You Create Your Own Reality.
- Anonymous
How can someone say "You Create Your Own Reality?" Are they crazy? Yet many wise people have expressed essentially this idea. What is going on?
I say that there are two kinds of reality - the reality of facts, and the reality of experiences. At first glance, one would be inclined to think that facts are the basis of everything, but much that is important cannot be dealt with using facts.
When you argue with reality,
you lose - but only always.
- Byron Katie
To deny the facts would be illogical.
- the character Spock in the television series Star Trek
The Byron Katie and Star Trek quotes address the reality of facts. A fact might be that you were fired from your job last Friday. That is reality, and nothing you can believe or disbelieve or argue about changes that fact - that reality. Whether you believe your dismissal was unjustified doesn't change the fact. Arguing with this kind of fact is illogical, and causes you to suffer needlessly
Now, moving to the reality (or unreality) of experiences, when you were fired, you might also have believed that you would never get another job, or that your children would starve, or that your mother would think you were worthless, or you might have begun to believe that you were now worthless. These beliefs exist outside the realm of facts. The first three of these deal with the future, and thus can either become true or can become false - depending upon your actions, among other things. Your own thought of your worthlessness can be changed in an instant by simply altering your perception of yourself and your value.
Regarding experiences and perceptions, there are no underlying facts, and thus the idea that "You Create Your Own Reality" is not only correct, but of great practical importance in motivating you to believe in yourself and to take actions that create material benefits, as well as joy, in your future.
Here are three more quotes on the idea that you can control how you experience life, and that the future is altered by how you choose to experience the present.
What others say and do is a projection of their own reality.
- don Miguel Ruiz
All that is real is seen with the heart.
- Vivian Greene
Your thoughts create your reality.
Your mind is more powerful than you know.
- Neale Donald Walsch
Further reading: How to Cope With Life
Overcome Being Negative
Abundance or Scarcity? Love or Fear?
Truth isn't True. Reality isn't Real.
Coping with the Impossible