We are all living in our own movie. We get front row seats to the premier event every waking moment. What happens in my movie is not what will happen in your movie and vice versa. Our movies are unique to all of us, even if external events and reality seems to be the same or similar.
Only each of us knows what’s going through our heads in the form of thoughts. The thoughts we all have are a culmination of perception, unprocessed emotions, feelings of past experiences and programming from the external world. Thoughts arise not because they are who you actually are, but because the ego mind creates them to keep building your movie plot. After all, what good is a movie if it doesn't have twists, turns and drama?
What the mind creates is a fictional story that you then choose to believe. Until you are awake enough to see it this way, you won’t question that story. You will continue to believe it and to build on it. You will continuously grant it permission to master you like a puppeteer, steering and controlling your behaviors, attitudes, self-criticism and judgments of others. This will happen your whole life unless of course you reach a point where you take self-responsibility. Only then can you outsmart the ego mind, preempt it and instead control it rather than it controlling you.
See, your life is a movie that doesn’t stop playing until it comes to an end. And that is beautiful. Our individual mission in life is to evolve our own consciousness enough that we come to understand we have control over our thoughts. We can then direct the mind. We then are the great and powerful Oz of our own life.
This wisdom comes to me based on reflections of an inspirational poem called “Autobiography in Five Short Chapters” by Portia Nelson. These words have so much power.
Chapter 1:
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost. I am hopeless.
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter 2:
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I’m in the same place.
But it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter 3:
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in. It’s a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Chapter 4:
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
Chapter 5:
I walk down another street.
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