Saturday, May 29, 2010

SHIFTING YOUR REALITY

Why do you blog? Let me change that question... why did you start blogging? Sometimes we can start for one reason, but continue for a different one.


I started blogging, aka writing, because I needed to write again. I needed to do something productive, and I needed someone other than me to read it. In fact, in my mind, I had this picture of my blog working out sorta like the movie FIELD OF DREAMS. If I write it, they will come, was my mentality when I opened my account. I was all enthusiasm, sure that I was going to set the blogging world on fire with my mad writing skills. I look back at that and laugh now. Not with sarcasm, but a full belly laugh. It's funny, right? Because if you're reading this, you know how hard it is to build a loyal readership. Well, I guess it took Kevin Costner some time in the movie, too. He had to build a baseball field, etc. It's not just flipping a switch.

The thing I didn't anticipate was how much enjoyment I would get from reading other people's blogs. I didn't see that coming. In fact, if I have limited time and have to choose between writing my own and reading my subscriptions.... it's a tough call. Sometimes I will choose to read what you guys are writing, unless I have something that I really want to get down on paper, because I LEARN so much.

Here is the kick in the teeth: if you know something to be true, but you don't utilize that truth and make it your own, it does you no good. Now, doesn't that just suck lemons? One of my favorite bloggers, Phoenix, wrote an excellent post about not allowing negative people, events, etc. to suck her energy anymore. This may or may not be a new concept for you. It's truth is undeniable. Negativity sucks our energy. Our spirit. Eventually that may mean our good health. As long as we keep that door open, it keeps sucking. It comes at us as people and things. If you don't know what I am talking about, think about whatever steals your joy. That is the culprit. What has you stomping around and cursing and wanting to throw things? There it is. Anyway, I read that post and it did a flashsideways with my current book (yeah, that was a LOST reference ~ couldn't help it).

If you have never read Richard Bach's books you're missing out. Period. Being on vacation made it hard for me to work on my own novel, but did enable me to read more of RUNNING FROM SAFETY by Richard Bach. Even though I could have gulped it; I savor his books like a fine wine. Therefore, I am still not quite halfway finished. That does move my actual finish date up from Thanksgiving to Halloween:-) I am digressing....

So how does this wonderful book and Phoenix's blog flashsideways? Well, she figured out that getting angry and allowing negativity to suck your energy steals your joy. In the chapter I had just finished Richard was talking with his wife about how pointless it was to get angry. She reminded him that she had seen him angry plenty of times. He then sets about explaining that it's because in that instant he forgets that it's just a game. He gets caught up in that he might lose this or that, or is afraid of something being taken away, that he becomes angry. However, once he remembers that it is a game (his perception is restored), then the anger becomes just a mood of the game, and it fades immediately.

If you're scratching your head right now, that's okay. I tried to explain something rather complicated in a few sentences that he knew required a book. The thing that both of these people have in common is that they are taking their reality and shifting it. People change their reality all of the time. I know that is true. I have read it on here. People are shaking their boxes and changing their lives. They are cutting out the negative and only letting in the positive and it is changing their game. Me: I keep pulling the pain card with my migraines in my game, and I am really tired of that. I am ready to change games. Like I said, if you know something to be true, but you don't utilize it and make it your own, then it does you no good.

7 comments:

  1. I started my blog less than a month ago because I just NEEDED to do something with purpose. i really had NO idea what to do , so I just wrote. Not really thinking anyone would read it but my friends, actually hoped even they would read it. I had no real expectaton. Now I realize this is the passion of my life. writing, helping women bring their pretty back. I am excited to wake up. That js my blog story. ( : hahah! yes, let people know...they better return your calls!

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  2. Wow, some deep thoughts there Robin. I read a quote recently that sort of applies here:

    "Bitterness is like drinking poison and then waiting for the other person to die."

    I know that holding on to bitterness and negativity, or allowing it to come into our lives is toxic, and yet it's so hard sometimes. I'm not sure I get the "game" idea Bach was talking about - it sort of intrigues me though. I just might have to get that book yet! :S

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  3. My life is not worth blogging about at this point in my life so I made my blog about Kevin Costner.

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  4. I started to blog when I was on myspace. I just liked writing, then I started getting a lot of comments left, and I enjoyed reading the blogs of people who had left me comments. (I had a fairly big following on there, and yes, it is a bit of an ego boost as well, if I'm being completely honest!)

    I joined up on here mainly to follow Stephanie, who was one of myspace's top bloggers. She said that she was stopping blogging on there and starting a blog on here. I hated it on here at first - one of the things I still really dislike is not being able to reply to someone's comment directly under their comment - but I soon got used to it. nobody likes chance, and all that. I just like to write down whatever is in my mind, good or bad, happy or sad. Again, I love reading the blogs of people who read mine and getting to know about them. To be totally honest, I would much rather read other blogs than write my own; I do end to write about a load of rubbish, but there you go!

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  5. oh, god, it's almost weird but I was actually planning to make a post starting almost exactly the same :) Why do I blog? Because I've got "dear diary syndrome" - it's the constant need to write down my thoughts, to write about my feelings and about all that happens to me. I chose blogging to actual diary because (oh, I used to keep diary for years!) being aware of the fact that other people might read it, too, makes me not 100% - otherwise I'd be like "I wanna die, I hate my parents, etc, etc", all the time. In general, I blog, because writing helps me deal with things. And sometimes it's nice to write about fashion and other not-so-important things, too :) AND I love reading other people's blogs!

    About your last comment: my ways of dealing with depression? Gosh, I am TERRIBLE at this. But one thing that always helps: watching "Friends". It's the only TV show that I could watch countless times and it's always funny. Other than that? Rearranging furniture in my house (illusion of having control on my life?) and cleaning the house (doing something that has visible results). Or - blogging :)

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  6. A few years ago my friend Alexandra got cancer and she would joke about her treatment and the Greek medical system. She was a doctor who began to see her colleagues differently as a patient. She joked about blogging but never got round to it. To edge her on I started a blog...but all I got round to writing was "testing testing". And then I forgot about it. She died and never got to write her blog about the Greek medical system. At the start of this year I began this blog (http://australianinathens.blogspot.com) - but when I entered my e-mail I saw that I was already registered as a blogger. The blog was begun for fun and to escape from all the things I am forced to think about in my life (eg kids, marriage, work, etc). Though I write professionally on European issues, this was supposed to be personal and anonymous. I don't really want it to be read by people I actually know. I really didn't expect anyone to read it but to my surprise I have a readership of 20 (when i get to 100 I may surprise you all with my real name and picture). Actually, if I were to sum up in one word why I began my blog it would be this word - LONELINESS.

    Like you, I am inspired by Phoenix, and Sharon, Ro Magnolia, Novelist and so many other people who have so generously allowed me to enter their lives and are so encouraging in their comments.

    So thanks.

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  7. I started blogging after my divorce as a way to start writing again. I was inspired by a old blog called "The Porn Clerk Diaries", a very funny girl talking about her experiences as a clerk in a movie store.

    I love the comments and other writers and the sense of community that arises from blogging.

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