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Spring - A Time to Grow |
| Posted on Jun 06 2009 |
A Time to Grow
Gillie Sutherland
Maybe it’s the daffodils, but there’s something about springtime that brings hope.
Everything in nature feels fresh and new, the mornings are getting lighter and we can wave goodbye to the cold weather and dark moods that have lingered through the winter months.
What a great time to make some positive changes to your life.
Daffodils have traditionally been a symbol of rebirth, a sign of new beginnings, and still today, when the "daffs" come out, it triggers a reaction in us. There's hope – the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled.
Hope is such a positive feeling. When all else fails, there’s always hope. We hope that it’ll all be ok, that something will come along, some divine intervention to take us back to where we feel safe. We hope that our children will be safe, that our bodies will stay healthy and that our lives will become easier.
Maybe they will, and maybe they won’t, but it would be futile to spend our time wondering. Life, by definition, is uncertain, and there are some things we have no control over, so why waste time worrying about them.
Instead, why not decide to focus on what you can change? There are things you do have control over, like how you react to a situation or how you spend most of your time. The quality of your thinking, what you put into your body, what you put into your mind, and how you respond to external factors are all aspects that are under our control.
Strange how we spend so much time in "spring cleaning" around our homes, yet we rarely take this time to look at ourselves and what we need to freshen up. Why not take this time to plant the seeds for what you want your future to look like? What you do today shapes what your "tomorrow" looks like, so what's stopping you from doing something new right now?
Have you still got your hopes and dreams for the future? Perhaps like many people, they have been lost or forgotten as we pound the treadmill of life. As we get older and we come across disappointments and challenges, our dreams can get lost and we limit our thinking to what we think is a certainty.
The only limitations are the ones that we place on ourselves. Decide "if its meant to be, its upto me". Focus on what you have a choice about, and decide not to worry about what you don’t have a choice about. Notice how that changes how you feel about life.
Recall all your hopes and dreams, and ask yourself "what’s stopping you?" Is it a real or perceived barrier? How could you overcome that? Think positively and focus on what you could do, instead of reasons why not. Too often its fear that holds us back, yet we hide behind other "excuses". Is fear a good enough reason not to follow your dreams? Have hope, whatever happens, the sun will still rise tomorrow morning.
Sometimes, it can be hard to get in the mindset to get started and that's when we need to look a bit deeper inside and see what's really going on. It all starts with what's going on inside your mind. What your beliefs are, what you are telling yourself. These beliefs shape how you act and what you do, and what you do shapes how things turn out.
What this means is that you can literally change your life by changing how you think about things.
So, if you’re thinking about how to get started on a spring clean of your life, forget what’s happened in the past, ditch the detox book and just challenge your thinking instead.
Are those negative thoughts helping in any way? Does it change anything to worry about things that are out of your control? Doesn’t it feel much better when you just add a little "hope" to the mix?
However your life is looking at the moment, you can be sure of one thing – it will change. You have the power within you to decide how you respond to life and its events and circumstances. There’s always hope when you look for it.
Last changed: Jun 06 2009 at 4:53 PM
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