If you maintain a negative limiting belief about your reality, such as a belief that this reality is insane, crazy, violent, indifferent, apathetic, etc., then your attitude will absolutely cream you. You can’t expect to get anywhere good with a belief that this reality is anything less than heavenly.

You’re not actually judging reality with such beliefs because you only have access to your limited perceptions of it, and those are 100% within your mind. So by labeling reality negatively, you’re actually labeling a part of your own mind in the same way. That’s a trap — a huge trap that you must avoid at all costs. Subconsciously your mind will respond to such beliefs by crippling your self-esteem and strangling your ability to leverage your skills and talents. Some people who go this route even kill themselves in the end. It’s a completely foolhardy way to deal with reality. No good can come of it. Well… no good other than the eventual realization that it was a rather lame idea.

Once you realize that your perceptions of reality are all you have to go with, the most sensible approach is to permanently rule out the idea of casting aspersions on your reality, since you’re actually ridiculing your own perceptions, which can only make you go a bit insane. You can’t afford to do anything of the sort. That cannot possibly do any good whatsoever — it can only take you down a path of self-destruction and ruin.

What’s the alternative? Do the absolute best you can to cultivate a harmonious and supportive relationship with your reality. Settle for nothing less. If anything conflicts with your efforts there, ignore it as best you can, and refocus your attention on re-establishing a harmonious and supportive relationship with reality. You cannot get anywhere in this life if you do otherwise.

Some people have the belief that this reality is something of a proving ground between heaven (bliss) and hell (torture). They’re mistaken. When those people experience physical death, if their consciousness continues, they’ll only continue recreating more of the same flavor of experience they had here. They won’t suddenly ascend or descend just because they drop the connection to this particular physical plane. When you disconnect your computer from the Internet, it doesn’t suddenly upgrade or downgrade itself. If you want to upgrade your life experience, you must be the upgrader.

This reality is actually as good as it gets. You’re already in heaven now, if you believe such a thing exists. There is nothing better. Whatever you think you can create in heaven, you can create and experience here. This doesn’t require magical powers or magical thinking. It does require taking full responsibility for how you relate to this reality. Since that relationship exists entirely within your mind, it’s under your control… but only to the extent that you believe it is. If you think that’s a Catch 22, you’re also right, since that’s just another belief. The benefit of this particular Catch 22, however, is that you can choose to be on the side with the unbeatable advantage, so no matter what happens, you win.

I maintain the belief that reality is 100% on my side. This is not based on evidence. It is based on choice. The evidence comes after the choice, not the other way around.

I even believe that reality conspires to go out of its way to help me, and I see evidence of this constantly (again, only after I chose this belief). And so this is what my experience of reality becomes. It’s full of pleasant surprises.

Today, for instance, I received an extra $900 out of the blue that I didn’t even know was coming. Reality loves to bring me gifts like this — financially, socially, experientially, etc. And because I maintain this belief, people frequently help and support me on my path. No one is going to do that for someone who thinks their reality is somehow lacking or damaged — that belief will only get you drained, beaten down, and abused.

If you seem to have a love-hate relationship with reality, then who’s the abuser? It can only be you. If you wish to continue suffering, then by all means, do so. I won’t stop you, especially when you do it in such an entertaining and educational way. In my reality the benefit of those people is that they provide such wonderful contrast. Their mind-numbingly boring lifestyles and perpetual stagnation serve as easy-to-heed reminders about why I wouldn’t want to get mired in thoughts of scarcity, hardship, and that whole “woe is me” mentality. These people are fabulous warning signs regarding what not to do. Consequently, one can only be grateful for their dedication to broadcasting such lessons so loudly and clearly. Sucks to be them, but great to learn from them.

What if the whole time you’ve been here, reality was conspiring to bring you the most heavenly experiences imaginable, and all this time it’s been waiting for you to get with the program? Reality has been functioning perfectly — within established parameters. But perhaps you’ve been slacking off in the imagination department. Have you been dwelling on what you’d love to experience and willfully summoning it, or have you been muddling your mind with thoughts of perpetuating more of what you don’t want?

If you love what you’re experiencing right now, you can just keep observing that, and it will self-perpetuate; if that’s you, you’re already golden. But you can’t afford to let your mind dwell on your observations and their extended predictions if you’ve already established the pattern of creating experiences you don’t desire to eternalize. If you want to break the pattern of what you’re already experiencing, you need to shift your energy from observation and prediction to unfettered imagination and creation. Essentially that’s a time management challenge — spend less time noting your observations and more time creating your desires. If your observations aren’t cool anymore, stop feeding them.

If you’re experiencing a reality you don’t particularly like right now, poor baby. So you screwed up somewhere. Happens to everyone. It’s not a big deal, so don’t turn it into one. Deep down you’re still as powerful as ever. You just lost focus. An honest mistake, and you can recover from it. You’ve just been stuck too long in observation mode, thinking that was a good idea. It was a good idea when you were experiencing what you wanted, but it’s not a good idea when you’re experiencing the opposite. Be in observation and reaction mode only when you love what’s showing up; then you can fully enjoy it. But when your desires fall out of sync with your observations, don’t stay in observation mode; that just guarantees that you’re creating. Time to switch to creation mode instead.

In truth, observation and creation are actually the same mode. There’s really only one mode: creation mode. You get to experience what you imagine as real. But in observation mode, you’re filling your imagination with more of the same, and so you create and experience… bingo… more of the same. Sometimes that’s a brilliant choice. Other times it’s a rather pathetic choice.

Have you thought about what heaven might actually be like? It’s surely not all harps and angels and clouds like you might see in a movie. That might be fun for a few hours, but then you’d be bored for eternity.

Here’s how I define heaven for me. Heaven is a state of existence in which I experience the following:

Beam – Enjoy my life immensely; feel deep appreciation and gratitude for this experience; laugh and smile

Harmonize – Maintain a deeply positive, loving, and supportive relationship with my reality

Shine – Develop my skills, talents, and habits to genius level; shamelessly express and share my creativity and brilliance

Explore – Search, study, travel, learn, and discover, guided by my curiosity, desires, and intuition

Open – Open my heart; actively invite and experience delicious connections that I desire

Grow – Become more capable and free; release and shed fears and limitations

Prosper – Create and enjoy tremendous prosperity and abundance

No need to wait for an afterlife. This is achievable here and now.

What’s your version of heaven? Do you have to wait till you’re dead to experience it? What makes you think death will be any better than this anyway? Would it really be easier to create heaven in some astral realm vs. right here, right now? What are you waiting for?

If you need permission, you can have mine.