Cultivating Positivity
Friends,
I was interviewed this week by a fellow yoga colleague inspired by my last newsletter. She wanted to talk to me in-depth about resiliency, philosophy, and my life here on the farm.
To be clear, it's not always rainbows and unicorns here at Fair Meadows Farm. I've been candid about this in one of my most recent newsletters. We all have our moments; we all know the "muck happens." However, it is not what happens to us in life, but how we react or, better proact.
I believe in my heart of hearts that our attitude and gratitude around life's situations determines whether we see a glass half empty or half full. The good news is that these can be trained and honed, like skills or muscles.
So I share one of my go-to methods, maintaining a mental or written gratitude journal.
Every morning or every night, you recount to yourself 5 notes of gratitude. "I'm grateful for..." You cannot imagine how simple but powerful this can be. If you keep a written journal, putting pen to paper to recall your "grati-notes" has a potentiating effect. Writing, especially by hand, is shown to reinforce memory and retention. Scribing is said to fire the brain's motor neurons and networks of the cerebral cortex. Ayurveda calls this area tarpaka kapha, where memories are stored. So this simple act becomes a way to train your brain to have a more positive outlook on life. Your brain's white matter will be grateful!
I believe we can all use a lot more positivity right now.
Many times this week, I have been crying and feeling powerless to alleviate the suffering. I can not wrap my head around the cruelty and the senselessness of it all.
Sometimes, I have no words.
So I rely on others.
I found this passage particularly inspiring and uplifting.
Perhaps you will too.
"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.
It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty; but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of the world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however a small way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future.
The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
-Howard Zinn
Wishing you all hope and resiliency,
with so much love,
Kari