The other day we were cleaning out our garage and I came across some pretty lackluster paintings and some gaudy rococo frames. It got me thinking on how important a great frame is for bringing out the best in any painting. Taking that a metaphorical step further, if our lives are our canvass and we are painting our lives as we move along, how important is the framing of our reality? In other words, how important is our attitude with which we interact with the outer world?
In my experience, our attitude is half the battle in this gig we call life. But why is that? For law of attraction believers the obvious answer is- "what you think and feel is what you are going to get more of!" I’d like to take this an empirical step further using the example of how our subconscious works. Let’s use the classic example of what happens after you buy a new car. Sooner rather than later, you begin to see your car’s model everywhere right?
Informally this process has been referred to as selective focusing. New agers and law of attraction enthusiasts might simply say it’s ‘synchronicity’ or “wherever attention goes, energy flows.” Science enthusiasts might refer to it as a byproduct of our brain's Reticular Activating System. Regardless of how any individual may label this, practical experience tells us that whatever we focus on we notice and get more of in our day to day experience.
Since becoming a ‘glass half full’ kinda gal, I’ve noticed a distinct improvement in my experience of activities that I have been engaged in for well over a decade. For example, these days I manage to have way more fun surfing, although I don’t surf as often as I used to.
The variables are constant: the waves, location and people are more or less the same, but my experience is so much more pleasurable because when I paddle out, I spend my time thinking about how lucky I am to be floating in the ocean on a beautiful day, to live on the coast, to have such an awesome form of exercise as my hobby and so on. Years ago, I would have been focused on the crowds, the attitudes of other surfers or on my own frustrations and desires. Now when I surpass my own expectations by surfing well it’s really just icing on the cake.
Seeing the glass half full isn’t about being a ‘pollyanna’, it’s about choosing what you want to pass through the filter of your mind. There is a lot of tragedy and misfortune out in the world or even in our own lives that needs to be addressed, but there is also a lot of good, beauty, benefit and wonder mixed in.
So what happens when we can’t see the benefit? Sometimes we manifest gnarly situations that are so tragic and unjust that it seems nearly impossible to see any good whatsoever. Well in my experience it’s about practicing, observing and experiencing over the long haul because in the moments when you don’t have the clarity to see the bright side, your faith will carry you through.
This isn’t about blind faith. This is the kind of faith that is developed based on your own personal experience and practice. Sometimes the lessons learned, the transformation that is triggered takes place far down the road.
Whether you want to think of it as the butterfly effect or a game of dominos, all of our lives are woven together and sometimes pulling a thread here triggers something elsewhere that needs to shift. In the present, the benefit may be incognito, but in time it will be revealed to those who are paying attention. Faith and wisdom are about knowing this and moving forward with grace.
Changing your story will change your life! In my transformational coaching sessions we tackle perspective on the present and past as well as sowing the most beneficial seeds in terms of thoughts, attitudes and beliefs for the future.
Thanks for visiting!
~Meniyka