Wasted energy and the bird.

It amazes me the amount of time we spend everyday just going about our lives and not taking a moment or two to really look around us and see the incredibly diverse cultures, lifestyles, personalities, and attitudes that make up our world. As I get older, wiser, more mature...hehehe, ok maybe not more mature but as I do age, I have found that I am becoming way more tolerant of the little things in life that not so long ago I certainly would have blown a gasket over, criticized or just wasted my energy on. I find, now that I have moved on from a very lengthy marriage, that life really is short and that if we can just focus on the positives in our world then everyone would be in a happier place. Sound sappy? Sound like I am looking thru those rose coloured glasses...hehehe, you bet.

Just this morning I am riding into work on my therapy machine and am coming up behind traffic that is waiting on a stop light in front of Denny's restaurant. On the side street waiting to turn out was a very large delivery truck. Normally I would always let someone in to turn as I used to drive a dumptruck and know how inconsiderate people can be, but when I am on my motorcycle I dont like to be behind these big trucks as I cant see what is going on in front of me, and to be honest I didnt see his turn signal. I truly dont think he had it on, but whatever. So as I pass him he lays on his horn and when I look in my mirror to see what he was honking at, I notice him flipping me the bird. All I did was smile, nod my head and carry on. Quite a few years ago I would have made a point of following this bozo, and gave him a piece of my mind and really for no other reason as to ridicule him, but this morning all I did was smile and nod. In my head I am thinking to myself, wow, what kind of day is this guy going to have now? He has himself so wound up about not getting to turn that he actually was rude to someone. Is that turn so important that he had to cloud his positive energy with negativity.

I guess what I am getting at is that for some reason this fellow felt that he had to express himself this way and I was dumbfounded as to why, but looking deeper into it, maybe this guy had a really bad morning. Maybe he had a sick child that kept him up all night and he was trying to work with only a couple hours sleep. Maybe he just got some bad news from somewhere. Whatever the reason, he did what he did and I couldn't control that. It doesnt matter what I thought at that time. Yes, I truly feel that he was being an ass, but I wasnt about to waste any of my positive energy on him.

I see and hear a lot of people everyday that only seem happy when they are complaining about something. I have the opportunity to be involved with a very large and diverse amount of people as I run the British Columbia Amateur Poker League. The fact that I can sit back and watch all of the members play, interact, and react to the various personalities and competition makes for a very intersting evening. Because I have created a competitive league I have had to cater to that side of the member's personalities. If you are at all familiar with the game of poker then you will know that apart from the competitive side it is an excellent way to expand yourself socially. Eight people sitting at a table from all walks of life forced to interact together in an environment that normally they would have never had to be in. I know that people dont think this way but if they took a moment to really look at the opportunity to expand themselves by networking, talking, or just getting to know everyone that they would then be able to build on themselves and possibly find ways to better their lives. What I find tho, is that a lot of people really expand way too much energy complaining about all of the things in their lives that are so negative.

Why can't people look at the good things that are happening? Wouldn't the people around you suddenly start taking on your energy as well? If you surround yourself with positive thinking then all of a sudden you start to manifest positive things. Does this thinking create positive things to happen...hmmm, possibly, but really I think it is more that positive things are just noticed more and we can then feed on them when they do happen. It takes way more energy to complain about something, and honestly nobody wants to hear it anyway. If I hear someone constantly bitching, complaining about their lives I find that I do not want to be near them. It drains me. This doesn't mean that I dont want to lend a shoulder or be sympathetic, but more that it gets tiring when every second sentence is a complaint about something or someone. So I guess in a roundabout way being positive does create a positive aura. People want to be near you, they want to try and steal some of that positive outlook and vibe.

So the next time you find yourself complaining to someone about trivial things, maybe stop for a second, change your thought process and find something to say that brings a different energy to the table. It isnt hard to do, but it certainly takes some thinking.