walking the sacred spiral
walking the sacred spiral
In the past week Amanda and I had the most amazing experience. She had clicked on YES in a newsletter she receives by email, (among the many we each receive daily) asking, “Would you like to Meet the Clintons?” Imagine our surprise when she was selected as the national winner to attend two Iowa caucus weekend events with Hillary Clinton’s campaign!
It doesn’t matter what your politics are–this blog article isn’t about political opinions or candidates. This article is about inviting and welcoming delightful surprises and adventures into your life.
Amanda got the word on Friday that she had won: airfare, hotel, rental car, special entry to 3 events, a special moment to meet and get a photo with Hillary and Bill Clinton, and contact people to shepherd us to the right places for the events. We left home at 2:30 am (yes, she got to bring me along!) Sunday morning to fly out of San Francisco.
Many of our friends commented on our frequent Facebook posts and photos that it was encouraging to see that someone actually wins these things. Apparently they do, because Amanda did!
After we came home, she told me what she does each day to welcome her good. And since several of unexpectedly wonderful things have happened in our lives over the last few months due to her, I am doing the same thing now.
When Amanda wakes up in the morning, she greets the day with an enthusiastic inner, “Yes!” as if something wonderful and amazing has just come into her experience. Then she gets up and goes about her day with that mindset as her foundation.
Simple, but not always easy to remember or do, this practice changes our morning vibration to one of gratitude and celebration before breakfast or a morning shower have even happened.
A humorist said once that a pessimist begins the day with a heavy, “Good God, morning!” while an optimist begins it with an enthusiastic, “Good morning, God!” Corny, but it’s both true and effective.
Eeyore sees the negative in every experience and possibility. Winnie-the-Pooh sees the positive with curiosity and kindness and delight. Who do you think gets more out of life, and contributes more to it?
Yes, Eeyore and Winnie are fictional children’s characters. But consider the study of 839 patients who completed a respected personality inventory between 1962 and 1965 as general medical patients. Thirty years later a follow-up was available for 723 of them. Among these people, the 10-point difference between groups showed a 19% increase in the risk of mortality for those who were more pessimistic. That means that over the course of 30 years, 19% more pessimists had died than optimists.
Wouldn’t that seem to make a morning “YES!” worth it as a practice?
Here’s another tip for increasing good feelings in your day. Sounds dumb, but it works. Hold a pencil in your mouth horizontally, parallel with the floor, and push it far enough back that the pencil creates a wide smile-like facial posture. Hold it for about 15 seconds. Your brain can’t tell that this isn’t a genuine smile, and it creates and releases chemicals into your brain that increase good feelings. Simple. Silly. Rather effective.
Want to feel better? Want more positive joyful surprises in your life? Try a couple of simple tactics. Start your day with an enthusiastic, “Yes!” and try to refrain from negating its effects with pessimistic inner commentary. Later in your day hold a pencil in your mouth for 15 seconds in a smile position.
These practices are so simple they couldn’t really be effective, right? You’ll never know until you give them a fair try. After all, they couldn’t hurt!
How to Harness Optimism
Friday, February 5, 2016