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Taking Control of Your Life February 20, 2007

Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Consciousness, Personal Growth, Philosophy, Purpose, Relationships, Beliefs, Time , 4 comments

Life is undeniably a pretty complex term. When we look at all the different aspects of a human being’s life, what we are responsible for and what we can or can not control, the list can grow quite long and into many layers of details. Take for instance circumstances, emotions, skills, diseases, other people’s behaviour, luck, success and happiness. How many of these, and to what degree would you define to be within or beyond your control? An even greater question that I’ve been battling lately is the question of how much we as human beings are supposed to take control of in our reality in the first place.

Some books and teachings say that we should just let go of our desires, live simple lives and give up the thought of taking control of our destiny - that everything is going along just as it is meant to, which means that trying to alter things is futile and a waste of energy. In other words, life is meant to be a humbling experience where the solution is simply to enjoy our stay on this planet and live with care and love toward ourselves, others and the Oneness of all that exists.

Another way of thinking is that this whole reality is your own creation and you (read I) are fully responsible of all that goes on in it. Therefore, it’s obvious that there’s a lot of cleaning up to do with all the misery and catastrophes that occur every single hour and minute of every day. This revelation either breaks you if you don’t even have the strength to take care of yourself, or it has the power to create a great human being out of you that actively improves the world - through internal or external means (self-improvement or altruism).

Option 1 resembles more of a theistic approach and option 2 an atheistic approach, but it doesn’t have to be that cut and dried. The underlying question is if you have the full control of your reality or if it’s beyond your reach, found in something or someone else’s control. It’s all a paradox that seems to circle on endlessly when you think about the human levels of consciousness as explained by David Hawkins. In broad terms, people below the consciousness of 200 are denying the responsibility of their own life and need to grasp this revelation to reach neutrality. However, to get past the mid levels and reach unconditional love and enlightenment, you have to more or less again give up the control that your ego and corporeal body has access to. So what then is the answer, should a human being strive for control or not?

I wasn’t able to push this question forward until I started asking myself what the word control really means and comprises of. The traditional explanation would for instance consider having control of a car. It then means that you’re the master of the car’s movements and nobody else is able to influence it. This I would name ‘direct control’ and it follows in suit with the subjective reality perspective that everything is happening due to your own thoughts and actions - that circumstances, emotions, skills, diseases, other people’s behaviour, luck, success and happiness are all within your control.

However, I’m also convinced that ‘indirect control’ is an equally powerful concept and a very acceptable mind-set as well. This is the power of being a master at how you relate towards everything - even though you accept that everything is beyond your control. Your control is therefore strictly internal and in a way, you control the external occurrences because of your own relationships towards them. In this case for instance, cold weather does not have control over you because it does not bother you. You are in total acceptance of your surroundings and thus, you are the one in control. It’s still a kind of control after all even though the outcome is beyond your reach.

So what this all boils down to is a separation between internal and external control. Now if we look at the small list of concepts I presented earlier (circumstances, emotions, skills, diseases, other people’s behaviour, luck, success and happiness), we notice that all of them are within one of our ‘controls’ and that in the end, you don’t have to choose one form of control over the other. They can both co-exist and you just choose one according to the nature of the issue. I’m sure you’ll find out which concepts require direct control and which require indirect control.

Many people find themselves out of life balance when they only rely on one form of control. They get mad at the universe or themselves when there’s no single solution to all of their daily matters that they want to control. Fortunately, there is a solution for how to take control of life, but it takes time and effort to master both kinds of controls for improved life quality.

Or were you more inclined to find an answer to which of the two introduced teachings are more correct? Life isn’t a goal or a destination you strive to reach. It’s a path and an experience where there is no past and no future - only an endless amount of the present moment. Life wouldn’t be very exciting if all our questions were answered, but I hope that you start to recognize the two kinds of controls that you may use and slowly master from now on to make the best of your life and the present moment. This matters more to me than finding answers to all the questions I can think of.

(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

Creative Visualization February 7, 2007

Posted by The Probabilist in : [Books], Consciousness, Creativity, Gratitude, Goals, Psychology, Purpose, Relationships, Beliefs, Vision, Abilities , 3 comments

Shakti Gawain’s Creative Visualization is more than the title indicates. In fact, how to visualize something in order to create what you desire is very briefly explained. The biggest portion delves into the different kinds of things you can accomplish or have in your life, what inner beliefs may be rooted in you that block you from using your creative power of the law of attraction, and also how to reach a meditative state that serves as the best way to have creative visualization work for you.

My own interpretation and what I thought of the book is that it’s 50 % about creative visualization and another 50 % of personal psychology and life lessons that help you to lead a more fulfilled life. To understand the power of intention-manifestation and have it work well, you need to first work on your inner beliefs of what you rightfully deserve, why your natural state is that of joy, prosperity and self-worth, and what the power of your own mind really includes and controls.

The richness found in the book is the many methods that aid and complete the art of successful creative visualization. Among them are meditation, using several senses to visualize, affirmations, the link to spirituality, acceptance, healing, energy flow and centers, sanctuary, invocations, writing a notebook, clearing, goal-setting, idealizing, treasure maps and creative visualization within relationships and groups.

I found it very interesting how much in common there is to this book and what I have been writing about in this blog. There’s the question of what you want, do or are, how the beliefs about yourself are more important than what others think of you, why prosperity is your birthright and how to use a positive attitude to get what you want in life instead of perpetuating what you don’t like about yourself and your circumstances.

Creative visualization has been in the bookstores for quite some time already and I can see that it has had quite an impact in the teachings of many great personal development coaches of today. My copy is a 25th anniversary edition and it also includes some examples of what kind of results the technique has manifested. This book is a worthwhile read and daily reference to visualization to anyone who isn’t yet totally satisfied with how their life has turned out or who don’t enjoy every minute of it.