Can I See Things Differently?

As most of you know, I am a huge fan of A Course in MIracles

The teachings in this spiritual framework have had a profound impact on my life and I can honestly say they played a role in my comeback from severe depression. While I was traveling through the United States on my Pursuit of Passion trip, I substituted music for Audbile.  I had made the decision that while I loved music, this trip was about gaining clarity around who I was and where I was headed in life.

While I was searching through millions of potential audible books, I told myself that “If I am ever going to be happy and live in peace, I am going to need a miracle.”  I proceeded to type the world miracle into the audible search box and up popped a series of lectures from Marianne Williamson about “A Course In Miracles.”  I had no idea what “A Course In Miracles” was and I had never heard of Marianne Williamson, but I decided that this as a sign and I downloaded the lectures.  The lectures series consisted of about (10) 1 hour long lectures where Marianne Williamson would explain the course and how we can utilize this in our life.   I instantly fell in love with Marianne’s voice, her message, the message in “A Course In Miracles,” and in the energy I was feeling as I reflected on each lesson.

With all of the energy and excitement happening around my discovery of such a profound spiritual framework, I was consuming the content like it was a can of Pringles:

full disclosure, I actually hate Pringles, but I thought the tagline was perfect, ha 🙂

As I drove around the country, listening to every word Marianne preached with passion, I heard a lesson that struck me deep to the core.  “Can I see this differently?”  As I listened to her explain the importance of the lesson, I realized that for years I had been choosing to view things from a fearful mindset.  There is really only two ways to look at life, through the lens of Love or the Lens of Fear.  I had spent years looking through the lens of fear, failure, judgement, resentment, and anger.  I was neglecting to view the world and my experiences through the lens that actually provides hope, peace, happiness, and empowerment.

I pulled into the nearest hotel parking lot and started the process of blacking out my windows, blocking out the front window with a sunshade, and preparing my bed/car for a night of sleep.  (I slept at a hotel almost every night of the trip, but instead of going in to sleep in a bed, I slept in the comfort of my two seat Dodge Challenge.  It was a life of luxury and comfort for months, ha ha, NOT). As I closed my eyes, the thoughts of “Can I see this differently?” dashed in and out of my head, my heart, and my soul.  

I started visualizing all of the experiences that lead up to this very moment, I created awareness around my negative/fearful thoughts, and I told myself a different story.  I chose to remove the fear and think differently about each experiences/situation.  I made the choice to view the situation from a place of hope and peace and I gave myself permission to deny the fear and testify that they were unreal and untrue.

Instead of saying:

“This depression is just too much, the world would be better off without me living in it,”

 

I said out loud

“This depression pushed me to take this trip.”

“This depression allowed me to meet the healer.”

“This depression reconnected me with an old friend.”

“This depression introduced me to “A course in Miracles.”

“This depression is going to add to my story that someday I will inspire millions/billions with.”

I started to realize that I can’t control every aspect of my life, but I can control how I think about that experience and how I respond to it.   I realized that I have a simple, but powerful choice, to look at every situation in either Love or in Fear.  I carry this lesson with me daily, often with it being the focus of my meditation and visualization sessions.  When I find myself focusing on a situation or experience, it always serves me to stop and say “Can I see this differently?”  The answer is always a profound “YES.”

Try this practice in your life:

What is that experience that you are holding on to and thinking in fear?

What happens throughout your day that pushes you to respond with anger?

Who in your life triggers a response that is not of your best self and ultimately doesn’t serve your best interest?

In each of these situations ask yourself this simple question:

“Can I see this differently?”

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zITCY4KJh2s[/embedyt]

Lesson 28 in the ACIM Student Handbook:

Above all else I want to see things differently.

Today we are really giving specific application to the idea for yesterday. In these practice periods, you will be making a series of definite commitments. The question of whether you will keep them in the future is not our concern here. If you are willing at least to make them now, you have started on the way to keeping them. And we are still at the beginning.

You may wonder why it is important to say, for example, “Above all else I want to see this table differently.” In itself it is not important at all. Yet what is by itself? And what does “in itself” mean? You see a lot of separate things about you, which really means you are not seeing at all. You either see or not. When you have seen one thing differently, you will see all things differently. The light you will see in any one of them is the same light you will see in them all.

When you say, “Above all else I want to see this table differently,” you are making a commitment to withdraw your preconceived ideas about the table, and open your mind to what it is, and what it is for. You are not defining it in past terms. You are asking what it is, rather than telling it what it is. You are not binding its meaning to your tiny experience of tables, nor are you limiting its purpose to your little personal thoughts.

You will not question what you have already defined. And the purpose of these exercises is to ask questions and receive the answers. In saying, “Above all else I want to see this table differently,” you are committing yourself to seeing. It is not an exclusive commitment. It is a commitment that applies to the table just as much as to anything else, neither more nor less.

You could, in fact, gain vision from just that table, if you would withdraw all your own ideas from it, and look upon it with a completely open mind. It has something to show you; something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope. Hidden under all your ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it shares with all the universe.

In using the table as a subject for applying the idea for today, you are therefore really asking to see the purpose of the universe. You will be making this same request of each subject that you use in the practice periods. And you are making a commitment to each of them to let its purpose be revealed to you, instead of placing your own judgment upon it.

We will have six two-minute practice periods today, in which the idea for the day is stated first, and then applied to whatever you see about you. Not only should the subjects be chosen randomly, but each one should be accorded equal sincerity as today’s idea is applied to it, in an attempt to acknowledge the equal value of them all in their contribution to your seeing.

As usual, the applications should include the name of the subject your eyes happen to light on, and you should rest your eyes on it while saying

Above all else I want to see this ______ differently.

Each application should be made quite slowly, and as thoughtfully as possible. There is no hurry.