Sometimes when I bring up a deep or complex subject, friends joke that I have too much idle time on my hands. That’s actually not true, with writing, making art, building and urban design research and other creative endeavors, I’m rarely without something thing to do. However, it is true that I think about and explore the mechanics of life, pondering the whys, hows and what ifs. I discovered that living in the question was more interesting than struggling to find THE answers in a dualistic world where the opposite is also true. 

I’m dedicated to understanding life’s creative process. How does Creator create? I want to emulate that process. While in deep inner explorations one day, I observed that by changing my thoughts, my feelings changed. I also discovered that my circumstances changed in response to my thoughts and feelings. Thoughts and feelings of my separateness produced challenging circumstances. Unifying thoughts and feelings produced enjoyable circumstances.

This discovery was quite empowering. I now imagine stepping outside my mind and becoming the objective observer of my thoughts and their resultant feelings.  I imagine my thoughts as frames on a never-ending film strip. I observe each frame of the movie in my mind’s eye. When I see a frame with a unifying theme I focus on it while allowing other frames to pass by. Observing the recent political debates has provided excellent opportunities for me to practice this technique. I have found that I can hold my thoughts and feelings in balance (mostly) without being polarized to any one side. In this neutrality, the place where new outcomes are created, I feel self-empowered.   

Self-empowerment begins with having dominion over my thoughts.  Dominion is different from control. Dominion is rulership of oneself. Having dominion is the feeling of knowing in my core that I am an individual extension of my Creator. I think, feel and act guided by Creator’s unifying love. This doesn’t have to be serious or pompous. I’ve come to enjoy laughing my ass off when I recognize the absolute silliness of my perceived separateness, when I’m angry at another or feel victimized. I enjoy the thoughts and feelings that bring tears to my eyes when a profound moment appears on my internal movie screen.

Dominion is a cultivated art form. I’ve practiced rulership of my thoughts and feeling for years. Practicing self-rulership during this political season presented me with a challenge and Lord knows how I love a challenge. If I allow myself to be sucked into the extreme divisiveness of this political campaign season, I sacrifice my self-authority.  If I believe media commercials that tell me I need their product to be whole, I’d constantly be lacking something.  I’m grateful that I can travel to a place within me where my thoughts and feelings testify that wholeness is my natural birthright. I claim it.

Imagine a world where each of us claims dominion over our own thoughts and feelings and following Pablo Neruda’s words of wisdom, “Changing the world is an inside job.” The societal implications are staggering. If we’ve created a world of struggle and chaos from ego’s fear, deprivation and separateness, imagine the world of beauty, abundance and freedom we could create from our focused and sustained thoughts and feeling of Unity.