Day 271: What Are You Choosing to See?
Today's lesson in A Course In Miracles said, "Each day, each hour, every instant, I am choosing what I want to look upon, the sounds I want to hear, the witnesses to what I want to be the truth for me."
And it made me stop and think about the last 32 years of my life since I started studying ACIM.
Between the text, the workbook, and the manual for teachers, it's a big undertaking to get through in one year.
The first time I read it I had more aha's than I had had in my early 20's when I first went to a whole new level in learning our subconscious mind works and how we function as humans who can choose and make decisions, and make mistakes, and try again.
I was lucky that when I picked it up, I already had a huge knowledge base as a foundation underneath me.
And still, it surprised me, clarified things, and raised more questions, like any great text that takes us to another level should.
Many days I see things in the text or the daily lessons that I don't remember reading before, or it didn't land the way it is now.
That's because every time I come back around to the same lesson, I'm a different person. I've grown and changed and I notice things I wasn't able to see before.
That's how I can study the same book for 32 years and still find new things in it that take me deeper.
This passage today symbolizes so much of what we've been talking about for quite a while now.
We choose what we want to see, what we want to focus on, what media we allow into our mind. and those things that we repeatedly allow in become our truth.
There is so much media to be consumed that it's easy to find something to reinforce the beliefs and opinions we already hold. Entire news industries that support one way of thinking and viewing the world.
Then that becomes the right way of thinking. Look at all the evidence that is brought to you every day to prove it.
And then we find out that social media has been tweaking what it brings us to fill our minds with just a certain perspective so we never really had a chance to choose because we were never fairly shown anything but what we had chosen, at least in one moment in time.
You may have felt duped or controlled when this was discovered.
But our minds do the same thing, always have.
That's the part that matters. It is easy to blame the algorithm, the news, the culture, the family system, or the people around us for reinforcing a version of reality.
And yes, those things have influence.
But our own minds are also constantly sorting, selecting, deleting, highlighting, and repeating what matches what we already believe.
We see something and based on what is already in stored in our mind, we instantly form an opinion.
And then our brain says, she wants to see more of this, just like the algorithm.
Unless you question your mind making this decision for you on its own, it brings you more thoughts like that one, then that way of thinking turns into a habit and then after a while it's a belief that has grown into a whole belief system.
When asked, we don't know where our beliefs came from, how they started, it's just what we believe. And we point to others that believe the same thing. So it must be normal to think it, it must be right. Look at all these people that think the same thing.
And we don't question if it's really true for us right now today.
We don't want to think about the consequences of looking and discovering that maybe we didn't choose it. It was chosen for us.
And now, the ramifications are huge if we look closer and realize it's not a belief that serves who we are in this moment or who we choose to be moving forward.
Because that shift could mean we no longer belong to the tribe we've always been a part of. Then what?
It's a human need to belong.
Can we take a chance on finding new people we can belong with who will accept us if we drop this belief?
For me the answer is yes, and also, that shouldn't be the defining question.
The defining question is, "Can I live honestly with myself if I don't?"
"Each day, each hour, every instant, I am choosing what I want to look upon, the sounds I want to hear, the witnesses to what I want to be the truth for me."
That is what defines us. Being true to ourselves.
Living by our choices.
Not what we inherited, or what the algorithm keeps showing us. Not what our family, culture, religion, friends, or old identity told us had to be true forever.
What defines us is whether we are willing to choose consciously now.
I've left beliefs behind and moved on several times. gone out into the wilderness on my own, despite people around me not understanding my choices.
And I lived. In fact, I prospered. I was happier because I chose to live a self-led life that I could co-create and shift and change any time I wanted to.
That is freedom.
It's not always comfortable at first, because the old voice will still try to tell you to stay where and who you are.
Focusing on what the passage says, what we've been moving into for months here, will give you freedom from the voice in your head that tells you to stay where and who you are, It's good enough. Why do you need more?
The answer to those questions is because I can. Because I deserve to be happy. It's my birthright.
Because being true to who I am now matters more than staying loyal to a belief I did not consciously choose.
And that is reason enough.
Today's Gentle Practice
Think about one belief you've carried for a long time.
Ask yourself:
Did I consciously choose this belief, or did I inherit it and keep feeding it?
Don't force yourself to change it immediately. Just look at it honestly.
Notice what supports it.
Notice what challenges it.
Notice whether it still feels true for who you are now.
You are allowed to choose what becomes truth for you moving forward.
With you,
Lynn
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