Why Change Your Film

​Dear Why team member,
Happy Spring! I hope you had the chance to go outside and enjoy the site of the blooming trees and clear sky. 

Audio:🗣

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​Just the other day, I was enjoying a quiet moment looking at how the clouds move. Do you remember as little kids looking at the clouds and assigning them shapes? Our projection of what those clouds could be was based on our comprehension of the world at that age. Even as adults we need to understand projection... WHY? Because what we see and experience is largely what we are projecting based on how we view/understand the world in that moment. 

Years ago I remember someone telling me about their day, saying that everywhere they had gone on that particular day, people were rude to them. I remember thinking hmm, who was the common denominator? 

It is so true that we often don't see things as they really are, but rather we see things as we are. When we are feeling good about ourselves, we can more effectively see goodness all around us. When we are feeling bad about ourselves, we see the bad all around us!

We humans seek evidence to give our thoughts credibility, we seek congruity between what we think and what we see and experience. We are all projectors with a built-in confirmation bias, a bias to confirm what we think. To be credible, we must achieve congruity. To have integrity, we must integrate our internal world with our external world. For those times in our life when reality significantly diverges from our thoughts, we can disintegrate, feeling like we are coming apart at the seams. These, of course, can be very difficult times in our lives, but are often opportunities for tremendous personal growth. If our projectors don't serve us and our higher ideals, they will eventually break down, giving us a wonderful time to introspect, to inspect our projectors, inspect our selves. 

Whether we are thinking empowering or limiting thoughts, we will find evidence to support those thoughts and thus we empower or limit ourselves. We make choices, conscious and subconscious, intentional and habitual, that fuel our thoughts, for ill or for health. The book, "As a Man Thinketh", by James Allen, is one of my top 10 most recommended reads. 

Peace Pilgrim once said "If you knew how powerful your thoughts were, you would never think another negative thought again". Why play a negative thought on the screen of your life? If you don't like the movie, change the film. Analyze the role you’re playing in this movie called life and adjust the script to have a happy ending- you can succeed with improved thoughts. One of the many powerful examples that comes to mind who achieved a happy ending is Viktor Frankl, a holocaust surviver I’ve mentioned here before. 

When Ghandi said "Be the change you want to see", he was referring to the importance of looking into the projector, not onto the screen. Consider the film you have loaded into your projector, the film that is turning in your head. If you want a better view of the world and the people around you, elevate the quality of your film. Limited thinking sees limitations, limitless thinking sees limitless opportunities. 

Love sees love, anger sees anger. Consider your best days as those when you felt best about yourself. Consider how the days you were down corresponded with you being down ON yourself. 

To improve your view, tune up your projector and improve the film that turns in your head. From within us we project outwardly to the world. What daily disciplines lift your spirit and brighten the light you shine onto the world? What are the consistent choices you make that brightens your life and the lives of others? 

Why be attentive to your projector and film? Because it determines your life and your ability to serve others.

The love we project outward to others is a reflection of the love we have for ourselves. If we reject ourselves, we most certainly will reject others, especially those who are accepting us, contrary to our own self rejection. 
Hmm - cause to pause?

We must accept ourselves to give and receive acceptance - love ourselves to give and receive love. 
Yet the illusion persists, and is perpetuated by our culture, that something outside of us will complete us, fulfill us, satisfy us, when the truth is that it's up to us, how we conduct ourselves day to day, how we fill our own wells of self; can we truly live the fulfilling life?
Consider the work of Sheryl Paul and her insights on ways to effectively fill your Well of Self:
Daily Disciplines
Meaningful Work
Acts of Service
Creativity
Music & Dance
Being in Nature

A life filled full within is a life that projects and experiences a fulfilling life. Why be attentive to the film in your projector? Because it projects and affects your view of life, love and happiness. Be more attentive to you, the projector. Be more intentional about the film you load into you, observing if it is of good quality. Be careful what you put or allow into your head. Will it project the view you want to see? Fill yourself with the good stuff and watch the good stuff appear all around you. Then you will more often experience the best in others, while knowing that you are the good and positive common denominator.

Make it a great week,

Steve Luckenbach