3042: My Reality or Yours by Steve Pavlina on How to Examine Your Beliefs

[00:00:00] Have you ever noticed how a calm mind can really set the stage for a good night's sleep? That's the idea behind our new podcast, Good Sleep. Greg, our host from Optimal Relationships Daily, is here to help ease you into a peaceful night's rest with some positive affirmations. And these affirmations aren't just comforting. They can help ease anxiety and nurture positive thoughts, setting you up for true good sleep.

[00:00:25] So press play on Good Sleep tonight, because a good tomorrow starts with a good night's sleep. Just search for Good Sleep in your podcast app and be sure to pick the one from Optimal Living Daily. This is Optimal Finance Daily, My Reality or Yours by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com. And I'm your host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Merriam.

[00:00:52] Welcome back to a bonus Sunday episode. I do this once a week so we can hear a little more content to optimize our lives. An extra episode from one of our other shows where we read articles to you. Today, I'm sharing one from Optimal Living Daily. If you enjoy it, you can follow or subscribe in your favorite podcast app for daily episodes. So with that, here's Justin from Optimal Living Daily as we optimize your life.

[00:01:25] My Reality or Yours by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com. If your belief system is rooted in the concept of an objective reality which we all share, then how could you disprove the existence of other realities where each of us lives in our own little world? From your perspective, it would be a worthy endeavor to prove that yours is the one true reality. From the perspective that we each live in a reality created by our own thoughts and beliefs, however,

[00:01:54] attempting such a proof would be pointless because your belief system requires no proof. Your beliefs are self-proving. You'd only be proving what you're creating, like pointing to the cake you baked as proof that cake is real. You don't need to prove what you're creating. Such a belief system will shape your actions by compelling you to either convince non-subscribers to buy into your paradigm, to label them as wrong, or to kick them out of your reality altogether.

[00:02:22] So if you were to ask me to step into your objective reality and buy into your belief system, I could do it. But it'd be unnecessarily limiting and pointless. Let's say I'm stepping from a 3D reality onto a plane. When I do that, you present the argument that spheres don't exist. Only circles do. I say, well, within this reality, you're right, but there exist other realities where spheres do exist. But you have to believe in 3D to see them.

[00:02:50] If you staunchly believe that your 2D world is objective reality, then you'll never see spheres. I can step back out into my 3D world and I can show you all the spheres my world has to offer, but you'll only see their 2D projections, just more circles. There's no way I can convince you otherwise. And if I ask you to step outside your belief system and take a look around at what lies outside it, you can't do it because your current beliefs include the belief that such a thing is impossible.

[00:03:19] So I see you as trapped and living in a cage created by your own thoughts. And you see me as mistaken, crazy, and living inconsistently with your quote-unquote objective reality. Sort of amusing in its own way. I used to subscribe to the belief in objective reality. I don't anymore because I can see just to what a huge degree my thoughts create the reality in which I live. One day I started thinking, hmm, I wonder if such a thing as spheres exist.

[00:03:48] I conditioned myself to believe in the possibility of spheres even before seeing them. Yes, this is still just a metaphor. I thought that if I was wrong, reality would slap me back. But if my thoughts were at least partially creating my reality, maybe I'd see them. I didn't get slapped back. The spheres appeared. Insert voice of Keanu Reeves saying, whoa. Then I did this some more, and whatever I started believing was nearly possible not only became possible, but actually started to manifest.

[00:04:17] Even stuff I thought was previously impossible. But can I prove any of this to someone who subscribes to a belief in objective reality? No. If I dip a sphere into your world to show it to you as proof, you will only see proof of a circle. I cannot show you the color blue when you see the world through a red lens. The closest I can get is magenta, which for you will not be sufficient to prove the existence of red. You don't have to recreate the same reality you lived in yesterday.

[00:04:45] I know you think you do, but you don't. You have more power than you think you do. The problem is that you're directing your thoughts and beliefs in such a way that you're using your power for the purpose of self-limitation. You believe your thoughts are based on a reality which is independent of your thinking, but that too is a belief, one which you have the option of discarding. The first step is to begin to recognize the feedback loop between what happens in your mind and what happens out there.

[00:05:15] If you're a pessimist and your life seems to be full of pain, consider for a moment that instead of external events creating your pain, it's just the opposite. Your pain is creating painful events. Your belief that life is tough creates toughness in your reality. And you will filter all the joyful, spherical people in your life down to painful circles. You project your own potential joy to a point far outside yourself instead of inviting it into your daily existence.

[00:05:44] You see this as your reaction to events outside your control, unaware that you have within you the power to choose something different. The second step is to begin to take conscious control over your beliefs and use them to start playing with your reality. Change something in your mind and see how it manifests in your external world, even without your direct action. One of the best places to start is within the area of synchronicity, i.e. strange coincidences that go way beyond their likely probabilities.

[00:06:14] Intend and expect a surge of synchronicity in your life this week to show you evidence that your thoughts are creating your reality. Then just go about your normal routine and see what happens. If you expect this experiment to fail, it will. But if you can open your mind to the possibility that this harmless experiment might work, I think you'll see some interesting results. To the degree you hold on to your belief in an objective reality, you'll still be able to explain these events as mere coincidences or random happenings,

[00:06:43] but it may serve to loosen your grip on the cage bars and lead you to become curious enough to conduct bigger thought experiments down the road. What if your thoughts are indeed creating a reality? Can you not explain everything that has already happened to you through this paradigm? Does your job make you stressed? Or does your stress make your job? Does your relationship make you happy? Or does your happiness make your relationship? Does this blog entry you're hearing make you think about these concepts?

[00:07:11] Or was there something already within your consciousness that made this audio appear in your reality as a manifestation of your own thoughts? You don't need a reason to believe in something which doesn't yet exist in your reality. Your thoughts can do more than just reflect your reality. They can participate actively in its creation. Belief is an act of measurement only to the degree you think it to be so. But by your conscious choice, it can also become an act of creation and manifestation.

[00:07:39] If you disagree with any of this, you don't need to disprove it. You are free to simply create as falsehood for you and to continue living in a reality where such things are false. And if you agree, then most likely it's because you already exist within a reality where such things are becoming possible or are already manifesting for you. You just listened to the post titled, My Reality or Yours?

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[00:09:04] Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com slash OFD today. That's rocketmoney.com slash OFD. Rocketmoney.com slash OFD. Thank you to Steve. He's one of the original personal development writers. This article was written over 15 years ago and still so relevant today. What I love about this one is that it's not going to hurt to try,

[00:09:32] especially with his example of expecting coincidences this week. That's not going to harm you in any way, but it might open your perspective up a bit, which we can all use. And I think the key, with his example at least, is never to be mad that someone is, say, living in 2D while you're in 3D. And in fact, I probably won't even say it that way because it sounds like you are a level up on them. Instead, let's say, don't be mad that someone is wearing red lenses when yours are yellow. I think what's important is realizing we're all wearing lenses.

[00:10:02] If mine are yellow and you relate to a lot of what I say and read here for you, maybe yours are gold or like a lemonade color, something close to yellow. Then there are other people wearing blue and green or purple, pink, maybe rainbow, who knows? We shouldn't be mad about that, but try to understand their perspective, all while trying to get closer and closer to other colors so we can have a better understanding of others since clear lenses likely don't exist at all. But I'll leave it there for today.

[00:10:30] Thank you for listening and being here and for subscribing to the show. Please do subscribe for free if you haven't already to get new episodes automatically. Have a great rest of your day and I'll be back tomorrow as usual where your optimal life awaits.