The Art of Revision

Regardless of your circumstances, you have dominion over every thought or idea in your mind, and do not need to keep yourself stuck in a state of being that is not serving you.  You have the option through the use of your imagination to revise your perception of the events of your day or life.

The problem is most of us are not in the habit of exercising this option.  Instead, we spend our time rehashing the less than stellar events of our life.  We gossip, complain and lay blame on people and conditions outside of ourselves.  Somehow we have come to believe that continually talking about a problem or situation will make things better.  It doesn’t.  It keeps us tethered to the state of mind that reflects to us the events and circumstances we don’t want in our life or world.

Let me give you a simplistic example of what I mean.  I was coaching an individual who began telling me about an injury she had sustained while exercising.  She told me she was seeing a physiotherapist for it and after three months it wasn’t getting any better.  As we talked, she began telling me how she thought the injury happened.  Over and over again, she provided me with different scenarios.

Here was the problem.  In her mind’s eye or imagination, she was unconsciously re-enacting the injury.  She assumed that if she figured out what she did wrong then she would be assisting herself in her healing.  Unfortunately, instead of changing her perception of the incident, she was reliving it and trapping herself in a pattern in which she was reinjuring herself vibrationally.  It is like picking at a scab.  It will never heal as long as you keep opening it up.

I suggested that she forget about the why it happened and go back in her mind’s eye and see herself completing the exercise without incident.  In other words, rewrite the script and revise the scene.  If you change your perception of the event in the present moment, you will affect both the past and the future.

Instead of locking incidents and events in your memory banks, there are numerous ways you can revise the events of your life.  It can either be done at the end of the day or you can revise the event at the moment it happens.   Personally, I prefer to do it as soon as the event happens.  For example, last week I was inline skating along the Ottawa River and my mind was not focused on the task at hand.  I hit a stick on the path and ended up flat on my butt.  Upon picking myself up off the ground, I immediately went into my mind’s eye and reconstructed a new movie of me skating past the point where I had fallen.  No injury and the skate continued as usual.

Whether you do it immediately or at the end of the day, the principles you apply are the same.  So I will give you the process at night.  As you lay on your bed at the end of your day, begin reviewing your day.  Do not judge it because that will start your mind going down numerous pathways.  Simply review the entire day.  In your mind’s eye look over all the events, conversations, correspondence, and meetings you had throughout the day.  Now in your mind’s eye take those events in your day you would like to change.  Rewrite the script and make it conform to the type of day you wanted to experience.  If you had a run-in with your boss or partner, recreate the story.  Give it the conversation you wanted.  Run the new story through your imagination over and over again until you are satisfied that the imagined state takes on tones of reality.  At that point, let it go.

What you will discover in doing this is that the imagined state will change your interactions tomorrow.  The change that takes place within you will affect the situation.  Do not just be readers of this article; test it for yourself.  In the doing, you may be pleasantly surprised.