It's Just a Thought by Thomas M. Sterner

Author:Thomas M. Sterner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New World Library
Published: 2022-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

What Is Struggle Really Telling You?

Moving to the Other Side of Fear

I have a saying: “The truth is the truth whether or not you know about it, whether or not you agree with it, or whether or not you believe it.” When Galileo was jailed for stating that the earth was not the center of the universe, he was speaking the truth. But many, if not most, of his contemporaries did not know that he was speaking the truth. They didn’t agree with it or believe it, but it was still the truth. As I mention in the introduction, for centuries, people in the East reached states of mind that Westerners often considered paranormal. Many who did not possess their commitment to practicing meditation had never experienced what the monks experienced daily, and so they did not believe them. Now our science can show their heightened brain activity on a screen.

We create our reality in every moment by the thoughts that we have and by our interpretation of those thoughts. That is the truth whether we are aware of it or not. It is the truth whether we are aware that we are doing it or not. It is the truth regardless of whether we think it is fair, whether we take control of it, and whether we commit to mastering that skill. If you are not in control of your thinking the majority of the time, if you are not deliberate in your thinking, then you are not in control of what you feel or what shows up in your life, and your ability to realize your potential is limited by default. In The Practicing Mind, I used the analogy of the chariot rider who is not holding the reins and therefore is an involuntary participant on the ride. The rider is not guiding the horses, which represent the energy of our thinking down our directed path. The horses are just running full out over the rough terrain and constantly changing direction depending on which horse is more in control at the moment. I’m sure there are moments in your life where you feel like this. We all experience them.

When you are in a situation, any situation, there will be an internal reaction. So ask yourself: “What will that reaction be? More importantly, what can that reaction be?” Your subconscious can only go get what is already there unless you are in the process of creating new programming. As I mention earlier, people have always wanted to fly, and they only failed because they didn’t understand the mechanics of flight. Similarly, we have always wanted to be more in control of what we experience and less of a victim. Just like how Bernoulli’s principle brought the freedom to realize flight, our ever-increasing understanding of where our behaviors come from brings us the freedom to change those behaviors. We are not our behaviors! I will say that again: We are not our behaviors. We execute behaviors that we have learned and practiced and at present may have little control over, but these can be replaced.

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