Can We Choose Joy
We’ve been told for years that thoughts are things and I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a problem monitoring my thoughts. If we are made up of energy wouldn’t it make sense to stay in a vibration of higher energy of love, joy and excitement? Wouldn’t we attract more of the same? And wouldn’t the opposite be true? If we are depressed and angry wouldn’t we stay in a lower vibration of energy? This reminds me of the Charles Schultz character of Pig Pen who is always followed by a cloud of dust. So, I ask you who would you like to be around and even more so who would you like to be? The person in love, joy and excitement or the person with the dust cloud following them who is angry and depressed?
Listen to the news, watch tv, or worse yet look at your feed on face-book. It doesn’t take long to see anger, blame and hate. Why are we so quick to judge, why do we think our way is the only way? What if instead of judging everyone we became a light? What if our light would shine so bright, we could help others on the path?
Do you want to be a light or a judge? Quite honestly, I’ve been a judge a lot of my life and I find old habits die hard. But I’m learning and I would much rather live in excitement and joy and be in awe of life’s little adventures. To let my light shine. After all, what is the alternative? To be depressed and angry? I’ve been both and I choose joy.
Can we choose how we want to live our life? Absolutely.
I take you back to that point in time when I heard those words, “you have cancer.” I knew this would be like no other journey I had been on. I knew I had to be all in, a total surrender to God. If He had the answers, I had nowhere else to go. It was during this time that I learned to rely on God, to listen to the still small voice, to believe I was healed. I would set for hours and listen to music and just be still, visualizing healing. And yet it was out of this quiet time in my life that I was able to write a book. There were days it seemed that the book wrote itself. I started out journaling what was happening only to find myself going back to a previous time in my life and telling my story.
So now as I once again get busy with the details of getting a book to publishing and then marketing the book, I find myself caught between the old way of doing things, which I now refer to as pushing the boulder up the hill and just staying in excitement and awe as I meditate and listen to the still small voice and act upon it. I have always had a hard time determining what is the voice of God and what is not. But I have come to realize that anything that is negative or keeps me from being my true self is not from God. When my will aligns with God’s will that is where the true magic happens.
Why do we have such a hard time being the person God made us to be. In business we model ourselves after other leaders and want to think like them. In the Christian world we sometimes believe we need to think like a certain teacher or author and that we all need to think alike. We like choosing sides and being part of a group. While this can be very beneficial, I think the question we need to ask is, “who am I?” Who did God create me to be? And then become our authentic self. God did not make us to be a clone of someone else. He made us to be ourselves and let our light shine.
This is something I have struggled with all of my life and yet when told I probably had 6 weeks to live it was if something inside of me said you have one chance at this, you better get real and quit playing games. It was a knowing. Becoming my authentic self has been inspiring to me. Who are we to play small? Who are we to hide our light?
The Bible says, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” But the independent part of us says I don’t want a yoke, I want to do it my way. However, the simple truth is life is so much easier if we align with God’s will and listen to the inspired voice. To me this yoke is nothing more than discipline. When we follow the daily disciplines, life is much easier. I think it was Jim Rohn who summed up discipline well when he said, only floss the teeth you want to keep.
We do get to choose. Thoughts are things. But would you rather have your thoughts come from a higher energy vibration of love, joy and excitement or do you want to attract more negative behavior in yourself and others? The choice is ours.
Excellent thoughts Mary. So proud to say I know this lady and had the privilege of working with her years ago. You are a special woman.
Rob thank you for your kind words. I am truly humbled and I am so very blessed.
Good thoughts and true words very well written! Thanks for writing. Keep them coming!
Thank you Arlene for continuing to follow me on this journey.