Somehow the "power of positive thinking" has come up a lot today. Depending on who you ask I'm a pessimist (friends, family), realist (me), or optimist (lots of my coworkers). I've been trying to approach my life with a more positive attitude, but not overly optimistic, because that's foolish. I guess what I'm really trying to do is apply a pseudo-Daoist outlook.
You have to know that my only real exposure to Daoism is The Tao of Pooh and the internet. Mainly The Tao of Pooh. It's a great read if you haven't had the chance before.
So what I've taken from my minimal research is to just chill out and go with the flow. Which is pretty much the opposite of my factory settings. I'm very high strung and have an anxiety disorder, so it's a battle for me to just take a deep breath and relax.
It can really put a different spin on things though. For example, I locked my keys in my car today at work. This is something I used to do a lot, so I usually triple check that my keys are in my purse before I get out of my car. Today I did not (obviously). Instead of freaking out I thought about it, decided I probably needed a reminder to not rest on my laurels on the key checking thing, called AAA, and got it taken care of quickly. It also led me to remembering an errand I meant to run yesterday, so I got that done after AAA got me back in. Instead of freaking out and deciding the universe was out to get me, I put a slightly more positive spin on it and didn't have my night ruined.
I also try to apply this at work. Things are always going to hell at my job and I'm usually already behind the second I walk in the door. But I've taken the attitude of "work is work" and just accepting that I'll always have something to do and I don't need to freak out if I'm not where I want to be at the moment.
Driving is another big one. Rushing doesn't really get you anywhere that much faster. I rarely speed (okay I usually speed, but not more than 5 miles over and my speedometer is inaccurate by about that much), I slow down to let people merge in front of me, and I actually do what you're supposed to do at yellow lights. It makes my 40-mile round trip journey to work every day a lot less stressful.
I think the only other random piece from a religion I want to talk about is meditation. Which isn't really religious, but specifically aligning chakras. I think it's probably a bunch of bull, but when meditating to align your chakras you focus on specific problems or whatever you may be having, which is helpful. It's also weird that the chakras pretty much all line up to important nerve clusters. And you can feel a release when you're doing it right, but that's probably all in my head.
Well that's it for this random post that I pounded out to keep up the habit of posting almost every day. It's far too easy to fall back into slacker ways.
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