Why miss what is happening? When we give our energy and attention to something that isn't happening, we take it off what is. And whether we
like "what is" or not, why trade it in for something that doesn't even exist and we like even less? If we're going to use energy on behalf of something that hasn't yet happened, why not make it images of what we would prefer? Which leads me to....
Why assume the worst? "Put it in a low gear," my friend Lynn advised as I faced the first of two insanely steep climbs out of her property. Second gear is low, right? Yet my car stalled halfway up and I had to "start and gun" to make it the rest of the way. It worked! But instead of the sweet smell of success, the ride home smelled like burning rubber.
Did I damage the gear shift? Did I burn out some labor-intensive part? Would I be able to afford the repair?" Hmm. "Thanks for asking, but it hasn't happened yet." A week into the smell, I made an appointment with my mechanic, Scot, who lives at the top of multi-faceted, beauty-laden steepness. If your car makes it all the way to Scot's, it can't be that bad. It wasn't. The remains of a previous oil leak had been charred when I gunned the car in such extreme conditions. "Give it another week," he said. "It should go away."
I didn't know what I was more grateful for: the verdict or the fact that I hadn't squandered any energy on it.
Why not be our own Governors? When something that feels threatening comes at us from the "outside," why not respond from our inner governor who decrees: "Something that hasn't happened yet has no power over me." How could it? It's just a bobbing possibility in a sea of many potentials.
When IT does happen... In a variation of a popular bumper sticker, sometimes "
IT Happens." The pay cut does go through or the car repair is a full-fledged budget-blower. If we haven't exhausted ourselves with anticipatory worry and its attending mindmares, we are in a much better place to accept what
is now and open our hearts and minds to the next step.
Maybe there's a seeming threat in your life to which you can quietly say, "But it hasn't happened yet," allowing a shift back into the present--the only place where life itself resides.