivided mind. When we shift our awareness away from one side of the coin or the other we become aware of the whole coin. We realize that the P and the N are different forms of the same metal that is the coin. Any opposites, black and white, hard and soft, etc., are simply two sides of the same coin, two reflections of the same essence we call Eufeeling.

This shift of perception from opposites to unity quells the mind, organizes it, and frees it from attachment to opposites. When you make this shift in perception your life immediately begins to drop its attachment to negative emotions or the “positive” procedures to overcome them. Duality dissipates quickly over time in the realization that negativity and positivity are ultimately one in the same. Ultimately there is no fight to be fought.

Your perception of the unity of all things yields a kind of knowing that underneath the iridescent illusion of life, everything is just right as it is. You will experience a sense of expansion and wholeness and freedom from limitation. Your experience of wholeness will begin immediately and continue to expand as you continue to perceive the wholeness of Eufeeling intermittently, throughout your day.

So what if I said here? Just this; our common experience is set in the realm of duality. Underneath the appearance of duality is the reality of universality. There is no reason humanity, that means you and me, cannot have the best of both worlds. And, we don’t have to retire to a cave in the Himalayas to make it happen. The technology is now at hand and it proves to be simple, effective, and, dare I say it, fun!

[Note to reader: As a result of my years of teaching The Kinslow System™ and recent research, especially in the fields of physics and neuroscience, I have just discovered a technique (presently nameless) that, in just a few minutes of instruction, will lead a divided mind quickly to the perception of unity. I will be teaching this technique for the first time in Frankfurt, Germany the last weekend in September, 2013. I’m writing a new book which will outline the technique and I will develop a complete workshop around this technology of the perception of unity beginning 2014.]

We perceive life as opposites: positive – negative; black – white; up – down. Let’s look at positive and negative. The apparently healthy mind moves away from the negative towards the positive. We are engaged in a war fighting negativity with positivity. This is the reflection of our lives as we live it on the Newtonian level of cause and effect. However a deeper perception of life ends the positive/negative war in lasting peace. The perception of wholeness accepts and integrates opposites without the need of one to dominate over the other. It really is most remarkable what a simple shift in perception can mean to us in terms of health, harmony, creativity, productivity, and prosperity. I mean it, a simple shift in perception from dichotomy to unity naturally releases us from the lifelong struggle imposed upon us by our dual perception of opposites.

Positivity and negativity are not universally agreed upon. One man’s positive is another man’s negative. All you have to do is visit a foreign culture and you will find this to be true. For instance, I grew up in a culture that allowed you to wear the same shoes inside the house as you do out. There are many advantages to this and I never thought much about it until I married a woman whose culture feels that wearing your outside shoes in the house is “dirty” and as close to a mortal sin as you can achieve. And, from a cultural perspective I see her point. But it also got me to wondering why I had to remove my shoes while the dog, after tromping around in his own excrement, was allowed to pad around the house with perfect immunity. While she never really came out and said that she likes the dog more than me I think it’s quite suspicious that I am often served a bowl of kibble while the dog dines on roast beef. Ah, but I digress. Let us return to the discussion at hand…

It is your mind which decides what is negative or positive in your life. In actuality opposites like positive and negative are two sides of the same coin. Let’s say that you mint a coin with a P (positive) on one side and an N (negative) on the other. Normally we focus on either one side of the coin or the other. We might even choose sides, “I like N better than P.” Choosing what works and doesn’t work are the necessary nuts and bolts of life. But be leaving one is better than the other leaves us with the feeling that life is not complete. That is, we feel that we cannot really rest until we can eliminate the negative and allow the positive to thrive. There is little room for acceptance of what is in this formula. So let’s return to the coin and this question: If positive and negative are two sides of the same coin then what is the coin?

(For the conclusion to The Coin Reality see The Coin Reality – Part Two)

Everything that grows goes through three phases of transformation. (see Transformational Theory ). Whether it is an atom or a galaxy, a relationship or a business, it must necessarily and naturally evolve through each phase. Breaking stride creates disharmony and elicits the antithesis of growth, entropy. In other words, resist the natural flow of life to unify and expand and you initiate its opposite, disharmony and death. The three phases of growth are survive, thrive, and love. Don’t let the word love scare you. My working definition for love is simple: the coming together of differences [atoms, people, businesses] to create harmony. )(For definition of love see-Eufeeling) (For experience of Eufeeling go to: Free Audio Download-Pure Awareness Technique ) So you see even atoms fall in love…and most assuredly fall out of love if they are kept from evolving through the 3 phases of transformation.

Now let’s look at these three phases as they apply to work. If you are working just to survive you are in phase 1, the survival mode. When you grow your job into a career you move from mere survival to the phase 2 thriving mode. Both you and your work grow roots of stability and expansion. And here is where 99% of us falter. We believe that continued growth means more of the same; more money, more possessions, more notoriety and power. But nothing can or should expand forever. When expansion becomes counterproductive it is time to make the transition to phase 3, the coming together of differences for greater harmony. It is time to learn to love.

Phase 3 love is a kind of combination of phases 1 and 2 and an opening to creative forces that have been lying dormant within, possibly from childhood, that when released will open you to a world that fits perfectly your needs, desires, and dreams. This is when your career transforms into your calling. You are no longer pushed forward from past labors doing what you think you should to “get ahead.” In phase 3 you are pulled into your future effortlessly and unerringly. Just as a river merges with an ocean you flow into your new life, giving and accepting from that infinite ocean, united in love.

Video: George Land TED VIDEO

Book: Eufeeling!: The Art of Creating Inner Peace and Outer Prosperity

Work has gotten a bad rap. Just reading through the definitions of work you come across phrases like, “effort expended on a particular task” or “the results of a particular manner of production.” And I think it’s true that most of the employed population consider job and work as synonymous. While it can be, work can be so much more.

I break work into three categories; a job, a career, and a calling. Most definitions of work are actually defining a job. A job is something you do to survive. For most Americans a job provides them enough money to do the things they really enjoy when they are not working. One job is just about as good as another as long as it provides the money, time, and security to pursue a life outside the job.

A career is like a job on steroids. It usually requires a greater investment than a job in terms of time, money, education, and planning. Careers are built over years or decades and in many cases over a lifetime. A career lifts us beyond the survival mode and allows us to thrive in our community. The career should be a stepping stone to a calling.

A calling is different from a job or a career in that it is uniquely suited to that individual. A calling requires a masterful meld of talent, experience, wisdom, and intuition. It springs from a strong intrinsic urge to express one’s inner essence in the outer world. It is enlivening and inspiring on every level. A calling is a labor of love. Kahlil Gibran , following his calling as an artist, writer, and poet, had this to say, “Work is Love Made Visible.”

Without exception every one of us has a calling. As children we were excited about growing up and becoming an astronaut or a veterinarian or a ballet dancer. These were the newly sprouting seeds of our calling. Discover of Transformational Theory, George Land researched how this spark of creativity is lost through the years. It shows in 98% of adults (mean age 32 years) those tender shoots are ground under the “forget your dreams and grow up” heels of adulthood. You may have forgotten the excitement and joy they brought into your life. You may have ignored your calling all these years but it is still there and it can be recaptured in a heartbeat. Of course you owe it to yourself to dig up, dust off, and begin living your calling. You also owe it to the rest of us. Anything less is a crimp in the heart of humanity.

(In part two of this post I would like to consider how you can realize your calling.)

Books:

Beyond Happiness; Frank Kinslow

Breakpoint and Beyond; George Land, Beth Jarman

Eufeeling!; Frank Kinslow

Creativity, loosely defined as, “the ability to produce something new through imaginative skill…” seems to have a shroud of mystery about it or if not a shroud of mystery then at least a cloud of frustration. The mystery and frustration surrounding creativity comes from our inability to control the creative process. Our definition above infers that we are in control of our creativity. We are, but not the way we think and that is the source of our unrest. The mechanics of creativity are subtle indeed transcending logic and analysis. In fact, the more we try to control the creative process the less creativity we manufacture. To understand it we must assume a different posture, one of letting go rather than holding on.

We actually can control the creative process by not controlling it. Creativity is not an active process. It is a spectators sport. We can’t create creativity because it is a natural, ever-evolving, and spontaneous process. It is not localized in our mind, as we might think, but flourishes continuously throughout creation.

Let’s say that you are working on creating a way to silently communicate through touch. Think of your mind like a magnifying glass. Think of the act of creation like a colony of ants. Through your magnifying glass you can watch the subtleties of ant culture, the genius of the genus if you will, as it unfolds before your eyes. You notice a single ant that discovers a source of food, communicate his discovery through body language and entangling his antennae with the other ant. (Now I know analogies have their limits but bear with me a little longer on this one.) Through close observation you discover how information is passed from one ant to the other and find that you can apply that process between two people.

The point to be made is that you did not create anything. Are you familiar with the saying, “There is nothing new under the sun.”? It can be said another way, “Miracles exist where knowledge does not.” Creation has all the answers. We cannot know everything in creation but we can observe the act of creation and report what we find. You see? Creativity is a passive process.

The question begs to be asked, “How do we become the passive observe of creation?” The first step is to contact creation at its source. The second step is to observe without interfering or interjecting control of any kind. (Chapter on “How to Have a QE Intention” in Eufeeling!) Control and creativity are mutually exclusive. It would be like using your magnifying glass to focus the sun’s rays (intellect, analysis, logic) on your ant. POOF! No ant…no creativity.

The act of creation is a fascinating study and much more than that. The act of observing creation is remarkably revitalizing. It harmonizes, energizes, and inspires. The act of observing creation is a lost art. It comes naturally to a chosen few but is open to all of us. It is not limited to those in the “creative” professions. The joy of creation is expressed in building a birdhouse, talking with your neighbor over the backyard fence or finding faces in billowing white clouds against a royal blue sky. Join with me while we discover and explore the outer reaches of our creativity together.

For more information on the creating the creative process:

The Kinslow System™

Books:

Eufeeling!

The Secret of Quantum Living