Can I Be Strong?
Be strong.
I was having a perfectly good day. And then I read the news. That was not a good idea.
How can I consciously create my own reality when I live in a world that’s so totally messed up? So, so many things happening out there that are appalling at best, then enraging, and terrifying. What’s the point? Why bother?
Because I can effect change out there. I can do good things with my own life, and from there help others make similar changes. But I have to be strong, and not freak out or get upset when I see awful things going on in the world at large.
It is all too easy to forget that we can’t control outside forces. I can protest, I can vote, I can write letters and petitions and blogs. But I do not have the ability to change how anyone thinks, nor to stop awful people from doing terrible, selfish, greedy, destructive things. There is one and only one person whose life I have any control over. My own.
In order to be strong and stand against the current, I need to be more disciplined. This has been a lifelong challenge. Plotting and planning will occur, but I do not always discipline myself enough to follow-through. Then, when I fall, I often allow my frustration to further sabotage me.
Take chewing my finger nails for example. I quit a couple years ago. I did really well…for a while. Somewhere along the way I started again. Then stopped. And then began again. I certainly have more nails on my fingers than I have had before, but I keep slipping and chewing them out of boredom, nervousness, and probably an oral-fixation. Berating myself for each failing is not a useful means to any end.
Be strong right here, right now.
This is why living in the now is of such vast importance. In the here and now I can take immediate control. I can control my thoughts, my feelings, and my actions. This requires me to be aware, fully conscious, and to act at need.
Yes, reading bad news online sets a series of negative thoughts flying through my head. I have a choice when that happens. Be strong, and fight against them. Or allow them to take me down into darkness, spiral into despair, and allow my feelings to worsen.
When I work to be strong, I am putting forth the necessary effort to be in control. The thing I tend to forget is that this is a completely day-by-day matter.
I tend to look back at past mistakes and forward to visions of success. My self-image in the future is physically less stocky, standing more erect, overall in better shape. I see myself with a successful career as a writer and editor, with more than enough wealth, prosperity and abundance to do all kinds of good for me, my family, my friends, and the world at large.
How soon I forget. Seeing my future self as the future will keep it there. That’s how the Law of Attraction works. See myself fitter, healthier, happier, wealthier in the future…but in the now? If I look critically at the flabby, out-of-shape, not-wealthy and continue to put my focus on that, guess what I continue to experience?
If I am going to be strong, I need to work on the day-to-day. Today I did well with this. I didn’t let morning traffic into work upset me. I stood taller all day. A new story was started. Will I allow reading the news cancel what I have done? That’s up to me.
Be strong for me, be strong for you.
When I do a better job at staying strong for myself, in the process I can do better at being strong for you. I can share my advice, my wisdom, and my thoughts from a better place when I stay strong. By working every single day by itself and striving to be strong, I can empower myself more.
I can’t change other people and the things they are or are not doing in this world. But I can change myself. I can say my mantras and affirmations, practice meditation, exercise, sit-up and stand taller, breath deep, eat healthier, and numerous other actions. When I do not do precisely as I have planned, rather than second-guess myself, I need to continue to be strong, let it go, and go on.
The bridges between my worlds are shrinking. This is a good thing, because it means I see all the different worlds I feel I live within as getting closer to one another. To me that means that I am gaining perspective, and the effort of walking these paths across the perceived chasms will become more routine and easier.
I will not always be strong. There will be bad days. This has been done by me before, and I can do it again. I am a good person, worthy and deserving of all abundance, success, prosperity, wealth, joy and love. Succeed or fail, I am supported and I am loved. I can’t just think this, I need to really, truly feel it. I can do this. Thank you for taking this crazy roller-coaster ride with me.
As always, thank you for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me.
This is the seventy-eighth entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series. My collectively published writing can be found here.
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