I was on my walk one afternoon last week.
I live near a park that has a track that leads in to a reserve. Aka small bush area in Australia. There’s a lovely brook and a variety of trees and native flowers that delight me as I spot them along my way. Kookaburras singing loudly as they flew from branch to branch. Big trees with wide leaves create a canopy of cool shade as I bathe in the glory of nature and breathe deeply the scents of the eucalyptus and wood. This path comes out at the other end of the bush, right next to a bay. If you follow me on Insta or FB you’ve seen me often share pictures and videos in my stories of this bush and the pretty bay. The bay of water is some days blue, some days green, depending on the sunshine and clouds in the sky.
After this bay, I follow a road that has bush on one side and houses on the other, and then connects with other streets of this suburb, that then lead me back home.
That day, as I was walking along these streets, I found myself liking what I saw less and less. I found myself thinking thoughts of “I don’t like that style of brick, or that is an untidy front yard, or why would anyone leave their old tools like that, or ooh that person is messy and dirty.” These thoughts did not make me feel good. And I noticed my vibe had dipped.
So, in that moment, I decided to change the track I was playing in my mind. I decided to send each home and its occupants my love. This blessing came to my mind: “May you live well in your happy home.” And so, I started chanting this affirmation as I passed every house, all the way back to my own home. “May you live well in your happy home.” “May you live well in your happy home.”
Of course, as soon as I started saying it, I immediately started to feel better. I’m not saying I felt better, as in a better and now worthy person. (We are always worthy and nothing we think, say or do can change that.) I’m saying I felt good feelings wash through my body. You see, what I was doing was using my conscious mind to retrain my brain to change my mind and in turn it released good feeling chemicals in my body. Neuroplasticity. I was creating new skills by practicing recognizing negative feeling thought patterns and creating new positive ones.
You can do this too. Anytime, anywhere. It’s like self-coaching. You have the power within you. Every time you catch yourself thinking thoughts that don’t feel good, answer them with a thought that does feel good. Don’t fight, don’t justify, don’t condemn. But you must answer. You can’t just read about this. It won’t work. You must choose a better feeling thought, in the moment. Do this and watch your body heal, watch your abundance increase, watch your life improve in every way important to you. You and I can create miracles my friend.
Photo cred: A painting I created for a garden, on Italian tile.