Bypassing the Blahs

Not too long ago a good friend, whose life has recently begun to really move in some great-looking directions with lots of promising energy flowing, complained to me about having come down with a case of “the blahs”.

Even before she explained, I knew exactly what she meant. She wasn’t depressed. She wasn’t upset. She wasn’t scared out of her wits. Nothing awful had happened. In fact, nothing was really very different than a day or two before. In fact it was partly that fact—that nothing much was different from a day or two or three before—that was the problem.

I knew the feeling all too well. It was that loss of momentum after a great start out of the gate. It was the plateau that plagues weight lifters after several weeks or months of pumping the same iron. It was the proverbial slump.

And even though in this case, it was someone else’s slump for a change, I still found myself wondering about the phenomenon that was more familiar to me than I would have liked. I wondered, specifically, if it was possible to skip the slump, and maintain that sweet momentum toward some sought after dream. I asked The Shower Team, is it possible to bypass the blahs?

Sometimes the specificity of your focus serves you well, and sometimes it just slows you down. The rapid pace of your physical experience has created a kind of microwave mentality that sometimes trips you up in the sense that you have come to expect all your dishes to cook up in seconds.

So what often happens is, you launch a sweet, sassy, spicy kick of a new desire and you feel the excitement and the energy of that idea flowing through you . . . and you begin to imagine how good it’s going to be . . . how great it will taste when it’s done and how proud you will feel to have been the creator of it . . . and you start gathering the ingredients and mixing them up and enjoying the process of putting your creation together. And then you pop it in the oven to bake, knowing that it could take a half hour or an hour or longer . . . in some cases your concoction could need to simmer over a low flame for quite some time . . .

While the savvier chefs among you recognize this process for the perfection that it is, and will busy themselves with other dishes as the main dish is cooking, what many of you end up doing is sitting down and staring at the oven and staring at your watch and complaining about how long it’s taking. . . “What’s the matter with this thing?” you will ask . . . or “What did I do wrong that it’s taking this long?” or “Well this cooking business must just be a big crock because I can’t tell anything is happening in there . . .”

So what you call “the blahs” we would call cook time. What you would call a loss of momentum or a slump, we would call the perfect timing of the process for creating the best version of what you desire. . . and where you may sit there frowning at the dish that’s not done yet or the oven that’s not working faster, we would encourage you to turn your attention to the side dishes . . . or the appetizers . . . or the dessert . . . to any of the unlimited other projects you could be planning or preparing or mixing in your fully equipped, fully stocked kitchen.

Is it possible to “bypass the blahs” you ask? And we say, “Sure!” Just limit yourself to tiny, quick and easy dishes that you can throw together in no time. Set the standards for your desires lower . . . take on smaller, easier creations and you will get quicker and easier results . . . or at least, that is the belief you hold: that small or simple dishes come together quickly, whereas bigger or more complex recipes take more time and effort . . .

The belief that makes this seem the case is your belief—you practicing that thought. And in this as in any belief you hold, the choice is yours to be a short order cook or a gourmet. And you can be perfect happy with either choice as long as you are understanding what either of them needs to understand in order to enjoy what they do.

So if your pot is just taking way too long to come to a boil . . . consider a smaller pot and a less ambitious creation . . . or get up from your impatient post in front of the stove or oven and notice all the other sorts of fun you could be having in the kitchen as your culinary masterpiece continues to cook to perfection!

Sometimes their analogies are clearly meant to mock me (They know I’m not much use in the kitchen). But I’ve observed good cooks in action and not once have I seen any of them curse the cake for taking so long to brown or swear at the soup that still clearly needs more time over the flame.

This could explain why I’m such a whiz at scrambled eggs. It could also serve to remind me that sometimes wonderful things are worth waiting for—and that while I’m waiting for something wonderful, I could be planning something else equally wonderful. Or—I could just quietly enjoy my scrambled eggs and leave the soufflés to more patient and proficient chefs.

Either way, it beats sitting around the kitchen, listlessly lamenting the fact that I don’t know how to effectively nuke a pot roast. It leaves me a little less concerned about those blahs. It also leaves me a little hungry—and hopefully, a little closer to being complete

What The Turtledoves Taught Me

A few days ago, I woke up feeling a little out of sorts. I was concerned about a few things that weren’t quite going as well as I wanted them to . . . feeling a bit of nagging doubt or worry here and there. Not a crisis. Not a meltdown. Not a panic attack. Just . . .not at the top of my game.

I took my coffee out onto the patio. It was a cool, sunny, slightly breezy Colorado morning. I sat down and as I took a sip of my coffee I spotted what looked like two small turtledoves perched up on top of the fence around the patio. They were just sitting there side by side. I couldn’t tell if they were mates or parent and child or just best buddies. They would occasionally nudge or peck at each other gently, but for the most part, they didn’t move. They just sat as close to each other as they could get, looking around for at least a half hour or more.

Something about that image was so soothing to me, so calming and reassuring. It almost felt silly how moved I was by the picture of those two birds sitting there, seemingly so content to enjoy their view—and each other’s company. Even my moving around—stepping back inside to get my camera and coming back out to snap a few pictures of them—was of no consequence to them. When I finally went back inside, they were still there. But I was feeling so much better than before I saw them.

I like birds as much as the next person, but rarely do they capture my interest to quite that degree. So I asked The Shower Team about the birds, and why they got to me . . .

If you had any idea how many of those kinds of moments you miss that are continually moving in and out of your experience, it would truly astound you. What you witnessed and were responding to was, very simply, the ever-present, abundant evidence of the well being that abounds.

The animals of your planet, be they wild or domesticated, are true ambassadors of this well being for they, unlike you, do not resist, for the most part, the allowing of that well being. They know with every fiber of their being that all is well. They never question it. They never worry about it. They never get upset about whether it will continue or whether it will all come crashing down around them. They simply allow it to be.

By doing so, they offer to you a constant reminder of just how well it is all being. In the midst of whatever worries you are holding close to you, in the middle of all your concerns about all the things not working or not going well or all your fears about all the horrible fates that await you and your world . . . the beasts . . . the birds . . . sit there in perfect ease . . . perfect satisfaction . . . wanting for nothing . . . fearing nothing. They weren’t even worried about that fat Siamese cat that was eyeing them from afar as they perched on top of your fence.

Moreover, they understand how little there is to be gained by struggle or by striving. They follow their natural impulses and the natural rhythm of their existence. They go with the flow of who and what they are and the unspeakably perfect order that they are part of.

Even though the animals that you tame and keep close to you as pets manage to absorb only a minimum of your negativity. Even they understand on some level that often eludes you, just how good it all really is. That’s why we so often encourage you, in the midst of whatever worry you’re focused upon, to pet your cat or play with your dog. It isn’t just distraction . . . it’s reconnection with Source . . . it’s the opportunity for you to remember well being . . . it’s a chance for you to experience peace and joy by association.

They never wander from it, except to notice how upset you are. They eat, they sleep, they play, they take care of themselves (even though you convince yourselves that they need you). And anytime you stop to pay attention, they teach you what an indescribably, poignantly, perfectly wonderful world you are part of.

I don’t currently have a dog or a cat. I miss that comfort and companionship sometimes. But the turtledoves made a believer out of me, if only for those few minutes that I sat there watching them pressing together, unperturbed, unmoved by any disturbance or even by my intrusive presence.

As I watched them looking out contentedly at their perfect world, my own world felt a little closer to perfect. And that was worth every minute I spent sitting there with them, feeling at peace with where I was, and for those few moments, feeling oh so complete.

Wishbones, Wishcraft, and Workshops—Oh My!

How old were you when you stopped believing in magic? I don’t think I’ve hit that age just yet, but keeping the faith gets pretty challenging sometimes, particularly when I’m not feeling very adept at conjuring up something that I really crave, or making some change that I’ve been trying to make for quite a while.

There are plenty of folks around to remind me that life’s not a fairy tale but sometimes I still end up feeling like Cinderfella, sitting in the corner, feeling sorry for myself, while those around me seem to be dressing up and getting ready to go have a good time. Wishing on a star is easy. But after a while, that same bright, shiny star can almost seem to be mocking me as I continue to sit in the same corner, wishing for the same things.

So I asked the Shower Team about my part in the fairy tale—and about how long I’m supposed to wait around for a seemingly tardy fairy godmother?

Your desires often appear to you as the short end of a stick. You identify something that you want and you feel the call of this desire . . . you feel the power it has to summon life force through you . . . but then as the desire forms and exists for you, you often experience it more in terms of the lack of what you want. The lack of what you desire becomes your focus. The thing you want that is not here yet becomes your point of attention, so that every time you pick up that topic, you are picking up the short end of that stick—the not having of what you want so much.

Many many others have spoken or written about the value of altering your perception on any topic that is of concern to you or changing your point of view about something that you desire. It can be and has been offered in a variety of ways but the point of such efforts or exercises or what you commonly refer to as visualizations or processes, isn’t to ‘trick’ yourselves into belief. The object of these activities is, rather, to lead your thoughts in the direction of feeling good about the desires you are holding. It is the difference between sitting in a corner and wringing your hands about what hasn’t come to you yet versus being the eagerly anticipating child right before Christmas who just knows that that bicycle is on its way and who thinks about the coming of that bike with joy and delight and the absolute belief that Santa or Mom and Dad will not fail to deliver.

It is much easier, of course, for children to believe and to expect to receive what they’re asking for, because they have not been exposed—usually—to as many of the reasons offered by others for doubting. Children haven’t been around long enough to pick up as many of the messages to be “realistic” or to face the ‘facts’.

And in fact, children are much better at practicing the sort of allowing—the ‘wishcraft’ that brings the fulfillment of your desires. But we would offer to you that it is never too late in your life to begin to practice this sort of ‘magic’. You can begin wherever you are, to offer a purer vibration around any desire that you have. You can choose in any moment, when you have picked up the short end of the stick relative to what you want, when you have pulled off what feels like the shorter piece of the wishbone, to immediately shift your thoughts in the other direction . . . to begin to imagine the fulfillment of that desire . . . to begin to see yourself discovering that bike on Christmas morning and then seeing yourself on that bike with the wind in your hair and the sun on your face . . . or seeing yourself with that sought-after mate on some magnificent beach or seeing yourself enjoying the benefits of increased cash flow or seeing yourself with renewed vigor and restored health.

You can practice this ‘wishcraft,’ you can “workshop” any desire any time you are feeling the lack of it. The object of such a game is simply to shift your thinking in a better feeling direction . . . to shift your focus from the lack of something to the having of it in a way that lets you feel better about that subject . . . and as soon as you are feeling a little better about that subject . . . to get out and to get on with your life experience.

You are so often expressing the need to feel like you are ‘doing something” about the fulfilling of your desire. And what we would suggest to you is that you make this kind of effort, this practice of ‘wishcraft’ or workshopping your desires . . . let that be the action you take, the deliberate efforts that you contribute toward manifesting your dreams. Understand the power of your thinking and the power of your perception relative to anything you want . . . and then make deliberate efforts to direct your thoughts toward the joyful receiving of your desires . . . the images and the sensations and the feelings of having and enjoying what you are asking for.

As soon as you notice that you are, once again, holding the short end of that stick, take yourself to the workshop where you get to choose the picture you are seeing, where you get to create the image of you having what you want, enjoying what you want . . . Spend only as much time there as it takes to feel a little better about this desire . . . and then leave, knowing that you can and will return any time it is necessary for you to feel more in control of the process of creating your own experience. Become practitioners of “wishcraft” or more precisely, of “shiftcraft” . . . where the magic you make is that of shifting your focus from hot having to having . . . from observing to imagining . . . to actually take the short end of that stick and to apply the fire of playful and joyful imagination to it . . . to quickly forge a better feeling flow of thought on that topic—and then to leave it there, cooling, until the next time you feel like playing the game again.

You can cast yourself in the part of Cinderella . . . crying in the corner over all your unfulfilled desires . . . or you can be your own fairy godmother . . . making your own magic . . . seeing and believing that you can have or do or be what you want, by choosing to see yourself the way you want to be—and for less time than it takes to sweep the ashes from around the fireplace . . .

I guess this would apply to the “Some Day My Prince Will Come” notion, too. Maybe it seems silly to talk about fairy tales in relation to the nuts and bolts of real, everyday dreams and desires. The pragmatists would surely scoff. For that matter, I’m not above an occasional scoff or two myself.

But for those of us for whom a life without magic just feels way too dreary, these words offer not only solace, but some promising solutions. I like the idea of taking part in the process, rather than waiting for someone else’s magic wand to start waving in my direction. So if setting up shop serves to pave the way for my own pumpkin-turned-chariot . . . I say, let the workshopping begin! Beats the hell out of sweeping up ashes—and it leaves me feeling more active . . . more adept . . . and for now, more complete.

Following Your "Joydar"

Strange as it may sound, I never thought all that much about joy until fairly recently. I grew up singing songs about it: “Joy To The World” . . . “Joy Unspeakable” . . . “Tidings of Comfort and Joy” (I know that’s not the title but the song applies) . . . Certainly I understood the concept and recognized it as a desirable experience.

Still, it’s only been since I really started asking questions about how to feel better that joy has come to occupy center stage, to be the main idea in most if not all the paragraphs of my life. Joy has become my thesis—and so more than ever, I wonder about it . . . I notice its presence—and its absence . . . I actively court it and of course, I ask about it.

So many teachers have spoken of it in one way or another as a beacon . . . a journey . . . a mechanism for moving toward our dreams . . . Surely someone somewhere in the world must be quoting Joseph Campbell every ten seconds or so when he said, “Follow your bliss”. Esther-as-Abraham-Hicks was the first I heard describe joy as the real point of our existence—as well as the means by which we come to experience our lives most fully.

So I asked The Shower Team about joy. What’s the big deal? Why am I suddenly so aware of it . . . and what part does it play in whatever “guidance system” I have that can dependably direct me toward my bliss?

The Emotional Guidance System or EGS, if you’re acronymically inclined, is flawlessly engineered and the real perfection of it lies in its simplicity. You know you’re heading in the right direction when you feel good. You know you’re not when you’re not. Joy is always the signal calling you forward, Joy—or “joydar” as you’ve aptly called it--is the beaming back to you of the perspective you have when you are being who You really are. Joy is how you feel when you and the You you really are, are seeing from the same point of view. Joy is the homing device that tracks all that you have asked for, all that is waiting to be received by you, all that you are becoming as you become who You really are . . .

Full-bodied as your languages may be, they are often limited in their capacity to convey the real depth and breadth of meaning behind a given term. You think of joy, sometimes, in smaller and more limited ways than it truly exists within you and around you. Or you minimize it by classifying it as only one of the many fine, upstanding emotions that your life experience can offer you.

What you often have difficulty seeing or believing is that joy, in the broadest, most expansive sense, is the real point of you—the real purpose behind your decision to come forth as you, to have the experience of you. From a broader, nonphysical perspective, joy is all there really is . . . and on the most deep down level you all know this—it’s why you get so pissed when things don’t go well. You also know that part of the joy of your physical experience is the experience of all the variety through which joy can emerge. You know from this broader perspective that there are no limits to the joy that is available to you or that you can create.

But as you begin to sort through all that variety, over time, and as you begin to observe more and more the things that you do not like or do not want or the things that do not produce a joyful response . . . your “joydar” often gets dulled . . . you start to give more and more of your attention to the sad or unhappy or scary or tragic stories that you hear others telling . . . You sometimes even begin to believe that joy is overrated. Or that it has become obsolete . . . that “joydar” is no longer a viable system for navigating such complicated and menacing terrain as your life experience.

The beauty of even this unfortunate scenario is. . . you can’t escape it for very long. You can shut yourself down and plug your ears and cover your eyes and run as fast as you can . . . you can eat or drink or drug or screw yourself into a stupor . . . you can argue until there’s no cheerleading optimist left standing . . . and joy will still find you. For a very few, you may even have to kick the bucket first . . . but then guess what’s waiting the minute you transition back to nonphysical . . . Oops there it is!

We would so much rather see you come to an appreciation of this perfect system that you are part of and that is part of you BEFORE you withdraw from your physical eperience. We would so much rather see you recognize and use the “joydar” that is your guidance . . . to simply pay attention to how you feel in any moment, at any juncture, relative to any question or topic . . . And then to see you move in the direction that joy is calling you toward. In other words, we really wish that you would let joy lead you.

Recognize the simplicity of it. Appreciate how perfectly easy it really can be. Joy is not hiding. Joy is not some buried treasure you need to dig up. Joy is not some puzzle you have to first find the pieces to or some riddle that you have to spend years contemplating . . . Joy is not a joke that’s on you . . . Joy is not seasonal or conditional . . . Joy is your gift. Your guidance. Your only real way of being able to tell when you are being who You really are. So you may as well get used to the idea because whether you like it or not, where joy’s concerned—in the long run--you’re pretty much stuck with it.

Okay, they had me at “joydar”. I always was a sucker for newly minted terms—and for simplicity, even though I tend to pride myself on my presumed complexities. Lately I’ve noticed that, among the ever-swirling mix of musings that occupy my mind, there is an increased desire for just more joy in general.

Curiously, I can’t remember spending much time in the past just wishing I was a happier person. But lately that feels like an increasingly important desire to satisfy . . . at least as much as any of the more specific wants that continue to populate my wish list. I find myself wondering what sort of life a happier me would be living? What would I still want if I was just more joyful—apart from any of the individual wishes my genie of a Universe brings to me?

It feels worth the wondering. It feels like “joydar” up and running . . . sending a stronger and stronger signal back to me . . . and that feels like steps in a happier direction, toward a me who is more Me and who is in that respect, for the moment, more complete.

This article is posted at The Law of Attraction Blog Carnival!

The Devil's In The Details

Not too long ago I narrowly averted a tailspin that started when a very promising business venture proved to be all hype and no help in padding my ever eager coffers. It had looked so good going in and I had been pretty jazzed about the venture and pretty invested in its potential to pay some sweet dividends.

When it pooped out, my mood hit the pooper. So much for feeling good regardless of the conditions I’m observing. As Esther Hicks has (half) jokingly said, “I don’t live this stuff, I just teach it.”

But before letting myself slide all the way into the crapper over those particular circumstances, I asked The Shower Team to talk to me about getting my hopes up like that and then crashing and burning when a hot prospect doesn’t pan out . . .

In your push for prosperity, as in other areas, you mimic what you see most others doing and what most others are saying you should do—and that is, you hang the receiving of your desire on the hook of your ingenuity and your persistent and specific effort to make what you want, happen. Moreover, you essentially decide ahead of time how your desire can be fulfilled—and how it cannot be—and you get exceedingly busy with the work of limiting the ways that the Universe can respond to your request.

In other words, you essentially say, “Well I guess in this vast Universe of theoretically unlimited abundance and unlimited ways in which abundance can flow, I’ve only one or maybe a couple of shots at this particular brass ring so I better really bust my ass making sure I go with the odds and give these very few available options my best try.”

You have a way of putting blinders on every single time you ask, immediately assuming that the Universe shares your limited perspective. So instead of seeing the unlimited resources at your disposal, instead of opening yourself to the unlimited number of ways for what you want to come, you quickly start your process of elimination, putting all your eggs in one or two baskets, so to speak, and then you are surprised or disappointed when this limiting approach yields such limited results.

This is why you hear us repeatedly urging you to focus less or not at all upon the ‘how” of your desire coming to be. This is, in fact, the real work for you in terms of manifesting anything that you desire, and that is to realize and to accept that this stage of the process of manifestation is not the time or the place for your limited, physical view of things. This is where your good intentions and hard work often just get in the way of your really receiving the fullness of what is available to you.

You remain convinced that you must ‘make’ happen the good things you are wanting. And we keep saying, better things than you have even imagined are yours for the asking, if you will just allow yourself to feel only or primarily the joy of receiving what you want. You tend to hear these words as a suggestion that you do nothing, that you sit back on your behind and almost dare the Universe to put the money where its mouth is. We do not advocate apathy or inertia or lack of action. Rather, we encourage you to feel as much in agreement with the having of what you want as possible. We encourage you to give more diligent, focused attention to imagination than to observation, and we encourage you to allow inspired actions to emerge from your place of alignment, so that you begin to move as a harmonious whole toward your desires.

Why give the Universe only one or two options for delivering your dreams to you? Would you say to a benevolent billionaire who wanted to send you a hundred million or so of his dollars, “Well okay, but only if it arrives in a silver truck and is handed to me by a man in a blue uniform.”

We would encourage you as you launch your desires to make your work the giving of your attention to any and every aspect of receiving that desire that delights you . . . and leave the details, the how-to’s to the inspiration that we promise will follow as you agree in a purer and more powerful way with the image of you having all that you dream of.

I had to go back and re-read the stuff that came after the billionaire sending me a few mil . . . Even channels can get distracted by the idea of a half dozen or more zeroes . . . Far be it from to go around limiting the Universe.

The message here seems to be not about mult-tasking but rather, about multi-allowing . . . multi-receiving . . . and about the ways I mess with the possibilities by narrowing them down. I’ve heard people say ‘the devil’s in the details” but never stopped to think how getting bogged down in the details could actually keep me down.

Putting my eggs in multiple baskets is food for thought. It leaves me chewing on the possibility of more possibilities, and that kind of thinking is both lighter and more filling—and leaves me, for the moment, lighter and more complete.

Bad Dreams That Happen To Good People

If you’re sick of hearing about my dreams you may want to sleep through at least the first part of this installment.

What can I say? I’m a Pisces, so I like dreamin’ but I don’t like bad dreams any more than the next sleeper. And sometimes they’re just plain bad. Unpleasant. Ugly. Yucky. It especially bugs me when they seem to show up out of nowhere for no apparent good reason when I am otherwise feeling pretty good overall about my waking life. They can hit like a bucket of cold water in my face, and linger into my morning way past my cups of coffee.

So I wanted to hear what was up with that from The Shower Team. More specifically, I wanted to know the best way for me to respond to a bad dream so that it doesn’t rain on what could otherwise be a perfectly sunny day?

We would—at the risk of completely knocking you on your rear—respond to such dreams, which are manifestations of fears or worries still active in your vibration, by saying things such as: “Thank you thank you!” We would be so audacious as to urge you to say "Thank you!” to the constructive contrast that such images and feelings provide for you, for in the face of that contrast even greater clarity can emerge.

When faced with the fears or doubts or anxieties experienced in such dreams, the part of you that is really You becomes the more confident, more fearless, more determined you that you want to be. As you observe these highly contrasting experiences, you form an even more powerful sense of what you want—of the greater certainty and the greater confidence and the greater faith and the greater expressions of support that you want to see and to feel. You conclude even more strongly what it is that you desire and as a result, you summon even more powerful life force through you to move in the direction of those desires.

So rather than crawling into a corner or curling into a fetal position or pulling the covers over your head, we would encourage you to celebrate these dreams. Applaud the contrast you’ve observed and felt, rather than wracking your brain to decipher the ‘hidden meaning’ and then feel the determination born out of your even stronger desires. This is one challenge we would love to see you accept—to feel the greater life force that is summoned to you through these contrasting experiences. The same applies to similar, waking experiences—the ones you often say are “like a bad dream”. We would want you to accept the challenge to feel the stronger or happier or more confident or more purposeful or more successful you that You always become the moment that you become aware of what you want—and what you don’t want.

Accept the challenge to be that You who has benefited from the increased or intensified desire. Allow your allowing of what you want to be fueled even more by the contrasting experiences and even try to appreciate those experiences, conscious or unconscious ones, for that additional energy propelling you toward your desires.

Whatever form the contrast may take, practice turning where you stand and saying, “Thank you” . . . “Thank you, ex-lover for dumping me so that I can become this Me who can receive so much more from someone else” . . . “Thank you, ex-boss, for firing me so that I am free to find work that is more aligned with my dreams”. . .

As we offer this to you we recognize that you may not be in a place where you can feel the value of what we are suggesting. In fact we may sound like we are full of. . . it. But we promise you, as you allow yourself to experience appreciation for the events in your life that give birth to your dreams and desires, as you see the cycle, the perfect connection between the variety of your experience and the continual emerging of new and stronger preferences, you will see the beauty in this process. And as you can feel and express that appreciation, you will move more and more easily and swiftly into alignment with what you really want. You will probably sleep better, too.

I was thinking maybe just put a crystal under my pillow or something, but noooo. For some bizarre reason I’m remembering an old TV commercial with a much younger Cher as spokesperson for a chain of fitness centers. I remember her saying in the ad, “If a beautiful body came in a bottle we’d all have one.”

I’m starting to sort of get this idea that there’s something about the inspiration and motivation that comes from seeing or experiencing something we don’t like. Much as we don’t like it, often something we really do like comes from noticing what we don’t like.

Trying to sort through what I just said leaves me feeling like there just might be something good about bad dreams. And that leaves me feeling a little wider awake and for the moment, a bit more complete.

Make The Best . . . Forget The Rest!

I’ve always been really irritated by platitudes. Perky pep talks can just annoy the hell out of me when I’m already aggravated about something or fixated on some prickly frustration the way we can’t seem to leave a scab alone or stop running our tongues over a sensitive tooth.

So of course, The Shower Team just loves to chime in sometimes with the kind of message that they know I tend to resist sharing. It’s this great game we have going on.

Nevertheless, I recently found myself yet again pondering the merits of what we often refer to as positive thinking . . . and more specifically, the idea that we can and should forget about telling it like it is and focus on telling it like we want it to be, if only to ourselves.

Even as we begin to offer this to you, we can feel the tide of resistance in you swelling. We can hear the groans and moans and see the eyes rolling about yet another mouthful of sickly sweet Pollyanna Bismo. We can see and feel how hard it is for you take this advice . . . and once again your resistance is mostly about your belief—your frequently practiced thoughts—about being realistic and facing facts and not burying your head in the sand or not sticking your head in the clouds or not keeping your head up your ass.

And with regard to all those alternatives, we say . . . thumb your nose at them all you want . . . scorn or ridicule the notion of focusing on the positive aspects until you are (literally) blue in the face, and you will still ultimately prove us right. You can hold yourself in bad humor. You can focus on the ugly facts (and no one is disputing that they are sometimes ugly). You can face the unpleasantness you often call "reality” and you can dig in your heels and refuse to budge from your surly vantage point and in spite of all that determined and self-defeating effort you will still end up kicking the bucket and passing back into the bliss, the pure positive energy and the well being that was there and available to you all along. And then no one will be laughing harder than you at the fuss you made over the “facts” (we’re already getting quite a kick out of it).

Why postpone the inevitable joy? Why hold on to your view of what you don’t like and wish were different when you could begin to enjoy the satisfaction available to you here and now by simply choosing to focus on the best aspects of where you are, the best aspects of what you are doing, the best aspects of who you are with?

Often you will say, “But I don’t want to keep this thing going. I don’t want to stay here where I am or stay with this loser I’m with . . .” and you worry that by making the best of where you are, you will somehow perpetuate that undesired situation—all the while missing the point that what you really want is to feel good. You want a different job because you think it will make you feel good. You want more bucks in the bank because you think it will make you feel good. You want a cuter, sweeter, kinder, smarter, sexier, etc. partner because you think it will make you feel good. Seeing a pattern here?

And yet you continue to insist that things change so you can feel good while we continue to tell you to feel good so that things can change. And we’re right back where we always start with you in this process. So at the risk of repeating ourselves again and again, we would really REALLY like to see you just try our approach. Make it an experiment.

Start your day by taking a few minutes to decide—maybe even write down—how you are going to make the best of that day, or how you are going to make the best of some particular situation. And then do what you decided to do. Follow through and then throughout the day, continuously remind yourself to make the best of wherever you are or whatever you are doing in whatever way that you can. At the end of the day, notice (again perhaps in writing) what you liked or enjoyed or appreciated most about that day. Try it for a week or better yet, for a month or two or three. Make it your “Feeling Better Lab” and at the end of the experience, take note of what changed for you.

You’ve explored the potential for making the worst of things. You’ve given that a royal go and made yourself pretty proficient at it. Apparently you are less than thrilled with the results. So why not try it from the other point of view? Why not just see how it goes for you when you make up your mind that you are genuinely, diligently going to make the best and forget the rest . . .

Our promise to you is that if you make this your sincere approach even for a relatively short period of time, you will be awed by the results. You won’t believe how your life will begin to improve. You will be shocked at how good you start to feel—assuming you’re into that sort of thing . . .

I have to admit this brings out the mad scientist in me. Leave it to the Team to step skillfully past my objections to platitudes and to basically dare me to feel better. Maybe it’s my Mercury in Aries but I could never resist a good mental challenge. I’ll show Them/Me.

I’m already plotting about which crappy conditions to make the best of (Note to Self: Rephrase “crappy conditions”). That leaves me feeling both a little twisted—and for the moment, determinedly complete.

Letting Freedom Ring

I confess that I’ve never really been a flag waver, much less a militant crusader for any political cause or party. Must be all that navel gazing. So when a friend asked if I would be posting something special for Independence Day, I initially dismissed the idea.

Then I started wondering if perhaps I was being too hasty. Then I started wondering about the whole subject of patriotism, particularly on occasions that call for celebrating the birth of the nation where I was born. Then I started wondering about my wondering about the subject of patriotism and when the wondering just started to get really out of hand, I took the topic to The Shower Team . . .

Few things reflect the variety of your ideas and preferences more than your diverse approaches to this topic. It is often a favorite way that you all have of separating yourselves into camps and engaging in battle after battle to prove yourselves right and each other wrong.

What many of you do have in common about this, however, is your tendency to focus on what is—which usually translates into a tendency to focus on what is wrong with your nation and particularly with your leaders. You become ever so passionate about those problems that you feel need to be fixed or those ineffective leaders who need to be replaced . . . and you push and you push and you push as hard as you can against what you see that you don’t like . . . and then, surprisingly, you are surprised when you keep getting more of it.

The quality of your leaders and the resulting (you believe) state of your nation is one of your favorite excuses to refuse to see and to allow the well being all around you. You convince yourselves that conditions must change . . . new leaders must be installed or new legislation adopted in order for you to feel better. Often your national holidays—particularly those that focus your attention on your nation’s history or its government or its losses—become occasions that activate your perception of the problems you see, and you use those observations as your excuse for condemning or criticizing what you don’t like—and therefore, as your excuse for excluding yourself from your own joy.

What we would encourage is that you use an occasion such as one of your national remembrances to practice letting that well being back in that you so often shut out in the name of patriotism or in your crusades to correct whatever you think is wrong. Challenge yourself to see the positive aspects of where you are—or in this case, where you live. Find as many things to appreciate about your nation, your state, your city, your neighborhood, as possible. Look around you and see the many many reasons—real and legitimate reasons—you have to be glad that you are where you are.

If you want to make it really interesting, make the same sort of list about your leaders—and not just the ones you voted for. Dare yourself to find the positive aspects, even in the ones you can’t wait to see leave office. We promise you—more positive change will result from that effort than from any campaign that you wage to rid the landscape of those you disapprove of.

Do as much of this sort of appreciative acknowledgement as you can manage sincerely—and then notice the effect of this exercise on you—your outlook, your point of view as a citizen of your country and your world, living in your time and place, experiencing all the opportunity, all the potential, all of the joy that your time and place offer to you.

Brave these sentiments and see how it feels to face your nation with appreciation rather than with ridicule or reproach. Take you attention off of all that you think is wrong and begin to see how much is good about where you are. Choose to see how independent your well being is from those you might disagree with . . . and let yourself hear and feel freedom really ring.

Okay I admit it. I almost felt like putting my hand over my heart there for a second. Maybe I’m just a sucker for a good speech. No doubt there are plenty of folks more committed to their causes and candidates than I who would eagerly debate The Team on some of these points.

But as I listen to the fireworks outside and let my mind wander around for a bit with the recognition of the liberties I enjoy . . . I find any fight pretty much gone out of me . . . and gratitude stirring. It leaves me feeling glad that I let myself wonder about this topic at the close of a day that, when all is said and done, is really about appreciation. And that leaves me feeling just a little freer. . . and for the moment, complete.

The Past: It Has No Power Here

Recently a particularly vivid dream woke up me and wouldn’t leave me alone until I gave it some waking thought. I won’t go into all the details but the especially vivid part involved a former significant other from many years ago being demon-possessed and eventually being carried off for some kind of exorcism. Needless to say—not the sort of dream your friendly neighborhood Shower Channel loves to have, much less report.

The dream also coincided with a conversation I had with a friend on the subject of past lives and the extent to which previous incarnations (assuming you buy that premise) can have an affect on what’s coming around in the good old here and now.

So I asked The Shower Team to talk to me about the past or more specifically, my relationship to the past . . . to the me I used to be, whether in this lifetime or a previous one . . . Why does the past so often seem to haunt us or some cases, even terrorize us? What should we be learning—and what should we be letting go of?

Your dreams always give you an indication of where you are relative to where you want to be. In some cases, they provide you with a pretty clear indication of both the distance you’ve traveled to be where you are as well as the distance before you in relation to where you are going. In other words, you may encounter both the ‘you’ you were and the ‘you’ you are being as a way of helping you to gain even greater clarity around your desires.

As you become more and more the you that You really are, there are opportunities for you to shed the old skins . . to remove the layers of false self that you have acquired over time and in fact, to face your fears—your ghosts or demons, if you will—and to decide what to do with them and how to respond to them.

Understand that yours or anyone else’s past and the ghosts or demons from your past are only as real as you believe them to be, no matter how vividly or frequently they appear. You create the demons that scare or in some cases, actually take possession of your perspective. You give them every single bit of the power they have over you. There is no threat posed by your past that you cannot neutralize, no demon that you can’t exorcise . . . by choosing, by allowing yourself to see that they truly have no power here or now except the power you give them to dictate to you how you feel.

Your focus upon them is your invitation to them to reappear, to re-enter your perspective and your outlook and then, your experience. Your experts will often lead you into the past in order to unlock some secret that will free you in the present, and while this can be of some value in identifying the “ghosts” or “demons” . . . knowing who or what they are and having awareness of their impact . . . we really encourage you to limit your visits with them. Limit your excursions to where you were and even limit your time trying to trace your steps to where you stand now. More often than, the more of your time and attention that you give to your past, the more likely you are to keep the past active in your present.

Acquire whatever knowledge you need to have clarity about what you want and what you do not want and then immediately turn toward your evolving image of the future you desire for yourself. Tell yourself repeatedly, “I am not who I was. I am not where I’ve been. I am where I am, and I can get to wherever I want to be from here.”

Spend more time looking ahead at where you want to be than looking back. Focus more on what you want where you stand than on how or why you came to be there. As you give more and more of your attention and energy to the desire that is calling you forward, the ghosts or demons of the past will fade as easily and completely as the dream you forget as you move forward into the light of your day.

Well it beats skulking around waiting for someone to drop a house on me, I guess. Telling a Pisces with a degree in psychology to stay focused only in the present is a little bit like telling a fish to breathe through its mouth, but then I pride myself on not becoming too old a dog to learn a new trick.

The point seems to be a certain point of diminishing returns in looking back and tracing one’s steps (contrary to what we may hear on “CSI”). And that leaves me both pondering my extremely mixed metaphors, and for the moment, feeling more presently complete.