I was sitting on the Vegas strip and having a mid day beer doing some people watching. That is my favorite part about Vegas, really. Just watching people running around and acting like lunatics. It’s a lot of fun.
I started to think about the main reasons why people come to Vegas or any other vacation spot. It really comes down to finding enjoyment from people and things outside of ourselves.
My next thought was that it is not necessarily the people and things themselves which give us joy in our lives. It is how we process and interpret them by internalizing them. It is our thoughts and reaction about the person or experience which makes it positive.
It just happens that places like Vegas or other vacation spots have a high concentration of things which people internalize in a a positive way. This is beyond obvious, though.
It may seem that I am wasting your time writing about interpreting things internally. The point I want to make is it can be very easy for us to mimic the happiness we derive from external people and things.
This is why different people get different levels of joy from the same things or activities. This is also the reason that some people are capable of being miserable even if they were getting a massage on a beach in Hawaii. I’m sure you can think of a couple of these people in your life.
As a side note, it has been very beneficial to me to interact less with these negative people. They just emanate negativity which can bring you down. Many of them even WANT you to be as negative as them. Forget that!
Anyways, instead of rambling on about painfully obvious garbage, here is a thought, or exercise which I hope can help you to bring about a little joy or happiness into your day at will. The more and more you practice it, the more it can “stick”.
So, the true source of deriving joy from external things is that they trigger positive feelings or emotions within us. If this is the case, then one could say that it is not the external person, thing, or activity which is the true source of these positive feelings at all.
The source is us! It is within us and can be accessed any time. This is why these positive feelings and emotions arise by simply remembering a positive a positive thing or event from your past. We have the power to access this positivity at any time.
Next time you find yourself bouncing around your head or obsessing about negative thoughts, stop for a second. Allow these negative things to leave your mind. Realize that you are free in your own mind. Everyone is a free thinker, no matter how oppressed, or what their situation is.
Realize that you can CHOOSE to access the positive times of your past. You have absolutely nothing to gain by embracing negativity within you. You can make a CONSCIOUS decision to access positive feelings and emotions. Use the “tool” or “seed” of your positive past experiences to bring this related positivity and light into your consciousness at will.
The light over the dark seas
When one is trapped in negativity, I see them as being under a dark ocean. You can’t see anything but the dark negativity and it is galactically oppressive. As you allow the darkness to spawn more dark thoughts, it is making you sink deeper. There is no bottom to this dark ocean, but there is a surface where there is light.
Now think of your past positive, joyful memories as a submarine down there under the dark sea of negativity with you. It has a net around it that you can easily grab onto. The only mission of your “positive memory submarine” is to help you surface to the light within your mind.
As you grab a ride on the sub, you are remembering a positive past event or time. The sub is surfacing with positivity as you CHOOSE to focus on the related positive feelings and emotions. It breaches the surface to the light of day with you in tow. But, shit!
A catastrophic failure happened in its ballast tank!
That controls its ability to dive back into the darkness. It doesn’t matter, though. The submarine completed its mission.
You are stuck there in the light and warmth of your positive feelings at the surface. There is no way back to the crushing depths of your cycle of negative thoughts. You are free from the threat of drowning in darkness.
Now you can work towards finding your own land to make your own now that you can see.
Hi Jared!
Thanks for sharing! It was great to meet you. I like your site and I will follow it to share in the things that you see. Safe travels and drop a line the next time you find yourself in Las Vegas!
Wally