To see the way our minds shape our reality is really something to behold! I often wonder how many people really understand just how much we create and control our world around us? For many people, I think when something good happens they feel lucky. On the other hand when something bad happens they feel unlucky. In the more extreme cases a few people feel life or something in it is out to get them.
I remember many times when I was out walking the streets of places I had never been to before, where one or more people have told me after the fact, they would never walk down those streets by themselves because they are just too dangerous. For myself, I went out in those areas with the thought that the people living there were just like me, and they were trying to do the best they could for their own lives using what they had to work with.
In all my years of wandering in places where the more cautious would not go, I only had a problem once, and I brought that on myself. I have walked into some of the slums of south Chicago, Gary, Los Angeles, Jerusalem, Minneapolis, Munich, and Seoul, and never had a problem, even though I had been lost more than once into areas where I clearly did not fit in
In south Chicago, there were two men at my departure point. One said to the other, twenty he doesn’t, and the other said okay. I thought nothing of it as I completed my one mile walk to a place where a cab could find me. When I returned the same two men were there, and one was giving the other money. I asked what the money was for. The man told me it was a bet on whether or not I would be murdered before I made it to a cab….
It is a perfect example of how people in the same neighborhood can have completely different expectations about how their life is, and they can both be correct. In almost any city in the country, in any neighborhood, life for the most part is how the individual perceives it. When we choose only to see gangs and violence, that is what we see. When we choose to see a drug riddled neighborhood, that is what we find.
On the other hand, if we expect to find good people trying their best to live a good life, that is what we will find. If we believe we are alone, we find loneliness, if we see the world as a friendly helpful place, we find goodness. Of course there are places that are exceptions, because the world that exists there has been in place so long, and the peoples minds so beaten down, that no other type of thought can penetrate the thinking of the people in that area. Short of a major life altering event, their perceptions and existence will never change.
Our minds operate like this for us in all our states, both conscious, unconscious, awake, and asleep. We are the creators of our world, and whatever we choose to think, our mind goes to work to start creating that world for us. It happens in a way we never notice, but it happens just the same.
We create our own world around us, therefore we can also change our world any time we wish. Rarely does something happen without our allowing it too or even anticipating it happening. As an extreme example, think about someone addicted to drugs.
At some point in time earlier in their life, they had to make a decision about their world. An offer of trying a hard drug appeared in their life and they had to decide if that was a life change they wanted or not. At some level they decided they wanted to go down that path. We need to be good stewards of our own life and ensure the life we envision is the life we want to live. If there is conflict between our vision and our life, we can change it.
This a very positive post. I liked it.
It is difficult to change your life entirely, however, people forget that they can change their “outlook” towards life.
A situation might be out of your hand, but you “choose” what reaction you give to it.