Day Two

Day Two of my 30 day well-being experiment was full of opportunities to grow and expand. 

I have five children.  One of them is a twelve-year-old daughter.  We are in a powerful co-creative phase at the moment where we are using a lot of contrast to help us redefine our relationship. 

I know that I committed staying in the flow of well-being.  And I know that in order to create the types of relationships that I desire, I have to focus on what is working and what I love and appreciate about the person(s) I am in relationship with.  

(I used to actually teach this technique when I taught “Parent-Teen Communication” classes.)

So, I have spent a lot of time these last 24 hours, looking at baby photographs of my 12 year-old daughter and noticing all the things I love and appreciate about her:

I love the way her face is gently changing into the face of a young woman and the brightness of her eyes.  I love the way she approaches everything with an unparalleled intensity.  I love her gentle, extremely generous heart and the way she wants to nurture those she perceives as less fortunate.  I love her quick mind.

I love the way she made me a beautiful bubble bath last weekend and babysat the baby so that I could take a 20-minute bath.

She is an amazing kid. 

I learned a couple of things these last 24 hours:

1.  There are some pretty dark, very quiet, consistent counter-productive thought patterns that seem to always be gently streaming through my consciousness.  I notice them when I am doing seemingly “mindless” things like drive. 

2.  It’s much, much easier now than it has been in the past to immediately shift my focus and energy to other thoughts, especially when I ask myself the question, “What would I like to be experiencing instead?”

3.  I have become keenly aware that I need to adopt a much more deliberate practice of appreciation.

4.  There are a lot of areas where I have emotional and mental “dead space” when it comes to knowing or even having an inkling of what I want.  

5.  In just about any given moment I have a choice to appreciate and grow into an experience that I intend or to experience contrast.  I thought the contrast would be less frequent and maybe with more intention it will become that way but today contrast happened every hour.

6.  I don’t have to blame myself or feel like I’m screwing up when contrast happens.  I just have to remember to gently shift my focus. 

Tomorrow I intend to continue on this journey.  My biggest intention is to spend the day deeply immersed in appreciation.  

I am so grateful for this knowledge and the adventure of remembering the power we all carry inside of us!

Love,

Karen