Peace Is the Light On The Dashboard

How to know the truth about any issue or decision. All of us every day, multiple time a day are trying to figure out what is the right thing to do, what is the best decision for this or that. Regardless of whether it’s your job or career, in every job or career there are decisions to be made. Some jobs are just full of decisions every single day. Others are more where you’re working under other people and you pretty much do what they tell you to do. But there are still decisions regarding your career path, whether you’re going to keep working there or go somewhere else, whether that is really your passion or just a job. In parenting, how many decisions there are every single day. "What is the best thing to do for the next hour? This or this?” As far as our health and our relationships it is just endless when you start thinking about how many decisions I make every week, every day, sometimes every hour. And we want to make the best decisions we can, but sometimes it’s really tough because it’s not a matter of do I take cough syrup, which tastes terrible, or ice cream? Sometimes it’s not quite that stark. The decisions are maybe not that far apart. They both seem good or they both seem not so great. So how do you decide in any situation what is not necessarily right or wrong, but what is the best decision and how to tell the truth about any particular issue. Fortunately we have a thing inside of us that I believe is in our heart. Everything we’re about is about the heart. This mechanism is also in the heart. This mechanism is kind of a truth detector. It’s kind of a truth indicator. We call it the conscience. Before you say, “Oh, I know all about that” let me challenge you just a little bit. Just about everybody I’ve talked to thinks the conscience is a moral right or wrong about every situation. I want to challenge you today that I think it’s more than that, or I believe that we have things attached to the conscience, I’m not sure which it is, that are a part of that conscience functioning that is more than just moral right and wrong. It is also what is best in any particular situation. Here’s why I believe that. There’s a wonderful book called “The Pulse Test” that Roger Callahan first told me about. He’s the founder of energy psychology. He was real big on it. It’s by Arthur Coca, MD. I think it’s still available on Amazon. This is a wonderful little book. Paperback, very inexpensive, about 175 pages that tell you how you can use the mechanism of taking your pulse to determine, really, what is best in any situation. We know that the pulse rate is tied to all kinds of health issues. What Dr. Coca is saying is that you can use this as a very reliable indicator of the state of your body regarding stress. It even goes down to – Dr. Callahan, one of the things he used it for, okay, think about this issue and take your pulse rate. Think about that issue and take your pulse rate. It’s very simple to do. I’ll outline it here very briefly. In the morning when you get up take your pulse rate. In the afte oon take your pulse rate. At night take your pulse rate. Track that over several days. Then, once you have a baseline to know “What is normal for me at this time of the day?” then take your pulse rate while you are resting and then think about a particular decision or issue that you’re trying to make a choice on and see if your pulse rate goes up or goes down. Then after you’re done thinking about that decision take your pulse rate again to see if you’re back at resting. Basically the principle is if your pulse rate goes up significantly when you’re thinking about a particular choice, that choice is inducing stress in you. It shouldn’t be. If it’s a good choice for you it should not induce stress. You should be more at peace when you think about that. Peace is the light on the dashboard that lets you know how you’re doing or what is the best choice for a particular issue. Let me go a little bit farther with that. I think this is all going to come together where it’s very understandable. We talk about virtues of the heart and they are Forgiveness, Healthy Beliefs, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness and Humility and on and on. There are a whole bunch of virtues of the heart. In my opinion the only virtue of the heart that you cannot manufacture is peace. I can manufacture some joy or happiness if I really try. I can manufacture kindness even if I don’t feel like it. I can manufacture forgiveness to some extent even if that’s not really what I want to do. You can’t manufacture it completely, but to some extent. However, peace cannot be manufactured. It is the state of your body. The opposite of stress, physically, is peace and the normal, natural functioning of your immune system, and healthy blood flow and normal blood pressure and all that sort of thing. Non-physically the light on the dashboard is peace which is a feeling of general well being that I believe is part of love. In study after study after study what's been found is that everybody wants the same things whether they know it or now, love, joy and peace. The biggest of those out of the studies that I’ve read tends to be peace. Everybody wants peace. So peace is the light on your dashboard that you can apply to any decision in your life to say, “What is the best decision beyond what my head is saying – my logic and reason and that sort of thing – beyond that what do I, in my un- and subconscious, in my heart and I can also see the results of that in my body through my pulse rate (and other things, too, but pulse rate is the easiest one to track). Which decision do I feel the most peace about? That’s simply what you do. I’m thinking about doing this or I’m thinking about doing that. Think about number one and see where that peace level is for you zero to ten, zero being no peace at all, ten being full, maximum peace. Sit with it a while. Give it more than 10 seconds. Sit with it a while especially if it’s a major decision. Then think about possible choice number two and do the same thing. Sit back, relax, think about it, visualize it, think about the statements in words that would best describe what that choice would be. Then, see where your peace level is. Does your pulse rate go way up? Does your pulse rate nicely settle back and maybe even decrease a little bit or stay even? These are wonderful indicators as to the best decision to make. Now, do not use this in isolation. Don’t say, “The thing that makes logical sense to me and everyone else is this thing. But, because when I think about this my pulse rate goes down, I’m going to do that one.” No. You’ve got to use common sense. Use this as a factor in making your decision. Remember 99% of all of our knowledge and wisdom is in our heart. It’s in the un- and subconscious. Well how do I access that? One way is by accurate bio-energetic testing so if you know how to do that, you can do that, too. Another way is by measuring these autonomic systems, the ones that happen automatically that are not logical. Some of those are my peace level and my pulse rate. I would encourage you to do “The Pulse Test”. Also think about that issue and see, “Hey, do I have peace when I think about this or does my peace go away?” If your peace goes away it doesn’t mean don’t do it, but it is a warning sign. You either need to heal some junk in your heart that’s making your peace go away when it shouldn’t go away or that may not be the best decision for you. I have found this to be extremely helpful, extremely accurate, very easy to implement. I don’t know how many clients I’ve had who have told me that this one thing changed their life by revolutionizing their decision making, by taking it beyond just their reasoning and logic. Give it a try and see if it doesn’t do that for you as well.