In life, if we really want it, then we have to build it.
Of course, we can dream about it, think about it, and plan it. However, at some point, we have to take the plunge and actually build it, whatever ‘it’ is.
Think, talking, planning and conceptual things are cheap and easy. However, the real work starts when we have to turn those things into reality, whether it is physically building a house or writing a book, it takes commitment.
Committing to things is a challenge as the mind will do whatever it can to minimise any risk for its pal, the Ego, and will come up with any manner of complexities, dramas, and reasons to stay safe and carry on thinking…something the mind is good at and loves, thinking.
Sometimes we just need a simple thing or reminder to wake us up and get us into this moment now. Now is the only time we are actually alive, it is the only moment of real life, in fact, our entire life consists of now. Therefore, we can only build something now and that requires us to be conscious, awake and aware of this moment, so that we can focus our energies on the doing, instead of the conceptual.
Naturally, as an artist, I have a brightly decorated and coloured skull on my desk as my reminder that at some point, I do not know when, that’s what I’ll be, a skeleton. By the way, It’s not a real skull, it’s made of polystyrene. Well, actually it should be a jar of dust, as that is the destiny for all of the 8 billion humans alive today at some time in the next 50-100 years or less. The point is it will happen, so stop thinking and start creating. Build your dream NOW!
Here are some thoughts…surrounded by great family and friends, sitting in the armchair in my studio writing, doing some volunteering at Plawhatch Farm, doing art at the desk in my studio, walking the dog in nature, sitting under the pergola having a tea and meditating, playing games, listening to music, exercising, swimming in the sea, cycling in nature, reading and listening to books and podcasts, blogging, writing poems, writing a book, selling my art, coaching people, fixing up the house and making things, oh and travelling and seeing my friends.
What do I have now?
I have an amazing, loving, and beautiful wife, I have a steam train that runs along the bottom of the garden, I have a beautiful studio in the garden that I made with Oliver (my son), and I have amazing incredible and unique children who bring me great joy and pride, they make me laugh and teach me a great deal, I have food in the fridge, money in the bank (no begging letters please it’s pretty modest tbh!), I am healthy and I am looking after myself better than before, I have given up alcohol – 8 years + now, I am committed to improving and growing, I have amazing friends, I have fantastic and totally crazy pets and an amazing house, I have the best car ever made and it takes me wherever I want to go, and it’s not a Ferrari or Porsche, it’s 20 years old. I pick fruit and shop at the amazing bio-dynamic farm down the road where we get super healthy food from.
OK, the things I want I can do all of this now, oh yeah, I am doing it now. Actually, the life I want, I already have, therefore, stop seeking something else. Stop the suffering, stop the negative resistance to what is, stop the burden and pressure on myself and others, just be grateful for what you have and focus on that and growing that to become even better. I have had an amazing journey, I have the gift of life right now, so anything that happens now and in the unfolding moments is a total gift and a bonus.
Instead of constantly looking for more or different I am going to focus on what I have and that is it, there is nothing else to worry about. Now it is all about seeing every single thing as a bonus and that everything is just an adventure and a new lesson or meeting a new teacher.
Life is a gift, I have had fabulous gifts right up to this moment and everything that is coming my way is another gift, every single breath is life itself, I am life and I am going to accept all that comes and I am going to be at peace with it all and let life unfold each moment and only focus my energy on now and on creating the next adventure and enjoying the journey, the doing, and not the thinking.
I have everything that I will ever need to be happy, peaceful, joyous and I can create whatever I want whenever I want and the only hurdle in my way are the ones that I choose to put there. I alone create my own reality, I manifest exactly the life I want, I am in my own projector room and I choose what film I put on, and I choose to watch that film or change it for another or create a different one completely. There are no restrictions on what I can do.
Gabrielle Bernstein said ‘we are not responsible for what we are seeing, we are responsible for how we choose to perceive what we are seeing’. We manifest our own reality.
All I need to do is allow the creations I want to come from my soul and use the tool that is my mind to create the beliefs, thoughts and actions that will turn the dream into a reality.
I will manifest the life I believe I want, so if you believe in a life that matches your dreams then it will be. It will be that now, not in the future as the future does not exist and the only time we can experience anything is now, so now is your life, so change it now to what you want and you will have it now.
What is around the corner has not occurred and never will, it is only a creation of our mind. What occurs next is what will occur according to what we and others are choosing to manifest, so we control what we do, but not the other people, the weather, the events that others create, the changes in anything other than what we directly do.
I am sitting here after a morning swim in the sea with a friend and my wife, then I have had a lovely healthy lunch sitting in our garden amongst birds, bees, flowers and in the enriching rays of the sun, I am now sitting listening to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga sing classic songs on my armchair in my garden studio that I built with my son to do art, write and create all things in, and I am writing this blog.
That is my life now and it’s exactly what I want it to look like. The end of seeking and suffering from believing that my life isn’t what I wanted. The trick now is to remember this and apply it to life. I suspect anyone reading this also already has the life they want and they have all they need and if you don’t you can change it right now if you choose. Just stop looking and enjoy it now.
Philip Dodson 