Is it not amazing how changing experience is possible merely by thinking about it differently? It is not just amazing; it is also important.
One of the best examples from my own life occurs regularly in the gym.
I lift weights to get stronger.
The three power lifts are squats, deadlifts, and bench presses.
As any power lifter can tell you, if you do not really believe that you can make a lift, you will not make it.
It is that simple.
(Of course, merely believing that you will make a lift is insufficient to ensure that you will make that lift.
) I find that, if there is any doubt whatsoever in my mind when I am about to attempt a lift, I will fail.
Furthermore, there are intellectual tricks about changing experience you can use that will help.
For example, nothing can be simpler than a deadlift: just lift the barbell off the floor and stand up with it.
You might think that when you are about to attempt to attempt to lift a heavy single deadlift, you would repeat to yourself, "I can lift this bar" or something similar.
Well, actually there is a much more effective way.
Instead of thinking at all about lifting the bar, what you do is to imagine pushing the earth down from under the bar.
Pushing is easier than lifting.
Whatever the reason, thinking about pushing the earth from under the bar will enable you to made deadlifts with a poundage you would fail at if you tried to break the weight off the floor and lift it up.
Notice that nothing changes except the way you think about it.
Imagine standing in the middle of a bridge over a rapidly flowing river.
You are leaning on your forearms on the railing looking down at the water rushing past.
Now switch: imagine that the water is still and the bridge and banks are rushing rapidly upstream! That is changing experience by thinking about it differently.
This understanding of changing experience can have important ethical benefits.
Suppose that someone else does something you do not like, for example, yells at you or damages your property or cuts in front of you in traffic or spreads malicious gossip about you.
It might seem perfectly natural to indulge in anger and try to harm that person in return.
However, what would happen if you interpreted that behavior as a divine message that was intended to teach you a lesson? Might not that short your anger circuits and open you to learning from the experience, possibly even benefiting from it? If, as I hope, you have a meditation practice, usually you probably think of yourself as sitting there breathing in and out.
I encourage you to try it this way: instead of thinking of yourself as breathing, think of the world as breathing through you.
In other words, do not think that you are breathing; instead, think that the world is breathing.
Forget all about you.
Here is the point: unless you make it personal, nothing is personal.
Nothing is personal.
Why not take all the ego (the self, the I) out of experiencing life? Try it and see what happens whenever you do.
If you work on doing that until it becomes habitual, you will find yourself becoming more and more calm and peaceful.
You have the ability of changing experience to make life more enjoyable.
Why not cultivate that ability? If you do, I predict you will be very glad that you did.
One of the best examples from my own life occurs regularly in the gym.
I lift weights to get stronger.
The three power lifts are squats, deadlifts, and bench presses.
As any power lifter can tell you, if you do not really believe that you can make a lift, you will not make it.
It is that simple.
(Of course, merely believing that you will make a lift is insufficient to ensure that you will make that lift.
) I find that, if there is any doubt whatsoever in my mind when I am about to attempt a lift, I will fail.
Furthermore, there are intellectual tricks about changing experience you can use that will help.
For example, nothing can be simpler than a deadlift: just lift the barbell off the floor and stand up with it.
You might think that when you are about to attempt to attempt to lift a heavy single deadlift, you would repeat to yourself, "I can lift this bar" or something similar.
Well, actually there is a much more effective way.
Instead of thinking at all about lifting the bar, what you do is to imagine pushing the earth down from under the bar.
Pushing is easier than lifting.
Whatever the reason, thinking about pushing the earth from under the bar will enable you to made deadlifts with a poundage you would fail at if you tried to break the weight off the floor and lift it up.
Notice that nothing changes except the way you think about it.
Imagine standing in the middle of a bridge over a rapidly flowing river.
You are leaning on your forearms on the railing looking down at the water rushing past.
Now switch: imagine that the water is still and the bridge and banks are rushing rapidly upstream! That is changing experience by thinking about it differently.
This understanding of changing experience can have important ethical benefits.
Suppose that someone else does something you do not like, for example, yells at you or damages your property or cuts in front of you in traffic or spreads malicious gossip about you.
It might seem perfectly natural to indulge in anger and try to harm that person in return.
However, what would happen if you interpreted that behavior as a divine message that was intended to teach you a lesson? Might not that short your anger circuits and open you to learning from the experience, possibly even benefiting from it? If, as I hope, you have a meditation practice, usually you probably think of yourself as sitting there breathing in and out.
I encourage you to try it this way: instead of thinking of yourself as breathing, think of the world as breathing through you.
In other words, do not think that you are breathing; instead, think that the world is breathing.
Forget all about you.
Here is the point: unless you make it personal, nothing is personal.
Nothing is personal.
Why not take all the ego (the self, the I) out of experiencing life? Try it and see what happens whenever you do.
If you work on doing that until it becomes habitual, you will find yourself becoming more and more calm and peaceful.
You have the ability of changing experience to make life more enjoyable.
Why not cultivate that ability? If you do, I predict you will be very glad that you did.
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