Ever heard the saying “Like attracts like?” Maybe you’ve heard it being thrown around, but you aren’t really sure exactly what it means?
In the context of my life over the past few weeks, this for me has meant that negative energy attracts further negative energy, and, what you project out into the world comes back/ returns to you (whether you like it or not).
I am a very firm believer that this concept is so true. I’ve always believed this to be true, but sometimes things in life happen that further cement your beliefs – aka, the past 3 weeks of my life.
Have you ever had your morning start off on the wrong foot only to have things continue to spiral in a negative, downward motion for the rest of the day?
Have you ever asked yourself how your day could possibly get any worse, only to have a multitude of other horrible things happen to you shortly after you’ve asked the question?
Picture this: Something wakes you up in the middle of the night and you aren’t able to get back to sleep again, until… let’s say, about half an hour before your alarm is due to go off.
You then fall into a deep slumber and sleep right through your alarm, causing you to wake up late for work and now you’re grumpy.
You then choose to do one of two things. You either:
1. Take a few deep breaths to compose yourself, tell yourself that everything is going to
be ok, these things happen, and text your boss an apology before you continue about
your day and quickly get ready for work.
or you:
2. Start swearing, punch your pillows and throw your phone across the room
complaining about how you hate your life, you hate your job, and life just isn’t fair. You
have yourself a mini, childlike temper tantrum and wish you could just win the damn
Lotto already so you never have to work again because you’re sick of this s***!
Chances are, if you went with the first option, you may have stayed in a semi-bad mood until around maybe half an hour or so after you got to work, and then your day began to improve because you simply accepted the situation and chose not to dwell on it.
If, however, you went with the second option, chances are, your day continued to get worse and worse from that point on until you got to a point in time where you stopped and asked yourself what you ever did in your life to deserve all of this misfortune. You’re a good person, so why is this happening!?
The answer is that instead of taking a minute to compose and centre yourself and accept the situation for what it was before getting on with your life, you chose to dwell on the negative emotions that arose, and unintentionally invited further negative energy into your life.
The former comes from a place of acceptance, where the latter comes from a place of resistance and, as the saying goes: What you resist, persists. Ain’t that the truth!
I like to write stories and be immersed in my own little fantasy land, imagination-world. It’s one of my favourite hobbies, and it’s how I like to unwind and recharge my batteries.
Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to get into the right headspace to be able to do this – a lot of the time, the conditions need to be just right for my imagination and creativity to fire on all cylinders and for the words to flow.
Sometimes the desire to write is there, but the environment just isn’t quite right – for example, I enjoy my writing the most when I know that I have no chores for the day that require my attention, I know that no one has plans to come over and visit me, I have no obligation to leave the house, my partner is off in another room working on his own hobbies, and I have some quality time to myself for a few hours.
Today was that day. The inspiration was flowing, I was so immersed in my imagination that I could see the scene as if I were there, and for about an hour or so, my life was great. I was in a state of flow, and after the nightmarish few weeks I’d had, I finally felt somewhat peaceful.
Until my phone rang…
I didn’t recognise the phone number, so I didn’t answer it. Truth be told, I’m an introvert, and if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s talking to people on the phone. Especially if I don’t recognise the number.
I instantly became stressed and felt a little jolt of adrenaline surge through me. Where I am in Australia, today is Sunday and I was automatically angry before I even knew who was calling. My first thought was “This better not be anyone from work.”
Then, what do you know – it was someone from work. Calling to let me know that one of the projects we’re working on required extended accommodation and flight adjustments for a few of the techs.
So, what did I do? Instead of being irritated for a minute before sucking it up and getting on with it, I had my own mini, childlike temper tantrum.
I’ve had a very difficult few weeks at work and was really looking forward to spending the weekend relaxing and attempting to forget that I even have a job, and in one phone call, my whole day was ruined.
Now, you might think that my day was ruined because of the phone call, but, in reality, my day was ruined because of the way I chose to react to the phone call. My day was ruined because I ruined it.
I was at home already anyway and I had my work computer right there next to me - it wasn’t like I was on an outing and had to ditch my friends and family to run home and work for the rest of the afternoon.
Another cliched saying that is so true in this instance is: The problem isn’t really the problem. It’s the way you choose to react to the problem that is the problem.
And boy, did I choose - it took about 10-20 minutes of me swearing, stressing, complaining, and having a complete and utter meltdown before I suddenly had an epiphany – I was completely overreacting to what, in reality, really should have been a very minor inconvenience to my day. I’d been doing it to myself all week – and the week before that, and the week before that.
Actually, in all honesty, the epiphany occurred while I was sulkily scrolling through Facebook while waiting for the travel booking company to confirm the amended itineraries.
I came across a meme that said: When you start taking care of yourself, you start feeling better. When you start feeling better, you start to attract better.
It was then that I realised my negative attitude was attracting negative energy, which was causing me to have a bad attitude and I had to make it stop. No one else could do it for me.
I made the decision there and then that I need to break this cycle of negative energy. I chose to stop being so angry and upset and just accept what was happening.
Being frustrated and angry and upset wasn’t going to change anything about the situation, all it was going to do was ruin the rest of my day, and possibly spill over into tomorrow, ruining my Monday and potentially the rest of my entire week if I let it.
I spent the rest of my day making decisions and taking positive actions to regain my positive vibes and banish this negative energy that’s been following me around like a bad smell.
I sat down to assess the decisions that I’ve been making over the past few weeks and realised (I say this like my subconscious hasn’t been telling me this the entire time!) that I haven’t been taking very good care of myself lately.
About 2 months ago, I had a procedure called a Footlift. Basically, I had no fat pads on the bottom of my feet to absorb the shock from walking and so, I was essentially walking on skin and bone.
The procedure I had done was a fat graft where they took fat from my stomach and redistributed the fat into the soles of my feet to cushion the bones and make walking less painful.
Long story short, I’ve been working from home for the past 2 months, which I absolutely love, but unfortunately, I have sadly fallen into some bad habits.
I start my day with a BIG coffee, followed by another (my giant coffee mug is equivalent to 2 cups of coffee per serve with 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of coffee in each). Coffee contributes to increased levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, which is not helping my situation.
Because of all the coffee, I don’t get hungry for “breakfast” until around 12-12.30pm during which time, I’ve been so busy with work that I don’t feel like I have time to make myself anything substantial to eat, so I have a bowl of cereal with milk because it’s quick and easy.
If I get hungry in the afternoon (around 2-3pm), I make myself a cheese and Vegemite sandwich or eat a banana because I don’t feel like I have time to prepare much else. Plus, being less mobile at the moment, it’s hard for me to stand in one spot for too long which makes prepping food difficult, but not impossible.
I’ve been outside maybe 2 times in the past 2 months and therefore I can only assume that my Vitamin D levels are at an all time low, not to mention, I’m not currently able to do much in the form of exercise. Which isn’t completely true, but I’ve been using that as an excuse to give myself permission to be lazy.
I don’t have to get up and get ready for work in the mornings, so I’ve been going to bed late and watching YouTube videos in bed. Sometimes past my bedtime when I really should be sleeping.
Because my body has no clue what’s going on, I’ve been waking up anywhere from 2am-5am and when that happens, I’m completely wide awake and find it difficult to get back to sleep again.
All these bad habits that I’ve developed have led me to feel exhausted, overwhelmed, stressed, and simply as though everything in my life is just too damn hard.
I’m now convinced that my little meltdown this morning was a blessing in disguise – I need to get my s*** together and take back control of my life, my health, and my attitude.
I started by completely tidying up my lounge room. Putting away all my half-read books, reorganizing my side table, straightening the cushions on my lounge, clearing away the clutter and removing the dust.
I went into my bedroom, made the bed, put away all the clean clothes and towels my partner had washed, then went back to the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher.
I couldn’t expect to shift my negativity when there was so much clutter blocking the flow energy in every room.
Once the living spaces were tidy, I felt much calmer and took some time to meditate and do some box breathing exercises before making myself a big salad sandwich full of healthy veggies before spending the afternoon reading a book.
From that point on, anything that happened through the day that would have sent me over the edge of a cliff previously, I was now just accepting by taking a deep breath, telling myself that everything was ok and it didn’t matter. I was now choosing not to let minor annoyances bother me.
Tonight, I am going to read a book before bed and keep my hands off my phone. I am going to meditate again before bed, and I’m going to go to bed much earlier.
When I wake up in the morning, I’m going to have one normal-sized coffee before making myself a healthy breakfast and I’m also going to ensure that I take my proper lunch break, sit outside in the fresh air and sunshine, and get some exercise after work.
I may not be able to go for a walk, jog or ride a bike, but there’s nothing stopping me from doing an exercise session from my yoga mat on the floor of my loungeroom.
I’ve had enough of all this negative energy and I want to feel my happy, positive self again. No one else can do this for me. No one else can change my attitude or my circumstances but me. No more laziness, no more excuses.
Wish me luck!
Have you ever fallen into a spiral of negative energy yourself? If so, how did you get yourself out of it?
Or maybe you’re still there? If so, what steps do you think you can take to attract more positive energy into your life?
I’d love to hear your tips, tricks, thoughts and experiences!
Happy to have you here and I hope you have a great day/ night!
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Hope to have you back soon. Thanks for reading.
Lisa. 😊 xx
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