Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Feb/Mar 2020 Aspire Magazine FULL Issue | Page 51

do in your waking life. You might even wake
up with a racing heart, sweating, your legs
kicking at imaginary bad guys. It all appears
real until you wake up and realize it was just
a dream. In that moment, you see that it was
entirely created by thought, and the lingering
emotions then fade.
Your waking life is created by thought in the
same way. Because you’re awake rather
than asleep, and because we live in an
elaborate world of form centered around the
physical things in our environment, it always
appears as if your experience is the direct
result of the world around you. But although
it will usually appear as if your coworker’s
rude comment is what made you upset—or
falling into your habit again is what made you
frustrated—your feelings are never a direct
result of what is happening in the outside
world. It can’t possibly work that way.
What is true is that you are always thinking,
and that as you think, you feel your thinking.
Your own steady stream of thought is the
only thing you ever directly experience. You
can’t feel your coworker’s comment, your
habit, or your surroundings directly. You can
only feel your thinking about those things.
This also means that nothing outside of
yourself “makes” you do anything. Triggers
don’t make you fall into your habit.
Your entire experience can radically
change with a single new thought. We can’t
necessarily control our thinking any more
than we can control the flow of a river, but
we don’t need to. When we see that old
thought is constantly being washed away,
replaced with new thought, we only have
to wait, and our experience will change.
Thought simply is. It’s not good, bad,
harmful, or helpful; it’s not personal, and it’s
not “yours.” It is just thought.
Reprinted with permission: New Harbinger Publications,
Inc. copyright © 2016 Amy Johnson, PhD
Sissy Amy Johnson, PhD - Sissy is a master life coach who works
with clients worldwide through coaching programs, workshops,
and retreats. She is author of Being Human. Johnson has been
a regularly featured expert on The Steve Harvey Show and
www.oprah.com, as well as in The Wall Street Journal and Self
magazine. Since writing The Little Book of Big Change, she has devoted
a large portion of her coaching practice to helping people end
unwanted habits. Visit the author at dramyjohnson.com.
51
Although we bear an
extremely wide variety
of experiences, they all
stem from thought.
Stressful circumstances don’t make your
habit come to the surface. The only thing
that can ever make you do your habit is
acting on the urge (the thought) to do your
habit. The only thing that determines your
habitual behaviors is the way you relate to
the thoughts that pass through your mind.
Isn’t this excellent news? Because nothing
outside of you can make you do your habit,
there is nothing out there you have to
change or avoid. The only change that has
to occur for your habit to become a thing
of the past is a change in perspective—an
insight. New Thought Because the river of
thought is always flowing and experience is
ever changing, new thought is possible in
any moment.