I was having a conversation the other day with a friend of mine about how somewhat awkward it can sometimes be when you have friends that live by completely different LIFE philosophies than you do. I don’t necessarily mean friends that live recklessly or dangerously. I make it a point to never allow myself to become close to people who have less to lose than I do *cough* Tami from Basketball Wives *cough* No, nothing that extreme. I mean different thought-processes when it comes to our perceptions of LIFE and our relationship to it.
For example, I am a firm believer that LIFE happens thru me, not to me. It’s a personal mantra of mine. I adopted it after I realized that I went through a time period where I felt as though I had a string of bad luck. I started to think that something was wrong with me and almost began to expect it. It was at that point (when I began to expect disappointment) that I noticed I had pretty much relinquished control of my reaction to unpleasant outcomes. It had gotten to the point where my reactions to amazing outcomes were simply greeted with a nonchanlant “Eh…” from me. It was time for a spiritual and emotional colonic.
After I wiped the boo-boo from my brain #wordtoAndre3000, I started to reclaim and manage my own happiness. How? By rebuking the belief system that things happened TO me – as if, I wasn’t a major factor in the LIFE that I was experiencing. Instead, I began to shift my psyche into accepting that everything around me was happening THRU my very existence…and if that is the case, then I have the power to manipulate the circumstances in my favor.
As hokey and New Age as that seems, my level of personal happiness and contentment has shot through the roof. I try my best not sound like a cult member…y’all know the ones I’m talking about…the ones who speak so much about their happiness that you wonder whether they’re trying to convince you or themselves.
In fact, I rarely speak about it at all. The only time that I do is when someone specifically asks me about the consistent twinkle in my eye. Instead, I choose to continue to Snoopy dance as if no one’s watching.
- I Hope You Dance!
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hmmmmmm if I was operational I’d send you a message and ask if you were talking about me (feeling paranoid about this whole line of thinking).
No need to feel paranoid. Although we do have different LIFE philosophies (lol), this post stemmed from a convo that I was having with a friend about how friendships can sometimes change once the way you live or see your LIFE changes. I’m going to follow up in another post about how I’ve experienced people being drawn to me when I was going through tough times the same way that they were but as I began to change my outlook and my conversation we began to have less and less to say to each other.
Sometimes I ponder if the world exists through me. What if its all a figment of my thoughts? I try to rebuke negative expectations and see good things. What if my thoughts make things happen? It’s extreme but it makes me recall that I am the master of my fate and captain of my soul.
It does sound extreme, but that’s how I feel most times. I mean, I know that there are a lot of things that are beyond my control but there are so many details within the large picture that I can manage. Keeping in mind that I’m the master of my fate and captain of my soul, allows me to make decisions knowing that I can tie the outcomes directly back to me and not outside forces.