The Gratitude Prescription by Will Pye

Author:Will Pye
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Published: 2019-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

If We Think and Feel that We Can, We Can

Periods in the history of humanity can be viewed as expressions of the consciousness of humanity at the time or even as a story of one exceptional person who thought very differently. Key historical figures such as Gandhi and Hitler ­represent extremes of enlightenment and unconsciousness. Consciousness is clearly ethically neutral in this world of duality, of opposites—it seems we can choose to use the power of our minds to create the Holocaust or Indian Independence, to offer two contrasting examples.

How often do you see an elite sportsperson or showbiz star, after lifting the trophy, say, “I have dreamed of this as a child!”? I watched a documentary on the famous chimp expert Jane Goodall. How to explain such an extraordinary life? Luck? A capricious God? Fate? Or the innate creative power of the human consciousness? As Ms. Goodall reflected on her childhood, she said, “All I ever thought about was going to Africa and living with the animals” (Morgen 2017). Another powerful example in recent history occurred when the British athlete, the late Sir Roger Bannister, ran the mile in under four minutes on May 6, 1954. This feat was thought to be humanly impossible. With immense collective effort and top coaching, people had tried and tried and failed and failed. Bannister thought differently and trained differently, and after his success, running a mile in under four minutes became relatively commonplace. Within forty-six days, this timing had been repeated. Within a year, three athletes in one race broke it. To date, over 1,400 athletes have run the distance in under four minutes (Daley 2018; Phillips 2018).

Our thoughts, and those persistent thoughts we call beliefs, influence how we feel about any scenario, and all this together is causative in how an event might unfold. There is perhaps no greater gift a parent can give a child, in terms of beliefs, than “You can do anything you put your mind to.”

Let’s now look at an exercise to bring us into awareness of what we think and believe and how to create new thoughts and beliefs. This came to me in my darkest hour as a suicidal young man and was a key ingredient within my transformation into a thriving and content human.

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