Today is Positive Thinking Day! And a great day for me to celebrate for the first time. Years ago, when I first heard of positive thinking, I dismissed it as a gimmicky fad. It seemed like lying to myself, thinking thoughts that weren’t true, which just showed I was unfamiliar with the concept and not ready to shift my attitude. For that’s what positive thinking is, truly, a shift in thoughts, and attitudes, which shifts beliefs, emotions, actions and results. Embracing positive energy, living in awareness and operating at a higher vibrational frequency is a way of life for me now. It was a joy to celebrate Positive Thinking Day, with even greater awareness of my thoughts, attitude and beliefs.
From my own journey, here are some reflections about keeping thoughts on a higher, more positive level:
- Embracing the positive isn’t about distorting the truth, it’s about accepting what is, and not creating stories around what’s not true. I deeply appreciate the teachings of Byron Katie, who encourages me to questions my thoughts by asking, “Is it true?” We have upwards of 60,000 thoughts a day. Most of these pass through our awareness without bringing distress. It is when we focus on a thought, and begin to create a story around it, that we can spiral downward into negativity. For example, my friend passed me by on the street, without acknowledging my wave. After I walk on, I focus on the thought that she ignored me, intentionally. If I don’t question the validity of this notion , I can begin to build a story around that thought that goes like this…. She must be mad at me. I must have done something wrong. My friend is mean. I don’t deserve to be treated like this. I need to make a new friend… On and on the thoughts go, creating a story based on a thought that wasn’t even true. The truth is, I don’t know why my friend didn’t respond to me. Perhaps she just didn’t see me. Questioning my thoughts allows me to let go of negative thinking. All I know is, she didn’t wave at me. That’s it. I can check on her later, and move on with my day.
- Gratitude always raises my level of positive energy. I don’t walk around all day saying, “I am a billionaire.” I move through the day saying “Thank you”. Today I could say, “I am grateful that I have all that I need in this moment. I am grateful for my home and my family. I am grateful for this beautiful day. I am grateful for my garden.” Gratitude is the foundation of my life. And gratitude is a choice. I can complain, and bring more into my life to complain about. Or I can express gratitude, and bring more into my life to be grateful for. I choose.
- What’s going on in my world, positive or negative, is a reflection of what I’m thinking about. Everything is energy, vibrating at different frequencies. When negative people, things, or actions are showing up in my life, it is an invitation to check in with my thoughts, which creates my beliefs, and make a shift. As I release lower energy thoughts, and embrace higher energy ones, my outward world shifts to match my inner world.
- I’ve adopted practices that keep my energy humming along, in a positive way. I limit the amount of news that I encounter, by limiting TV news programs, talk radio, and newspapers. If there is something important I need to know, I will know it. I have friends, family and Facebook for that. I also limit my contact with lower energy people. If someone is prone to complaining, I smile and walk away, as quickly as I can. I foster relationships with positive, high energy people. I meditate and pray. I engage in activities that I love and enjoy and that bring me pleasure. Today, a beautiful mild day with abundant sunshine, was perfect for gardening. I puttered around my garden, weeding, watering, cleaning up, touching flowers and plants. When Greg joined me, amazing changes took place in the area of the yard where construction materials and odds and ends have accumulated. With his help, we cleaned up and uncluttered that area, with the immediate effect of freeing energy in that part of the yard. There was suddenly openness and increased flow and I was so delighted with the result that I walked repeated into that area, just to experience the heightened positive energy!
I had a beautiful day, quietly celebrating Positive Thinking Day. It was good to check in frequently with my thoughts, express gratitude and stay in a place of acceptance and allowing. My yard and I both benefitted from powerful, high level energy, as a result of choosing to focus on positive thoughts. At the end of the day, I celebrated with dinner outside and a crackling fire in the fire pit, which was positively perfect!
