There Is a Flip Side To Everything…

You might have heard it said before.  Where there is an up, there is also a down…  There is a left, there is also right… There is always a flip side.  Hot… cold… wet… dry… love… hate… and so on.

I was sitting and watching television.  First there was a segment that showed some Aboriginal elders at Uluru, or Ayres Rock as it used to be known.  The immigration history of Australia began with the initial human migration to the continent around 50,000 years ago when it is believed that the ancestors of Australian Aborigines arrived on the continent via the islands of Maritime Southeast Asia and New Guinea.  A somewhat grizzly past of their treatment when white settlers first came to Australia.  That also reminded me of the children brought out here from England and used as slave labour.

Then it went over to a school and looking at the students I could see all sorts of Nationalities in their faces.  Many of those had parents that had to flee their own land because of the atrocities still going on there today.

The News came next.  A shooting and stabbing in my area. We thought that we had heard some noise the night before but thought it was someone letting off a firecracker.  The altercation was over a car so it was said.  Last week another fight outside a pub had left a man injured so severely that he died from his injuries.  Lives needlessly lost for what?

Devastation of flooding, landslides and many people’s possessions and lives lost, as well as live stock, pets and crops.  The floods receding now brought warnings of illness.  The flooding had caused the sewerage to surface out of the pipes and mix with the water in the streets.  State Emergency Services workers spoke about having to push snakes away from their boats.  One person related the story that when their boat went under a tree, a snake fell down into their boat. They too had lost their land.  Helpers from New Zealand became fearful, they said that they did not have snakes where they lived.

A reality show in a hospital with disease of the body was my mind’s next port of call.  I didn’t stop to watch the cop show that would be on next with more shooting and fighting.

So I decided to go on my trusty computer for some enlightenment.  No such luck!  I looked at a National Newspaper that spoke gloom and doom.  The tumult in Tunisia.  China… USA… Arguments around the globe.

I thought of this saying: “Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.” ~ Michael Pritchard

If I don’t want to suffer depression I thought that the best thing to do is to take control and decide myself where I would like my mind to go, and what I would like my mind to witness.

That doesn’t mean becoming an ostrich and burying your head in the sand.  It means reminding me that there is a flip-side to every coin.  Things the media doesn’t splash all over the front pages of their newspaper.  To balance our inner self harmony, we need to remember about the good things that are happening around the globe every day as well.

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”~Eleanor Roosevelt
1884-1962, Former First Lady, Author and Speaker reminds us.

Research is validating that when we do mindful meditation we can see that the brain changes.  We already know that bio-feedback research back in the 50’s showed that we could use our mind to bring our blood pressure down.  There are studies that show you can use your mind to change how your gut works, or alter other workings in the body. We know from past research and which I witness in my practice that visualization of doing things in the mind, to the mind, is like it is happening right now – not just imagining that it might happen sometime in the future.  Sports people have used it to enhance their performance for years.  Repetition… repetition… on whatever you repeat in your mind becomes your reality.

Of course the mind when repeating negatives over and over again, that also becomes a belief and a deep conviction that our world is not safe.  The mind does not decide what it should or should not repeat over and over – you do!  The only thing that you have absolute control over is your thinking.  We have certain control over events, such as learning what it takes to become the person we dream about becoming.  And then putting that learning into action and doing what it takes to bring those things to us.

Sometimes it is as well to remember in times of trial that many before us have had adversities that were deemed so catastrophic and it was their faith in a brighter future that helped them to survive where others perished.

“Just as a small fire is extinguished by the storm whereas a large fire is enhanced by it – likewise a weak faith is weakened by predicament and catastrophes whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them.” ~Viktor E. Frankl, 1905-1997, Holocaust Survivor and Author of Man’s Search for Meaning

The point of power is always in the present moment.  Much of what is holding us back in life comes from a lack of trust in our self.  “It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”~Claude M. Bristol, 1891-1951, Author

Make a daily time no matter how busy your day is to use your point of power in the present moment to visualize the world you want to live in.  Where do you want to be in 5 years time, in 10 years time and so on…  Make an action plan and use that same point of power to bring those dreams into reality.

Life is what you make it, not the other guy.  The sooner you realize this, the sooner you get to the top of your potential, instead of keeping yourself stuck at the level of theirs.