The Nature of Personal Reality

Beautiful art by my friend Claire

Why is it so that it sometimes seems difficult to get the world around us to work the way we want it to? If we are poor, many of us would much rather wealth. Those of us who are lonely may seek friends, and those who are under the grasp of illness most likely would desire health. But our desires are very often not represented in reality. Many of us who want to be rich simply aren't. Plenty of us desire that perfect body figure, or that new watch, or more happiness, a better social life, more time, better grades, etc, and a question that a lot of people may ask is 'why?'. Why aren't I rich? Why am I failing in ______? Why does everyone else seem better than me? But if we're looking for change, then 'why' is the wrong question to ask.


Instead we should be asking ourselves 'how'. How can I improve? How can I get better at singing so that my friends don't label my voice as 'unpitched percussion'? How do I convince my rich uncle to drink the delicious drink that I've brewed up for him? Although the question 'why' is useful for finding out what caused something or what the consequences/ relationship between two events were, it often invites a lot of blame and puts the power of your results in the hands of other people. That's not to say that we can't learn from whys, just that when we say that 'I'm ___ because of ____' it makes it incredibly easy to blame something and leave it up to them to fix your problems. And that rarely works.


Asking yourself how you can go about getting the outcome that you want is much more effective for change. Hows give us ideas on steps that we can take to consciously improv, gain or develop what it is that we want. How can I improve my drama skills? Take acting classes, comedy classes, sign up for Soapboxes, etc. How can I become more healthy? Get a gym membership. Go running. Change your diet. But I don't want to make this too much of a 'go do this' post. Instead, I want to consider a theory behind what a person experiences in life.


I've recently been reading a book on the nature of personal reality, which is aptly called 'The Nature of Personal Reality'. The book is allegedly a channeled work and the ideas within them originate from a multidimensional personality known as 'Seth'. What the book talks about, however, has an utmost relevance to our daily lives.


What The Nature of Personal Reality explores is the idea that you create your own reality through your beliefs and your actions. It sounds like common sense, but sometimes the most obvious things are the most elusive. Seth suggests that:

a) You Create Your Reality and
b) The Point of Power is Now


You Create Your Reality
What does this mean? First of all, think about everything that you do as being a choice.Even if you choose to do nothing, you've still made a choice, even if it may not be a conscious one. Our choices about everything in life, from where we sit, what drink we take, what we do when we are around new people, how we spend our money, what we decide to learn, etc. all bring about results and outcomes. Whether your outcomes are favourable (eg. finding a new friend) or not so favourable (eg. having a toast with yourself before you sip on your tears) are dependent on the choices you make in your life. 


The things that you experience in reality serve as feedback to the thoughts and choices you make. They are the outcomes that arise from the things you do. Say you're unfit and out of shape - that is simply feedback about the choices that you have made prior to right now. Maybe you chose not to work out and decided to try out a couple of the new McDonald's Oreo shakes (they're just a little too bit fancy) instead of downing down protein shakes from your local health store - these choices bring about the reality you experience right now. That's not to say that being out of shape is a bad thing to everyone, but if it is to you, then your choices brought you there.


The Point of Power is Now
This brings me to the second point - that if you want to change anything, then right now is the time to do it. Consider the idea that your current reality is one that has been chosen from the countless probable ones that could have resulted.

Let me say that again - your current reality is simply one chosen from unlimited probable ones.


Think about that. If you did things differently yesterday, how would your life be different today? If you had made a choice to do something different last week, last month or last year, how would your life be different RIGHT NOW? It doesn't even have to be something drastic - if you had chosen the red highlighter instead of the blue highlighter, you'd have a red highlighter instead of a blue highlighter - but what if it was? What if you chose to spend 20 minutes a day reading that book you've always intended to read? Or decided to catch up with people you've never had the time to? Or saved part of your salary every week for the last year? Life is like a Role Playing Game, where the choices you make will lead you to different realities, and if you're anything like me, then the reality that you want to experience is a good one.


The present is the point of power. Let me put that in capitals for you:


THE PRESENT IS THE POINT OF POWER.


You're forming your reality now. What you do RIGHT NOW is going to have an impact on tomorrow. The choices that you make, the thoughts you think, the actions you take all will be reflected in tomorrow's environment. You are very literally choosing your reality as you read this. So choose well.


'You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.' - Abraham Lincoln


Peace,
Eric