The greatest miracle is to change your perception. If my notion of the world shifts from being viewed as a dark, lonely, scary place to a haven of love, joy, and adventure, what greater miracle could I ask for?
When my idea that I am out of control, weak-willed, and in some way defective changes to a feeling of admiration and respect for myself, then won’t I be filled with a new strength and belief about myself that opens the door to a new possibility for my life?
If the greatest miracle is truly to change your perception, then shouldn’t that be the ultimate goal?
I mean, what good would losing 20 pounds be, if you still see yourself as unattractive and overweight?
Wouldn’t it be preferable to love and accept your body as it is, and then through your desire to care for yourself, change your eating and exercise habits so that the extra twenty pounds can just melt away?
When communication is difficult in a relationship with a close friend or family member, what if you could increase your sense of feeling safe and respected, even when you are not getting this safety and respect from the people closest to you?
Does it sometimes seem like old habits and the familiar way of seeing yourself in a negative light are so engrained within you that it would take an army to extricate your innate goodness and self-love?
If it does, then it can be a wonderful plan to realize that no such army exists and you are going to have to do the job yourself.
However, it can only be to your benefit to seek the aid of a miracle.
A miracle?
You may think to yourself, “If I get a miracle, great!
But how can I create one?
Who am I to even have the nerve to anticipate one? Do I even believe in miracles?
If you think about your life, I’m sure that you will see that you have indeed been a recipient of miracles . . . starting with your birth.
Remember that miracles are characterized by a change in perception—what seemed impossible now becomes the new reality.
Losing excess weight, breaking free from cravings, or cultivating authentic relationships where you can express yourself and feel heard may seem like it would take a miracle, but that’s OK because these feats are absolutely possible.
To help encourage that miracle,
here are 4 keys Change Your Perception
1
Accept and Tolerate Discomfort
One of the greatest sources of pain we experience as human beings stems from our resistance to discomfort. We don’t want to believe that pain in one form or another (mental, emotional, or physical) is a part of life.
We label it pain—but actually, the discomfort could be more realistically viewed as constriction.
When we observe nature, we can see clearly that nature involves both expansion and constriction, life and death, growth and stagnation, light and dark.
These same polarities exist within ourselves and yet we spend so much time seeking joy, light, and pleasure—that we inadvertently increase our level of pain (and the mistaken choices that result from that).
How is this possible?
Because when we contract against the natural constriction that occurs within—as if we were warding off a fierce wind—it actually brings more attention to this powerful force that we consider dark.
What we focus on seeps into the forefront of our reality, thereby influencing our thoughts and actions in a “negative” way.
For example:
Let’s say you wake up and your energy is low.
You notice that you feel irritable and out of sorts.
Your thoughts are judging and disapproving and you feel disappointed.
When you feel into your body, you observe that your jaw is locked and there’s a knot in your stomach.
You now have a choice.
What you might do is tell yourself that this is not how you want to be feeling and make up a story to yourself about why you feel the way you do e.g.
“You know, if only my boss wasn’t so intense about that project, I wouldn’t have to feel this way. He is such a _______”
Since this thought process doesn’t really bring you much comfort, you now proceed to get dressed uneasily as you brew a pot of coffee. As you sip the coffee and the caffeine fills your senses, you perceive some relief from your thoughts and the tightness in your body.
You shrug off your life situation as something to live with and drive to work.
On the way, you find yourself pulling into Dunkin’ Donuts to “give yourself some pleasure” as a reprieve from what you perceive to be the challenges that lie ahead.
The problem with this approach of wanting to avoid pain is that by 4 pm you are feeling exhausted from your crash from the caffeine and sugar, even more deflated than you felt when you first woke up and needing another “fix” of something to take you out of the stupor you have sunk into.
So now your problems have multiplied.
Not only do you feel as physically constricted as you felt when you arose earlier in the day, but you have the added discomfort in your body from your poor choices of food and drink and the unresolved conflict with your boss.
When we can tolerate the ebb and flow of our feelings and our bodily sensations (and our thoughts), and stay on course with our vision for our life, despite these ups and downs, then we are much less the “victim” of transient states and more the creator of our greater experience of life.
When we accept pain as part of the cycle of our existence, then pleasure becomes our driving force for getting what we want.
You can tell yourself:
“I am not choosing to eat that bread and pasta as a means to distract myself from an argument with my spouse or best friend, but rather I prefer to eat mostly salads, greens, and good sources of protein, such as hormone-free meat or fish with healthy fat like olive oil, because no matter how I feel on this particular day, in the big picture of my life, I have made a decision to honor and care for my body.”
When you feel empowered by the life choices you are making daily, you feel stronger, making it easier to tap into your deeper wisdom that can relay to you the best way to communicate with the people in your life, to get the results you want.
From this place of inner power, you are more likely to create truly win-win dynamics in your inner circle.
It’s really about making the connection between what you put into your body and how you are likely to feel later, notwithstanding the normal ups and downs of life.
During some parts of the month, the moon will be fuller than others.
On some days you will naturally feel more motivated to exercise than on other days.
This is why you cannot let your daily moods impact your commitment to yourself.
2
Create a vision for your life.
Decide what you want.
Know that you are strong inside and that you can weather your inner storms.
There will be days when you feel like sticking to the goals that you set for yourself and days when you won’t.
But if you see yourself as a person who exercises, then you will know this to be true about yourself. No matter what happens, you exercise in one form or another—even if it’s nothing more than climbing up and down the stairwell at work for ten minutes on a busy day.
When your self-image includes knowing that you are loved and loving, you are less likely to feel knocked over by the challenges inherent in relationships.
How can you convince your subconscious mind—the driver of all your choices—that this is indeed true?
By planting the suggestions.
Keep affirming to yourself the words that move you closer to your heart’s desire...
For example:
You have to know that your vision for your life is about creating a deep pleasure that fills you in your core with pride and joy.
Accept that you will still have moments of discomfort and constriction, just as the most beautiful rose may bear the beating of a strong-whipping storm from time to time.
Rather than creating eating, lifestyle, relational and thought habits that serve as an ineffective means to ward away feelings of fatigue, shame, anger, grief or regret...
Accept that these feelings come and go like the weather...
And...
The only way to perpetuate positive feelings is to create a stronger and more positive inner vision and allow it to guide you.
Using self-hypnosis daily will allow this greater image of your life to infiltrate your being.
3
Commit to Acting With Integrity
Acting with integrity may be the most important key to success. When you make a promise to yourself or someone else—keep it.
When you make a mistake, apologize for it.
When you receive a gift of any sort, give thanks for it.
Integrity may look like different things to different people...
For some, acting with integrity would mean offering support to a person in need who crosses your path...
This is certainly a very admirable course of action and a great example to set for yourself and others.
However, what I am talking about here is having the integrity to:
Honor your commitments to yourself.
If you tell yourself that you are eliminating white flour for two weeks and then toss that decision to the wind when your waiter arrives at your table with a bread basket in hand, you begin to lose faith in yourself...
You begin to doubt and distrust yourself and your word means nothing to you.
When you tell yourself you are not going to yell back at an aggressor because doing so only leads to more suffering and you have been shown other ways to respond, each time you succumb to a moment’s temptation to join a dark level of interaction, you let yourself down.
Feelings of remorse become inevitable and what’s worse is that regret is often accompanied by harsh judgments about yourself.
and the underlying belief you have about yourself is:
Self-reflection as opposed to self-condemnation would be a much more productive course of action when you make a mistake.
Ask yourself,
“What can I learn from this?”
Perhaps you set the bar too high...
Maybe it was unrealistic to think that you could abstain from wheat products at such a busy time in your life...
If that is the case, then to act with integrity you could apologize to yourself for your mistake and take some time to determine what you really need to do for yourself to make your vision for your life—living at your ideal weight—your reality.
Or, when it comes to interacting with a family member who may be treating you with disrespect, you may discover that disengaging and reducing your contact with that person is the best course of action.
Always remember that :
Mistakes are a wonderful thing IF we learn from them.
When you make your next commitment to yourself, keep it realistic:
I am going to do some form of activity every single day—and stick to it!
When your belief about yourself changes and you truly know that your word is as good as gold, then you will achieve your goal regardless of life’s interruptions that intervene from day to day.
Spend as much time as possible with people who do respect you and bring out the best in you, to counteract the people in your life who do not...
The first step in acting in integrity is to be in integrity with yourself and let the adult in you steer the inner child away from harm and towards safety and peace.
4
Affirm Your Strength...
Use affirmations to enhance your integrity, your commitment to yourself, and your ability to tolerate the discomforts in life.
Read, write, and recite affirmations.
Think of them as a form of prayer.
They absolutely work because they help you attune to your own greater nature.
Affirmations are a wonderful tool to tap into that 90% of your brain that you have not been using.
Here are some examples:
Remember that a miracle is nothing more than to change your perception and it’s time to create a miracle in your life!
