THE LAW OF DISPLACEMENT
INSERT THE HIGHER LEVEL STUFF
Archimedes let himself sink into the tub, but it was too full and the water poured over the side of the tub. Suddenly, he jumped up and ran naked down the hallway, yelling "Eureka! Eureka! I have found it!". He found the law of displacement. (Actually he discovered something that related to bouyancy. Wikipedia.)
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TWO THINGS CAN NOT FILL THE SAME SPACE
Anyway, the basic idea is quite simple. If you insert one thing into the space, the time, the mind, etc., you exclude the alternative. You have chosen one and not the other. The other is displaced.
An example is where one chooses to insert a story about how awful something is or was. That excludes anything else, such as talking about something positive. Complaining or seeking sympathy excludes happiness.
Putting anything negative in the space excludes anything positive.
If a person wants to be happy, the person must make the choice not to insert anything else in the space, no matter the effort required (if the person values happiness the most). If he/she inserts something negative, then he/she is choosing that over something positive - even though the person might protest that he/she wants to choose happiness. ("Just the facts, ma'm": What you chose is what you chose. Therefore, you didn't choose the alternative! (Duh!))
IT'S IMMUTABLE; NO RATIONALIZATIONS!
A person may protest: "But I need to explain how I got to be this way. It helps me understand it." The person is rationalizing his/her "need" to repeat the same old story. Telling the story could only be truly justifiable if the person were in a strictly analytical mode and fully into problem solving. But that is not the case here. The person is just displacing what could be inserted into the space, such as something positive.
The person is perpetuating the negative cycle and reinforcing the neuronal patterns (habits of thinking) and thereby excluding building some happiness habits.
No matter how much I told Barbara that she must stop retelling the same story, she never did. And the irony is that she truly did want to work at being happier. But she kept displacing the "happy" by putting something else into its place. One of the key concepts in growth is to Release Yourself From "The Story", And Your Racket. The idea is to get that filling the space over and over, so that there can be space for something else!!!! (Not a difficult concept, at all.)
YOU CAN'T COMPLAIN AND PROBLEM SOLVE AT THE SAME TIME
Another case is when a person is often protesting how awful something is, such as politics. The person is basically protesting the lack of positive progress. The irony is that if the person continues to protest, except in rare cases, the person is excluding the time and efforts that could be used to make progress.
Of course, politicians who are interested in getting reelected no matter what are excluding the good that they could do with the same amount of time.
NO, NEIN, NUNCA, VERBOTEN
Another way of looking at this is to use what might be called The Law Of The Vacuum (something that really sucks), where one refuses to repeat any negative thoughts or statements, so that he/she leaves room for good thoughts and good statements. This might seem artificial and restrictive, but at least it is not allowing damage to your psyche through complacency and neglect of control. In accordance with this way of looking at things it is vital to, as Don Miguel Ruiz puts forth in his best selling classic The Four Agreements, "Be Impeccable With Your Word" - i.e. don't allow harmful words or anything less than great words. This is why I suggest that every person should allow only Clean, Clear, True Languaging and then step into Powerful Languaging, displacing any complaining and/or weak languaging. We must be impeccable about not speaking something that might not be true, and assuring that we speak only that which is true.
In one's own psychology, one should have a zero tolerance for speaking beliefs that do not pass the Provably Truth Test. Only allow into the space what is provably true - and do not every allow the space to be filled with any possible mistruths. Do not tolerate misbeliefs and correct any belief that lead to an undesired results. Never allow such a belief and never repeat anything that doesn't work. Correct it right away. If you delay or don't do this consistently, you are displacing whatever would work for you. Looking for what is occurring, seeing what works, seeking feedback, and immediately correcting and righting the beliefs and behaviors to what works is the key behavior for Living The Life Of A Life Champion, who will not allow non-workability to continue at all!.
REPLACE AND DISPLACE THESE
Crap filling the space Replace With Or
Use to force out the opposite
"Stories" Commitment to never repeat the
story,to let it go.
Believing "made-ups" as if they are the truth Insistence on The Truth Test,
implementing corrected beliefs asap
Complaining, criticizing, despairing Only allow progressive problem solving or 
positive action/speakingTell untruth Commitment to only speak the truth
Being too busy to do the important Committing to doing higher level impact
items, exercising, etc. Non-directness, let random in Schedule in what is important, direct
into your life what is the most positively impactful; planTV Reading, learning per pre-set intention
OTHER STATEMENTS OF THE SAME BASIC IDEA
Two bodies cannot occupy the same point in space at the same time.
contradictory statements cannot both be true in the same sense at the same time
VARIATIONS
The Law of Improvement Displacement - You might want to consider that maintenance time, while displacing productivity time, could be vital. (Don't let excess productivity time crowd out essential maintence time.
YouTube: Consciousness, Emotion, And Law Of Displacement. - If you made the decision, the choice, to fill your life with love, the anger would be totally displaced.
The Righteous, Unthinking Mind - Poltical negativity, religious stuckness, and harmful displacement of what could be good.
