Change Your Life by Changing the Way You See the World

A few weeks ago, I was buying my groceries at a local shop when the cashier said to me, “How is the day treating you?” My reply was, “You mean how am I treating the day?”, to which he said, “Now, you know what’s going on!”

Similarly, I love the late Wayne Dyer’s quote, “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” It is so true.

During this holiday time in our “Finding Your Inner Peace Sanctuary” workshop, we have been exploring the ways we can choose to perceive life, how that affects our inner peace, and how that ultimately affects our world. There are two primary lenses through which we can see life: positive possibilities and impossibilities. Today, we will touch upon what life looks like in the impossibilities so that you may notice them and recalibrate your perspective to inner peace as we move into the new year.

Last week, we considered the expansive and loving nature of positive possibilities. Being in the impossibilities, however, is like living life in a box, whose walls are built of fear and disconnect. The ruler of that domain is a distorted sense of self based on struggle, wanting, and the illusion of being separate from the world around you. This impostor self is determined to manipulate reality to suit its belief that there is no love, that you are neither loved nor welcome on the planet.

Impossibilities Are Not Real

The most important thing to understand about the impossibilities is that they are not real. How could the perception of disconnect be real when we are part of all of existence? The impossibilities are like an eddy stuck on the side of a beautiful, strong, flowing river. They swirl around within themselves, in an effort to self-perpetuate. In the impossibilities, you perceive daily events as against you. This is true even if you feel you have successfully battled to get what you want, as this type of “victory” is temporary. You experience life as an ongoing struggle, sustaining a sense of disconnect, loneliness and fear.

Consciousness stuck in the impossibilities is at the root of human suffering. Because you feel disconnected from love and therefore from life itself, you consciously or unconsciously attempt to show that the disconnect is real and necessary. Since the impossibilities are fueled by wanting, they are like a bottomless whirlpool. They keep you stuck, unhappy, and out of the experience of eternal love. You know you are in the impossibilities when you feel like that stuck eddy by the side of a river: out of flow. You feel tense, disconnected and fearful, even if you seem to have it all together on the surface.

The Way Out of Feeling Stuck

The only solution to the impossibilities is to awaken to the understanding that they are illusions, perpetuated by your own attachment to an erroneous perception of reality. For example, when you notice you feel unloved, challenge the impossibilities by asking yourself, “Is it true that I am unloved?” When you are open, ready and willing to understand the nature of reality, the answer becomes “No! The very essence of life itself is love. And I am of life. I am part of Nature. I too am the stuff that is Nature. I am connected to everything, everywhere, always. I am love!”

This week, I ask you to begin to notice and question any impossibilities tendencies in your life.
• What am I feeling right now? Do I feel expansive or constricted? Grounded or disconnected? Listless or vital?
• In what way may I be seeing the world through the lens of impossibilities?
• Am I willing to consider that this perspective is not real?
• What do I gain from holding on to that perception?
• Is it worth it?
• What do I gain in releasing it?
• Am I willing to open to the truth that I am unconditionally loved?

From my heart to yours,
Parvati