Mid-July 2024 Newsletter

Hello, and a meteoric joyful Mid-July to you!
Welcome, or welcome back, to my newsletter. Today's issue is about rewards and punishment, and how these shape our actions. Enjoy!

Humans have wondered about how to motivate others, or themselves, for generations. Teachers, parents, and bosses want to educate and guide, without being so harsh they discourage those in their care. So is the carrot or the stick more appropriate? Regularly rewarding children for doing nothing at all may lead them to think they don't ever have to help their parents, or do their chores, while criticizing them too severely could crush their small budding energies.

How do you motivate yourself? Maybe you push yourself relentlessly toward your goal, and only rest when you're ready to collapse. Or you might be the type who meanders in the general direction of that finish line, getting distracted by every shiny object and often changing your route. Most of us are somewhere between these two extremes, and may have different approaches depending on the particular goal and how much we want it.

If vision improvement is a goal of yours, are you eager and excited about it, enthusiastic about every tiny sign of progress? Maybe you located that ring which fell from your finger right away, instead of having to get down on the floor and search all around for it. Or do you focus on everything you can't see well, and criticize yourself for failing to do something which seems easy for everyone else?

Usually, how you motivate yourself for other goals will be how you motivate yourself for vision practice too. Since I've been pushed and pressured a lot to accomplish, I adopted that behavior in the way I treat myself, pointing out all the things I'm not doing right instead of encouraging myself. Practicing with the eye chart is a perfect example of this. It took me way too long to realize that I viewed the chart itself as a punishment, reinforcing for me that I couldn't see very well. So I didn't initially receive much benefit from it.

Just like with a child trying to learn something, overly harsh criticism or punishment can block the willingness and excitement about improving, at any age. Years ago I forced myself to spend time with the eye chart, since all the teachers said how helpful it was, even though I could feel my resistance as soon as I thought about it, let alone started looking at the letters. Resistance is strain, which is not a healing energy. It would have been better if I viewed it as a game, not an exam I was destined to fail.

When I was in school, I felt like I was in a long race, rushing to the nearest target, briefly savoring the reward of reaching it, then pushing myself to the next goal. My disappointments and punishments were many, mostly centered on not doing something perfectly. I've finally learned to motivate myself by feeling satisfied with whatever I've done, and knowing I have the skills to keep getting better at it. Congratulating myself for even small wins feels much better than self-blame, for my visual system as well as for the rest of me. Be your own cheerleader (though not your only one I hope), since you're doing better than you think. Look for the good!

Be sure to choose suitable rewards for yourself. To read a dream about a reward I didn't really want, click here.

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Please send me your questions and comments
Let me know what you've wondered about concerning energy medicine or vision or dreams. I'll be glad to write a short article addressing that topic. Thank you to those who have sent me questions, or see a question you asked me in a private session written about here. You're helping many other people! Enjoy the second half of this just-perfect month of July. I'll write again in a few weeks. Take care!