I’ve just gotten back from a long walk out in the freezing cold of winter here in Yea (pronounced Yay), Victoria. We live about an hour from the the snow… just to give you an idea of the temperature! I was very tempted to stay at home in front of the fire and pour a glass of wine, but I knew I would feel much better getting out there and stretching my legs.
As I was walking up a nearby hill overlooking the beautiful green paddocks a thought popped into my mind…
How lucky am I?!
Seriously, I have a wonderful family, awesome friends and I have the opportunity to do the things I love the most.
I think sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in focussing on what’s negative in life… like the freezing cold weather we are experiencing at the moment or the frustration when the internet drops out (quite frequently here)!
Why is it that we so rarely take the time to focus on those things that are positive in our lives? It’s easy to say this and sounds like it should be a simple thing to do, but you see our brains are wired to focus what can potentially cause us pain or kill us. We are genetically programmed to look out for what could go wrong… I find it amusing, because the one thing that seems to affect how we feel and behave is our thoughts. We have to fight with our own ancient programming to change our thoughts so we can focus on those things that are going well in our lives.
The other night, we had a huge storm in the area which resulted in a power outage for most of our small town. We own a hotel/restaurant in town which also lost power and so we had to close our doors and cancel all the bookings we had for the evening. That night, we had a number of couples staying in our accommodation… and one particular couple were on a first date (e-harmony or similar) and were having a few drinks, sitting in front of our fire when the power went out. I quickly lit a few candles that we had around for decoration and tried to create a more romantic atmosphere… Even though we couldn’t provide meals for the full restaurant we had anticipated on a Saturday night, we did a few meals for those staying with us. The couple on their first date had such a wonderful night, because they thought they would make the most of the darkness and really get to know one another. They guy even said to me at one point “how much do I owe you for setting the power outage up?” hahaah… the point it, they could have gotten pissed off at the whole situation – and created a shitty time for themselves, but they looked at it as a positive… a night they will never forget!
The number one rule for creating happiness in your life is to FOCUS on what is working well. What do you love about your life? What have you got to be grateful for? If you’re finding yourself in a dark place right now, the positives might start off as small things… and as you begin to focus on the little things that bring you joy, I trust you will notice that more and more of it comes your way. It’s a simple truth of the universe; what you focus on is what you get. Period. If you focus on the shit… the crap that is currently in your life… guess what?! You’ll get more crap coming your way.
At first it may not be easy – because, like I said, our brains are programmed to watch out for things that may cause us harm. So it’s about practising and starting to notice that voice in your head (don’t pretend you don’t have a little voice up there)… and what it’s directing your thoughts to focus on. As Brian Tracy puts it; “Change your thinking, change your life.”
I want to also make it really clear that I don’t believe we ALWAYS have to be thinking positive things… there are going to be times where awful things happen – an unexpected death in the family, a natural disaster strikes… I’m definitely not asking you to look for positives in every situation – there may not always be a positive. There will be pain, there will be heartache, there will be moments of sadness in your life. We are all human and the range of emotions we experience are a part of life.
So when you find yourself getting annoyed over a coffee that’s too hot or too cold, or the fact that it’s raining outside, that’s when it’s time to flip it around and begin to think about the positives and send out those good vibes :-p
Signing out for now…
Kelly xoxo