wisewords
responsibility for it.
A Conversation
I’m not saying that a child who
was abused or beaten or abandoned
made that happen, but your reaction
with Wayne Dyer
to it is always yours. While you were
four, you didn’t know anything other
than being terrified and scared; you’re
by Ellen Mahoney
not four any longer. Now [as an adult]
you have to make a choice and rec-
ognize that even the abuse that came
I
nternationally renowned author into your life offers you an opportuni-
and speaker Wayne Dyer, Ph.D., ty to transcend it, to become a better
has devoted his life to helping person and even more significantly,
others become healthier and hap- to help someone else not go through
pier. He is the author of more than what you did.
30 books and producer of the motion
picture, The Shift. His newest book,
Q. What is your seven-question para-
Excuses
digm to help people change long-es-
Begone! How to Change Lifelong,
tablished habits of negative thinking?
Self-Defeating Thinking Habits, was
inspired by the ancient teachings of
little. We get programmed by well-
The paradigm helps a person identify
the Tao Te Ching.
meaning people like our parents and
the thought system, which is almost
their parents, our culture, religions
always false, that is behind the ratio-
and schools. We get conditioned to
nale for the continuation of excuses. It
Q. What common excuses do people
believe in our limitations and what’s
helps them really look at excuses from
use in grappling with their con-
not possible.
an objective point of view and realize
science?
After a while, we start really
that everything they’ve been thinking
Excuses are the explanations we use believing these things are true. People
is just as likely to be not true as it is to
for hanging on to behaviors we don’t who have had self-defeating behaviors
be true.
like about ourselves; they are self-de- for a long time, such as people who
I believe if you change the way
feating behaviors we don’t know how have been overweight since they were
you look at things, the things you look
to change. In Excuses Begone! I re- children or people with longtime ad-
at change.
view 18 of the most common excuses dictions, actually believe there is no
people use, such as “I’m too busy, too other alternative. Q. When we look at our own lives
old, too fat, too scared or it’s going to and think about the lives of loved
take too long or be too difficult.”
Q. What’s the payoff for living a life
ones, what is key to living a healthy,
We spend a big hunk of our
filled with excuses?
happy, love-based life?
lifetimes contemplating what we can’t
There’s a payoff for everyone. The
The key is to trust in your own divinity,
have, what we don’t want and what’s
reason we hang on to self-defeating
to know that you are a piece of God,
missing in our lives. What we have to
behaviors is because it’s easier not to
and that you are like what you came
learn is to put our attention and focus
take responsibility. If you’re blaming
from. As a spiritual being, you have Di-
on contemplating what it is we would
something or someone else for the
vinity within. When Albert Einstein was
like to attract, and not on what is
way you are, then that person, those
asked about the impact of quantum
missing.
people, those circumstances or those
physics, he said, “It’s just all details, I
energies, are going to have to change
just want to think like God thinks.” And
Q. You talk about mind viruses. What
in order for you to get better; that’s
God thinks in terms of creating, kind-
are these?
most likely never going to happen.
ness, beauty and goodness.
A virus has three purposes: to dupli- It’s also a way to manipulate other
cate, to infiltrate and to spread from people. For more information visit DrWayne-
one host to the next. Ultimately, even Usually, making excuses is just Dyer.com
a single virus can shut down an entire something we can get away with,
system. rather than challenging or changing Ellen Mahoney is a freelance writer
A mind virus is different in that ourselves. If you want to change and who teaches writing at the University
there is no form to it; these are ideas you want your life to work at a level of Colorado, Boulder. Contact evm@
placed in our heads when we are you’ve never had before, then take infionline.net.
Pr i n t e d o n re c y c l e d Pa P e r t o Pr o t e c t t h e en v i r o n m e n t
September 2009 17
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