Move the Spotlight

If someone in your life talked to you the way you talk to
yourself, you would have left them long ago. ~ Dr. Carla Gordan

I wondered why I had signed up for this expensive astrology consultation. As the astrologer discussed my chart, I found myself feeling bored and impatient. Finally he made an assessment that rang my chimes: “You are the kind of person who, if you did a job with 99 percent excellence, would berate yourself for the other one percent. ” I had never thought about myself that way, but he was correct. The entire reading and fee were worth that insight.

The amount of abusive self-talk we put up with is incredible. We must retrain our mind to spotlight what is working rather than what is not. The rational mind is programmed to search for errors and imperfections. But the nature of the heart is to find what is lovable and expand on that. The habit of fault-finding is learned and, as such, we can re-educate our vision to find perfection. A Course in Miracles tells us that we are much too tolerant of mind-wandering. We allow our fearful mind to run in every which way without calling it to return to sanity. We will have as much insanity in our lives as we allow; we can eliminate it entirely if we choose.

In prayer or meditation, ask that you become aware of patterns of thought with which you hurt yourself: “Poor me,” “Never enough, ” and “Why can’t I? ” are trains of thought that will take you over a cliff if you ride them.

If you read the destination printed on the train before you step onto it, you can choose another train and replace those negative patterns with “Blessed me,” “Always enough, ” and “How can I? ”

We can elect to change all thoughts that hurt.

Instead of being a fault-finder, become a perfection-finder, and quickly the world you live in will reflect your vision.

I find the good because I seek it.

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An excerpt from Alan Cohen's meditation book, A Deep Breath of Life