In the past few months, I’ve read (or listened to) a lot of content from the late Dr. Wayne Dyer. Despite my acknowledged addiction to self-help books, I hadn’t read one of the dozens of books he had written.
When I registered for Hay House Writers Studio recently in preparation for writing and publishing a book, I got access to a seminar Wayne recorded in Maui a few months before he died called Writing from the Soul. So much of what he said there resonated powerfully with me…and reminded me of something Warwick Schiller often says about attuned horsemanship – When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Ding Ding Ding (that’s the sound of my inner compass telling which step to take next), which was to read some Wayne Dyer. So I did.
This pithy saying holds a lot of wisdom.
One way I read it is that I create my own reality by the perspective I bring to a situation. For example, let’s say I believe that horses who act up are being disrespectful (I don’t, but plenty of people do). Then if my horse plants his feet when I’m leading him, I will interpret his action as disrespectful, and that may lead me to be more forceful, to get angry, to “show him who’s boss,” to resent him. He may do what I want or he may dig in his heels, forcing a standoff between us. Any response I make from that place will be unproductive, because while I might get him to move his feet, but he won’t be doing it because he wants to do what I ask.
But what if I change the way I look at things? What if I believe that horses who act up are expressing themselves in the only way they know how or the only way that is available to them? Immediately, my response might shift to curiosity. Hmmm. . . I wonder why Beckham doesn’t want to go to the paddock today? I don’t have to think too hard about it; he would rather eat the lush green grass around the barn than the grass in the paddock. So is he being disrespectful or is he asking me a question, “Can I eat grass here now?” The answer to his question unfortunately is often “No” because I’m in a hurry to do something else. But I have found that just by letting him know that I know he doesn’t want to do something, responding with respect for him but making my request again, he will do what I’ve asked. And I’m not angry, and he’s not frightened or angry. We’re still connected.
Another way I read this saying is more literal. It’s all way above my science acumen, but in the book The Hidden Messages in Water, author Masaru Emoto shows that water molecules response to positive messages by forming beautiful crystals and negative messages by forming unattractive crystals. Can you imagine how much more powerfully a horse or a child or a spouse responds to our positive or negative messaging?
