Is energy really positive or negative?
Energy, in and of itself, is neutral. How energy effects a person is what makes it positive or negative. Or more accurately, how a person perceives the energy or event they interact with is what changes neutral energy into either positive or negative.
Can we actually change energy? Well, quantum physics is discovering how our intentions affect an object (or a subatomic molecule), but the concepts of negative or positive are purely human.
And if something is only negative because we assign the negative label to it, then that same object (or action, situation or circumstance) can be neutral or positive. It changes depending on the spin we put on it. It changes when we consciously decide it changes.
And to be a bit more accurate,something is negative because of how we perceive it to affect us. Once we sense an effect, we attach a label. We describe. We attach an emotion.
So, in any circumstance, action or situation, we can always decide how something affects us. Sometimes we feel like we don't have any control in that decision, but we do. We always do. We always have a choice to feel negative or positive in each moment of each day.
Positive energy. What an affect it can have...
What does your acre look like?
I have, open on my table, a book on writing: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.
One of her nuggets of advice: each character should have an acre of emotions - their own acre to do with it what they will.
Do they grow flowers and vegetables, or have a garage full of junk? How do they react when someone treads on their acre?What do they carry around in their pockets? she asks.
As I write, I realize that I am a character, with papers wind-scattered over the lawn. As I pick them up I learn more, grow more. Some of them drift away - a lost opportunity, which seems to return when the wind shifts directions.
My life is rich as dung-filled fertilizer - some crappy circumstances and events must simply sit and ferment until I realize the amazing growth they are responsible for. However, I notice the growth more than the dirt lying flat upon the ground. These days, I notice this fertilizer creates flowers filled with amazing people and beautiful sunshine. Occasionally I find a small thorn. It pricks and hurts, but it also gives me a moment to learn and to grow.
If I look around my acre, I know my Vancouver friends and family are there, but they are far away - the other side of the acre. However, they bloom as the most incredible poppies and roses, magnolias and dahlias. I can smell their uplifting scent and see their brightness from far away.
I also see my acre as my space. Sometimes I feel very protective of it. Often this fierce protectiveness occurs when I've been stepped on, or when I haven't given myself enough space to grow. I fight for that space to open for only me - a selfish stance, but I realize if I don't take care of myself, my acre, I don't have the same energy and sunshine to take care of others.
What does your acre look like?
There may be butterflies and babies or sewage and storms. Perhaps there is an electrical charge of lightening - energy that becomes a source of strength. Intense energy can be useful. As a mother you learn from the intensity of love, and as you and your child grows it becomes stronger - you and your child become stronger.
If your acre exists as individual emotions, like flowers, then what are they?
How does your stance or expression change as you pick one emotion, then another? How do you speak, what decisions do you make?
How do you care for others as they come in to your acre - how do they care for you?
As you awaken to a brand new day with an acre of possibilities, what is the first though you have?
What is the last thought you have, the last seed you plant, before you go to sleep each night?
What if that was your last thought in life?
Your acre of land will continue to unfold, give birth to flowers, plants and weeds. Then it dies and has an opportunity to rebirth again, bringing new life to the plants it touches, the fertilizer upon it.
If you had that opportunity to bring life again to your moments, to those you meet, to family and friends, what would you change? How would you do it differently?
Why don't you do that now? Change what you plant and harvest each day, in your thoughts, actions, and attention.
One of her nuggets of advice: each character should have an acre of emotions - their own acre to do with it what they will.
Do they grow flowers and vegetables, or have a garage full of junk? How do they react when someone treads on their acre?What do they carry around in their pockets? she asks.
As I write, I realize that I am a character, with papers wind-scattered over the lawn. As I pick them up I learn more, grow more. Some of them drift away - a lost opportunity, which seems to return when the wind shifts directions.
My life is rich as dung-filled fertilizer - some crappy circumstances and events must simply sit and ferment until I realize the amazing growth they are responsible for. However, I notice the growth more than the dirt lying flat upon the ground. These days, I notice this fertilizer creates flowers filled with amazing people and beautiful sunshine. Occasionally I find a small thorn. It pricks and hurts, but it also gives me a moment to learn and to grow.
If I look around my acre, I know my Vancouver friends and family are there, but they are far away - the other side of the acre. However, they bloom as the most incredible poppies and roses, magnolias and dahlias. I can smell their uplifting scent and see their brightness from far away.
I also see my acre as my space. Sometimes I feel very protective of it. Often this fierce protectiveness occurs when I've been stepped on, or when I haven't given myself enough space to grow. I fight for that space to open for only me - a selfish stance, but I realize if I don't take care of myself, my acre, I don't have the same energy and sunshine to take care of others.
What does your acre look like?
There may be butterflies and babies or sewage and storms. Perhaps there is an electrical charge of lightening - energy that becomes a source of strength. Intense energy can be useful. As a mother you learn from the intensity of love, and as you and your child grows it becomes stronger - you and your child become stronger.
If your acre exists as individual emotions, like flowers, then what are they?
How does your stance or expression change as you pick one emotion, then another? How do you speak, what decisions do you make?
How do you care for others as they come in to your acre - how do they care for you?
As you awaken to a brand new day with an acre of possibilities, what is the first though you have?
What is the last thought you have, the last seed you plant, before you go to sleep each night?
What if that was your last thought in life?
Your acre of land will continue to unfold, give birth to flowers, plants and weeds. Then it dies and has an opportunity to rebirth again, bringing new life to the plants it touches, the fertilizer upon it.
If you had that opportunity to bring life again to your moments, to those you meet, to family and friends, what would you change? How would you do it differently?
Why don't you do that now? Change what you plant and harvest each day, in your thoughts, actions, and attention.
Parenting Tools
We All Have Personal Tools
What you already have:
Tools to solve problems with kids
What you already have:
Tools to solve problems with kids
Tools to appreciate a husband
Tools to do well at work
Tools to deal with hormones and life (though you suspect there may be better tools, somewhere...)
Your tools work, as long as kids are fed, husband’s work is going well, and your own work deadlines are being met.
Your tools work, as long as kids are fed, husband’s work is going well, and your own work deadlines are being met.
Take a moment to appreciate your toolbox for:
1. Kids: You have a structure in place and feed them healthy food.
2. Husband: You make his favorite food, you listen to his work frustrations, and you keep the kids out of his way when he’s tired or grumpy.
3. Work: You arrive on time, work hard and are proactive.
4. Hormones: Though they may have a life of their own, you have a basic system to deal with them. You warn your hubby, you don’t over commit that week, and you take some time for yourself when you can.
We Can Create More Tools
What you wish you had:
You wish for something else, still intangible, to solve problems when life races past you, you feel out of control, your children are out of control, work deadlines are looming or have passed, your hormones are out of control and your husband expects more than you can give.
You wish for the feeling of calm, in the midst of chaos.
Metaphysics (literally “beyond the physics”) is where those solutions can be found. They are not physical, so they don’t cost money, they aren’t only for the privileged or for those with lots of time, and you don’t have to go far to get them.
The first tool:
Appreciate and be grateful
Spread an attitude of gratitude in everything you do, and it will come back to you. Call it Karma or the Law of Attraction, but if you are grateful for a bit of money, more will come your way. If you are grateful for health, you will stay healthy.
It won't work if your underlying voice says, "yeah, right, this won't last."
It will work if your appreciation goes deep and is true.
Let go of the cynic inside you (let it go with a deep breath), and embrace your attitude of gratitude!
This tool already exists within you. Embrace it!
On Oprah's website, there is a helpful article to help you distance from negative emotions. Check it out!
Hugs, Leigh
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