Our Reality... Excerpts From An Article By Steve Pavlina

If you maintain a negative limiting belief about your reality, such as a belief that this reality is insane, crazy, violent, indifferent, apathetic, etc., then your attitude will absolutely cream you. You can't expect to get anywhere good with a belief that this reality is anything less than heavenly. You're not actually judging reality with such beliefs because you only have access to your limited perceptions of it, and those are 100% within your mind. So by labeling reality negatively, you're actually labeling a part of your own mind in the same way. That's a trap - a huge trap that you must avoid at all costs. Subconsciously your mind will respond to such negative beliefs by crippling your self-esteem and strangling your ability to leverage your skills and talents. Some people who go this route even kill themselves in the end. It's a completely foolhardy way to deal with reality. No good can come of it. Well… no good other than the eventual realization that it was a rather lame idea. Once you realize that your perceptions of reality are all you have to go with, the most sensible approach is to permanently rule out the idea of casting aspersions on your reality, since you're actually ridiculing your own perceptions, which can only make you go a bit insane. You can't afford to do anything of the sort. That cannot possibly do any good whatsoever - it can only take you down a path of self-destruction and ruin. What's the alternative? Do the absolute best you can to cultivate a harmonious and supportive relationship with your reality. Settle for nothing less. If anything conflicts with your efforts there, ignore it as best you can, and refocus your attention on re-establishing a harmonious and supportive relationship with reality. You cannot get anywhere in this life if you do otherwise. How to Take Control of Reality This doesn't require magical powers or magical thinking. It does, however, require taking full responsibility for how you relate to this reality. Since that relationship exists entirely within your mind, it's under your control… but only to the extent that you believe it is. I maintain the belief that reality is 100% on my side. This is not based on evidence. It is based on choice. The evidence comes after the choice, not the other way around. I even believe that reality conspires to go out of its way to help me, and I see evidence of this constantly (again, only after I chose this belief). And so this is what my experience of reality becomes. It's full of pleasant surprises. Today, for instance, I received an extra $900 out of the blue that I didn't even know was coming. Reality loves to bring me gifts like this - financially, socially, experientially, etc. And because I maintain this belief, people frequently help and support me on my path. No one is going to do that for someone who thinks this reality is somehow lacking or damaged - that belief will only get you drained, beaten down, and abused. What if the whole time you've been here, reality was conspiring to bring you the most heavenly experiences imaginable, and all this time it's been waiting for you to get with the program? Reality was functioning perfectly - within established parameters. But perhaps you've been slacking off in the imagination department. Have you been dwelling on what you'd love to experience and summoning it, or have you been muddling your mind with thoughts of perpetuating more of what you don't want? If you love what you're experiencing right now, you can just keep observing that, and it will self-perpetuate; if that's you, you're already golden. But you can't afford to let your mind dwell on your observations and their extended predictions if you've already established the pattern of creating experiences you don't desire to continue. If you want to break the pattern of what you're already experiencing, you need to shift your energy from observation and prediction to unfettered imagination and creation. Essentially that's a time management challenge - spend less time observing and more time imagining. Steve Pavlina is an American self-help author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur. He is the author of the web site www.stevepavlina.com and the book Personal Development for Smart People. You can visit his site by clicking on the following link: