Letting in light in your life is a bright way to your future (and to let go of the holding back past).
Someone needed that.
…I know I did.
On my life journey, letting go was not a natural skill of mine.
Even through my 30s, I let my mind embellish on the past.
For better or worse.
Better is good past and happy memories that are meant to be kept and linger on. Because happy thoughts make a happy day.
And good is good, so don’t mess with good.
…But some days, I would let my ego run circles around me, ruminating in sour thoughts.
That’s what most of us do unknowingly, until we catch on and decide to exercise our healthy mind’s power.
When struck, rumination sometimes used to take up hours if I was lucky, possibly a whole day, or rob my entire weekend while I kinda did something else.
These days, I snap out and decide to change thoughts much faster, sometimes within nanoseconds with mind self-awareness.
That btw I was never taught. And most likely, you were never taught.
But one day (where I can’t pinpoint the exact day or year), it happened.
It was a gradual light bulb that turned on in me.💡
It started with self-reflection and self-awareness.
And that’s where any of us can begin.
But realize there are different kinds of self-awareness.
The most common type that made its pin drop on the map (and hopefully is part of you and your practices 📍🗺️), is the self-awareness kind where you know how you come across to others in work, personal relationships, and encounters with strangers.
It’s when you’re not just doing or saying whatever is on your mind.
…A very important skill to have in better relationships.
Because being thoughtful and thinking-before-acting in safe environments breeds kindness, humility, and all the good qualities that people want to be around, and especially for employers seeking new employees that customer face.
It separates us from animals that act on instincts in any surrounding.
And self-awareness is one quality described in the hospitality quotient (soft skills) that Shake Shack’s owner Danny Meyer came up with for businesses looking for their next employees.
One that I can personally relate to having managed hundreds of events in several DC restaurants.
And maybe you waited tables or worked in customer service which I think is one of the best training grounds for prioritizing demands quick on your feet.
So that’s one type of common self-awareness.
Then there’s another kind, the (deeper) thought-mind self-awareness, that helps you out the most. And helps others secondarily.
It’s a must-have skill for those who want to improve personal and life development.
This is where you catch all your thoughts.
And kinda like when you’re reading a nonfiction book and you’re aware of your thoughts about what you think of what you’re reading. You know if you’re being judgmental or if what you’re reading is helpful to you.
You’re forming thoughts about new thoughts coming in.
And similarly when you’re not reading, thoughts like this enter throughout your day, invited in or not.
Most thoughts are either loving or fear-based and unloving.
…Positive or negative themes.
…Helpful or not helpful.
And your thought-mind self-awareness (quotient) I’m describing here is determined by whether you can quickly label the thought as black-or-white (and not leave as gray-fuzzy), as an Observer with a capital O for an important role in life.
Like when you set filters in your inbox to decide if certain emails are worth ruminating or elaborating on.
Negative and unloving past thoughts (like junk messages) are usually not worth your time because they are time hogs and reel you down emotionally… unless they help you noodle something out to your next growth step.
Worry is another thought category. It’s another way to ruminate especially if it’s a go-to habit. But incessant worry is unhelpful and unnecessary.
Instead getting to the root of worry thoughts help you problem solve and come up with better answers.
And after you’re aware why you’re worrying and have come up with a few ideas on how to handle the situation (you’re worrying about or that could arise), you’re best to let it go, pray it off, and change your thoughts.
This is one way to exercise your power of healthy mind self-awareness… and so that you can get to the higher thoughts that lead to bigger dreams you want to manifest in YOUR life.
…And also so that you can be healthy, whole, and thriving,
And as you learn to better let go of unproductive thoughts that don’t serve you today and bad parts of the past that the younger brain recorded, REWRITE your ruminating thought endings as they enter.
Give those fuzzy past situations a happy and successful ending.
That lightens your load.
Like, you got an “A” and not a “D” on the project, or you turned your knots in the stomach into challenging yourself into an experience that made you into a better you today.
Let in the light to replace what you’re letting go. This allows fresh, new, and healthy ideas to birth… and old, tired ways to die.
But hold on, it’s not so easy… your ego doesn’t want those sad thoughts to die, so it will keep finding ways to drudge up past thoughts and make it stick to you like wet plastic wrap.
Be aware of your ego, and l’ego!
You have to be super intentional and aware to peel off ego’s thought and ways and disassociate, or else the same wrap just comes clinging again.
So when that negative thought situation arises, write down what you did to change your thought (because the ego doesn’t want you to remember that you already crossed that small win finish-line before).
Unaware, a similar thought will show up again in a different situation and sour your day… unless you consciously are aware to stop it again.
Connect the dots in wonderment. Don’t leave it as an open puzzle.
That’s the way to wholeness and getting a light waterfall of a-ha answers.
If you can get to the place of changing your subconscious ego thoughts (and head in a quicker-than-before direction 📈) to a new replacement thought despite the stubborn thought trying to edge back in at every curve, then you know you’ve got this!
You get this.
And if you’re being humble like me here, you can practice on all the other dissimilar thoughts that try to derail your life.
Like thoughts that try to make you more busy (and important that ego loves)…
One way to test yourself is how you interact with strangers.
I meet a lot of interesting people on my journey these days.
And where my younger self would’ve kept on going and stayed busy on my task list, I now (wisely better) stop and converse.
I can spend untimed minutes talking with new people, when edging in 20 minutes used to be impossible.
The metro city culture where I came from, local people just don’t do that.
They’re self-absorbed and quick in every turn and way. They run circles around people and they’re also movers and shakers helping our world move in other ways.
If you slow them down, they think you’re retired or from the South.
The value isn’t placed in slowing down. It’s encouraged to walk away and get ahead.
It’s rude, but accepted.
But that’s not a good way to get the most out of this life.
In a slower living, mind-aware way, that’s how you learn to let light in and grow.
That’s where the healthy good is in life.
Because if you gain wisdom and listen to people who have slowed down, they take time to give good words to you.
And if you let in the new information, that helps you grow.
Good people strangers speak wisdom, share valuable tips, and sometimes even help you see sides of yourself that’s eye-opening.
They don’t know you, but they can say profound things to you that make an impact on your future if you think about it from your past encounters.
In-person, you can make no mistake that face-to-face, from being-to-being, the message is for you.
Their words somehow swirl their way in your mind later in the day as the way the Universe can speak visually and audibly to you. Through people’s faces that will later fade in memory.
Soothsayers birth new ideas in and for you. And you probably do the same for others without knowing it.
And unlike people you know, in these good chance encounters, there is no motive from the stranger as it’s as surprising of a meeting for you as it is for them.
Most likely you’ll never see this person or people again.
Here they are and poof! there they go. And there you go.
Out into your rest of the day and life.
Where today and daily you choose to purposefully listen to specific outside people in our world, media, or from podcasts.
…When well-paid speakers often share stories about lessons they learned from strangers they met on the plane or out and about everyday life.
The kind I just described to you.
Most of us are looking to learn and be influenced…
To be more knowledgeable, grow as a person, and be better in how each of us define.
And with those intentions, thought-mind awareness can be part of that self-improvement and personal self-development process.
If you fully adopt a thought awareness mindset, you won’t just drift into your busy world and wonder years later where your life went.
Because shifts are happening daily all around us without our consent. The tectonic plates are even shifting under our feet now and likely wherever you are, as I wisely learned from a traveler I met and stopped to exchange ideas with.
So maybe for an intentionally better year this year, challenge yourself with a mindset shift and a determination to be thought-mind self-aware, to let go and let in some new light. ✨
I’m rooting for you! 🎉