This poster says, “I’m so tired of people needing a reason for doing everything in their lives. Do it because you want to. Because it’s fun. Because it makes you happy.
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Great Spirit says that all actions should be done with grace and ease. Especially if it is fun! Life is to be in balance. If we are too serious all the time, then we skew to anxiety. We balance seriousness by having moments of unstructured fun.
Do something fun today!
Blessings,
Judy
Over the last while, when I am out with my dog in the park or the neighbourhood, we see a jack rabbit, running through the grass. Rabbit bounds around us, and my dog wants to run with Rabbit.
Rabbit shares these thoughts with us:
I thanked Rabbit for sharing her thoughts.
Many blessings,
Judy
Picture of clouds lifting from Microsoft Clip Art…
I had a question from a reader asking how one can overcome helplessness. It was not clear if the helplessness was for the person or for a friend. Keep in mind that often helplessness is a learned behaviour . It is learned from parents who tell you that you cannot do anything and therefore do everything for you. And it can come from an injury or illness where others must do everything for you because you are helpless at the time. Then, being helpless feels comfortable because one is used to it. Helplessness becomes a way of life.
Some of the tools that I use in coaching folks on how to move beyond helplessness, comes from a book Helplessness by Martin E. P. Seligman. If you feel helpless or you have someone that you see as helpless or powerless in your life, try this, and read the book.
“Helplessness, then, can be recognized by:
- Lack of motivation, listlessness.
- Cognitive breakdown between actions and outcomes - inability to link actions to the consequences they bring about - also manifests as blaming others or external factors for your situation, condition, and outcomes.
- Negative emotions: boredom, anxiety, frustration, anger, hopelessness, depression (sometimes suicidal).
Apply this procedure to cure helplessness:
- Recognize your helplessness, lack of motivation, listlessness.
- Recognize that as a baby and subsequently you've had many experiences where you were unable to control consequences or outcomes.
- Recognize your negative emotions: boredom, anxiety, frustration, anger, hopelessness, depression. Acknowledge them to yourself, for example, by saying, "I recognize that I feel helpless, hopeless, and depressed."
- Consciously and deliberately choose to experience any or all of these emotions. Make a cognitive link between that choice and what you experience, for example, by saying to yourself, "I consciously decide to feel helpless, hopeless, and depressed. Therefore I feel helpless, hopeless, and depressed."
- Perform a simple action such as washing the dishes or combing your hair. Observe the consequences or outcome. Form a cognitive link between your action and its outcome. (Examples below.)
- Divide a sheet of paper into three columns. In the second column list both positive and negative outcomes you've experienced during the past 24 hours, including emotions. In the first column write down your corresponding actions or inactions that preceded those outcomes. In the third column write down the causal or cognitive links between actions/inactions and outcomes. Consider only your own actions and inactions. (How to express the causal or cognitive link is explained below.)
- Don't blame others or external factors for anything.
- Pat yourself on the back for all the positive consequences you did produce.”
Super glue picture from http://www.fnal.gov
Have you found that sometimes, the same thought plays over and over in your head? Have you experienced the reliving of a memory that was painful and thought for the one thousandth time, I’d like to make that person pay? Do you have a story that runs continuously in your mind and that you tell your friends over and over? Welcome to the world of sticky thoughts, that is, thoughts that are glued to your mind.
The problem with these thoughts is that they create barriers to you doing a lot of other things with your brain power and with your life. These thoughts take up your time and energy, drag you down, and create inertia. In some, it creates a great tiredness that prevents them from doing anything to improve their life, other than to say, “Someday!”.
If your thoughts are super glued and you cannot seem to shrug them off, then remember this – we are not thoughts! Thoughts are not true! To achieve peace and relief from anxiety and fear, we must learn to still our thoughts. Osho has a great technique to still your thoughts – a releasing of the super glue.
Meditation – Touch Your Eyes – by OSHO
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May you release the glue that holds your thoughts in place and may you move to another level of being!
Many blessings,
Judy
Several months ago, a friend sent me the poster/picture above that shows a series of yoga poses that may be used to relieve anxiety. Each pose uses the wall to achieve balance and to make the moves easier.
She told me that the Covid pandemic caused her to become anxious about life. She did not want to take medication so she searched for a remedy for the tightness that she constantly felt. She said that she could not identify one thing that made her anxious, it just seemed life was a cause for anxiety.
I have worked through the routines several times and I have shared them with several friends and asked them to try the routines for at least five days. The question is, “Do these moves actually relieve anxiety?”
While none of us could identify a real anxiety in our lives, we all noticed that this routine simply made us feel better! We all felt a new balance in our lives.
Try this routine and see what you think of the moves.
Blessings!
Judy
