Make the unseen seen

A while back I was watching a wonderful movie, Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

There was a scene where several invisible characters are telling a girl to speak a "spell that makes the unseen... seen."

And it got me to thinking...

What exactly does that mean? In the context of the movie, the answer is simple: It's a spell that makes invisible people become visible.

What I find interesting is how it relates to our daily lives. For example...

How often do our thoughts go unexamined?

Reactions and historical conditioning drive the majority of our lives. That quick snap judgment without knowing the full situation, a moment of anger when we lack the full picture, eating the same meal day after day and driving the same path to work, and replaying the same relationship dynamics with each new partner...

All expecting different results but not really seeing any lasting, meaningful changes.

Those are all examples of unexamined thoughts directing our actions. In a way, you could think of those thoughts as "unseen." The benefits are that we don't have to think as much.

To the Inner Critic and our egos, life seems "easier" this way. That isn't necessarily true. It's just more "comfortable" to the unseen aspects of our subconscious minds.

As the scene progresses in the movie, the girl chants the spell that "Makes the Unseen Seen."

Immediately, all the seemingly savage invisible beasts reveal themselves as small, insecure, and fearful one-legged creatures. The warriors that those previously invisible creatures were attacking suddenly start making fun of the creatures... realizing how ridiculous it is that these warriors were afraid of creatures with so little power in the world.

That's exactly what happens when we take time to live consciously and examine our thoughts.

It's what happens when we stop taking the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" and the doubts, criticisms, and insecurities so seriously. We realize how ridiculous it is that we were scared of the "unseen" thoughts that used to dictate our actions, and consequently, our lives.

Since life isn't a movie, fortunately it doesn't require a spell to start working in our lives. :)

All it takes is a genuine desire to see, a map and a guide to support you in walking the paths on that map, and just a little bit (not a lot) of action.

Chris Cade