The EBT Journey is full of aha moments, discovering the messages encoded in our unconscious mind, mostly implanted there by circumstance, and rewiring them into messages of our choosing.
Step by step, spiral up by spiral up, we change the architecture of our own brain. What happens when we have rewired our brain so much that we not only feel like a new person, but on a cellular level, we are one?
What happened for me was a desire to have an object, one that signified the experience. I was in Hawaii with my parents, as they had become too encumbered with health problems to make their annual trip to Kona, a time of self-renewal, alone. I was there to set up their condominium with food, help my mother with her oxygen tank, and extend their "life as normal" period a little longer into old age.
I realized that I was Wired for Joy, had all seven of the rewards of a purposeful life, and was walking along the beach. I spotted a heart-shaped white rock, and gingerly picked it up, and put it in my pocket. That satisfied me, at least for a while.
Rename Yourself
Then I realized that my old name, the name that is of this world, didn't really suit the person my new and personally reshaped emotional brain had made me into. My mother had named me Laurel. My father always liked his first girlfriend's name, Kathleen, so he chose my middle name. I had a last name, McClure, my father's family name, which is Scotch-Irish, although I had my mother's skin, which was Castilian Spanish. Mellin came from marrying my first boyfriend at age 21, fresh out of college.
All those names still belong to me, but to be true to myself, I needed a new name to fit the person I had become. To celebrate being Wired for Joy I needed more than a heart-shaped rock. That name had to suit my soul, which was now less encumbered by the neural clutter of the past and the wishes of other people and reshaped by the sweat, tears, and joys of thousands of spiral ups.
I renamed myself, and to this day my Wired for Joy name is a treasure for me. Bringing it to mind, which I do daily, helps me feel like a child again and yet grounds me in my earthly experience. I wholeheartedly recommend that as you move along in your EBT Journey, stay alert to such a yearning, and, if it arrives, seek divine inspiration and create a new name for yourself. Here are some ideas to guide your process.
Choose 3 Names
I chose a first name that made me feel like a precious little child again. It puts my psyche back to being that flaxen-haired wisp of a little girl who loved her rocking chair, listening to the song Johnny Appleseed, and hearing her canary, Chirpie, sing.
Then I chose a middle name that reflected my spiritual nature, the person I was put on Earth to be, one that would inspire me to stay intent on my purpose but not so serious. Instead, happy and joyful, both. Last I grounded it all in a last name of my choosing. Perhaps that will be a family name for you, or a new family name of your choosing.
My inspiration for selecting that name came from Martha Weston. My first books were for children and she illustrated them. Martha had an infectious laugh and a profound love for her husband, Dick, who she said was "home" to her. When they married, neither of them liked their given last name, so they settled on a new one, Weston. Old or new, establish your Wired for Joy last name.
Keep it Secret
As much as you might have a desire to share your new name with others, do not. Your name is not of this world, but a special sign of recognizing that you are here to be of service in your own unique way. It is a special recognition between your prefrontal cortex, your thinking brain, and your emotional brain, the seat of your soul.
Once you share it with others, your new name is no longer purely spiritual. Ego can get into the mix of it. Despite the tension to share it with others, perhaps a latent merge circuit fueling a drive for external validation, making this world more important than your inner life, see that as essential pain. Appreciate that if you tolerate that tension and keep that name to yourself, you will be more likely to embody it. By not expressing it to others, keeping it as your little secret, your Wired for Joy is untainted by the world. It remains pure.
I am alone. I have me. Sanctuary.
The EBT Journey begins with training your brain's resiliency pathways to get from stress to joy 10 times per day and is followed by rewiring the Big 4 Circuits that keep you dealing with problems. After that comes raising your set point with Advanced EBT until you are Wired for Joy with all seven rewards.
The first reward, Sanctuary, peace and power from within, and the seventh reward, Freedom, when common excesses have long since gone "poof" and disappeared, are the bookends. This process begins by giving up the idea that anything in this world will save us, and frees us to live a messy life, in which we see everything as perfect in its own way. We draw down on our flaws, adversities, talents, and advantages to give back in just the way that makes our lives complete.
That choice to keep your Wired for Joy name to yourself rests on the first reward's essential pain: I am alone. I like that because accepting that basic reality of life, I'm a little less comfortable as I know nobody can save me from the responsibility of being alive. I must repeatedly choose to go inside myself, be aware of the void, release control, and transcend it. It reflects the seventh reward's essential pain: I must give, that is, I must give at a deeper level. The combination of these two realities goes a long way toward setting us free.
Watch for that time when you have an itch to create your Wired for Joy name, no matter where you are on this journey, as a special way to nourish your spirit, forevermore.