What's On YOUR Mind? by Liimu
I know I've blogged about this before, but it's really important.
What we think about, we bring about.
How many times have you found yourself facing a horrible situation - financial crisis, sick child, or just general feeling of overwhelm - and then started "venting" to people about it, lamenting how horrible the situation is, and how horrible you feel as a result? What I have learned, and experienced, is that "venting" only makes the situation worse. That the more I talk about it, the more I wallow in it, the worse it gets.
Take this past week. We got back from Martha's Vineyard - a wonderful family vacation - only to find that all three of my girls somehow had gotten lice. Can you say, nightmare? To make matters worse, my babysitter had also gotten it, so I was faced with a Monday where I had an important meeting to go to in Delaware, and I had three children who desperately needed serious treatment for their conditions, a three-month old who is still extremely clingy and unpredictable, and no one to help me. Add to that the fact that it was my husband's first day back after paternity leave and you can understand why I began to feel like my life was spiraling out of control. I started to worry about my finances, my weight, my parenting skills - basically, I started to FREAK OUT.
Years ago, before I learned The Secret and the Law of Attraction, I would have let things continue to spiral, wasting days or even weeks whining to friends and family about how horrible everything was, and lo and behold, it would have gotten worse and worse. As a devout believer and practitioner of the Law of Attraction, I know better. I know to work my tushy off to change my feelings and my attitude and get my mindset back on a positive vibration as soon as possible. That's exactly what I did. I got help, did my part to take care of the situation and started praying, meditating and visualizing a better situation for me and my girls. It worked. Not even a week later, I am feeling on top of the world. Things in my life aren't much different (aside from the fact that we are all lice-free, thanks to RID, Nix, LiceMD, olive oil and shower caps, and good old fashioned nit-picking). I can FEEL things moving in a positive direction, and thankfully, the Universe is kind enough to show signs that I'm not imagining things. For instance, someone I had all but forgotten I loaned money to 9 months ago decided to start sending monthly payments! And suddenly, it doesn't feel so hard to resist the chocolate and whaddyaknow? The weight is finally flying off!
It's a choice we can make to decide to stay in the positive. When someone tells me I look skinny (which they have been recently - go figure), guess what? I don't say, "Oh, no - I still have tons of weight to lose." I say, "Thanks! I feel skinny!"
Here's the best example of this positive thinking at work in my life that I can recall. Forgive me if I've shared it with you before.
In May 2009, my 5 year old daughter began to complain of headaches. This wasn't unusual - she'd had a history of migraines. We gave her motrin and thought nothing more of it. Then, she started to run a fever for several days. We figured it was a virus and hoped the motrin would take care of it. When it hadn't lifted by day 5, we realized it might be something more serious. Long story short, she had contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever thanks to a dog tick bite we hadn't even realized she'd gotten. Less than a week later, the Fever had spread to her brain and her spine - she no longer recognized us and wasn't moving from the neck down. Teams of neurologists and doctors came into her room every couple of hours, each time with more depressing, scary news. She could need MRIs for several months afterward to rule out brain damage, she might need long-term physical and speech therapy, she was at risk of a stroke, which could even kill her. My husband and I cried, and kept saying to each other, "How did this happen? How did this happen?"
At some point I realized that I was getting caught up in the drama of it - not to be callous, I know that it was a dramatic and genuinely scary situation. But getting caught up in the drama of it wasn't helping her, and thank God I knew that getting into a positive mindset just might. I turned to my husband said, "That's it. I'm done with this way of thinking. I don't know about you, but from here on out, I don't want to think about anything else but her getting better. I don't want to imagine her doing anything but sitting up playing Uno and watching SpongeBob. If you can't do that, you should maybe go home for the night." He did go home for the night, not because he couldn't think positive about her - he could and did - but because he knew that in addition to thinking positive, we needed to also begin to take care of each other and ourselves.
That night, after hours of praying and visualizing her recovery, I sat next to Amelia's bed and asked her, "Which would you like me to read, Winnie the Pooh or Knuffle Bunny." To my delight and surprise, she said the first word she'd said in days - "Knuffle Bunny." I immediately began texting everyone to let them know she'd spoken as tears of joy spilled down my face. The next day, the doctors were amazed at her exponential progress. Within 48 hours, she was walking. When she left the hospital less than a week after she was admitted, they were amazed to proclaim her restored to nearly fully functioning. No additional therapy of any kind would be needed.
I always think back to our Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever experience when things start to look bleak - it helps me to remember how important and powerful the mind is, and to remember that life really is as good as I can imagine it to be.
What we think about, we bring about.
How many times have you found yourself facing a horrible situation - financial crisis, sick child, or just general feeling of overwhelm - and then started "venting" to people about it, lamenting how horrible the situation is, and how horrible you feel as a result? What I have learned, and experienced, is that "venting" only makes the situation worse. That the more I talk about it, the more I wallow in it, the worse it gets.
Take this past week. We got back from Martha's Vineyard - a wonderful family vacation - only to find that all three of my girls somehow had gotten lice. Can you say, nightmare? To make matters worse, my babysitter had also gotten it, so I was faced with a Monday where I had an important meeting to go to in Delaware, and I had three children who desperately needed serious treatment for their conditions, a three-month old who is still extremely clingy and unpredictable, and no one to help me. Add to that the fact that it was my husband's first day back after paternity leave and you can understand why I began to feel like my life was spiraling out of control. I started to worry about my finances, my weight, my parenting skills - basically, I started to FREAK OUT.
Years ago, before I learned The Secret and the Law of Attraction, I would have let things continue to spiral, wasting days or even weeks whining to friends and family about how horrible everything was, and lo and behold, it would have gotten worse and worse. As a devout believer and practitioner of the Law of Attraction, I know better. I know to work my tushy off to change my feelings and my attitude and get my mindset back on a positive vibration as soon as possible. That's exactly what I did. I got help, did my part to take care of the situation and started praying, meditating and visualizing a better situation for me and my girls. It worked. Not even a week later, I am feeling on top of the world. Things in my life aren't much different (aside from the fact that we are all lice-free, thanks to RID, Nix, LiceMD, olive oil and shower caps, and good old fashioned nit-picking). I can FEEL things moving in a positive direction, and thankfully, the Universe is kind enough to show signs that I'm not imagining things. For instance, someone I had all but forgotten I loaned money to 9 months ago decided to start sending monthly payments! And suddenly, it doesn't feel so hard to resist the chocolate and whaddyaknow? The weight is finally flying off!
It's a choice we can make to decide to stay in the positive. When someone tells me I look skinny (which they have been recently - go figure), guess what? I don't say, "Oh, no - I still have tons of weight to lose." I say, "Thanks! I feel skinny!"
Here's the best example of this positive thinking at work in my life that I can recall. Forgive me if I've shared it with you before.
In May 2009, my 5 year old daughter began to complain of headaches. This wasn't unusual - she'd had a history of migraines. We gave her motrin and thought nothing more of it. Then, she started to run a fever for several days. We figured it was a virus and hoped the motrin would take care of it. When it hadn't lifted by day 5, we realized it might be something more serious. Long story short, she had contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever thanks to a dog tick bite we hadn't even realized she'd gotten. Less than a week later, the Fever had spread to her brain and her spine - she no longer recognized us and wasn't moving from the neck down. Teams of neurologists and doctors came into her room every couple of hours, each time with more depressing, scary news. She could need MRIs for several months afterward to rule out brain damage, she might need long-term physical and speech therapy, she was at risk of a stroke, which could even kill her. My husband and I cried, and kept saying to each other, "How did this happen? How did this happen?"
At some point I realized that I was getting caught up in the drama of it - not to be callous, I know that it was a dramatic and genuinely scary situation. But getting caught up in the drama of it wasn't helping her, and thank God I knew that getting into a positive mindset just might. I turned to my husband said, "That's it. I'm done with this way of thinking. I don't know about you, but from here on out, I don't want to think about anything else but her getting better. I don't want to imagine her doing anything but sitting up playing Uno and watching SpongeBob. If you can't do that, you should maybe go home for the night." He did go home for the night, not because he couldn't think positive about her - he could and did - but because he knew that in addition to thinking positive, we needed to also begin to take care of each other and ourselves.
That night, after hours of praying and visualizing her recovery, I sat next to Amelia's bed and asked her, "Which would you like me to read, Winnie the Pooh or Knuffle Bunny." To my delight and surprise, she said the first word she'd said in days - "Knuffle Bunny." I immediately began texting everyone to let them know she'd spoken as tears of joy spilled down my face. The next day, the doctors were amazed at her exponential progress. Within 48 hours, she was walking. When she left the hospital less than a week after she was admitted, they were amazed to proclaim her restored to nearly fully functioning. No additional therapy of any kind would be needed.
I always think back to our Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever experience when things start to look bleak - it helps me to remember how important and powerful the mind is, and to remember that life really is as good as I can imagine it to be.
Labels: law of attraction, lice, miracles, nits, positive thinking, power of positive thinking, recovery, rocky mountain spotted fever, the secret
posted by Liimu at
1:00 AM
2 Comments:
I love your positive attitude, Liimu! My son was diagnosed last weekend with a 4th learning disability! But the therapy and technique for this one may cascade down to helping him with all of his other learning problems! After, weeks, months, YEARS of praying, I finally said, "Yes, there is a God!!," (not that I ever doubted it, I just felt so alone in all of this). I always looked at the stunning and amazing things my son COULD do and focused on all of his wonderful, positive traits and characteristics. I think it does help to focus on the positive...not deny whatever negative is happening at the time...but being positive goes a long way to emotional healing! Thank you for reminding me of this! :)
Lice....yikes Liimu...been there/done that...Seth and I both
had it when he was younger. Glad you persevered!
You have the right attitude. Life has its share of challenges and it's easy to play the "victim" and wallow in negative energy.
What I have come to ask myself and even friends or family I see doing this is....How does it serve you?
As you wrote...does it make you feel better? Does it make the challenge go away? Do the people that you vent to (if constant) get tired of hearing it, as much as they love and want to support you? (It's easy to come across like the mom who cried wolf if you wallow.)
We're all entitled to our moments...recognize them....and do your best to push through. I try to think that tomorrow is another day, and this too shall pass, as my beloved mom used to say.
Keep it up!
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