One of the books that I have listened to that has helped me along my journey is "As a Man Thinketh" by James Allen. It teaches that to have the life you desire you must learn to control your thoughts or to be more mindful of what you're thinking... or, how Oprah once said it..."live in the present moment".

Allen believes, and now I believe too, that it is our own thoughts that can make us live in "hell" or live in "heaven". Many people are led to believe that heaven and hell are literal places where one goes to after death. But this thought is in err, rather heaven and hell are your present state of being...here...now... and in this lifetime. Our universe, this Matrix that we live in doesn't discriminate on bad or good. It doesn't understand "bad" or "good" because there is no such thing. These ideas of good and bad are a social construct. Our universe only sees the contrast. Hot and Cold. Light and Dark. Black and White. Chaos and Order.

What is seen as bad or good is based on one's own perspective. That is why a citizen of the "United States" may see a U.S. soldier as good and their enemy as bad. Whereas a citizen of a different country may see that same U.S. soldier as bad. Each of these "opposites" varies by degree as can be illustrated when we say Freezing...Cold...Cool...Warm...Hot...Hotter...Hottest. And this degree is unending and eternal. Some thing can always be even colder or even hotter-- it goes on until infinity.

Nothing is bad because all is of "God"--and God is good. We are allowed to experience life through its opposites.  How can we truly appreciate summer if we don't have anything to compare it to? This is why the Bible states that "God" gave man the freedom to choose his experiences.  How does one choose? By focusing on what you want the most.

I repeat, you give an order to God when you focus on something long enough--whether or not it's something wanted. So maybe your goal is to lose weight but you keep focusing on how fat you perceive yourself to be. You will continue to be fat because this is what you're focusing on. However, if you shift your thinking to envisioning yourself at your goal weight you will start to see your reality change to what you envisioned.

So you have to be very diligent about only thinking about what you want--and not what you don't want. But I think Allen explains it better than I can in this audio book. Watch it here:
 https://youtu.be/ivx3iZhQ9k0


Namaste, Dianna