SHIFT
SHIFT
Shifting Is Easy
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-9:43

Shifting Is Easy

Let's take a long, deep breath.

Settle into this moment together.

If you’re listening, you may hear pitter-pattering of rain on the hut roof here.

I hope you enjoy it.

Let's settle into this moment.

Bring one hundred percent of your attention right here.

100%.

Set that intention to be fully present for the next little while.

Bring yourself into a present state of mind.

Let's listen to life for 10 seconds.

What do you hear?

Can you feel a change inside you?

Another deep breath.

There it is — we've shifted our state a bit.

Shifting your state of mind goes back thousands of years.

It probably goes back roughly as far as conscious human thought goes back.

After all, it's fairly easy — as we just experienced.

It's the simple act of intentionally shifting what's going on inside you so that you end up feeling different.

To shift into presence, for example, all we're talking about is noticing the way you feel when all your attention is 100% right here, right now.

Let’s try it real quick.

Listen to life with one hundred percent of your attention and notice how that feels again.

Feel a difference?

When all your attention is in this moment, you release stress automatically because you're not thinking about five (or fifty) things at once.

You're focusing on one thing at once — right now.

You're focusing only on whatever's arising in this moment and then you’re letting it go.

It might be sights.

It might be sounds.

Let's deepen our presence by just listening to NOW for 15 seconds.

Notice how you shift.

Nice.

When you listen like that, your body changes because feelings of stress are related to having lots of things going on in your head — especially lots of thoughts that are stressful to you.

There's nothing overtly difficult about shifting your focus onto one thing at a time instead of many things at a time.

Again, doing that brings you into presence if you keep it up for a little while.

It's also easy to come into a flow state of mind if you have a little energy and you set your intention.

A flow state is a state in which you're feeling present, but you're also actively engaged in whatever you're engaging with.

In flow, you're engaged in an activity with a fully present state of mind — as opposed to only presence, only the observing mind, the listening mind.

So let’s try coming into a flow state.

Intend 100% of your attention to listening to your flow state.

Listen for it.

Listen to your inner body and then feel life flowing through you.

Listen and feel.

Do you feel that buzz on your skin?

Listen to it.

What's life saying to you when you listen right now for 10 seconds?

What's next for you today?

Nice.

I feel gratitude for shifting with you.

That's what's life's saying to me right now.

I guess that's next for me today.

That's where my flow state feeling is guiding me as I’m shifting with you right now.

It’s guiding me into a Gratitude Shift.

Can you feel a grateful state of mind and body on demand right now if you choose to?

Try that — try feeling gratitude flowing through you next.

We’re shifting states pretty quickly today.

Everyone's had experiences of what feeling gratitude is though.

Everyone knows what it's like to feel grateful.

How does grateful feel to you?

Can you feel it now as you keep listening to life?

One easy way to feel gratitude is to recognize that you are 30 trillion cells buzzing into existence each moment.

That's something to be grateful for.

Feel that?

Feel the gratitude?

Let's sit for 10 seconds with it.

Perfect.

Shifting your mind is really just coming into an awareness that at any given moment you feel a certain way.

If you're not pleased with the way you're feeling, or if it doesn't match the activity that you feel like is the next right activity for you, then know that you have the ability to shift into a state of mind that's more consistent with your intention — more consistent with what you choose.

That's it.

Keep it as simple as possible.

You just need to remember that within a couple minutes anytime, you can shift into a better state of mind if you choose to.

Knowing that shifting is not complicated is helpful because it makes the barrier to starting a shift that much lower.

To get yourself started, all it takes is recognizing that you want to make a change in the next few minutes — and then deploying the strategy that creates that change.

There are plenty of state change strategies when it comes to shifting into presence.

However, your strategy always begins by setting an intention to be present for the next little while.

So let's do that again.

Let's reset that intention to be present now.

Take a few long, deep breaths as you set that intention.

How about three long, deep breaths?

Nice.

Feel the presence.

Perfect.

You'll likely notice after you shift for a little while your brain will more automatically produce those certain states of mind that you've been practicing shifting into.

It all becomes more natural and easy when you allow your brain to direct your focus on just one thing for a while.

You can focus on your breath, or listen to sounds, or look at the world.

Just staring at your environment intensely and noticing things you haven't noticed before can be a great way to come into presence.

If you focus 100% of your attention, each of those directed attention activities will take up big amounts of your brain power.

That means you're focusing in on one thing and that will increasingly bring you into the present moment.

When you focus on one thing, your inner resources are dragged away from distracting thoughts, or other objects of your mind that were consuming your attention before.

It works.

It's simple.

Straightforward.

Easy.

Set an intention to come into presence with me for the rest of your day now.

Feel the intention being set.

Let's listen to life together for a while before we say goodbye for now.

Notice life.

Listen with me.

And notice how your body feels.

A shifted state of mind produces a shifted state of body.

Relax your shoulders.

Allow your arms to fall toward the ground.

Fully relaxed and present.

Listening to life.

Being here now.

Perfect.

That's it.

Shifting is easy.

Life is good.

Have an incredible day.

Wherever you are and whatever you're doing — be present.

I'll talk to you soon.

Sean

Let’s Shift the world together.

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SHIFT
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OnePerfect Shift is an audio letter from a psychologist that shifts you into a better state of mind anytime. Each post gives you a fresh look at your relationship to your mind and reminds you how much control you can have over your life experience.
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Dr. Sean Sullivan