Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich looks at one of the secrets of the brain’s incredible power: its ability to re-wire itself. He’s researching ways to harness this plasticity to enhance our skills and recover lost function. (Recorded at TED2004, February 2004, in Monterey, California. Duration: 23:07.)

I like understanding that things are always evolving, and while there are many things that could be better where I am, it is not really a problem because “where I am” is constantly changing to something better. I like knowing that as I look for the best things around me where I am, those things become more prevalent in my experience.

It is fun to know that things are always working out for me, and as I watch for the evidence of that . . . I see more evidence of that every day.

Whatever you’re thinking about is literally like planning a future event. When you’re worrying, you are planning. When you are appreciating, you are planning…

What are you planning?

Abraham-Hicks, Excerpted from the workshop in Silver Spring, MD on Saturday, April 19th, 1997

That being said, words teach nothing — only experience teaches. So, I suggest you check out The Work and let me know what you think. I find it a useful and insightful process for seeing what is and proceeding clearly from a deeply calm, aligned perspective: The Little Book.

What is The Work?
“The Work is a simple yet powerful process of inquiry that teaches you to identify and question thoughts that cause all the suffering in the world. It’s a way to understand what’s hurting you, and to address your problems with clarity.”

People who do The Work as an ongoing practice report life-changing results:

Alleviation of depression: Find resolution, and even happiness, in situations that were once debilitating.

Decreased stress: Learn how to live with less anxiety or fear.

Improved relationships: Experience deeper connection and intimacy with your partner, your parents, your children, your friends, and yourself.

Reduced anger: Understand what makes you angry and resentful, and become less reactive, less often, with less intensity.

Increased mental clarity: Live and work more intelligently and effectively, with integrity.

More energy: Experience a new sense of ongoing vigor and well-being.

More peace: Discover how to become “a lover of what is.”

How the Work Began

[from about ]

“Byron Katie became severely depressed in her early thirties. For almost a decade she spiraled down into depression, rage, self-loathing, and constant thoughts of suicide; for the last two years she was often unable to leave her bedroom.

“Then one morning in February 1986, she experienced a life-changing realization. There are various names for an experience like this. Katie calls it ‘waking up to reality.’

“In that instant of no-time, she says,

I discovered that when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Freedom is as simple as that. I found that suffering is optional. I found a joy within me that has never disappeared, not for a single moment. That joy is in everyone, always.

“She realized that what had been causing her depression was not the world around her, but the beliefs she’d had about the world. Instead of hopelessly trying to change the world to match her thoughts about how it should be, she could question these thoughts and, by meeting reality as it is, experience unimaginable freedom and joy. As a result, a bedridden, suicidal woman was instantly filled with love for everything life brings.”