Tricky Thoughts and Slight of Hand

Do not be compromised, stay in integrity. Everything is exposed.

The level of trickery has advanced to new levels. However, so has your ability to catch it and see it. Do NOT be fooled by the surface level assumptions. It's a hook. Wise UP. Level UP! Look closely.

There are those days when the mind is inundated with a stream of undigested thoughts running in the background contributing to a certain tinge, tone, frequency, or maybe even a downright funk. I call it the dumps. It's hard sometimes to pinpoint the actual thoughts, they hang out like a dense heavy fog. In these moments, it is common to cast aside self care practices, forget all of the helpful reminders. One thought leads to another yet another followed by an emotion with an energetic weight followed by more thoughts and more emotions. We beat ourselves up until we submit to whatever line of thinking we have bought into. It sucks. It doesn't feel good. It can last part of a day, a full day, for weeks or months and takes away from life satisfaction. When under the influence of this it is hard to pull the self out. We make excuses, justifications, avoid, run away from, distract, ignore, dissociate. At some point, perhaps we go looking for help, inspiration, trying to figure it out; why, what, how, it's because....and on and on until you bump up against something.

My intention for this is that this is the moment you bump up against something.

In the most straightforward direct way I can say this: THESE THOUGHTS ARE A SLIGHT OF HAND.

The moment you go looking for help or trying to solve the problem or fix the issue, you AFFIRM that the thought you have bought into is TRUE.

What if it is NOT? What if what you perceive to be the issue is not actually the issue? Have you considered that behind the scenes is a thought within a thought and that the really tricky part of this is that the thought is laid out in a way that gets you to believe something false without even consenting to it.

The issue is that you took the bait. It doesn't matter who or what baited you. It could be your upbringing or trauma, a current situational trigger or life circumstance, as much as it may be growing pains from going through a life transition. Those may be the entry points.

A good magician pulls off tricks quickly to get you to believe an illusion. It's not by happen chance, it's planned. It's intentional. The magician intends to trick you, to make you think something appears to be a way that it is not. It's all fun and games, right? Well, if you chose to go to a magic show, sure. However, it's time to wake up that if you are NOT tuning into the distortion frequency you are responding to then it's a game that is not so fun.

NOTE: This can be really hard to grasp at first, so please bear with me. I will share this with you from a few different angles. Open to learn and consider what I am sharing here. If you are open to see it, you will start to catch the trickster in disguise hurling these messages at you to which you are responding to in an affirmative way which inevitably IS how you consent to them. When you start to see catch them and change your response and reaction to them, your life will change forever.

I will give you an in depth example:

Let's say that you have come to a place in life where it's time to make a change and that change requires you to speak up for yourself and communicate your truth to someone or leave a job you are no longer in alignment with. Up to this point, you have not done this and have resisted the change. Most of your interactions are based in silencing your truth and people pleasing as well as staying course to play it safe. Opportunities keep arising however instead of speaking up and advocating for yourself, you avoid it. Life circumstances arise giving you an out; a friend invites you to dinner, work gets busy, you are tired, an exciting adventure calls you to take a day trip. Meanwhile, the situation sits on the table at home and the thoughts get loud. They may even wake you up at night or not let you go to sleep. Perhaps it starts as rehearsing the conversation or situation in the back of the mind. Then begins the waterfall of statements that could range from needing to leave the relationship/job to something wrong with them to eventually blaming the self thinking it's something wrong wit you or taking it personal as though there is something you can do, or should do. When you believe you are the problem it puts the solution within your grasp and that is control. When you tell others about the situation you get caught in the details of the story. Each time you tell the story you carve it in a little deeper. Eventually forms a belief that creates separation. This person or situation (fill in the blank) and self (fill in the blank). You perceive the problem to be a relationship issue and that there is something wrong with you that you can't (fill in the blank). Perhaps you go onto YouTube to look for videos that will help you organize this. You get inspired and see others wise ideas and maybe even reach out to talk to someone to get help with the issue. Maybe is helps, temporarily. Yet, running in the back script is a series of messages to which you are responding to that have nothing to do with the story and each action you take to defend against, fix, or solve what you perceive the problem to be only solidifies those messages. Perhaps even at some point you come to the realization that you are afraid to speak up for your self because of (fill in the blank).

Is that true? Or are you responding to something that has convinced you that you are afraid? Are you even afraid? Further, why do you think you are not speaking up for yourself in the first place? I know, I know... because (fill in the blank) is/is not/should be/should not (fill in the blank).

Let's unpack this...

Fears as feelings are generally connected to some aspect of the unknown and likely a result of THOUGHTS; of course, unless a mountain lion has jumped onto your couch. Wait, did one? Does Bob in the cubicle next to look like a mountain lion? Or does your partner have big teeth and paws with claws?

This IS a perfect example of what I am talking about here. You are looking at Bob, however you are not seeing Bob. You are seeing a Mountain Lion. Bob might be saying, "Hey, it's me Bob" however you just hear growling and gnashing of teeth as Bob the mountain lion chews on your leg. In order to get Bob away you pick the up the office stapler and throw it at Bob, who is now thoroughly confused by your reaction so walks away. Internalize this and you will start to get an idea of what I am talking about here. All of it is based on a false assumption and a hypothetical outcome based on that false assumption.

The new FEAR buzzword definition is false evidence appearing real.

All of this is an assumption made about a perceived outcome that may or may not be, based on past experiences. It is NOT rooted in the present. The thoughts you are telling yourself are creating the fear. It may feel real because the body is responding to the false assumption you are telling your self. In fact, that sensation that comes up when you attempt to tell the self something that is NOT true IS the clue that you are taking the bait. If you can learn to recognize that feeling as the yellow flag, you may then remember to slow down, come to a stop. From here, it is possible to catch the chain of events at any point along the process and question it.

Maybe you are asking, why would I do this?

Quite simply because if you stop taking the bait and believing that something is wrong that you need to fix, it means you get to take yourself seriously, show up and level up. It means that whatever you have been saying is because of (fill in the blank), doing, not doing, procrastinating, avoiding, distracting, complaining about; you get to CATCH yourself rather than being caught!

NOTICE where you are being baited into an old template loop, REVOKE consent right there, and CHOOSE your next action consciously.

Example: You want to lose weight and eat healthier. You have been making small steps however you are aware that when you go to the grocery store you buy a bag of chips (or whatever your vice). The next time you are feeling lonely (false assumption that you are lonely) rather than managing the emotion and questioning the loneliness you sink into the couch watch a movie and devour the bag of chips. One part of you knows you do this. The bait? Loneliness.

Ok, so if you are telling yourself you are afraid of something (substitute this for whatever you are telling yourself: Fear, Avoidance, Not Knowing, Comfortable, Lonely, etc) and that is false, then what is the truth?

Get ready because what I am about to say next is going to ask you to take a step into what appears to be the gap. You may fight it, resist it or even stop reading; however if you are willing to at least consider that the truth is: there is nothing fundamentally wrong with you and there is not a problem. There IS an action before you to take. The action is one that will be out of your comfort zone, may expose you more than you are used to, feel vulnerable, include failing, making mistakes, you will not know how it will turn out, and you will NOT have confidence while taking this step. This is likely why, you are blowing the smoke screen and pulling your own slight of hand as a way to avoid the truth which is the action that would actually move the lever and silence the trickster.

This could be quite simply catching yourself when you are having the thoughts and seeing them as the slight of hand they are. What does that look like?

• You tell yourself you want to feel more connected confirming the false belief that you are disconnected in the first place.

• You believe something is fundamentally wrong with you so every time you feel off or something goes wrong it is proof something is wrong with you. So, you put high expectations on yourself and tell yourself what you should be doing. When you do not do what you said you would do or meet your expectations you feel guilty confirming a false belief that you are bad or have done something wrong.

• You get a job you are not excited about and avoid creating your own business to confirm the belief it is not safe to be seen or that you do not have the skills, motivation or time.

• You go shopping and buy something of value which confirms the belief that you are not valuable.

• You eat comfort food to self sooth which fills up an emotional need and confirms the belief that you are lonely.

• You hide behind others achievements, success, companionship to mask and avoid exposing your perceived weakness which would require vulnerability to face that your perceived weakness is actually a gift.

• You grew up hearing that you are just like your father and that your father is a liar. When you get older you find yourself always telling everyone everything in full disclosure. When you don't, you are self critical because you did not disclose the full truth and this is confirmation that you are lying. You are doing it to prove the false belief that you are a liar.

Yes, fear is closely tied to these thoughts. Yet, fear is NOT the problem. It is the call. When you do not answer the call, you feel it through the sensations in your body and the types of thoughts you then tell yourself.

Some of these messages may be things people told you either directly or indirectly. If someone tells you you are an orange and you take that as negative and then go on believing you are an orange and acting like an orange would act, then you have taken the bait. Maybe you call yourself an orange and somewhere believe that is bad. In fact, why are you judging yourself as bad or good? What about being in acceptance of yourself as perfect, complete and whole?

You get to say, I AM. There is nothing more or nothing less to this statement. You do not need to fill in titles after that statement to clarify or qualify who you are. You know who you are and you are not separate from the flow of life and anything that creates a belief in you that you are separate, that something is wrong, or creates a distortion sensation in the body is a LIE. When you then stay connected to the truth of who you are and take action from that, it no longer matters what message you are telling yourself, what you are afraid of, how much fear is present, how mean your inner critic is, or if you are confident or not.

THIS IS A NEW TEMPLATE

So, whether you are the one baiting the hook or being baited, you are playing one side of an outdated game. The truth is visible and clear, however you have to look beyond what appears obvious and get curious in order to see it. It's high tide to find a new template.

What then is the New Template?

Slow down, observe, get curious, and do NOT consent to taking action to defend yourself against lies you are telling yourself about yourself. When you do, a part of you believes the lie and begins to prove itself as valid, worthy, or whatever the opposite of the false belief is. This is the slight of hand and it's imperative that you learn to see it, know it, catch it and redirect.

What do you do?

In the example I gave above, when you notice that you are avoiding speaking up for yourself, stop. Listen deeply. You may hear multitude of thoughts, like "oh see you have been avoiding (fill in the blank)" or "you can't (fill in the blank)" or "what's wrong with you it's just a conversation, why can't you (fill in the blank)" or even, "what's the point, the other person won't (fill in the blank)". Whatever string of thoughts are present in this situation are the bait. Each of these statements is implying something that is not being said; something is wrong with you, or you are not doing it right, or you did or did not, etc. You may get further strung into trying to figure it out. Just STOP. Ask yourself, what if I am not avoiding it? What if there is a valid reason I am not yet communicating? Is it ok? Consider that it is. Let yourself off the hook. Maybe you are in process. What stage of the process are you in? Contemplation, consideration, organizing your thoughts, calibrating your emotions, gaining perspectives, understanding your position, letting it simmer, opening to learn, avoidance, etc.

All of it is ok. There is nothing wrong here. Accept it!

With this being said, part of the process may be that you are moved through the above stages and what is before you is to take the action that quiets the voice by speaking up. Safety is an important part of the growth process. However, the more comfortable you get, the louder the voice that beckons you to grow. The more you resist that growth stage, the more intense it gets. If you are at the stage where the action is that which you are claiming to be afraid of or in resistance to, there is no way around it, the only way is through and the time is now. Get up, show up, explore beyond the edges of the tricky thoughts and slight of hand to discover your your highest most benevolent truth that opens the door to living a more fulfilling life.

We are in a new time, in a new way, looking out through new eyes. See beyond. Open to learn and the truth will emerge.

One of the best ways to remove the distortion, is to Declutter and Detox. Get started on Decluttering with the Declutter to Clear Program. This program will guide you through organizing a declutter project in a way that makes it doable. The program is self guided and offers tips to not just remove the physical things that are taking up space, but to cut and clear the energy of the space as well. https://sequoiaravenmoon.teachable.com/p/declutter-and-clear

May you recognize the truth of who you are and remember your divinity!

Kindly,

Sequoia