ABC's of Self-Realization: Affirming Attitude

This is the first in a series of twenty-six articles based on Self-Realization. Each letter of the alphabet is used for the first word in each title. These articles are based on experience, lessons, or just basic information learned over more than fifty years of life on this planet.

One of the most important lessons, remembrances, or awarenesses on the way to becoming a fully-realized person is to consider that attitude is everything. All experiences and events in life are drawn into each person’s individual corner of the world because it’s part of their journey. We don’t always have total control over those events or experiences. We can’t always change those circumstances. We can’t change a person, that’s for sure. What we do have complete control over is our attitude.

Any rough situation is made less stressful if we would summon every ounce of our innate empowerment to slant our perspective on just one single moment at a time. If we would choose to find the strength to pick a different viewpoint, it would change much of our lives for the better. If we choose to take a different action, or a different response, we would find that we would overcome the “insanity cycle” to which we have grown accustomed. As Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.” So, how does that insanity serve us?? There must be some “payoff” in it for us or we couldn’t keep doing it. How does that benefit us for the good? How does it get us out of our “comfortable misery”? Some of us choose to stay in our misery because we are used to it. We say, “It’s all we know.” We say, “I can’t get out of it, where will I go? What will I do?” Do we believe deep, deep down that God would be so cruel as to give us absolutely no way out? We have a free will. We have a brain. We can say, “This, too, shall pass”, because everything does. The only thing constant in life is change!

There is a way above, beyond, and past all misery. No, it’s not easy. No, it’s not immediate. What is immediate, if we so choose, is the change in our attitude. Slant our perspective. Take as many deep breaths as needed in order to stay a bit more centered and calm.

The idea that we are created in a Higher Image, that there is Something or Someone out there bigger than us, should, in all reality, give us some kind of awareness that there is an answer for everything. That anything that happens to us has happened to others in the past and that we are just as valuable, precious, and important as all those who have gone before us that have gotten through the very same things.

Positive thoughts, positive outcomes in our mind’s eye, prayers, affirmations, and a determined, confident attitude are some of the best tools we have to get through anything tough that comes our way. We were never promised that life would be easy; we were just promised that we are never alone. No matter what. And because of that innate empowerment mentioned above, we truly can overcome.