I am really worried about
future. I am 54 years of age, my daughter, who I have brought up on my own since she was two, is about to start university, my mother isn’t getting any younger, my pension fund is not going to produce what I expected and I feel future is going to be a really lonely place. These were thoughts of a friend of ours who came to stay with us recently. The thoughts of an overworked, stressed, caring, dedicated professional woman.So what is answer? All feelings expressed by Sue are real and none are going to go away with a drop of hat. So what can be done?
The conversations we had together started with her thoughts. We have a choice between quality thinking and quantity thinking. When Sue drops into quantity thinking, like here, she generates many useless thoughts that swirl around in her head making her tired, and reducing her self respect. The problem is that world rewards quantity thinking. It makes us think that we have to be in control all time. Makes us feel inadequate if we don’t cover all bases.
The alternative is quality thoughts. With good quality thoughts we recognize our greatness and what is possible in life. We get to experience happiness and self respect.
During our conversation we asked Sue: what was she good at?
What qualities did she admire in herself?
What did she think were her greatest successes in life?
What are her particular strengths that she could depend on now and in future?
In quality thoughts she was giving love, and attention to herself. She was not telling herself any lies. She was just refocusing her thoughts. You don’t have to think of a number of thoughts to uplift you, one quality thought has power to uplift you in a second
The next killer is our tendency to pass judgement on others. To focus on another’s shortcomings and urge to criticise and correct others. When we think negatively about other people all time it makes our mind and body really heavy and restricts our thinking. When we start thinking about personality of others we overshadow our own true personality. And gradually, we begin to resemble that other personality, including their defects. By letting people go from our mind, we lift all restrictions of thinking, and release our original qualities again. Our mind becomes light and we can use all our talents with confidence.
