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Aimee's Soapbox!
January 2005: New Year's Intentions.

Happy New Year, Groovy Readers! Hope you all had fabulous holidays, enjoyed your lazy December, and otherwise experienced festive good cheer!

And now it's time to get back to it. The New Year is a time when some of us feel the need to try something new, or get rid of the old, or make way for new opportunities, or even just shake off the cobwebs of last year. So here are my thoughts on a way to do all of the above.

My story begins a few weeks ago, when I had the opportunity to see the movie, "What the @#$%& Do We Know!?" (That @#$%& is pronounced "Bleep," not surprisingly.) This wonderful feature is half movie and half documentary, and it explores the fascinating field of quantuum physics. (OK, I hear you snorting at the use of "fascinating" and "quantuum physics" in the same sentence. Just bear with me a second.)

Anyway, "What the Bleep" delves into the science of the mind and how our thoughts and intentions become manifest. It examines the nature of reality and shows how we create our own reality, literally. The fourteen experts featured in the documentary parts--some scientific, some spiritual mystics--beautifully explain how our brain chemistry and our spiritual energy are really inseparable when it comes to the reality that we call our everyday life.

Am I losing you? Rather than attempting to describe the beauty and wonder of this film, I suggest either watching it yourself or going to www.whatthebleep.com to learn more.

OK, so what does that have to do with you, me, this column, and New Year's? Well, lemme tell ya. . . .

You know that little voice in your head that says "you're not fast enough, thin enough, rich enough, smart enough," or whatever enough? Now, I am not saying we all do this all the time, but be honest with yourself. Most of have this little voice going on and on and on in our heads at least sometimes in our lives. Right?

Well, as this movie shows, that little voice actually affects your brain chemistry in such a way that those thoughts actually CHANGE your brain chemistry. So, scary as it sounds, these negative thoughts have the ability to change your brain in the same way that drugs change your brain to create an addiction or dependence. Yikes. . . .

I don't know about you, but this affected me profoundly, to think that the little voice in my head is actually affecting the peptides and neural pathways and such in my brain. In other words, I am not just mentally beating myself up, but I am physically BECOMING those things I think I am! I'd have to be the biggest dope in the world to keep doing that to myself.

So here is my New Year's suggestion to you, dear Groovy Readers. First, go see the movie. Second, write down all the ways in which you beat yourself up mentally. What is your little voice telling you that you are not good enough at? Third, imagine the opportunities open to you if you freed yourself from that voice. Finally, write down a new script for your little voice to say.

Of course, realize that breaking the old habit of beating yourself up mentally will be just as tough as breaking a drug addiction, since you know now that the brain chemistry is affected in the same way. I mean, if self-esteem were as easy to get as saying, "I'm smart enough, I'm pretty enough, and darn it, people like me," well, then we'd all have it. (Apologies to Saturday Night Live. . . ) No, this is not a matter of simply repeating a new mantra. This requires a dedicated effort and a strong combination of emotion and intellect. By this I mean that not only do you have to INTELLECTUALLY tell yourself that you are in fact good enough, but you also have to EMOTIONALLY really and truly believe it. The combination of intellect and emotion is the key to success in this instance. To go back to the drug addict analogy, it's like really and truly being so scared to death of staying addicted that you'll do anything to quit. Does that make sense?

I would love to hear from you all on this subject, either the movie itself or how you have applied the ideas in the movie and this article to your life. Please email me and let me know your thoughts!

Coming up... Spring is around the corner. . . yay! Are you ready?

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