A young woman once decided that her best chance of getting hired by a company doing geological survey work in the Alaskan wilderness was to earn a private license to fly twin-engine planes. A few days later she began taking lessons from a wise old bush pilot, highly respected throughout the region for his cool and collected ways of dealing with the worst possible situations.

After the mandatory ground schooling, at which she excelled, and during her fourth lesson in the sky, the flight instructor gave her what she thought was a special treat: Taking his hands off the yoke, he turned the flight controls over to her. There she was, just as she had dreamed, sitting tall in the co-pilot's chair with the flight stick firmly in her hands.

She felt like she was literally on "cloud 9"; that is to say, until a scant moment later when she found herself rudely awakened from her dream sequence. She tried shaking her head to get rid of what was before her eyes, but that did not work. In the distance, through the windshield, she could see something that was rushing toward her faster than what she knew to do about it!

Seemingly just ahead, and appearing as if out of nowhere, a huge snow-capped mountain lay dead ahead. Transfixed by its sheer mass, she found herself as frozen at the stick as were the iced and craggy peaks stretched out before her. And she was headed straight for them! A deep chill came into the cabin.

All along the wise old instructor was watching her closely, studying her reactions. Of course, she didn't know it, but he had turned the controls over to her for just this test now taking place. He waited until the last moment he could, and was just about to take over again, when she snapped out of her fear-induced trance. She looked away from the mountain and turned to face him.

Then, in a voice so trembling and timid that it even scared her, she broke the tense silence of the moment: "Sir," she said, "Please take over the controls. I'm afraid we are about to crash!" His reply stunned her. "No," he spoke quietly, "I don't think I will. After all, it's your flight."

It was getting harder for her to take in a whole breath, as if she were standing in the oxygen-thin air atop the great white mountain before them. Struggling to control her voice, she dug down into herself and managed to ask one more question of her teacher: "Then what should I do . . . Please, tell me what to do!"

She looked over at him again, and was surprised to see virtually no worry at all upon his face. His calm demeanor helped calm her. She took a deep breath and relaxed her hands that had just about choked the life out of the control yoke. The next moment he gave her a short three-word instruction, and she knew everything would soon be all right. He simply said: "Change your altitude."

She pulled firmly back on the yoke and felt the craft respond by rising. Moments later, the icy peak passed beneath her and out of sight. She marveled at how she could have forgotten that the controls were in her hands, and that she had been unable to remember this on her own. She made a silent vow. Never again would she forget this one great lesson: She could choose her altitude.

Doesn't this short truth tale remind you of a certain kind of spiritual strength that you know belongs to you, but that you have somehow forgotten or misplaced? It ought to; after all, how many of us look out ahead of ourselves at some unwanted event that looms too large, and find ourselves feeling out of control . . . headed for what seems a sure unavoidable collision? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to reach down inside of ourselves, grab hold of the controls of our own consciousness, and pull ourselves up? To quietly watch whatever that would-be mountain of a problem is just pass by harmlessly below us even as we reach ever-higher and happier skies?

We can learn to do this. Such a power is not just a pipe dream. The ability to take conscious control of our spiritual altitude is given to us as we awaken from those unconscious parts of ourselves that not only become transfixed before challenging events, but that are the secret creators of the very things into which we then crash! It's true.

I am about to pass along a certain spiritual secret of how it is possible for us to use even the most insurmountable conditions in our lives to rise above them. Here's a small hint of this spiritual truth - a new kind of crash-free consciousness: Our attitude determines our altitude in life.

Your understanding of this can spiritually empower you to consciously change your altitude in life. What is meant by this idea of the "altitude" of one's life refers to where it is within ourselves -- with what parts of ourselves -- we meet the moments of our life. Where do we stand in relationship to what life brings to us?

The only way we can learn to truly rise above the events in our lives is by first awakening to, and then realizing, the actual nature of our relationship with these events. What does this mean, "to realize our actual relationship with the events in our life?" Please read the following few ideas very closely: All of the myriad events in our lives are created to serve us. They are not intended to dominate or otherwise diminish us, as so many of them seem to have the power to do. Is there some verifiable proof of this statement? By all means!

All of us have been laid low by, or actually crashed into certain events that, after repeated run-ins with these mountain-like moments, have revealed to us that the real problem before us was not the event itself, but the way in which we had perceived it. Once we were shaken loose from our hardened ideas about why this moment was to be avoided at all costs, then we usually found ourselves flying high above the very condition that we so feared would drag us down. The point is that our new altitude in life is a direct effect of a change in our attitude towards the event.

Up until now, any transformation of an unwanted event into a self-elevating experience has had to be gained the hard way: where our resistance and reluctance to the lesson at hand is slowly, painfully channeled into what becomes a realization that allows us to let go and grow. Then, as if by magic, we rise above what was wrecking us moments before.

But we can, and must, learn how to take these transformational steps consciously. This is the real interior Work. This is how we begin to realize God's Life and the Goodness that it holds in store for us. This is also why we must have New Knowledge about the true nature of our life. Such new, yet Timeless ideas are the seeds of a new kind of perception that we must cultivate.

Here is one such new idea that will help you to change your attitude toward all the various moments of your life. Working with it will lead you to a new altitude in yourself that cannot be compromised by any challenging event:

Our God-given place in the great scheme of creation is above all other things, and this includes the events in our lives. Awakening to this, our own elevated nature that presently slumbers within us empowers us to use all that we encounter to learn this Priceless Lesson about our true position. We rise above life in this way in proportion to our realization of this truth.

In other words, and we must each prove this to ourselves, nothing can happen to us in this life of ours that is not created, potentially, to be for our Good. Most of us know this truth inherently, but not consciously -- so that we trust this truth in theory, but not in practice. And this is what must change within us if we want to rise above the events of our lives.

We must work in every moment to be aware of our attitude towards our life as it unfolds. And when we find a negative attitude in ourselves, we must not be it. We must not say "I" to it. We must not see our life through its lying eyes, or else all we will see is the dark world that it needs us to see in order to remain in charge of our choices.

Instead, even in the face of our worst moments, we must remember the truths we have learned. We must be aware that whatever it is that we see before us is always a direct reflection of an attitude that is secretly active within us. Then, with this knowledge in hand, we change our attitude by remembering the Good of God. We recall our rightful place within His Life.

If we will just do the inner work needed to take these small steps in the moments of our lives that call for them, then the day will come when every moment of our life will be wanted. We will know the birth of a new attitude within us, and for its awakening we will be lifted to a whole new altitude. And there, in these native heights, we will know we have reached our Home.

Seen or not, our attitude determines our altitude in life. The "low" life comes by default. Gravity guarantees we will reach the bottom. To go Higher, we must (first) be Higher. Do your spiritual Work. If you will do your part, God will see to it that you rise.

© Guy Finley
Life Channels Contributing Author
All Rights Reserved

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