One question that we get a lot here at the four blocks is, why am I not happy?
To illustrate what blocks us from our peace, contentment and happiness on a daily, monthly or yearly basis, we want to introduce you to your life’s line.
This line represents a balancing point between your current emotional states. There are varying degrees of suffering below the line, and just as much depth to joy and peace above the line, so what causes us to go below the line?
Well let’s start by visualizing this line with a beginning: when you first wake up in the morning. Here, most people probably wake up feeling neutral, right on the line, people that got a great night’s sleep and have their life momentum already above the line likely woke up well above the line.
And people who have momentum below the line likely woke up somewhere below it.
So what characteristics describe life below the line? When we are below the line we are reactive, volatile, agitated, unhappy, fearful, perhaps even dealing with addiction, or lots of conflict, it eventually leads to isolation, and social rejection. When we stay below the line for extended periods of time, our lives become a deadly downward spiral.
So what characteristics describe life above the line? Life above the line is fun, creative, exciting, open, pleasurable, fulfilling, social, loving, and full of abundance and opportunity.
We want to examine 2 things: how we end up on the downward spiral, and what blocks us from rising above the line.
For the sake of example let’s say we started with a neutral starting point.
You wake up and your mind is blank. Your memories haven’t rushed in yet. Here is where we have the choice between two paths: and whichever one we choose determines whether our daily path will be above the line, or below it.
If you choose a thought on purpose, you can start your day above the line.
If you don’t, what tends to happen is a thought about your past, your mistakes, the people who have pissed you off, the things you hate about your circumstances, will pop into your head, and you still start your day below the line.
So you’ve woken up with your head in the past, rather than the present, and sometimes, those painful thoughts will turn their malevolence onto the future, where you become anxious and fearful about things that you’re making up in your head. This is anxiety. Or maybe those thoughts turn to thinking about how hopeless and helpless your life is to get what you need, this is depression.
These painful thoughts create painful feelings, and those painful feelings force you to seek relief immediately. This is where a lot of people cope with addictions. For some people, it’s booze, for some it’s marijuana, others it’s harder drugs, still others don’t even realize that they’re doing it with food or by distracting themselves with their phone. No matter how aware of it they are, they are on the wrong side of the life line.
So to reiterate, the painful thought becomes a painful emotion, and the emotion becomes a destructive behavior.
Those painful thoughts, emotions and coping behaviors also distract you from positive things that you could be doing like learning, creating, working on health or fitness. (those things are revealed above the line as they are spoken)
So how can we go from below the line to above the line?
We must first look at what blocks us from reaching the balancing line.
There are 4 blocks to happiness, and they are the four negative emotions of anger, anxiety, guilt and depression. These 4 horsemen of doom are created by thinking habits. They are very specific thought loops that we get trapped in.
The person under the line will try desperately to get above it, but whenever they try they get blocked by those 4 negative emotions aka 4 thinking habits that have become a habit in their daily life.
So instead of breaking through the 4 blocks (since they don’t know how), they choose to feel just a little bit better with the dopamine reward of their addiction of choice. And who could blame them?
Most of this process is on the unconscious level, we aren’t even aware we are thinking these same thought loops on repeat. And if you can’t control your thoughts, emotions and behaviors, well what CAN you control? Other people?? Your government??
Thoughts, feelings and emotions are the only 3 things we DO have control over and most people don’t even have control over that. If you can’t get a hold of those 3 things how do you think your life is going to go?
Where do you think your life line will be if this momentum continues into the future?
It will be full of chaotic highs and deadly lows, with most of your time spent well below the line in emotional suffering.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We want to teach you the science of how those negative emotions are created, how to get over those blocks, and then how to climb the life line up to have more peace, and to have true happiness.
