"Positive and negative emotions cannot occupy the mind at the same time. One or the other must dominate. It is your responsibility to make sure that positive emotions constitute the dominating influence of your mind." -Napolean Hill
I am hopefully optimistic about this whole phenomenon about the Law of Attraction. In fact, I am truly really weary of the whole idea, but I thought I would occupy my mind with positive emotions about it. Because of this degree of uncertainty about positive and negative vibrations that supposedly control my destiny, I will keep my composure with positive thoughts and vibrations so that for any reason I may not be destroying my own fate.
Getting rid of negative thoughts seems like a tough job to accomplish. I think about a comment I frequently used with a friend in college. "Don't be late" I told her too often. If I would have really switched that to the positive and said "See you on time" the next time I headed out the door, would that have really sent a positive vibration that would have attracted positive behavior on her part? I mean it certainly is more polite and maybe she would have responded more positive if she felt that words weren't attacking her.
The one thought I have taken seriously from the few books I have tried to fully get into about the Law of Attraction, is about what you don't want vs. what you want. There is absolutely no (oh no a negative!) reason why you should dwell on the things that you don't want in life when you can reverse your thinking and think about what you do want. Say I hate my job and don't want to work there forever. I should reverse this statement and think about how I want a job that will fully occupy my desires. Being even this slightly optimistic is setting goals in sight for yourself, instead of digging yourself in a hole of blindness.
I have to say I am not an expert on this subject (actually the positive statement to this: I am a novice on this subject). I am attempting to read (well finish at least) another book about the science of attracting more of what I want and less of what I don't want. I plan to be as positive about the experience, yet again.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Fire
"A Destructive Burning"
This is my superficial definition of a fire, but as I think about it more, I don't like the word destructive in it. The word fire has so many meanings and most of them are negative. Fired from work or your house destroyed by fire. Those are the most common images that arise in my mind when I think of fire. But fire is not always destructive and when it is, the best always comes out of it. We have fires everyday in our lives that we must put out and learn to move past them. These fire actually positively affect our lives in the long run or at least we can make them.
I think of the only real fire in my life so far and that was my sophomore year of college when I was living in Arizona. I remember the phone call from my dad. He sounded so calm. He asked me what I was doing, and I told him (nothing important compared to what he was doing). He proceeded to say, "Well, I am standing outside mom's store and watching it burn." WHAT??? That was my response to my dad's passive remark. He proceeded to tell me that the store next door (which was part of the same building) was burning to the ground, and that they frantically had just pulled "the important" stuff from my mom's store before they had to evacuate. So they were just standing in the street watching. Hoping for the best; for the fire to not spread.
Luckily, my mom's store did not burn as the other store did. But the horrible smoke damage caused all the merchandise in her store to be ruined. We were tremendously fortunate and only had to close our doors for a week to re-merchandise and rid the smoke stench. It was a devastation to the community, but like all disasters some good will come from it with the work of individuals. My mom and her girls, designed, pieced and quilted three quilts. One remains in the store today as a remembrance of this day, one hangs in the Overland Park fire department and one was auctioned off to raise money for the fire department that worked so hard to save a downtown area.
Good can come from every fire. Our small daily fires that are so easy to put out but rarely are or our large fires that burn holes in our minds or in our hearts. I like to think that every night when I go to bed that I can put out my fire for the day and make it a positive experience. There will be a fire everyday that challenges what we do, how we act, and ultimately how we survive our lives. Why live to survive our lives when we can live to embrace the heat of the fire and make something of it?
This is my superficial definition of a fire, but as I think about it more, I don't like the word destructive in it. The word fire has so many meanings and most of them are negative. Fired from work or your house destroyed by fire. Those are the most common images that arise in my mind when I think of fire. But fire is not always destructive and when it is, the best always comes out of it. We have fires everyday in our lives that we must put out and learn to move past them. These fire actually positively affect our lives in the long run or at least we can make them.
I think of the only real fire in my life so far and that was my sophomore year of college when I was living in Arizona. I remember the phone call from my dad. He sounded so calm. He asked me what I was doing, and I told him (nothing important compared to what he was doing). He proceeded to say, "Well, I am standing outside mom's store and watching it burn." WHAT??? That was my response to my dad's passive remark. He proceeded to tell me that the store next door (which was part of the same building) was burning to the ground, and that they frantically had just pulled "the important" stuff from my mom's store before they had to evacuate. So they were just standing in the street watching. Hoping for the best; for the fire to not spread.
Luckily, my mom's store did not burn as the other store did. But the horrible smoke damage caused all the merchandise in her store to be ruined. We were tremendously fortunate and only had to close our doors for a week to re-merchandise and rid the smoke stench. It was a devastation to the community, but like all disasters some good will come from it with the work of individuals. My mom and her girls, designed, pieced and quilted three quilts. One remains in the store today as a remembrance of this day, one hangs in the Overland Park fire department and one was auctioned off to raise money for the fire department that worked so hard to save a downtown area.
Good can come from every fire. Our small daily fires that are so easy to put out but rarely are or our large fires that burn holes in our minds or in our hearts. I like to think that every night when I go to bed that I can put out my fire for the day and make it a positive experience. There will be a fire everyday that challenges what we do, how we act, and ultimately how we survive our lives. Why live to survive our lives when we can live to embrace the heat of the fire and make something of it?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Our Pace of Life
"There is more to life than increasing its speed" - Mohandas Gandhi
It doesn't take a journalism major to know that if you only read the first few paragraphs or even the headline of a news article, you have the vital information. Lately, I have been using this trick of the inverted pyramid of news writing, to speed up my daily news fix. The faster I read, the more information I get. This might be the truth if I honestly budget my news reading time allotted for the day, but I don't. I don't really schedule my days to minute, or even to the hour. As hard as it is, I try (very hard) to live each moment of everyday to it's fullest.
Yesterday, a friend of mine who visited New York City this past weekend mentioned that she felt like everyone in the city just rushed around like they had somewhere to be. The image that was painted into my mind was a busy street filled with people, who just wanted time to sit and relax. I imagined myself running through this busy street just looking for a coffee shop, a library or a restaurant to just sit and take some time to think.
I felt for a long time, and still sometimes do, that if I race around faster than I did the day before and fill my schedule with work and activities, that the time to relax and enjoy myself will come sooner and will be more appreciated. I don't think that this is true at all. The faster, I race the more time I have to occupy with other things. Other things that do not involve enjoying myself. So why not enjoy myself all the time and stop racing away from what really is not all that bad.
As George Hallas says: "It's only work if there's someplace else you'd rather be." So if you just stop running through life thinking about everything you would rather be doing, you might realize that you enjoy what you have been labeling as "work".
It doesn't take a journalism major to know that if you only read the first few paragraphs or even the headline of a news article, you have the vital information. Lately, I have been using this trick of the inverted pyramid of news writing, to speed up my daily news fix. The faster I read, the more information I get. This might be the truth if I honestly budget my news reading time allotted for the day, but I don't. I don't really schedule my days to minute, or even to the hour. As hard as it is, I try (very hard) to live each moment of everyday to it's fullest.
Yesterday, a friend of mine who visited New York City this past weekend mentioned that she felt like everyone in the city just rushed around like they had somewhere to be. The image that was painted into my mind was a busy street filled with people, who just wanted time to sit and relax. I imagined myself running through this busy street just looking for a coffee shop, a library or a restaurant to just sit and take some time to think.
I felt for a long time, and still sometimes do, that if I race around faster than I did the day before and fill my schedule with work and activities, that the time to relax and enjoy myself will come sooner and will be more appreciated. I don't think that this is true at all. The faster, I race the more time I have to occupy with other things. Other things that do not involve enjoying myself. So why not enjoy myself all the time and stop racing away from what really is not all that bad.
As George Hallas says: "It's only work if there's someplace else you'd rather be." So if you just stop running through life thinking about everything you would rather be doing, you might realize that you enjoy what you have been labeling as "work".
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Illusion of Freedom
"The only freedom that is of enduring importance is freedom of intelligence, that is to say, freedom of observation and of judgment exercised in behalf of purposes that are intrinsically worthwhile." John Dewey from Experience & Education.
What is freedom? And how do we exercise our freedom? The answer can not be found in a book or from the wisest philosopher. It can only be found in ourselves. Before our individual freedoms can even be defined we must come to the revelation that we not only are in control of our freedoms, but we also inhibit them.
It's ironic that today is Veterans Day. We observe this day in the United States to honor those individuals that have served or are serving for our country and protecting those freedoms we are so fortunate of. But do we utilize this freedoms as we should? Do we even realize that the most abundant freedom lies within our own minds and actions?
To explain how we inhibit this freedom, two words pop into my mind. Impulse and control. These forces work together and they work against each other. Think about that really great pair of shoes you think you can't live without or even just that Starbucks coffee that will boost your day. We can easily pull out our piece of plastic and buy these things, without any reflective thinking. But what we are exercising here is impulsive. Impulsive behavior can be controlled but when we are not reflecting on our decisions we exhibit no control. This scenario is only a portion of the large picture of this problem of inhibiting our own freedoms.
Think about this. We are surrounded with so many resources in our everyday lives. The internet, books, people, art, pop culture, and so many other elements that can only enrich our lives. Do we stimulate the control to use this things to our advantage? Why not? Knowledge can only improve and enrich our lives, but we must have the intrinsic motivation and drive to seek it out at all lengths possible. This doesn't mean picking up Hamlet if you are not interested in Literature. But it does mean that if you like football or video games, learn more about it. Make your knowledge more extensive about what ever it may be that makes you happy. You have the freedom to do that.
To conclude, I do honor those men and women who have served or do serve our country and I think that we as United States citizens should not take for granted what they have helped contribute to us. Men have sacrificed their lives so that we can read what ever book we want, to learn about whatever we want to know about. It is your right!
It's ironic that today is Veterans Day. We observe this day in the United States to honor those individuals that have served or are serving for our country and protecting those freedoms we are so fortunate of. But do we utilize this freedoms as we should? Do we even realize that the most abundant freedom lies within our own minds and actions?
To explain how we inhibit this freedom, two words pop into my mind. Impulse and control. These forces work together and they work against each other. Think about that really great pair of shoes you think you can't live without or even just that Starbucks coffee that will boost your day. We can easily pull out our piece of plastic and buy these things, without any reflective thinking. But what we are exercising here is impulsive. Impulsive behavior can be controlled but when we are not reflecting on our decisions we exhibit no control. This scenario is only a portion of the large picture of this problem of inhibiting our own freedoms.
Think about this. We are surrounded with so many resources in our everyday lives. The internet, books, people, art, pop culture, and so many other elements that can only enrich our lives. Do we stimulate the control to use this things to our advantage? Why not? Knowledge can only improve and enrich our lives, but we must have the intrinsic motivation and drive to seek it out at all lengths possible. This doesn't mean picking up Hamlet if you are not interested in Literature. But it does mean that if you like football or video games, learn more about it. Make your knowledge more extensive about what ever it may be that makes you happy. You have the freedom to do that.
To conclude, I do honor those men and women who have served or do serve our country and I think that we as United States citizens should not take for granted what they have helped contribute to us. Men have sacrificed their lives so that we can read what ever book we want, to learn about whatever we want to know about. It is your right!
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