One of my proudest moments of late was the day I got a call from my daughter to tell me she was completely changing life direction.

"I've thought about it," she said, "and life is too short to not do what I've always wanted to do."

The decision to switch focus to Marine Biology means that school will take longer now.  She has to start over in some respects.  But there was so much passion, clarity and excitement at the decision, that I felt an immediate surge of happiness within me.

I realized that is the feeling of unconditional love for another person.  When all you want is their happiness.

It was only later that I noticed something else. Something even more significant.

As she heads further along this path, the love for what she's chosen to do has literally infected everything and not only is she enjoying the required classes, but describes them as "easy". 

And yes, we are talking about math.

Now somehow I don't think they lowered the math standards.  What's going on, I think, is that doing what you love changes the context you are working in and therefore changes your experience of whatever is in front of you.

If that's true, then it has to be true for anything.  You will experience whatever is in front of you depending on what you bring to the situation.

You can try this out by consciously deciding what you will bring to a situation. You can decide to make your next commute 'joyful' or your next laundry day 'magical' and see what happens.

When I made an LA commute 'relaxed' - I spent the drive looking for reasons to enjoy the scenery and relax.  My mind collected all the information it needed to be content with things and minimized the rest.  I just overlooked it.  Often we say we can't overlook things.  But we most certainly can.  We can decide at any moment what to make important. I find it fascinating how this works.  And the repercussions, if you really consider this, are vast.

I have some good news.  Everything is in your head.

If that doesn't sound like good news, let me explain.  The key to open possiblity lies here.

Consider for a moment, the things around you.  Whatever you look at two things happen:  1) You see it: See a lamp (ignore a wall) 2) You have a name for it.  That is another way of saying you have thoughts about it.   "Lamp" may be a name we all agree on, but you still see your version.  You will find a lamp 'pretty,' 'ugly,' or 'misplaced'.

So, you actually experience the lamp (and the world) by way of your own thoughts. And thoughts show you a world of your own making. 

This does not mean you just imagined all the bad stuff in the world or in your life.  But you do make up the filter through which you view life and that's called Context. (Your pair of glasses!)

Basically, how you speak into the world (and into your head) shapes a context.  You live and move around in that context.  And context is how you interpret what's possible for you. See how this could be good news?

For example, in the context of "the world is flat" you would be a heck of a lot
less likely to sign up for a round-the-world sailing expedition. Yet, it would
be only your thoughts about a 'flat world' that would stop you. Obviously you
couldn't ever really be in a flat world, we know that now.

But, isn't it fascinating you can experience a flat world all the same? Many people did!

All you have to do is think how many people ONLY ever "experienced" the world as flat to see the power of thought and word to create your life. If everyone in
Columbus' day came back to life right now, they'd probably still try to keep you
from getting on that boat.

How you speak into the world (and into your head) shapes a context for what you
do because it tells you what's possible before you are even out the door.

And sometimes it discourages you from dangers that don't exist.

I'm in favor of relieving myself of others' opinions of what's possible. Especially as I can create my own context. Creating a context by telling myself  'lot's can happen', or 'life is for learning' helps me have a more open-ended view of life, instead of a tapestry of limiting thoughts masquerading as truth.

Who do you need to not listen to today?  And what context would you like to create?