How to Live in Interesting Times
By Cristina Smith
You don’t have to be a “person of influence” to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they’ve taught me. -Scott Adams (Dilbert)
You have probably noticed that the world as we knew it five years ago has changed dramatically. Even the world as we knew it last year has morphed into yet another place. It looks like we are truly living out that reputed Chinese curse, ‘May you live in interesting times’.
Interesting is a great word to use as it is quite flexible in its definition. When described as a curse, interesting sounds like something undesirable. And that certainly is one way to look at what is happening on our planet right now. There is an alternative. You can change your definition of interesting. Interesting can also mean fascinating, attractive, appealing, out of the ordinary and remarkable. The definition is up to you.
You may also choose how to define what is going on in the world as well, just like you can the word interesting. A big part of what the shift in consciousness we are a part of now is all about realizing that we have the right to choose how we engage in what is unfolding before us in our lives. Yes, there are big nasty problems being revealed every day. If you watch the news, you are inundated with more information than you can process every single day about injustice, cruelness, and violence. Do you look at that as interesting? It certainly is remarkable that we treat each other so.
What can you do? You are just one person, after all. Here are a few things you, one single person, can do. You can first decide to not feed your energy into the negativity. That means that instead of letting your thoughts and feelings dwell upon what’s wrong with what’s happening, stop and send your prayers and loving energy to the people who are involved in the situation. That may sound simplistic, but there have been countless studies that show that in dire medical circumstances, the power of prayer (whatever you may call it) has a positive impact on the patient. According to one study by Dr. Claude Swanson, the time during the day when people are most receptive to receiving prayer is between 1:30 and 2:00 pm in their time zone. When we expand our view to include negative situations and the living beings involved in them as the ‘patient’, then we can directly participate in the healing of that patient.
Next, be selective in your diet and not just your food. An interesting diet has variety. Be conscious of how much of what kind of news you allow into your system. Perhaps limit your news meals to certain times daily, like your commute, rather than having your favorite news station playing on your electronic devices, television or radio all of the time. These interesting times involve many interactions with others, often through social networking. Much good has been done already in these past few years by those of us serving to promote the world we want to live in via social media.
There are more of us daily who are becoming more aware that we are the ones who can make this world a better place. We are being the change we want to see and making our lives our examples. We need as many people as are willing and able to be interested in interesting times. The last tip in how to maximize these interesting times is to designate specific times to unplug from the virtual world and go out to engage people, nature and your God up close and in person. Smell the flowers. Hug a real person with an open heart. Become engrossed in a project that helps make the planet a better place to live. Spend at least five minutes per day in quiet time with your spiritual pursuit. These are interesting times indeed. We are all experiencing them alone together. Be sure to take this opportunity to define interesting in the way you feel is best and then make your life an interesting example.
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©Cristina Smith 2012. All rights reserved.
