Instead of being theoretical about this, let us conduct a practical experiment. Please participate in the following exercise.
So far, you have been reading this text, and you have probably had most of your attention focused on it.
Now become aware that you are sitting here, looking at the screen upon which you are reading this.
Mentally, step outside of your mind, even step outside of your body. You are now, in your mind’s eye, looking upon your body sitting in front of the screen upon which you are reading this.
Now, become aware that you are sitting in some kind of room. You are looking at the room from the outside and your body sitting in the room.
Now become aware that the room is in a larger building. You are looking at the building from the outside.
Now become aware that the building is in an environment, whether it be the countryside or a city. You are now looking at your environment from the outside.
Now become aware that this environment is on a planet, called Earth. You are now looking at the entire planet from a distance, from somewhere in space.
Mentally step back into your body and again focus your attention on the text you are reading.
What has this exercise proven? It has proven that as a psychological being, you have two distinct abilities:
- You can be absorbed, to a greater or smaller degree, in a particular activity or experience.
- You can step outside of any situation and mentally distance yourself from it.
In other words, you can experience a situation from the INSIDE or from the OUTSIDE. Why does that make a difference?
- When you are absorbed in a situation, it is like wearing colored glasses. The glasses distort the way you look at everything, but while you are absorbed, you are not aware that your experience is distorted. You think that what the glasses show you is the only way to experience life.
- When you mentally step outside a situation, or rather the way you experience the situation, it is like taking off the colored glasses, and you can now look at the situation from a neutral perspective. You can now see that there are other ways of experiencing life.
The foundation for HAP is that you are a self-aware bing. Self-awareness, means that you can mentally step outside your current Life Experience.
You can step outside the internal conditions in your mind. It is these internal conditions that determine how you experience every situation. They determine your Life Experience.
By learning how to step outside your psychological landscape and look at your psyche neutrally, you can consciously change your inner conditions and thereby change your Life Experience. You can learn how to choose your reactions instead of automatically reacting the way you have so far been doing.
We will now consider: Why you react the way you do.