 Dear Why team member, Understand projection... WHY? Because what you see and experience is largely what you yourself project. 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 seems. 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 and 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. 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 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 common denominator. Make it a great week, Steve Luckenbach ** If you arrived here via Facebook or Twitter and would like to sign up to receive each blog post as it is announced, along with future news about upcoming books and other projects I am working on please sign up here. Comments are closed.
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