I used to think that circumstances meant everything.
For example, if planning a vacation, I felt that I had to pick the right dates and location, and choose the best hotel and flights, to ensure a good time. When I encountered awesome weather on vacation, I felt lucky. When it rained, I felt defeated and unsupported (by Mother Nature). I could make the best of it, and often found a way to do that, but I didn’t exactly learn.
This approach to life, now that I think about it, dominated so many areas of my life. When I did some remodeling of my house in San Diego, for example, I so worried if I was picking the right contractor, the right helper, the right materials. It always felt like the outcome (and how I would ultimately feel) hinged on every decision. One wrong choice and I was doomed.
Throughout my more recent career, I had more of the same. Business choices were often a crap shoot. I felt anxious…always trying to get the most of any investment made. When I self-published Journey to the Temple of Ra, I hired help, which was out of my comfort zone. Every time I spent money, I worried most about whether I was making the right choice. Choosing to invest wasn’t the bigger decision, choosing how to spend that investment was.
[By the way, the Kindle version of Journey to the Temple of Ra has been reduce 50% for a limited time.]
I now realize that I created, over and over again, nothing short of panic for myself. Every time there was that kind of choice, there was fret. Soon, I began to loath the whole idea of working this way. It was no fun. It wasn’t worth it.
Most recently, I shopped for a new mattress, and again fretted far too much over nothing. I literally lost sleep over the decision after it was made. How’s that for irony?
Advertisers are as much to blame for this way of thinking as anyone. It seems that in 90% or more cases, ads make it sound as if your joy, your happiness, your health, your safety, and/or your comfort hinges on every one of these (very insignificant) choices. At the extreme, we collectively have built up a LOT of belief that the foods we choose to eat can kill us. You want to know why health care is SO expensive? It is because the fear has gotten so large.
It is no wonder so many get worked up over things like elections. This way of thinking makes it seem as if the entire course of humanity hinges on the choice of that one person for that one job. I think most people made that choice easily enough. Their primary concern was the choice everyone else was making.
Life continues to urge me (us?) to see reality better, clearer, and more powerfully.
First, decisions mean SOOOOOOOOOOO little! Spirit tells me that over, and over, and over again. Even if you think that your entire life (or lives) have lead you to this current moment of deciding, it is still NOOOOOO big deal whether you choose left or right. And that is simply because:
- In this moment, you know what you know and you don’t know what you don’t know.
- You take yourself with you.
- There is always another choice that follows.
The only way to look at a decision as a bad one, is through the knowledge gained from the experience. Furthermore, you can’t make multiple decisions and compare how they turn out. You can only go left or right, turn around, or wait. You’ll never know what could have been the other way.
The right attitude is FAAAAR more significant than the right choice. And guess what? No matter what attitude you have in any moment, you can ALWAAAAYS make an adjustment. You can always make the only significant choice, which is how to react, respond, or observe what is.
No matter where you are, you can only occupy a place now. Therefore, you can only observe now. When you remember the past or imagine the future, you are still doing it now. Your current perspective is all that matters!
I am starting to realize that the only real choice at any experience of now is:
“How do I want to feel?”
Yes, you can observe your options and think all sorts of opinions about what lies before you, but the real choice is: “How do you want to feel?”
If your answer is: “I want to feel good,” or, “I want to feel better,” which are fine choices indeed, you then have to think the thoughts that will get you there. You have to focus.
The Five of Cups is all about this process. The person shown has three spilt cups before him or her, and two upright ones behind him or her. The implication is that s/he is currently looking at what is spilled. S/He is looking at what is lost. S/He is shown feeling despondent, feeling sorrow, grieving.
When you look at (focus on) loss, it is pretty much a given that you will feel sorrow. The only way to begin feeling better, is to decide to focus on the best that is.
And you can always focus on what is good and what is best about wherever you are. There are always cups upright. However, just like the nearest exits on the plane, they may be behind you.
More than likely, they are in front of you—right in front of your eyes and/or in your immediate future.
When we choose to feel better now, we begin a life long journey of feeling better. The more we make that choice, the better we will feel, and the better our life experience will be…even if nothing else changes.
But the benefits don’t end there. When we begin to see that how we feel is a choice we can and do make, we begin to let go of worry. Circumstances can help you feel better, but they don’t make you feel better. You make yourself feel better.
Further still are all that the Law of Attraction brings as a result of your focus. In a nutshell, this is how the Law of Attraction works: Just imagine that in every moment the Universe says this to you:
“So you think that is ____, what do you think about THIS?”
Our only work in creation is filling in that blank. The Universe does the rest.
- You think that is unfair, what do you think about THIS?
- You think that is a disgrace, what do you think about THIS?
- You think that is awful, what do you think about THIS?
- You think that is a sin, what do you think about THIS?
- You think that is a shame, what do you think about THIS?
– or –
- You think that is beautiful, what do you think about THIS?
- You think that is exciting, what do you think about THIS?
- You think that is lovely, what do you think about THIS?
- You think that is encouraging, what do you think about THIS?
- You think that is ingenious, what do you think about THIS?
- You think that is worth spending time on, what do you think about THIS?
If you pay attention to your thoughts and your feelings, you will know that what I am saying is true. As soon as you begin to focus on something that annoys you, you begin to remember and/or encounter all sorts of other things that annoy you. Pretty soon, you’re banging around in your kitchen and ready to throw a dish on the floor.
Momentum is observable. It is a physical phenomenon as well as a metaphysical one. The more you pay attention to it, the more you see how it works. Inertia is just as observable.
Momentum (in physics) is the nature of a moving object that keeps it moving. When you’re driving 75 mph down the road, you know it will take a bit of hard braking to stop.
Similarly, Inertia is the nature of a stationary object that makes it hard to get moving. When you’re trying to push the sofa, it’s hard to get it going. Once it begins to slide, it’s easier to keep it moving.
Changing momentum or overcoming inertia does take a bit of work. In physics work is described as a force exerted over some distance. In Metaphysics, I would define work as focus exercised over time.
When you get a quick spewing of negative emotion at the mere mention of a topic, that indicates negative momentum has built up within you on that subject. By applying focus (on positive aspects) for a bit of time, your work will slow down that momentum and eventually get it moving in the other direction.
When nothing seems to be happening in a particular area of life, then you could be stuck with some inertia. The same applies. Begin focusing on possibilities that bring relief, hope, or anticipation, and you’ll get things moving again.
I’m still fretting over decisions and frustrated over a lack of movement. I’m not preaching to the choir; I’m in the choir. Spirit is preaching to me.
However, I will say that while my physical manifestations are trickling in more slowly than I desire, I am feeling better more and more and more. Feeling better is feeling better and there’s nothing but upside to that!
A Fool's Inclination 