Things Become Thoughts

THINGS BECOME THOUGHTS

Most of us are by now familiar with the phrase “thoughts become things” (©Mike Dooley, www.tut.com). I was first made aware of this concept by a friend of mine who is a devotee of Paramahansa Yogananda. His way of saying it is, “everything begins with a thought.” Around the same time frame, I saw the movie, “The Secret”, and heard Mike Dooley use the now well-known phrase, “thoughts become things.” And although I understood this at an intuitive level, I had no idea how to change my own thoughts to create and manifest the things I wanted in my own life.

I followed everything available on this topic, but always wound up feeling as if I were failing, maybe something was wrong with me, it might work for others but not for me, and all the other self-deprecating beliefs we often hold. But, I did not give up entirely and kept searching and reading and watching videos!

I joined a support club for people wanting to manifest. It focused on the Daily Practice…what we could do every day to turn our thoughts around. At first I dabbled in it a bit, but one day I decided to give it 100% attention. Yet, in order to do so, I had to create some extra time in my days! My “things” or my habits had to change in order for me to have the time to change my thoughts!

In other words, first of all I had to give up the habit I had of getting up and playing games on my tablet! There, I have admitted it! And I had convinced myself it was a way of getting my brain charging for the day and keeping my brain sharp as I aged. In reality it was wasting a good hour or more in the morning! I then started using that time for meditation, for journaling, for setting intentions for my day. These “things” began to change my way of thinking in a more positive and grateful way, which began creating the life I desired. I was able to get clear about what I actually wanted in life, which I feel is the most difficult part of the whole creating process!

I liked where this was going so much, I asked myself what else I could give up to find more time and the obvious answer was TV. Now, I am not a person that turns on the TV at all during the day, but at about 6 or so, I liked to eat my dinner while watching it and watch it until 10 or so. Hey! There’s 3 or 4 hours right there! So, no, I have not stopped watching TV totally. But I do take time at the end of my day to list at least 10 things that happened during the day for which I am grateful. And if things have not gone well, I also do some extra journaling to see if I can figure out the lesson or the blessing! TV is not the priority, but rather the “reward” if all is running smoothly.

Along with the TV habit, I enjoyed a glass of wine in the evenings. Nothing wrong with that, right? But it dulled me and made me want to just go to bed rather than working on my “things”. So, in time, without any fanfare or suffering, I no longer drink unless I am in a social setting. Now I had created a little more time or “thing” to help with those thoughts!

At the first of each month, I set intentions for that month of what I want to manifest and fashion affirmations and a visualization around that. I record them on my phone, and play them when I am traveling to work or the store or wherever! This habit or “thing” ensures my thoughts are focused on what I desire in my life.

To sum up, would it not be better to take time to focus each day on what you desire, on gratitude, on intentions for your day and be able to manifest your deep desires than to waste time on things that are merely distractions causing your thoughts to create more things on which to waste your time? Look at your life and think about what you focus on each day. For many, it would be: drag myself out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, head to work, work all day, come home and feed the kids, do chores, drink, play online games, work in the yard, yell at the kids to go to bed, watch TV, etc. There are no habits included that could possibly cause a moment of clarity or creating!

We are definitely what we think. Thoughts become things no doubt about it! But I have found that things…. the things we do each day…our habits…also become our thoughts! If we allow our habits to be mindless, useless activities that do not help us create the life of our desires, then we cannot expect that we will! But if we use our habits to focus our minds with positive ideas of what we want, we will be given the inspiration to make it happen! The choice is up to you. Change your thoughts and change your “things” …change your “things” and allow space to change your thoughts!

A Little Chik Will Lead Them

A LITTLE CHIK WILL LEAD THEM

Many bloggers, news people, and writers of all varieties have probably begun an article just like this one by starting with “another mass shooting has taken place.” This time, Orlando, Florida in a night club full of young and old, male and female, gay and straight. And this on the heels of a tragic shooting of an up and rising star on Friday night. This article is not for the purpose of promoting gun control, nor is it against one group or the other. 

 We all know the details now. Gunman walks into a crowded nightclub and starts shooting. Why? We don’t know. And as a result, 50 or more people lost their lives, and another 50 or more were treated for wounds.  Yesterday, we all mourned the loss of these lives as we know what it is like to lose someone dear to us. These people were mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters. They had close friends. Most of all, they mattered.

After I arrived home from work yesterday, I got on facebook. My emotions took over as I read hate-filled post after hate-filled post. Those on the left hating on Trump, on those not supporting the LGBT community, right-wing Christians, etc. Those on the right, hating on Hillary, Obama, gun control, Muslims and at the same time standing sanctimoniously with Jesus. I was so angry, so upset, and so sick of all this hate. Why can’t we all understand that hate is our problem? Hate is hate, no matter who/what you are hating. Only love can overcome that. What would Jesus do, after all?

Suddenly, I scrolled over an article and prayed with all my heart it was true. While thousands of people took to social media to criticize whichever side of the fence they were not on, a Chik-fil-a in Orlando quietly took to the streets to pass out food and drinks to those giving their blood. This is a company that makes a stand on their own beliefs by being closed on Sundays. They do not support same sex marriage. What would Jesus do? This. They opened up, cooked, and distributed food in a time of great need. They showed us by example we can disagree but still love each other. By the way…the story was indeed true. For more, click here: http://www.wftv.com/news/trending-now/orlando-chick-fil-a-store-supports-blood-donors-with-food-on-sunday/341509933

 

My cousin lives and works in Orlando. She was at the concert Friday night where Christina Grimmie was murdered in cold blood and was active in the aftermath of the Pulse shootings.

She says she was overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and the spirit of cooperation. So many volunteered to give blood, they ran out of supplies. The same thing happened after 911 and the Charleston shootings, just to name two…people came out and gave of themselves. Much hatred was aimed at a group, but ten times ten more love came to the rescue. What a world we could have if the love came first.

Dear readers, can you not understand that social media is not a place to spew hatred of any form? Can you not understand that hate added to hate is just more hate? Can you not understand that our media, our government, and those that are in control of our country – and our world – are purposely trying to distract us with hype while the real issues of hunger, poverty, lack of healthcare, homelessness, and injustices of every type should be our real focus? I would like to challenge each of us to take one moment of thought before we post on social media and ask ourselves if what we are posting promotes hate of any sort to anyone…even if you don’t agree with their politics, religion, or what they support.  I challenge myself and each of you to be able to disagree with each other without hating each other. We are one race…the human race…and much more alike than different. We all want to love and be loved. We all want to be accepted. At the root of all religions, the belief is the same: Love God and love each other. 

What would Jesus do? Follow the Chik (-fil-a)!

I would like to dedicate this article to my "God" Mother, Marian Starnes. Because of her, I think in terms of love, kindness, and cooperation. Because of her, I have done my best to remove judgement and hatred from my life. Because of her, I can disagree without hate. Because of her, I forgive myself and others. Because of her, I know peace. 

Thoughts Become Things - The BIG Picture

The philosophers in today’s world teach us that “thoughts become things”.  From Deepak Chopra to Eckhart Tolle, from Marianne Williamson to Mike Dooley, from Esther Hicks to Oprah Winfrey, from the pages of “The Secret” to hundreds of books, programs, CD’s, DVD’s, and all manner of internet media, the message is ringing out loud and clear:  you create what you think about.  If you think about lack, you experience lack.  If you think about abundance, you experience abundance.  If your focus is love, peace, and happiness, you find yourself enjoying love, peace, and happiness.  Each of these modern day philosophers has a unique manner of presenting this information to us.  They are all basically saying the same thing, “thoughts become things”, and the variety of presentations allows for people of all diversities to hear and understand.

To prove this declaration of “thoughts become things”, we only have to look back at our history.  There we find the proof.  Haven’t you ever wondered how we have progressed from cave men and women to the modern techies we are today?  Allow me to explain further.

According to history, at one time we were a race of hunter/gatherers.  We lived in caves, no doubt, and followed food (animals) in hopes of filling our bellies.  It was all about survival.  And that set us to thinking:  “what if we could grow our food and have a community?”  That idea spread and in a few thousand years or so, agriculture and communities were formed.

Fast forward to the 1400’s: People desired books, bibles, and other materials that had to be scribed by hand.  Along comes Gutenberg and suddenly we have a printing press!  Before Galileo, men started becoming fascinated with the heavens.  Next thing you know there is a telescope!  The examples are endless!  

It is said that hindsight is 20/20, and looking back it seems obvious.  Just the thought “how nice it would be to be able to use the toilet indoors, and not have to empty a chamber pot” turned into our modern day bathrooms.  “I wish there were a way to provide consistent heat for the family” became the lovely heating systems we rely on today.  “I’d love to be able to communicate quickly with someone” turned into the telephone. 

Now, let’s come into life today.  What were the thoughts that have brought us to our amazing technological world?  When I was a child, our entertainment was basically enjoyed in three technologies:  a black and white TV, a radio (AM stations only), and the record player with records.  Someone started thinking, “I wish this TV show was in color!” and the color TV was invented.  Someone thought it would be grand to have a small radio that could be carried around with them.  The idea caught on, and the transistor was born, along with everything since, including our modern day iPods!  What used to take an entire room to store can now be carried in the palm of our hands!

We had a phone on the wall in the kitchen and on a desk in the hallway.  When I became a teenager, I thought it would be so cool to have privacy and to talk to all my friends as I pleased.  Soon, call waiting was invented.  And now we have phones that we carry with us to allow us to always be in touch!  That was my teenaged dream!

Do you see the BIG picture of how thoughts become things?  Each generation collectively thinks forward to the next generation’s big invention.  And, somehow, it keeps moving faster and faster!  So, have I convinced you that thoughts become things, whether on a personal scale or on a collective scale?  If so, wouldn’t you like to take this knowledge and create a more positive world?  For example, by thinking about and envisioning peace, love, justice, and happiness, we could create a new way of life for all people.  You can create these things both for yourself on a personal level, and for our world as a whole.  It can happen.  It has before.  Join in this process.  Live a life of peace, and create a world of peace for our next generation.   Your children’s children’s children are counting on us.

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one….Imagine.”  (John Lennon)

(Photo courtesy of one-vision.com)                                                                                                                                                                

What's Wrong is What's Right

We have been told since the day we made our entrance into this world all the things that are right with us and the things that are wrong with us.  Even before we had the knowledge of language, our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and others were expressing that we were “just like our Mother” or “just like our Father” and often they were not talking solely about looks.  We picked up their energies as they approved and, especially, disapproved of our behaviors.  As we grew older, certain traits emerged to the forefront of whom we were…or who we thought we were. 

As adults, most of us know what is “wrong” with us.  We know that we are procrastinators, that we drink too much or have other addictions, that we lie to protect ourselves, that we are insensitive to others, that we can’t sustain relationships….the list is endless.  Yet, have you ever considered that what is “wrong” with you is actually what is “right” with you?  Yes, that deep dark thing that is your constant companion is actually your salvation!  That “thing” that you shun, ignore, flee from, that revolts you about yourself simply needs another perspective.  Look at it instead as your dear friend, a constant companion that is seeking your love and your attention. 

When you look at your challenges as something that is here to assist you in your life, you bring about a change in yourself.  This new perspective can then be used to benefit yourself and others.  For example, if it is addiction, know that this addiction is being used by you to learn something very valuable and something you could, in time, share with others.  Love and embrace it and ask it what it has to teach you.  Ask what is missing in your life that it is trying to fill.  In time, you will clearly see its role in your life and be able to lay it aside.  Then you can show others how to do the same.

If you are overly stubborn and will listen to no one about anything, the process is the same.  Love and embrace this stubbornness and ask what it has to teach you.  What purpose does it serve?  What is it fulfilling in you?  Maybe it is simply a mode you developed to protect yourself as a child.  The positive side of stubbornness is tenacity and tenacity is a trait that can serve us very well.

You may be more in touch with the spiritual world than most people.  No one ever believed you so you squashed this part of yourself to protect yourself from being ridiculed.  Perhaps you felt a great responsibility in giving others information from the spiritual world.  Yet, you know you could help others with your gift.  Embrace this part of yourself and ask what purpose it can serve. 

Deep inside each of us is a child.  As children, we become imprinted with the environment around us.  It is not your fault that you are the way you are but, it is your privilege to change that part of you if you want to.  We do not have to be victimized by our environments.  Love and embrace whatever it was as a child you received that you consider a fault, a challenge, a secret.  That is your salvation.  That is the thing that is here to teach you something very important.  That is the ticket to your creativity, your joy and your evolution. 

So, stop looking outside of yourself for who you are.  Don’t allow people from you past, present or future to live “rent free” in your head!  Everything you need is within your own self.  Everything you are dwells within.  Seek yourself and your answers there within the depths of your own self. 

Remember:  Everything they ever told you was wrong with you is what is right with you.  Embrace it.  Love it.  Heal it.  Share it with others.  Now, you are free.

All Is Well

She felt a perfect sadness accompanying her through her day.  A non-specific sadness – a sadness without drama nor crying.  Just an old friend attempting to wriggle its way back into her heart.  She allowed it to sit for a while and plead its case.  But she knew this was one old friend that should not – could not – be allowed a real and permanent place inside.  So she observed, knowing eventually she’d ask it to leave and return to her magnificent efforts – her magnificent changes.

We all feel sad or down from time to time.  Don’t fight it….just allow it to move through you as you observe it.  Be with it.  Love it.  Remember you are not alone...your Angels watch over and protect you in all the moments of your life.  And give it a time limit.  If you are like me, long before the time limit is up, you will already be on to your next step.  Be kind to yourself.  Everything is o.k.  All is well.

Shift Happens

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the sayings, affirmations and lingo of the Spiritual world today.  The overriding theme is “your thoughts create your life”.  If one will just change their thought patterns and begin to believe that what they want is already theirs, it will be.  Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?  Yet changing a life time of habitual thinking is the most difficult task before us.

And what if this is not true?  When I was growing up, when my parents grew up, and possibly every generation since the US of A was formed, I was given a different message:  WORK hard and what you want will be yours.  (aka “the American Dream”)  So they worked hard and, for most of them, it paid off.  My parent’s generation bought homes for around 15,000 that are now worth 100,000!  They paid 500 for a car that would now be 10,000!  So how did all this change?

My thoughts on it are that for so many years, so many people believed the same thing…work hard and what you want will be yours.  But, shift happens, and there came a day when this adage could no longer be said with conviction.  People didn’t want to work hard and get what they wanted only to realize that they were too old, too tired or both to enjoy it and basically left it to the next generation to enjoy.  So what was our generation to do?  It was up to us to stop inequality for races, genders, sexual preferences, children, religions and all manner of dividing lines in our world.  We were more dreamers than doers, so we needed a new catch phrase and one that suited our needs.  We didn’t mind working, as long as it was fun and/or for a good cause.  So we stared visualizing what we wanted.  We became optimistic in the face of our country’s ruin.  The cost of our homes, our cars, our groceries and everything we consumed went up but our pay did not, at least not as fast as the cost of living.

Another element that is causing this shift in thought is that new evidence in the scientific community supports the theory of our thoughts creating our reality.  There is a paradigm shift from the body of scientific knowledge that has supported our theories for the past 300 years.  The studies in Noetic Science have now taken Quantum Physics to a new level.  Many studies have proven that a thought can affect reality.  If you are interested in this, simply google Noetic Science, or watch movies such as I AM by director Tom Shadyac or What the Bleep Do We Know.  Both cite many studies in Quantum Physics and the idea that thoughts create or change reality.  Author Lynn McTaggart also discusses this concept in her book “The Field”.  We all know that science changes over time.  For example, the earth is no longer flat, the planets revolve around the sun, and electricity is no longer considered “magic”.

Now, more and more people believe “your thoughts create your life”.  And guess what?  They do.  All it takes for anything to be true is for enough people to believe it.  Shift happens.

Pixie and Funny Nose

I wrote this note on my birthday last year on my facebook page.  I wanted to write something for my birthday this year, but this actually says it all.  I have so enjoyed having Pixie and Funny Nose with me all year…no being packed away for them anymore!!  It has been another challenging year, but one in which I have learned so much.  Most of all, I have learned how to change the way in which I think…and that is no easy thing to learn!  It is still a work in progress, as am I, but I am happier and more content than I’ve ever been in my life.  Again, I wish to thank and honor my dear friends, whether you’ve been with me since day one or we’ve just met!  Maybe you’re on my facebook page and we connect in that way.  Regardless, I’m thankful and blessed to have each of you as a part of me.  Now for the post from last year (this year, I’m 59….really?)!! 

Happy Birthday to ME!!  I am so thankful to have lived through one of the toughest yet!  Yesterday while unpacking Christmas decorations, I came across a box of items which I had misplaced when I moved 2 1/2 years ago!  Oddly enough, they were in a decorative box right in my living room!  Though I couldn't see them, they were with me as they had been for so many years! 

 Among the items was this figurine which was given to me by my Godmother, Ima Murphy (RIP) when I was about 4 years old.  It graced her coffee table and when I visited, as I often did, I would run right to it and hold it and play with it.  I named the two "Pixie and Funny Nose" and felt I knew them from some long ago and far away place where Pixies/Faeries/Magical Beings lived with their various animal friends to whom they could talk.  Eventually, Ima gave me the figurine and I have had it with me ever since.  Of all the items I have had and lost in this life, this is one that has remained.

 Today as I celebrate 58 years of life, I use Pixie and Funny Nose as a symbol of the essence of myself.  I remember the feeling this little duo brought me then and the feeling still arises when I look at them now.  I honor that part of myself and know it is the best part of me. 

 I want to thank everyone who has been with me over my life whether from the beginning or just having joined in.  You are all connected to me and "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together"!  (Goo goo g'joob!)  I love and honor each of you.

 In keeping with my theme of poems, here is another on of my favs....perfect for this day...enjoy...

Barter

Life has loveliness to sell,

All beautiful and splendid things,

Blue waves whitened on a cliff,

Soaring fire that sways and sings,

And children's faces looking up,

Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,

Music like a curve of gold,

Scent of pine trees in the rain,

Eyes that love you, arms that hold,

And for your spirit's still delight,

Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,

Buy it and never count the cost;

For one white singing hour of peace

Count many a year of strife well lost,

And for a breath of ecstasy

Give all you have been, or could be.

-Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)