Peaceful Choices

Peaceful Choices

One of the most shining and glorious skills I have acquired as I am growing up is being able to go to peaceful pretty much on demand.

I’ve been practicing.

In our day to day stuff, we have lots of opportunities to step away from peaceful. We get distracted by chaos in the mornings as we are getting ready, bad traffic, kooky demands at work. Or horrible images flooding our spirits from watching, or listening to, or reading the news. (Can you imagine how awful it must be to have the job of finding the worst, scariest, most horrible news items every day?)

In our day to day stuff, we have lots of opportunities to make our day nicers or worsers. It takes paying attention. What am I doing? Where am I doing it? What do I want to accomplish? Why would I choose to have a great day? What makes this enjoyable? Why am I satisfied?

Two cards popped out of the Creative Questions deck this morning. The peaceful card and the choice card. What a nice combination. And what a good reminder.

I have to say, from time to time I wake up crabby. Or weird. I have a good AM routine, so getting ready for work is usually pretty easy; clothes are laid out the night before, stuff is ready for lunch, my going out the door bagged is packed before I go to bed. Somehow, when I wake up crabby, those things may not work despite having done the same thing I always do the night before.

So now I’m crabby, and heading to work, crabby, and what the heck am I going to do?

I have to choose. It’s easy to stay crabby. The status quo is pretty easy to stick with. Just keep on the way you are going.

I confess that being crabby is fun for a little while. I enjoy it. For a little while. Then I wanna go back to feeling cheery and sunny.

Why do I choose to be happy? Why do I choose to enjoy my day? What makes me feel good? Smiling feels good. Standing up straight makes me feel good. Breathing all the way in and all the way out feels good. Thinking uplifting thoughts feels good. Dancing a little feels good. Writing to you feels good.

I’m not going to list all the stuff that feels good when I’m shifting away from a mood that doesn’t serve me into one that does, it would take a long time. The point is simply that I can choose what thoughts to think; thinking creates my emotions, thoughts and emotions create feelings, feelings run on a loop create moods, moods run on a loop create states of mind. And I have control of that.

When I choose peaceful, my physiology shifts. Lots of stuff relaxes, including my diaphragm. When I pay attention to the physical changes, my thoughts relax. Because I enjoy the sensations, because my thoughts relax, I complete the shift to peaceful with ease. As a bonus, peaceful usually brings a feeling of happiness with it, that nice, sunny little lift.

Choosing is the most powerful thing we can do in a day. What we choose can keep us feeling stuck or it can set us free.

What makes me choose?

(c) Pam Guthrie 2013 all rights reserved 09122103