A positive frame of mind is a habit. How have you silenced the propaganda factory of negativity with positive thought and behavior in your life in 2011? How has this changed your day-to-day being?
This was the most prominent issue in my life this year. Sometimes it seems as if this is the core issue of my life period. My parents were the architects, builders and landlords of the "propaganda factory of negativity" that I have been living in since I was a kid. They were masters of the artful underhanded slight:
I love that long skirt on you Cris...you know, your legs really aren't suited for anything above the knee.
as well as being adept at the full frontal attack:
Every decision you have made in your life has been the wrong one!
The thing is that they have now softened with time. They have shut down the factory but I keep showing up for work everyday; turning on the lights; running all the machines.
This year my negativity got to be too much. It threatened to destroy me. And it wasn't just the, "I'm not good enough", "Woe is me", Eeyore type of negativity. It was nasty and mean; wrapped in anger and resentment and jealousy; directed inward & outward in all directions. So I had to get away...from myself.
How does one do that?
How can you distance yourself from your actions, words, thoughts, emotions????
The only way I have found is by going behind your actions, behind your words, behind your thoughts; even behind your feelings and finding that deep place where you can make the realization that none of those things is you. They are just things that arose from your mind and that you have decided to identify as "you".
The best way to tune into that part of yourself? In my opinion; I have found it through yoga and meditation. Those practices are all about finding stillness and letting go.
When you are struggling in a yoga pose and your mind and body are screaming at you and the teacher is gently instructing you to just breathe and let go and surrender to the pose you think, "who is this crazy lunatic!" But the first time you witness the same moment out of class? When your boss, mother, lover, whoever, is in your face about something and you feel the need to respond; to react but instead you just breathe and surrender? That is a magic moment. You step outside yourself and realize your frame of mind is completely and totally in your control. It sounds cliche but you can choose to see whether the glass is "half full" or "half empty".
I haven't mastered the power of positive thinking. I still visit the "factory of negativity"; more often than I care to admit but I definitely am no longer calling that place home.
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