Note to self: do not begin contemplating journal entries and a return from your
brief, blog sabbatical at 1am upon waking for a potty break.
Let
me first apologize for my leave of absence and confess that this new life as a
single, working mom is no easy feat. I
once thought my days couldn’t get busier when working full time on active duty
with the Army, married and a new mother to John, but boy have I learned a great
deal and come a long way in the last year. So here I sit, at 1am in my cozy
little camper, finally returning to my beloved blog and so excited to share
some stories of encouragement and catch you up to speed after about 3 months
away.
Let
me first address a topic I had discussed blogging about with a friend back in
January; a review of the movie Lone
Survivor. There seems to be a great
divide amongst Americans that seek out entertainment on the subject of our
military’s’ involvement in combat.
Either you generally appreciate and enjoy watching the narrative that
depicts our soldiers engaged in intense situations throughout the last decade
we’ve been deployed to the middle east or you strongly object to this countries
involvement in the conflict and watch war films in an effort to support your staunch
stance on the subject and shoot holes in the premise that we have in fact been
successful during the war on global terrorism.
Nonetheless,
I immensely enjoyed watching Lone Survivor because the movie afforded viewers
insight into one of the many moral dilemmas that soldiers deal with during
combat operations. Most of us are too
quick to judge and jump to conclusions when we hear or read news of yet another
soldier returning from war facing charges of misconduct and mistreatment of
other soldiers, prisoners or war, military combatants or civilians caught in
the middle of conflict. We have
most certainly been desensitized after
longer than a decade of such ‘death and destruction’ being so negatively
portrayed in the media and it’s no wonder why Americans don’t support the idea
of cleaning up unfinished business.
Whether you support or reject the presence of American soldiers in
Afghanistan I think we can all agree on one thing: the Taliban is a terrible,
tumultuous organization that should cease to exist and if you take nothing else
away from watching the Lone Survivor at least enjoy the fact that a very brave
patriot lived to tell his heroic story and we should be grateful for his
sacrifice and steadfast dedication to integrity. Defending the freedoms afforded to citizens
of this country comes at a very high price and the movie depicts that cost all
too well when a four man fire team turns into one, lone survivor.
Wow,
sorry to open with such a sensitive subject, but I had to address that topic
first and tie up a loose end. Let’s move
on to a more positive topic, shall we?
I
want to expound a bit on the power of positive thinking. I have enjoyed discussing this topic with a
coworker and friend of mine this last few week as she also shares the belief that
we are directly responsible for the good or bad things that happen in our
life. Think of yourself as a magnet that
attracts those objects to yourself that you think of most often. If you are familiar with the Law of
Attraction that rule would also apply to my theory that we can truly effect the
events of everyday life by focusing and visualizing on exactly what we want to
happen. Of course if you allow yourself
to perpetually worry and entertain thoughts of ‘the worst case scenario’ than
you will begin to manifest those negative actions, however; if we can train our
minds to remain in a state of positive, forward thinking than our lives begin
to reflect that peace and perceptive power.
It’s
no coincidence that last Saturday I ran into one the assistants from my
chiropractors office at the Cherry Street Farmers Market in downtown
Tulsa. Emily was volunteering for a
table set up by the Metaphysics School of Learning. Unfamiliar with the subject of Metaphysics I
decided to do a little of my own research after briefly discussing the idea
with her and considering attending once of the schools’ seminars. So yesterday I found a very rare, spare 10
minutes to hop the Google express and gain some traction on this new concept.
And YAMMO… wouldn’t you know I get another healthy dose of my mental medicine
for the month: the power of positive thinking.
A
few weeks ago I met an older man while taking care of some internet errands on
the wifi at Starbucks. He was seated
near me enjoying his coffee and after noticing my Gold’s Gym tshirt began to
make small talk about health and fitness.
We had quite a bit in common on the subject of holistic health and
natural nutrition but our conversation soon turned to religion and we started
discussing the benefits of prayer and visualization. After about 15 minutes he said he had to run
but wanted to leave me with an inspiring story he had printed about the Olympic
athlete Mikaela Shiffrin using visualization to prepare for the winter Olympics in
Sochi, Russia. The American athlete became the youngest Olympic
women’s slalom champion in history and credits her success to having mentally
envisioned taking the gold before her victorious feat actually occurred. You
can read about a few brain training secrets that many Olympians claim to use
and benefit from in this article from The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/11/mind-hacks-from-olympic-a_n_4747755.html
And
now my friends it’s time I leave you with this nugget of advice and a word of encouragement; go write down your goals. Just in time for spring cleaning and some
organization; let’s start to visualize today what we want for tomorrow and
beyond. Take some time to reflect on the
lessons we’ve learned this last year, meditate on the direction we want to
steer the ship and write down a plan of action for 2014. Visualize yourself succeeding, take a deep
breath and make strides to improve yourself one day at a time. Consistency is key and change usually doesn’t
happen overnight, but if we can train our brains to harness certain thoughts
and make them captive to a positive perspective we can begin to attract those
things we so desire. Get out of debt,
take that vacation with your kids, plant a garden, lose those extra 20 pounds,
run that marathon, read that book, learn to play the piano, live your life on
purpose and love with your whole heart.
