A New You may be just a basket away! It’s also quite easy and takes very little time. This is an opportunity to seize a new day and a New You. Are you ready?
Consciously or unconsciously what is frustrating, upsetting, scary, painful, unhappy, or who did or who didn’t do what we want can often become the focus of our attention. We can even become addicted to the negativity. You could easily conclude that the result is we are not as happy as we’d like to be! All we really want is the freedom of happiness, joy, satisfaction, faith, safety, and the confidence that “All is well”.
The good news is that we have the power to change that, and to direct our attention in a more healing, positive, new direction. The truth is that our thoughts and feelings (whether conscious or unconscious) become a part of who we are, and they drive our way of believing and behaving, positively or negatively. So let’s take the high road and choose a new me and a new you.
As I say the “Prayer of Protection” by James Dillet Freeman each day, I conclude by saying, “And all is well”. You may end that prayer in the same way, and yet, I wonder if we have really integrated and imbedded in our hearts and souls that “All is well”? Have those words become an integral part of who we are? Words alone mean nothing. New thoughts plus feelings have potential to create something new! Rather than being caught in a downward trap of what’s not working, we have the power to create a new experience.
To experience a New You means re-directing our thoughts from what is frustrating to what is “working”, and make note of it. We soon awaken to the idea that we can become as addicted to new joy, as we have been to negativity. That road to “The New” is clearly explained by Dr. Joe Dispenza, as he teaches that thoughts are the electrical power in our system and feelings are the magnetic power! We put them together the way we want our life to be.
Take Action! You can quickly take concrete action that leads to a positive freshness in your life.
Look around your environment nowfor something that pleases you, something for which you are grateful today.
Write it down.
Think about it.
Feel it!
Put the note in your special container.
Just as I was writing this, I heard my neighbor rolling my garbage and recycle bins up from the street to my garage. Wow! I think to myself how thoughtful he is!! So I jot this thoughtfulness on a piece of paper, and I gratefully toss that slip of paper in a basket here in my kitchen, designated Thank You, 2019. I noticed right after writing it, that my mind then thought about all the folks who work so hard every week, driving those trucks to pick up and to dispose properly of what I have to return to the universe. I really do appreciate them and all of the people who serve us by keeping our environment as clean as possible! I am thankful! My commitment to consistency is that I drop one scrap of paper with one thankful note in the basket every day. That simple act brings to mind many other things for which I am grateful! It makes me smile! The practice actually stimulates my mind to see more of the positive and good in my life. As I consciously place my focus on just one thing for which I am grateful, rather than on what is “not working” (in my mind), I realize how good I feel! I also recognize that I could place many shorthand notes in the basket every day, but I have found that it takes just one quick note to make the immediate difference in me that I seek. I’m not making this a job; it’s a joy.
About 4 pm each day, I sit near my garage door and relax, soaking in the closing of another sunshine day. One day last week I did not do that. While fixing dinner instead, I heard a very loud noise, as if a gun shot or someone drove into my garage door. Neither of those had happened, but, rather, the spring on the garage door snapped. I was the fortunate one because I was not sitting nearby, as I usually do at that time of day. You can bet that gratitude note went into my basket, and for the expert technician who fixed it!
If you live with others, having a basket, bucket, box or whatever container suits your tastes, you may find that others may wish to join you (the key, of course, being “may wish”). Often this makes for really positive, joyful dinner conversation. Just imagine if everyone in your family added one quick grateful note to the basket daily how that could change the home environment! Having someone by your side to support you or join you in this process makes it all so much more exciting! Without that friend, partner, spouse or child(ren) be clear that you can still accomplish the New You that you intend. You’re the common denominator in this!
I’m sure that we are being called to live from a higher level of being, certainly a place of greater satisfaction. I know that as we begin to consciously acknowledge how helpful, loving, kind, gracious, grateful, generous, welcoming, and hardworking that we and others really are, we can take the first tiny steps to that better place! With this practice we see ourselves and others differently, and neither our ego nor negativity rule us. We don’t see another as our betrayer any longer; we see them as our nudge in a better direction! Wouldn’t you rather be grateful and happy for something than right about who is wrong? True freedom to choose what we see and interpret allows us to be the creators of our experience, and a simple, physical, grateful, scrappy note in a basket each day will lead to the creation of a New Me and a New You!
Creating a New Me and New You in 2019!
Always New,
Barbara
Thanks to my friend Paula C. who encouraged me to address this (and a few other future topics).
Thanks to another amazing friend, Karen Diehl, for her editorial skills.
*The "Prayer for Protection" is one of two Freeman poems carried to the moon by Apollo astronauts. In 1969, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin carried a copy with him on the first manned moon landing. In 1971, a microfilm copy of Freeman's poem, "I Am There," was left on the moon by Apollo XV astronaut James B. Irwin.