A few years ago Oprah Winfrey visited Springfield, Missouri, where I live. Now, I am a big fan of hers and admire how she picked herself up by her bootstraps and was able to change her life. But while in Springfield, she told a crowd of mostly women who attended her public seminar they were created with a calling. She said: “The universe has a dream for you. And it’s always working to move you in the right direction.”

Oprah was right when she made this observation, but not completely right. Though the universe may have a dream for us, and is always working to move us in the right direction, we human beings keep messing it up. Some of us often follow paths that are self-destructive, such as doing drugs, lying, or being dishonest with our feelings. You can see this very clearly when individuals get into trouble for having used drugs, or violently abusing a spouse, or driving while drunk and killing an innocent bystander.

The universe is not always working to move people in the right direction, but rather, only those who have a positive sense of inner self as a result of either being reared in a family where they were loved by someone unconditionally, or in instances where they were willing to roll up their sleeves and take a good hard look at themselves (as Oprah did) and then began making course corrections in their lives. This often involves many years of work and even therapy. There is no such thing as a quick fix.

Oprah should make it clear to her fans that the universe is always working to move us in the right direction providing we don’t follow self-destructive paths in our personal lives. If we are, then we need to address those issues and resolve them (or at least begin the process of resolving them) before we can get back on track with the universe and have it work with and for us. Anyone following self-destructive behavior should not expect the universe to work in their favor. Which is the foundation of how I came to develop the Psycho Self-Imagery process.

The Psycho Self-Imagery process involves resolving conflict in your life, not suppressing feelings, having a high sense of self worth (your inner self), bringing personal issues to completion (or at least begin the process of bringing them to completion), being highly spiritual, helping others less fortunate than yourself and having your life in harmony. Then visualizing yourself being successful and actually creating positive events in your life.
But when you have conflict in your life, when you are suppressing your feelings, when you have personal issues that you haven’t brought to completion, when you have a low sense of self-worth (inner self), when you are not helping others less fortunate than yourself and when your life is in disharmony, you will create negative events in your life.

Though “there is no rule without exception,” (Hermann Hesse in Steppenwolf) over the years I’ve found there really is no such thing as good luck or bad luck. We create what happens to us in our lives. Those of us who were loved unconditionally, either as children or by someone special in our lives, grow to love ourselves. And this unconditional love is the foundation for success and happiness.