November 29: Day 152

STONE NINE CONTINUED
 
Transform: By changing my thoughts, I transform my life. I choose to change my thoughts concerning past experiences that hold me in pain. I choose to see them from a higher perspective.

Instruction: Choose to change your thoughts.

Thinking is a process that is automatic for a large portion of the decisions we make on a daily basis. Overall, this is a good thing, because it allows us to function more quickly and easily, moving through life without having to process everything we encounter. When those automatic responses lead us down the same dead-end roads, we need to evaluate our past thought processes to determine if we can change them and break away from the emotional rut that would drag us down. The emphasis today is to understand that we do have the power to change any thought we want to. We can choose to believe the world is not round but shaped like a block. We can choose to believe that gravity is a figment of our imagination and proceed to ignore it. We can choose to believe that if we drive recklessly no one will get hurt and no one will try to stop us. These choices are not necessarily the ones we might want to make, but still, we have the power to choose them. Perhaps we made the choice to believe these things in the past, and at some point, we discovered these choices weren’t working for us. We had the opportunity to make different choices.

What we really want is to make better choices. Of course, this begins with the discovery that our previous choices might have been poor ones. Where there is pain and bad memories in our lives, chances are there might have been some poor choices that we want to rid ourselves of. This is a good place to begin. Even if the situation was not our choice, such as being born into the religion that harmed us, changing our thoughts can help us heal enough to make good choices for ourselves now that we are adults and can make our own choices. By purposely choosing to change our thoughts about the past, we are retraining our brains to make better choices in the present and in the future. One question we might ask ourselves is this: How does my Higher Power view this situation that has caused me so much pain? Our answers will probably vary greatly, but it helps to try to view the scene from the perspective of The Divine who loves all of creation and who understands the heart of each person. Even if previous religious teachings taught you something else about The Divine, remember to look at it from the perspective of The Divine. That perspective will always be the most loving, caring, forgiving, and grace-filled perspective. If we can view life through divine eyes we will have less pain and more peace. The beauty is, we can choose to try to see life through divine eyes, and The Divine will honor that choice and help us.

Consider some thoughts you have held that might be causing you pain. Can you see how by changing your thoughts you can let go of some, or maybe all, of that pain? Take some time to ask yourself how The Divine might view a situation. Try to see and understand from The Divine perspective.