Do you let yourself believe in possibilities? I've thought about this a lot and for me, the definition of an optimist is someone who believes in amazing possibilities, even when life is showing you every indication that they're simply not possible. I've often been called a "Pollyanna" and told that I "have my head stuck in the ground" (or elsewhere!) because I've always refused to believe that life sucks 100%. For some reason I've never let myself go there...maybe because I just couldn't bear the thought that things would never get better. For me, that's untenable and unthinkable.
I do believe that it's important to look at our beliefs and if there's something happening in our lives that we don't like, we may be sabotaging our success in that area with our own limiting beliefs. These beliefs are different for all of us and most of them come from far back in our childhood...often so far back that we're not even aware of them. They might come from something we overheard, or were told as a child but they stuck and have been running our lives since then.
I've been doing a lot of "work/play" in this area recently. As a child of depression era parents I absorbed much around the belief of lack and impending doom as in..."yeah sure, things might be fine now, but we all know it's only a matter of time until the other shoe drops and we'll all be left with nothing", kind of belief.
You can see that the "impending doom" belief and the "pollyanna" belief might have caused some conflict over the years! I'm often reminded of the story of the grandson who goes to his grandfather asking for wisdom...
The child says, “Grandfather, there are two wolves knocking at my door. One is the wolf of abundance, pleasure, blessings, generosity, wealth, and bounty. And the other one is the wolf of anxiety, grief, sadness, lack of abundance, stress and pressure.”
The child continues, “They are both knocking hard, Grandfather. Please tell me who will come in? Who will win and gain entry into my home?
The grandfather answers, “Which ever one you feed.”
There are several variations on this story but the grandfather's reply is always the same, as is the question I always end up asking myself. Which one will I feed...fear and lack or joy and abundance?
There's a lot going on right now, both on the planet as a whole and within each of us, and I suspect I'm not the only one who's focus is on feeding the right wolf.
There are many things bringing me joy right now but the biggest is that beautiful sense of possibility. It's so full of potential and excitement.
I'm feeling especially inspired and excited by possibilities that have been languishing in the corner of my mind for some time now and this is the wolf I intend to feed. In fact, I'm preparing a huge banquet!
(I picked this bouquet of happy pansies yesterday and they’re smiling at me right now from the kitchen counter)
