When you try to improve your internal state by changing your external reality first, then you will meet conflict and resistance.
When you try to improve your external reality by changing your internal state first, then you will meet success and cooperation.
- Carl J. Schroeder, Feb 28, 2014; www.HowToMakeHeavenOnEarth.org
Explanation: I'm going to start sharing the daily slogans that come to me from Spirit, as an obvious way to make this inspirational website even more active, interesting, and helpful. I've been a little too perfectionist in holding back a lot of ideas until I make the complete essay or best poster to express them.
Today's slogan refers to how reality will change only when it needs to, based on the changes you've already made inside. Too many people make the mistake of trying to make themselves feel and think better by changing the world around them. They quickly hit problems, and then conclude that the world is against them. But this is just how reality works, so you don't have to take it personally.
Even when people make the internal changes that bring true peace and liberation, they may be surprised at how long remnants of the past still hang around. They think: "I felt such a big change in me, shouldn't the whole world reflect this overnight?" This apparent failure of reality to respond positively can cause people to doubt their personal transformations. They may even backslide and return to the security of fighting familiar old problems, which is always an option because we do have that free will.
If you find a way to truly feel and think better, then hurray for you, this is real! When you're not reacting to situations the same way you used to, when you're responding with more compassion and insight to all of life, then you can be sure that you have truly changed. The reason why reality might not change as quickly and fully with you is because reality is highly efficient. Nature will not spend the energy of changing until it absolutely needs to, for example because you simply can't take any next step until something moves.
If reality isn't changing overnight for you, ask yourself what really matters anyway. If you're not being stopped from working toward your goals, if there's another way around and more change would just be a matter of pride or convenience for you, then what you're really looking at is your own controlling ego. And if you stay in this place, you'll know, because more and more serious blockages will will start showing up, including people with obvious ego problems. At that point, you'll rest assured that you have not really changed, and you have more work to do to improve your internal state.
Better to be anonymously successful than famously failing; better to have private success than public failure. Reality may not acknowledge you as much as your ego would prefer to feel secure, but you'll be able to continue on your way to ever rising levels of satisfaction with your personal life, which is after all where you really live. By mastering your internal state as the source of your own experience, you will enjoy amazing synchronicities, miracles of support, and the endless variety of great friends who share your deepest values across this garden universe.
