Young@Heart
by Pam Young
I have just come down from a high! On
Saturday I spent the day with 20 of the most beautiful women who attended my
Happiness is a Habit Retreat and shared so many enlightening thoughts with me
and I'm still digesting all the wisdom.
One woman shared how she and her
friend have changed by realizing that complaining is the opposite of being
grateful. Since they are young mothers and help each other often by making meals
twice as big so they can share with each other and carpooling etc. they are
together a lot. When they realized they were often complaining and dragging each
other down they decided to change. Every time they caught themselves saying
something negative they agreed to come up with two ways they were thankful. This
small awareness exercise helped them stop the habit of complaining. But they
didn't stop there. They decided that when they said anything negative about
someone, they had to say two nice things about the person AND do something kind
for him or her.
I think we should all take this idea and try it with our
friends. We could share it with Mom's Groups, Book Clubs, at the gym, at work
and in the neighborhood. We could stamp out gossip for good. Yesterday I told a
friend about this idea and she hated it. (She has an alcoholic ex that she's not
finished talking about.)
She said, "No way am I gonna send this guy a
card saying, 'Thinking of you, hope all is well'. No you won't be seein' me
leavin' off some fresh baked cookies on the his stupid doorstep. Hu uh, he won't
have to wonder where the gift certificate from Beers R Us came from." Then she
asked me, "How can you NOT talk about your ex?"
"Oh I could tell you
plenty, but I don't want to have to do something nice for him."
"If you
did talk about him, what would you do nice for him?"
"I could send him a
note thanking him for being one half of why I have three children."
As
soon as I said that, I thought, 'there's no way I'm going to write him something
like that and open up communication with him, so what would I really do if I
talked "bad" about him?' Then it hit me, I could send him light! He wouldn't
know it came from me, but he'd get a little jolt of goodness from the Universe.
I can do that anyway even though I don't talk about him in a negative way
anymore.
Now once you do this assignment and share this thought with
others; if you suddenly start getting little gifts and anonymous greeting cards
and jolts of energy, you just might wonder if you've been the subject of some
gossip. If that happens, just remember, what others think of you is none of your
business.
Posted by FlyLady, 5/15/11
my list for today
- XSPECTRUMKAREN
on May. 25, 2011 at 7:28 PM