We can thank Oprah for reminding us, “What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it.” Well, I haven’t been focusing on that because the traffic is horrendous, the weather is not as good as I expected, and the stores are already mobbed. I returned to South Florida as a snowbird this year to throngs of people and frustrations. Every day for the past two weeks since I’ve been back, it’s been disrupting my peace of mind and goodwill toward mankind.
Then I remembered, “What You Feed Grows, What You Starve Dies.”
So I discovered a list that Darren Bloke, an Australian life coach designed:
Feed positivity, starve negativity. Feed an attitude of gratitude and starve the complaints.
Feed looking for ways to assist others to achieve their goals and starve just living for our own ends. Feed relationships and starve living in isolation.
Feed action and starve fear. Feed love and starve indifference. Feed courtesy and starve disrespect Make a list and check it twice, see if you have been naughty or nice, and adopt an attitude of gratitude to carry you through the holidays. Become aware when you are slipping into old thought patterns; take mastery of yourself when you observe your inner dialogue - what the mindfulness teachers refer to as ”monkey mind”, that continuous ongoing dialogue of mental conversation that swings from thought to thought, endlessly and aimlessly.
In a place where no one behaves like a human being, you must strive to be human!In his new book “Monkey Mind,” Daniel Smith documents his experiences with a kind of anxiety that results in panic attacks, bouts of insomnia and thoughts of “existential ruin.” When the monkey mind runs amuck, it can render us helpless, so we need to take charge.
I believe the end of the year, when we are running into the holidays, is a perfect time to take stock and assess who and what we are bringing to the table. The famous Hillel quote comes to mind: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
The teaching presents a hierarchy of responsibility, in which our commitment to ourselves needs to be primary, although not singular. Basically, we cannot be effective members of a group, family or community if we are not caring for ourselves. I postulate that this holiday season, the best way to care for ourselves is to be mindful!
Commit to hear what you think, listen from your heart and care from your soul.
Make being your Best Self the gift you give YOU this year! I know I’ll be eating my words come Christmas, but as the wise ones say, we teach what we need to learn. This year, I’m following the wisdom of Hillel who also said, “In a place where no one behaves like a human being, you must strive to be human!”
Come on, it’s right here, right now, the opportunity to fill this holiday season with the light of our awareness, of our willingness to be gracious in thought and deed. So when you put down this article, pick up a smile, cultivate kindness for yourself and others, and enter 2018 with strength and confidence, knowing your focus this year is on generating more goodness for yourself, your family, your friends, your community and for our very precious and needy world.
Blessings of love and light, health and harmony, peace and prosperity! Lis