What prompted it? She
came down the stairs and I was in front of the TV watching the morning
news. I was doing my “Ab Ripper X”
routine on the carpet. It was odd for
her to see me there because I usually work out in my “man cave” in the
basement. Today, however, is the first
day of summer for my kids and my son had some friends sleep over to participate
in a Lord of the Rings movie marathon, otherwise known as the “Nerd Hobbit
Convention” (that’s MY term…not theirs).
So there I was, in a strange place, plugging away at the 350
exercise, 17 minute routine. My wife
said, that she had been talking to a good friend of ours, Maureen Kayata , who
is a spiritual therapist specializing in hypnotic regression and therapy as
well as being a psychic medium. The
conversation between them had been focused on people making highly concentrated
efforts for the better in their lives and how that results in the person
manifesting positive things in the other parts of their life. The basis of this is that you can create your
own successes but it starts from an energy you kick off from inside you.
My wife said, “I think that’s what you are doing.”
I was a little struck by the thought because, honestly, I
have been working so hard to make the best health, fitness, relationship, and
work choices that I haven’t even given it much thought. Apparently, that is part of the process. When you stop to think about what you are
doing, you kind of blow the karmic effect.
But, if you focus on the journey, and the right decisions, and leave the
baggage behind, you can harness the positive energy and, like a magnet, more
positive is drawn to you.
Conversely, of course, if you focus on the negatives the
inverse happens. Negative is drawn to
you. It could be from many different areas
of your life.
If you live your life in swirling patterns of drama from bad
relationships…
If your work environment is toxic but you refuse to leave
it…
If you have family members that are toxic influences but you
refuse to just separate from…
If you have addictions that are swallowing you…
If your health and fitness are so poor that it’s affecting
the rest of your life…
All of these things have the capability to bring out the
worst in you and manifest negative energy and bad results in your life. If you find ways to eliminate the bad and
live your life with the most positive decisions and actions, you will get to a
point where everything starts to flow in the right direction. At least, that’s the theory.
Does the theory hold any water? I don’t really know except to say that my
wife’s observations are grounded in some very real things that I have done in
my life over the past four to six years.
Some of it actually started many years ago. There were family relationships that have
rollercoasted up and down for various reasons.
When they got toxic to me…I just let them go. It wasn’t easy because along with the pain,
there was also some very happy times.
But I had to weigh the good versus the bad and then make a very hard
decision. It didn’t come without loss
and regret, but, overall, I think it ended up being a positive thing for me as
a person.
Then about six years ago, my work life became stressful in a
way that was dangerous. Coupled with my
failing physical health, my work stress had me take a couple of ambulance rides
from my office to the hospital.
The first decision was to change the things I could change
the easiest. Believe it or not, the
easiest thing was my weight, health, and fitness. Why was it the easiest? Because it was the one thing that I could
control and change that no one else, so long as I didn’t let them, could
affect. It was the one thing that was
totally up to me. I went out and found a
liquid diet to get the weight off and then found the right fitness routine and
eating style to keep the weight off right up to today.
Once I was physically set, I made a decision to stop the
partying I was doing. Before the weight
loss, my life had been full of family and work parties that had me indulging
far too much in alcohol. When I lost the
weight, I had to stop. The negatives
from the alcohol went far beyond the physical effects…I found there were
effects on my personal relationships as well.
I decided to make the party lifestyle a thing of the past. To be realistic, you don’t have to cut it out
completely, you just need (I think) to have a line. What you do is up to you anyway…this is my
story.
Last, I decided that the job I had done for years needed to
change. I loved the job when things were
going right. The job was absolutely the
most stressful thing I had ever done when it was bad…and it was bad a lot. The successes did not outweigh the
misery. In other words, “The juice was
no longer worth the squeeze.”
The net result of all of this is a new job where I am
happier working than I have ever been. I have a
fit and healthy body that, honestly, is kind of very cool to me because I have
never been this fit. My life has relationships that
I treasure and memories I can comfortably recall with the happiness that they
merit. I wrote my first novel, a
Christmas book of almost 450 pages. Last…and
I think this is what my wife was seeing…when I want to do something positive at
this point, I seem to almost be able to make it happen. Good things seem to be following me and
finding me. It’s kind of cool.
I have a piece of advice I give to my friends looking to do
the positive but are unwilling to release the negatives in their lives, “You
can’t drive to the destination of your life’s journey while you are staring in the
rear-view mirror. You will either go too
slow, or drive right into a ditch. Either way, you won't get there. If you really want to
get there, you need to lighten the luggage, keep your eyes on the road, and put
your foot to the floor.”
More simply said, from my brother John, “Let go or be
dragged.”
Do you think there is anything to this? Maybe, just maybe, you should give it a shot
and see what happens?
What do you have
to lose?
THE WORKOUT:
Ab Ripper X this AM but it is also my Insanity off-day!
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