How's your attitude?

“Let’s Get Positive”

“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference.  The little difference is attitude; the big difference is whether it is positive or negative.”

                                  W. Clement Stone

“It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.”

                                  Ram Dass

         I know some very intelligent, well-educated people who are preparing for Armageddon.  They keep emergency packs by the front door, have perfected their shots with a variety of weapons, and have planned an escape route via bicycle for getting to a remote area where they will dig in and defend their turf. One of them sleeps with a loaded shotgun. You may think I’ve been watching too much science fiction, but this is a true story.  They harbor a deep and abiding expectation that any day now, disaster will strike, people will go crazy, and all the institutions of our democracy will fail.  I can not imagine living one day in their skin. 

         There is no emotion more toxic to the human body-mind than fear in all its forms—resentment, anger, pessimism, negativity.  When we dwell in negative space, it becomes a black hole drawing everything to it and infecting the area around it with anxious energy.  Our perceptions create our world.  If we go through our days expecting the worst, we will encounter the worst.  And, if we decide to take each day as it comes and make the most of it, we will have a very different experience.  Positivism and negativism are habits and habits can be changed, even entrenched ones.

          I encourage you today to pay attention to negative thinking.  If you catch yourself generating fear-based thoughts, stop and say this simple phrase, “May I be at peace.”  If there is someone around you who is spewing negativity, silently ask for protection and if possible, get away from them.  The energy of hostile and combative thoughts is invasive; it infects us like a bad cold.  Even when the economy is bad, when we are struggling to make ends meet, when we don’t know what is around the next corner, a positive attitude will make a big difference in how well we cope.  Negativity is never helpful.  The truth is, we never know what will happen next, so why not expect the best.

                                  Shalom,

                                   Jane