Change Your Perception and Change Your Life!
Our material lives are predominantly governed by the often limiting perceptions we have of it in our minds. This can be changed though for even the smallest shift in consciousness that we bring about within ourselves can result in the opening up of tremendous opportunities for personal growth.
A Personal Story
Some years ago I was waiting in line waiting for service in Londons’ foremost esoteric bookshop. Standing in the queue in front of me were two young men. The first one had, like myself, a stack of books in his arms that he was intending to purchase. The second lad, who was evidently a companion of the first, appeared to be new to the shop was clearly excited by the newness of his first time experience in the emporium. The two chatted away passionately about the vast wealth of esoteric knowledge that was available on the shelves throughout the store. After a little wait the queue started to shuffle forwards toward the checkout. When the two lads reached the counter the assistant greeted them and then started the long process of totaling up their purchases. The friend, who was seemingly more out-going than his companion, started up a conversation with the assistant. It went something like this. “Say, have you been here long?” The assistant paused for a moment and, with a slight twinkle in his eye, replied. “Since nine o’clock this morning, sir”. The newcomer smiled back at him and shook his head. “No, I mean the shop itself. Has it been here for a long time?” The assistant stopped for a moment and explained to the young man how the business had been first established in 1897 and had traded in this very same location throughout two world wars and right up to the present date. The young lad looked genuinely surprised by this. “That’s odd” he said. “I have walked past this shop every weekday for over four years and I have never noticed you before my friend brought me in here for the first time this afternoon.” He paused whereupon he was clearly trying to work out just how it was that he had never noticed the shop before and then continued. “Tell me has the shop changed recently – you know been redecorated or had a change of appearance?” The shop assistant, who despite the fact that he was clearly finding it a challenge holding a conversation as well as processing the books payments, calmly stopped what he was doing, looked up at the lad and said. “May I respectfully suggest, sir, that it is in fact YOU that has changed.”
The Filters of Perception
So then, what is this all about? Well, I guess the central premise to all spiritual and self-development fields is that of revealing personal opportunity through the changing of consciousness, As a precursor to change it become necessary to alter our perceptions on both ourselves and our lives. We live in a world full of some very complex and challenging situations. Trying to navigate the way through all of this is difficult at times. Occasionally the answers to the obstacles that confront us only appear to us via an altered angle of vision. As Albert Einstein once said; ‘No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.’ This is so true – though it is very often not necessary that we make MASSIVE changes to our thought processes in order to get corresponding changes in our outer world. Sometimes all that we need is a slight shift in perception in order to open doors to completely new vistas of life experience and opportunity. The lad who entered the esoteric books shop for the first time has undoubtedly returned many times since to enjoy the hidden delights contained within. For him all it took was a slight shift in the way that he observed things around him to open up a completely new highway on his journey through life.
