Are we doing anything to calm our nervous systems
One of the few things in life which we do have any true control with is our attitude. Going to any social event, large or small, we could go round to all of the participants and inquire what they were thinking and feeling about the occasion. Everyone would have some inclinations and attitude about what was occurring. There would be a spectrum of responses, from the very positive to the complete negative, potentially. The question would be what has brought these varied folks to these conclusions? Further we may wonder why the long path of life has allowed these people to have their perspective as it is at that moment in time.
When we further ponder good and bad attitudes, we may flatly observe that regardless of prior circumstances attitudes can shift. What would initiate a desire to have a better, more positive attitude in life? Conversely, what happens to folks who have a positive attitude, such as those of very small children, to wane and become impoverished? Is it an outside job, new and better or worse circumstances, or is it an inside job, something to do with how healthy and positive we feel inside, or not, as it may be? If the same event can garner vastly different attitudes, it must have to do with how a person arrived, happily and healthily or not. The good news is that we can all do something to feel better about ourselves (and the small trick is paradoxically putting others first, and understanding there are larger powers at work here), and our attitudes will follow suit and improve.
Today’s book is entitled Attitude is Your Superpower by Eduardo Clemente. Written in 2021 this book shares some very interesting understandings of what attitude actually is, its elastic nature and some simple shifts we can take on a moment to moment and day-to-day basis to improve overall attitude about life. Much, if not all of this, really centers on our own perception of ourselves. It is almost akin to the way we are when we have a belly-ache or a migraine headache. No matter what is going on around us, we will feel like Charlie Brown with a dark rain cloud only over us. As Charlie often learned, none of this attitude-ability is set in stone, and with practice and some interior house cleaning, we can improve attitude, and our life experience. They go hand-in-hand.
If we find ourselves often holding attitudes laden with shame, guilt, anger, despair, negative desire, inflated self-pride, apathy and other fear based thoughts and emotional states, we will not be living a very pleasant life. This seems obvious, though it is not always obvious when we are in the thick of it. The desperate sort of feeling we get when we just are not seeing life go the way we hope it would, needs are not being met and everything seems to be crumbling around us is scary and even terrifying when it is happening. Often we just throw in the towel. This is not our only choice though.
We need awareness of where we are at, even if it is just a glimpse, to begin a path out of these funky states. Attitude is one of the areas we can look at closely, and it can be a vehicle out of the dark. Wherever we are in life, we can check in on our attitude, our perspective and do a little check-up on it. Are we being very negative in thought or word? Are our actions selfish and self-centered? Are we prejudiced at all about what is happening in life? Are we chucking judgments around like bags or peanuts at the ballpark? Are we speaking negatively about ourselves? Are we doing nothing concrete to try to calm our nervous systems? These questions and many more like it all have solutions that will require attitudinal shifts, and again the good news is we can change our attitude, almost at will almost anytime we like. “This is awful!” switches to “This could be manageable.” “There is no way this will ever change or get better!” shifts to “Well, there could be some hope here, and a little light at the end of the tunnel. Everything passes.” That is not unreasonable, unkind, or hard to do. It requires awareness of where we are, and the knowledge that we can always shift. It has to be tried to be believed. The long term effect can be as great as we wish it to be.