Thinking - I

Have you ever wondered how children can sit through replay after replay of their favorite Lion King or Little Mermaid video? It amazes me that they’ll voluntarily watch the same show every day without a single complaint or request for something new.

What’s more amazing, though, is that adults do the very same thing with their days.

The majority of men and women play “movies” in their heads again and again,
relentlessly focusing on the review of past events, most of which are unpleasant and
disturbing experiences that have come their way.

If they’re actually able to stop their contemplation of past events, they allow impressions of their current surroundings and results to govern their lives. And, once in a while for variety’s sake, they’ll contemplate the future by either worrying about it, or daydreaming and wishing that something better might come along. And then they wonder why bad things keep happening to them, or why they never rise above the issues and obstacles in their lives.

Frankly, they would be better off watching The Lion King 40 times a day – because at least then, they’d be immersed in a creative and upbeat, positive process. See,most people have never learned how to “program” creative and upbeat “movies” in their heads because they’ve never been taught the value of creative visioning and purposeful thinking.

If you doubt me, listen to the varied conversations going on around you. Sadly enough, I can readily predict that you’ll hear a Dante’s nightmare of disconnected thoughts with very little effort put forth in carrying on a purposeful (much less positively- minded) conversation. While it is true that people are free to think anything they please, as long as they remain set in their ways, there is very little that can be done to change the unpleasant experiences that keep cropping up in their lives.

There is, however, a strong movement that is stirring the multitudes into a new conception of living.

The study of the mind – and its veritable unearthly power – is at last taking its proper place in modern civilization. Proper use of the mind and its various faculties will give you anything you choose – but the emphasis here is on the word “proper.” To move in this favored direction requires study and focused, consistent effort with a good measure of creative juices stirred in.