This week we are focusing our attention on the gift of the higher mental faculty of Memory.
How many times have you told yourself that you are forgetful? And how many times have you marvelled at a colleague’s ability to remember things? This may surprise you but you have a perfect memory! Yes, you have a perfect memory, if you work at developing it. Just like the other higher mental faculties we have discussed in this series you can improve each one of them through practice. Over and over again until you become proficient. By working on your Perception, Will, Reason, Imagination you will harness the immense power within each of them, and in the process improve your life. To be, to do, and to have the desires of your heart.
We all know memory as the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, or of recalling or recognising previous experiences, but it is more than that. It is more than just a mental movie reel of your past. It is a powerful tool to help you to create the future you desire. Your memory will be as weak or as strong or as perfect or as imperfect as you allow it to be.
Do you want to easily remember names, numbers, places? I tried out an exercise in which participants were directed to associate numbers or names with all sorts of images including books, paper clips, nuts, calculators, etc. I was pleasantly surprised by the positive results! This method known as ridiculous association or image bizarreness is a method to help you remember facts or information by associating them with a ridiculous or bizarre image. The more vivid, interactive, ridiculous, silly, and illogical the image the easier it is to remember the information. By associating the information you wish to remember with ridiculous or bizarre images and practicing over and over again you will gain confidence in the use of your memory. A good book to read on the subject is ‘The Memory Book’ by Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas.
People maintain and dwell on all kinds of negative memories that hold them back from pursuing better lives. Remember we have said in the past that whatever you concentrate on, whatever you focus on, that’s what you are creating for yourself and your life. “The mind is everything. What you think, you become,” Buddha, “We become what we think about”, Earl Nightingale, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”, Proverbs 23:7. If you are constantly bringing your thoughts back to a negative event, eg, a loss of self-esteem, something you are fearful about, then your external circumstances are going to start reflecting that event in all sorts of ways. You will be attracted to and attract the same sort of characters and situations. You will create a life that reinforces the essential messages of those memories. This is where your Will and other higher mental faculties come in to remind you that you are not the plaything of your past. That your destiny is in your hands and that you are not shackled by your memories.
The exciting thing is that whilst your memory gives you access to your past, it also gives you access to your future! Yes, access to your future goals and dreams. This you do by projecting your memory forward and in the process creating positive memories of abundance in the future. By imagining yourself in possession of the thing you want, you create a profound impact on your subconscious mind. In as much as negative memories have a destructive effect on your subconscious mind, positive memories of future events have a positive effect on your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind does not know the difference between fact or fiction, between now and the future. All it knows are the images it is receiving from your imagination. If it is positive images of abundance, prosperity, health, etc it will see them over and over and will begin to guide you towards those images.
You can download, in your mind, not only what it feels like and is like, to step inside the dream you are having so that you actually become the person who is living that life. In other words, you can bring to life your life as you are imagining it. Remember your subconscious mind does not know the difference between fact or fiction.
Here is a ‘game’ you should try. Stand up and take five steps counter-clockwise. When you get to step number five you will “bump” into this article that you are reading. Pick it up and say,” Gosh! It’s been three years (or whatever number of years you choose) since I read this article!” You are now going to put yourself three years into the future. Everything you had been dreaming of has happened and is happening. In other words, you are in your future. Now say loudly, “So much has changed! I am so happy and grateful now that I have the house, the car, the spouse” (or whatever it is that you previously wrote down as your dreams, goals,). Say it with feeling as if you are in the future, it is important to truly immerse yourself in the exercise. Now write down everything that you are experiencing now in your future. Describe everything in detail from the state of future memory. Your future self will inform you of information that your current self needs. It will also give you some helpful ideas which your current self can use because it’s already done in the mind of the Infinite. The universe has already got it accomplished and all you are doing is downloading it into your current reality.
Now imagine the writer asking you this question, “What do you know now that you wish you had known back then that would have made it way easier to get what you have now got?” You will be amazed at the answers you will get such as “It was way easier than I thought it was going to be”, “Everything showed up at the moment that I needed it”, “It happened so much faster than I thought it was going to”. Whatever answers you get be sure to treat them like a real treasure, it’s absolute gold! That future self has information for you to use right now. It collapses time, it opens doors, it makes things easier, it is gold from another realm and it makes it yours today.
Ah! Your memory, that wonderful gift that is all yours for you to use as you please. The more you use it the more confident you become. The more you use your higher mental faculties the more you move in sync with the future that you want.
Join me again next week as we discuss the final gift, the gift of Intuition.