Have you ever heard an expression that goes something like this: ‘Careful with your thoughts because they have a tendency to materialize into reality..’ ? One rendition or another of this concept is observed cross-culturally through layers and layers of history, age groups and social status. This article will talk about a very personal experience that I think has the potential to change EVERY- and ANY- thing around you that leaves for more to be desired in your life currently.. So here it goes..

PREFACE

I grew up knowing that, compared to my peers, I was viewed by many (including myself) as a bit of a hopeless optimist. I always saw the better side of things, bad people had to prove me wrong before I would start disliking them, every shut in my face door always meant bigger and greater opportunities would come my way, etc… It was not until about 4 years ago that I was able to link a lot of my successes in life to the way I was organizing my thoughts internally. I was doing it naturally without thinking twice about why I am the way I am, but since a monumental moment in my life when I accepted the idea of thoughts’ ability to turn into reality, my life has shot up with an unprecedented speed and an upward trajectory. I can go on and on about how important it is to ‘supervise’ your inner self to make sure that you always stay positive and what event caused me to ‘open my eyes’ so to speak, but that is topic for another time.

For this article’s purposes I will just say that keeping thoughts in a positive direction on a constant basis is VERY difficult even for the most optimistic optimists out there (anybody saying otherwise is not being completely honest 😜). But, assuming you buy into this whole keep-your-emotions-postive thing, and assuming that you have at least one positive thought that you would like to see become reality, here is a quick trick to intensify it- write about it, paint it, make it.. whatever it is that would help you further channel your positivity- do it!!

This brings us to this personal story that I allude to above:

STORY

My husband just recently got a promotion. He had to work really hard for it, and, once promoted, faced many challenges in order to keep the position. A couple of months ago he had a bit of work over the weekend, and, for the lack of anything better to do, I joined him in his guest chair and was trying to combat my boredom by looking around his office, wall art, and whatever else there was to entertain myself with. 

I shook my head at the sight of an overflowing trashcan, that magically gets filled every day with scrapped paper, empty seltzer water cans, and other random things. My gaze shifted to the side chair standing by his desk holding all of his workout gear, including his shoes!!. Another silent head shake. He, typing something vigorously on his keyboard, was completely oblivious to the fact that his office was a bit of a mess. 

I shifted my gaze at his college diploma that prominently hung on the wall directly in front of his desk. His grandparents were really nice and framed it in lamb skin for him when he first graduated from The Citadel. Even though, getting his BS was over 10 years ago and he had already finished his MS since then, this Citadel diploma was hanging on the wall by itself (mainly because it was the only one that was framed while his Graduate degree diploma was sitting somewhere still in the envelope that it had arrived in for almost 2 year now). To top things off, he used this lamb skin frame as a temporary-turned-into-permanent place holder for company photos with his previous teams and other random keepsakes from previous roles. 

Something clicked right then, “Honey, have you ever thought about the fact that day in and day out all you see in front of you is your past?”- I asked casually. The typing stopped. He looked up at the diploma in front of him and mumbled, “I guess..” Sometime after that completely out of the blue my husband approached me and said that he really thought about what I had said that time and that he was going to paint his future (!!!!) to hang in place of the Citadel diploma currently hanging on the wall. 

Another couple of weeks went by before he was able to zero in on the theme of the painting that he wanted to do and enter Ganesha. Here is a brief visual chart to track all the things that Ganesha represents and all of these are exactly what my husband and I are gunning for in our future

And below is what he has gotten so far. Now granted, this is not a finished version yet, but ever since he started working on the painting, things at work exploded in a very good way.  To a point where it is almost scary how we control what actually happens in our daily lives.. 

The reason why I wanted to share this article is because in the little time that he invested into thoughts about what it is that he wants for the future a looooot of things have changed for the better and the atmosphere in and around his office is indescribable. I wish the same for all of you and simply want to remind you that you control your life. So go on, dream big, paint colorful, sing loudly, and be happy!