Energy flows where your intentions go
We always wonder why our life can't be as easy as the others we see around us. We gaze endlessly at the lives we see on social media, the people passing us on the side walk, hand in hand with someone they love, and think, why not me? Why not my life?
I have always wished to be someone else, somewhere else. I've dreamt of something bigger than the corners of my current existence. I've dreamed of traveling the world, making beautiful art and writing words that inspire thousands. I thought any less than that and I wasn't worthy of feeling accomplished. And of course because of years focused on the lacking in my life, that hole I endlessly tried to fill got bigger and bigger. I felt less and less accomplished and over time I lost sight of the gifts and greatness that I was bestowed.
Over the last year or more, I've reframed a lot of this sadness into ambition, and while I can't say that every day I feel hopeful, the hopelessness has become less. And it's not because someone gave me a gift that all of a sudden removed the longing. It was diligent, hard work to focus my intentions as best I could every day on the wonderful moments in life, big and small. Even as I pulled my computer up on my lap to write this, in that exact moment, having no idea really what topic I'd choose, one of my neighbor's began playing his saxophone. And a few moments later a man came whistling down the street. I can't say my want to look at the bright things in life didn't just conjure them up, because in a way, it did.
That's the thing about setting intentions. People think it's impossible to see good through the banal and dismal, but really, even the most horribly painful moments have beauty. I've been through countless trials and heartbreaks, and each day is a struggle to overcome the pain of my mind and my body. But those imperfections only make it that much more important for me to find the good. Because it's always there. Buddhists teach that when you have trouble being mindful because of all the ongoings of your mind and your life, remember that just because it's raining now, doesn't mean that there isn't still a blue sky.
When you focus on generating positive energy around you, you draw positive your way. When I choose to notice the gentle breeze as it blows my hair across my face, or the little girl dancing down the sidewalk with her red balloon, I give myself the freedom to be mindful of life's blessings. To not acknowledge our own gifts, in spite of the pain that others may face, makes their difficulties seem for nought.
Everyone's is worthy of love and belonging. Make sure you create it for yourself first.
“If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction,
we lessen the importance of their deprivation.
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.”
-Jack Gilbert, A Brief for the Defense
