August 20--Attitude

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.  --Kahlil Gibran

    I remind myself often that I always have a choice. Even a necessary chore allows the choice of doing it with a good attitude or a bad attitude. That selection makes all the difference. A good attitude regarding a necessary chore seems to make it less burdensome. A bad attitude seems to make it drag on forever. (Can you tell I'm hinting at my "love" of house-cleaning here?!?!)
    I did a weekend workshop a few years back using Brene Brown's "Rising Strong" material. It looks at how we perceive what happens to us to determine if we could learn to have a healthier response to life's events. It was there that I learned the concept of "shitty first draft." When something happens, we instantly make up a story about it, i.e. "the way the mind looks at what happens," and that story is often negative and often not even true. Here's an example. Last summer I had a nasty fall. My mind immediately went to "I fell because I'm old. Oh, dear, I'm going to fall more often now that I'm old. Can a nursing home be far behind?" Instant insanity, as you can see. The truth was, I didn't see the step down and wiped out, which anyone who missed that step would have done. No nursing home was remotely involved. I think you can see that recognizing the "shitty first draft" for what it is can be a game-changer. 
    Time for coffee, which always helps my attitude,
              Leta