Years ago my children accused me of not knowing how to have fun. They were right, much as it pains me to admit it. I wasn’t taught how to have fun, to enjoy life. My early life wasn’t fun; there was little joy in my home. I knew how to work, how to study, how to hide from my mother (Sometimes. Often I wasn’t successful!) But how to have fun…no.
I discovered the personal growth field and that became my way of life. I wanted to “be the best I could be” whatever that meant and whatever it took. I read that we humans use only about 10 percent of our minds and I wondered why, and if so, how did I learn to use 100 percent of my mind? I discovered psychology, and majored in it at college, thinking this was the avenue.
One day I heard a speaker say that if growth was our goal, then we’d always encounter ways to grow (oh, yeah, I knew that well by then!). But if joy was our goal, then we’d have a life of joy…and still grow. I set the intention then to find ways of being joyful, of learning how to have a joy-filled life.
Dr. William Kent, creator of the Emotional Gym (a method to learn to be joyful, peaceful, and full of love by repeating the words, peace, love, joy, hope and gratitude until we begin to feel the emotions) admonishes us to be a “collector of joy”. As with other collections, he says, when we begin to collect joy, we will attract joy. Have you noticed, when you focus on something, you see more and more of that something? For example, I decided I wanted a convertible, now, every time I go out, I see convertibles. I decided I wanted a certain make of car for my convertible. Yesterday, I saw at least three of that make in about fifteen minutes! In a county where the majority of people are supposed to be below the poverty line!
When we become collectors, of anything, we begin to have more of that thing. It’s the Law of Attraction at work: what we pay attention to, what we focus on, we see more of.
Focus is the key word. Jeffrey Schwartz, a research psychiatrist and one of the world’s leading experts in neuroplasticity, began to study the philosophy of conscious awareness many years ago. Working with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients, he discovered that the mind can control the brain’s chemistry. With the premise that the mind, and thus the brain, can be trained, his work has enabled many people to overcome OCD.
Schwartz’s method utilizes four steps to re-train the mind. Those steps are:
1) Relabel: Identify deceptive brain messages as they occur;
2) Reframe: Change perceptions about the importances of those thoughts;
3) Refocus: Learn techniques for shifting attention to something positive;
4) Revalue: Learn the importance of understanding and believing that deceptive brain messages are not real and have no value. (Jeffrey Schwartz and Rebecca Gladding, M.D., You Are Not Your Brain)
Schwartz’ work demonstrates that by re-focusing our mind, we can make changes in our habits, thus changing our lives.
What we focus on, we see. I’ve renewed my intention to be a collector of joy. I want joy to be the tapestry of my life. I want to be remembered as a person full of joy!
galesplace 
Recent Comments