By Rev. Marla Sanderson
Think of your life as a movie. It’s fun, and it helps you see incidents and events as something going on around you, rather than happening to you.
Just like the movies, some scenes are fun, some sad, some horrifying, and some are just there for entertainment. When you step back from the drama of your life, you realize you’re not just the actor. You’re the producer, writer, and director. You choose the cast, the props, and the setting.
“WHAAAAT?” (you say). “I would never choose those people to be in my movie.” But you do and you did. You have the freedom to leave or stay. You can also ask what you can learn from them.
On a day-to-day basis, as you go about your life, you can operate from higher consciousness or lower; and that determines your decisions, your actions, emotions, and the workings of your mind.
For example: Suppose you see your significant other (or significant interest) enjoying a conversation with someone else.
Lower consciousness ignites anger and jealousy, and you may rush into the situation, create an awkward moment and embarrass yourself. That only adds to your insecurity, and you sure haven’t scored any points with your love interest.
When you act that way, you get the opposite of what you really want. You blame others to console yourself, or maybe beat yourself up. Neither way is much fun.
Higher consciousness isn’t threatened by what another person does, with or without you. You’re happy to see them having a good time and appreciate their right to do so. If you join the conversation at all, it’s without aggressive or possessive behavior. You act in a way that’s likely to get you more of what you really want.
People who trigger your insecurities will teach you a lot about higher consciousness and self-love. Your experience is an inside job, and your surroundings always reflect the way you feel about yourself.
If someone picks on you or criticizes you, picture them wearing your face. That may seem like a horror movie, but if you didn’t already suspect what you infer from them, you’d have nothing to feel insecure about.
Ask yourself, “Am I projecting love or fear into my ‘movie’?” Anything can go in a good or bad direction; but unlike a Hollywood movie, the next scene is always up to you. Love will make it better. Fear will make it worse.
Focus on who and how you are. You can’t make anybody give to you, but you can give to them. You can’t make them love you, but you can certainly love them. You can’t make them do the right thing, but you always can.
Who you are goes with you wherever you go. Opportunities appear because of your consciousness. People treat you a certain way because of your consciousness. Consciousness determines what you perceive, how you respond, and where you put your attention. All of that combines to create everything in your life.
Why not make your movie an adventure! It will be anyhow, so you might as well enjoy it.
Rev. Marla Sanderson has been a student of spiritual practice for more than 35 years. She began as Assistant Director of The Next Step, a psychic and spiritual community in a New Mexico ghost town. She’s been a workshop leader, teacher, practitioner, and minister of Living Love, and the Science of Mind. She recently founded the New Thought Center for Creative Living, a virtual “church” that offers inspiration anytime, anywhere. The site showcases many powerful Science of Mind and New Thought speakers and writers, and intends to expand these teachings to the world. Check it out at www.newthoughtctr.org.