“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
— Anaïs Nin
Good morning! I’m excited to share a wonderful article with you today by a fabulous author and long-time columnist at SoulfulLiving.com, KD Farris, Ph.D.
KD is a speaker, counselor, and healer. She is also the author of the book, MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT and has been teaching workshops based on the topic of her book for over twenty years.
If you’ve ever found yourself in a negative mindset, her article is sure to get you back on track of thinking and living positively.
Enjoy ♥
“Tending to the Negative Mind”
By KD Farris, Ph.D.
In the early years of discovering my spiritual path, I was introduced to several big concepts that I was not yet ready for. I didn’t really understand Love or God as it was being described to me, and Positive Thinking sounded and felt like lying to myself. Lying to myself was something I was trying to stop doing.
Words have tremendous lasting power, far more than we often realize. Negative ones can have terrible effects on us our whole lives long, affecting our deepest sense of ourselves as capable, lovable, worthwhile beings. Such words, often carelessly hurled at us without thought for the potential consequences, by parents, siblings, teachers or others in our early years can contribute to a legacy of self-doubt that can cloud our experience of life well on into our adulthood.
I opened up to the power of Love and the concept of God within the first year of my journey, but Positive Thinking took a much slower route.
One day, after being on my path for several years, I found myself in an argument with my best friend over whose driver’s license had the better picture on it. I thought her photo looked better than mine, and she thought my photo looked better than hers.
If you can picture this scene: two grown women, standing in a large living room, huddled under a small light – because it was the brightest light in the room to judge ourselves by – arguing over whose driver’s license photograph looks prettier!
Finally, the absurdity of what we were doing hit me and I said, “Wait a minute. You are the most beautiful person I have ever met in my life. If you, who I think of as the peak of perfection, wants to tell me that my photo looks great, what is wrong with me that I cannot just say, thank you?”
It hit me like a ton of bricks that I had always done this. That I had been putting myself down and keeping myself under, even in the face of uplifting events, for the whole of my life. I said to my friend, “I do this with everything. And so do you! We have to stop….”
And that is when Dollar Therapy, a game I invented to teach myself more about ORBIT (OR-BIT), was born.
ORBIT is the activity in the mind when it is producing thoughts that are born from fear and negativity, untruthfulness and denial. It is the recognition of the chatter in the brain that goes on, which is false or self-effacing, that can enable the chatter to stop. Naming this vapor-like noise in your head, “ORBIT,” returns you to the present moment and the power of your mind back to its rightful owner – your heart and spirit.
Dollar Therapy is like taking ORBIT and adding a price tag to it! The rules of the game go like this: For every ill thought, undermining act, or unsupportive behavior toward myself that I witness, I am to put into a jar, one dollar. At the end of the week, I am to give the collected funds away to a charity or person of my choice. In this case it was to my best friend. She could use the money, and I needed a good healing!
After only a few hours I had to call and tell her the price had just gone down to a dime. She was disappointed, but I wanted to be able to hold up my end of the bargain and it was busting my bank to give one dollar for every slip…
Continue Reading “Tending to the Negative Mind”
Copyright KD Farris, Ph.D. All Rights Reserved.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments on KD’s article! Please scroll down and leave your comments below.
Wishing you a very positive day!!
Soulfully,
Valerie
