What if daily life is a kind of virtual reality you script with the pictures in your head? Change the pictures, change the script, and watch your reality follow.

In This Article

• How thoughts and words project into “virtual reality”
• The pictures in your head and the outcomes you live
• A practical example of thought shaping the body
• Tools: visualization and “cancel, cancel, cancel”
• From “what if bad” to “what if good,” and from coma to creation

Living in Virtual Reality: How the Pictures in Your Head Shape the World You See

It’s often been said, by others not just by me, that life is a game, life is a journey, life is a school, life is a growth experience. And all of these are true — and furthermore, life is what we make it.

Now some people will squawk at that last one: life is what we make it. It may be easy to agree with “life is a game” or “life is an experience” or “life is a school,” but claiming life is what we make it is a step that's harder to acknowledge and accept. It’s always happening, but when we realize it—when we acknowledge it and claim it—that’s when we enter mastership. Our daily life is virtual reality in masterful practice.

While virtual reality started as a game, as entertainment, it has now crossed into the realm of practicality. It’s used for doctors and medical students to practice operations that they’re going to perform. It’s used in business, it’s used in a lot of different ways. However, the biggest use is one we’ve been doing all along and never realized it. The world we live in — our personal world — is a virtual reality experience.

We are Spirit, or soul, an entity having a physical experience, or what we think is a physical experience, on this planet. But what if it’s all virtual reality? What if, as we’ve sometimes been told about ailments or fears, it’s all in our head?

The Pictures in Our Head

So let’s back up a minute. The pictures we hold in our head are what create what we experience, which is our reality. That’s why it’s so important to be aware of our words, our thoughts, our beliefs. If you believe that things always go wrong, that’s where your life experience is going to be. If you believe you’re going to fail, if you believe you’re going to get sick — whatever the belief or picture you hold in your head — that's what gets projected into your outer reality. And as I’m suggesting now, that outer reality is a virtual reality. We make it up, we invent it, and then we get to experience it.

Last week I wrote what I considered to be a rather playful yet insightful article entitled, “Are Words Tying Us Up in Knots?”. This new article is a more serious continuation of that article, because of course the answer is yes — our words as well as our thoughts are tying us up in knots. And the most powerful, or at least one of the most powerful words that does that, is the word “not” or any form of negation.

For example, you’re leaving on a trip and your thought or your comment is: “I hope the car won’t break down.” Okay, let’s look at that for a second. What’s the image that pops up in your head when you say “I hope the car won’t break down”? The picture of the car broken down on the side of the road. And that’s what you’re feeding into your future virtual reality. Or another common example: “I think I’m getting sick.” Okay — so if thoughts create our reality, what did you just create? Getting sick!

It Really Is Simple!

It’s all so simple when we learn to look at it that way. Unfortunately, this is not something we are taught in those buildings that they call schools, by that curriculum that they call education.

Our greatest education is in the school of life, and as the Apostle Paul taught: “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.” Now this of course applies to life’s actions: if you treat someone badly, if you spew anger at them, if you emit some kind of negative energy, that is what you shall reap. That’s what’s going to be coming back at you. And in the same sense, whatever picture you hold in your head for yourself — that’s your palette, that’s what you’re painting in your world, that’s the virtual reality you’re creating for yourself.

There are so many things we say that then lead us right into a situation that we would perhaps not choose if we were conscious of our power of creation. A common thing many of us say is, “I’m catching a cold.” Now my response to that when I hear someone say it is: “Don’t catch it — let it go.” Because again, since we create our own virtual reality, “I’m catching a cold” sees you doing what? Catching it, of course.

Now all of this is an extension of visualization. Because what is visualization? It’s holding a picture in our mind of what we would like to create. Yet we are visualizing all the time — with our words, with our thoughts, with our expectations. And some of the visualizations, or images in our head, are not creating a happy future. Yet, this is how we create our own future, our own virtual reality that we’re living in day by day.

The Power of Thought

Let me give you an example of the power of thought even in physical bodily experience. Years ago, as I stepped off an empty school bus, I somehow twisted my ankle and heard a loud pop. So where did my mind go? First thought — “Oh, I hope I didn’t break my ankle.” But thankfully, right away my consciousness kicked in and I affirmed, “I’m fine.” I sat down on that bottom step and held that thought, "I'm fine", visualized that thought, empowered that thought. “I’m fine. My ankle is fine. My ankle is strong. My ankle is in perfect working condition.”

I recall right after I fell and heard the pop and decided that I was not going to accept a reality where my ankle was broken, I looked around to make sure no one had seen me because I did not want anybody else’s projection on me — that my ankle was broken or hurt in any way. So I sat there on that bottom step for quite a long time, simply focusing on “I’m fine. My ankle is healthy, my ankle is strong, my ankle is perfect.”

After a certain length of time — and I don’t recall if that was 5 minutes or 15 minutes or perhaps even more — once I felt strong and confident in my belief and my acceptance that my ankle was fine, I stood up and walked off. And guess what? My ankle was fine. Didn’t hurt, didn’t ache, didn’t do anything except work perfectly fine. I had refused to accept any other possibility, any other reality, and I put all my energy behind health, strength, and the perfect functioning of my body. And so it was. That’s the reality—virtual or otherwise—I created.

What’s Your Picture?

So take a minute to reflect on your life, on your reality, and see if those negative experiences that you’re going through aren’t some that you would say, in retrospect, “I knew that would happen.” Ah! Yes — because we knew or believed something would happen, that’s the picture we held in our head, that’s what we fed into our virtual reality. Whether that was a broken car, a broken ankle, or a broken relationship — all these thoughts and beliefs are what we feed into the programming of our current virtual reality, or just call it reality. Same difference!

The good news is that we can rewrite the script any time we choose — in this very moment as well as in the future. How do we write the script? The same way we would if we were writing a play, which we are. We either erase or cross out or delete the sections in the play — in the script — that we want to change.

One process that many people use is when they hear themselves saying or thinking something negative that they do not want to create or manifest, they say the word “cancel” three times. Why three times? Frankly, I don’t know, but maybe it’s just so we can make sure that our brain hears it and gets it — that we are not catching a cold or going to get sick or whatever other negative projection we’ve just written into our script. So: “Cancel, cancel, cancel” whatever negative thought you have been harboring. And then rewrite the script the way you want it: “I’m safe and protected and well taken care of.” That’s one of my favorite affirmations or attitudes when any type of fear comes up.

So are we living in a virtual reality? Yes, we are — and we have written the script, or we’ve allowed others to write it for us and stepped willingly in. And the good news is that any script can be changed, and we can step out of the current virtual reality into a brand-new script filled with brand-new experiences and expectations — ones that we choose consciously and that support our bliss, our joy, and our creation of a wonderful, loving life experience.

What If Something Bad Happens?

Unfortunately, many of us have been trained to think, “What if something bad happens?” And of course, that leads us to holding a picture in our head, in our virtual reality script — or reality script — of something bad happening. We start imagining or envisioning the bad things that could happen, and that’s what we’re empowering or feeding.

So let’s change the script. Let’s ask, “What if something good happens?” and start feeding our mind with pictures of the good things that could happen — thus opening the door to that reality. It’s always our choice, and thus, our reality.

Again, the wonderful thing about all this, once we realize it and accept it, is that we hold the key. We hold the key to our future being the way we would like it to be, and we do that by making sure our program — which is our thoughts and our beliefs — matches what we truly wish to create. Not the fears, not the negative beliefs, not the “what if something bad happens,” but instead holding positive thoughts and positive pictures in our mind.

From Coma to Creation

As I was dictating the rough draft of this article and spoke the word “comma” to insert one in the text, the voice-to-text interpreted it as the word “coma.” And I realized that I was being sent another thought to share and expand with you. In a sense, sometimes we are living our life as if in a coma. In other words, we are not conscious of our power in our outside reality. We are lost in our own inner reality where we are not able to control our outer world.

And to use one of the games I like to play with words: when I read the word “coma” backwards, I get the word — though misspelled — “amok”. So when we live our life in a coma, detached from using our power to create our external reality, our life can often go amok.

So the way to not have our life run amok — which is sometimes spelled “amuck” — is to move out of a coma state where things are just running on automatic, and take charge of our life. Take charge of our thoughts. Take charge of the pictures that we project out into our virtual reality. Easy? No. Simple? Yes.

The thing is, we also need to change that belief that it’s not easy — because simply by thinking that, this is what we’re putting out into the universe and into our reality. So yes, it can be easy. It is easy. It’s simply a question of remembering and of choosing. That simple: choosing. Choosing our words. Choosing our thoughts. Choosing what we’re writing into the script of our present moment and of our future.

Every moment offers a fresh canvas for creation. The pictures we hold become the world we walk through. So why not paint it bright?

Wishing you happy travels in your virtual daily reality.

Marie T. Russell is the founder of InnerSelf Magazine (founded 1985). She also produced and hosted a weekly South Florida radio broadcast, Inner Power, from 1992-1995 which focused on themes such as self-esteem, personal empowerment, and inner well-being. Her articles focus on transformation and reconnecting with our own inner source of love. joy, and creativity.

Recommended Book:

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
by Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D.

This modern classic explains how a fixed mindset (believing abilities are set) versus a growth mindset (believing abilities can be developed) shapes learning, resilience, relationships, and achievement. It’s a perfect complement to this article’s theme: the pictures you hold in your head become the world you walk into. Dweck offers practical ways to shift self-talk, update beliefs, and choose thoughts that create a different reality.

Order Mindset on Amazon

Article Recap

Your thoughts, words, and beliefs are pictures that project the scene you live next. Notice negations, choose affirmations, visualize desired outcomes, and ask “What if something good happens?” to rewrite the script of your day — and your life.

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#positivethinking #wordpower #personaldevelopment #innerpeace