Let's Play!

As more and more information comes to us from the worlds of science and spirituality, we repeatedly hear that we create our reality. The idea is that the universe is composed of an energy substance in which we are a part of. Therefore, as we are as much a part of it as a drop of water is to the ocean, then we are also the creators of our "reality".

For many this concept is alien. After all, how could we be responsible for creating the world, the people, the cars, highways, trees, etc.? Maybe we might be responsible for saying or doing something to someone else but we aren't responsible for their existence.

Looking at this from a purely Neuro Linguistic Programming standpoint, we would say that what we are responsible for is our "response" to situations, people or events in our world. We have the option of responding to people who annoy us by allowing ourselves to get annoyed or mad or by letting it go. It's our choice how we react to them.

But, what if we played the Cause and Effect Game?  What could we learn? To play, we assume that we are creating everything that happens in "our world". It would be as if we were an actor in a movie or play of our own creation. Any event that came up we would examine as if we scripted it for a reason.

Example: I was driving my daughter to school to school one morning. There were very few other drivers on the road. As I stopped at a red light, I noticed that the cars which had the green light to cross the intersection weren't moving. Looking closer I noticed the first car was driven by an older gentleman who seemed unaware that the light had changed to green. Behind him was a younger man, who was rapidly getting agitated that the older man was not crossing the intersection. As I watch this "scene" the younger man leaned out his window; yelling at the first man. Just as he started to jump out of his car, the older man looked up, saw the light was green and went across the intersection. Needless to say, the younger one appeared pretty perturbed.

As I watched this, I kept thinking, "Why doesn't he just go around the first car? There's no one else on the road—he could just go around." Then, I played the Cause and Effect Game. How did I create this scenario and what did it mean for me.

So I tore it apart:

• There's a car in front with someone who is not paying attention and doesn't go when the light turns green. The key here is "not paying attention".
• Behind him is someone who is getting annoyed when all he had to do was go around. Key is allowing the emotions of annoyance to come up and "all he had to do was go around".

Where in my life was I doing something similar? And sure enough, there was a situation that I was worrying over and getting annoyed about. Looking at it from the perspective of "going around the obstacle", I suddenly realized how I could get around the situation and solve it. There were other options available---I just wasn't paying attention to them.

By playing the Cause and Effect Game, we open ourselves up to other resources or options. Instead of limiting and boxing ourselves in, we discover that we actually are empowered to change our reality.

Begin by looking at events in your life or interactions with others as if you created them to teach you something. Watch it play out as though it was a movie. Examine the situation for clues as to where in your personal life you might be creating/experiencing something similar. Notice your responses or thoughts to the event and then utilize these to resolve your own situation.

You might be surprised as to what you discover. Sometimes the answers are right in front of our noses!