Lighten Up!
“Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. . . Every minute should be enjoyed and savoured.” Earl Nightingale
If you spend your days worrying about your yesterday, your today and your tomorrow, it’s a snap. You are definitely a pessimist. That’s the gal or guy who, when told he won the Texas lottery, moans, “Oh Gawd, just think of the taxes I’ll owe!”
On the other hand, being an optimist is a win-win situation. How can you go wrong? My dog is an optimist. He assumes he’ll get a great meal when he wakes up and he’s right; he assumes he’ll get the best haircut in town for free and he’s right; he assumes he can sleep on any bed in the house and get a tummy rub on command and bingo, he’s always right.
Being an optimist is time-saving. It takes less energy and time to assume everything during your day is going to be great – or at least will be okay. Being a pessimist means being uptight every minute of every day. Why would anyone want to do that? Psychologists all agree that we don’t do anything where we don’t get some payoff.
Soooo, are you afraid to lighten up because when you did in the past, you made really lousy choices? Dumb choices? I can understand that. But that doesn’t have to be true today. Lightening up can be a way to chase away the dark places that may be driving your dark choices. I’ve noticed that folks who take things deadly serious, take other folks deadly serious or fears for their future deadly serious often self-medicate one way or another. Eveyone needs a way to lighten up, to change pace.
My first roommate and I loved basketball. Gail and I would borrow seats from a friend who had a subscription to basketball games. We clapped our hands sore and screamed and learned a few things from basketball players. When a player misses the hoop, he looks for the next chance to score. Athletes know how to win and more importantly,that losing is part of the game. They clear their heads for tomorrow. An optimist knows that tomorrow is another day. So “lighten up” today – to prepare for tomorrow.
Meditation for the Day
“I am too blessed to be stressed. “ Unknown
Action for the Day
Today, I’’ll consider that counting my blessings and taking some time to lighten up on myself is a kind of “time out” that gets me ready for whatever comes.
[ ]
Comments
Leave a Reply
