Yesterday was a good day.
It was a "real" day, made of multiple flavors and various degrees of "success.
" As I got into bed last night, feeling pleasantly peaceful, my mind spent a little time fleeting around, doing a little review.
And within seconds, I was trying to figure out how to fix things.
The yoga classes at the Center have been low in attendance.
My back is still not healed all the way.
So much for the peaceful feeling.
I was now on fix-it mode even though, in my own life, no good solution ever shows up past 8 pm.
Why the heck do we do this? Why the heck do we spend so much time on the stuff that doesn't work? And I am not talking only at bedtime, here.
I am talking most of the time.
We spend so much time on the things that don't work.
Now, to be clear, if something is not working, of course we want to address it and hopefully remedy it - or let it go.
But the problem comes when we give most of our attention, energy, time or money to these troubled areas.
While we are doing that, we are not growing the things that are already doing well, we are not nurturing them.
So that they may in turn, nurture us.
I think about my day, yesterday.
I had had great coaching sessions.
I had also received, around 5 pm, a call from someone about the Happiness Sprinkling Project.
A call that mentioned a possible connection with The Today Show.
How's that for something to focus on? How's that for a good place towards which expanding energy? Maybe a little hand written note to my coaching client, telling her how much I value our work together would be nice.
Maybe also a little time spent acknowledging that someone out there, someone I have never met, feels that my project is news worthy.
Maybe some time spent thinking of ways to strengthen this particular project even more, making it even more powerful.
Of course, this touches on the concept of Gratitude, which I am particularly fond of, but really, this makes just plain good business sense.
So, even though it seems easy to continue to pour a disproportionate amount of resources in areas that aren't working (you know, the whole "squeaky wheel syndrome") if you too find yourself swayed by this tendency, I invite you to join me in flipping that around.
I invite us to look at the things that are working and to give these more of our energy.
We may find that as these already thriving areas get more of our attention and thus begin to grow even more strongly, their strength begins to carry over to the other parts of our lives and start to enliven them, also.
Or we may find that filled with the joy of partnering with something that flows so well, we no longer want to give energy - or drag along - the other parts.
We may find that joining as opposed to conquering is a darn good way to go.
So here's to giving ourselves the gift of collaborating with Life, of joining it in the places that are already joyfully flowing.
Here's to recognizing that these places exist and have just been quietly waiting for us to come play.