Day of Gratitude At Hum Sweet Hum

I wrote my Master's Thesis on the grieving process and I used Dante's Inferno as the metaphor for going through grief.  I could have used that epic poem for lots of other aspects of life too.  Our personal growing process reminds me of the Inferno.  The graphic of the spiral as Dante traverses the various layers of hell is so much how we grow or grieve.  It isn't like we go through things once and learn and then bam, we are done.  The metaphor of peeling an onion is more like the reality of growing.  We learn one layer, take a break and then get another lesson and peel another layer away, etc.  And quite often, it is something difficult that we are dealing with, a personal hellish experience, that provides the best opportunity for our psyches growth.

Dante's Layers of Hell

  
Learning about alpacas has followed that same pattern.  We seem to get cycles of events both good and bad happening on the farm.  Each time, hopefully we learn from the previous experience and we can address things better, have more information, medicines, and tools available to deal with that particular issue.  There is the left brain of learning how to do things that get evolved and the right brain's, intuitive and emotional aspect of our psyche is also worked.  They don't always work together either.  I may learn something fast with my left brain on how to do something, but my emotional brain tends to take much longer to get what I'm to learn from that experience.  It is amusing to me that I sort out the emotional side of what I'm to learn quite often while I'm raking alpaca poop!  I'm trying to figure out my own crap while dealing with real crap!  It is real "Crappy Therapy!"  Even though I joke about it, I am most sincere in how it has helped me tremendously in my personal growth.  Being in the fresh air and moving about gets the blood circulating, both sides of the brain are engaged, yet it doesn't take brain power to rake.  I have at least an hour or two of raking needing to be done each day too so I have dedicated time to just let my mind ponder over issues.  I often come up with blog ideas as I rake, or I mull over marketing ideas and I also try and figure out why something is pushing my buttons.  

Lately, I've been given many signs to stay focused on being positive and grateful.  It would be easy to look at what isn't going right, getting caught up in the malestrom created by American politicians and how it could affect me personally.  But so many of those things are terribly negative and much beyond my control which only causes more anxiety.  And if I allow myself to stay focused and concerned on those issues that I really can't help, I will only draw more of that negative energy towards me.  It is a self-defeating method of thinking.  But I have found myself being dragged into that thinking.  I have been given wonderful reminders of staying focused on being positive.  I saw on TV the other day as I randomly flipped through channels and stopped when a woman talked about being grateful when she is feeling the same way I have been lately.  She said sometimes she has to force herself to go through the litany of things she is grateful for even when she isn't quite feeling so grateful.  Her words hit me like one of those zings of an aha moment.  So every morning and every time, I start getting upset with things that are beyond my control, I consciously and willfully stop myself by looking around and think of all the things I'm grateful for.  It is so easy when I take a look at my beautiful alpacas and sweet dogs.  The list grows and grows and I feel my heart filling up.  I can feel less weight on my shoulders as I continue my list of things I'm grateful for and even turn those things that are creating anxiety into a gratitude if I can.  I usually can find something to be grateful about.  If nothing else, I know that feeling anxious won't last forever and I'm grateful for that! 

Since starting my gratitude lessons when feeling bombarded by negative thoughts from myself or others, I have suddenly started seeing more positive things come my way.  More of my Alpacas Don't Do That books are being sold and more doors opening up.  Help that I needed to revamping my Website is in place, help getting my taxes and bookkeeping improved have come into being.  Things that I wasn't doing a very good job on my own and knowing it, but not having the skill, energy or desire to remedy on my own.  So gratitude thinking is wonderful.  It changes our own perception and it draws those things we need to us that are positive.  We draw the positive instead of the negative.  And although being grateful won't stop bad things from happening, it helps when dealing with those cruddier parts of life when we have to traverse yet another ring of hell. 

I'm Grateful For A Healthy Cria Who Is Such A Cute Baby Boy!