A few years ago, I spent an entire day, 24 hours, worrying about something that wasn’t real. I didn’t even try to shift my thinking to trusting in a different outcome, even though I recognized I didn’t have all the information. I just “knew” my fear of what was happening was real. This is how easy it is to slip into making up a story about the future that creates an ineffective present.
Here’s how I presented it.
Yesterday, my second cataract was removed. Last night, as I used that eye for the first time, my vision was foggy instead of clear. This was different than my experience with my first cataract surgery, so I couldn’t shake the thought that something was wrong. At the same time, I knew that my reaction to the blurriness was way premature — it was less than 12 hours after the surgery and before my 24-hour follow-up appointment with the doctor!
Disaster cloak hides reality
However, I was so wrapped up in my disaster cloak that I couldn’t shift my focus to trusting the process. Intellectually, I knew I would get the doctor’s opinion the next day. Intellectually, I knew that it takes time for the eye to settle down after surgery. Intellectually, I knew I was making stuff up and needed to relax and wait for the process to be completed. However, my disaster brain wasn’t listening. I focused on a comment the doctor made that I had misinterpreted (partly due to being extremely relaxed after anesthesia). I revamped this comment, amplified its meaning, and fed my sense that it would take months to fix it.
At the doctor’s office, when I mentioned my concern, she said, “You should have called because everything is totally normal.” I felt instant relief and then chagrin that I had let myself spend so much time in ineffective fear.
This afternoon, just after being reminded that I have the tools to shift these thoughts, I met with a client who has spent several months in a job that completely drains her energy and self-confidence. She has allowed a toxic work environment to prevent her mind from seeing any vision for the future. Her phrase was “I feel like I’m in prison.”
She is incredibly experienced and valued in her industry. She and her husband have financial stability, so she doesn’t need to stay in the job. However, her mind has shut down from the negative input, both external and internal. This constant negative focus keeps her from seeing all the possibilities she has to change her situation. Her prison is self-made, and she has the total power to open the cage door.
We both need to remember, believe, and practice consciously viewing our situations from a practical, enlightening, and positive perspective. It’s this view that allows us to see expansive possibilities and strategies for any situation. One little mantra said with belief could have helped us – if we had just used it.
Think positive thoughts
Shift negative thoughts
Choose above-the-line
Focus only on best-case scenarios,
Gary
