He tells the story of a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year the farmer entered his corn in the state fair where it brought home a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed with your neighbors when they are entering the corn in competition with yours each year?” “Why sir,” said the farmer, “don’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”
The farmer is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbors’ corn also improves. This is our opportunity too. If we choose to live in peace, if we choose to be compassionately connected with those around us, if we choose to have the rich rewards of a limitless world, then we must choose to be happy and see others like ourselves.

It is not easy in this programmed culture to step back from the madness and take off the filters of scarcity and fear. A video titled “The Ad and the Ego” researched the effects of advertising on society and people. One of the memorable quotes is (paraphrased) “the sole purpose of advertising is to make people feel they lack something or are inferior, and that only the advertised product will relieve that discomfort.”

The important thing is to see the madness for what it is. We can choose differently. We can choose each day to have life be one where connections and limitless possibilities replace the old mindsets and limited thinking. We will change only to the degree that we are willing to change the identity of who we are and how we behave. Identities state who you are, and they start with the words or belief, I AM.

Decide what identity you want for yourself and to model to others. You don’t have to be perfect or even good at it immediately. You just start from your intention. I Am (Your name) and I live in an abundant world …I see you as a co-equal where there is abundance enough for all of us. I actively commit to my intention to treat you with compassion and respect. Practice different statements until you get one that has a positive feel for you. Next, focus your intention on learning how to live that way.

Here is an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) process that is quick, easy and it works well. The process is called “The New Behavior Generator”. First, get in mind clearly what you want. What is the new behavior? How would you know if you were doing it successfully? What beliefs would you have about yourself? What would your behaviors be like, etc?

With that in mind, here is the actual process:

1. Move your eyes to the lower left. State the belief and what your new behavior is in a positive, present, abundant way.
2. Move your eyes to the upper right. Create a colorful active picture of yourself successfully enjoying your new behavior.
3. Move your eyes to the lower right. Imagine what resourceful feelings you want here and allow yourself to feel them as a part of your newly created behavior.
4. Move your eyes to the upper left. Experience yourself successfully living your “New Behavior” with your action picture, and hear and feel yourself being that new belief.

Repeat the four steps as you feel led and until it becomes more and more a natural part of you…Enjoy!

I would appreciate your feedback and hearing about any new intentions and any new behaviors for a more connected, abundant life you are creating. Email them to me Aanrich@msn.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Rich Aanrich is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner, Counselor and Instructor and member of Oregon Hypnotherapy Association. He can be reached at 503-525-0595.