Where are you directing your life focus: upward or downward? No matter what's going on in our lives, we have one important choice to make:
Live back there or create from here...
Back there is your past, the problems you've experienced, the horrors you've lived, and all the not-so-great things in between. Back there is the sum of all your past mistakes, all the wrongs you wish you could make right. It's the hindsight of seeing the end and wishing you'd known it from the very beginning. It's harping on old stories, lurking in negative emotion, and living from a place that longs for a future unlike the past... and has no idea how to get there.
Yes, you can live from back there but what will that give you? Guilt, shame, blame, and a strong sense of defeat. It's the downward spiral of negative thinking that ushers in more negative thinking. Before long, you start to buy into your own 'Woe is me' story and, before long after that, you find yourself repeating a past that you never wanted to see again.
What's the alternative?
Live from above, not below.
I once watched a Lifetime movie where the lead character said something profound, "You have every right to be angry about the past but you don't have to live there." How many of us are so pissed off about what happened yesterday that we are unconsciously choosing to live there? There is another way...
When you live from above, you keep your eyes steadfastly planted on what is working. You look for opportunities to create a life you love to look at. When your mind wants to wander to the painful comfort of what's "back there", you command it to stay in the present moment and you become a vigilant guard of your peaceful mind. You don't allow yourself to get caught up in the woulda/shoulda/couldas and you remind yourself that tomorrow is being created with the thoughts and actions that you are taking today.
Pity does not create forward movement. Anger does not initiate creative action. If what you want is to live your life from a place of peace, joy and love, you can't live in the downward spiral of negative emotions. Yes, I know those negative thoughts come back again and again. Yes, I've been in the spot where you're having a good day and it only takes one phone call or one bit of bad news to send you into a sky dive into negativity.
But the difference is this:
You get to choose.
As Louise L. Hay says, "You are the master of your own mind. You get to have whatever you choose to think."
What are you choosing to think as negativity attempts to make a comeback?
Here are five thoughts to help you stay focused on living from above and not below:
1) Out of this situation, only good will come.
2) All is well in my world.
3) I am MORE than good enough.
4) I trust the process of life and everything's happening in Divine Right Timing.
5) I choose peace.
Notice I didn't put in there "Everything happens for a reason." While I firmly believe that statement, it doesn't do much of anything when said in a negative moment. When you're facing a problem that you didn't expect to face and you shrug your shoulders and say "Everything happens for a reason", it seems to translate into "Shit happens." And, while that's true, it's not that uplifting. In the midst of a downward spiral, you need to think thoughts that build you up, not beat you up. You won't 100% believe those thoughts at first. But the more you repeat them, the stronger the seed is planted within your soul. After a while, when a problem hits, these thoughts will be the first beliefs you come to.
Remember: Life works.
Everything that happens is for your highest good. If you can keep that close to your heart, even when the worst happens, you'll know how to go from down to up.
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