Sitting here thinking about positive attitudes reminded me of a run of little disasters that were going on a couple of weekends ago and how I almost got caught in the "what's going to go wrong next" way of thinking. I was spending a couple of nights "sitting" with a disabled friend, whilst her sister was out of town and it's usually peaceful and straightforward. There had been a couple of things that had been a bit of a challenge and I think that I was actually expecting something else to go wrong when I went to close the curtains on the second night. And it did. I pulled the flippin curtain rail off the wall. Not completely-it was hanging on by a literal tack on either side and I could have cried. Instead I decided to find some ladders and see if I could put it back up. The ladders were beyond my skill and I was lucky to find that the young man of the house appeared and, like a knight in shining armour, he good-humourdly repaired my damage despite the fact that I think I made him late for his night out.
The reason I tell this story is because, once he was gone, I plonked myself down and realised that I was in danger of falling into the "what next?" way of thinking and I was extremely glad that I had remembered to take my remedies with me and that Gentian was indeed in my bottle.
Gentian is the remedy to take when you are feeling despondent or depressed and you know why. It helps you to pick yourself up and to move forward positively, rather than throwing your hands up in the air and giving up. That evening, it helped me to believe that everything was going to be fine thereby negating any thoughts of more challenging stuff happening.
My plan had been to write about one of my new routines and that is to SMILE for a minute daily. A continuous minute where I simply GRIN from ear to ear and as I type this, a grin has automatically appeared. I send this info to a friend this morning and the same thing happened. How wonderful. Not only can you have no bad feelings at the end of grinning for a full minute, you also get a bonus grin when you tell someone about it:) Try it and then tell everyone you're trying it and let's see how wide we can send the SMILE. The best ones are always simple, eh.
What else? I am hoping to spend lots of time in December doing talks and workshops on Bach Flower remedies and how they can help you to stay sane and actually enjoy the holiday season. Whether it's making decisions on the right gift, coping with the outlaws or feeling sad that a loved one will not be joining you, the Bach Flower Remedies can help with all reasons for being stressed over the festive season.
Expectations for having the perfect Christmas can be massive and we perhaps need to have no expectations. Instead, how about you just set the intention that you are going to be really happy over the holidays and see what happens. Try not to place your happiness in the hands of others or the food or the presents or the weather. Look inside and try to understand that you are the only person that can make you happy and decide to be. If it's difficult, the Bach Remedies are there to bring out the person that you know you are.
We are all wonderful human beings who perhaps don't always do wonderful things but we are not the things we do. We are so much simpler than that but believing that simple is enough is often not enough.
Oh no-I seem to be getting a bit "deep" here and that's not my intention. I know that we are all different and sometimes I forget that not everyone thinks the way that I do. The last thing I want to do is to scare anyone away from the Bach Flower remedies by preaching about my beliefs. At the same time, this blog is me and those who read it are doing so for a reason, known only to them. Hopefully you will keep reading and I know that my belief systems are evolving and changing all the time. The great thing about my getting older is that I seem to have lost the need to be right or should I say, the need to prove that I am right.
My son is gathering ammunition for debating my beliefs whilst he is in Canada. I think it's fantastic that he is reading and researching ways to "debunk" my current views on spirituality. He's not agreed with my way of thinking and so he's off to find his own beliefs. As parents, that's what we should hope to stimulate in our children. An independant thinker (who can be pretty black and white in my old age opinion-tee hee) who isn't ready to accept what I say just 'cause I'm his mother.
Touching on the remedies helping through the holidays, again and I'll likely be back on my Chicory at Christmas to help me to be glad that Andrew is experiencing a Canadian family christmas and not sitting with us at our table. It will be strange for his room not to be the gathering point for the 3 of them when they wake up on Christmas morning. They always got together, there, till it was time to wake Bill and I. My kids were always great at letting us sleep till 7 and last year I think that they gave us 7.30 or maybe even 8.
Times change and Walnut is the remedy which helps us to adapt and adjust to the changes. Honeysuckle will help if we get too stuck in our memories of the past by helping us focus on today. I am grateful to have the remedies in my life and to be able to cope with things like my first Christmas without my sons beautiful smile greeting me when I wake up. Before remedies came into my life, I would never have believed that was possible. Now, it is just part of the adventure of life and I will enjoy my day without him, knowing that he will be doing the same, on the other side of the big pond.
On that note-I'm off to have a half bagal, left over from breakfast and a cuppa.
Enjoy your week and remember to get out of the way of the "what next?" by taking some Gentian,
Lxxx
Posted on Wed, November 10, 2010
by Linsey Denham