Implicit in this simple declaration, is the relationship between your belief and your reality.  It is a fascinating relationship, this one between, on the one hand, belief/expectation/entertained possibilities, and on the other hand, actualized potential/experience.   So how is it that this relationship exists?  How do beliefs affect outcome? It helps to start with remembering that beliefs are organized frameworks of thoughts.

 There is much in our cultural buzz, relating to thoughts, about the principles of “attraction” and how it all works.  Much of it is explained in terms of thoughts having specific frequencies, which harmonize with other thoughts of similar nature, and therefore, also of similar frequency.  The basic idea is that as a person continues to occupy her mind with a group of similar and mutually reinforcing thoughts, she will begin to “attract” more and more of these types of thoughts into her own consciousness, and as well, develop a co-mingling of like thoughts with other minds having tendencies toward the same type of thoughts.   People tend to take action and events tend to unfold according to those prevailing thoughts, in much the same way that a sail boat will have the tendency (unless otherwise interfered with) to sail in the direction of the prevailing wind.  And thus, through this process, “thoughts eventually become things”.

So this phenomenon, thoughts becoming reality, is happening all the time.  How much is on purpose (vs. how much feels like it is happening to us)?   The answer depends on our level of awareness to begin with, in order to even be “on purpose”.

The greater one’s awareness, the more deliberate one can be in creating one’s own outcome from situation to situation.  So then you might ask, “How does one develop awareness”?  One of the best ways to develop awareness is through the practice of “focus” and “concentration”.  There are many activities that offer the participant/practitioner the opportunity to focus and the ability to continually increase this focus.  Among the choices available to one seeking to increase awareness through deliberate focus, an authentic martial arts practice offers an excellent opportunity.  Through purposeful presence and applying focus from one domain/aspect/quality to another, the martial artist continually increases his awareness.  As his awareness increases, so too does his ability to choose his thoughts to begin with.  And as these initial thoughts are deliberately chosen, by translation, so too are their related outcomes, resulting ultimately in the deliberate creation/co-creation of life. 

We all can do this!  It is how we are “wired”.  So for the next few weeks you can increase your conscious effectiveness in the following way.  Focus on patterns available to you all the time, like your breathing, your heartbeat, the cadence of the wind, the air temperature on your skin or the buzzing of the lights in the room.  As you do this, you are likely to notice your general awareness increasing.  As your awareness increases, pay special attention to your thoughts, being careful to “choose” thoughts consistent with what you really want.  And as you consciously choose, notice your reality unfolding in accordance with your thoughts.  As you conceive these thoughts, you will literally be catalyzing the conception of life and in the process, discover the martial artist in you.