We can choose to change

Recently, I had the chance to speak with my long-time friend who has been having a lot of struggles in her life lately. She was feeling down and discouraged most days, but she always kept herself busy so that she didn't have time to think about it.

We talked for hours on what was going on with her and how we could help her get back on track. At first, I tried to be optimistic because I know deep down inside that my friend is tough!

But when nothing seemed to work, I became aware that my role wasn’t to fix her problem or to protect her. Rather, it’s to be her friend and her sounding board when she needed someone to talk to.

We both agreed that maybe she needed to take a step back from it all to re-evaluate what else she could be and do differently to change her situation.

Before we said goodbye, I gave her a new book that I had written called 'Prosperity Consciousness' as a gift, not really expecting her to read it. I did not know back then that the book would become a source of healing for her.

A few months after our last meeting, she called to ask me to have lunch with her. She wanted to share with me some insights she got from our last conversation.

The person who came to lunch was not the woman I was talking to a few months ago. I commented on the changes and was very curious to know what she had done to create that change.

She smiled cheerfully "I discovered that I'm so much more than I had ever imagined or considered before," she said.

"A wonderful insight," I replied, and asked her what she did to actualize this major change. She looked up from her coffee cup and our eyes met. At that moment I had a sense of an amazing presence beaming from her eyes.

She said, "I began to read your new book and I became aware of the overwhelming excitement I felt about the way I could change my life."

"What?" I replied with amazement.

My friend went on to explain what actually took place. "I discovered how I used to disapprove and judge myself constantly. I constantly ran this judgment tape in my head, which said, "This is wrong," "That's the wrong thing to say," "That's not good enough," and so on. "Self-judgment was the most common way I was editing my life," she told me.

By focusing on judgment and wrongness, my friend had turned the natural process of life into a process of destruction rather than a process of celebration and appreciation.

"After reading your chapter on 'Becoming Willing to Receive' I finally came to understand the source of my own problems," said my friend. "I realized that if I could become aware of what I had chosen to create as my reality without judging myself, I could have freedom, but as long as I had judgment, I had no freedom to create something different."

I sat in silence, nodding ever so slightly. "So what I wrote in the book hit home," I said. My friend laughed and nodded her head in slow and deliberate agreement.

"But why the laugh?" I asked. "I have known you for a long time and I know you are holding back something that is causing you to chuckle."

"I laugh because at last I see the inconsistency in the big picture of my life," said my friend.

"What do you mean by the inconsistency?" I asked, sipping from my cup of coffee.

"When I began to look at what I was doing with self-judgment in general, I discovered that I had no idea about what it would take to become a creator source of my own reality. Self-mastery is a new frontier for me." said my friend

"So what should I do? I want to feel more powerful, in charge of myself and my environment, happy and gratified." She continued at a rapid-fire pace. "What would it take for that to happen?" She finally asked.

"Self-mastery is all about improving your awareness," I said. "You have to have a willingness to perceive and receive yourself differently. That’s the place where you have to begin."

"Just as I thought," she said and laugh. "How do I do that?"

"It's not about 'HOW", it's about making a deliberate choice to perceive and receive yourself differently," I replied. "Your choice will give you the awareness of how to be with it."

My friend sat silently thinking about what I had just said. She had a hard time believing my point. Finally, she spoke up, "So you are saying that I just have to choose."

I nodded my head and said, "When you start receiving the greatness of who you truly are, then everything in your life will start to transform...and that is the secrete power of Self-Mastery"

I also told her "When you ask HOW what happens is that you look for the linear steps you have to take and you won’t actually take a step until you have all the steps figured out."

I explained "Cultivating self-mastery is a way of being, a mindset, an attitude, and an outlook that must be ever-present in your energy, space, consciousness, and awareness. It isn’t something you do once and then sit back and relax."

Before we said goodbye I told her "It took me years to cultivate and expand self-mastery, and in fact, I am still maintaining the practice and living the process of creating magic in every moment."

As she walked away, I heard her say under her breath "I have a feeling my life is just beginning...."

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