“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.”
-Aristotle
According to current perceptions, the evidence is in.
They are or it is definitely wrong, screwed up, off track, and whacked.
The question is, what choice are you going to make as to how that “fact” affects you?
It’s difficult to balance out what seems to be the very real, tangible, hard and fast proof of our “rightness” with the completely invisible impact of energetic vibrations because the seduction of vindication is juicy.
Yet, more often than not, the impact of unseen negative vibes has costly ripple effects that show up in apparently unrelated yet powerful ways.
The boss levels what appears to be criticism in the morning, and the cat gets kicked at home in the evening.
A business partner leaves you feeling slighted, and all of a sudden there are issues with your power steering.
In The Back Forty, we say that you have yet to do what you came here to do, so playing bigger (not smaller) is the way of your future…no matter your age or what you’ve already accomplished in life.
We all can relate to the archetypal crotchety old man or woman – either because they were part of our immediate or extended family or, if nowhere else, from fiction and movies – who has enough grudges, judgments, opinions, or scars to share for everyone.
Though none of us can see ourselves being that type of person, if left unobserved, an undercurrent of our own un-redirected bitches and moans can build toward that future.
If we plan to be and do yet greater and bigger things all the way until we are up and outta here (vs. society’s message of down and outta here), we will need to be playing, increasingly, with even more folks to bring those things about.
Jean Paul Sartre said “Hell is other people.” Sharing our big game with the world, participating in organizations, joint venturing our businesses, enrolling other in our mission or message…all involves relationships with others. And relationships with others naturally brings about many positive or negative energy choices.
We can’t control what others do. We can only control our response to what they do.
Watching our energy flow like a hawk and making conscious choices as to which direction we will drive it (vs. it flowing the path of least resistance, like water) can have the cat and car much happier…not to mention ourselves, in the long run.
Here are 4 steps to choosing appropriate alternative energy.
Become alert to the thoughts you’re thinking at all times, and especially in times of challenge or desire for redress. Often we have undercurrent feelings that begin driving us a particularly negative direction without our being aware. We just “somehow” end up in a bad mood, irritable or melancholy.
Develop the muscle of internal energy awareness. Begin to hear the voice in the head determining what it all means.
Before letting yourself default into an old pattern or natural flow of standard reaction, take a moment in your mind and ride the wave of energy you’re feeling in the direction it wants to go and see where it takes you.
Will that direction serve you in the end?
Wayne Dyer says that the ultimate question to ask before all action – and definitely in re-action – is “Will this bring me peace?”
Ask yourself: “Though the ‘rightness’ of my position may seem juicy in the moment, will going this direction bring me peace in the end?”
When taking the long view, if the answer to the above question is no, then consciously choose to let that path go and choose another which will bring you peace.
Get to work on directing your energy towards what will, in the long run, attract to you more and more good, even in the face of whatever you perceived as “bad” that just happened. Plain and simple, you get more of what you think about.
Thich Nhat Hanh offers several ways to redirect and choose the alternative energy, and undoubtedly you know from even everything you were taught in Kindergarten some simple ways to get happier and move towards peace.
“There are many ways to calm a negative energy without suppressing or fighting it. You recognize it, you smile to it, and you invite something nicer to come up and replace it; you read some inspiring words, you listen to a piece of beautiful music, you go somewhere in nature, or you do some walking meditation.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh
The point is watch, observe, redirect and always choose the alternative energy that will serve you best.
“Negativity…it can only affect you if you’re on the same frequency. Vibrate higher.”
-Unknown