Earlier this morning, when I went out for one of my normal midweek holiday runs toward KL’s Lake Gardens,  an interesting question made its way into my head.    The question was this.   Is there a place you can go where all of the changes that you want to make in yourself already exist? What was so intriguing about the question was that I never had contemplated change as being a place and that you could go there and find the changes you wanted and then just have the changes you wanted in your life.

If the place exists in yourself, it can really only be in one of two places,  in your past or in your future.  The present actually never really exists even though we would all like to be more present in our lives.  So I thought, hmmmmm,  well the past is where you go to remind yourself of the positives that you already have, so then the place of change must be  somewhere out in the future.    Ok well that is easy enough.  If I want to make a change all I have to do is go out in the future to the place where all change has already been made and then just be there.

Well, it seems that it is not quite that simple.   What I found when I tried to enter the land of change, that very magical place, was that there was someone else in my future, not me.     And then I found myself trying to enter that person’s space and doing the things that person does.  So I asked myself, “What am I doing here?”     The answer was that I was trying to get something from that person by being in that person’s space and doing what that person does.      And then I found myself trying to change that person so that I could get what I wanted from them.       And of course what happened when I was in that person’s space trying to get something,  I not only didn’t get it, but I got severely hammered.

This is where I began to realize that to get into the magic kingdom of change that it can only be about my own self and not about others, that if I try to get others to change for my own ends, that it is going to be disastrous, which it is.

What I find amazing about the space of change in the future is that it already exists.  Whatever change I want to make in myself that is positive has already happened and is already acting in the future.  It is almost like what science fiction calls a parallel universe.   In the present  the self continues to act with the negative patterns that it has acted on for a long time, but out there in the land of change my future self is already acting wonderfully.     So then of course, the big thing is how do I get there?

At almost every dream meeting someone asks my about dreams that come true.   Baha’u’llahs says this in the Seven Valleys.

Now there are many wisdoms to ponder in the dream, which none but the people of this Valley can comprehend in their true elements. First, what is this world, where without eye and ear and hand and tongue a man puts all of these to use? Second, how is it that in the outer world thou seest today the effect of a dream, when thou didst vision it in the world of sleep some ten years past? Consider the difference between these two worlds and the mysteries which they conceal, that thou mayest attain to divine confirmations and heavenly discoveries and enter the regions of holiness.

We all acknowledge the fact that in the dream world things that will occur in the future have already happened.   This means that there is a world out there in the future where things are already going on and it is incredible.   So if this is true, which it is,  then how do I get out there into the change land?

The first thing that most of us have to get over, and this isn’t easy, is the belief that our positive future lies in the good graces of someone else.   It is important that we leave aside the thoughts that other people are going to give us the kind of life that we want.   The land of change just does not work that way and whenever anyone lives like this, it always ends up with horrendous consequences.

The next step is to see the change that you are longing to make, that is, to see your self as having already made the change that you want.    This may be an extremely difficult step because it is impossible to see yourself with the change you want as long as you see another person making your future for you.    Whatever changes you need to make in yourself to solve your current life’s worst difficulties is always available to you.     The first thing to do is to see the changed self in the land of change.    That land is like just being able to walk into it at anytime and then it happens.

Ok, so that step is where most sports psychologists can take their athletes to improve their performance, but it is the next step that is truly remarkable.  Keep in mind that as long as you believe in the pandemic psychological virus that your life is in the hands of another, then none of this is possible.   The doors are shut to whomever is ill with the virus.

The next step is to go out into the future into the self that has already made all of the changes that are needed and live inside that body.    This is like the Holy Grail of change.

Summary:

1.  First get rid of all notions that change happens to you as the result of someone else’s actions, positive or negative.   Throw it out.

2.  Orient yourself to seeing the you that has already made the change you desire.

3.  Go into the land of change and be in the body, like climbing into the skin of  the changed you and then just start acting like the new you. Whenever you get any resistance to going into the new skin, it requires going back to step one and doing the work of finding out where you are putting your life’s hopes into another’s hand.