Extraordinary Lessons from the Yellow Brick Road

One of the secrets of life is listening to the right voice. The voice or voices that are supportive, encouraging, inspiring, and enlightening are the right voices to listen to. The voice that is judgmental and says you are stupid, stuck, boring, unattractive, lost, a failure and helpless is the wrong voice. The right voice strengthens you and creates safety, protectiveness, hope, trust, and expansion. The wrong voice weakens you and creates fear, anxiety, stress, limitation, and hopelessness. Glinda inspired hope and possibility. The Wicked Witch incited fear and hopelessness.

You possess a miracle brain. Your brain has 100 billion nerve cells (the same number of stars in our galaxy), 1,000 trillion connections, and 400 miles of blood vessels. Laughter requires the activity of 5 different areas of the brain. Every positive new thought and idea results in new brain connectivity, which enhance thinking, feelings, creativity, and achievement. Every negative old thought constricts and in some cases reduces brain connections. Therefore, thoughts and perceptions alter brain chemistry. Positive imagery, imagination, and optimism are fundamental to your physical, emotional, and psychological health. Scarecrow was absolutely correct in wanting a miracle brain.

Your mind and imagination have the amazing ability to transcend time. Your imagination is one of your greatest gifts. You can be in present time, past time (age regression), and future time (age progression) in a matter of seconds.  Learning to educate your mind in the sojourns it takes is a fantastic skill that will positively alter your brain chemistry and change the course of your life. Every time Dorothy thought about going back home to Kansas, her mind went back in time to memories of Aunt Em and Uncle Henry. Every time she thought about getting to Oz to see the Wizard, she moved into future time.

Love awakens the best within you. Your history contains the seeds that grow into your present and future experiences of love. The inner places of anger are your walls. The memories of pain are your barriers. The inner places of fear are your defenses. Love and an open heart make you magnetic to success. Tin Woodman knew this very well. The happiest time in his life was when he had a heart and was in love and that is what he wanted again.

It takes courage to be a creative thinker, to take risks, and courage to change. Chronic stress, hypertension, worry, negative thinking, hopelessness, and fear constrict life, keep you stuck, impair your decision making ability and block access to your intuitive wisdom. Change is what life is all about. The opposite of change is stagnation. The Cowardly Lion didn’t know why he was always so afraid so he decided to join Dorothy and her friends to get the gift of courage from the Wizard of Oz. (Within a short time he discovers he had courage but just needed the opportunity to express it.)

Being solution focused opens doors. Being problem oriented shuts them. Don’t accept a problem as reality. The circumstances of your life can change overnight if you alter the way you see things, explore options and possibilities, draw upon the wisdom of your intuition, and take action!  Being stuck is a state of mind. When Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion came upon a wide and very deep ditch in the road, they thought they had come to the end of their journey. But the Cowardly Lion came up with a solution using his imagination. He would leap over the great ditch carrying Dorothy, Tin Woodman, and Scarecrow on his back one at a time. Once he did this and they were able to continue on their journey, he was no longer a Cowardly Lion but was transformed int a Courageous Lion.

John A. Tamiazzo is the author of Returning to the Land of Oz: Finding hope, Love and Courage on Your Yellow Brick Road available at Amazon.com, Amazon. ca, Barnesandnoble.com and available as an e-Kindle book at Amazon.com