If you had to stop and think what the most powerful tool is that you have at your disposal, what would you say? I suggest this tool is our mind. When I speak of the "mind", I do not mean this thing between your ears. How could you think that (pun intended)? I mean this thing that some call the "heart-mind" or we can even say power-center. Since I'm more into Tantra these days, let's call this our gut, located in our solar plexus. Some call this the "seat of the soul." This is what I mean by mind. Confusing, I know! I'm trying to lasso in your physical brain with your intuition and also your heart. All of that. I guess you could also call this your "will" but I think this is a loaded term.
If you boiled down every religion into it's essence and the teachings of every spiritual teacher, saint and guru, I think you would find their instructions to us fairly simple: think for yourself. Now, I think, over the ages, that these teachings have become polluted and distorted with the collective unconscious and with teachings that were not part of the original instructions, if you will.
By that same token, you can easily identify a cult or "bad" religion as one in which they actively encourage their practitioners to surrender their thinking to some "higher authority" which is usually the church or it's pastors. They may say that this is God but who is claiming to be the moral authority or the ones who interprets God's will? Well... usually the church even if they don't explicitly say this. Now I'm not bashing the church or anything like that. I am simply pointing out that you are the best interpreter of God's will for your life. And I generally don't like the word "God", I like more the Universe, universal consciousness and the like. But, to me, they all more or less mean the same thing.
The most powerful thing we can do in this life is learn to think for ourselves. Realize that there is a Universal intelligence that flows through each of us, whether we realize it or not. This intelligence has different expression in different people in different ways. And this diversity of expression is truly beautiful.
Why do we struggle with this? I submit that it means that we must learn to listen to our gut, which is a treasure trove of wisdom for us. If you're like me, we've all had traumas and setbacks in life that make us not only distrust ourselves but create layers of pain around our authentic selves. To get to this source of wisdom means journeying through this pain to get to our voice of innocence. This is why self reflection and a soft heart are so important. We desperately need to embark on this journey and these are two important tools at our disposal. In short, we need to heal.
Once we are thinking for ourselves, we realize that we are sitting on an endless supply, a fountain of knowledge and inspiration. We go within, not without. This isn't just a cliche'. It's instructions on how to live a meaningful, joyful, love-filled life.
If we use this power of our thought and direct it towards creating a life that brings us joy, just think of the potential! It's endless potential. So the question I leave you with is simple: how will choose to use this thought superpower you possess? The choice is yours.
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Photo Credit: Alice Popkorn
