What happens is what you create

How do you get on with the idea that what happens in your life you create yourself?

It can come as quite an uncomfortable realisation.

And that when we do it together, we co-create it.

Surely, you might think, I wasn’t responsible for that idiot driving into my car the other day? I didn’t create having my house burgled? I didn’t generate Hurrican Ike! I didn’t create the credit crunch!
I remember being on a workshop on humanistic psychology when I was in training, listening to a whole host of complaints about this idea. People were ready to concede some level of responsibility. But not the whole wopping 100%!

Of course the level of ownership of one’s experiences varies from person to person. Some of us won’t have it at all. To them, everything that’s happened to them has been the result of their unfortunate life, the deal they’ve been given and the misdeeds of others. That’s their reality. That’s their experience. For them, it’s real. If you see it, if you experience it, if you feel it, it must be so.

Recent publicists on the Law of Attraction will tell you that what happens in our world we create. We draw it to us. And a lot of it is outside our conscious awareness. This doesn’t just have a basis in readings of channelled spirits called Abraham. A study of phenomenology will show that what happens in our worlds is a function of our perceptions. Each of us do it, all the time.

However, what is also fascinating, is that if we create what happens, then we have the power to change what happens. This was another of the great insights of the Third Force psychology movements of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Have you ever noticed that if you are in a bad mood, various things start happening that somehow seem to reinforce the bad mood? We’ve given them names, like having a “bad hair day”. Have you also noticed that if somehow you shift your mood, you shift your state, things start happening differently. I’ve often been struck how I can create a totally different experience and set of events purely by being in a positive state of mind. In fact I’d go so far to argue that this is crucial: changing one’s state opens up a whole new world.

So, how about an experiment? Deliberately go about having a happy hour. No, not a booze-up!! That’s an avoidance tactic. Instead, deliberately focus on happy, positive thoughts. It doesn’t matter what. Just keep the focus on something that is uplifting. You can even fake it, if you want. Artificial laughter can merge into a genuine laugh. It shifts the chemicals and people end up really laughing. Even the smile does it. Keep your mood intentionally like that.

Then notice how you view the world.

If you’re curious about this, come on my workshop in November in London to learn more.

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