My Time Machine

The mind contains all that is the Universe. We struggle to connect to this knowledge; yet it is here for us to use at will. We summon the will to view ourselves in Truth. Truth illuminates our way. We are on trajectories laid down in youth. The wisdom of the ages can not be properly comprehended in youth. We look back at our lives from a vantage point of near-complete enlightenment. The things we would change! The True Paths we would take! We are overcome with sorrow. Fate has lead us astray to this point of disconsolate understanding. Yet there is a way forward to backtrack. To actually change our minds, and to heal the past! Napoleon Hill knew what that way was. The ticket is free. The time machine is ours for the taking. The mind is our vehicle. It is driven by us. It only requires one thing to activate...a thought!

I began to understand the driving forces behind my life-direction when I was fifty years of age. The Truth hit me hard. I clearly saw every interactive moment that impacted me; and how my life was shaped. How I steered myself on autopilot became too clear to bear. The life I lead was burdened with the most powerful force in the Universe. Thought. Thought gone wrong.

We make assumptions about ourselves, largely based on the feedback we receive from others. A friend told me that she never lets another tell her who she is. How perfectly correct. I let others tell me who (they thought) I was at a time of vulnerability. I confused inferior skills with the notion that I was inferior. One seminal thought. One moment of misdirection. One lifetime astray.

"Don't look back...your'e not going that way!" Oh, but we are. The thoughts of our past rule us today. Our beliefs about ourselves have become embedded in the very substructure of our minds. They have become the default actions that we take everyday. We have no control over this default steering. We have no hope of changing our direction until we do one simple thing. Look backward.

The most painful journey there is comes with a salve to heal us. When we open our minds, as we all can do, to Truth...we can find a way to bear the sorrow of our clear understanding. We can allow that sorrow to pass, because by feeling it, we have begun to heal. This is not an easy thing to allow. Despite protestations that claim to want change, our minds stand in our way. Our thoughts, the ones locked into place that control us, are not easily disrupted. We have become hard-wired with seemingly permanent programming. Our neural pathways have become set. Is there any hope?

Hope does spring eternal, and it needs help to flourish. It is essential to understand that we can reprogram our thoughts. Knowing how to do so, and how to rewire our neural pathways, is a bit more elusive. The key is practice. Every habit we have - of thought and of action - can be changed by using the very power of thought and action as allies. The way is clear to do this. New programming and new support pathways can be embedded to replace undesirable ones. There is but one roadblock remaining. Fear.

We use fear in an attempt to protect ourselves from hurt. This whole process of self-discovery and change is inherently hurtful, before it becomes healing. Our minds seek refuge from pain. We must be brave and allow the pain to flow. As we come to understand ourselves in Truth, the pain flows out of us. Caution here - one dose of success is not a cure-all. The mind has many files within it. Each file must be braved. Each and every default thought that we wish to change must go through its own cycle of healing. I have come to see the Truth in this.

Who does not express the following?: "I did this...why can't I do that?" Each 'this and that' is a separate skill to be learned. At some point, our minds allow crossover training to help with healing. I have not yet fully experienced such indirect aid. Shining the light of Truth on a thought cleanses that thought of falsehood. It takes a brave mind to go against itself in search of healing. There is little comfort in engaging ourselves this way.

Only by looking backward can we steer our way to a better future. Until each and every limiting thought is corrected, the roadblocks will remain. I sat myself down one sorrowful day and begged to see a Truth. What exactly did I think of myself? Not a list of who I should be, but of who I was at the time of asking. I made a second list of who I knew I 'could' be. The disparity between the lists was a beacon of direction for change. This is raw stuff, not to be taken lightly. To heal and have a better future requires breaking ones mental bones first. Can't I just skip that part? No.

Science shows us that the brain supports new habits with newly activated neural connections. The lines supporting old habits shrink and become less active. Hope has an ally! Just keep at the new thought and action for several weeks and it becomes a habit. Habit becomes default programming. All default thoughts 'gifted' us have had their day of ruling our lives. Once we clearly see the Truth of our default thoughts, they are open to change. The process is a simple one. Be brave and see Truth. Look at each default thought-file and decide on a course of action to rethink it. Support the new thought with practice. Understanding, followed by consistent thought and action, yields resolution.

I write today because of a promise I made to myself. I want to live the remainder of my life as I believe my True Path to be. By using the time machine of my mind, I have gone back to my youth to expose harmful default thoughts and programming. This bridge of understanding is a real link between my past and my future. I stand today with a full view of my entire timeline. This is an amazing and powerful place to be.

Several tasks before me act to temper my new empowerment. I remind myself that each thought needing change is a battle anew. My time machine has brought a calm to my existence. When one encapsulates in a forced calm to avoid facing a world of pain, calm becomes a welcome shield. The mind uses calm to avoid what it will. This calm is a protector. This calm is an enemy of progress. This calm thrives on fear. I ask myself to be brave and to face that which I fear. That which I fear is but a thought. I can think my way to a better thought. I can forge a new pathway. I can reach back in time, in my mind, and change my timeline of today! My Time Machine is ready for another journey. I will bravely think it into action.