What You Think Matters

Everybody wants to know how to do creative visualization. The enthusiasm over the book and movie "The Secret" is testimony to how strongly people want to be able to create their own reality. Yet the pervasive experience is that life comes at you, and the only thing you have any say about is your response. Life just happens to you.

Often we find ourselves in reactive mode, which is even worse. Because reactions do not feel like choices at all. In fact, there is no freedom in a reaction. When somebody jumps you in a dark alley, you react. It's fight or flight. The automatic wiring takes over. There is nothing wrong with this. It just isn't a great way to live.

Today a plane flew low over New York City and people stampeded to escape from buildings. Right now there is a run on face masks and anti-flu medications all over the country. I know people who have stockpiled food and water for years. I also know people who are stockpiling guns and ammunition.

Let's face it, the world is a dangerous place. Just when you have a closet full of face masks and flu medication, a basement full of food and water to last at least two years, and enough guns and ammo to hold off a small army, you get cancer and you have to regroup.

Take a look at the situation. A rock hurtles through space around a star. Things get born and things die constantly. Consciousness blinks on and off like the twinkling of a star seen from the surface of the Earth. Virtually no one has any idea what is going on. People make up stories to reassure each other through agreement. When the final moment comes, they open their eyes in wonder for a brief moment, right before they close them forever. We all want to know what they see.

There is a constant tension between the soul, which knows itself as eternal, and the body, which knows itself as mortal. All fear originates in the body. It arises directly from the experience of mortality. We know our body is going to die, and we will do anything and everything we can to avoid it. Alas, all to no avail. Something is going to get you. That's just the way it is around here.

The soul, on the other hand, has no fear. It is truly fearless. It's also indestructible. I don't know for sure why the soul chooses to incarnate. Some say we are here to learn something. Others say we are here purely and simply to have the experience of a physical life. Some people say we are working out some karmic debt, and this is supposed to explain the suffering. Whatever the reason, we are spirit and body, and the body breaks and the body dies. And the spirit doesn't. That much is reality.

The only thing to do is maximize your experience. The best way to do this is to maintain your connection with your soul. The body will holler and kick and scream in fear and horror (watch the evening news), and there isn't really much we can do about that. But by staying in touch with our higher (soul) self, we can have access to a measure of peace during this life.

Even more, we can manage our energy to maximize the health of our body. Fear blocks the natural flow of energy through the body. It weakens the immune system and encourages disease. When you have a physical injury, the energy to that area gets blocked. By working with your energy field, you can promote energy flow, which will promote faster healing.

If your energy field is positive, negative energy will not be attracted to you. This does not mean you will walk around in a protected bubble. You are in the physical world. Things will bump, bang, crack and crumble. There is no avoiding it. But there is no reason to actively draw it in.

Whenever you have the presence of mind (you aren't in a fight or flight reaction mode), visualize surrounding yourself with white light. Picturing it creates it energetically. Picture yourself healthy and strong and you will be healthier and stronger. Picture yourself weak and sick and you will most assuredly be weaker and sicker. What you think matters.

And suffering is optional.