Following Arnold

I’m on the second time through the new Netflix documentary about Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, I’ve seen every movie he made. He was making movies during the growing years of my two sons and of course we had to see them all as close to opening day as possible. There are so many amazing things about this larger-than-life man who had three successful careers as a body builder, an actor and governor of California. But what really caught my attention was how he saw what he wanted—to be a body builder and movie star—and then acted to bring it into existence.

This reminds me of two concepts in the Vedic tradition that show us how to follow Arnold’s lead. In modern language it’s called “visualize and manifest.” In Yoga it’s called purusha, or latent potential, and karma, or action.

The Universe recognizes thousands of possibilities—maybe even millions—in every second. Unfortunately, we never see how much potential actually exists because we allow so many things to limit us, like how we were raised, where we live now, the education we received, fear of the unknown, failing to believe in ourselves and others, etc. If we could get real still and open our energetic field, we could begin to see what is possible for us beyond the limitations we place on ourselves. Kind of like the young Austrian who saw himself as the body builder and the actor even though there was no opportunity to do these things in his home country.

The Universe also rewards karma, the actions we take to move ourselves forward in this lifetime. In fact the Universe takes karma so seriously that we also carry with us the energy of our actions from past lifetimes. Is this possibly where Arnold got the first inspiration to follow this path? Did he bring with him into this lifetime innate abilities he had honed in previous lifetimes? It’s definitely possible. But it’s also true that he worked very hard to get where he wanted to go and sacrificed much more than many of us would be willing to do to get there.

It's time for you to get still and open your energetic field. Let go of all the preconceived notions of what is possible for you. Release the limiting beliefs like “it’s too hard,” “I’m too old/young,” “no one wants what I have to offer,” etc. What are the latent possibilities for your life? What actions can you take to see where these possibilities might take you? The world is waiting for you.