BOOK REVIEW / BOOK REVIEW / BOOK REVIEW THE THREE ROOMS: WHICH ROOM ARE YOU IN Book Author Kevin Murphy "Remember, happiness doesn't depend on who you are or what you have, it depends solely on what you think." Although the Buddha is often credited with that quote, its origin doesn't really matter. Few people would dispute its message. So if most people would agree that our thoughts determine how we feel, then why are we not very good at monitoring our thoughts? The analogy of The Three Rooms can help. From The Three Rooms perspective, our thoughts can only be in one of three places: they can be in the past (the Past Room); the future, (the Future Room); or the present (the Present Room); and whichever room our thoughts are in determines our experience of life in that moment. Since our thoughts can move back-and-forth in the linear concept of time, it is imperative that we observe our thoughts. It is that act of observation that separates our awareness from our thoughts so we are no longer at the effect of them. This awareness, or consciousness, is what all the spiritual masters have urged us to connect with. In order to access this Divine Consciousness, we need to know where our thoughts are. That's why the fundamental question that we need to ask ourselves is "Where am I?" In other words, "Where are my thoughts?" If you can ask and answer that simple question, then you have already separated your awareness from your thoughts. Unlike the physical body, our thoughts can be in one of three places, and each place leads to a different experience of life. The Past Room: When our thoughts are in the Past Room, we continuously think of events that have caused us to feel negative emotions based on what we perceive others to have said or done to us...or us to them. We tend to dwell on those thoughts which further perpetuates the negative emotions they generate. Resentment, guilt, anger and shame are a few of the emotions we feel when our thoughts are in the Past Room. The Future Room: This is when we think about all the things that can go wrong and we focus on the worst-case scenarios. We look around at what is, and we project the image of what we don't have into the future. The feeling of stress and anxiety that this creates is what actually pushes away the very things we desire. When our thoughts are stuck in the Past or Future Room, we are constantly seeing the world as separate from us, so we feel the separation from our own Higher Self. That is the singular cause of the negative emotions we feel in the Past and Future Rooms. The Present Room: Instead of looking at what is, this is when we focus on what can be. There is an absence of negative thought, so there is nothing preventing us from feeling our connection to our Source. The love that we feel when we are in communion with our Higher Self is the feeling that allows us to attract into our lives that which we desire. If we are going to observe which room our thoughts are in, we need to better understand the thoughts that we are observing: A thought is a vibration that is stored as energy in a Field of Potential Probabilities, waiting to manifest. This field of energy has had many names. Sometimes it is called Divine consciousness, prana, or the Akashic field. Other times it is called the quantum vacuum, ether, or the zero-point field. No matter what name you apply to it, it is the Source energy that makes up all there is.
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