Fortune tellers so often have superpowers attributed to them, and thousands of people all around the world seek supernatural ways to catch a glimpse into their future, paying enormous sums of money, essentially chasing hope. Whether it is a personal visit or a staged performance, or a generic horoscope in a newspaper, the strangest thing is that one way or another, fortune-tellers often do end up 'telling us our futures'.
This is not because, in reality, they truly possess any genuine supernatural insight into our destinies; at least not in my opinion. I would argue instead that they understand and use what some call 'the art of suggestion' but that our brain's ability to react to suggestion, is in fact a kind of superpower.
Fortune tellers predict the future because if we 'choose' to believe that what they say may be true, our minds will go through our day or week, seeking shreds of evidence to back the assertions up. The minute we find and accept that what was predicted held some truth, we do the work of the fortune teller for them, essentially manifesting a self-fulfilled prophecy – and yes, then it can be argued that the fortune teller did indeed speak the truth.
But what if we each hold that superpower within? What if we can really see or decide our own futures? Well, I would argue we can.
You’ve no doubt heard the expression ‘As you think, so you shall become’ or ‘whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right’? These are all strong assertions that our attitude defines and even ‘creates’ our reality and if that is really the case, then we can be the fortune tellers in our own lives!
Now some would say you can manifest literally anything into your life. It is certainly a powerful concept, and possible to interpret this on many levels and find truth in it. Maybe we can’t say that literally anything can be ‘magicked’ up through our own personal powers, but in my experience, never has a quote ever held greater truth than ‘seek and ye shall find’.
Whether you call it manifestation, creation or simply a miracle, if you look hard enough for something, if you expect it, then you will find it one way or another. Part of the secret to this is believing that your 'desire exists' in the first place. Just as you accept that the fortune teller 'is predicting the future', then you will seek out the evidence, the shreds of opportunity and doggedly chase after them, acting on them with energy and enthusiasm, all the while excited as you see your dream or aspiration becoming a reality.
Can it really be as simple as all that? An extremely simplistic and perhaps even gullible view to take in a world where so many ‘dreadful and unexpected things’ just happen. Absolutely true, and I’m not about to say that you can control all the events that occur in your life or that you are responsible for every situation. But what we are responsible for is our attitude, our focus and our reactions, and that certainly does dictate another key aspect of our future – our happiness.
The Dalai Lama says ‘external circumstances cannot create lasting happiness; the right state of mind can'. So essentially our superpower is our mind and our ability to choose our attitude and reaction.
Great sportsmen and women have practised the art of visualisation for many years, and it is fascinating how scientists have proved that in ‘rehearsing’ in their minds before physically doing whatever race or event theirs is, has an enormous impact on the outcome and experience that lies ahead.
By vividly conjuring up an excellent performance during which the individual imagines in their mind as vividly as possible, the event that is ahead of them, it has been evidenced to statistically improve success rates. To create this vivid experience, the individual must draw into the visualisation engagement of every human sense they possess, sight, sound, touch, smell. They must imagine the positive emotional experiences and reactions to all that is around them and through this exercise, the brain sends messages to the muscles creating the same impact and physical reaction as occurs when the race is ultimately run.
This practice, along with their rigorous dedication and training, has been proven to improve performance significantly, and therefore, one could argue that through this visualisation technique, they are ‘creating or manifesting’ their own future.
So what does this mean for us? Life is not always easy and it can be hard to imagine how we can apply this, as we go through our busy days with multiple stressful situations and challenges occurring, some planned and others not.
How can we possibly rehearse and plan for our own daily lives? If we consider it important enough, we can set aside time at both ends of the day to make sure we do this. We can begin our day, recalling positive things that have happened and how those made us feel, summoning up an optimistic outlook and a happy sense of gratitude, thus ‘starting our day, as we mean to go on’. We can then visualise and rehearse how we will enter every forthcoming situation, calmly and happily, visualising positive responses and outcomes and how we will feel, thereby creating positive expectations and diminishing the potential for us to feel stressed before we start.
Visualising our day filled with success and happiness preps our brains to look for the positives and the opportunities. We remind ourselves of how we will act and react as these situations occur.
At the end of the day, we can repeat this process of recalling positive moments and mentally celebrating where opportunities have occurred, letting go of negativity, making this pattern an embedded way of life.
In every situation, there are fleeting moments and opportunities for us to influence whether something goes one way or another. How many times have you come away from a situation saying, ‘How I wish I said this when I had the chance, or I so nearly said x, y or z’?
The difference with the visualisation technique is that you heighten your awareness of those opportunities and you have an intensified sense of direction and goal, thus equipping and empowering you to 'go for it' at that moment once again ‘creating your reality’.
How do we prepare for the negative situations or those moments where unexpected obstacles occur, or where the situation deviates from our positively visualised situation?
Well, we can’t plan for every exact eventuality, but we still have the power to prepare and engage our ability to choose our reaction. We can visualise ourselves dealing calmly with people, listening and being compassionate. We can visualise ourselves, maintaining dignity and respect for ourselves and others and being assertive when required staying true to our values. We can visualise ourselves being focussed and determined, creative and resourceful finding solutions and ways around difficulties, transforming challenge into an opportunity and once again, essentially ‘creating’ a positive future and outcome for ourselves and indeed others.
The great news is you don’t need to invest in a crystal ball or a psychic to catch a glimpse of your future. You don’t have to be a victim of circumstance.
Instead, you can take control and steer your life in the direction you want, towards exactly where and what deep down, you want and believe will bring you happiness.
Never let someone else do this for you. You have the superpower within.