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The Gjallgard Kindred

Asatru/Northern Tradition Paganism

Making Changes

There is much in the world that each of us would change, if we could. If we could. Those are the three key words in that sentence. Why can’t we change them? Easy answer: they are external and do not belong to us. What does belong to us, what can we change? Well, we can start with ourselves.

In it’s normal, everyday state, the human mind is filled with numerous thoughts. Even when we are concentrating on following a particular line of thought, many other things are going on, some are inspired by our awareness of our environment, others are memories triggered by a variety of stimuli.

Emotion is a response to thought. What you think determines how you feel, emotionally. Negative thoughts produce negative emotions, and positive thoughts, positive emotions. With mindfulness it is possible to control your emotional state, rather than allow yourself to be controlled by it.

As an exercise, every time you feel a negative emotion, imagine you hear the “ding” of a bell in your mind, and that the thought that inspired that emotion appears in your minds eye as text in the form of a red neon sign. Don’t worry that sometimes an emotion and the thought that carries it slips by your alarm, or is caught late. As you continue this practice over time your mental alarm will improve and you will automatically begin to recognize the moment a negative emotion appears and know the thought that created it. Recognizing cause and effect is the first step in correcting both.

That is the easy part. The next step is a bit more difficult, nailing that thought down and finding a positive perspective for it.

Examples:

DING – Anger

Thought – How can I work with all this distraction?

Perspective: Perhaps the universe is telling me that I should step back for a moment, that there are things that I should consider before I proceed, that I am not quite ready to do this.

Yes, you need to get it done, but do you need to do a shabby job of it? Have a cup of coffee. Don’t fight through the distractions, embrace them, weave them into your work. Make them value added.

DING – Sorrow

Thought – I miss my friend who passed on.

Perspective: There is something in the joy of having had that person in my life that needs to be brought forward now.

What did that person bring to you that you need to manifest for yourself at this time?

The object of this practice is not to eliminate negative emotions. A person who never feels them, never allows them, is not normal. The object of this practice is to recognize the negatives, recognize their source, know them, and embrace them as signposts that keep your feet from straying too far from the path of light, rather than allowing them to drag you from that path.

All things are energy. Energy radiates. Change the energy of your thoughts and the radiant effect of it will change the world around you.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” ~ William James

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