“You are after all, what you think. Your emotions are slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
It took me a while to really trust in the idea that you create your own reality by how you think. At first, I thought self-realization and affirmations and controlling destiny with thoughts were basically gobbledygook.
Okay—I wish I had a million bucks! Well that’s not going to happen, now, is it? But there’s more to this self-realization stuff than I realized.
I first came across these ideas in this wonderful book about unleashing creativity: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. She talks a lot about acknowledging your negative thoughts and then banishing them. I remember being utterly nonplussed by one suggestion that involved looking in the mirror, grinning at yourself, and saying “I love you” to your image every morning. It just seemed forced and false to me. Who cares if I love myself?
Well, a lot has changed in my life since I read that book about six years ago. First of all, the messages slowly seeped their way into my consciousness. Over time, as I struggled to build my career and also bring up my children, I was able to see what she was really saying. My thoughts of being burdened or stuck or frustrated were what made me feel burdened or stuck or frustrated! I had the power to take back control. In fact, I was the only one who really had that power; no one else could or would do it for me.
I recently made a dream board, in which I pasted images from magazines or the internet on a poster board. Those images represent my dreams for the future. Just the act of doing that has made me feel empowered. Maybe I will get on Oprah! Maybe the book I’ve just published, Mothers Need Time-Outs, Too, will become a bestseller! Maybe my novel will be a blockbuster and that million bucks will be mine after all!
What are your dreams? If you can become a believer too, the small and big dreams you have may just come true.
