We are people, and therefore we have thoughts and feelings….. and it’s important to understand that these thoughts and subsequent feelings are not always going to be great! Sometimes, stuff happens that just sucks and there is just no way whatsoever to put a positive spin on it. That’s just the nature of life on planet earth.
So, with that introduction, you may be wondering what I can share about “How Can I Thrive When Everything Seems Terrible?” Well, lot’s actually…. And from my own experience, I can tell you that neither the good times nor the bad times last forever…… they will last only for as long as we put up with them and continue to focus our attention on them.
Life just continues marching on and there are always going to be times when we may be grieving, when we are sad, when we are fearful, when we don’t have all the money we desire, etc. This is ‘normal life,’ stuff we all get to experience…..
The good and bad times are not here to challenge us, we do not have to somehow ‘prove’ our worthiness…. There is no test to pass….. there are just experiences to have. What makes it all bearable, tolerable, and doable is that we can process our thoughts and feelings, experience, express and share them, learn from them and move on.
It is all our experiences, the good and the bad that are the content we need so that we may grow into something more than we are now….. and we grow the most and the strongest when we embrace all of life, including the times when it really sucks and it seems there is no way to overcome the terrible stuff!
But overcome we always do! For we are survivors, we are strong, we are resilient, and we are capable of handling everything life throws at us…… So, let’s explore “how can I thrive when everything seems terrible?’ with some quotes from Abraham Hicks, just for fun!
How Can I Thrive When Everything Seems Terrible? (Some Inspirational Quotes from Abraham Hicks)
“Everyone holds a mix of opinions, beliefs, and expectations on a myriad of subjects. When you give your attention to something, that Vibration becomes activated and comes to the forefront. And the more often you focus upon it, and cause it to come to the forefront, the more dominant it becomes.”
For those who are not familiar with Abraham, the teachings revolve around ‘vibration’ and more specifically The Law of Attraction. Our predominant thoughts cause us to feel and have emotions specific to the thoughts we are having. So, angry thoughts create angry feelings within us…… Therefore, if we don’t want to be feeling angry, we need to divert our thoughts away from the stuff that is the cause of our angry thoughts……
Simple stuff really! But I, along with most other people do know from experience that it is not always easy to pull ourselves out of a negative, sad, depressed state once we are in it. The best solution I have found is to learn to become aware of when we are slipping into negativity, and act quickly to divert our attention towards something different, more positive, as soon as possible.
Because the truth is that it is much easier to maintain a positive state of being from a neutral or happy place rather than try to crawl our way out of a deep dark hole of yuck!
“There are always those who thrive when masses are dying of sickness. There are always those who thrive economically when economic decline seems to be the order of your nation. There are always those who are clear-minded in environments of confusion. You do not need everyone or anyone else to align with your desire—only you need to align with your desire.”
Often when we consider life is not so good or is not working out the way we want it to, it’s because of the feedback we are getting from our environment. Our environment (including the people around us and our circumstances) lets us know how we are doing compared to our goals and to others.
If I compare my martial arts ability to Bruce Lee, my meditative skill to The Dalai Lama, or my income-producing ability to Warren Buffet, guess what?….. I now have lots of reasons to be terminally depressed and disappointed with myself. Because the reality is that in this lifetime, it’s very unlikely that I’m ever going to be able to rank amongst these giants in their field.
So, we would put our considerable creative potential where it belongs, where it will do us the most good…… and that is in the things we enjoy about our lives. Remember, it’s the areas of our lives where we focus our attention that grow the most…… So whatever, we do, we should always try our best to focus on the great lives we are wanting to create for ourselves and avoid the unpleasantness that we get from others and see in the world around us.
I’m not saying that we should ignore it in the hopes that it will go away because it probably won’t. But I am saying, that for our sanity, for our health and well-being, we should focus on our stuff…. And we should allow others to live their lives in the way that they choose.
“You’re always on your way somewhere. The key is: find a way to be happy wherever you now are on your way to where you really want to be. (We’re speaking of the state of being you want.) It does not matter where you are; where you are is shifting constantly – but you must turn your attention to where you want to go. And that’s the difference between making the best of something and making the worst of something.”
When a loved one passes away, it’s not easy to see ‘the silver lining.’ And neither is it appropriate. There are times we need to grieve because yes, we have suffered a loss. However, it doesn’t mean that we can’t also celebrate the love that we shared and the awesome time we spent together in the past. Knowing how to appropriately express our emotions is an essential ingredient to maintaining great mental health and overall well-being.
In contrast, getting lost in depression because of what we consider we have lost is not healthy, and it is almost certainly NOT what our loved ones would have wanted for us. As Abraham alludes to in the above quote, we should turn our attention to where we are wanting to go…… because that is how we triumph in tough times.
“The Law of Attraction is responding to your thought, not to your current reality. When you change the thought, your reality must follow suit. If things are going well for you, then focusing upon what is happening now will cause the well-being to continue, but if there are things happening now that are not pleasing, you must find a way of taking your attention away from those unwanted things.”
I make it a practice (as often as I can remember) to challenge myself to think of a thought that feels better than the previous few that I have been thinking. This is a great way of bringing awareness to our own thought process as well as ‘upgrading’ our thoughts into ones that will make us feel better than we have been.
Why not give it a go next time you become aware of your thoughts? You have nothing to lose and much to gain.
So, imagine you are waiting for the traffic lights to change to green so you can continue on your journey. What train of thought has your mind been engaging in?
Are you thinking about what’s for dinner tonight, the meeting you’re going to have with the boss later, what to buy your partner for their birthday, or maybe why am I still single and alone?
It doesn’t matter what your thought process has been, there is always a way to make yourself feel better at this moment by thinking different thoughts, even if you are already happy…. Try it!
And if you are not already happy, even better because you have the most to gain by engaging in a different line of thought. They don’t even have to be based on the reality that is currently happening around you….. we all know how to daydream right….. we all have, or used to have an active imagination, right? So what better use is there for your imagination than to make you feel better, here and now, often throughout every day?
Remember what Albert Einstein said: “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.”
And Abraham’s next quote expands on why Einstein’s quote is so relevant and important…..
“When you begin to understand Law of Attraction, and you understand that which is like unto itself is drawn, then it is easier and easier to understand that you are offering a signal, and the entire Universe responds. And when you finally get that, and you begin to exercise some deliberate control about the signal that you offer, then it really begins to be fun, because then you recognize that nothing happens outside of your creative control. There are no things that happen by chance or by circumstance. There is nothing that is happening because of something you vibrated a long time ago or in a past life. It is not about what you were born into. It is only about what you are, right now, in this red hot fresh moment emitting.”
And that quote, in a nutshell, sums up The Law of Attraction. It is the signal that we are emitting, our vibration, that is the attractor of the circumstances, events, and people into our lives. And until we ‘clean up’ our vibration we are not going to thrive….. we will live what we consider to be lives that are not as good as we deserve and may even be terrible.
So, “How Can I Thrive When Everything Seems Terrible?” We need to deliberately offer a better signal/vibration than we have been. And this means that we need to reach for better feeling thoughts more of the time throughout our days….. it’s not that hard to do because after all, we all want to be feeling better more of the time, right?
Then begin now…… take a few minutes for yourself and reach for the best feeling thoughts you can come up with…. Breathe them in, feel them vibrate throughout your body, and enjoy the sensations for as long as you can sustain it…… and then do it again and again….. and do it every day…..
And pretty soon you will be able to do it when you are out and about during the course of your normal days, and you will……
“Get so fixated on what you want, that you drown out any vibration or reverberation that has anything to do with what you do not want.”
…… and it is now that you have left what was terrible behind and you become free to thrive…..
I wish you a wonderful life. May all your dreams come true,
With much love and respect for all souls playing the game of life,
Andrew
