Have you ever wondered why only a few individuals reach the pinnacle of their personal success while others never fully realize their most basic dreams and ambitions? That's what Julie Chrystyn discovers in “The Secret to Life Transformation”: how to achieve your visions of success and claim your destiny now. An excerpt.
The power of a transformed mind
Nothing gives us more pleasure than accomplishing something previously deemed impossible. The spirit to achieve lives within us, drives us to heights and distances beyond what we can see, hear, and touch. We know that there is more to life than what we perceive with our senses. We are uncomfortable and unsatisfied when we feel disconnected from the realm of the supernatural.
Poor education and trips around the mountain for years or decades have left too many people without hope or purpose. However, an age is slowly but surely dawning when people’s desires are meeting their destinies, and they are manifesting them into reality in great numbers. Such has always been the master plan. In Genesis 1:28, God instructs us to “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
According to Webster’s, to have dominion means to rule or have the power to rule; to have sovereignty and sovereign authority. In legal terms it means having ownership. Now, dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth — that’s quite a gift and responsibility! And it does not say “some of you,” or “a select few,” or “the chosen ones,” but every single individual that God has created. Yes, you have dominion over every living thing on earth.
In 1900 the philosopher and author William James wrote: “The human individual…lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.” James examined our “habit of inferiority” and stated that we operate under subconscious, self-imposed limitations and never even come to this awareness. Others have built on his insight, labeling the many ways in which we restrict ourselves as “repression.”
We view the world through the vision of our own thoughts and beliefs. Thus, there may be a vast distance between what is real and what we perceive to be real. At the end of the day, the fundamental truth is mind-boggling. Simply stated, we do not merely observe and interpret reality; we create it. You’ve heard the expression, “You are what you eat.” Well, in reality, you are what you think. Depending on your state of mind, this is either welcome news or an absolute bomb. However, you start to create the life you really want only when you comprehend the nature of reality and begin to consciously direct your thoughts. Realizing that you live in a vast, infinite universe of energy will become the turning point in your life.
It was certainly the turning point in mine. As an immigrant child struggling at every conceivable level in a new and strange world, with parents whose primary struggle was to put a roof over our heads, food on the table, and to provide a decent education for my brother and me, worry became the constant drumming backbeat of my life. My father taught me to believe that if I didn’t struggle and sacrifice, our very survival would be at stake. I considered worry a way of life, and if for a moment I didn’t worry, I worried that I wasn’t worrying and felt like a sluggard! Needless to say, this led to a lot of anxiety, illness, and a lack of prosperity and happiness. I don’t fault my parents. I never did. They did the best they could. I always knew that they had my best interests at heart, but eventually the burden became so enormous that I had to learn the truth and create a very different reality for myself. This was no overnight accomplishment. But if my father were alive today to see just how far I’ve come, the shock of it would probably kill him.
So many people fall prey to the lie that life is just what we have now, that it will always be predictably this way. Whatever problems and issues you are focusing on right now will be your problems and issues tomorrow; you are perpetuating them into your future. You assure your lack of financial security in the future by worrying about the lack of it right now. You guarantee your lack of future success by thinking about all the obstacles that will keep you from getting there. You are aging faster because you are quite aware of how a modern, stress-filled life is causing you to age prematurely. Examine your thoughts and review the life you have created. If you say to yourself, “I can’t do that,” you won’t. On the other hand, if you assert to yourself that what you want is possible, that what you want is attainable, and that what you want is something you deserve, it’s a just a matter of time until you find the means to achieve it.
Success is energy. Fame is energy. Love is energy. Failure is energy. Illness is energy. Gucci shoes and a brand-new BMW are energy. So is your beat-up Toyota. A lack of motivation and excitement about your life is energy, as is the thrill of knowing that what you are about to do will rock the world! I often witness this in a magical seven-year-old girl I know. If you told her that we were going to visit a concentration camp, she would say, “Oh, boy! Let’s go to camp!”
What is out there is determined by what is within us. This theory was demonstrated by the great Nobel laureate and scientist Werner Karl Heisenberg, who discovered one of the central principles of modern physics. It was named after him: the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Heisenberg demonstrated that on a subatomic level, the observer, by the decisions he made, affected the outcome of a physics experiment. This was the first time that the scientific community recognized that the observer and the act of observing were inseparable from what was observed. In lay terms, you can perceive events in your life as you wish, but what you choose to perceive will change the energy of that situation or circumstance, and thus change the reality.
Is science beginning to prove what the Bible has said all along? Mark 11:24 states, “Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them.” It doesn’t say “some of the things you desire.” It doesn’t say “three of the things you desire.” It doesn’t say “depending on when and what you desire,” but “what soever you desire.” If you believe, you shall have it.
I recently ran across a bit of fascinating information. In 1993, a scientifically validated study was undertaken in Washington, D.C., to determine if deliberate and concentrated meditation could have any effect on the city’s crime rate. Even the greatest optimists were floored by the results. During the weeks that just a few volunteers meditated, the crime rate fell by an astounding twenty-five percent.
Is meditation a form of prayer? How worthwhile is prayer? James 5:16–18 explains: “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.”
Jesus taught, “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20). We are further told in 2 Corinthians 10:4–5: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Ephesians 6:18 declares, “Pray in the Spirit of all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints [people].”
The person praying, the passion behind the prayer, or the purpose of the prayer does not matter. The laws of the universe apply to all of us at all times and in all ways. If you don’t believe in the law of gravity, you will still fall if you step off the ledge.
So how should we engage in prayer? There are no right or wrong ways. It is not something that you need to be taught in order to get the desired results. No eloquence or wordiness is required in order to have your intentions known. In fact, Jesus warned against repetitiousness and rebuked those who were not sincere in their prayers. “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans,” He said in Mark 6:7–8, “for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Such power of prayer was well demonstrated in Psalm 107:28–30: “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the seas were hushed. They were glad when it grew calm, and He guided them to their desired haven.”
The power of prayer has overcome enemies (Psalm 6:9–10), conquered death (2 Kings 4:3–36), brought healing (James 5:14–15), and defeated demons (Mark 9:29). Through prayer, eyes are opened, hearts are changed, wounds are healed, and wisdom is granted.
What is your desired haven? How do you turn your dreams into reality? Start by understanding that your thoughts are the creators of all things. You alone are responsible for the energy you pull in. When you are the source of positive thought energy, the same will return to you. Likewise, negative energy will attract its own kind.
It is vital to realize that nothing stands still. It never did and it never will. While virtually all matter appears motionless to the naked eye, in reality there is no solid matter whatsoever. The hardest piece of steel is just a well-orchestrated mass of revolving particles. As we know, the unseen atom is nature’s building block, from which come trees, stones, my cat, and Christian Louboutin stilettos.
All matter is in a constant state of vibration — it literally moves nonstop. The molecule consists of fast-moving particles we call atoms, and the atoms are made up of fast-moving protons, neutrons, and electrons. Within every single particle of matter lies an unseen force that makes the atoms circle around each other at an unimaginable speed. A single rate of vibration produces sound. Our ears can only detect the sound that comes from twenty to twenty thousand cycles per second. As the cycles increase, they are manifested as heat. Further up the scale, vibrations or cycles register in the form of light. This includes the invisible ultraviolet rays and energy with a wavelength of an even higher order — it cannot be seen, but it sure can be felt!
Progressing up the scale, the vibrations create the power, many progressive-thinking individuals believe, with which people think. Whether you subscribe to biblical teachings or science—it is certain that thoughts are energy. To take a lesson from chemistry in this instance, we may conclude that the only differences between thought, sound, heat, and light are the number of vibrations per second. It also means that thought travels, imparts energy, and has consequences.
Perhaps Alexander Graham Bell posed the question best: “If the thought waves are similar to the wireless waves, they must pass from the brain and flow endlessly around the world and the universe. The body and the skull and other solid substances would form no obstruction to their passage, as they pass through the ether that surrounds the molecules of every substance, no matter how solid or dense. Thus, you ask if there would not be constant interference and confusion if other people’s thoughts were flowing through our brains and setting up thoughts in them that did not originate within ourselves?”
Many of us claim to be independent thinkers, but how often is that truly the case? In the course of any given day we are usually bombarded with negative thoughts, scenarios, and energies. Some originate within us, but many are absorbed from external sources. Friends, professional associations, casual encounters, the media in all its forms — they are all informing us of what is happening in the world, or they are entertaining us in such a way as to redirect our thoughts and alter the course of our intended thinking. They influence us by telling us what is worthy and what is not, who is hot and who is not, what is the best medical care, food to eat, clothing to wear, car to drive, and deodorant to use. Add to these the office phone, e-mail, cell phone, and text messages, and all become woven into reality. These thoughts are the metaphorical electrical currents that cannot be seen, but whose effects can certainly be felt.
All the external influences that we internalize cause us to become who we are. How much of a conscious hand have you had in creating who you are today? How many of us invest the time to raise our own consciousness enough to practice discernment, to distinguish what is required for success and happiness from what are merely effects of the outside influences, manipulations, and persuasions that engulf us? At stake may be your money, your vote, your action, or even your passivity as part of a desired mass consciousness designed to keep you low, quiet, and out of the way. Once you become a programmed worker ant or are locked into a predetermined mind-set, it becomes very challenging indeed to be self-sufficiently content and prosperous.
Of course, as you become more of an individual and more in command of your own thinking and actions, more people will direct their thoughts and their energies toward you. This is what Bell was talking about. The pendulum can swing in any direction — some people will admire you, some will be jealous or slanderous, some will hate you and plot against you, and some will love you and open doors for you. If you are a doctor, people will place a certain burden on you. If you are a politician, you will get the blame for all the ills of our nation. In any event, the ability to nurture your own sense of self and determine your own course of action will be tested. It is not enough to transform your mind and your actions. It is necessary to reaffirm this transformation at every turn. It is easy to be derailed, but the true test of consciousness, of awareness, and of your truly transformed self is how well you absorb these attempts at derailment and continue to assert your needs, your thoughts, and all the things you deserve.
Excerpted from “The Secret to Life Transformation” by Julie Chrystyn. Copyright (c) 2009. Reprinted with permission from Dove Books.