We make our own reality

Last month, we explored the basic truth of life, which is that it is one integral whole —  the Creator and creation are One.

Now we shall move on to another fundamental truth. It is this: we make our own reality. So what does this mean? Of late the DVD and book, The Secret, have powerfully broadcast this truth to us as ‘The Law of Attraction’, the core premise of which is that like attracts like.

Let’s examine this further, shall we, for this truth is responsible for most of the perplexing mysteries of life.

What these concepts mean is that there is no objective reality out there. The world is profoundly subjective. The world I see and live in is not the world that you see and live in. We each live in a world of our own. At the external level, this is self-evident. Where one person’s life seems aglow with sunshine and smiles, another’s is dark with gloom and doom. One is rich; another is poor.

Life seems effortless for one, and a terrible agonising struggle for another. Most of us are accustomed to explaining away these differences by pointing to luck or God or fate. However, the truth of the matter is that it is our internal world of thoughts, words, deeds, and experiences that has created our external world.

Sounds hard to believe? It is so. The habitual thoughts that we think about often seep into our subconscious mind, which is a domain of tremendous power. Its one drawback is that it cannot discriminate between what is good for us and what is not. Whatever we think is Gospel truth of the subconscious mind and it will convert it into a reality.

Thus, if we keep thinking that we are no good, or that life is hard, or people are bad, it will decide to create that reality for us and draw into our lives the people and circumstances that will confirm that belief. What the ‘Law of Attraction’ means by like attracts like is that unhappy thoughts will attract unhappy circumstances and happy thoughts will attract happy circumstances.

Our habitual thoughts will determine our words and actions. These will then solidify into habits and behavioural patterns that eventually will translate into the life we lead. So powerful is this truth that it has governed the family, country, religion and culture we were born into and the key circumstances of our present-day life. We have created these through our thoughts, words and deeds in past lifetimes. In other words, karma (which can be defined as the things we do) determines our lives  from moment to moment.

Have you not had the experience of getting up one day and feeling grouchy, followed by, perhaps,  one or two negative experiences that drive you to conclude this — today is a horrible day. As if on cue, the negativity unspools more and more until it overwhelms us and we actually have a truly horrible day.

But here’s where it gets better. If we have created our lives up to this moment by our default thoughts, words and deeds, we can change our lives by changing our thoughts, words and deeds as well. Now this is not easy, despite what The Secret would have us believe. It takes deep and consistent inner work to change the trajectory of our thoughts. To feel hope instead of hopelessness. To feel confident, upbeat and positive. To feel strong, indomitable and unshakable. We will have to heal our wounds and reinvent ourselves. Not easy. But. POSSIBLE.

It is possible to recreate our lives and flush it with happiness, health and wealth. It is possible to determine our own destiny. As we go further along the road of self-discovery, we shall delve into more ways to make this happen.

The writer is the former editor-in-chief of  Life Positive magazine and founder, facilitator of the Zen of Good Writing Course.  Contact her at sumavarughese@gmail.com