Thursday, July 28, 2016

Why You Should Take A Break From Facebook


I'm on day 10 of a great Facebook sabbatical. This is a record for me. I have no idea how long it's going to last; I only know that since removing myself from the endless online onslaught of self validating selfies, political commentary, memes, photos of babies belonging to people that I really don't know that well, posts about life milestones, and complaints, that I feel a lot more centered. Really -- and if you find yourself comparing your life to that of others and you're not exactly feeling 100% sure of your life then here's the best advice you're going to hear all year: take a break from Facebook. 

I originally intended to stop going on my personal feed until both political conventions had run their course but now I'm thinking I might stay away until after Election Day or perhaps even until the next president is inaugurated. Although I still update pages I'm in charge of and visit a few group pages that are closed, I haven't looked at anything in my personal feed and can honestly say I don't miss it. Time that I would have wasted perusing Facebook is now being used for reading, cleaning, or otherwise more productive things. 

Have I been tempted to look at the updates of a few people I'm connected to? Sure -- but then the moment passes. Ignorance is bliss and I've been focusing on myself, working my way through an online course that involves getting rid of negative beliefs and manifesting a relationship. Without the distraction of seeing people I know in relationships there's been no internal struggle to "keep score" and compare where I am in life to others. 

And you know what's funny -- the two gals I've recently become good friends with aren't even on Facebook. Well, one of them is, but she confessed that she unfollowed virtually everyone that she's connected to, so that there would be no negativity showing up in her feed. Instead, it's flooded with updates to pages for LOA gurus such as Louise Hay and pages that focus on positivity. She says it's nothing personal and that she'll go directly on someone's page when she's interested in seeing what they've been up to. I don't think that's a bad idea. Besides, we converse mostly via email. 

I highly recommend taking a break from Facebook -- and social media in general -- once in a while and reconnecting to what matters: yourself. And loved ones too, of course. 

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Forgiveness


I think that forgiveness is one of the hardest things we, us humans, must learn to do in life. As we encounter people that treat us unfairly, disappoint us, or hurt us, it is really difficult depending upon the situation and how deep the emotional wounds go to forgive someone that may have done us wrong and truly let go.

Maybe it would be easier to forgive by first defining what forgiveness is not. Forgiveness is not saying that what the other person did to you is OK. It also does not mean you have to stay in touch with this person and that you're required to be friends with them. Years ago I had a coworker that said some horrible, unprovoked things to me over email (after we were both working for other companies.) A few years later she found me on LinkedIn and apologized. I accepted her apology and her invite to get connected there -- and we exchanged some brief emails. But I also knew I did not want to stay in touch with her nor was I required to do so. Ever since then, she has not reached out to me and I have no desire to reach out to her. However, I did forgive her -- and recently realized that perhaps she is bi-polar or has some other undiagnosed disorder that set her off and caused her to snap at me the way she did. 

And at the end of the day, that's what forgiveness is: realizing that everyone is "only human and born to make mistakes" as an old Billy Joel song goes. This week, I'm happy to say that I made some huge strides and accomplished exactly that. I've made a vow to myself not to rehash the whole experience in writing again, but earlier this week I told my readers on my other blog about what happened last summer. There's a couple of paragraphs in there about exactly how I was able to forgive. I think the person in question got a little obsessed and carried away with the fantasy of me...I think his son's disability and his career choice makes life stressful. And I also think he didn't anticipate falling as hard for me like he did. 

Writing the other blog post truly helped me forgive and forget about the whole thing once and for all. It's time to move on. I'm thinking of trying online dating again (I blogged about this but then took the post down, because I knew I still wasn't 100% ready.) 

Also, I was reminded of Oprah Winfrey's quote on forgiveness, which I remember her stating on her show back in the day: "Forgiveness is letting go of the hope that the past could have been any different." Indeed -- I wrote recently about making peace with the past. You can't go back and change it. All you have is the now. 

Saturday, July 9, 2016

LOA Success Story: I Attracted the "Route 66" Corvette


This is just a really cool little experience that happened to me about a month ago, that I meant to write about earlier. It serves as a reminder, even to myself, that what's active in your vibration is what's going to show up in your life, or randomly during your day...when you're not even expecting it. 

Over on my other blog, Go Retro, I've been posting about my newfound love for the 1960s television series Route 66 (and if you've been reading PP regularly, then you already know about my crush on one of its stars, Martin Milner.) The show featured a gorgeous corvette convertible -- for the first few seasons they used a 1961 model, I believe, and then by the last season had switched to what was the new Stingray Corvette at the time. However, the '61 model is definitely my favorite and had a look all its own; it's a far cry from (in my opinion) the overdone modern Corvette, which looks like it's ready to blast off into space.

Anyways, I had been watching the show online for a couple of weeks and had blogged about it when an annual road race was taking place in my neighborhood one particular Sunday last month. The walk/run is held every year in honor of a girl that lived up the street from me that died in a bicycle accident several years ago. It was about 10 AM and I was sitting on my bed using my laptop and the window in my bedroom that overlooks our street was open. I heard music in the distance, and I knew that meant that any moment the runners would be arriving to run past our house.

Earlier that morning a few landscaper trucks had gone down our street and they were kind of loud. So when I heard another vehicle approaching that had a pronounced engine, I got a little annoyed; why was there yet another landscaper out doing business on a Sunday -- and shouldn't our road be blocked off? I looked out my window; something that I wouldn't have bothered doing on any other day.

Coming down our street was a convertible; a Corvette. And not just any Corvette. It was the Route 66 Corvette! The driver was leading the start of the race and the runners.

It was an early '60s Corvette. The only difference between this one and the one featured on the TV show is it was red with white sections on the doors; whereas the TV series used paler painted models such as light blue, grey, and fawn beige because the lighter shades showed up better being in black and white. But who cares? These particular models are so rare nowadays that you mostly only see them at car shows. Yet my vibration managed to attract one just by sitting in my bedroom. 

I also think I saw a red one because the official board game for the show (a photo of which had been posted to a Facebook group for the show that I belong to) featured a red Corvette on the box: 


Still, as the old saying goes, you could've knocked me over with a feather. This is proof that things we have zero resistance to -- no negative/limiting beliefs -- are what tend to show up easily and effortlessly. Like pennies...maybe butterflies...feathers...and a song on the radio we were saying the day before we wanted to hear. 

For further measure, I then remembered a photo I had saved on my own Facebook page...that was taken five years at a car show I went to (too bad my eyes were closed during the snapshot, but here it is!)


Kismet? Serendipity? Perhaps...but more likely thoughts (and really, vibrations) becoming things.

Friday, July 1, 2016

The Power of Living in the Now


One of my sisters gave me Wayne Dyer's "Excuses Begone" CD set after finding it at a local consignment shop, and I've been listening to it while driving to work and back this week. It couldn't have come at a better time -- as much as I was able to let go of most of it, for the past few weeks I've found myself still harboring negative feelings and resentment about one particular incident. Still thinking about things that were said in email and over the phone and still wondering why I attracted such a thing that ended up hurting me. 

Then I started listening to Dyer's "Excuses Begone", and one of the chapters is about something I haven't really been doing much of lately: living in the present moment, living in the now. This past incident was still niggling at me and also causing a bit of anxiety about the future, as I didn't want to attract a repeat of it with another person. 

Once I was reminded that I needed to focus on the now moment and make the most of it throughout the day, and every day, I could feel myself become instantly grounded again. It felt like relief, to be honest, and like something bigger than me was taking the reins and that I shouldn't have to worry so much about this one particular area of my life. I felt like I was reconnecting to "Source." 

As Dyer reminded me, when we live in the now anything that happened in the past simply has no bearing on us, nor does the future. The past is over and done with -- and no amount of ruminating on what could have possibly have been done to make circumstances turn out differently isn't going to change anything. It's done. What we can do -- as the chapter continued -- is find appreciation for what we have and where we're at during any present moment. That's exactly what I did today. I can't change anything that happened last summer, but I have learned from my mistakes, and found myself appreciating my life for where it is this year, and right now. Because things have been improving and getting a lot better. There's a lot to be grateful for. 

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