I wanted to watch a fight on tv tonight.
…But I didn’t have the right subscription.
…What a great opportunity to reach out to friends to see if they wanted to watch it together at a local spot or house that had the right subscription.
Are the obstacles in your path the end of that journey? …Or are the obstacles in your path actually the way?
And what an incredibly fun mission that was to fulfill.
Some promises I’ve heard other people make to themselves and others at music shows:
Choose your mission; choose your destiny.
…Because what you choose to focus on is what you’ll see and work to problem solve.
And making it your mission to “Not have a bad time” is not the same as “Having the best time.”
I can’t express to you enough the importance of creating your own weather.
This becomes particularly important when you live in a chronically overcast, gray, cold, rainy place like Buffalo, NY.
If I let the weather dictate my mood, I’d be chronically miserable.
Instead, like the Good Mother herself, I gather various ingredients from what’s available in my immediate surroundings and cast a forecast over my day that’s aligned, predictable, and intentional with the mood I’m looking to nurture.
Music is a fundamental key in this practice. The vocals, instruments, and added sounds play at the exact vibration I’m looking to resonate at. And so rather than look outside at the literal weather, become miserable, and try to think myself into a joyful state… I’ll listen to music that matches what I would define as a joyful frequency and let it pull me upwards and outwards of my mind and into my body.
Mindful consumption is a strong second in the practice. Like food to the body, what gets consumed via the eyes, ears, and other senses has a direct impact on our inner weather. Watch news, gossip, and hate-based media—and so, too, will your mind become. Watch art, contribution, and love-based media—and so, too, will your inner weather become.
And digestion is an under-discussed third. Like food to the body, if you never stop eating—regardless of how healthy the food is—your body is going to feel like it needs to explode. We have a daily calorie limit for a reason—and the same should be true with the amount of minutes we spend consuming. The rest of the time? Digesting. Meditating. Relaxing. Playing. Being.
Some people pick what’s right in front of them because it’s the best they can see.
But when you relentlessly expand your vision… not only does best expand proportionally…
But so too does the seer—the person behind the eyes—grow more and more into a version of themselves that would’ve never ever otherwise…
…Come to be.
Words are the colors you use to paint the picture(s) of your mind.
And as much as you might want to step into a Caribbean color palette with sky blues, lush greens, and warm yellows…
Choosing words that paint dark browns, deep reds, and harsh blacks will elicit a much different kind of picture.
Hate is not a path towards love. Love is a path towards love. And the colors of love are the words you should choose to paint with.
Resentment is not a path towards peace. Peace is a path towards peace. And the colors of peace are the words you should choose to paint with.
Anger is not a path towards happiness. Happiness is a path towards happiness. And the colors of happiness are the words you should choose to paint with.
And each day is a blank canvas. Your mind has access to an entire array of colors. Which will you choose to paint your day?
The one you have about yourself…
and who you are…
what you went through…
what you stand for…
who’s on your side…
who isn’t…
your worth…
your value…
your abilities…
your inabilities…
your cans…
your can’t’s…
Is just that…
dialogue.
And the thing about dialogue
is it can be edited…
rewritten…
updated…
expanded upon…
improved…
made more clear…
Choosing not to do this is exactly that:
a choice.
And choosing to act in accordance with an outdated…
demeaning…
belittling…
restrictive…
subdued…
incomplete…
script
…seems like a silly choice to mentally agree to
…to me.
At a recent weekly meeting, my boss asked my associates and I what we did first thing that morning.
Two of them said let their dog outside.
He asked them what they saw… they said, in not so few words, pee and poop.
He proceeded to tell us that when he looked outside… for whatever reason that morning… he was completely captivated by the trees… and the way they were swaying… and the beauty of the snow and how it blanketed the early morning neighborhood.
They all probably opened their door to an almost identical snowy scene.
…But couldn’t have seen things more differently.