As a young man, I was naturally drawn to books about motivation and the powers of the mind. Despite my very limited understanding at the time, I read Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill; Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude, by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone; and The Power of The Subconscious Mind, by Joseph Murphy. Intuitively, I understood that the degree of our success must be related to the following quote, attributed to Henry Ford: “Whether you think we can or we think we can’t, we are right.” .
In an effort to help you manifest more of what you desire and less of what you don’t, I’ll share one of my biggest misunderstandings. It still may be yours, without your being aware of it. Here it is: I thought I was the person, Art Russell, and that “i” was the doer of my actions. Such is only understandable, for we are conditioned to believe such from the day that we appear. Spiritual Newsflash: I Am not my body-mind; nor are you. I Am Spirit, aka Consciousness, Primordial Beingness.
The truth related to the New Thought movement is that any thought which is habitually impressed into the mind (with feeling) will inevitably lead to the apparent manifestation of that thought. Thinking of failure (by those who believe that life is happening outside of them–independent of their mind) leads to apparent actions that fulfill that thought pattern. Conversely, thinking of success (by those who realize that we–as Spirit–are intended to be in control of the thoughts that emanate from us) leads to apparent actions that fulfill our definition of success. We understand how this can possibly be the case when we realize that all of this–including this article, right now–is occurring in a dream. We, as humans, are not autonomous as flesh and bones. Rather, as the Bible clearly states in Acts 17:28: “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”
The author of Three Magic Words, U.S. Anderson, shares this basic principle through the following quote:
“There are only two things you can do for yourself. One is conception, and the other is conviction. All the work of creation rests with another than you. For no man [or woman] is responsible for anything in his life except his thought and his belief.”
Now, obviously, if you still believe that you are the “person” named John or Jane Doe, this is going to seem ludicrous. A deeper understanding of our co-creative abilities comes when we realize that we are not the body-mind, despite appearances. We are Spirit eternal, dreaming an apparently human life. As such, we are intended to rule the body-mind apparatus. To experience more success in your life, please deeply contemplate the following:
We can only attract that with which we are in harmonious vibration.
What does this mean? It means that we must first claim the spirit of what we desire–greater health, wealth, and success–in consciousness, and habitually BELIEVE that we have it, before it can apparently show up in the dream called “our life.” Isn’t that reason enough to practice right government of the mind? Put Awareness to work–you’ll be glad that you did.
Dare to dream (and care for one another).
With heartfelt regards,
Art
Copyright © – 2022 – R. Arthur Russell
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If you enjoyed this article (originally published in March, 2022, on my personal blog), you can find more of my writing at https://think2wice.me/. My YouTube videos may be found through this link. May the content of either or both help you along your spiritual journey.