Cocoon Your Brain For Instant Sanity, Inspiration, and Profit

This may be a bit rantish… but I will tie it all together for you by the end.

You’ll see.

As you read this, you’ll discover I don’t think much of professional politicians, naysayers, propaganda pushers, and the way the culture and media tag team our minds with a bunch of scarcity minded drivel day in and day out.

That’s why today I’m gonna share a way to ‘cocoon’ your brain from the nefarious forces at work tirelessly all around us.

Here’s what inspired this…

Late last year I surveyed a list of over 10,000 folks about what their biggest challenge was right now in their business.

The pain, confusion, fear, and desperation that has gripped about 90% of the people responding was like a bucket brigade of ice water being dumped on me in succession at a breathtaking pace.

Let me be clear, I am empathizing with these folks – I’ve been there myself.  I’m very grateful for the feedback because I learned a LOT about exactly what they need to help them.  The number one concern was of course, money.

The odds are you too are concerned about money, so let me say that this ‘cocoon’ thing I’m going to talk about is pretty much required if you want to increase your income, so stay with me here.  Worrying about money is NOT helpful in attracting more of it.  Desperation and the panic driven decisions that go along with feeling powerless do not create wealth.

When I read all those hundreds of responses I was deeply affected by all the suffering and anxiety coming at me all at once.  Hundreds of heartbreaking responses – I was shaken.  This post is about how to deal with those emotions and what I did so I could focus on how to help these folks instead of feeling defeated.   You may not read hundreds of survey results, but like me, you are exposed to similar energy every day.

The news couldn’t be any more plain – we are living in troubled times.

So how do you respond to all the ‘bad news’?

That’s what will determine whether you have more money, more peace of mind, more happiness, or more of whatever it is you desire.

Another key question is, are you getting ALL the news?

See, what the ‘news’ is NOT reporting is that these are also times of historic opportunity and joy.

Which is the true ‘reality’?  What are YOU to do about all this?  That’s what this post is all about – helping you create YOUR reality.

To do that, you have to fully understand what you are up against.  Here’s my take on it.

While the ‘news’ media is well known for having a ‘bad news bias’, a giant global wet blanket of bad news wrapped around the planet’s psyche for the last year or so.

The cold, dark, damp chill that it carries with it sucks the enthusiasm, optimism, and energy out of anyone who buys into it.  You gotta remain ever vigilant.  If you don’t, the dirt bag mental muck merchants will grip your mind with their icy talons and pull out all your inherent goodness and unlimited human potential and replace it with their scarcity minded, blame game drama filled sludge and turn you into a quivering, fearful and emotionally strung out zombie.

So that’s the ‘problem’.

Here’s the opportunity…

Life is a self fulfilling prophecy and a dance with the Divine all at once.

What I mean by that is you will get what you expect – so it’s up to you to set your sights where you WANT to go instead of any limits, pain, fear, failure, or drama you’re exposed to in the news (or experienced in your past).

The more you follow inspired ideas, listen to your inner voice, and have the faith to live in this moment, the more you tap into a higher power that we’ll call the Divine here (call it whatever you want, I’m not attached to branding when it comes to spiritual matters).

But here’s the catch…

What I just said is NOT conventional wisdom and the daily conversation coming out of the TV, print, radio and online outlets spews an entirely different ‘perspective’ at you.

The hapless fools, however well intentioned, who seek to keep us ‘informed’ 24 hours a day 7 days a week every year of our lives about every conceivable shred of bad news are as much a CAUSE of further bad news as the reporters of it.  Their ‘message’ is mental dry rot. Fungus. If you let it take root into your mind, it will define what you believe is possible and scare you to within an inch of your life.

Our political ‘leaders’, with almost NO exceptions, lack even the slightest ray of enlightenment as to what would truly lead humanity toward a greater future.  They are like slimy swamp monsters, slinging mud at each other as they do anything necessary to glom onto as much power and prestige as they can while honoring little more than their insipid egos hell bent on leaving their ‘mark’ on history.

More like a ’skidmark’ on history if you ask me!

Sometimes I wish a huge hand would swoop down out of the sky with a giant ‘Sham Wow’ and wipe up the whole lot of them and squeeze them into a cosmic mop bucket of history filled with the sludge of past wars, bickering, genocide, corruption and just plain stupidity.

Since that’s not going to happen, we need a plan B

But I digress…

Unless you’ve spent some time questioning where YOUR beliefs begin and what’s been shoveled into your head relentlessly, you really have NO idea which way is up.

By up, I mean, the direction that will take you to higher levels of happiness if you dare to take the climb.

As I write this, I’m venting a little (ya think, lol), ranting, and giving my digital middle finger to the forces I’m talking about.

The key is ‘venting’.  Letting the energy OUT instead of bottling it up.

Let’s move beyond that now…

I promised you a ‘cocoon’, so let’s ‘let go’ of the rant and talk about the solution I have found works for me – we’ll see if it’s useful for you, too.

My rant demonstrates the riled up anger and indignation I feel towards the forces I described – those are the feelings I want to let go to return to a more empowered, inspired way of being. I’ve found that if I’m not vigilant, I get sucked into the daily drama and it drags me down.

Well, it’s my responsibility to choose what I want to focus on. Blaming the media or the culture or anyone or thing else is victim thinking.

Since I have not figured out a way to completely turn off negative emotions, instead of getting overwhelmed, as much as I can I choose to ‘cocoon’ myself with an ‘energy shield’.

Back to the survey results situation I was telling you about.

See, my intention is to help the folks who responded to the survey, and I’m not going to get very far with that if I take on the fear and desperation that is coming in wave after wave. Solutions and creativity are what’s called for so I have to detach from the empathetic response and step back.

If you’ve ever had someone call you up and unload about their horrible day you’ll know what I’m talking about here – just multiply that times several hundred.

When that happens, you of course want to ‘empathize’ and have compassion (after all, we’ve all been there). But if you are to be helpful, you have to be in a position to raise the energy, not wallow in the darkness with them. You want to be the bright light of hope and possibility and lead them as much as possible. Misery does love company, and it is contagious if you join in.

I’m not saying, by the way, that you adopt a pollyanna perma-grin and act like everything is peachy. That comes across as denial, not empathy in my experience.

Anyway, this post isn’t really about exactly HOW to help – but about how to shield yourself with an energetic ‘cocoon’.

When I say ‘energetic’ I am not getting all ‘Star Trek’ on you, though I do literally mean energy as in emotions, brain wave frequencies, emotional states, and vibratory rate. Stay with me here, I promise this is a tangible, practical, yet inspired action you can take at any time you choose.

Here’s the bottom line…

When you operate from a higher energy, more expansive, empowered perspective, you have more powerful choices, right?

When you can clear your head of the drama and drumbeat of doom, then you find ANSWERS. Answers that are there all the time, but you don’t have access to them unless you are operating at a higher level (frequency, if you will).

So let me tell you about the cocoon I’ve constructed to shield my self from the onslaught of ‘doom energy’.

First, I have renewed my former habit of starting every day with ‘input’ I choose.

I may read a book, or a favorite blog, or listen to an audio, or watch a video. I’m talking about a few minutes to an hour max (if I have time). By choosing my ‘input’, I set the tone for the day with information that sets me off on the right ‘tone’. I’m immersed into a world of ideas, possibility, biography and history that reminds me what’s possible. This is my daily ‘brainwashing’ ritual to literally clean away the muck that I’m exposed to everywhere else.

This is key: choose your input with discretion and care. I am not suggesting you ‘escape’ into fiction or read the newspaper to get ‘current’ on the news.

I’m talking about biographies of successful people, ’self help’ titles like ‘Think and Grow Rich’ (or ‘Inspired Marketing’ ). Read what GREAT people have done. Read classic books filled with eternal truths. Get an ‘angel’s eye view’ of human history and what’s worked so you know what will most likely work NOW.

Second, I choose music to listen to in the background as I am in my office or in the car or wherever. I alternate between feeding my brain and ‘resting my brain’ by tuning out new info input so I can digest what. No need to ‘OD’ on info, no matter how ‘good’.

I’ve found that a certain kind of music puts me in a ‘possibility trance’ that makes mind mind expand, free associate, and focus as the situation requires.

While I have a broad musical taste that includes heavier stuff like rock and metal from my younger days, classical music, and a whole lot in between, I have become choosy and aware of what I pick when I’m going for the ‘cocoon’ effect.

Sadly, if I really listen to the lyrics of most of the music I grew up with and love, it’s a litany of loser talk.

With all due respect, most songwriters and musicians in the genres I’ve liked are basketcases if you take their words literally. But, alas, I like the songs, the sounds, the memories, so I’m not going to throw out my CD collection or my mp3 archives just yet. But that’s a rant for another day.

For now, here is what I look for in the music I pick.

1) NO lyrics. If nobody is singing anything, I don’t have to worry about absorbing a bunch of garbage thoughts.

2) No ‘downer’ or ‘melancholy’ beats, tones, or moods. I also don’t like hyper or sugar sweet candy cane music either – no flowery melodies for me, thanks.

3) Has to feel ‘expansive’.

Instead of describing that last one, I’ll give you my current favorite kind of music as an example instead.

It’s called ‘fingerstyle’ guitar.

While some songs and artists in this category are not good examples because they are ‘melancholy’ or are otherwise not my taste – the way this style of acoustic guitar music is played can really hit the spot for me. I first came across it when I saw the movie ‘August Rush’ and then in conversations with Scott Allen, Pat O’Bryan among others.

If you go to Pandora.com  (available in the US only, unfortunately) you can set up free online radio stations. I did that with artists like Kaki King, Michael Hedges, Phil Keaggy, Preston Reed, and Erik Mongrain. Each has selections that are perfect (and some I have yet to warm up to).

But I now have an iTunes playlist that I play whenever I want to wrap my mind in music that helps me write, think, daydream, chill out, and just plain feel inspired.

You will undoubtedly have other music that makes you feel that way… and my point here is not to make you listen to what I like, but to inspire you to do whatever works for you. Just make sure the energy you feel is empowering, uplifting, and something you can listen to while you work on your inspired projects (ideally).

Sounds, and thereby music, are but one of the most obvious examples of vibration energy – so it’s real easy to understand that if the music you’re listening to brings you down, you aren’t helping yourself to for the purposes I’ve been talking about.

I’m also not saying that the next time you go to a party you slap in a Michael Hedges CD and make everyone turn off the AC DC. There is a time and a place for whatever you like… I’m just talking about a way I’ve found to shift my mood, my mind, and my perspective UP when the prevailing forces surrounding me could weigh me down. I’m not always in the mood to feel enlightened. Sometimes I just want to party and kick up my heels, too. My guess is you are the same way (in your own way).

If this post weren’t so darn long already, I’d get into movies, too.

But for now, let me close by saying that when you cocoon yourself you surround your senses with input that works for you. It creates a space for you to see things from a higher level, an inspired view, which will give you room to fill up on ‘good energy’ so that YOUR life rises above the prevailing energy of the times.

You’ll be more help to your own advancement and to others if you are lighthouse in the storm. You’ll attract more like minded people, things, and circumstances and begin a self fulfilling prophecy that serves you. You’ll be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

I’m convinced that the people throughout history who’ve turned adversity into their advantage and risen to greatness during the darkest times found some way to shield themselves from desperation and fear. This ‘cocoon’ thing works for me – I highly recommend you find what works for you because leaving your mind and emotions open to the muck merchants is a surefire way to get dragged straight down the drain.

Like a ‘cocoon’, if you give yourself enough time to fully experience it each day, you’ll find that you transform to your next stage of awareness and experience. I know on some level I’m risking sounding like a butterfly metaphor cliche – but if you’ve read this far I think you get what I’m trying to say here.

Leave a comment with what you think about this. Do you have suggestions for other tools or resources? Share em if ya got em

- Craig

P.S. If you liked this post, tell a friend. My intention is to be part of the solution and I can use all the help you’re inspired to give.