Opinion: Wisdom Workout

Cultivating Mental Flexibility 

The word “pivot” means to consciously change direction. When applied to our thinking processes, it is the ability to deliberately choose thoughts that are in harmony with our deeper desires. 

When we decide to take responsibility for the quality of our lives, we take on the role of both creative director and chief editor of our daily reality. These two tasks, creating and editing, require different skills. 

When our natural leaning towards creativity is activated, we can open our minds and hearts to the birthing of yet unformed thoughts. These stirrings, longings and new ideas gather at the edge of our awareness until they can reveal themselves as a burst of light, directing our attention to what we will create next. 

Creativity requires room to breathe. Creativity is the womb that enfolds infant desires until they are fully formed enough to be birthed into the harsh light of reality. Creativity is the dark space between the stars. 

Creativity requires quiet time to hear the still, small voice of your intuitive guidance that will only come to you when your internal climate of random, swirling thoughts and feelings is stilled. You can then turn your attention to the disciplined task of courting new directions that are housed within your own personal reality. 

We are all blessed with the gift of ownership of our thoughts and feelings. It is our birthright. Few of us have been taught how to be successful stewards of this gift.  

Most of us have never been directly informed that we are the deliberate creators of our experience. We sidestep taking full responsibility and instead wish and hope that the ‘Way, the Truth and the Light will surface around the corner and the search for the one right answer and the one right decision will finally be discovered. When this happens, all the treasures of the universe will be bestowed on us. We will live happily ever after. We will finally be able to eat that one meal that will fill our emptiness once and for all. 

Here comes the tricky part. It is our job to choose what we want our reality to be. When we have abandoned our creative power that is housed within in favor of looking outside ourselves for our answers, we are reduced to endlessly wielding our editing sword as our only defense against the outside reality that bombards us. 

Every editor needs a creative. If we refuse to own and activate our ability to create from within our storehouse of inner wisdom, our editing skills will be used solely to evaluate what the world presents to us. Our power to create and discern, to choose and select what we can and will invest our life energy in, is sadly and foolishly ignored.  

Instead, we invest ourselves in the useless habit of judging, disliking, fighting against, whining and complaining. We demand and command that the external world do our bidding. The external world yawns in our direction. We only have the power, the authority and the responsibility to create our individual reality. 

When we own the dual tasks of both creating and editing our personal reality, we become a conscious sifter of the reality we face. We begin to live in the world by lovingly defining what we are choosing to create rather than using our creative energy to fight and react to what we are against. 

Susan is a local resident and the author of Beyond Intellect: Journey into the Wisdom of Your Intuitive Mind. Her website is susanvelasquez.com.