John Cali
The other day I was chatting with Grant Connolly of ZPoint. Our conversation turned to the topic of perspective, and how powerfully our personal perspective or point of view can affect us, for good or ill.
The conversation reminded me of an article I’d read a few days earlier. The article, “Turning the Clock Back,” published in Cosmic Lighthouse, was an interview with Ellen J. Langer, Harvard Professor of Psychology.
Dr. Langer talked about a study she and a partner conducted with chambermaids. They were testing whether “mental workouts” could actually improve physical health. Now, mind you, the chambermaids were not told to exercise, eat better diets, etc. — all the things you hear from the experts.
Instead Dr. Langer and her associate simply made the chambermaids aware that their work was exercise. They did not ask them to change anything about their lives — what they ate, how vigorously they did their work, etc. The only change they made was in their perspective, their point of view.
This shift in perspective resulted in weight loss, decreases in body mass, smaller waistlines, decreases in blood pressure, increasing vitality and energy. All of this from doing absolutely nothing different from what they had been doing.
Except changing their point of view.
Here’s Spirit.
Friends, we’ve talked about this subject before. Whatever you want to call it — your perspective, point of view, focus or whatever — it powerfully affects your reality, your experience. In the case of the chambermaids it created better physical health.
This is certainly one of the best examples we have seen of how all of you truly do create your own realities. Whether you do it deliberately through your conscious focus, or by default through negligence, you are nonetheless responsible for every experience of your physical lives.
The idea of being that responsible for everything is daunting and scary to some of you. But it’s your point of view that’s scaring you, not the responsibility itself.
Responsibility brings freedom. When you know you and only you create your life experiences, you are totally free to create (or change) whatever you want. You’re not a victim of someone else’s whims, or of circumstances.
The chambermaids changed nothing about their lives except the way they viewed their work. The results were remarkable.
The principle at work here applies to other areas of your lives also.
Let’s take a common issue for many of you — food. We’ve heard some of you say all you have to do is look at food and you gain weight. Others of you can eat all you want, whatever you want and never gain an ounce.
What’s the difference between these two types of people? Some would say it’s their “metabolism.” But your metabolism is simply the way you flow energy through your physical bodies.
In other words, your metabolism is a direct result of your focus, of your point of view.
You are free to change your point of view at any moment. And in that moment you can change your lives.
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