Whoa. Big claim in the title alone, I know. I am not here to disappoint. I am writing this late at night after being woken up by ceaseless streaming ideas being beamed to me from… somewhere high above my bed, let’s just leave it at that. Anyway, what do I mean ‘changing your perspective on life’? It has been said that everything is a matter of perspective; you are either an optimist, a realist, or a pessimist, right? What if I told you that it’s possible to always be an optimist, and not be annoyingly overly positive about every situation? Would you believe me? Read on to see for sure.

First of all, WHY should we change our perspective on life? What is so wrong with it anyway? Let’s start by debunking some popular myths that our culture has bestowed upon our psyche:

1.) Every Man for Himself

This one was tough for me to overcome. Regardless of how connected you feel to others, no matter how compassionate towards others’ problems you may be, there is still a slight feeling of loneliness in the world, isn’t there? Especially in our own company, it may seem like we are truly the only ones around, so why shouldn’t we only be concerned about our own wellbeing? I’ll tell you why; because you are only alone inside your own head. The quote should really be “every mind for itself” for then we could separate ourselves from identification with mind and focus on what we really are; light beings experiencing a physical reality to learn all that unconditional love is NOT. That being said, we are all in this together, because scientifically and spiritually speaking, we ARE all together, always and forever. Separation is an illusion.

2.) Life Happens to Us

It is said that life gives us lemons and so we can either make lemonade or fuck the lemons and bail. I do agree in some sense that we have a choice to accept what is given us or reject it, but let’s explore a little deeper here. When I say what is given to US, I literally mean us, not each individual. You see, life isn’t an individual experience, but rather a complex web of interaction that constantly ebbs and flows, affecting each individual differently. The common thread is that we are ALL affected by each and every event in our shared reality; the difference comes when you get to the perspective of these events from each being. More realistically then, life happens, we all experience it, and then create our own interpretation of the events that take place. When we do this, we are also sharing in the creation of the experience and will even influence others when we share our perspective. This sounds complicated, so I will explain more later.

3.) We Control the World

The banks, corporations, land owners, wealthy elite, and all those with personal property would have you believe that you can OWN pieces of the Earth. This is a bold faced LIE. We don’t own anything here in our fleeting existence on Earth. We ARE the Earth, and the Earth is us. We don’t own ourselves do we? The body you are in right now is on loan from all the compounds that make up our physical reality. When you leave that body, the molecules break down, becoming fundamental building blocks once again, then forming another being or part of the Earth for use by her creations. You don’t own jack shit. Therefore, you don’t control anything either. The one thing you do control, which isn’t very tangible, is of course; your perspective.

4.) There Are ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Days

What the hell are days anyway? A measure of time for how long it takes the Earth to make one full rotation. That’s it. So what is time? An arbitrary measurement established long ago based off the ‘movement’ of the sun across the ground and the shadows it created. That’s it. So give up caring about time. Give up counting the days. Just be. Then you will see that there are no good or bad days, there are no good or bad events, there are no good or bad people. These are just labels that your mind has placed upon experiences you have in order to categorize and easily store them in your memory banks. The labels are usually formed long before you are cognitively aware of them; your parents, society, friends, and personal experience will cause you to use labels if you are not conscious of why you are using them. Once you realize you are, you can let the need for labeling go and focus on living in the present moment.

5.) Weeks=Work, Weekends=Relaxation

What a load of horse crap. While I do appreciate the 5 day work week established by the striking unions around the time of monopoly busting in the US, I am not a fan of how that has shaped our society and our social lives. We find ourselves in an environment where it is only acceptable to work your ass off for someone else during the week, get drunk on the weekend to forget about how hard you worked and how much you hate your job, try and recover from a nasty hangover by eating shitty greasy food, and then go back to work on Monday and do it all over again. Why has this become the norm? When did people stop caring about their own personal desires and giving all of their energy to their superiors? Why do we even have superiors? We are free beings who know no boundaries of national borders, property fences, building walls, cubicle spacings, clothing, or flesh. Nothing can stop us from achieving self-realization except our own mind. That is the only thing establishing the limits you place on yourself. So to hell with the work week! Start relaxing when you want and working on the things you want. You’ll find the Universe conspiring to help you quicker than you’d ever imagine.

Now that we’ve debunked these societal myths, let’s talk a little more in depth on how to change your perspective.

Reject Pessimism

The first step to take toward changing your perspective is to give up being negative. When your mind strays towards a fear you have, a creeping doubt, a lingering regret; let them go! Easier said than done, right? NOPE! You have the power to stop thinking negatively, all you have to do is tell yourself that anything negative is a LIE. Yup! That’s it! Your mind, or more accurately, your ego, will always tell you that what you have is not good enough, that you need more, or better things. In reality, you have exactly what you need, and that’s why we must accept realism in order to move further down this path.

Accept Realism

Once we have rejected all negative impulses as lies from our ego, we can begin to see the world more objectively. We see things for what they are. We see through the facade of makeup, advertising, fake smiles, and theater curtains. All of these are merely masks people put up to hide their true selves, mostly because they are scared to see it themselves, let alone anyone else see it. But guess what? You have the power to see beyond this physical limitation into the true essence of all beings and the true meaning behind events if you just accept things as they are. Don’t sugar coat it; reality is realistic most of the time, so accept realism.

Embrace Optimism

I know I just said ‘don’t sugar coat it,’ so how could I possibly follow that up with a paragraph about embracing optimism? You’re about to find out! To embrace optimism is to connect with the unknown; to let your imagination soar into the furthest reaches of the Universe. We possess truly unlimited potential in our beings, so embracing optimism is to realize that potential, tap into it, experience it, manifest it, and bring it into the physical reality. We all have this inherent ability, all it takes is a bit of an attitude change and a much different perspective than the one you might have currently. Just like in the Law of Attraction; energy flows where attention goes. This means our attention is responsible for what we experience directly through our outer surroundings and inner presence. That experience can be negative or positive, depending upon the perspective of the observer (which is YOU). As I said earlier, YOU determine your perspective of the experience, therefore determining your interpretation while experiencing it. No one can tell you how to view any experience, so it is up to you to decide how you will do so. When you consciously decide to be POSITIVE about the experience you had, you can see the full lesson you were meant to learn, therefore accepting REALITY, and ignoring the nagging doubt instilled from the NEGATIVE ego.

Try changing your perspective next time you feel sad, or lonely, or angry, and see what happens. Just the process of consciously becoming aware of how you view and react to situations will help you in experiencing reality fully; as a learning opportunity and not as some kind of punishment or futile effort to find out the meaning of life. The meaning of life is to live it; when you start doing that you will forget about any pursuit of happiness and just start being happy. That is what embracing optimism is all about- realizing that you are already in a state of overwhelming joy and everlasting bliss; you just forgot for a little while. Hopefully this piece has helped you remember more of who you are and has brought you closer to experiencing a complete shift of your perspective. Thank you for reading. Until next time loved ones! Namaste.