Lori Lothian has discovered some thoughts are more powerful than others.
When I was ten years old my grade five teacher, Mr. Pratt, was a man with deep faith in God. He had all the earmarks of a preacher and I wouldn’t be surprised if later in life he became one. But back then he was an enthusiastic and fresh faced 20-something in his first year teaching and I was lucky enough to find myself in his class.
These stories sparked my imagination and fueled a Zen-like beginner’s-mind—after all, if my teacher tells me miracles can happen, they must.
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While he taught me math and grammar as well as about cows and barns (on field trips to his grandparent’s farm) what I have carried with me these forty years later is one teaching that changed the trajectory of my life. He taught me miracles are possible and in so doing awakened the mystic in me.
He did this by sharing biblical stories of the magical nature of God, from the Old Testament parting of Red Sea to New Testament tales of walking on water and raising the dead. His story telling was sprinkled with his own conviction miracles were readily available with a measure of faith. Perhaps because I was raised in a religious void, these stories sparked my imagination and fueled a Zen-like beginner’s-mind—after all, if my teacher tells me miracles can happen, they must.
It was the end of my year with Mr. Pratt, the last month of school, when I experienced my first miracle (which I now label from a Jungian angle, synchronicity, or from a quantum framework, entanglement.). Mr. Pratt had planned a field trip to a nearby wildlife zoo. I’d been looking forward to it for weeks, and yet the day of the trip I woke up to torrential June rains. That morning in class, he said, “If this rain doesn’t let up, I’m afraid I’ll have to cancel our outing.”
At lunch hour, I walked home in the downpour thinking to myself, why don’t I just ask God for a favor? So while my mother made me a sandwich in the kitchen, I self-consciously snuck off to the living room, got down on my knees, pressed my palms into a prayer and closed my eyes. “Dear God,” I whispered. “Please stop the rain and make it a sunny day.”
When I walked into the kitchen afterward, my mother was at the sink, looking out the window. “I think it’s going to clear up,” she said. “I just saw a flash of blue sky through the clouds.”
You know the punch line already. It turned into into a 90 degree day and the sun was out in full bloom. I remember my ice cream cone dripping in the heat as I walked from one animal pen to the next. And from then on, I had no doubt that miracles can happen when we ask earnestly for them with a measure of faith. Of course over the years, that level of childlike belief has not always been present. Yet, I have discovered there are a handful of thoughts that bring the possibility of magic and miracles to the forefront. (Because it’s my experience that every thought creates either an emotional contraction or an expansion, and yes, it’s the expansive thoughts that are good for the soul).
So, try on these ten expansive thoughts, really get down with them, and see if they don’t bring you a bit closer to wonderment and joy.
1. I am lucky. (I can’t count the times I’ve tapped this one to win door prizes).
2. Nothing is ever wrong. (Only my perception of it.)
3. Something good is always trying to happen. (Even if it looks like a mess right now).
4. I am exactly where I am supposed to be. (Or I wouldn’t be here).
5. Every upset is really a set up. (For me to remember the love that I am).
6. I am grateful for… (Even in the darkest times, I try to let the light of gratitude shine in).
7. When I believe it, I will see it. (Imagination is a power tool in reality engineering.)
8. I am not my feelings—positive or negative. (I am the being having them and ideally, witnessing them).
9. Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. (Source: A Course in Miracles).
10. I don’t always get what I want, but I trust I get what I need. (Hats off to the Rolling Stones).
This list of positive thoughts is only powerful if upon thinking them, there’s little resistance. For instance, if the thought “I am lucky” is followed by “Yeah right, I never win anything” then all you have done really, is affirm something you powerfully disbelieve. A belief will trump a thought, every time (and most of our habitual thoughts are the tip of the iceberg of unexamined beliefs).
For this reason, it’s best to try out the thoughts that don’t immediately make you feel angry or irritated. The ones that generate a negative charge are often then ones that grate against a deeply held conscious or unconscious belief.
And yes, you can argue that any of the thoughts on this list are new age platitudes or simply untrue. Yet I encourage you to pick a thought and try it on for size. Watch with curiosity what begins to shift in your inner perspective and in your outer reality. Watch with the inherent innocence and wonderment of a child at what is possible when when we let go of negative thinking and limiting beliefs and instead choose thoughts that are good for the soul.
Image: Flickr/Sudachi
a miracle for ACIM would be a shift in perception to right seeing – it would not be exchanging one illusion for another … and it would be as much an illusion to be raining as it is to be sunny – it would be as much an illusion to win the lottery as to not – luck is an illusion, not a miracle. ACIM would call these ideas of miracles magic. Point 7 – it is not up to us to engineer reality – what you believe you engineer is your illusion and that is what you see… you… Read more »
I actually think this is more valuable than the list. Affirmations don’t often come with fine print, and this is a pretty useful piece of information to remember when handling them.
You know Lori, they say opinions are like A**holes. I disagree entirely with the comment by @birric
I think this is a beautiful piece. Both in the writing and the sentiment. Just tweeted it too. Please keep writing this type of stuff..it’s inspiring, regardless of what someone who lives under a cloud of negativity might write.
Tamara, thanks.
I think in your 10 points a general thrust is trying to come out (more below). I very much agree with it, though I also strongly disagree with practically every one of the points. I think the points are limiting and misguiding. 1. Yes, you’re lucky – and you are unlucky . . . but you don’t have a clue about that, at least not at the time. Door prizes? Really? How many times did you drop dishes or ripped a skirt? The real luck you may or may not have is often not visible for long times. So is… Read more »
Hello Birric Forcella. I am not going to go point to point with you on this one. There is no point. I wish you knew how limiting this thought you have, is. “It’s just lazy to love who you are. Love needs to be earned.” It’s the belief we need to earn love that is why we are so lost. We are love itself. As for denying the dark/bad side of polarity. No. Of course not. If you had lived my life, in which I have seen more darknessd (and loss, and shock, and grief) than most, you would know… Read more »
It is as much down to framing and interpretation. The best one can say about them is that they are occasionally ambiguous. All you seem to be doing is insisting on framing the points from the negative pole rather than the positive one.