What colors are in your dye pot today?
Think positive thoughts.
In this age of mindfulness, abundance, and positive thinking, we can’t help but read and hear a lot about the importance of thinking positive thoughts. We read the anecdotes and the stories from those whose lives have been richly blessed by the positive effects of mindful manifesting, and we wonder if the same would work in our lives. Does positive thinking work? I believe so. Actually, I think so — with the most positive thoughts I that can create and think. And after all, the alternative — negative thinking — isn’t all that great of an alternative.
According to the wise words below, what we think actually leads to our destiny, to our outcomes in life . . . a truth which certainly encourages me to stretch, to ponder, and to be mindful.
Watch your thoughts for they become words,
watch your words for they become actions,
watch your actions, for they become habits,
watch your habits for they become your character,
watch your character for it becomes your destiny.
—Ralph Waldo EmersonPlant a thought and reap a word;
plant a word and reap an action;
plant an action and reap a habit;
plant a habit and reap a character;
plant a character and reap a destiny.-Bishop Beckwaith, mid-1800s
thoughts –> words –> actions –> habits –> character –> destiny
I remember a teaching position I held at a college that prided itself on helping struggling first-generation students to graduate. I had the planting-version of the quote above taped to my office door. It was my hope that a student might be moved to pause, read the words, and feel some encouragement to go forth with a renewed sense of positivity.
The program chair stopped by my office one day, walked into my office, and asked me to remove the quote from my door. She said that it didn’t look very professional and, if I stepped out of my office and looked at the other office doors down the hallway, I would see that they had only their office hours posted and that this was what she expected.
Hmmmm . . . I stood there and watched her retreat down the hall before removing the quote from my door. I said to my colleague Rick whose door was open next to mine, “Did you just hear that? Or am I imagining it?” Rick confirmed, “She has spoken. Just take it down. You can put it back up when she self-destructs.”
Rick was so right. Her destiny definitely followed her thoughts. Her demand for being in charge, arguing with students, and creating crazy rules and restrictions for faculty led to her being “let go” quite suddenly. Hallelujah! We all rejoiced on her last day. I didn’t exactly wish her ill . . . It’s just that I was so happy that we were to be liberated from the reigning negative thinking. Weird story, right?
“The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.” What colors are in your dye pot today? Are you consciously choosing which shades and tints that you want to add to your soul today? I think about this quote and the word mindful flashes in shades of green, blue, and pink in my mind.
Life is a color wheel. There are infinite hues that can be created with just a touch more of this or a little bit less of that. What would my day be like if I minded my thoughts as carefully as I do my palette when I am painting . . . when I am looking to mix that perfect shade of robin’s egg blue for the canvas I am painting? I am thinking it would be pretty amazing — like creating a gallery-worthy day.
Color does not add a pleasant quality to design – it reinforces it. – Pierre Bonnard
The Unseen Words Project 