<\/p>\n
By Mel Schwartz<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Living in infinite possibility sounds good, but how do you
\nactually do it? Psychologist Mel Schwartz offers tried and true practices for bending reality
\nbased on deep psychology and quantum physics research. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Our sense of self is constructed early in life, sometimes
\nthrough traumatic events and at other times more subtly. An aspect of quantum physics called
\nwave collapse can illuminate how this construction occurs and, more importantly, how we can
\nempower ourselves to live a life that is unburdened by our past and open to infinite
\npossibility.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Moving From Limited Reality to Infinite <\/p>\n One day in my office, a client named Jill recalled the words <\/p>\n Jill’s belief affected her relations with her husband, <\/p>\n The Quantum Worldview<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For virtually all of us whose beliefs have been ingrained <\/p>\n Physicists refer to this tendency as wave-particle duality <\/p>\n The quantum reality exists in what is known as a series of <\/p>\n All that may sound far removed from our day-to-day world of <\/p>\n Our Roots in Pure Potential<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As newborns or infants, if not at conception and in utero, we <\/p>\n Ordinarily, even a single yet significant experience is <\/p>\n Beliefs: Gates to Infinity or Walls of a Jail The initial wave collapse sets up a recurring incidence of <\/p>\n The themes of subsequent collapses may vary, but they are <\/p>\n Less dramatically than the hurtful comments or abusive <\/p>\n I had referred another client, Helen, to meet a colleague of <\/p>\n “I guess I just wasn’t important enough for <\/p>\n I suggested that Helen saw herself as not valuable, and she <\/p>\n Our primary beliefs about ourselves that have been generated <\/p>\n Returning to Pure Potential<\/strong><\/p>\n To free yourself from repeating harmful and confining wave <\/p>\n In the space between our thoughts, we are similar to the wave <\/p>\n How Our Thoughts Affect Our Reality<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Simply put, the thought we engage will summon the reality of <\/p>\n Helen’s confining wave collapse of feeling devalued set <\/p>\n As we talked further, I asked Helen whether she had attempted <\/p>\n When I explained to Helen the theory behind wave collapse, <\/p>\n Helen’s progress from that point was impressive. She <\/p>\n The Infinite Potential of the <\/p>\n The quantum view of the universe tells us that reality <\/p>\n Exercise: Releasing Your Past and Programming Appreciating how the wave collapses in our lives informed our <\/p>\n I am not suggesting that we either avoid or suppress painful <\/p>\n What we are seeking are new wave collapses that implant <\/p>\n In working with Jill, I asked her to consider what she could <\/p>\n Think of a core belief you hold about yourself that greatly <\/p>\n 1.<\/strong> After you’ve identified that core <\/p>\n 2.<\/strong> This is the confining wave collapse that <\/p>\n 3.<\/strong> If your beliefs about yourself were You are more than your experiences, and an infinite potential <\/p>\n Many individuals were fortunate enough to have experienced <\/p>\n yogaesoteric<\/strong><\/p>\n February 7, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Mel Schwartz Living in infinite possibility sounds good, but how do you actually do it? Psychologist Mel Schwartz offers tried and true practices for bending reality based on deep psychology and quantum physics research. Our sense of self is constructed early in life, sometimes through traumatic events and at other times more subtly. An […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[693],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articole-1603-ro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPossibilities<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nher mother spoke to her when she was about eight years old: “When I learned I was pregnant
\nwith you, I told your father I didn’t want another baby.” Despite the fact that her
\nmother was otherwise devoted and loving, Jill’s acutely personal takeaway was damning. She
\nfelt unwanted and therefore unlovable, then and ever since. She carried this core belief with
\nher throughout her life, limiting her potential for infinite possibilities. Her own inner
\nmonologue was perpetually self-critical, confirming her belief that she wasn’t lovable.
\nThe snapshot Jill had taken of herself early in her life had become etched into her psyche as
\nher embedded truth.<\/p>\n
\nchildren, and friends. Notwithstanding her husband Bob’s loving devotion to her, Jill
\nquestioned his loyalty and truthfulness in light of seeing herself as unlovable. Her belief
\nabout herself was becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy: she was forcing Bob to withdraw his love
\nas his frustration mounted. What Jill experienced is not uncommon, for what we believe to be
\ntrue about ourselves – and others – contributes to our reality-making process and
\nwhether we experience a reality of infinite possibility or not. Prior to her mother’s
\nremark, Jill’s identity could have evolved in limitless ways, but that range of
\npossibility became narrowed by that one short sentence.<\/p>\n
\nwith the mechanistic worldview, the world as seen through quantum physics appears to be suffused
\nwith a kind of non-rational strangeness. One of the fundamental aspects of the quantum
\nworldview, for instance, is that elementary particles exhibit a somewhat
\n“schizophrenic” nature. I use that word not in its complex clinical sense but in the
\nconventional meaning of having a “split personality” – and every quantum
\nentity indeed has the dual capacity to exist as either a wave or a particle.<\/p>\n
\n– a notion that rubs against our commonsense logic. Ordinarily, we believe that things
\neither are or are not, that they are distinct in their nature. This either-or thinking can also
\nbe referred to as binary thinking, which leaves only two distinct paths open to us. Binary
\nthinking, the opposite of infinite possibilities, is a major aspect of how we observe and
\nconstruct reality. Yet this either-or reality apparently doesn’t apply in the quantum
\nrealm and is questionable in our everyday lives as well.<\/p>\n
\nprobability waves, with an infinite possibility of potential outcomes. This means that when the
\nparticle is not being observed, it exists as a waveform, which in quantum language represents a
\nstate of pure potential, known as superposition. This term proposes that as long as we do not
\nknow what the state of any object is, it actually exists in all possible states simultaneously,
\nas long as we don’t look to check. In that sense, the wave represents pure possibility.
\nThe very act of observation reduces the wave (potential) to a fixed element – a particle.
\nThis reduction is referred to as wave collapse.<\/p>\n
\npersonal relationships, fears and anxieties, love and ignorance. Yet a similar thing occurs in
\nour lives. When we have particular experiences and make certain observations of ourselves, or
\nhave them made of us – typically in childhood – we experience the psychological
\nequivalent of a quantum wave collapse.<\/p>\n
\nresemble the infinite possibilities of the wave; our personality, not yet defined, is in a state
\nof potential. Notwithstanding matters of genetics, environmental influences, or considerations
\nof archetypal, astrological, or KARMA-ic influences (however we may feel about those concepts),
\nour identity is not yet determined and fixed. But before long, we move from the potential of the
\nwave to the “thingness” of the particle. The personal evolution of our personality
\ngets stunted, and our growth becomes fitful. How does this occur?<\/p>\n
\nsufficient to collapse our personal wave of potential. Jill experienced a powerful wave collapse
\nafter her mother spoke one particular sentence to her. Sometimes all it takes is a hurtful
\nstatement or an embarrassing experience in our early years to reduce the potential of our
\npersonality to a narrow, restricted self-image. These events need not be traumatic; they may, in
\nfact, be subtle. Yet in those moments, our potential fades. It’s as if we have taken a
\nsnapshot of ourselves, and we become frozen in time. I refer to these as confining wave
\ncollapses, in contrast to the defining wave collapses that usher in defining moments of infinite
\npossibility. We are no longer the potential of the wave but the finiteness of the particle. And
\nwe carry this picture of ourselves with us through our lives, allowing it to burden and limit
\nus. We lose the authorship of our life story.<\/p>\n
\nCell<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nsimilar experiences as our beliefs about ourselves and others become self-reinforcing. What we
\nthink of ourselves shapes our interactions with both others and ourselves. This habit obstructs
\nour ability to transform or evolve as we cling to our perceived “truth” of who we
\nare.<\/p>\n
\noften self-limiting if not denigrating. We generate thoughts such as “I’m not good
\nenough” or “I’m not smart enough,” or even more simply, “I’m
\nnot loveable.” The actors who perhaps unwittingly participate in scripting our personal
\nbeliefs are often our parents, but they may also be teachers, friends, relatives, or even
\nstrangers. We cling to these habituated beliefs about ourselves in accordance with our primary
\nwave collapses. In spite of new events that should cause us to reconsider or reevaluate our
\nbeliefs – for example, Bob’s devotion to and love for Jill – we remain rooted
\nin the way we see ourselves. We become embedded in the groove of our self-referencing beliefs
\nand block the opportunity for growth, transformation and infinite possibility.<\/p>\n
\nactions of others, the patterns of family dynamics may cause us to acquire certain personality
\ntraits. These influences tend to be more chronic and may fly beneath our radar screen. If you
\ngrew up in a highly conflicted or alcoholic family, for instance, you may have coped by
\ndeveloping a people-pleaser persona. We can think of this chronic condition as an extended wave
\ncollapse rather than the result of the acute single event.<\/p>\n
\nmine so that they might explore matters of mutual professional interest. Helen made an
\nappointment to meet with Jim at a conference he would be attending. When Helen arrived, Jim was
\nengaged in conversation with others and didn’t notice her waiting to introduce herself.
\nShortly thereafter, Jim left the conference without acknowledging Helen.<\/p>\n
\nhim to wait to meet me,” Helen said to me later. She reported this as though it were
\nan established fact instead of an interpretive opinion of her own constructing. I asked her how
\nshe knew this to be true and whether other explanations might apply. For example, I knew Jim to
\nbe notoriously absentminded; he might simply have forgotten he was supposed to meet her at the
\nconference, or he may not have noticed her waiting to introduce herself. In fact, he had
\noverlooked appointments with me in the past, and I certainly didn’t conclude that he
\nviewed me as unimportant.<\/p>\n
\nwas projecting that insult onto Jim, thinking he saw her as she saw herself. At first she
\nresisted this possibility. She related some compelling stories, which revealed that as a child
\nshe had felt like her mother’s servant and that her entire childhood was about her dutiful
\nobedience to her mother. Helen waited on her mother hand and foot, as their parent-child roles
\nwere reversed. She was deprived of the value that every child deserves, and so she basically
\nfelt unimportant. This wave collapse had disastrous effects on her self-esteem. Throughout her
\nlife, her thoughts almost automatically continued to affirm this affliction, shutting down her
\npotential for infinite possibilities.<\/p>\n
\nby our wave collapses orchestrate the quality and nature of our thoughts, which make specific
\nthe general theme of the wave collapse. If, like Helen, our core belief is that we are not of
\nvalue, we can predict the kinds of thoughts we might then experience, such as
\n“I’m not important” or “Why should he pay attention to me?
\nI don’t matter.” These thoughts measure ourselves against others, and the
\npredictable result is that we see ourselves as subordinate to others. These thoughts and their
\nresulting feelings can leave us trapped inside a self-induced container of low self-
\nesteem.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\ncollapses, consider this Possibility Principle: In the nanosecond before your next thought, you
\nare in a state of pure potential.<\/p>\n
\n– full of infinite possibilities. Once we attach to our next thought, the ensuing wave
\ncollapses, and we create our reality in that moment. If we continue to have self-limiting or
\ninjurious thoughts, we remain adhered to the damaging effects of the primary wave collapse. In
\ntherapy, a client often experiences a breakthrough, a significant moment during which a highly
\nanticipated insight becomes illuminated. This event presents a new state of potential and, with
\nit, the possibility of a defining moment, in which the client can break into new terrain. The
\nperson will then select which reality to summon by thinking either “What a relief!
\nI’ve broken through” or “What’s wrong with me? Why has this taken so
\nlong?” One thought is self-affirming and offers relief and the possibility of vaulting
\nforward, while the other is self-critical and resists progress. The thought you select will
\nchart your path.<\/p>\n
\nour next moment and will determine whether we experience a reality of infinite possibility or
\nnot. We can move forward in breaking new ground, or we can summon an old familiar thought,
\nabandoning the insight. Obviously, we can choose vastly differing experiences. The potential is
\nall that exists prior to the next thought. Our struggle with change is in part caused by our
\nhabituation to old thoughts.<\/p>\n
\nin motion her lifelong inner narrative. I could see the automatic nature of her thought coming
\nthrough in the statement, “I guess I’m not important enough for him to wait for
\nme.” This type of thought, instinctive and programmed, burdened and afflicted Helen.
\nI worked with her to identify that thought and separate from it so that she could see what it
\nwas telling her. This established another essential principle for her: if you can learn to see
\nthe thought, you don’t have to become the thought.<\/p>\n
\nto contact Jim after the conference. She continued to cling to her story that there wasn’t
\nany point in doing so because she had been blown off. I suggested that her thought had indeed
\ntold her that she was blown off, but how could she actually know that for a fact? What she was
\ndoing was creating a storyline to conform to her beliefs and her personal history. Was she
\nperhaps simply replicating wave collapses from earlier in her life? Was this her thought stuck
\nin an old groove? When pressed, she couldn’t offer proof that her story was true. If we
\ncan’t know for sure that our story is true, then we need to look at how we confuse our
\nstory with the truth of a given situation. I asked Helen if it was plausible that she had
\nbelieved an untruth about herself her entire life. She reconsidered and acknowledged that she
\nmight be personalizing the events around her meeting with Jim to conform to her self-
\nimage.<\/p>\n
\nshe quickly grasped the concept. I had her envision an alternative and positive wave collapse in
\nwhich her mother had been maternally inclined and actually doted on her. What then might her
\nbelief about herself be? She permitted herself this alternative point of view and considered
\nthat perhaps she wasn’t irrelevant. Doing so meant that she also needed to embrace her
\ndiscomfort as she moved beyond the limits of her familiar zone. (As much as we may suffer with
\nour limiting beliefs, we often feel dissonance between our old beliefs and new ones and
\napprehension about stepping into the new potential and infinite possibility of who we may become
\nwhen we release the old beliefs.) Our work then focused on helping Helen break free from her
\naddictive tendency to malign herself – or more precisely, the tendency of her
\nthought.<\/p>\n
\nbegan to value herself, and this shift in her self-esteem led to her experiencing her
\nrelationships in an entirely new way. By severing the grip of her old identity, she gave herself
\nthe opportunity to select a new and positive wave collapse with self-affirming thoughts.
\nBreaking free from the predictability of the confining wave collapse requires uprooting the
\nrepetitive thoughts that inform the old belief. Noticing the repetition of these old thoughts,
\nin lockstep with the wave collapse, enables the shift.<\/p>\n
\nSuperposition<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nappears to unfold perpetually from a state of potential – what we earlier called
\nsuperposition. To access the universal potential, it is necessary for us to devote ourselves to
\napprehending that infinite possibility, which lies in the instant prior to collapsing the wave
\nwith our next thought or feeling. Our thought literally summons our construed reality. Thoughts
\nthat emanate from the habitual groove of old wave collapses are likely to re-create more of the
\nsame feelings and experiences. Our thoughts therefore re-present our past experience. This is
\nwhy we struggle with transformation. Taking a new snapshot and actualizing new thinking will,
\nhowever, script a new experience, allowing us to participate fully in an evolving reality.<\/p>\n
\nYourself for an Infinite Future<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nsense of self is essential in priming the pump for transformation. Often the meanings we
\nattribute to the events of our personal history prevent us from creating effective
\ntransformation, as we are reduced to seeing ourselves as victims. Many adults have memories of
\nan abusive, loveless, or disappointing childhood because they didn’t receive the nurturing
\nand love that is every child’s birthright. But if we choose to keep focusing on limiting
\nevents of our past, then we choose a present that predicts a similar future. At some point, we
\nneed to stop choosing to believe the meaning we ascribed to our past and script a different
\npresent that opens us up to infinite possibilities.<\/p>\n
\nmemories. By all means, we need to bring them into the light and process them, so we can loosen
\ntheir grip on us. The goal, though, is to disarm them and eventually release them. The thought
\nthat we choose in the present moment is almost entirely responsible for who we are in that
\nmoment. If we continue to summon the same habitual thoughts, we won’t realize the infinite
\npossibilities and potential that await us.<\/p>\n
\npositive self-reflections and identities as we grow past the grip of the negative ones. These
\nnew defining wave collapses offer the route for our defining moments.<\/p>\n
\nhave said when her mother told her that she hadn’t wanted another baby when she found out
\nshe was pregnant with Jill. Jill responded, “That makes me feel terrible and
\nunwanted.” Had she actually said that at the time, she might have experienced a
\npositive defining wave collapse. Simply reliving that encounter in a way that gave her some
\npower was part of her healing process. By expressing her feelings, she was able to establish a
\nworthier sense of self. Instead of thinking, “I am unlovable,” which speaks
\nto a fixed state of being, she could reframe her belief to “I’ve thought of
\nmyself as unlovable, and now I know why.” This belief is amenable to
\ntransformation.<\/p>\n
\nlimits how you experience your life. We think of these beliefs as our “truth.” They
\nmay range from “I’m not smart enough” to “People just don’t
\nrespect me.” Or they may sound like “I’m a poor communicator” or
\n“Conflict makes me uncomfortable, so I avoid confrontation.”<\/p>\n
\nbelief, ask yourself how you came to this belief. You might recall an embarrassing, shameful, or
\ntraumatic moment from earlier in life in which this “truth” took hold. For example,
\nyou raised your hand in class to ask a question, and everyone laughed at how silly your question
\nseemed. So you decided to never risk that kind of exposure again. Now you play it safe and
\nreally think long and hard before you speak. Or your belief could have been caused by more
\nchronic circumstances, like growing up in a volatile home and coming to believe that you
\ncouldn’t really share how you felt out of fear of catalyzing violence.<\/p>\n
\nhas created your limiting belief about yourself. If it was caused by a specific moment in which
\nyou felt shamed or ridiculed, picture yourself back in that moment. Then imagine yourself
\nfinding your voice. Tell those involved how you feel about what just happened or what they said
\nor did to you. Finding your voice in this way helps release you from the bondage of the
\nconfining wave collapse. Reflect on how different your beliefs about yourself would be if this
\nevent had never occurred.<\/p>\n
\ninformed by chronic rather than acute circumstances, such as having an alcoholic or abusive
\nparent or growing up in a volatile home, remind yourself that these beliefs are a product of
\nyour experience. Imagine yourself being raised in a loving and supportive family. Now how
\ndifferently might you feel about yourself? Once you choose to reclaim your potential, you cease
\nbeing a victim of damaging circumstances. Say to yourself, “I don’t need to be
\nimprisoned by my past if I choose to free myself from my limiting beliefs.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nof possibility awaits you as you allow your identity to evolve. Once you learn to see how your
\nbeliefs are informing you, you are free to break into new terrain and achieve a defining moment.
\nWitness your thoughts and recognize the story they are telling you. Don’t confuse them
\nwith the truth. You can learn to rewrite your story.<\/p>\n
\nexemplary defining wave collapses that affirmed them and helped them to secure a strong sense of
\nself. This typically leads to healthy self-esteem that enables them to craft their personalities
\nand experiences free from constrictive encumbrances. But those of us who haven’t yet
\nexperienced such a gift can learn how to overcome our burdens and reach the full range of our
\npossibilities. The way we’ve been trained to think that transformation is hard or
\nimplausible once again grows out of our operating worldview. This belief in inertia developed
\nfrom the causal determinism of the mechanistic worldview in which our present and future are
\ndependent on our past. The new principle derived from the participatory worldview –
\npotentiality – invites us to free ourselves from aspects of our past that don’t
\nserve us. We needn’t stay stuck in the fixed state of the particle but can ride the
\ninfinite possibilities of the wave.<\/p>\n