We are living through one of the most fundamental shifts in history — a change in the actual belief structure of Western society. No economic, political or military power can compare with the power of a change of mind. By deliberately changing their images of reality, people are changing the world. Willis Harman, Global Mind Change
In 1988, futurist Willis Harman awakened many on the planet to the understanding that with our minds, we create our reality.
Nearly 30 years later, what was once considered a New Age philosophy has come of age and is now embraced by Western, as well as Eastern, consciousness. Even within the iVUCA — interconnected, volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous — global environment of the 21st century, there is growing acceptance that every moment presents us with a choice. And, it is our choices — thoughts, words and deeds — that create our future. As Norman Vincent Peale espoused in The Power of Positive Thinking (1952), “our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate.”
One has to wonder what took us so long to adopt this truth. Well, we all know from personal experience that transforming our perceptions is rarely an overnight process. In order to make the wise and positive choices that change the world, we first need to shed the layers of fear, negativity and past conditioning keeping us from seeing the truth.
IMO, the first step in any transformation process is healing. Without healing, growth is not possible. We heal ourselves by peeling away and discarding our limiting beliefs and behaviours that built up over time and blocked us from seeing and growing into our full potential. What are those limiting beliefs and behaviours — every choice (thought, word and deed) that steals our attention away from peace, love and joy.
In the yoga world, we say, pain is inevitable; suffering is optional. Suffering — wishful thinking, regret, resistance — is a choice. We may not be able to escape the pain of a pandemic disease, a head concussion or the death of a loved one, but we can choose to eradicate suffering from our lives by not allowing pain or negativity to be what our attention feeds.
Direct experience teaches me that everything happens for a reason, and the wisest response to muster while in pain is to accept what is and try to understand why it is present. As we continue to accept and experience what is showing up in our lives, we will witness ourselves peeling away and shedding deeper and deeper layers of past conditioning.
Not unlike a snake that has molted, our new “skin” is raw and vulnerable. We don’t yet know who we are or how to behave in this new state of being. What we eventually learn is confidence grows from experiencing uncertainty not from controlling our experience.
Life itself is your career, and your interaction with life is your most meaningful
relationship. Michael A. Singer
All there is to do is breathe in the present, breathe out the past.
For more on growing confidence through embracing uncertainty, click here.
