We are often asked, "Why is my child hanging out with 'bad' friends?" Or "Why do I keep falling for abusive men?" Or "Why do I keep doing business with people who cheat me?"  Those questions arise from one deeper question: "What is it about the state of mind I live in that attracts me to the 'wrong' people?"  Everyone lives in a range of feeling and understanding that they would call "normal."  People who live at the same level we do feel safe and familiar.  So our own security and peace of mind determine our associations.  As we change, some drift away and others are drawn in.  If we want "better" friends, we deepen our own understanding and find more peace of mind.  Then it happens naturally.

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Everyone has guilty thoughts. Some people get stuck in guilt and never lose the feeling. Others experience guilt and make amends if possible, or learn from the experience it's related to and move on. Guilt is a feeling that informs us we have done or said something that we realize was not right or caused harm. It is healthy to experience the feeling, reflect on the source, and clear it up. It isn't healthy to go on and on harboring guilt over things from the past which we cannot resolve or change. We act on the thoughts that make sense to us at each moment in life, given our state of mind and level of consciousness. The gift of growth in understanding is to see beyond thoughts that no longer make sense.

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Psychology is a product of early 20th century interest in studying the soul and the mind.  The word psychology has its origins in Greek words meaning "the study of the soul."  As scientific methods -- focus on the measurable -- became the focus of study, Psychology abandoned the immaterial, immeasurable soul, calling it the purview of Religion, and focused on behavior, which is measurable.  With that, we lost the understanding that a soul at peace would generate different behaviors than a soul in turmoil.  We lost focus on the spiritual source of thought and started defining people by the outcomes of their thinking.  The Principles bring us back to the Source, a Feeling of deep connection to the universe.

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The essence of The Three Principles is that everything in the world originates from Spiritual Energy formed into thought.  The Principles belong to the Spiritual realm; they describe how the energy of life works and what creation is.  Often, when people hear "spirituality," they think religions, but religions are the form the energy of spirituality has taken.  Often people mistake spirituality for a learned behavior: they take certain actions or define themselves certain ways to show they're Spiritual.  But Spirituality is not a designation; it is a truth of life.  We are all spiritual beings; everything created arose from the Divine Intelligence of the Spiritual realm.  We discover our spirituality in a beautiful feeling of ease and contentment.

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Most of us grew up being told that humility was recognition that we were "mere mortals," or that humility was a set of behaviors -- modesty, consideration for others' feelings and needs, being grateful.  The Principles describe a universal fact: we all come from the pure energy of life, and before we use our gifts to think and see our thinking as our reality, we are all the same.  Pure energy; pure potential to think.  Humility is our own insight that that is true: we are distinguished by our unique thoughts, but the universal capacity TO think is the source of our understanding of humility.  Anyone can change.  We are all equally free and capable of changing the thoughts we create and thus changing our reality.

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People are always asking us to "define" Mind, Thought, and Consciousness again, or put them in different words.  If you're trying to "figure out" the Principles by looking at the words, you can easily become frustrated and confused.  Definitions are the intellect trying to figure things out.  Look to understand how life works through us, from within us.  Experience the life force that is our spirit in action, recognize how real our thinking looks and feels to us, and how quickly life looks different and we feel differently, as our thoughts change.  We never come to the end of understanding the Principles, but as our minds quiet, we get a deeper and deeper feeling for what they mean to each of us.

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We've all done it -- looked for an expert, or a highly recommended source, or a certain book, or a guru, or a technique, to find the answers to our deepest questions.  No matter how hard we look, we end up still confused or uncertain.  For many, the search goes on for a lifetime.  Looking outside of ourselves for understanding will never lead us to peace and certainty.  The Principles explain that we are born with everything we are looking for.   Divine Mind, Consciousness, and Thought, the pure energy of life before personal thought, draws forth wisdom; when we look within and "see" wisdom in action, we get insights, our own answers to our own questions.

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The Principle of Thought describes the absolute power every individual has to create their own experience of life.  We do not experience anything we have not thought, whether it's a memory, a fear, a desire, a pain, a recognition, a profound insight.  Until it enters our mind as a thought, it has not happened for us.  The good news is we have free will, and we can allow thoughts to pass, think again, look into quietude for new thoughts, turn old thoughts over and over in our mind, dwell on painful thoughts, play with fanciful thoughts, imagine a new direction.  Realizing that life truly is all thought is the key to our peace of mind, happiness, and enjoyment of life in the moment.  It is our freedom to change.

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A misunderstanding that arises from talk about the Principles is the idea of "listening for a feeling" or "following your feelings."  When we create thoughts, images in our mind, Consciousness allows us to recognize our thoughts and to understand whether they are helpful.  Our feelings provide feedback.  When our thoughts are producing negative feelings, that tells us it is time to quiet down, clear our heads, take a break from our personal thinking.  When our thoughts are producing positive feelings, we can trust our thinking and take our thoughts to heart.  Our feeling state is not something to indulge or examine, but simply a guidance system to let us know when we need to quiet down.

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