The Things We Think

There is this predominating idea running around that the things we think are Reality. We need a checkpoint charlie for them! Someone said to me the other day - "I don't have time to take my kids to the beach, I have to work everyday, you know how that is...oh gotta go, I wanna catch the 1:30 pm movie..."

We all have these stories that we tell ourselves and others in our lives, but how much of it really is reality? And how do we know anyway? It's a hard thing to catch all our thoughts, but we can often catch things that we say. It is something easier practiced with someone close, but what you can simply do is question it. I don't have time to take my kids to the beach? Is that true? Or is the beach not a high priority for me? There is no judgment there, and still the second statement was truer for this person. The point of the exercise is to get to a place of truth about your reality.

Another fantastic exercise is to replace "can't" with "don't want to". Using that same example instead of saying, "I can't make it to the beach," say, "I don't want to go to the beach." Exchanging can't for don't want to changes everything. All of a sudden we are taking personal responsibility for the way things are, and even more particularly, we are taking responsibility for the way we arrange our lives.

The magic in understanding that it's our responsibility is the ability to re-arrange our lives to our own liking and to own up to what we like without any judgment. So much more sane, so much more comfortable, and a much happier way to live.

Try it.

Blessings.
- Darshan

(c) 2009 Darshan F Jessop