Keeping Tabs

Too often we keep tabs on the problematic issues in life. It’s a limited viewpoint: life is a problem. This is how we make life hard. This is how we become Hardaholics – through our perceptions. For numerous companies, Y2K was problematic, but for hundreds, if not thousands, of well-paid programmers, Y2K was a job. It meant employment.

Rather than building problems with our minds, we might do better building emotional and mental scenarios of gains, rather than those of loss.

Please consider playing some of my favorite building games:

• Expected and Unexpected Income I start the day with this thought: “Today I receive expected and unexpected income.” Each day I keep tabs on my income, based on that intention. Recently I found $12 between some papers. One day a friend gave me a book. Another day we got one free bag of dog food for making our tenth purchase. That same day we received a free bottle of flax seed oil. My husband was told by a store worker that the store did not carry flax seed oil. My husband checked out, but before he left, the employee caught up with him and handed him a bottle of flax seed oil. “I was wrong. We had it. Just keep it for free.” That was $10.00 worth of oil
• What good happened today? At the close of the day, review what happened and find at least one good thing that happened that day. Let the last thing on our minds be a life-supportive thought.
•  Synchronicities of the day Synchronicity means meaningful coincidences. One of my most profound incidences of synchronicity happened when I was explaining the concept of synchronicity to a client. “If I am saying something to you and a tree falls in the backyard, that would be a sign that what I am saying is important. It would be as if the tree falling was the Universe’s way of saying, ‘Listen’.” As I was saying that, a tree fell in the backyard of my office. There was a window in my office, so we had a clear view. The falling of the tree pointed out that synchronicity would probably be important in her life. These events are magic and they make wonderful journal material.
•  Keeping up with the miracles – the small ones. A miracle could be changing the way I react to something. The behavior or activity that used to upset me no longer disturbs me. Another miracle would be a deep feeling of peace even in the face of a loss. I remember flying home for my father’s funeral and feeling uplifted on the journey. It felt like invisible arms were holding me. A miracle can be meeting an influential friend or turning to the very page in a book that you needed to read for information or inspiration. Maybe it’s a good night’s sleep when you are an insomniac. Look for those miracles.
•  Keeping tabs on me This involves taking a second throughout the day to feel what it’s like to be me, when I feel me, and I connect my mind and body. “Oh, here I am.” I check in throughout the day and it keeps my mind from too much chatter and calms me. Simple task; profound results.
• Keeping tabs on my breath I check my breath during the day. Just noticing my breath makes me sit up straighter and breathe deeper. If I’m holding my breath or have shallow breathing, it tells me I’m stressed. I relax my body. I let go in my belly and shoulders. Relaxation is the secret simple key to health. (I heard that relaxation quote recently, but don’t remember who said it).

The eastern trinitarian concept highlights construction or creation, sustaining life, and destruction or tearing down. Brahma creates, Vishnu sustains, and Shiva destroys. What does your mind keep tabs on? Is it the constructive or the destructive nature? Are you mentally affixed to the negative side of Shiva’s nature? Life is always falling apart; that’s the Shiva nature, but focusing on that aspect alone will bring despair. Things need to fall apart, but watching the fall may not be the best use of your time.

I have a compost bin in my kitchen. It lives in my pantry. I don’t deny its existence. I use it to dispose of my vegetable and fruit trimmings, but I don’t stand over the compost bin for hours and smell the stench. It really stinks. I know it’s there, covered and tucked inside my pantry, but I don’t let its existence determine my life’s view.

What we keep tabs on colors our world view and either builds or destroys personal realities. What are you keeping tabs on? Tim Bays says it so well in his song, A thousand things went right today and will again tomorrow. The exercises above build the mind and heart and take us from hopelessness and helplessness and deliver us to peace, ease, and happiness. Please join me in creating an easier and safer world. Your world view is up to you, and it’s time to make it easier, freer, and lighter.