Tools for My Toolbox

Lately I've been feeling a bit down in the dumps. There's really no particular reason. Work, of course, is tiring and stressful and completely draining, and... Wait a minute - I'm not going to talk about the things that aren't working for me.

When something in your life isn't going the way you'd like it to, then - according to Abraham - you've got to tell a different story.

I'm the first person to tell you that positive thinking works, and that your thoughts and feelings create your life. So it would seem, in knowing that, life should be easy. Perfect, in fact. Feel good. Think happy thoughts. Picture you life the way you want it to be. Focus on the good that's already surrounding you... Yada, yada, yada. How hard can that be?

Life is really so simple. We are the ones who make it enormously complicated. It seems that so many people today not only dwell on the negative events but thrive on them. It's almost like we're conditioned to look for the bad, search for the fear, and reward the negative. Even though I know how the Universe works, even though I know - without a doubt - how my higher self thinks and that all is really, really one hundred percent hunky dory, I find it hard to let loose, throw caution to the wind, and completely trust in the constant "stream of well-being." Some days I feel that, in looking for the positive, I'm really going against society's program and putting a glitch in our cultural system.

Most days I do okay. When I'm at home with Chris and the girls, I feel peace, contentment, joy, love - and there's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that well-being is indeed the natural flow of the Universe. However, when I step out of our little sanctuary, it's (obviously) a bit more difficult to maintain a super-sunny, high-on-life attitude. It seems, at times, that I'm constantly at the mercy of others: clients having a bad day, a fellow commuter who feels like taking his road rage out on everyone around him, sickness, negative people who thrive on complaining, complaining, complaining... And, unfortunately, it isn't long before I fall into the trap and become just like them. Complaining, complaining, complaining...

That's why I feel it's extremely important to surround ourselves with as many positive, up-lifting tools as we can. My toolbox, as it is, is chucked full of various items that I can use whenever I'm confronted with someone else's negative vibes. These tools, however, aren't used on them - no hammer to beat them over the head with, no screwdriver to jab into their... Well, you know. I don't use these tools on them, exactly. I use these tools to ignore them. To steer my focus away from what I don't want to see and feel, and instead turn my attention to what I do want to see and feel. For example, I've mentioned before that I'm a huge fan of music, and sometimes just flipping on my MP3 Player and listening to Josh Groban can pull me out of a rut. His voice not only gives me the chills, but it drowns out other voices - negative voices - that seem intent on ripping through my protective coat of armor and bringing me, to put it bluntly, down to their level.

Am I always able to pull myself out of a rut? No. Not always. But most of the time I can. Most of the time, because of the tools I've equipped myself with, I'm able to deliberately direct my feelings toward higher and higher vibrations.

Last night, Chris gave me the best present ever. Another tool for my toolbox, so to speak. As one of my birthday gifts, he got me Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits. I'm a huge fan of Wayne Dyer and have been wanting to read this book ever since it came out this summer. Needless to say, I'm overwhelmed with gratitude not only for the book, but for the fact that my husband knows me well enough (and cares about me enough!) to continue to pack my toolbox with items that aid my growth and understanding of what our lives in this expanding Universe are really all about.

Step by step. Day by day. Tool by tool. By cracking open this book, I'm continuing the process of opening myself up to the whole of the Universe, the compassion that it emits and, ultimately, to the stream of well-being that is always, always constant.

__________________

"Conflict cannot survive without your participation."
-- Dr. Wayne Dyer