The Magic of a New Beginning- Reflections for 2020

As we begin a New Year of 20:20 vision, I am reminded of great visionaries. For whatever innate power or skill, these luminaries saw beyond the concrete into the world of the unseen, where infinite possibilities reside. In creative thinking this is the divergent phase of idea building, where numerous points of possibility float in space, and like a radio receiver, the artist- ourselves gather these points until they converge into one clear signal, initiating a clear reception and response.

This brings to mind the image in a movie called What the Bleep…, when a young boy and the main character are on a basketball court, while 50 or more basket balls bounce by themselves all around them. This image was demonstrating the quantum physics concept for the field of possibilities or potentialities. The minds of the 2 players on the court have a limited capacity to hold all the possibilities at once, can focus on one only, and when doing so bring that ball into material existence.

In my experience there is a tension between the not knowing, while the 50 or more balls are bouncing around me, also known as the divergent phase of creativity, without the apparent safety of the convergent phase, the answer that gives us a sense of security. It takes courage to allow for this “free play” of the imagination, where ideas are allowed to fall to earth so to speak, into our awareness, which can then be tested out in the laboratory of the mind and our lives.

Yet, the mind with its layer of conditioning, limiting beliefs and concepts creates a filter based on emotions of fear, guilt, shame and anger that limits our ability to stay open to receiving possibilities, fulfilling the purpose of our lives. The habit of seeing ourselves coloured by past conditioning keeps us in a cycle of repeating patterns that can show up in our relationships with ourselves, our intimate partners, colleagues, fellow students and our successes and failures. If we believe we will fail then that thought contributes to the challenge to succeed. It is like a form of resistance between the competing forces of desire, “i want to succeed” alongside the deep foundational belief, “I will fail’. This is like focussing on the same ball on the court, instead of shifting our focus to that which inspires, heals, and helps us create a new possibility- our heart’s desire.

How do we change these often hidden limiting beliefs? In my own experience it is to bring in the light of awareness and shine it in the mind like a flash light into the darkened corners of the mind where the dust and cobwebs have been swept into the corners, because I didn’t want to face these fears, difficult emotions and past experiences. Like the early explorers who set off into uncharted and unknown lands and seas, this journey requires the courage to see for ourselves what is waiting there. These new lands explorers encountered, were populated with inhabitants with very different customs, dress and lived unique lives connected to the rhythmic patterns of life and nature. The lands were rich and bountiful, revered and honoured for what it gave forth, nourishing life on many levels. Is this what awaits us on this personal journey into unknown, unexplored territory of the the mind? Where we will have a glimpse of a new life and landscape, renewed and refreshed by a fresh perspective where we live close to the rhythms of the earth, in touch with the cycles of our days, the seasons, night and day, flowing with the rhythm of life open to receiving the blessings of a rich and abundant universe!

A New Year with 20:20 vision.

Practice focussing the the rhythm of your breath touching into the rhythm of life and ask:

1. Where am I in my life? Where do I want to go? What are the obstacles, limiting beliefs about myself and my place in the world?

I have been practicing watching my mind, noticing when I am focussing on the same ball on the court! Yeh, for decades now in certain areas of my life! With this awareness I am choosing to shift my attention to another possibility, another ball on the court that lifts me, instead of the familiar path of least resistance that has been laid in the past conditioning of childhood.

You could start by being a witness to the habits of your thinking, i.e. of not enough, attachments, resentments or self-pity, and fear and choosing another possibility of gratitude, freedom, and courage. Begin Now

Change your focus after you understand what is limiting you to that which is waiting for you in the the field of infinite possibilities. Write 6 impossible things before you have breakfast! You get to choose! The only limitation is the limitation you impose on your mind.