Driven

As human beings --whether we want to admit it or not-- we are driven to be RIGHT. The statement, "that's just the way I am!" provides a rationale for behaving and remaining a particular way.

I may hate, never being on time, but as long as I affirm "I am always late!" I will continue being right about it.

"See? Late again!"

Whether I realize it or not, I am practicing affirmations every day. What I hold as true, speak as my reality, becomes my daily affirmation, by default. And, what I affirm as truth becomes the reality of, not only my attitude about life, but also the reality of the outer life I create.

It is, I believe, the Universal law, we all get to be right, in action.

Earnest Holmes put it this way: "…any idea held steadily in Mind is bound to reproduce itself in the outer life."

So what do I want to be right about? The answer to that question becomes what I affirm as my new truth. "I arrive at my appointments in a timely manner." And, since we all get to be right, this becomes my new reality.

I once owned a leather fanny pack that had several zippers. Invariably, I failed to zip it closed and things would fall out --money, credit cards, important stuff like that. Every time this happened, I stated what I believed to be true, "Jeez, I never remember to zip my butt pack!!"

Clearly, this wasn't what I wanted the truth to be, so I changed the statement to: "I always zip my bag shut" and was surprised that this new truth, very quickly, became my reality. Even when I did forget to zip, instead of any reprimand, I simply pulled the zipper closed, while saying, "I always zip my bag shut!" and by so doing, changed the truth of my experience.

Don't take my word for it. Try it for yourself.  :-)

...to be continued.

We All Get to be Right

"That which I hold as my truth, not only determines my attitude about my reality, it actually shifts the circumstance of my reality."

It’s funny how something so unlikely can create a coalescence of thought, feeling and experience. It was watching a movie –a movie I didn't even like very much- that brought it all together for me.

Something in that film became a lightning rod, powerfully connecting every bit of information previously gathered. Beginning with The Little Engine That Could, it culminated into an integrated, realized understanding, some fifty years later. It is a truth that now informs my experience in the world. It is a part of my Being.

For me, the Universal Law that states, “We all get to be right!” makes perfect sense.

The burning question now becomes, “What do you want to be right about, Sylvia?”

...to be continued

The Little Engine that Could

Do you remember the book “The Little Engine That Could”? 

 

The story presented the problem of getting Christmas toys to the children across the mountains. The Big Engines were certain the mountain was far too high for them to pull the heavy load of toys, up and over it, into the next valley.

 

However, when the Little Engine affirmed, “I think” and “I can!”…well you know the rest.

 

My mother had no idea, the seed she was planting, by reading this simple children's book to me.

 

As I grew up, in my father’s church, a verse like, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he” was misinterpreted to mean, if you think sinful thoughts, you’ve committed the sin. Now, I realize what it really taught. What you hold as your truth becomes your reality.

 

“I think I can, I think I can, I think I can…” all the way over the mountain.

 

In my college studies of psychology and spirituality, I became an articulate purveyor of axioms like “we create our own reality” and “thought creates form” and “we all get to be right”. Even so, I cannot say these truths consistently informed my life.

 

Over the years, from many different sources, bits of insight continued to provide a resonating reiteration that thought, indeed, creates form. That which I hold as my truth, not only determines my attitude about my reality, it actually shifts the circumstance of my reality.

 

...to be continued.

 

Insight Rarely Comes Fully Formed

Some years ago, a PBS series aired (the name of which escapes me) where, each week, the narrator took the viewer on an amazing journey through time and history. The program showed how knowledge and creativity, from many different corners of the globe, came together to facilitate, finally, the creation of --say, the modern computer-- or whatever was the object of that week's inquiry.  

 

Similarly, a revelation rarely appears fully formed into our consciousness, but rather requires many pieces coming together into a whole. A new thought, an insight, an idea is taken in through the intellect. There, it is processed, mulled over, questioned. Verbal exploration of this new thought brings a greater understanding and at some point, this intellectual knowing gives way, dropping into the heart space, where we experience it on a feeling level.

As more and more related bits of information (perhaps from things we read or conversations with friends or classes we take) are brought to our attention, this insight moves down into our belly where we digest it--so to speak-- try it out, gather evidence of its validity. Even so, it still could not be called an integrated, fully functioning part of how we manifest in the world.

Some insights may take but a moment to reach the place of integration. More often than not, it takes much longer for a new thought/truth to reach the core of our Being—that place where it is no longer just an interesting concept or even a stated Universal truth, but our Truth, a truth that daily informs our life. 

 

Put simply, the process of integration might look like this: think it, speak it, feel it, do it, BE it.

 

...to be continued.