"To believe your own thought,
to believe that what is true
for you in your private heart
is true for all men
that is genius."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
These writings always focus on the end result potential of being inspiring in some way, and sometimes I take a roundabout way of doing that. Today will be that.
Yesterday, I had a Facebook debate with my step son about a video he posted showing a very poor town in the southern United States that had thriving manufacturing at one time and employed so many in the town, but has long since closed and the town sort of died with it. The survivors that stayed have a very hard time finding work and there is a lot of despair and powerlessness, especially in the men, the majority of whom left for parts unknown. The discussion with my step son was about history and technology changing the labor landscape of this country and the world.
At one point I stated that the only real change can come from a change in thinking. When you're down and depressed and even into powerlessness, that feeds on itself and hope is so far away, and joy is completely unknown. Though the mills closed, and the jobs it used to offer left too, if we continue to think the same way, we have little choice but despair and depression. Opportunities are all around us, but we cannot see them through the fog of despair. As Albert Einstein so aptly put it, "we cannot solve our problems with the same kind of thinking that created them."
In my argument, I was suggesting to focus on solutions rather than restate or analyze the problem further. He is so articulate and smart that I felt as if I were debating a Harvard professor. Eventually, I said, "thank you for the swim." Yet, I hold to the idea that in focusing on the solutions (plural), there is plenty of hope, while analyzing the problems simply shuffles the despair around slightly.
What it comes down to for me is thinking. What we think is what we get. I have learned this so well that it cannot be disputed anymore. And, as Vincent Roazzi said so well, "for things to change, we must change," and that change can only begin with thought. If our thinking doesn't change, the actions will not, the circumstances will not, and we will continually choose where we are again and again and again.
In this town, so many turned to drugs and crime. That is truly despair thinking. It is attempting to make change with action alone. If that really worked, the world would be a very different place. It doesn't change the thinking, so it doesn't change the reality. I know people who went to drugs for a solution. In fact, my sister died of a drug overdose when she was only 21 years old. It's a short lived affair. We must change our thinking, and then our actions will change. If we keep thinking the same things over and over, our lives go nowhere.
So, on to the inspirational portion of this. . . We have a tendency to want to help those people who are in circumstances that we find sad and depressing. We naturally want to help those in pain and despair. Yet, here's the reality--we cannot help them to change until they are willing to change their thinking. The best we can do is to uplift them in our minds, seeing them being the best they can be, and offering to be of assistance if they are ready to change their thinking. If all they want is a change in their circumstances, that will never last.
It is the same with us. As we think of New Year's resolutions, starting a new year with renewed goals and wanting changes by leaving things behind or by beginning things new, if it is the actions we are focused on, that will never last. However, if we will focus on changing our thinking, we have hope. As we have hope, the Law of Attraction will help bring us closer to joy.
The only person that we can change effectively is ourselves. Though we may want others to change, that is a zero sum game. If we focus on ourselves, in being that new thinking person, we may be an influence on those around us to follow. That is our best hope of changing others. We are of service in being our best, following our bliss, and seeing all others in theirs--wherever they may seem to be at the moment. At the same time, and from our better place view, we can offer to be of assistance should anyone desire that change toward better feeling thoughts.
I Will Change Me For Me For You. From This Place, I May Be Of Service.
Spread Some Joy Today--by focusing on your own joy until you have it, then from that place, sharing it is a given.
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