Living the Life Imagined

Living the life imagined. What thoughts come into your awareness as you consider, “living the life imagined?

There is a paradox to this statement that I want to bring to your attention, at least I believe there is a paradox.  However it remains for you to decide if this is the case for you.

The paradox is this, when we think of living the life imagined, most of us, if not all of us, will immediately go to that amazing, incredible, wonderful life we envision with everything that we desire being fully lived and experienced.  Right? Well of course we would.   Why would we imagine a life full of challenges, difficulties and suffering?   What would be the purpose behind that?

Most would imagine a life more wonderful than the one they  are experiencing,  full of joy, happiness, love, prosperity and abundance.  So where’s the paradox?  The paradox is this, “the life we are living is the life imagined” otherwise we would not be living it.

Consider this for a moment.  How much time and energy do you spend imagining the wonderful life you desire?  On occasion maybe, perhaps when you are a little down and need to get away, even if only in your mind.  Or when you see something or have a particular experience that feels really good.  Maybe when you see someone else living life in a particular way and you wonder what it might feel like to live as that person lives.

Now consider how much time you spend imagining the challenges, worries and concerns of each day, week or month?  How much time do you spend on what might happen, and usually on what might happen that is not a pleasant experience?  How often do you catch yourself in fearful thought?   Don’t get me wrong I am not suggesting you have these thoughts intentionally it is just where your thoughts go when unattended.

When we imagine life and its challenges and difficulties we think not only that it is possible but it is inevitable that it will be that way.  We actually feel the fear, sadness, angst of that experience even though the event has yet to take place. We also create the same experience when we think of past events. We bring forward our feelings of that past experience as though it were happening now in this moment.

Why is it that even though we have all created a present moment experience that has either been pulled from the past or pulled from the future that we are reluctant or unwilling to accept the truth that we are creating that experience. In fact, that we are responsible for how we experience life.

If we are capable of creating a present moment experience that is not occurring in the moment yet has all of the physical aspects of it being a present moment experience, why do we not take full advantage of this gift of imagination and creation to experience the life we truly desire in this moment?

I find it intriguing that we don’t readily see and accept the truth that life is a reflection of our thoughts and beliefs about life.  If a person’s thoughts dwell mostly on what is challenging or difficult about their life, their life experience will reflect these thoughts.  They will draw to themselves opportunities to reinforce their belief that life is difficult and challenging.   If however they spend their thinking moments on the goodness of life and all that it has to offer they will draw to themselves opportunities that reinforce the truth that life is good.

The intention of what was stated above isn’t to imply that one’s life will be free of challenges.  Life is full of challenges (opportunities) that we create for our personal expansion and understanding of SELF, but that’s a different topic to be discussed in a future writing.

The point is that we are in charge of how we think.  With the gift of imagination we can create any life experience we desire, and in fact do.  And as has been pointed out earlier a lot of what we experience is what we have pulled either from the past or the future. We imagine the experience in the present moment and we live the experience in the present moment even though it is not actually happening in this present moment.   Our opportunity lies in imagining  and creating consciously the experience we desire in the moment, being in this imagined experience as often as we can which will result in how life is reflected to us.

How different would your life experience be if you consciously spent time imagining the life experience you truly desired with all of its attendant feelings?  Consider that when we allow ourselves to imagine life in a better way, truly as we desire it to be, we only allow ourselves to think about it for a brief period of time.

And when we do imagine this better life we quickly default to a thought that this would be nice but it isn’t something that can or will happen for me.  Instead of feeling the joy and happiness of that imagined life we feel sadness and are resigned to the fact that it can’t be.  For some reason we don’t even consider that it might be possible.  Why is this?

When I suggest imagining the life experience as you would like it, I am not suggesting you just think about it, I am suggesting you think from it.

How does one think from an imagined experience?  This is done by placing oneself in the midst of the experience, feeling it, seeing it, experiencing all that it is within your imagination as if it already is.

We already know we can experience the fear, sadness and stress associated with imagining those things happening at some point in the future even though the actual event has yet to take place.  Yet we don’t allow that same experience when it pertains to the goodness that life has to offer.  We don’t allow ourselves to feel, really feel and experience the joy, happiness and fulfillment that is ours, not just at some point in the future, but in the now moment.

As an example; on a regular basis I place myself in the midst of my successful coaching practice. I feel the satisfaction of knowing how someone has benefitted from our work together. I feel the sense of joy I experience doing something I love to do and for which I get paid quite well.  I feel and experience the excitement of that moment when my client has that aha experience that from that moment forward has dramatically changed their life and perhaps the lives of those around them forever.

I don’t think about how they will feel or think about the way I feel when I have this experience. I feel the way I feel when I am having this experience even though it is being experienced in my imagination.

It is in consciously investing these creative moments in my SELF through the imagination process that I receive the dividend of living my life imagined.  Note that I said consciously, because whether I do or don’t imagine consciously the result is still the same, I live the life I imagined.  I don’t know about you but I would much rather live the life I truly desire and consciously create than the life I create through default.

The question is not, can you live the life you imagine, for you are. The question is “will the life you live be that which comes from conscious creation or default?” Imagine what life can be and it is.

Until next time,

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