Chapter 38: Altered Attitudes
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes "- William James
She is only ten months old and she is one of the best natured baby I have ever taken care of. And I have taken care of a lot of them in my life.
She smiles and giggles the minute she wakes up, rarely cries and has been an absolute delight to take care of.
But she is now crawling and wants her freedom and is getting into things that she isn’t supposed to get into. We have moved the cat food and litter box. Moved the breakables and put locks on the cupboard doors. We put a gate in front of the stair way, put protectors on the electrical outlets and keep the bathroom door closed so she can’t stick her fingers in the toilet water or eat toilet paper.
Now she won’t eat baby food anymore, she wants finger foods, she wants to do it by herself already. (sigh). We recognized this is a learning experience that we all had to go through so we expect it to get messy.
At first she found it quite delightful to wrap those chubby little fingers around a soft green bean and shove it into her mouth with her whole hand. And then she discovered something more delightful, if she threw her food on the floor, and said “uh-oh” someone would give her some attention. I have to admit, the first time she did it, it was funny. I should not have laughed.
Now it is not funny. I'm okay with food that is accidently dropped but we do not throw food. That is the first time Gramma said "no-no" to her. She did not understand what “no” meant the first time, now she
does and when you say it to her, she does that pucker thing that just about breaks your heart. But what choice do we have? There are rules in life that must not be broken or there are consequences that will have to be paid.
From the first “no” we hear, we learn that life is not always about smiles and giggles. As we grow we begin to develop a mind set. I think it has a lot to do with our personalities but it is also influenced by our environment. We live in a negative environment we are probably going to grow up to be a negative person.
In my ever so humble opinion there is nothing so toxic to a life than a negative mind set. Let’s stop for one minute and think of all of the negative words we know. Ready? Here we go. Let’s start with the most common one, the first one we learn as a baby. NO!, depressed, anxious, hopeless, defeated, self pity, bad, pessimistic, sad, discouraged, unconstructive, rejected, disapproval, denied, painful….ok, let’s stop, it hasn’t even been a minute and I am already feeling heavy in my heart.
But there is hope! If youhave grown up in a negative environment you do not have to be a negative person. There is a cure. Not an easy one but if you want it bad enough you can have it.
The first step, as always, is to recognize it in yourself. Most likely if you have someone in your life who truly loves you and wants you to be a better person, they will point it out to you. Because you are a negative person though, it will feel like you have just been verbally attacked and you will become defensive. But stop and think about it; if you can see it, you can begin to change. Sometimes all it takes is that one loving person to help you. But the change starts with you, you have to want to begin to see the glass half full rather than half empty.
Afte we recognize it in ourselve we have to start the process of change. As a Chrisian, I knowif God can put within us a new heart, He is also capable of helping us with a new mindset. Sometimes we need professional help in the form of a couselor or pastor.
I know something you can do right now to start the process of change. Go into the bathroom and look in the mirror and smile. It takes fewer muscles to do that than it does to frown. Feels good doesn't it? Actually smiling at yourself in your bathroom mirror not only feels good it is downright funny! Makes you want to laugh! And now you know it is impossible to complain and be happy at the same time.
You can alter your life by altering your mind and your face.
No comments:
Post a Comment