JORGE RODRIGUES SIMAO

I was walking through the mall when I saw a photo booth at one of the kiosks. 

A large green screen hung as a backdrop and the photographer had her subjects stand in front of it in various poses.

After taking the photo, she used a computer to paste it into a scene.

You might then look like an alligator wrestler, a snowboarder, a hapless adventurer getting run over by his own jeep.

What you see is not always what you get.

People are not always what they seem.

It’s easy for others to paint an inaccurate picture either to impress or manipulate us into doing what they want us to do.

Understand that while many, even most, of the people in your life will be honest, there will be those who will paint a false picture.

They will claim to have an experience that you don’t; they will claim to know the secret of how to live your life; they will claim to be something they’re not.

They will try to use their self-exalted position to control and manipulate you.

Be aware of people who would manipulate you by pasting themselves into a false background or the scene.

Don’t just take things at face value.

Take your time, as much time as you need, to see what the real background is.

Most of us get misled from time to time. Sometimes people con us.

Other times we trick ourselves. Let go of naïveté.

In the 1980s, Shakti Gawain wrote a best-seller, Creative Visualization. She talked about the powerful impact of using your mind to imagine yourself in some activity before actually doing it in reality.

Visualization has been a self-help tool that’s been around even longer than that. Many people in all walks of life, from therapists to sports professionals, agree that seeing yourself doing it beforehand is the best way to do it well.

We can use the tool of visualization to help create matter out of spiritual energy, simply by spending quiet time during our meditation focusing on what we want, seeing ourselves having it, doing it, touching it, and feeling it. 

A visualization is an important tool. It’s a gift when we can see ourselves doing something and then having that activity manifested in reality.

Visualization only works if you use it. Make it a regular practice in your life. 

Visualize yourself living with one of your dreams. 

Visualize yourself doing something you’re nervous about doing. Take a few moments and run through the entire scenario in your head, until you can see yourself doing that thing calmly, clearly, and successfully with all obstacles cleared from your path

I always wanted to be a lawyer, professor and writer. Long ago I talked to my God of Israel about it, then asked God to bring it to pass if that dream was from Him.

Within twenty-four hours, I had my first writing assignment from a newspaper. I got paid fifty Euros a story, and I’ve been writing ever since. Sometimes, we get a vision of ourselves doing something.

We might get an inkling or even have a dream where we see ourselves doing something in the future.

We might get a feeling that we’re about to become diplomat or astronaut (more difficult). Or we might have a dream in which we see ourselves moving into a new country like the United Kingdom.

We might be driving by a neighbourhood one day and get a special feeling that it would be right for us to live there.

We might get a hunch about a career-oriented event.

Some people think these little hunches or dreams are our soul’s way of remembering what it came here to do.

We see a flash: a dream, vision, or a special feeling of what’s coming next. Maybe your dreams about what you want and what you’d like are more important than you think.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. - Basho

One of the dangers of following a hero is the temptation to emulate them too much instead of walking our own path.

A friend mine quit his job and started his own company when he was twenty-four years old. Five years later he sold out for millions of dollars.

We want to be like him so we try the same thing and go broke. What happened? Is the universe against us? No. We just got confused about the difference between learning from a hero and trying to walk his path.

The path of my friend may have led him to start a company; your path may also lead you on that course, just not at the same time in your life.

We can still learn much from our heroes and the people we admire. Just be aware that their path and time frame may be different from ours. When the time comes for you to start that business, learn a new skill, enter into a relationship, or whatever you’re hoping to do, the experience will be there.

The experience will be ready for you when you’re ready for it. Your timing may be different from everyone else’s.

I know people who got married after knowing each other for only two weeks and then stayed mostly happily married for more than thirty years.

I know people who date each other for years and still can’t decide if they’re ready to commit. My friend made the transition from living in the Midwest to living in New York in months. We each have our own stride and path. And while many of our lessons are similar, each of us is unique.

If we spend our time trying to emulate a person rather than an idea, we’ll at best be an inferior version of our teacher and at worst will never discover our own path.

Their stride will be too long or too short for us, and we won’t learn the true lesson, which is to trust our inner guide. Gautama Buddha found enlightenment while sitting under a banyan tree; Milarepa found it while living as a hermit in a Himalayan cave.

Gaining enlightenment isn’t an exercise in following a person; it’s an exercise in following your heart.