Focus 10 minutes for happy track
William James said, “Things are not as they are, but as we are.”
We really do see through the eyes of our own experience and each of our experiences is different, so in every moment, we see everything from the perspective of the mood we’re in. It’s almost like we put on different glasses from moment to moment.
Have you noticed you can get in the habit of being in a bad mood? The good news is if
you can get into the habit of being in a bad mood, you can get into the habit of being in a good one. Habits are breakable and like any habit good or bad, it just takes desire to change.
When you have a negative thought, if you don’t get busy and call up positive thoughts, the negative thought will serve up more negative thoughts like a mental magnet. Misery loves company was
probably originally written about negative thoughts. The sooner you can entertain positive thoughts, the quicker you can eliminate the negative thought and all its friends and get back to being happy.
Some-times it takes longer than 10 minutes.
Once years ago, I was mentally pulled from my routinely solid state of happiness and contentment. It doesn’t matter what the source of the discontent was. What mattered was, for a time I allowed circumstances to control my habitual center of peace and joy.
When that happens, that’s when a timer can come in handy. At a time like that, when you’re thrown out of your peace, you can stop your mental and emotional free fall by setting a timer for 10 minutes of stillness for the purpose of breathing and regaining a positive direction of thought, and peace will usually return.
My husband was present through my tunnel of annoyance through that depressing day and when he’d look at me, there was always a question in his eyes: “Are you back yet?”
I had to set that timer many times that day and readjust my thinking, and the next day, there it was again! It was just like the song, “It’s a Small World After All,” grating with its nauseating repetition. Sometimes those negative thoughts can be stubborn.
I wanted to spare myself another day of the needless
repetition of a thought that
didn’t match my normal spirit, so I stuck with my 10-minute breaks and finally on the
third 10 minutes of day two, it worked!
When the timer dinged, I clearly realized I needed to walk. I hadn’t walked for two days and I certainly didn’t want to do it with my heavy heart, but the walk was a transfusion. I got myself back and with it came clear thoughts, free of negativity. Because of the needed exercise, my body called for more water and a nap.
Sleep, sweet sleep came and I woke up from my nap completely refreshed and healed.
Don’t ever give up getting your spirit back. You were born to enjoy this wonderful life and you deserve to have peace all the time.
For more from Pam Young go to cluborganized.com. You’ll find many musings, videos of Pam in the kitchen preparing delicious meals, videos on how to get organized, lose weight and get your finances in order, all from a reformed SLOB’s point of view.
