Lessons from The Matrix: Part 6 [Saying goodbye to the old]

"Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye." ~Cypher

When you enter the Matrix, you have to say goodbye to some old habits and ways of living. You have to submit to the fact that things are going to change.

We already know how hard change is, but imagine your entire reality being changed...

Saying Goodbye to the Old Junk

Most of us still carry a lot of baggage with us. It isn't easy to admit, but it is true.

• Old feelings from a past relationship
• Ideas that never work—reliving the "old tape" (Thanks for the idea, Cordelia)
• Clinging to the past overall
• Hanging on to realities that aren't real

I carry baggage from childhood. I carry baggage from last week, even from last night.

We are the sum of the decisions that we make. But sometimes, we have to forget all that old junk and make a new reality.

Tornadoes aren't always the "bad guys"

Tornadoes are destructive forces leaving a trail of devastation in their wake. Tornadoes get a bad reputation.

But sometimes, especially in the metaphorical world, tornadoes can be a good thing. They can cleanse us of things that aren't important. They can remove things that hold us back.

How do I come up with this?

In the movie, The Matrix, Cypher was the bad guy.

In the movie, The Wizard of Oz, the tornado was the good guy.

What?!?

I know. It doesn't make sense. But consider this: the tornado made Dorothy come to some conclusions that she may have missed when she ran away from home.

Just think what she would have missed if she had kept running.

• She would have missed becoming her braver self. (She slapped a lion in the face! She took on a wicked old witch!)
• She would have missed seeing the world in "technicolor!"
• She would have not come to the realization that there is "No place like home."
• She would have not have discovered her own personal strength.

Had it not been for the tornado, Dorothy would have stayed in her "unhappy" world searching for that place "somewhere over the rainbow."

What she discovered was that she could make that place exist where she was.

Ummm.... but Karin you said we had to change...

Change is vital, yes. However, that change needs to happen in our minds not necessarily in our physical world.

Changing and yet remaining in the same place is a mental game that we have to play every time we do something that we don't believe we can do—like writing a blog post.

Some of us believe that there is no way we can make this blogging thing work because we don't know what to write about or how to write, or a million and one excuses that will keep us trapped in the Matrix or even trapped in Oz.

Being trapped in either place is a dead end street. So stay in the car, Dorothy, because Oz needs to go bye-bye!

How do we change, yet stay the same?

I believe this can be accomplished in many ways:

• Take the red pill and begin the subtle changes and the not so subtle ones in your mind.
• Stop complaining about what you can't do and start doing what you can.
• Start doing the things you say you can't do.
• Teach others to do the things they think they can't do.
• Remember, you are always you, but you can fly in your mind, so take off!

I must go back into the Matrix now (the day job). But I will be online later tonight. If you have questions or ideas, please feel free to ask them or post them below. I love talking about possibilities. The Matrix opens a whole world of them!

I hope you are enjoying this series of posts. I sure am enjoying the exploration of them.

Best wishes,
Karin :)