Turn on the Light

Improving our lives might just be simple, if we let it. We can upgrade all kinds of old patterns and situations in a much shorter time than it took to create them.

Before we can do that, however, we have to let go of the notion that healing takes a long time, is hard, and requires pain. Sigmund Freud taught that our childhood programming molds us for life, and is difficult, if not impossible, for us to rise above. Yet a later psychologist noted, "Creative minds have been known to overcome even the worst programming." That psychologist was Anna Freud -- daughter of Sigmund.

A student asked the spiritual teacher Abraham if it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. Abraham’s answer was swift and incisive: "You have no idea what an old dog you are." Our true self, Abraham explains, runs deeper than any programming we have learned. As spiritual beings, our nature as wisdom and love provides us the strength to transcend the limits we have adopted. [...]

If a rock has been submerged in a stream for 30 years, it takes only a few minutes or hours to dry out, not 30 years. If you turn on a light in a dark room, it does not matter whether the room was dark for ten minutes or ten years; it is just as light now.

You are light now, and part of you always has been.

--Alan Cohen