Hello TSJ Peeps!
Solomon is real proud of himself. As my muse, he is almost always proud of himself when I actually put my fingers to the keyboard and start writing. He approves of effort and commitment.
You see, he quietly takes credit without shame when I write to you about this or that story or life lesson I am working on. His perspective on my everyday problems is more patient, compassionate and hopeful than my own ego tends to be. A couple of times this week he has had to remind me to practice kindness and pursue wisdom. He always adds, “the Shepherd will guide you and walk with you”
I let out a low groan and agree with him in theory, but my mind has its well worn paths of grumpy thoughts at times.
Anyhow, he is almost giddy that I have decided to write today”s “woolly” wisdom (my new playful word for our Wednesday wisdoms)- even though it is late in the day, it is still Wednesday! I am not sure how to spell woolly but I like the word.
All sheep are woolly and need to be shorn from time to time because a bunch of crud from the fields gets stuck in the wool fibers making the sheep carry extra weight and discomfort around in the heat. Summer is “shear-the-wool” time of year for sheep and maybe sometimes for us peeps. (“Peeps” is his word for us human people who are a lot like sheep at times.)
SORTING OUT OLD STUFF
And this week I have tried to clean up the TSJ office a bit and he has been in the midst of large piles of papers to be sorted, shredded and recycled. But he smiles smugly because it is not his wool crud this time and I am spending time with him.
I was cranky while I was cleaning my office closet (my book shelves are in there because the office is so small.) I cleaned out three very large notebooks of material I no longer will use and I thought it would make a big difference but the closet is still full! However, I did one important thing. I rearranged my old coaching and writing notebooks in such a way that material I have accumulated over the years is now accessible for me to re-work and rewrite!
As it turns out, I have accumulated many notes and articles that still excite me when I reread them. This makes cleaning a long process! These are notes I have taken from other blogs, books and presentations that have inspired and also reminded me of other resources for you! Which is what I want to share now.
Without going into details that are nonessential here, let me just say that I have found myself worrying about things that honestly don’t matter in the scheme of life. I recognize how often many of us humans experience unnecessary emotional fatigue trying to meet standards of perfection that are seemingly impossible to attain.
I imagine each of you has your well worn worry paths in your brains too, especially if you tend to be sensitive, empathic people lovers and people pleasers. (Which describes most TSJ subscribers.)
So this brings me to a quote that I came across and I think you will find useful too. Fortunately, I had noted the author’s name (Scott Noelle) and I have just checked the internet and he is still producing great work for you to check out.
WHAT THOUGHT INVESTMENTS ARE IN YOUR MIND’S PORTFOLIO?
We hear so much on the news about the state of our economy lately that words like economy, currency, investment, marketplace all seem to jump out at me as being true about our minds too!
Specifically, I have noticed that I can move from feeling grumpy to feeling happy quite quickly sometimes. Yesterday it happened when I watched three ducks racing toward the pond like they were trying for the olympics. Today I have enjoyed three phone conversations with special people who help me laugh and who love and believe in me.
So I was delighted when I rediscovered the following quote I had written down years ago! It describes my own current experiences of attitude changes.
COACH SCOTT NOELLE SAYS:
Scott Noelle, a writer and life coach with a special interest in parent coaching wrote or said the following quote that I have on my 4×6 note card:
“The human mind is the marketplace of thoughts and
attention is the currency with which you buy into a thought.
You boycott it by not paying attention and by focusing on a better, more empowering thought.”
“There is only one consumer in your thought market.
So when you boycott a thought – that thought’s market share
goes to zero percent and
it goes ‘out of business.’ “
And “when you feel bad about your parenting or your child [or yourself] it means you are buying into some negative thought or negative perspective that undermines your creativity.”
“You can’t resist something without focusing your attention on it!”
(It intrigues me that when we are resisting something we are actually spending our currency of attention on what we are resisting!)
“And whatever you focus on becomes a bigger part of your experience.”
SUMMARY:
We all have our personal stories we tell ourselves that may be more habitual than accurate. And we have a tendency to focus on our weaknesses or things that go wrong rather than things that are going well. We also listen for criticism more than for affirmation.
This week I have been reinsured by the above observations. Yes I have renewed some insurance protection against negativity. (Actually, “reinsured” was a typo as it was supposed to read “reassured” but I just pivoted and turned it into a play on the idea of investments and portfolios and how the “currency of thought” is a sort of investment.
I hope you have fun boycotting your negative thoughts and finding more empowering thoughts to spend your “attention currency” on!!!
Happy shepherding and playing in the fields of life!
Margie and Solomon
