A New Way of Looking at the Universe

We live in a world right now where most people believe the Universe is out there and I am here. The universe is unaware of me. It is doing its thing and I am doing my thing. Life is meant to be a struggle. Occasionally things go my way but most of the time life is tough. During times of  good fortune it is just “good luck”. We may think the Universe is smiling upon me, but his will soon come to an end. During bad times we may think, what did I do to deserve this?

There is a small percentage of people who think the universe is out to get them all the time. Nothing they do or attempt ends in success. They suffer from endless illnesses and injuries. I have heard someone say “if it wasn’t for bad luck I would have no luck at all“.  You might also hear from these same people when asked how are you, “hanging in there“.  Makes it sound like some one or something is out to harm or hurt them and they are just hanging on by a thread. We all know people like this. I am pretty sure you can think of  a couple of people with this type of attitude or belief system right off the top of your head.  I know one person who on several occasions has said to me ” my body hates me”.  I personally could not even imagine living in that place.  A place completely made up in that persons head, created by their own thoughts and belief systems.

Then there are people who believe the Universe is smiling on them and that the Universe is on their side.  I much prefer to live a life where I believe the Universe not only knows that I exist, it is actually helping me to succeed.  The times in my life are innumerable that at the right time when I needed help with something, including finding a job, I met the right person or just by “coincidence” the best possible outcome came about, by things happening that were outside of my control.  I have used the term good luck in the past but mostly just out of habit. But I don’t really believe in luck, good or bad. I do believe that when I have good intentions and I am doing something either small and trivial or life changing, the Universe has my back.  Even when at first I am met by some obstacle, I think to myself there is a reason this is happening.  When I overcome this obstacle, I will have grown from it and I will have a new experience and first hand knowledge on how to handle this.  Maybe someday I will need this knowledge for a larger project or I can help someone else from what I have learned so far on my 48th trip around the sun.  The taller the obstacle the better the view will be when I climb it! I cant tell you how many times my self talk, you know that little voice in the back of your head that never quiets down, says to me good thing, bad thing, who knows.  What ever it is I am going through that saying goes off in my head.  Reminding me that even if at the present moment things are not going my way in the end it will be for the greater good.

Now of course their is no proof to any of these three belief systems, but their are endless stories that will show you that what your mind is fixated on is what it will find.  Ever notice when you buy something like a car, as soon as you drive it off the lot, you see that same car every where?  Ever think about an old friend that you haven’t seen in a while, then out of no where they call you or you run into them somewhere.  What you think about, you bring about.  If you believe you are not good at something then you are right.  Now if you believe that you can get good at something you at least have a chance.  If you believe you can not succeed because you are not smart enough, fast enough, tall enough, etc., then you are right. But if you believe you can accomplish what you have set out to accomplish, well at least now you have a chance.  And if you don’t get it the first attempt you will likely try again and again, because you know you can do whatever it is you want to do, you just have not found the way to get it done, but you know it is there and you will find it.  If you don’t have the belief system after one or two attempts, you will give up and likely say to yourself,  “I can’t do this”, “who do I think I am?  Further engraving a bad believe system.  I like to look at it like adding legs to the table.  If your belief system is the table top, your thoughts and experiences you use to support that belief system are the legs.  If your belief system is not serving you, it is time to take the legs out. Build a new table with a belief system that will actually serve you not hurt you.

So how do we swap out the old belief system that has likely been around a long time and install a new one?  Step 1.  First question everything.  Every time something happens to you, that you believe is not in your favor or was done in order to harm you in some way, ask yourself why do you believe that to be the case.  Is their another way to look at the situation?  Imagine a child asking for ice cream or candy and the parent giving them a bowl of carrots or grapes.  The child is likely to think my parents don’t like me.  They never give me what I want.  What the child does not realize is that the parent does have their best interest at heart.  Not until later in life does the child realize that the parent was doing them a favor by giving them good nutrition to build a healthy and strong brain and body.  Look for the ways that the current experience can actually help you gain from it.  Become a better person because of the experience.  Let it refine you.

It would have been very easy for me to give up on many of my dreams after a freak accident when I was 22 that left me blind out of my right eye and my physical appearance damaged as well. I could have blamed the Universe for cursing me, the girlfriend for the dog. the dog itself.  I could have thought their goes my carrier as a Paramedic . How am I gonna drive again? Who is gonna want to go out with a guy with an eye that looked like mine?  Yeah, I could have gone down that route.  But in the long run it would not have served me well.  I remember thinking to my self, “well when I overcome this maybe I can write a book about this.”(Still to come.)  I played darts and racquetball as often as I could to get my hand-eye coordination back.  Slowly I began to drive again, date again and realized I can have a normal life.  I went back to school and became a Physician Assistant.  For 13 years, I assisted in Surgery, mostly Orthopedic joint replacements and sports injuries but also Neuro spine surgeries, Maxilo-fascial reconstruction and even brain surgeries.  None of that would have been possible had I just given up and said the Universe is out to get me.  It turns out,  it was a growing experience for me.  In the long run, I realized it actually made me more confident in my self and more resilient.

Number 2.  Take control of your self talk. You know, that inner voice that start talking to you the moment you wake up until you close your eyes at night.  Imagine having a radio on every waking moment telling you, you are no good, you are not worthy of a good life, you are not smart, the people you work with are smarter than you, you were meant to be miserable and so on 24 hours a day, everyday.  With that kind of talk, it would be nearly impossible to be successful at anything.  From this moment on, every time that inner voice says something negative, you need to catch it and stop it.  Say to your self, “why would you think that of yourself?  “Don’t you see how that is hurting you?”  Turn it around.  Think of a time when you were successful at something, how you overcame an obstacle, when you reached a goal or made something happen that others told you you could not do.  No matter what your back ground is, you have been successful more times than you think in your life.  Be mindful of the self talk.  That negative self talk is like weeds taking over a garden.  If it is just one, it can easily be plucked out if you are paying attention.  If left unattended, soon the whole garden is full of weeds and taking over your garden and killing your plants.  Just like that negative self talk will kill your dreams.  There is not many more important things you can do to help your future be the future you want it to be then to keep your garden clean.

Number 3.  Write down everything that happens to you that is consistent with your new belief system.  If you want to make deep, meaningful and permanent changes in your life, grab a notepad or open a new note on your phone and for the next 7 days every time you remember a moment where you succeeded at something write it down.  It does not matter how small or large, just make another entry.  Depending on your personal situation, this may be difficult at first.  This may take some time, but once you get started the memories will start coming back to you.  Just like that car that was every where as soon as you bought yours.  What you think about is what you bring about.  Keep your focus on all the positive moments in your life.  I promise you that if you really do this for the next 7 days, your outlook will have changed.  You might even enjoy this exercise so much you may not want to stop it after 7 days.  Then next time you here that negative self talk, break out your list and remind yourself of all the great things you have been able to accomplish.

Number 4.  Be thankful every time something good happens to you.  Again you are going to need your note pad (preferably not your phone at this time, because of the blue light). The best time to do this is before you go to bed every night.  Take 2-5 minutes, no more then that, and write down every thing that occurred to you that day that you can be grateful for.  This part is critical, this is the jet fuel for your new belief system.  Not sure what to write down?  Do you have a job?  At this time, it doesn’t matter if you like your job or not.  Are you thankful for the things you can buy because of the money you make at your job? Did you eat today? Did you make it to work with out getting blown up?  That was not a joke.  There are people on this planet right now loosing loved ones to these kinds of horrific acts way to often.  Remember the Universe is aware of you and the more grateful you are the more the Universe will continue to send what you are grateful for your way.  Many ancient teachings speak of the law of increase, or law of attraction that states what you are truly grateful for and appreciate, you will increase or attract into your life.  It is just the way the world works.  Kind of like gravity.  We can’t explain it but we know it’s there.  Let’s say you are donating to several organizations and there is one or two that are truly grateful for your donations and a couple that don’t even acknowledge your donations.  Next time you are making out your donations, you will likely send more to the grateful organizations and less to those that are not.

If you really want to change your view of the Universe, take these 4 steps seriously, and make them apart of your every day life.  You can close this blog post and do nothing or follow the instructions above and make deep, meaningful changes that you will be grateful for the rest of your life.