By Debora McDermed

Welcome to the quarterly article series on the three principles that create our experience and show how to live and work in possibilities and hope. Thanks to all who signed up to receive the articles; feel free to pass them on to whoever might be interested.

I have been teaching about thought, noticing thought and working with thought since 1999. It is one of the gifts of creating our experience that everyone seems to understand and recognize. Over the years the understanding has varied from positive thinking to mastering thought to "The Secret" and "The Law of Attraction." All of these approaches to thought have some value and have brought some desired results. Yet, there has been both an increase in effort and frustration when life doesn’t change and a tendency to blame ourselves or others for disappointing outcomes. As frustration has increased and world events have escalated (in a so called negative direction) it has given the appearance of a missing link.

Recently I immersed myself in this understanding once again and I realized that the missing link is the Power of Thought. Focusing on the content of our thoughts, the tone of our thoughts, the commensurate feelings that result from our thoughts, was keeping me and many others in a "spin". The spin was followed by an urgency to find techniques and new programs to discover a new answer.

So as we enter a new "time" change and fall back, I thought it would be wise to visit a deeper understanding by returning to the basics.

The gift of thought is one that comes to us naturally … like breathing it is part of our design and not within our control. As a check, see if you can tell what your next thought will be. Clearly thought is natural and its nature is to flow easily, without obstruction. Now notice that with each thought comes sensations, pictures or sounds that show us a certain reality - often referred to as our perceptions. Simultaneously, or following close behind each thought, there is an interpretation which sometimes occurs as a feeling - or even more strongly - an actual event. This is the moment to moment experience of our lives and an amazing feat if you simply stay present to the Power and not get lost in the content. By this I mean that each thought, or series of thoughts, creates a reality for us that is the nature of the Power of Thought.

Most of us notice this after the fact and we are always playing "catch up" to our thoughts and the experience that comes with them. At that point, we tend to forget this gift and mistake it for something real. Thoughts are actually energy in motion and, in the pure formless state, are neutral. As a wise teacher said to me recently, "Although it may appear that the world is changing before our eyes – it is actually our thoughts that are changing and thus giving us a different world." In other words, we change from the inside out.

So how do we go before the fact of thought and return to its power with a less contaminated version? Well, that is the subject of our next article.

In the meantime, become more interested in this gift and power and less interested in its form or content. Become amazed at what an incredible gift it is and be aware of its creative possibilities in your work and in your life.

Fall back on its power and enjoy the view – the advent of winter.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.