It’s easy to suck the living hell out of the day-to-day by the descriptions you use to discuss—or even to just think about—people, places, events, and yourself. Or you can live as if your cup were half full.
How cognizant you are of what you say is directly correlated to the outcome you’ll get. If you continually speak of your life in terms that describe it as if you never feel good, things never turn out right, or nothing positive comes your way, you’ll more than likely end up being right. It takes less energy to feel good than it does to feel bad. In fact, I’d go so far to say that it takes courage to be happy.
My great-grandmother Conchetta suffered many indignities and tragedies throughout her life, yet not a day went by without her announcing that she felt blessed with abbondanza, “ abundance”. You can choose to take all of your experiences and channel them into a reality show based on fear and anxiety, or you can think of all difficulties as opportunities for creating something new.
Negativity is like a big black hole with slippery sides. Once you fall in, it takes a lot of effort to crawl back up. There are also many people who like the security of the darkness, so if you’re down there you’ll have lots of company. However, when you decide to come back into the light, they won’t help because they’re stuck in the quagmire of goo at the bottom, and they want you there with them, too. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging! It takes a lot of vigilance to be the guardian of your thoughts, words, and deeds; and you’re often at the mercy of years of conditioning that make you operate as if you’re on autopilot.
When you use language such as “if only,” “I wish,” or “I can’t,” you’re dismissing the possibility of today in order to maintain the familiarity of the past or to assuage a fear of the future. You may think it’s easier to stay in an unhappy relationship or job or maintain habits that don’t serve you, but ultimately you’ll suffer the consequences. Steve Job, the founder of Apple, has said that every day, he asks himself the same question “ if this was my last day on earth how would I live it”? Try asking yourself the same question someday, it might end up being a huge wake up call!