“Thoughts are like information data programmed into a computer, which are then registered on the screen of your life. If you don’t like what you see on the screen, there’s no point in trying to erase it. Thought is the cause; experience is the effect. If you don’t like the effects in your life, you must change the nature of your thinking. Love in your thoughts creates love in your life. That is the meaning of Heaven. Fear in your thoughts creates fear in your life. That is the meaning of Hell. Changing the way we think about life causes a change in our experiences. To say, ‘Lord, save me from hell,’ means, ‘Lord, save me from my fearful thoughts.’ The altar of God is the human mind. To ‘defile the altar’ means to fill it with unloving thoughts.”
Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love
If you are already familiar with the model of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (ABC), it will be easy for you to recognize the similarity between it and this text—namely, that thoughts are the primary fabric from which our reality is built. Therefore, if we want to change the reality we live in, we need to change the way we think.
However, there is something more—it is necessary to change the attitude with which we pray.
“(When) I got into some terrible mess, I remembered that all I needed was a miracle, a ‘shift in perception.’ I would begin to pray: ‘Lord, please help me. Heal my mind. Wherever my thoughts have strayed from love—if I have been controlling, manipulative, greedy, or ambitious—whatever it is, let me see things differently. Amen.’
And the Universe heard this and ‘Presto,’ there was my miracle. Transformed relationships, smoothed-over misunderstandings. But then I would return to the old fears that had brought me to my knees the time before, and I would repeat the mistake. I’d get into some emotional catastrophe, find myself on my knees again, ask God for help once more, and return to the fold of sanity and peace. Finally, after many repetitions of this battered scenario, I said to myself, ‘Marianne, the next time you find yourself on your knees, why don’t you just stay there?’…
Let’s not pray for a new job, a new relationship, or a new body. Let’s pray for a new life.”
Marianne Williamson
