Rebecca had seen tremendous success. She had climbed to the
top, and still, something was not right. She held something in her hands, unable
to carry it in her rucksack.
I am wealthy.
I am caring.
I am happy.
She had affirmed herself many times and had seen these come to light.
‘God said I AM.’ In this statement lies the infinite existence
of God and the limitless possibilities present before man. Rebecca, from a
young age, discovered she was many things: intelligent, charismatic, and curious,
and she embodied these and many more.
But as she stood there in awe, she wondered. “I may have
forgotten who I am, or what I am, or where I am. But did I
forget the ‘I AM' within me?”
There were times when voices in Rebecca’s head said.
I am a fraud.
I am not qualified.
I am unlovable.
Her parents were too busy building their careers, and when angry,
her mom would say, 'Don't be stupid.' Such words were stored in a very
particular room in her mind. In that room, echoes reverberated many times. She visited that room more often for solace as she grew older and became
increasingly distant from her parents.
She kept her weapons and armour in that room, protecting
herself from a harsh, threatening world.
Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'
The echoing words in that room had a soothing effect, allowing
her to cope day after day.
Yet she was tired of this reality, where everything was a
battle. She had cried many times when she was alone and then gone into a
boardroom and charged a battalion of men to conquer more territory for her
thriving business.
Yet he had died, taken his own life. She had loved him more
than anyone else. She had given him the keys to all the rooms in her heart and
mind. And he had made her happy for the time they were together.
She had read somewhere that your state of consciousness
is the one and only reality. In it, you explain the phenomena of life. Either
good, bad or indifferent. If your concept of yourself differed,
everything in your world would be different.
“My consciousness is how I am aware and responsive to my surroundings.
I want to change it and see if I can live a more fulfilling life,” she told her
friend.
“Why do you want to throw all your success away and embark
on this walking journey?”
“If I change my consciousness, I can access a higher concept
of me and build a more stately mansion,” she joked.
“Can’t you do it while you are here?”
“I can’t because I'm unable to unlock myself; I don’t see
any other way. My imagination is limited. I have accumulated most of the things
I dreamt of having, and I can tell you how I got them,”
“Wait! I want to hear how you got them,” her friend’s eyes
lit up.
“I'm struggling with my business. Tell me more so I can find
success like you have.”
“Well,” Rebecca cocked her head to the side, at pains to
explain.
“When I was young, I discovered the power of faith.”
Faith is a strong belief in something, often in the
absence of concrete evidence or proof.
I became aware that for anything you want, you have to turn
away from the real objective world, which is what we see, hear, touch, and
sense, and move to the subjective world, which centres in my consciousness, or
rather, my interpretation of life. And it is in my consciousness that I can realise
my fondest dreams.
“Wow, tell me more!” her friend insisted.
“The world has no motive, but it manifests your concept —the
arrangement of your mind. Consider a magnet; when demagnetised, it can’t
attract; its particles are random, facing all directions. However, when magnetised,
the same particles are suddenly arranged in order, marshalled in rank, and
facing in one direction, thereby becoming a magnet. Therefore, your mind can be
disordered, or it can be organised in the image of all you believe and consent
to be true. The concept of self.”
“But we have many
issues of life and many travails, sicknesses, competition, strife from the
world around,” retorted her friend.
Rebecca held up her hand in protest.
“Our greatest delusion is our conviction that there are
causes other than our state of consciousness. All that befalls a man, all that he
does, and all that comes from him happen as a result of our state of
consciousness. That’s why I must change it for me to change my outer world.”
Rebecca looked firm about it, and the friend cowed slightly.
“Your consciousness is all that you think, desire and love,
all that you believe is true and consent to,” she repeated with conviction.
She continued.
“When rain falls as a result of a change in the temperature
of higher regions of the atmosphere, in the same manner, my circumstances will change
when I change my state of consciousness.”
“How do I change my consciousness?”
the friend asked. “I see scarcity and pain at every turn I take.”
“You must have a new way of thinking, and it
comes from ideas you pick from books, from mentors, from being willing to be
humble and gain as much knowledge as you don’t know,”
“That I do often,” said the friend with a smile.
“Then, you must have a burning desire to effect change. You
must want to change and yearn to be different. Many people claim they want
change, but they lack the desire or motivation to make it happen.”
“That is true. “ I want to have a gym body, but the
motivation goes out the window after two sessions at the gym,” her friend said,
looking at his bulging belly.
“I used to take the time to imagine my ideal self. The person
I wanted to be, and then painted a vivid and clear picture of her in my mind. Then,
I allowed myself to feel like she was already here, and I was her. Then I would
start living in that belief that it was already done.”
“Wow! Please explain more.”
“You know how a moth idolises the flame, and it destroys
itself to become one with it. Your attitude should be similar. There is mental
and spiritual knowledge to be gained from your quest. Mental knowledge is
acquired when you study a subject of your choice, examine it from the outside,
compare it with other things, and analyse and define it.” She paused, reflecting.
“Spiritual knowledge is similar to the moth; you become one
with the flame. You must assume you are already what you want to be and then
live by faith in this assumption. You must have complete fidelity to this
assumption.”
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the
conviction of things not seen.
“I rarely dream, and I thought only children and artists
have a strong imagination.”
“Then you are doomed. It is the only instrument that allows
you to create your world as you desire and is an endowment from God. It is the
one thing schools strive to destroy from a young age. Worse, we only attribute
it to certain creative professions, such as writers and actors. Yet, to truly
move and build anything, you must sustain your faith.”
“What is this instrument?” Asked Rebecca’s friend excitedly.
“Your creative imagination.”
Her friend shrugged, disappointed in the answer.
“Listen, your imagination is the instrument of redemption
from mental slavery, sickness and poverty. You have a choice to stay in your
current concept of self, with a hunger for freedom, health, and security, or
choose imagination and imagine yourself as that which you want to be.”
Rebecca continued.
“Since our assumptions determine our lives, are you a slave
to or a master of your assumptions?”
“I don’t know. What differentiates the two?”
“When you are a master, it means freedom and happiness. Yet,
it requires deliberate and conscious control of your imagination.”
What do you mean by 'control’ of imagination”? Can I even
control my imagination? It seems very mystical!”
“You can control it, and there's nothing diabolical about it.
And here is how. First, eliminate distractions and find a quiet place where you
can fully engage all your senses. Then, create a vivid mental image of what you
desire. The idea is to engage all your senses in the exercise. Take in the
surroundings, smell the air, touch the surfaces, and experience the textures in
the world that you have created in your imagination. Then, connect different
things in that world, making it more realistic. Over time, go there often and
see yourself interacting with the things you want and being the person you desire
to be. Through this practice, the mental image is changed into a solid reality.”
And you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you
free.
“The truth that sets you free is that what you
experience in imagination, with desire and controlled imagination, will become
an actuality - a reality. No amount of piety or prayer without this
understanding can yield the desired results. Nurture your imagination to be
vivid and realistic, and you will be the master of your fate.”
“Is that all that I need to do?”
A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.
“Your attention is the great secret of success.
The force of attention is proportional to the narrowness of its focus.
When you desire something, give it exclusive attention, and it will come to
reality. Additionally, the power of your attention is a measure of your inner
strength, as it determines whether you can shut out all distractions and focus
on one thing; all progress ultimately depends on increasing attention.”
“How do I increase my attention?” Asked Rebecca’s friend curiously.
Rebecca smiled.
“Your attention must be developed, controlled and
concentrated to change your concept of yourself successfully. This is
achieved through repeated habit or exercise. Through habit, action
becomes easier, and with time, it gives rise to facility or aptitude, which you
can put to higher use in controlling your imagination.”
“I won’t ask how to shape my attention. But I am excited to
know through my imagination, I can create worlds?”
“Yes, and more. Experiments in optical illusions,
confirmation bias, and the Stroop effect suggest that what we see depends
more on our assumptions than on what is actually present. Your
assumptions shape not just what you see but also what you do, as they influence
all your conscious and subconscious actions towards achieving their fulfilment.
Hence, what you believe to be the ‘real’ physical world is merely an assumed
one.”
“Therefore, these worlds I create can be filled with either
success or failure?”
“Correct. Persist in seeing that you have a successful
business, and you will notice how, in your imagination, your attention is
focused on incidents that relate to friends congratulating you on your success.
Your attention then shifts to larger offices, bigger bank balances, and many
other related events.” Think of failure, and you will encounter in your
imagination a whole series of incidents confirming this. Persist in either assumption
of failure or success, and they will become a reality.”
Stephen Corvey once named four endowment gifts given to man.
Self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination.
Each gift requires us to take responsibility and nurture it.
Creative imagination is becoming aware of what has already
been created. The infinite and unknown that surrounds us in the universe.
There was a moment of silence as they arrived.
“Finally, we are here!” said Robert.
“Finally, we are here!” said Rebecca.
They stood side by side, overlooking a gorge they had been to
numerous times. It was their favourite place to come. Rebecca sat down, and Robert
followed suit.
“I miss you,” Rebecca said, tears flowing freely and
painfully.
“I miss you too, honey,” Robert said, smiling.
Time stood still as the sun travelled over the horizon, and the shadows became longer. Finally, Rebecca opened the urn and poured the contents into the wind. And with that, her friend and lover, Robert, became one with the wind. And as his ashes were carried, so did he filter away from her side and presence.
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Thank you for taking the time to read this blog! I'm Edwin Moindi, a Life and Habit Coach dedicated to helping people understand their habits, navigate their emotions, and cultivate emotional intelligence for a happier, more balanced life. I'd love to hear your thoughts—feel free to reach out and share your insights or questions!
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