I get some of my best ideas in the shower. This morning when I started mulling over how to put this idea in to blog form, I knew it was worth some reflection. So while this technically started outside my Just 10 minutes, it soon became part of my "me time" for today.
During my Just 10, I decided that I want to refrain from making or even thinking critical comments about anything and anyone. I can hear those closest to me, laughing now. They know I almost breathe sarcasm. I can also see this idea being dismissed as a pious Catholic Lenten resolution rooted in a St. Boniface childhood. I beg to differ.
This isn't some misplaced denial of my fallen human nature, it's a practical way to deal with those things I can't change and still retain some shreds of contentment. It's a choice to focus on the positive and it makes good sense. (God knows how many years I've focused on the negative and of the psychic destruction that focus left in its' wake.)
My son, the pessimist, has taught me the magic of reframing. He, is his mother's son, his glass is less than half full and it's the end of life as he knows it. Initially, I tried to empathize and acknowledge his feelings. This only helped him get stuck there. So I started redirecting his focus and started looking for positive things.
At night, when he's tired and the world is a harsher place, I tell him that now is the time to tell his mind that only happy thoughts can stay there. Just as his mind can find things to be unhappy about, his mind is also very capable of finding contentment if he's willing to lead it there. This doesn't deny the negative it just doesn't let it take center stage and ruin the whole show.
From now on, my Just 10 minutes will be about redirecting my focus. I'm tired of the "world going to "Hell in a hand basket". Someone's got to be holding that hand basket. I want that person to be me. Hell is just not on the map I want to be using.
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