Choosing Your Reality

What in your life is illusion? What in your life is reality? These questions are not as easy to answer as we might expect, for many things that we have been assuming are real are anything but. Our fears are a good example. Many of the fears we carry with us--fears that drive our daily lives--feel very much like reality. Yet they are completely based in illusion.

We have built many such illusions in our minds, and now they form the framework through which we live our lives. They feel as real to us as a concrete structure. Yet they exist only because we have identified with them and empowered them.

Our belief system creates what is illusion and what is reality for us, so reality differs for each person. I may have a belief in something, and so it is my reality. My friend may have a belief in something else, so that is his reality. Many of us tend to believe in and empower things that don't serve us--often handing our power over to our fears and insecurities.

So how do we live a joyful and fulfilling life in a world where we can be ruled by our illusions? We choose to take joy in our creativity. Our lives are ours to create, and we create them through the beliefs we hold and where we choose to place our attention. We are doing this anyway, everyday, so to do it consciously places us in a much more powerful role and is far more rewarding. We choose to hand our power over to our dreams and our faith, rather than our fears or those old beliefs that limit us.

But what about those pesky negative thoughts and doubts that always seem to pop up? When we realize the millions of thoughts that flow through our minds, we realize we are not in control of our thought process. Awareness of those detrimental thoughts or thought patterns is all we need. To do battle with them--to resist them--will only perpetuate more negativity.

Once we accept and embrace that we will experience negative thoughts, it relieves us of much stress! By simply acknowledging the negative thoughts and choosing to place our focus elsewhere, we have opened the door to a new way of living.

When we choose those thoughts that we will respond to--that we will align ourselves with--we are choosing our reality. If we choose to align ourselves with thoughts that serve us, we create a life we enjoy living. If we choose to empower fearful thoughts, we choose to perpetuate more fear in our lives.

So the keyword is choice. What do you choose to empower in your life today? Do you choose to empower your outdated fears and insecurities, or do you choose to empower your faith that you are guided, that you are loved, and that you are a unique being here to offer something only you can offer? This is a decision you will make many times every day of your life, and the choice you make determines the reality you will live.

Your reality check for today:

What is one fear you are carrying today that limits your life, your joy?

What is one step you can take TODAY--beyond that fear--to enrich and expand your life?

Which reality will you choose to create today?