I’m standing about ten feet from our home’s entry, in a discussion with my mother, when the outside door flies open and in walks a man yelling, “Linda? Hey Linda I’m here!”  My mother and I stare at him, slack-jawed in a deer-caught-in-headlights daze.  Finally, I rescue my voice from the shock, and think to ask him which address he is looking for.  He gives me a number and I point behind him to another building.  He thanks me and leaves.

THAT is the day I started locking my doors even when I’m home.  What if I had been napping or in the shower?  The idea that someone could just walk in like that, whether friend or foe made me realize I needed to manage this point of entry more carefully.  

I find the same to be true of my thoughts.  Like strangers knocking on the door to my home, I don’t just fling the door open and invite them in.  First, I question where they come from and what their intention is.  Are these thoughts negative in an unproductive way, there merely to cause me pain? Or are they positive in nature, offering an opportunity to learn something that will ultimately bring me to a deeper understanding? Gathering such information helps me decide between investing more time with these thoughts or sending them on their way.  Now that I know how managing my thoughts in this way leads to a happier life, I see the value of consciously practicing this skill daily until it becomes second nature.

For instance, when thoughts of being overwhelmed threaten to overtake me, feelings of discouragement are usually not far behind.  As I become more aware of this pattern, I can more easily manage it.  I do this by refusing to follow that train of thought any further.  I then work at altering my perception of the event causing me to become overwhelmed by putting it in a more manageable perspective.

In the past, I created my reality of “too much to do… not enough time,” a mantra I had repeated throughout my life that had kept me in a helter-skelter mode of operation.  As I have become more aware that I create my own reality by the thoughts that I think, I take responsibility for them and lead them to a more productive perception of “there’s plenty of time for me to get everything (or at least the important things) done with peace and grace.

Reminding myself of this helps my breathing to slow down and then time naturally seems to follow suit.  This reduces stress and allows me to think more clearly, to complete each task more efficiently and arrive at the end of my list not frazzled, but rather, with a sense of calm.

Monitoring the entry-points, to my home as well as to my thought-perceptions allows me to live my life with greater ease, grace and joy. 

~Zanne
InSearchOfAuthenticity.com
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