The Feeling Of Luck
Why did Dirty Harry Callahan say to the criminal “You've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky?”
Why is luck associated with feeling?
Why not ask if someone they think they are lucky?
If you change your feeling state will the propensity for luck also change?
It has been said that your thoughts, feelings, and body posture form a cybernetic loop that feed off of each other. If you stand up straight and hold your head up high, you’ll improve your mood.
Similarly, the thoughts you think and the words you have running through your mind also impact how you feel.
Words matter, and you can be empowered by understanding the subtle meaning of words. In this way, you can even change your luck.
The Japanese Have A Way With Words
Sometimes the combination of characters reveal much more than what standard translations offer.
Have you ever looked at their word for “regret”?
In Japanese, the word regret is made from two characters, the first of which means “remain” and the second means thought, desire, feeling, or idea.
Together they are pronounced “Zannen” and, aside from regret or a regrettable situation, the word also means bad luck.
Japanese language shows an understanding of how much your mental state impacts the conditions of your life.
Having unresolved ideas, feelings, and desires swimming around in your mind sets you on the path of bad luck. Dwelling on past traumas, harsh events, and unrealized desires, even in the recesses of the subconscious is a tremendous drain on your energy, making it hard to see a positive way ahead.
Taken to the extreme, unresolved mental chatter can create dysfunction, depression, or even suicide.
For warriors, just looking at the kanji characters for
Even if it’s not debilitating, everyone has regret.
Do you ever find yourself reliving a past fight or argument?
I usually catch myself while doing mundane tasks like folding laundry, washing dishes, or cleaning the sword collection.
Everyone has a constant stream of thoughts running in the recesses of their minds. Everyone also has a shadow self, in the subconscious mind, where unresolved thoughts dwell and simmer in their poisonous juices.
The mental energy devoted to these unresolved thoughts draws from your cognitive bandwidth, thereby reducing your ability to think and act in the present moment.
In other words, living with regret and unresolved trauma retards your ability to think straight. Not only will you miss opportunities to move ahead in life, being saddled by past traumas also makes you even more vulnerable to threats arising in the present.
Ignoring or suppressing unresolved thoughts only feeds the shadow self, helping it take up more of your bandwidth, and saps your potential.
It puts you on a collision course with bad luck.
This is why shining the light of consciousness on mental chatter is so important for clarity, focus, and peace of mind.
The only way to quiet the mind, and harness the Power Of Now, is through awareness and technique.
It’s the same as dealing with an physical attacker. You have to recognize the threat as early as possible and employ a tool to mitigate the problem.
To be fully present and ready to seize the initiative requires bringing unresolved thoughts to the surface and dealing with them.
Again it comes down to awareness and technique.
Meditation is the best way to gain awareness. Thankfully, with modern technology, you can get all the benefits of deep, monk-like meditation in just a few minutes per day.
I recommend the Zen12 program. You can meditate like a Zen master in as little as twelve minutes. Plug in with headphones and leverage this powerful technology to put you in the ideal state of mind.
Check it out at: www.everydaysamurai.life/zen12
Once you’re aware of these debilitating thoughts, you need to release them. In other words, you need the Release Technique. This is a system of self inquiry, questions you ask about the thoughts arising from the subconscious, leading to a state of emotional freedom.
Go to www.everydaysamurai.life/release to find out more.
So armed, with awareness and technique, you can master your thoughts and deliberately set your focus.
What you focus on determines your results. Happy hunting.