My christian ethics teacher assigned something for the thanksgiving season, to write a list of 100 things we were thankful for in our lives. This was crazy, I couldn't think of 100 things to write down. But I took the assignment VERY seriously and on friday night I sat down and wrote down as MANY as I possibly could. I came up with a list of 200 different things. Now here is the part that bothers me, I went to sleep in the mindset of what I was thankful for in the past (leading up to the point I was in, e.g. family, money etc.) and the next day at work I dealt with nothing but angry, swearing customers, and I ended up locking myself away and doing training on the computer, dwelling on the bad customers, when that was all done I went back out and dealt with nothing more than more angry customers. I came home and reflected on the events. I decided to change this list of things that I was grateful for from the past, and turn it into what I am happy for having in the present.
This, however is slightly more complex than that, because the list is not just what is true, but is rather what I desire, what makes me happy, and anything I can think of that is positive. For example, the opening line in my list might be : "I am so happy now that I drive a corvette to school." Now, I write this list in paragraph form, and allow it to make me really feel like the things that I am writing are true, with every new line I visualize that which I have written down, and allow the thoughts to fill me. I created one list last night, and I am writing one now (11:00 AM) and am about to go to work at 12:00. The results of a change in attitude from the past, to the present(aka future) should hopefully be positive.
RESULTS:
So I didn't stop at just making the list in the morning, I went a step further, brought some paper to work and at every free moment I had, I wrote down something to be happy for. Like I said earlier, it was rarely something I was happy for in the present (though, I did write about my girlfriend quite a few times :) ) I tried to focus on ideas and concepts relating to my life that would make me happy if they changed in that way, one example of this is "I am so happy now that everybody that I speak with respects me as a person" and I would truly feel that that was how my life was. The day ended up not going as well as I had hoped, however not one time was a sworn at, and every customer I had was respectful, and almost every encounter I had was a positive one. So the day dragged on for some time but all in all I had a FAR better day today than yesterday, and I plan to continue this throughout my days as I go to work, and in school, and hopefully will I not only be having better days at school and work, but I will also bring about all of these things that I am writing about! :)
This is a little different than what I mentioned today in class, but they are related. You believe (if I've understood correctly) that you create your own reality through what you think, thus to write down a positive thought is ultimately to move towards it becoming true. Though I would not take this as far as you seem to I do concur that we have a role in creating the environment around us - by expressing and living out of a basis of gratitude we focus on that which is life giving and hopeful, making our reality seem more positive. The converse is true as well, by focusing on problems and irritations we expand the impact of the negative upon ourselves and thus create a sense of a more negative experience, which in turn is expressed to others through our attitudes and behaviours which will tend to be more negative and create a feedback loop of negativity.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is possible to totally manipulate the world around you, and what you bring into your life by thought, however I also believe that the world was created initially from thought, and why bother trying to attract specific things when I can just be happy? :)
ReplyDeleteIt is just one of those things that some people can accept and others (namely those belonging to a monotheistic faith, and actually most polytheistic faiths aswell) that cannot. Just another outlook on 'why?'