Henri Nouwen, in his book Living a Sacred Life in a Secular World, talks about how we have somehow managed to get our hearing and listening skills twisted. When someone says something negative, disparaging, or disaffirming to us we accept it as if it is the “gospel.” We rarely question the intent or the truthfulness of what they said to us. On the other hand, when someone pays us a compliment, our critical thinking skills seem to kick in, and we wonder what that person wants, why did they say that, why are they lying to me and cross-examination their affirmation as if it were a hostile witness being cross examined. What if we reversed this pattern in our life? What would happen if we graciously accepted and internalized that which was served to us with love and suspiciously eyed that which was not before choosing to throw it in the trashcan.

Sometimes it seems as if we do this with other aspects of our life as well. So often, I hear people focusing on lack, rather then abundance. Sometimes it seems as if our ideas, thoughts, and feelings of lack are so pervasive that we struggle to see what we have. I am reminded of something Confucius once said about how the last thing to notice water would be a fish because it is surrounded by it. We are like fish swimming around in this amazing body of abundance and often times are oblivious to the ways in which our needs are met and how blessed we truly are.

What would our conversations with each other and ourselves be like if we focused on our abundance, not our lack? It seems that whether we are talking about lack and abundance or positive vs. negative, that these are effects of our deeper belief system. Our ideas about lack, negative, abundance, or positive are reflections of our own thoughts, words, and actions.

So what if we believed that we are creative individuals living in a space where we can achieve and create in our lives is only limited by our own imagination and desire. What if we believed we worthy of all life had to offer? What if we knew that we are each unique and precious individuals? What if we knew that we are each priceless? What if we knew that we were each divine by design because we were designed by the divine? What if we each knew these things? How different would your belief system be? What would happen to your existent belief system? Would it slowly dissolve and rebuild or would it implode and then replaced by a belief system, which was about creating our earth as it is on heaven.

Will this new way of thinking happen over night; probably not. However, as we intentionally choose to transform and practice this change in belief system, it will come to be. Many of us have mastered negativity, lack, and the belief system, which brings us there. Perhaps now is the time for us to choose to practice embodying a belief system, which results in abundance and positive energy. Perhaps now is the time to remember we were created with pure love and we are living in the fullness of who were created to be, when we live as pure love.