[success] If you remain faithful to your vision this sustained mental attitude will give reality to your visions and they will become visible concrete facts in your world. ~ Neville [/success]
Do you know how to move? Not move house, not move from your chair to the sofa…oh wait that’s more likely to be me.
Just joking.
Wonder how many times I’ve written that on this site? I’m sorry. I’ll stop it some soon day.
Nah, just joking again.
Meanwhile back to moving. The movement I’m talking about is an inner movement, the one that implies you’re where you want to be. The movement we get by using our imagination to live in our fulfilled desire.
Are you still with me? Hello? Anyone there?
[success] Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious. ~ Brendan Gill[/success]
There are two ways we can look at our world, two outlooks we can use, the natural or the spiritual. The natural looks only at our current reality. Anything else isn’t real. Using the natural mind we can conjure up a memory image of things that were, but it doesn’t believe it can look back on the past and see it as something that’s present and neither does it believe it can affect the future.
The spiritual mind on the other hand can see the past, the present and the future as an existing present whole. It can take in all the things that we’ve encountered, are encountering and will encounter. With your spiritual mind your visions can be magnificent, your dreams beautiful and best of all, as you persist in living those dreams in your heart, they will materialize.
[success] Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate accomplishments. ~ Napoleon Hill[/success]
We can connect to this creative part of us, our spiritual mind by simply investing a few minutes every day withdrawing our attention from the outer world of reason and facts and concentrating on the invisible state we desire to experience. It’s through using our spiritual mind that we are able to move from one state of mind to another.
Our world is filled with infinite states and the state we currently occupy is the reason for the experiences we currently have. The laws of life tell us we must and will reap the fruits of the state of mind we occupy. We might have chosen these states deliberately or fallen into them unwittingly.
Easily done. The falling into them I mean.
I still do it myself.
I’m a big traveller as you probably know, having racked up thousand upon thousands of miles over the years, so I’m used to packing a ginormous suitcase for a trip. Just because I travel a lot doesn’t necessarily mean I travel light. (I put that in there, just in case my Darling One is reading this…yes it’s his one and only complaint about me…isn’t that right Darling?)
I’m not a pack-it-all-two-minutes-before-we-go kind of gal either. I begin gathering my things together at least three days before my trip, culminating in the day before I leave, putting in last minute bits and bobs.
Earlier this year I was going through my usual packing routine and saying to myself, I must remember this. And a little while later, I must remember that.
It took a while, but I noticed that I’d become anxious about this trip. Hmmm what was that about? Nothing unusual about it – I was visiting family. Easy trip, I’d done it tons of times before. I wasn’t thinking any negative thoughts about it…in fact I was looking forward to the visit. So what the heck was going on?
Bet you’re one step ahead of me aren’t you? Sometimes when we’re the ones in the state, we can’t see the wood for the trees.
An afternoon of I must remembers, led me smack bang into a state of anxiety. In and of itself I must remember isn’t a negative thought, but it holds within it the feeling that I might forget and that was the state I’d fallen into. Maybe one or two I must remembers wouldn’t have had much of an impact, but an afternoon of them was enough to put me over the edge.
I’d fallen into a state that wasn’t working for me. My natural mind would only focus on the current facts, so I turned to my spiritual mind and asked my favourite question: what do you want? And of course what I wanted was to have everything I needed in that ginormous suitcase. Heaven knows it’s big enough to carry it all.
Right then I imagined myself feeling great and happy and peaceful. I used my imagination, my spiritual mind, to move into the state I wanted to experience. I saw myself having a different outcome. I could see the experience, I could feel the ease and grace that surrounded me. It felt great.
The next trip I took as I was packing the suitcase, I found my inner conversation was more like, great, I remembered everything easily.
And I haven’t had an ounce of anxiety about any trip since.
The thing about movement is that you can only know you’ve moved positions relative to where you were. So if in imagination you can’t see the world differently than it was before, then you haven’t moved. I like to use the phrase, I remember when, it was like this or that, indicating, yay…I’ve moved.
[success] People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out. ~ Warren Bennis[/success]
Louisa was telling me that she’s been really frazzled lately. Her kids have been difficult and defiant and she’s not handling it very well which makes her even more frazzled. She’s found herself in a self perpetuating cycle and it isn’t feeling so good.
It turns out she’s been waking up with the thought oh my lord another day, another challenge.
Anyone think that’s going to feel good? Bring her a happy, bright sunshiny day? Not likely.
So another day brings another challenge, and she’s feeling even worse about herself and her life. As we talked she decided an intervention was required. She needed to intervene with her first thought of the day. So she asked herself: what do I want? She turned away from her natural mind focused on the current facts and switched off the natural mind’s tendency to want to look at her memories. She wanted to look back on her day and say, what a fantastic day.
So she imagined her day as she wanted it to be versus how it had been. She created inner movement and saw herself having different conversations with the kids, her friends, her husband. Having a different feeling at the end of each day.
Next morning before her old thought had a chance to wake up, she said to herself, wow what a fantastic day I had today.
I’d like to tell you that the very next day was fantastic. But it wasn’t. Just a little better. Nor was the day after that. Just a little better. And it continues to get better all the time.
It isn’t that we can’t change things in a blink of an eye because we can. Sometimes there’s a build up of thoughts and feelings that continue to play out, albeit with a little less power, for a little while longer.
For me, it can sometimes take three days of choosing my better thoughts and feelings before I can actually recognize shifts in my consciousness. It all depends on how much energy I’ve built up with the previous ones.
Are you ready to invest more time where creativity and spirituality meet? Let us know in the comments below, your thoughts are always inspiring to someone.
Encourage one another.
Love Elle
xoxo
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14 Comments
Elle,
I had to laugh as I read your post. On our recent trip to Thailand, I decided to pack lighter than I ever had. I was very proud of my little carry on bag until we got there and realized that I had left 1/2 of what I planned to bring for the beach part on my dresser! I was so upset with myself because I’m usually such a good packer. After the 5th or 6th time of saying, “I can’t believe I did that” I decided to let it go and not think it again. It was only a few short days with one or two things to wear. And in the end I wore my bathing suit most of the time. It was a good lesson!!
But to continue, I couldn’t agree more that what you say really shapes what your day will be like. Thanks for the reminder!!
xoxo
Betsy
I hear you Betsy, I was laughing as I read this because it sounded way too familiar! And Thailand too, that’s not just a hop skip and a jump away and never having been there (lucky you) I’ve no idea if you can pick forgotten things up easily or not. Which of course is why it’s good for us to be always focused on what we want. Good for you only saying I can’t believe it six times…that’s pretty darn good kiddo. And it turns out that what you wanted was to live in your bathing suit. 🙂
Oh Elle. Just loved reading this post and am laughing. Years ago, when I was a corporate hotshot, I used to travel quite a bit. I was in a tizzy the first time I had to pack for a conference. Then, being the clothes-crazy person I am, I simply packed a suitcase with a list – ready to take off whenever I had to. I swear it took away the pressure of packing, for I would return home at 9 pm in the night, and need to leave for the airport at 5 am. I never fretted over packing – and like you said – I have the habit of always visualizing the outcome I want. Yes, I was meant to be happy 😛 But hey, it takes some hard work, at times, you know.
No matter what, though, I always jump out of bed after enjoying my alarm tune with a smile, often a laugh, thanks to the photo I’ve uploaded on my mobile screen.
Hugs! 🙂
I’m glad to see you didn’t make such a pickle out of it that I did Vidya. I love the idea of you being a corporate hotshop. I want to see pics of that! 🙂
Dear Elle,
This is just a general comment, but I just wanted to thank you for your posts. Your entries always are so timely, and reach me at the times when I need to hear that particular message the most. Thank you. Keep writing! I wish all the best for you and your Darling One. 🙂
Best,
Happy One
Awww Happy One…just your name makes me smile and your comment has truly made my day. You bless me with your presence and I thank you. 🙂
I like to have everything in the suitcase as well when I travel. I dread that feeling of knowing I forgot something that I will need. So now I rely on my packing list to remind of some things that I tend to leave out.
But your point is well taken. When we give some time to what we want to change, the shift slowly happens. For me it’s a step or two forward and then maybe a step back. That is great that your friend found the shift that she was looking for. Take care!
So true Cathy…shifts sometimes are temporary, as we’re just dipping our toe in the water, and become permanent only through persistence of staying in that new state. I’ve another trip coming up soon, so we’ll see if I’ve truly moved into a new state, or am still at the toe in the water one! I vote for the truly new state though. 🙂
Elle-
You’re singing to the choir on this one – how I can identify with your angst when preparing for a trip. It has taken me until recently to figure out that I actually could choose how I felt. The old behaviors were so ingrained in me that I didn’t even reflect on how it might be different….although hard to believe. This last trip to Philly/Ecuador and then back to Philly from Israel I saw that I finally achieved my goal. Dream about what it is -even for the future days (gotta love the Hicks) stay in the moment, and try to do everything with intent. xxoo-Fran
Love what you wrote Fran, and isn’t that the truth that we have these ingrained behaviours that our sub conscious is just putting out there and we can’t even see them…until we wake up and go wow. What wonderful trips you’ve been having lately, now that’s something cool to have in your sub conscious. 🙂
Hi Elle,
I can see you know, sitting on the suitcase trying to close it. I always end up backing to much when I travel. You know, can’t forget that, might need it.
Each morning before my feet hit the floor i always tell myself, ‘this is going to be a goood day’! If things don’t go the way I planned it is easier to find the humor in them. The mind is very powerful and it is what decides what kind of day a person is going to have. When we look for the positive it is wonderful what we find.
Thank you for sharing 🙂
Debbie
Wow, good for you Debbie. 🙂
This is such an awesome post! Thank you for sharing this! I really enjoyed reading it!
So glad you enjoyed it Dorothy and thanks for taking the time to stop by. 🙂