All It Takes Is An Idea

Anything is possible. I have come to see that the only thing that limits us is how far we can imagine what the possible may be in our lives and in ourselves. 

We can and do change all the time. We can work actively to this effect. The scariest state of being, I find, is the one I have heard reiterated many a time: ‘This is who I am. I am as I am and I cannot (or will not) change.’

Sometimes this is coupled with the addendum that the person is too old to change. Does this imply that only children get to change? That once we have reached our mid-20s we become so literally petrified that we can no longer alter the pattern of our being. It is frustrating and very sad to hear these words spoken in the conveying of this belief. 

In my experience I have found that all change begins with an idea, the opening of the mind, ‘perhaps this may be so’. It does not yet have to reside within my experience, it is just the beginning of thinking that it may be possible. It could be a myriad of things, to beginning to think that life may be more magical than we collectively portray it, to thinking that maybe there is another way of acting in a given situation that is available to you.

But it all begins with the may-be. It is a wonderful moment, it seems as though the mind takes a new intake of breath and breathes out into a new space. Ah, there may be more. This may be possible. I could be this.

As this step begins to come together we come up against all the fear based reasoning that emphatically tells you it is not so. The world is not magic. Grow up. Be realistic i.e. cynical. Knuckle down and do the job. Stop seeking, you will only get hurt. 

This is the ego’s role to protect you from the ‘you will only get hurt’ part of the equation. That and ‘the people will think you ridiculous’ or ‘you will become so isolated and alien, no one will be with you. You will not fit in.’ 

As the idea is new there will not be much lived experience to back this up. And so it is natural to go back and forth playing with the idea, taking a step into it and then retreating again.

It is important to remember that we are as filters to the great amount of physical data around us, and our filter, the size and its angle, is determined by the beliefs we hold. Not only does it filter the information that comes through to us, it also draws through the filter experiences that correlate with the belief systems held. 

If I believe that the world is a dark and dangerous place where everyone is out to get me that is what I am going to encounter. I will read and watch the news and I will have this confirmed multiple times a day. I will go for a walk and I will see people scowling, I will worry that they will steal my bag, they will seem shady, I will feel vulnerable, something may even happen. 

What is for sure is that I will not see the people smiling, walking with abandon, radiating their joy. To give a more concrete example, one Friday afternoon I went to a shopping centre looked at the people around me and I saw how happy they were to have finished work early that day. They had the whole weekend ahead of them and I could put myself in their shoes and sense how they were feeling. There was a sense of excitement. The days were opening up in front of them, their own time, they could make plans and have fun.

It made me feel happy for them and it uplifted me. I only saw this because I was receptive to that feeling, I resonated with it and could therefore pick it up. I have suffered from depression in my life and I know that when you feel bad, that is all you see and experience.

Had I gone into the shops with a different attitude, I would have seen the person who pushed another without apologising, I would have gotten stuck behind someone who was blocking my way, the cashier would have said something that annoyed me. I would have seen the faces of people who were also miserable and either I would have felt a sense of comradeship or resented them just for the hell of it.

Had I noticed the happy ones, it would only have been to translate them into my model and I would have railed against their stupidity, at not realising the seriousness of life and how little there really was to be happy about it.

So when we first get an idea that opens up our current beliefs, we have a bulk of lived experience that is either at odds with our opening or just does not tally with it. This is where the may-be is so important. I do not know that it is not so, it may not seem so, but then again it may-be so. 

It has helped me to open to the idea that if I continue working on changing my beliefs, my experience within the world will eventually change to match me. This may take some time, but once you see it coming into effect in your own lives’ it is unbelievably motivating and thrilling. 

There is no one “true” version of reality, there are multiple versions and I can get to take a part in choosing the versions that I participate in. And the wonderful thing is that it all begins with a thought.

There are no limits to what I can begin to imagine if I let myself. The concept of guides was so distant to me when I was first told about them. I was told that I could meet them, that they were with me helping me and that I could connect with them. But how do you even begin? 

I started with visualisations and it began but distantly symbolic. I could make some connections, but it was still very strange. But over time as an idea builds up and up, experience starts to correlate. The next thing I know is that I can actively call upon my guides for help and feel that they are working with me. 

I do not see them, but I know on a very deep level what is happening. If I let my mind flow and do not block it by what I think should fit, I start to get mental pictures of what is going on.

It was the same with white light. People mentioned to me the power of calling in white light, using it as a protection, to cleanse space, but I couldn’t even begin to imagine it. What exactly was white light? How could something you call in the mind’s eye for what you don’t even have a picture of, do anything in the here and now? 

But the idea stuck. Somehow my mind began to play with it. I imagined what it looked like. I imagined what it felt like. In meditations and visualisations it came through. Then I had to start living it. I had to actively call upon it, though it felt inane at the time. 

But the more I did it, the more real it became, it started to have its own internal logic, its own script, its own world of experiences that I could relate to when I thought of it. Now when I think of white light around me and breathing it in and clearing my space, it takes no more than a second to summon.

It doesn’t have to be so esoteric either. I’ve had times with my children where I’ve reacted after a long day and we’re all tired and then felt bad. Immediately afterwards I knew that they were tired or hungry and instead of hammering away at the point, gently cajoling them into bed would have been kinder, more loving and more in harmony with who I wish to be. 

But I was not capable of it for a time. I would see it only after the fact. But I desired to react differently, I held to this intention. I could paint the picture of myself in a more loving, a kinder mode, I really got a sense for who I could be. It was as though I started to flesh out the idea with more thoughts in my creation of the picture. 

Then one day something happened, my son called to me after he should have been asleep and I was already half way down the stairs. My usual reaction after having been called in so many times already would have been not to go. I would have felt quietly and internally irritated at how this was stopping me doing other things that I wanted to do. 

But then my picture caught up with me. I realised that here was an opportunity to live the picture I was painting. I saw the scene as I wished it to be like in a film and all I had to do was step into it. So I went into his room and held him in love. I realised that he needed me right now. I listened to what he said and I transmitted to him how much I loved him. I held him and kissed him and spoke to him till he was nearly asleep. 

I had literally been able to walk into the picture of who I wanted to be, what I wanted to be capable of. I had walked into an alternate reality. I go in and out of this now, but as long as I have a picture to guide me, to show me how to keep opening up the potential within me, the more I use my intent to steer me towards its realisation, the happier I feel. 

There is no point where it is all reached, it is an ongoing journey where ideas spawn new ideas and the process keeps unfolding.

I was petrified for years and I do not want to be that again, I doubt whether it is any longer possible! But it is not hard to make a start, all you have to do is not close the doors, just stay open to a possibility.