When my young grandchildren come to visit once or twice a year they are soon into my arts and crafts supplies, creating away!  Every time they finish a picture, they begin anew on clean paper. Who wants to keep drawing pictures on top of one another, a scribbled mess? Or painting petunias from now on just because last year that was a preference? They freely move from one idea to the next, limited only by their imaginations. They deserve that new clean sheet for a fresh new picture and so do we. And we can have one!

Every single day is literally a new clean slate – a new canvas on which we get to draw our lives, but we haven’t been taught how that happens, so we put up with that “scribbled mess” instead. We have regarded past history as permanent, less than satisfactory, with the power to make today inevitably what it is. Those conclusions are completely false – assumed, but unexamined. The  consistency of our  circumstances represents only the unfortunate way we were programmed and conditioned, not the truth of our brilliant, loving nature and the new possibilities eternally available when we change our minds.  Our brains are like computers; until programming is changed, we will continue to get the same results.  So change, we must! 

So how does this unhelpful programming work? The thought patterns that keep us feeling small or undeserving is unwittingly providing raw material for a major law of living: “What we pay attention to, inevitably increases.” Therefore, our prevailing thoughts today, being the focus of our all-powerful attention, determine the way our world will show up today with no reference at all to a previous and absent past history. Just as a mirror reflects only your outfit this moment, each day faithfully reflects what we believe/ think today. Yesterday’s clothes don’t show up in the mirror today! Since life is unfolding, being “painted,” moment by moment from within, our top priority is to recognize and discard the fear-driven, inaccurate ones and adopt the true and loving ones. 

Science confirms this constant renewal of our experience. For instance, the body’s fifty trillion cells, each with DNA in the nucleus, are alive sentient beings “listening” intently to what we're saying, thinking, believing, taking for granted, and presuming is true. In short, where we place our attention. Not only are they “listening” carefully, they're responding by orchestrating our three-dimensional lives.  Nearly impossible to believe, new studies have proven that DNA responds to thought, creating our daily experience – the outward pictures of our inward set of thoughts and beliefs. 

Then there is the amazing world of the 3D printers. Raw material goes into the “hopper” and out comes a three-dimensional object. Although the same raw material is inserted, the product created is highly variable – a fountain pen, a plate, or an artificial limb for a six year old – depending upon how the printer is programmed. Quite mind-boggling! Everywhere we turn, this same equation: a singular input with infinitely varied output, depending on programming.

Our intent, programming, and focus of attention is, therefore, crucial. Life potential is going into a “hopper” of sorts, filtered through our particular early conditioning, providing the blueprint or request, and the result is a faithful equivalent of our thoughts and attitudes. Therefore, every single day we have the power to declare a new kind of day. It is exciting and liberating to realize we don't have to keep recreating the past. It has no power over us, but we have enormous and ever present power to change our minds. Just as the little ones don't have to keep creating replicas of everything they've drawn in the past year, we don't have to keep recreating the same unsatisfactory situations over and over. Our days will simply morph automatically into a happier, more abundant life, one day at a time, as we choose loving thoughts over fearful ones and prefer peace over conflict. No matter the state of our lives at any point, or any age, it’s a blessed relief to realize we're given a fresh start each moment to “paint” that new life, and we can take advantage of it, or not. Thankfully, our choice.

An excellent way, among many, for accomplishing the necessary rewiring of the brain so that a new way is possible is through the practice of A Course In Miracles, ancient wisdom adapted for our modern times. If one practices as suggested, it guarantees a happier, safer, more deeply peaceful life –definitely a new clean slate!

Carol Howe is one of the original and most respected teachers of A Course In Miracles. A personal friend of co-scribe Bill Thetford, she wrote his biography, Never Forget To Laugh. Throughout her 40 year career with ACIM, she has guided many thousands on their journey to inner peace. To download a free copy of her latest book The Best Guide Ever to A Course In Miracles, visit https://www.carolhowe.com/p/ebook. www.carolhowe.com. www.facebook.com/carolhoweacim.
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