Enjoying the contrast

There's one thing I've learned over the last year or so that I find completely opposite to what I (and most of western society) had been brought up believing is the only rational way to approach contrast (or rather the part of contrast which is what we don't want). I was brought up to view that which is not wanted, negatively. We usually curse what we do not want. We sometimes lose sleep fretting over undesirable outcomes or possibilities. We fear the unknown, because it might hold something that we deem unwanted or horrible or catestrophic.

We always feel bad when we focus on what we don't want. A useful way to consider this fact is that this is our body's rather visceral way of telling us that what we are thinking about isn't good for us. This checks out with the physical ailments that invariably accompany long-term stress. And what is stress after all but the extreme focus on or experience of the unwanted? A compounding of negative emotions, such as anxiety, tension, fear, etc?

This realisation in and of itself, would be enough to encourage us to focus less on what we don't want and more on what we do; we'd feel better overall. But, if you have some inkling about the power of the Law of Attraction (that focusing on something brings its like into your experience, good or bad) the reason for focussing on the wanted end of the stick becomes even more compelling. Realising that you are in a very real way creating your experience of the world based on what you think about or focus makes our body's response to negative thought make even more sense. Negative emotion and its associated physical symptoms represent our body's attempt to train us away from getting more of what we have already established we don't want. Yet, most of us don't understand this important guidance system for what it is. Moreover, we often think of ourselves as victims of circumstances beyond our control, rather than acknowledging that we have, to at least a degree, created whatever we have experienced. How can we ever take the credit for creating something that works out the way we want it too, if the other side of the coin is always seen as caused by outside forces?

IMHO, a much better way to view anything unwanted occuring in your experience is to see it as the contrast that better helps you to identify what you do want instead. There are two sides to every stick and if you can train yourself to look at every unwanted thing as an important step on the path towards the wanted, and train yourself away from the maudlin fixation upon the unwanted in a fit of the unfairness, injustice, bad luck, whatever excuse you want to use in that crappy-feeling moment, it would serve you you very well.

I know I feel a great deal better for starting to shift my way of thinking away from the unwanted. And I've still got a long way to go. What I'm aiming for is ambitious, but worth striving for. It just makes sense and feels "right". That the so-called unwanted is actually a good thing, as it helps me to better focus on and bring about more of what I do want. "Unwanted" takes on a whole new meaning - it softens to "less wanted", but still something desirable to appreciate as the means to carve out and bring about the best in life.

Positive Blogging

This is my attempt towards bringing around the much-maligned art form of blogging towards where I think it does the most good. Up out of the mire of humanity's desire to whinge and complain about the minutiae of life and towards towards are clearer, better-feeling place.

This is my first taste of blogging outside a social networking site, so don't expect great or profound things. This isn't about getting people to read, but more about getting ideas out, with the added gratification of potentially hearing feedback from others on the things that matter to me.

A few declarations at the outset:

1. LOA (for those who don't know) stands for Law of Attraction, a concept for which I have a great affinity for and appreciation of. I don't believe everything that's written or spoken about it, but out of any general philosophy of life that I've been exposed to, it makes the most sense to me, personally. If the only things you know about LOA come from the movie The Secret, then you've only seen the tip of the iceberg...

2. I fully intend to make this blog a bit of a mixed bag. While there will be plenty that relates to LOA, I fully intend to write about whatever I feel strongly about. So expect offerings on work (Excel and the Finance Industry), play (video games and sci-fi), family (father of two under 5) and anything else that tickles my fancy, but in a positive way. An uplifting way. There will be no complaining about the injustices of life, because I have no time (nor should you) for this kind of excercise. We all get inundated with too much of that as it is.

So here we go - a blog, nothing spesh, written for selfish reasons (like almost all blogs). One of the things I've learned is that there is no better type of reason to do anything, than a selfish one.