And in the end, that seems to me to be the core of all our desires: the freedom to be able to enjoy our life and be a contribution to the whole in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, as best we can for as long as we’re here. How things ultimately turn out isn’t up to us. It never was. But if we do our bit and play our part, it’s

Understanding that we’ll always get back online when our thinking slows down takes the pressure off – it’s not up to us to manage our state. This allows us to take advantage of our state of mind when it’s high, stay in the game when it’s low, and not waste much mental or physical energy trying to change, control, or ‘fix’ it in between times.

The simplest way to gauge your current level of consciousness is to tune in to your feelings. When you’re feeling low (angry, frustrated, stressed out, uncomfortable, unwell, etc.), chances are that your level of consciousness has dipped and your view of yourself, your life, and the world is relatively limited. When your mood is higher and you’re

recognizing the role of Thought in creating experience makes us less inclined to run amok when we’ve gone offline. Instead of blaming our job, our partner, our kids, or the universe in general for our problems, we recognize that but for our thinking, we’d be having a completely different perception and experience of our situation.

To put it another way, everything we experience in life is a function of three spiritual facts: we are alive, we are aware, and we think.

While most of us are aware of Thought at the level of what we think about life, we tend to be unaware of how much of life itself is created and maintained by Thought. Much of what appears to be solid and real is actually part of the illusion of our personal thinking.

My thoughts are clearly the impostors, creating the illusion of reality all around me while the truth is right here inside.

the moment we stop fighting with ourselves and others about what to think and instead focus on the miracle that we are thinking, the details of life begin to work themselves out, all by themselves.

the brilliant Principles-based psychiatrist William Pettit.