Patterns

I find myself revisiting some thought patterns that I have been trying to break away from. For the most part, I have been successful, but today I was reminded that it is easy to revert to old thought processes.

These patterns existed mostly in the way that I thought about certain situations. When things went awry, I used to turn all of my attention to them. I am not sure if it was out of a desire to correct the situation and make it all better, or if I was spending my energy resisting that it had even happened. It gave a lot of attention for those things to grow (the very things that were upsetting me). Lately, it has been easier for me to recognize and stop this negative spiral in its tracks, but I don't think it is realistic to think that I will never be bothered or affected by people or situations.

So in instances when I find myself slipping back to this old school thinking, I am better served to just acknowledge it, make an agreement with myself in terms of how much energy I should give it (uh, very little), and then move on.

A friend of mine put it simply to me today as I began to dwell, "Go ahead complain, take your Mulligan. And then move on."