how to finally shift
[these are one of emma's lithuanian shifting advice posts. i could not find the original reblogged post, but i kept this somewhere in my notes a while back to translate it. here is the translated version.]
it all starts not with you, but with the absolute chaos of the cosmos. there are no instructions here, no three-step plan where you write numbers on your wrist, roll over three times, and wake up with a new version of your birth certificate. shifting isn’t a strategy or a formula; it’s the most punk expression of existence itself.
your consciousness isn't a prison, but it likes to pretend it is. it has guards: rationality, logic, and the absurd routine of everyday life. they all hate it when you try to escape. they like it when you go to sleep thinking about paying for netflix tomorrow, rather than a plan where james potter meets you with a cigarette in his mouth and a mocking, "well, let's go grab a drink."
shifting is about belief, but not the religious kind. not the kind where you pray to an abstract idea. i’m talking about a radical, cynical, insanely stubborn belief—the kind that is larger than any common sense. you have to be absolutely convinced that you’ve already left. you're already there. you already feel the scent, texture, and light of your new reality. if that seems stupid to you, you’ve missed the point. shifting isn’t about logic; it’s about power.
everyone who says "i can't shift" simply doesn't believe in their own authority. because reality isn't static. it isn't a concrete, indestructible building. it’s like soft clay in your hands; either you mold it, or it decides for itself what you’ll look like tomorrow. and usually, it will be merciless. so, if you have to be part of this game anyway, why not rewrite the rules?
joan didion said we tell ourselves stories in order to live. but what if those stories aren't just about what happened, but what is yet to happen? what if all your dreams and scenarios aren't fantasies, but untapped realities? then shifting stops being an escape and becomes a liberation. this isn't a manifestation journal or some new age cult nonsense. it’s a cold, rational fact: your consciousness is the only architect. and so far, you’re standing at the foundation of the house, wondering if it's worth starting the construction.
of course, you can stay here. you can decide that everything possible has already happened. you can cling to your present, to normalcy, to what you were told to accept as reality. but if you’ve tried to shift even once—if you’ve laid down even once with the thought that you might soon end up somewhere else—it means you’ve already crossed the line. the foundations have already shaken. now only one question remains: are you finally ready to leave?