by Serina Aramaki

Have you ever considered your life as a “workbook”? What if all of us make life plans before we come into this world? What if we choose who our parents, siblings and friends will be, what we’ll study in school and pursue as a career, who we’ll marry, what illnesses we’ll experience, and so forth?

Believe it or not, everyone plans their life while still on the spiritual plane. Many souls plan to experience extreme challenges because they know these hardships are what they need to grow and evolve. Are those decisions easy to make on the spiritual plane? Yes, they are. Are they easy to live with here on Earth? No, they’re not!

Workbooks are designed to get us to learn. They present problems we must work to solve, and happily, there are solutions to every problem. The problems may get harder as we progress though the workbook, but that’s the point. How else can we grow and progress? When we solve each problem, we become more knowledgeable and even more grateful. This, in turn, brings us more joy and happiness.

What a difference this spiritual perspective makes. Try it. For example, instead of feeling put upon and victimized by an illness, think about that illness as the problem you gave yourself before you were born. Once you face misfortune in this light, you can start thinking of ways to resolve it. Of course, getting proper medical attention is important, but it’s equally vital to contemplate your inner self and focus on the cause of your illness. If you planned this illness between lives, what was the purpose? Maybe you had also planned to be a hard worker completely focused on your career, and you knew that you would need a break at some point to get back in touch with your spiritual nature.

Perhaps you chose your illness so that you might realize how powerful the mind is. Many people still believe that the mind is simply an operation of the brain that has no impact, but that’s not true. Our thoughts can both create and heal illness. Scientific studies have proven that thoughts evoking strong negative emotion, such as hatred, anger, jealousy and depression, have a damaging effect on the body, triggering the release of stress hormones and the creation of free radicals that damage the cells and cause autoimmune diseases and dysfunction. Likewise, when our thoughts are sad, grief fills our heart in an instant and tears begin to flow; or when we unexpectedly recognize an old friend, our heart bursts with love and gratitude. These feelings are not the logical reaction of the cerebrum, but rather the result of chemical reactions triggered by our thoughts which are overseen by our deeper spiritual nature and intuition.

Our mind has very special and strong powers. Depending upon your perspective, you can use these powers to help yourself and others. After all, if your mind, or consciousness, preordained the workbook of your life in this incarnation, isn’t it logical that it already knows the solutions to all of its challenges?

If you are interested in the healing power of the mind, there is a new spiritual Japanese film coming this October to Tampa that illustrates the power of mind to heal illness. Immortal Hero is based on the true story of Ryuho Okawa, a bestselling author and global visionary, renowned spiritual leader, and the Founder and CEO of Happy Science. In the film, Okawa is portrayed as a Japanese publisher who suffers complete heart failure yet literally comes back to life through the power of his own mind and the will to complete his mission on Earth to help uplift humanity. For theaters, show times and more information, visit Immortal-Hero.com.