You know the saying, The world doesn’t revolve around you?

Thing is, it actually does.

We’re all our own little universes, creating our lives according to our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. As such, everything we see and experience is a reflection of those beliefs.

This is both good news and bad news.

On the plus side, once you realize this incredible fact and take responsibility for it, your life can get superwonderfulamazing. As you consciously shift your beliefs in a more positive and constructive direction, your reality mirrors that shift. Also, as you align more and more with the Divine, the Energy animating this marvelous process, the positive and constructive elements of your reality can move into some truly mind-blowing dimensions.

That’s a pretty beefy plus column.

So what’s the downside?

There are a lot of different ways to describe it, but bottom line?

Personal responsibility.

It’s up to you to shift your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. It’s up to you to align with the Divine. In this fun little Earth Experience we’re all participating in, free will is built into the playbook. Indeed, it’s a fundamental element of the whole endeavor. You get to choose how to govern the world revolving around you. Do you want a crappy world? Or a happy one?

It takes energy and effort to make changes. It takes awareness. And commitment.

When you look around at the world, what do you see? Struggle and strife? Sadness and apathy? Joy and harmony?

It’s easy to get caught up in the illusion that what’s around you has nothing to do with you. This is particularly compelling when it appears that something or someone outside you is doing something you don’t like.

I hear you: What could possibly be compelling about something I don’t like?

Well, remember the whole personal responsibility thing? We all have a part of us that doesn’t want to take responsibility. Particularly when it’s responsibility for that whole world revolving around us.

That’s when being a victim of someone or something can feel better. Or at least easier. Even though it’s not.

Take me, for example. (And given that I’m the center of my world, it’s all about meeeeeeee!)

One of my major filters is that of criticism. When someone says a teeny weeny little critique to me, my filter distorts it into a scathing condemnation. This is, as you can imagine, not very fun. (Indeed, I could launch into a scathing condemnation of my filter, but that would be – as I’ve established – Not Very Fun.)

When I was an intern in a counseling program, many moons ago, I had a client who was challenging for me. I’ll call her Mary. In our first session, Mary said she didn’t know if I should be her therapist because she thought I was too young. In subsequent sessions, Mary often argued with me and rejected my feedback. In my mind, she was intensely critical of me, and I dreaded every session with her.

Because Mary was my most difficult client, I had my supervisor observe one of our sessions. While Mary and I talked, my supervisor was behind a one-way glass mirror, watching and listening to the entire session. In my post-session debrief with my supervisor, she noted how much Mary liked me. My supervisor said that yes, there was some mild critiquing and resistance on Mary’s part, but her attitude toward me was mostly one of affection and trust.

This blew me away. It was one of the most striking examples of my filter that I’ve ever had.

I was in a psychology graduate program at the time. In the work I was doing there, I had uncovered my filter. And here was a powerful real-life example of my filter at work.

Does this mean that I’m now totally hip to the hijinks of my filter? Does this mean that I’m never tripped up by mild critiques that turn into harsh attacks inside my mind?

It does not. I forget all the time.

But I know that the filter is there. That’s the important part.

Just the other day, Melissa offered a mild critique that my mind turned into a harsh attack. As we were talking it out, I remembered my filter. And I was able to dial back the Harsh Meter from a 10 to a 1. As I did so, my world went from one of condemnation to one of harmony. Just like that.

You know how I said that the effort and commitment required to take responsibility for our thoughts was the downside of the Earth Experience?

(Did you already forget I said that? I won’t take it personally. I won’t translate your memory lapse into a complete and total disregard for my existence. No worries!)

In truth, the effort and commitment required to take responsibility for our thoughts is ultimately the upside of the Earth Experience.

We can discover our filters. We can be on the lookout for their distortions and release them. We can create lives of harmony and beauty, filter free.

The world revolving around you is stunning and marvelous. It always was. Can you see it?

What’s your filter (or filters)? Share your comments below!

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