“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

I am telling you this as simply as possible, knowing that one day I will get through. Ruburt had his fantasies this morning. When he wrote them down he got on top of them, so to speak, and he could decipher their meaning. At the risk of your considering this Pollyanna, you get what you concentrate upon. When you concentrate upon the limitations and the distractions, then they multiply. They attract others until the present seems filled with them, while other imagined ones rush toward you from the future. When I say to Ruburt “Do not concentrate upon the symptoms because you reinforce them,” then you agree, Joseph, and it makes perfect sense. When you see Ruburt going around for days concentrating upon the physical limitations, then it is oh so clear to you where his difficulty lies. You wonder what is wrong with him, that he cannot understand what he is doing.

Now. I put this to you—that you spend time in the same way, but in your way, concentrating upon all that stands in the way of your work and concentration, until finally your work time seems consumed. Only now and then do you get on top of those thoughts and imaginings. You spend four times as much time worrying about the distractions as the so-called distractions themselves actually take. In doing so you rob yourself of peace of mind. You imagine future distractions, yet when Ruburt projects his symptoms into the future, you see clearly his error—though he may not.

Give us a moment.... Ruburt was going to use his abilities come hell or high water. He did use the symptoms as a framework. You are determined to use your abilities, but you are ever on your guard to see that you use your abilities, and that they do not “use you;” so you set up working habits, but you do not allow yourself a real environment of freedom in which to work. You consciously tell yourself over and over that this or that bothers you. You concentrate upon the distractions in the same way that Ruburt does upon his symptoms.

You also have ideas of guilt about your painting that are culturally induced. Again, you recognize them, but you do not try to rise above them emotionally. The painting does not bring in money, so to punish yourself you do not enjoy it sufficiently—but concentrate upon the distractions instead. You do your financial part with the books, but you still tie in your social identity with your painting, and to some extent you still feel that that social identity is dependent upon the money your “art” should produce, so you punish yourself by not enjoying your painting time. This also impedes your spontaneity in painting, of course.