“It’ll Only Take a Moment!”

29 Sep 2018 Leave a comment

by unlimitedpotentialhealingcenter in Cause and Effect, mindfulness

20180929_front gate       20180929_gate

How many times have I thought those words to my regret!

It started for me many years ago. In the early days after buying this big house, I put water on the stove for tea while I went downstairs to fetch something. But somehow I got distracted with something there that needed doing. When I returned upstairs, the water had boiled away and the bottom of the metal pot had melted all over the stove. Still not learning the lesson to NEVER leave the room when something is on the stove, I have gone on to burn several meals since although I never again melted another pot. However, my son tells me my late mother melted one or two pots on the stove as well. 

Anyway, yesterday, it was my worker. He removed the chain around the boards on the front wooden gate. It was there to prevent my big Maremma sheep dogs from escaping should they open the latch — a new trick that their mother had just taught them a few days before. “I’ll only be a moment,” he thought as he walked across the driveway to get feed for the farm animals in the garage. So he did not take the mere second of extra time to replace the chain. Quickly, my two big Maremma pups unseen to him, unlatched the gate and took off, and were out of sight by the time he filled up the feed buckets and came back. As a result, I spent an hour and a quarter driving around a 3 mile radius calling for them before I finally found them and got them home. But the results could have been different as these dogs are unfamiliar with trains, traffic, or the acres of woods around. And people do steal valuable, pure breed animals.

How quickly taking a moment to do something or not do something by ignoring or discounting potential negative consequences can have unpleasant or painful results. Whether you get distracted and lose your focus, take your eyes off what you are doing, or turn your back on someone or something, it can bring enormous stress, aggravation, money, and time consuming extra work. It can mean the difference between getting on the plane or not, between owning something, or it being stolen or lost forever. But sometimes the results are even tragic – leaving a child or animal in the car on a hot summer day, for example. A moment can mean the difference between between health and injury, life and death. 

Many years ago, I combined walking my dog with going to the grocery store to buy just a few items. I tied him up outside and went in to do my shopping. When done, I found that someone had stolen my dog. Signs and calling throughout the Boston neighborhood brought no response. Only through great good fortune and timing a couple of weeks later did I happen to again be walking the same route and saw some young people sitting with my dog on the stoop of their apartment building across the wide boulevard. I was lucky to get him back.

Another time, I drove to the train station to pick up my husband. I left the windows open because my teenage son was in the back seat. As the train was late, I got out to wait for my husband on the track. It took just a moment of me being gone for a man to jump into the driver’s seat to try to steal the car. Only my son thinking to hold up his boy scout knife as he addressed the thief made the man flee, and kept my son safe. 

Every day we have to make countless quick decisions to do or not do this or that and how or what instead. Nonetheless, there also has to be awareness of potential negative consequences of those decisions and not discount the downside because “it’ll only take a moment!”

Copyright 9/2018 by Roxanne Louise. However, this article may be shared in free online sources only if this copyright notice and link to http://www.roxannelouise.com and http://unlimitedpotentialhealingcenter.com  are included with the content.

 

 

No Easy Answers

26 Sep 2018 1 Comment

by unlimitedpotentialhealingcenter in attitude, Cause and Effect, Law of Attraction, problem solving

Personally, I get frustrated when people pontificate their personal beliefs as to why they think something ‘bad’ happens, not just to themselves, but generalized across the board to everyone. It doesn’t matter that the ‘bad’ thing is an injury, an illness, the breakup of a relationship or a job, a school shooting, terrorist attack or war. The reasons that led up to that may be as multiple as there are people.

Even if you get positive results by correcting what you think may be the reason, it remains a theory until your correction completely resolves the problem. Otherwise, it may only be a part of the picture. But just because it appears true for you in that specific instance, and even if it is helpful for you does not mean that it is true or going to prove beneficial for everyone. 

I have noted that the reasons cited as responsible for any particular problem change over time and over cultures. To me this proves that such explanations are beliefs or theories rather than truth. Some are more popular than others during a particular decade with particular groups – national, regional, ethnic, economic, educational, religious, or political subcultures. Some come straight out of the teaching of a particular movement, guru, book or even a fad. Popularity can never be a criteria for truth. 

For example, in the past, it was actively taught that bad genes were responsible for many diseases. But thanks to the work of biologist, Dr. Bruce Lipton, we now know that almost all given genes can be expressed in a number of different ways, and it is the environment (or the perception of it) that determines whether a specific gene with that disease as one of many possibilities will ever express itself in that way.

Dr. Ryke Geerd Hamer, MD proved that specific unexpected, emotional shocks are responsible for specific diseases developing in particular parts of the body at the specific point in time when such shocks occurred. So instead of the person creating the illness, they didn’t have the emotional or other resources at the time to prevent it because they didn’t know how to handle something very upsetting happening outside of them, not of their own creation.

It’s very popular in the New Age Movement to think that you attract or create everything that happens to you. This is more helpful, perhaps, than thinking that you are victim, or that it is God’s will and that you just have to suffer instead of taking active measures to change things. But if you are creating your reality, what about the possibility that  everyone else is doing so at the same time, and that these various creations are crossing paths? If according to a theory that everyone is interconnected, what you do effects me and vice versa. 

Example:

Perhaps you were hit by a car as crossing the road. Perhaps the hospitalization gives you time to reconsider your life and it’s direction, your relationships, what’s important, etc. That can lead to important changes. Maybe you become more appreciative of others. Perhaps you have to learn patience, tolerance, and compassion for others who also suffer. You may as a result become a better or more pleasant person. It may force you to grow. But does that mean that God or your soul set it up, or that it was destined to happen as a part of your life script? Maybe yes, but maybe no.

Such introspection and positive changes might be your chosen response to the situation, not the reason for it.

You could have responded by becoming angry, hostile to caretakers, impatient, and, consequently, destroying your relationships. You could have become a worse, not better person.

Perhaps the accident teaches you to remember to look both ways before crossing the street, or to not burn the candle at both ends so that you can stay alert to potential danger. Maybe you learn that you need to focus on what you are doing, or to resolve that issue that is disturbing your sleep. Maybe you should not be trying to use the cell phone or text when entering the intersection.

On the other hand, maybe the driver needs also to keep his eyes on the road instead of trying to text as well. Maybe he needs to not burn the candle at both ends, or not drink before driving. Maybe he needs to resolve those issues that are distracting him from paying attention. Maybe he needs an anger management class so that he slows down and is less aggressive while driving.

Maybe there needs to be a traffic light at that busy intersection but the mayor has been slow to address a dangerous situation already known to him.

But does any of this mean that God or the universe set it up, or that you volunteered to get hit so that other people would learn?

You get my point.

That being said,

  • if there is a reason (and there may be) and you do not get it,
  • if there is something for you to learn (and there probably is) , and you do not,
  • if it was intended for you to grow, and you don’t,

my belief is that you will get another opportunity to do so later. In my experience, the universe comes in with a 2 X 4 next time.

Physicist Tom Campbell, author of My Big Toe has a theory, which while very interesting, cannot be reduced to the cause for all problems:

“If a particular occurrence is determined to be an effective learning opportunity for someone or everyone, the probability of it happening is increased. The system is designed to automatically deliver timely custom-fit individual learning opportunities — the presentation of such opportunities to individuals or groups is part of the feedback one receives relative to the choices one makes. Because the point of the system is to overcome fear (about you – high entropy) and replace it with love (about others – low entropy), if you have fear, the feedback system will manifest that fear in PMR [physical reality] to force you to deal with it (learn) or suffer the consequences.”

Yes, I believe things happen for a reason or multiple ones, but such may be more complicated or different than what you think. The causation may be unknowable. Hence, I advise being open minded to other explanations until you fully resolve the issue. And still the answers might be elusive or incomplete. You may get results without understanding why. 

The reasons may be such a composite of the environment, the stress and or psychological milieu of multiple other people, the society and the times, so that they cannot be brought down to a single, simple explanation. It can be similar to a recipe – a little of this, a little of that, add in other people, stir it up, wait awhile. The buildup can take lifetimes. The causes can be multigenerational. 

In short, I don’t believe in easy answers.

Asking ‘why’, then has only marginal value.

Should you ask it? Of course, because you might well find answers. But also consider that you may be either wrong or incomplete in your analysis. The reasons why might be multiple. Leave room  in your mind to be open to additional possibilities that might help. 

After asking “why did this happen”, ask:

  1. What positive learning can I gain from this?
  2. What do I want to do to make things better moving forward?
  3. How can I turn this into a blessing for me or someone else?

 

Copyright 9/2018 by Roxanne Louise. However, this article may be shared in other free online sources only if this copyright notice and link to http://www.roxannelouise.com and http://unlimitedpotentialhealingcenter.com areincluded with the content.