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I Change My Thoughts,
I Change the Emotional Quality of My World
by Rita Rivera Fox
Mastering life is the process by which we become aware of how thought and belief have the power to manifest. We can begin practicing self awareness by observing the thoughts and beliefs that we are using to create the interpretation of what the world brings us. After all, thoughts and beliefs are the raw material we use to craft our daily experience of life. While a thought is not real and it does not have substance, it is still very powerful. Choosing which thoughts we will continue to support or which thoughts we begin to challenge is the first step in crafting our lives as a masterpiece of art.
As we perceive the world, it might seem as though the world determines how we will interpret what we are experiencing. This is an erroneous belief. By taking responsibility for choosing how you perceive and interpret the world at large is a big step in changing the quality of your life. The power comes from the choice. But how can we begin to exercise this power? Learning to choose a new interpretation of events in your life is where practicing the art of choice becomes most apparent and the rewards are the greatest.
We have accepted many collective agreements about how an experience should be interpreted. All we have to do is look to the media, conversations with co-workers, family or friends, and there are ready-made interpretations of everything that is going on in our lives – with both personal and global events. Opinions are freely shared. Soon we are agreeing with how someone else is seeing an event without ever asking ourselves “Is this how I see this situation? Is there another way to interpret this? Does the way I’m looking at this circumstance contribute to creating happiness and overcoming fear in my life?”
These collectively shared interpretations often come from a very limited and fearful point of view. These days there is much uncertainty in the events of the world - war, hurricanes, rising gas prices. And that uncertainty is creating a lot of fearful stories and reactions. If we respond with fear to what is happening globally, we are not making the best choice on our own behalf. When we create fearful conclusions and stories to what we are presented with, we give this type of energy to our lives. This energy creates the emotional quality that then colors our existence. Our combined fearful responses have the power to manifest the very circumstances that frightens us. The results are that we feel helpless and powerless in a constantly changing world. This is how we lose our happiness.
The power to challenge the interpretation of what our mind says about current events, whether personal or global, comes from exercising the power of choice. First, we use our awareness to see how we are interpreting an event. If the story we choose creates anxiety or distress in the body, or steals our happiness, we can decide to withdraw our agreement and support of it. Consciously choosing our interpretation means that we begin to challenge the old existing points of view. These old points of view usually reflect our lack of faith in the divine order of life or our lack of faith in our own resilience. By making an active choice about how we want to tell our story actually changes the quality of our life experience.
- To re-interrupt simply means to ask yourself a few important questions. In other words, you question that voice of authority in your head.
- What is the story you are telling? How are you interpreting what is happening now (or what had happened before)?
- Can you believe that this is absolutely true?
- How does it make you feel?
- What if you don’t believe your interpretation? How do you feel then?
Taking a few moments to become aware of what is going on in the internal dialogue in our minds, and then questioning that dialogue to see if a new choice or interpretation is possible, results in shifting our awareness. The simple action of consistently observing the process of thinking will begin to transform the way we think. This then results in a new experience, or sensation in our bodies – potentially one of more peace, joy, and happiness.
Emotions that enhance our experience of life come from our truest, most authentic self. This is the part of us that is accessed when we rely less on thought and more on feeling. Love, or the experience of being one with what created us, results in an enhanced emotional experience of life. We are interacting with that force all the time. What brings us our greatest happiness is our allowing that love to have a clear channel to flow out of us and into the world that we are creating. This is only possible when we challenge our fearful stories and choose to not believe everything we think. While we may not have control over the events occurring in the outer world, we certainly do have the ability to choose our response to it with awareness.
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