I believe!

In the months leading up to the 2010 Olympic Games we’ve been inspired by the theme of “I Believe”.

As I listened to the lyrics to the Olympic theme song, I began to think of their relevance for those of us whose goal was not the podium, but who faced some of life’s more pedestrian challenges. How to heal a difficult relationship? How to balance work and family? How to forgive and forget old hurts and live in a better feeling?

It occurred to me that of all the myriad of questions that confront us every day, perhaps it would serve us well to consider this question: what do I believe?

Do you believe that we’re the hapless victims of events beyond our control? Or do you believe that it’s not what happens to us but how we deal with what happens to us that creates our experience of life?

Do you believe that we’re at the whim of our moods? Or do you believe that we have choice and have within each of us a profound source of wisdom and common sense always available to us, obscured, in the moment, only by our insecure thinking and busy minds?

Do you believe that as individuals we’re intentionally unkind, rude or unfair? Or do you believe that we innocently become gripped by personal thinking and act out of that insecurity, a view that allows us to forgive ourselves and others?

The Three Principles of Mind, Thought and Consciousness, as revealed by Sydney Banks, offer us a template with which to understand our psychological and spiritual life. As we realize that we’re one with the source of all life, which we refer to as Mind; we’re able to experience the world as one. We understand our connectedness to all living things. Thought, our capacity to create images and form, gives us the ability to see our personal world. Consciousness brings our thoughts to life through feelings. They’re our unfailing barometer as to where our thinking is taking us. As we become more finely tuned to our feelings we begin to recognize our role, as the thinker, in the creation of our personal experience of reality. We can see the power of choice and the endless possibilities open to us.

I believe that if we understood the real potential within each of us to live in compassion, forgiveness and a sense of well-being, we would be humbled by its power . . . to change our own lives and to affect those whose lives we touch . . . to make our world a better place. That’s the gold.

Do you believe?