Have you ever stopped and asked yourself what stands between you and the person you aspire to be? Consciously, almost every person seeks love, success, abundance and happiness. For many people, getting there seems to be a complicated task. Well - it all starts in your brain.

Our thoughts and attitudes create our reality. We have the potency to implement free will in order to control them and shape our reality for the better.

A simple process will help you investigate existing thought patterns that may be standing in your way and blocking your progress.

The Icon of the Divine:

"So God created Mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created him;" Genesis 1, 27

This verse, known to us all, demonstrates a fundamental universal law:  As Mankind was created in the image of its Creator, it echoes the creator's attributes.  Let's focus on one property: the capability of creation - the creation of our own reality.

The existence of all things materializes in the same process: thought - word - deed.

Thoughts Create Realities:

In order to create something, we have to think it first, express it, and do it.  The final outcome of our thoughts manifests in reality - "positive" (constructive) thoughts create good realities, and "negative" (destructive) thoughts create failure and misery. The catch is in the first phase of the process: The primary thought.

If you examine some of the events in your life, you may realize that things did not always turn out the way you wanted. The cause is the thoughts that created these outcomes.

The most common piece of advice, to "Think Positive" may become an ominous task when we decide to make changes in our lives. The technique of examining one limiting thought at a time comes in handy when we try to loosen the big "knot" and simplify the process.

Untying the Perplexity:

The first assumption is that when a thought is roaming around uncontrolled in your mind, it takes on a life of its own and creates unpredictable outcomes. Thoughts have great power, as you may already understand, therefore, the first step is to isolate them and confront them using a creative method.  Let's compare a mass of thoughts and ideas to a swarm of mosquitoes - when a cloud of enraged

The very same goes for "negative" thoughts - thoughts that have been stirring in your mind for ages without being handled and have accumulated power that affects your life.  You may not be able to physically "smash" such perceptions, but you can look them in the eye and say to yourself: "This is just a thought". In doing so, you will abolish their power over you.

Manipulating a Thought:

Now - let's examine a thought, an attitude that you have about yourself which inhibits and blocks an aspect of your life. It's helpful to do it in writing: seeing your thoughts written on paper will validate them and help you observe them more clearly.

The "proclamation" or statement is the basic attitude that you have concerning a certain issue in your life.  Many restrictive thoughts/statements that people have are: "nobody takes me seriously" or: "I am not so good with money/relationships/parenting" or: "I am unworthy" or: "this is just too big for me", "I am too young / too old", "I can't lose weight",  "I just can't stick to a job", "I'll never make it", "men are not attracted to me", "I have no charisma", "I absorb too many insults" - and so on - an infinite list of debilitating irrelevant thoughts that can only obtain similar results and do not serve us in any way.

Examination:

Look at one single statement and ask the following questions:

• 1. What is my statement? (Write it down)
• 2. Is it true? How do I know it's true?
• 3. How do I feel when I think like this?
• 4. Is there any reason for me to keep holding on to this thought? (What do I gain by maintaining it?)
• 5. Can I see any reason to release this thought? (What do I gain by releasing it?)
• 6. How would I feel without this thought? (How would I feel about myself?)
• 7. What would this thought look like when reversed? (For example: A statement like: "I'll never make it" would become: "Of course I can make it".)

This method reverses the thoughts which you considered as "truth". Playing with a statement, attitude or thought and reversing its meaning will help you realize that thought is a controlled substance; it gives you the advantage over them. The examination process will keep you focused without getting off the track. Manipulating a single thought and breaking it down will show you that it's "Nothing but a thought". You can list the ideas you had about yourself one by one, embrace the constructive - "positive" attitudes and decompose the "negative" - irrelevant ones. As you realize that handling your thoughts is like a "game", you always have an exit point: After your way of thinking changes, you will never be able (or want to) go back to the same pattern. By doing so, you take away the power from unwanted thought patterns that hamper your success.

Your Divine Self:

You are the Boss. Having a spark of the divine within means that you are the one who makes the choices, consciously or unconsciously. Become the master and creator of your own circumstances. Be conscious of your thoughts and bring them into the light, as they create your reality. Take the control back over your mind.

Thoughts Illustrated:

Artist Orna Ben-Shoshan deals with the subject of thoughts and ideas throughout her creative work. Many of her metaphysical paintings illustrate the thought process and bring this abstract concept into a visual form.

Her painting titled "The How to Teller" illustrates a few concepts of idea exchange: The open hat and the colorful ringed balls. The wooden birds symbolize the thoughts themselves.

In the painting "Bits of Enlightenment", divine wisdom which is symbolized by golden beads is poured down from heaven, registered (or documented) and captured under glasses.

The painting "The Thought Trapper" depicts a protective figure who captures floating thoughts in a basket hat. The thoughts are illustrated here as transparent bubbles.

As we can see - thoughts and idea float all around us, all the time. By applying free choice, we can adopt them or reject them in order to create our realities to our highest good.