Thoughts

Imprisoned by your thoughts?

“Problems exist only in the human mind.”
-- Anthony de Mello

For most of us, there’s always a long ‘to do’ list. That’s a fact.
And it’s easy to feel victimized. ‘Poor me!’ That’s not a fact – that’s a choice.

Experiment with your life to explore how much your mind is your jailer. Simply let go of the ‘oh woe’ kinds of thoughts. Silence your mind. Be right here, right now. Decide what you will do now and do it, without buying in to the mind’s sob story. When one task is done, you can then choose another.

Allowing the mind to agonize about the size of the ‘to do’ list just makes us tired before we even get started. It doesn’t have to be this way.

“Don't water your weeds.”
-- Harvey Mackay

I so needed to hear this today. I tend to get so caught up in the list of things I need to accomplish that I start planning the outcomes so I can get through the list on the time table that I have established. I have completely forgetten that when my relationship with my Higher Power is right than I am working on his "to do" list not mine. The things will be accomplished on his time table and the outcomes will be as he wishes them to be. When I allow my selfishness to take over all I am doing is building a "resentment" list instead of finishing a "to do" list. A resentment list and my decisions earned me a chair at the AA Table. My way makes my life unmanagable. Time to remember who is really in charge.......(thanks Mable for the reminder of where to look for the answer).

Correct Vision

Today's thought is:

A thousand eyes, but none with correct vision.--Isacher Hurwitz

William Shakespeare referred to envy as the "green sickness." There are only losers in the game of envy. When we envy someone else, we have judged ourselves and found something lacking.

Lack of self-love is the soil in which envy grows. Envious people are never satisfied. Self-pity is never sitting far from envy. We feel sorry for ourselves for what we don't have. Self-pity is like a swamp, the longer we stand in the muck, the more we stink.

Concentrating on what we do have is the perfect antidote for envy. Every one of us has our own special gifts and talents. We find these by looking at ourselves instead of looking at others. By becoming grateful for what we have, we can rejoice in ourselves.

Today let me be grateful for what I have.

You are reading from the book:

Our Best Days by Nancy Hull-Mast

I'm on the last leg of vacation. Spending a few days on Whidbey Island. I'm meeting Phyllis, a pal from blogger land, later today. I'm having dinner with a friend who moved here to the Island form back home, not long ago. Vacation has been wonderful so far. I got in lots of time on the beach reflecting on all the wonderful gifts I have and connecting with my Higher Power. I found a great little meeting, The Peninsila Group in Seaview, that saved my bacon a few times. The folks there were wonderful, and welcoming and I felt at home. I discovered that marriage is a lot of work, but with honesty, commitment, and patience we can make it work. My biggest obstacle is Me. When the road gets tough I let in that self-centered Fear. With it comes my old nemisis self-pity.....and than the down ward spiral begins. If I want to prevent this than I must get out of self and ask my HP for help and guidance. I did that this week, I really asked for help and left the results in his hands. It is has he has meant it to be. After we really looked at our relationship we discovered that there is far more good than bad and much to keep fighting for. I am filled with gratitude for all the gifts I have in my life. I was able to take the time to really look at my life while on vacation and I have to admit, life is good, and I owe that to my Higher Power and AA. Thanks.

Today's thought is:

I always have two lists: things I'm happy about and things I'm not. It's my choice which list I focus on.--Anne Arthur

Why do we all too eagerly see the glass as half empty rather than as half full? It need not be a habit that we are stuck with forever. All of us feel helpless at times to change our vision of life. Discouragement and self-pity become comfortable, and we fear that discarding them will leave us vulnerable.

Seeing the glass as half empty is a sign that our attitude is holding us back. Unfortunately, a bad attitude is seductive. It's as though we find pleasure, perverse though it may be, in feeling sorry for ourselves. Sometimes we even imagine staying in that place forever. It's then that we need the warmth of loving friends, and it's no accident that we are surrounded by them in this fellowship.

We may, at first, try to ignore those reaching toward us, but we will soon feel their presence. We can thank God for the inspiration to adjust our attitude.

If I reach out lovingly to someone else today, I will not need a nudge from my Higher Power to adjust my attitude.
You are reading from the book:

A Woman's Spirit by Karen Casey

This is so true. I have struggled to change my view. I try to always see the positive in every situation that comes my way. It took a long time to be able to do that. Even now that it is becoming a habit it still often takes some time for me to acomplish this. My days are relativley good just because I make a choice to look at life through a different set of lenses. I have learned that life is all about choices. I can get up and see life as a challenge and full of lessons to be learned, people to serve, God's will to be done.....or I can see life as obstacles and dissappointments, people getting in my way, a mess. I was reminded recently that even though I make a conscious effort to do this there is always room for improvement. I was driving to work, late again (I'm always late), while talking on the phone (another bad habit), and a car pulled out in front of me.....I of course cussed them up one side and down the other. The person I had been speaking to politely waited for me to finish and than said, "You know, if you let folks in they can never cut you off". Wow, what a concept....it's all about how you look at it.....

Thoughts For Today

My thoughts for the day.......most of them stolen from others.....

"The Lord is a good psychologist: he knows the way our minds run. Turmoil can be the Lord's way of tapping us on the shoulder and saying, 'Don't forget me.'"-- Eknath Easwaran

"It takes a lot of experience of life to see why some relationships last and others do not. But we do not have to wait for a crisis to get an idea of the future of a particular relationship. Our behavior in little every incidents tells us a great deal." Eknath Easwaran

"Patience can't be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it." Eknath Easwaran

"Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose." Eknath Easwaran

“The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.” -Abraham Lincoln

"Someone was hurt before you.....beaten before you; humiliated before you; raped before you; yet someone survived." by Maya Angelou

"There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you." by Maya Angelou

"Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows me to survive, and better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, and style." by Maya Angelou

"Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable." by Maya Angelou

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded." by Maya Angelou

"Alone, all aloneNobody, but nobodyCan make it out here alone." by Maya Angelou

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." by Maya Angelou

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." by Maya Angelou

"Nothing will work unless you do." by Maya Angelou

"The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach." by Maya Angelou

"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest." by Maya Angelou