Trumped!

My personal journal entry the day after the election:

Okay! We have definitely been Trumped! Boy talk about a reason to stay in the present. Great challenge and exercise. As I write I hear the music, the dishwasher in the background. I’m glad I did my Classical Stretch exercises. And, oddly, I’m thinking about how I can get deeper and more focused on my life. I’m thinking about what is mine to control, what I’m choosing to focus on, and what I choose to do while whatever is “out there” does what it’s doing.  Remembering that it doesn’t matter. Right now what does matter is that I’m fine. I have everything I need right now. That’s what I want to be paying attention to, giving my energy to, giving my focus to, not my stories about a future that does not yet exist… That is form-less for now.

Questions I ask myself:

* What do I have to believe to be upset, sad, angry, afraid, etc. about whatever it is that I’ve been feeling?
* Can I identify the stories about a future that does not yet exist?
* Can I find a place in the present to remind me of who/how/where I am right now?
* Might I use all of the energy that is fueling the stories of the future to insist on focusing on what is real in my immediate world – here and now?
* Am I safe right now?
* Am I free right now?
* Do I have food and shelter now? Do I have the resources to do what there is to do now? Today?
* Am I willing to feel better?
* Am I willing to focus on what is so, instead of what might be so elsewhere, else-when?

It seems important now, to get more and more clear on what I actually can control and what I might have some influence over. How I take care of my body, how I spend my time, what I say yes to … these are things I can control. What if I really took responsibility for the things I can control? What if I gave more thought to what is worth trying to influence and what isn’t? How would I allocate my resources? My resources being my time, my energy, my attention, my money, my feelings, and all the other support systems I often take for granted.

“Anytime we think the problem is ‘out there,
that thought is the problem.”
~Seven Habits of Highly Effective People~

Have a think about that, if it’s useful. And, if you have questions or thoughts about any of this that you’d like to share with me, please send them to me here: Contact Me