In 1902,at the age of 52, Ella Wheeler Wilcox an American poet, author and philosopher wrote “The Heart of The New Thought”, which offered a way of life and firm belief in the “ Power of Right Thought” at its core. Her approach was practical, clear and forthright. At the beginning of this new decade I find her writing extremely relevant and so I begin this article with an extract from this book written 118 years ago.
“Morning Influences”
“What do you think about the very first thing in the morning?” Your thoughts during the first half-hour of the morning will greatly influence the entire day. You may not realize this, but it is nevertheless a fact. If you set out with worry, and depression, and bitterness of soul toward fate or man, you are giving the key note to a day of discords and misfortunes.
If you think peace, hope and happiness, you are sounding a note of harmony and success. The result may not be felt at once, but it will not fail to make itself evident eventually. Control your morning thoughts. You can do it. The first moment on waking, no matter what your mood, say to yourself: ‘I will get all the comfort and pleasure possible out of this day, and I will do something to add to the measure of the world’s happiness or well-being. I will control myself when tempted to be irritable or unhappy, I will look for the bright side of every event.’
Once you say these things over to yourself in a calm, earnest way, you will begin to feel more cheerful. The worries and troubles of the coming day will seem less colossal. Then say: ‘I shall be given help to meet anything that comes to-day. Everything will be for the best. I shall succeed in whatever I undertake. I cannot fail.’
Do not let it discourage you if the moment you leave your room you encounter a trouble or a disaster. This usually happens. When we make any boasts, spiritually or physically, we are put to the test…
When we declare we are brave enough to overcome any fate, we find our strength put to the test at once.
But that is all right. Prove your words to be true. Regard the troubles and cares you encounter as the ‘punching bags ‘of fate, given you to develop your spiritual muscle.
Go at them with courage and keep to your morning resolve. By and by the troubles will lessen, and you will find yourself master of circumstances.”
Extract from “The Heart of The New Thought.” Publisher L.N Fowler and Co, London, 1902, Author, Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
It has been estimated, conservatively, that we have over 50,000 thoughts a day, with experts working on a principle of roughly one thought per second over 16 hours perhaps including 2 hrs in dream state, totalling 57,600. It is also believed that many of these thoughts are repetitive, well over 80 per cent.
These thoughts, our mind at work, set our perspective of our reality which in turn determines our feelings, emotions and actions. We have to start being aware how easy it is to tell ourselves consistently a story with a low vibration… “ I am so tired, my body aches, I haven’t any energy…” rather than “I love myself enough to give my body some good rest, I look forward to having a relaxing bath and a good sleep and I will wake refreshed.”
The words you choose matter. That isn’t to say we have to go around every day thinking about every word we use but it is indeed as Ella Wheeler Wilcox suggested over a hundred years ago time to put in place how we start the day, set our intentions and stick to them even when we face life’s trials. It is a spiritual gauntlet laid down, a challenge to raise your own vibration by the words you speak to yourself in order to prove and improve your spiritual muscle.
The heart of “right thought” is about the vibration of energy generated by the words we choose and consequently the feelings we experience. The vibrations of different words can be seen visually in the book “Angel Words” by Doreen and Grant Virtue. It records the energy from words such as admiration as opposed to jealousy, accepting in comparison to judgemental, assessing the energy of abundant rather than poor. Some clearly have a consistently higher vibration than others.
We are our own masters; we are full of potential beyond our mind’s comprehension. We CAN begin to be more self-aware. We can use the power of our thoughts, taking care with the choice of words we think and use and also the tone of delivery of the statements that we make. This impacts our feelings which in turn alter our perspective of our reality which can affect those around us and the consequent domino effect can be immense.
In the 2020’s, humanity will face change on a huge scale, in the way we work, the buildings we live in, how we look after our world, our scientific advancements, our beliefs, the way we relate to each other. Amongst all that evolution is a move to look inward, not isolating ourselves, instead to awaken to just how influential we really are in changing our own circumstances.
This decade brings with it a potential turning point in the progression of humankind. It is time for us to stop seeking to find external reasons for our plights. Instead with a bright new confidence look to our own power and wisdom within, wisdom earned through the “punching bags” of life and take this forward to reach for a better reality in our own lives, to help others with what we have learned and to offer our positively powered point of view in service to others.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox was giving us a firm and practical lesson in choosing words in our thoughts that offer a higher vibration than others and encouraging us to constantly talk ourselves up instead of down. This can only lead to the wonders of self-belief, self-worth, and self-love until we are confident of our capabilities and the abilities of others in our life too.
It is time to awaken from the slumber of ‘I am not good enough’ and instead simply start the day choosing a better way to approach life, controlling our internal dialogue and exploring our inner wisdom. Your thoughts matter and raising them to a high vibration will leave you flexing those spiritual muscles and make the 20’s a roaring success!
Patricia McDowall
More to Life Elder and author
