Good intentions spark more good, so keeping positive when in a bad situation has the power to turn the bad into good. Don’t give up hope but stay on the side of change that is positive and beneficial to all. Though great disruption may occur in times of great change, remain always a loving being with a positive attitude so that you are always ready to provide where you can, with not only good intentions and attitudes but with good actions as well.
Pay attention to where the mind wanders, how it starts down one path of thought and then picks up another and another, how endless its meanderings are. Fine tune it so that it works for you rather than against you. Use positive mantras to redirect it, to keep it calm and happy. Insert happy thoughts of a future self and play them over and over again instead of negative thoughts of now. Learn to control both your mind and your destiny by changing your thoughts. They really are that powerful!
Let not the trials and tribulations of life turn you angry, fearful, sad, or resentful but instead keep an open heart that stays positive and ready for anything. For change happens all the time and if you are open to it you will notice its arrival. If you are full of anger, fear, sadness and resentment you won’t notice that change is happening all the time and you will think that life never offers any new opportunities. Did you ever think you just didn’t notice? In heart centered openness everything is possible.
Trust that you have within you everything you need to form a life, that you have the strength, the perseverance, the knowledge and wisdom that will attract all that you need to create your own destiny. And then, once you trust yourself, express gratitude for the life you are in, for the simple pleasure of sunlight on a cold day, the song of a bird heralding spring, the stars looking down on you at night. Be grateful for what is, and be grateful for what is to surely come.
Every time we change we move into a new life. This coming December 9th will mark the 20th anniversary of my wife Jeanne’s definitive departure from human life. Since then, though we remain connected in a different configuration, I have moved into a completely new life. I experience myself and the world from a very different perspective. Though I remain connected to what I once was, I have grown into a totally different person.
I would characterize my change as my soul reincarnating further into its latent potential. Even my body has reshaped itself to support my soul’s current journey. The great Hindu Guru, Sri Sivananda teaches that the physical body is actually the expression and creation of our soul. As our soul ventures into new life it shifts the body to serve that change.
Carlos Castaneda was emphatic that shamans should avoid looking into mirrors. The trap of the mirror is that it literally catches one’s self reflection. Such was the fate of Narcissus, the namesake of narcissism, who became frozen in his gaze, unable to see beyond his own physical reflection.
For shamans, the trap of self-importance is the greatest impediment to human evolution, as is mirrored in the greed apparent in our world’s energy crisis. Despite their contribution to the climate crisis, fossil fuels continue to dominate our energy demands, as we place our self-interest above the true needs of the world. Similarly, our ego’s fixation upon receiving validation of its personal importance absorbs the lion’s share of our personal store of energy, severely underfunding our evolutionary potential.
Practically speaking, the mirror can also serve to reinforce a static view of ourselves that does not allow for the possibility of change. Like the monotonous internal dialogue, the image in the mirror may be typecast to deliver the same old message, i.e., “You’ll never be good enough.”
Of course, we need mirrors to reflect to us the orderliness of our outer presentation. The shamans would suggest only cursory glances to achieve this, avoiding the judgment of sustained viewing. I am actually fascinated with the changes glimpsed in these brief glances. I ask, “Who is that being; he keeps changing!”
Don Juan Matus warned that we should pay scrupulous attention to the agreements we enter into as to who we are, consciously or unconsciously, when we fixate on socialized beliefs or frozen images in the mirror. Transpersonal psychotherapists recognize the power of heredity and archetypes to shape our physical bodies when we believe their influence to be sacrosanct and irrevocable.
Hypnotists stress the power of suggestion to manifest what we become. In fact, the subconscious mind is both the storehouse of all inherited and acquired habit but also the home of every individual’s personal genie. As the body is constructed by the intent of the soul, everyone has the latent opportunity to assume full control of who they will become. It’s all in what we believe and what we choose to tell ourselves.
Even if it be the case that our present life was chosen as expiation for choices made in past lives, we all have the free will to change the course of our development. Once we’ve squared with the reasons for our fixations we are truly freed to release them. Freeing the ego of its self-importance, its routine judgments, and its unnecessary agreements allows it to consciously direct its subconscious companion genie to manifest positive and evolutionary changes in the self.
Our world now mirrors how the power of the beliefs we attach to generate the reality we live in. We live in a virtual marketplace of suggestion, where we see dear family and friends become beings we hardly recognize. The sublime gift of such manifested polarization is absolute proof of the power of suggestion. We can choose to use it for the advancement of self and the greater good.
As don Juan Matus wisely advised, enter into no agreements you have not consciously chosen. As well, freely choose to make new conscious agreements and retire old agreements that are no longer necessary or helpful to your evolutionary Spirit. Join your personal intent with your Spirit’s intent for the ever-unfolding journey of fulfilling life.
