Mid-week Inspiration,

Yesterday, while leaving someone’s home after completing a small job, I backed into a fire hydrant.  I was avoiding some young children and their toys.  Focused as I was on them I missed seeing the hydrant, but my truck did find it with a rather loud crunch.  A helpful fellow promptly took a look and kindly told me I had put quite a dent in my bumper. Ouch! 

I replied with some light hearted pain filled words and drove home where I could assess the damage and wallow in a moment of uninterrupted self pity.

It didn’t work.  I arrived home assessed the damage and walked into a happy house.  The Universe was not about to give me one moment of good old fashioned wallowing.  As my wife determined the ding to be unnoticeable, I determined that I would have to practice my lessons in gratitude.

The first step was to let go.   I had to be willing to let go of my ‘upset’.  I may have had a right to be upset with myself, or anyone peripherally involved for that matter.  But in truth no amount of anger, hurt, resentment or self pity was actually going to help me feel better.  I had to accept that in all my perfection I was perfectly capable of blundering, and (ouch again) perfectly capable of owning it.  The only way to truly release a feeling is to first own it fully.  The only way to truly release anything is to first take ownership.

Next I chose to fill my mind with more preferable thoughts; thoughts that would allow me to feel my normal level of joyfulness.

I had to move into a place of gratitude for all the good things in my world.  My new thoughts and feelings completely obliterated any residual sense of pain.

What I was doing was not just some surface activity; I was applying a couple of the fundamental laws of physics. (No two objects can simultaneously occupy the same space and an object will maintain its current state unless operated upon by an outside force.)  Ergo, no two thoughts can simultaneously exist in the same moment in my head and it is always going to take a conscious effort to change my feelings.

My little dent still exists in my truck.  I am no longer emotionally invested in that dent.  I can deal with it in a healthy way; I won’t lose any sleep over it and at the right time I will get it fixed.

What was important for me to share here was the value of frequently and consciously, throughout the day, filling our thoughts with gratitude.  We, our thoughts, are bound by the same laws that operate throughout our physical environment.  As they like to say in the computer world “garbage in garbage out.  The same rule applies in our daily lives; if we think garbage thoughts we create for ourselves garbage experiences.

Yes; healthy thoughts do create healthy lives, we have all seen this in someone, gratitude is healthy thinking.  Choose health by saying thank you more often.

Blessings,